One afternoon I lay on my bed for a much-needed nap. I drifted off easily and dreamed that I was walking down a forest path and suddenly twisted my ankle. The pain was so vivid that it startled me back awake.
But it didn’t end there. The ankle of my “dream self” that was twisted and painful seemed so real that for a few moments the ankle of my “waking self” felt painful, as if the accident had actually happened. As I quickly started to realize what was going on—that the experience of hurting my ankle was a dream—the pain almost instantly vanished.
This reminded me of Moses’ experience as told in Exodus in the Bible. It’s written that God told him to place his hand in his cloak. He did, and when he pulled it out, his hand was suddenly infected with leprosy. Then God told him to put his hand back in. After that, his skin was back to normal.
