Your Messenger message:

"Hi, Sir Tony. Hope all is well with you. I need your insights on so many things so I hope you’ll bear with me and thank you in advance for help.

"Fist off, my mother who recently passed away. I only dreamt of her twice but quite significant. The first one I was still in Manila and I told my friends na hindi pa sya nagparamdam sa akin and that morning before I woke up dreaming of her. In my dream we were riding a convertible and on our way crossing a long bridge in a beautiful sunrise. She was beside me and I told her how beautiful the sunrise is and that I should take a picture of us but then I said, oh you can’t be seen in the pic because you’re already dead. Then I woke up.

"The second one was a few nights ago. This is kinda weird I felt I was half awake. I heard noises and voices first in the background then I saw her in laying down on the bed and it was floating, water was around her and eventually she became Helen Mirren who sat on a wooden box and the water was ankle deep.

"I kept seeing numbers before she died, 555,444,111,1111,1212,1010,etc. i thought that would end upon her death but it still continues to this day unconsciously. Second, Cherie Gil. We bonded when Anton Juan invited her to be one of the casts in Bayanbayanan in Chicago. Since Anton has classes in Indiana during the day and only came to Chicago in the evenings for rehearsals, I somehow became the hostess for her during her stay for about 3 weeks. We continued to be in touch through Facebook and saw each other in Manila and NY. Anyway, when she decided to settle to NY lately for good, I didn’t pry on why because I knew somehow that she was frustrated with her last soap at GMA through Irma. I only communicated in her public posts. When she announced this middle of July that she’s undergoing chemo, i also deliberately just commented on her public posts and not privately because I don’t want to barrage her of her condition. I know cancer patients only want their peace and quite and whatever energy’s left will be reserve to their innermost circle and I don’t know the extent of her sickness. So I opted to give her that space of me not adding nor wanting to pry on her. I was shocked if her demise. I thought it was early in the process and became a little guilty of why I didn’t reach out privately. That night, I dreamt of her. She was going in a building and was helped by men mostly including John Arcilla. I was looking at them from behind then she looked back to where I was at but by that time I was already a few steps away from her gaze.

"Thirdly I dreamt of two of my uncles. The first one who’s the husband of my favorite aunt who died almost 20 years ago and when my cousin gathered and asked us about memories of her dad I said I feared him when we were young. I was reprimanded when he asked me to buy a vinegar and came home late but never laid his hand on me. He was just a strong presence. Not the malambing kind. Then perhaps a week after that, I dream of him. Very much a mid shot kind of distance. Can’t remember the content of the dream but the distance was prominent. This other one is the late husband of my other aunt. He’s a very kind guy, always smiling, gracious to us even when we were rowdy as a kid. He died maybe 3 years ago and yesterday I woke up from a dream about him. A cousin posted a tiktok on him showing his joke on how to dress a hunchback and he burst into a song. The one that will make you laugh.

"My apologies for the length. And thank you so much again for your wisdom. God bless you sir.

My reply:

Hello _____!

1. Deceased parents appear in dreams only to children who need to see them. If you don't dream of them, other siblings do, but it has nothing to do with how the deceased feel toward you. Your brief dream about your mother indicates that both of you know that you are well off without her presence.

2. The second, brief dream has the same message. In ancient times, the deceased were placed on rafts that were then either set on fire or pushed away into the sea. It is the same principle behind Pagdiwata, when offerings are placed in small boats and set on the water. I believe that, in this part of the dream, the water is shallow and the wooden box is unable to float away because you are always consciously holding your mother back with your thoughts. Helen Mirren appears because the image of your mother having to float away would be painful to you.

I would not pay attention to the recurring number series. They are reflections of an obsessive-compulsive mind. Your subconscious presents them to you in a synchronistic manner--a pattern--only to give you the assurance that your life is structured well and that you have nothing to be insecure about.

The succeeding dream about Cherie Gil is connected to the previous ones and has the same message. Cherie is your mother in this dream, again disguised by your psyche. You knew that she was ill but denied yourself this reality. In terms of your mother, did you also know that she was ill, and did this make you feel guilt? Cherie/your mother, however, shows/show you that everything is all right with her/them and, like Pagdiwata boats, it is also all right to see them drift away.

3. Your uncles in the third dream represent your being torn between two values or two decisions--either at present or as a reminder that you are too often in this predicament. The Tiktok ending of that dream indicates that your psyche is telling you that everything is all right but that you frequently tend to overthink matters.

3.