Image taken on 2006-07-19 00:21:38 by JoséPedro.
Our fascination with dreams is as old as human identity. Dreams represent a world existing on another level of consciousness, common to all, yet still completely individual. Dreams reflect one’s most personal thoughts and feelings, often so private, they are hardly known even to the dreamer.
The study of dreams crosses many disciplines: psychology, neurology, sleep science, symbology. Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams brought the study of dreams into the world of mainstream scientific examination. Carl Jung followed with another perspective on dreams and symbols, reinforcing the acceptance of the concept that our dream state is a meaningful reflection of our waking psyche. While scientists and psychologists have somewhat recently come to this understanding of the dream connection between the conscious and the unconscious mind, psychics have always considered dreams to be a means of communication between metaphysical worlds, linking the past to the future, the known to the unknown, or the real to the unreal.
The soul in sleep gives proof of its divine nature; for when free and disengaged from the body, it has a foresight of things to come.
- Cicero
To Sleep, Perchance to Dream
Sleep is as essential to our health as food and water. Lack of sleep can cause serious physical and mental problems, and severe sleep deprivation can even lead to death. The scientific study of sleep has made great advances with the use of new technologies that can record and measure brain activity. Brain waves change dramatically while we sleep, revealing much about the physical nature of this state.
The body at rest restores its energy and prepares for the next day’s activities. This rest and rejuvenation is also working on the brain, providing the mental strength we need to cope with stress, handle emotions, and use our mental capacities fully.
Normal sleep cycles through five distinct stages several times through the night. These stages are marked by the levels of sleep from drowsiness to light sleep to deep sleep. Sleep stages fall into two main categories of Rapid Eye Movement, REM, and Non Rapid Eye Movement, or NREM. Scientists distinguish these stages by the presence of muscle activity beneath the eyelid, like looking quickly back and forth.
Dreaming occurs during stages of REM sleep in cycles that may last from ten minutes to more than an hour, coming several times through the night and lasting longer at each successive occurrence. Polysomnograms, used to measure brain activity while sleeping, will produce wave patterns during intense dreaming that are at levels similar to those produced when the subject is awake. While we dream, our bodies may be at rest, but our minds are active in another state of consiousness.
We will only dream during certain REM stages of our sleep cycle, which is also a deep sleep. We usually awaken when the cycle has been completed according to our normal pattern, which is why we sleep best when we follow a bedtime routine and get a full night’s rest. As we wake, our mental awareness of the dream has diminished, or, as is most common, the dreams of our REM state have been completely forgotten.
All I Have to Do is Dream
Our dreams are meaningful in many ways. Dreams reveal our most secret fears and desires. In the freedom of our dream world, we can explore solutions to problems, release our creativity, let ideas and sensations run unfettered by social restraint or the laws of the physical world. Dreams can allow us to be open to the metaphysical world, communicating beyond the boundaries of space and time.
Everyone remembers some dreams, but we experience far more dreams in sleep than we remember. It is difficult to fully understand the power and presence of this phenomenon when we have such a limited view through the few dreams we occasionally recall. To know the real meanings that our dreams convey, we must find ways to remember more.
The easiest way to remember dreams is to keep a journal by your bed. Anytime you waken from a dream, capture as much as you can immediately. Practice writing what you can remember in quick notes, just words or impressions. Don’t worry about spelling or making full sentences. Try to keep your lighting low, don’t force yourself to become fully awake so you’ll be able to return to sleep.
Make it a nighttime ritual to remind yourself to remember your dreams. As you lie in your bed, close your eyes and prepare yourself to fall asleep, think calmly to yourself, “I will remember my dreams tonight.” Don’t worry or build anxiety over it, just make it a part of your sleep routine. You subconscious mind will hear the message.
In the morning, develop a habit of lying still and quietly as you waken. Relax and think about your night. Let the dreams softly return to your conscious mind. Again, use your journal to capture your dreams as completely as you can.
It may take some time to become accustomed to remembering your dreams, so be patient with yourself. Your journal will eventually fill with dream stories. Take some time each week to review your notes. Try to express your experience more fully, reflecting on how the dream make s you feel. Capture the sense of what the dream means to you.
Dreams can evoke an immediate, emotional response, such as happiness, uneasiness or anxiety. Recognize these feelings and record them. Think about the dream in the context of your life. What are your life circumstances at the time? How are you feeling about your personal relationships, your work, and your family?
Your dream journal can be a powerful tool to learn the message of your dreams. Once you have developed the routine of remembering your dreams, you can begin the exciting journey towards understanding the rich life that exists beyond your sleeping self.
All that we see or seem, Is but a dream within a dream.
- Edgar Allen Poe
Dreams and Dream Interpretation
By Joseph Ho
Jan 23rd, 2009
What is a Dream?
Dream is defined as a sequence of images that passes through a sleeping person, much like a video show except that it also carries some personal emotions. Everyone have dreams but most people do not know that their dreams do have significant impact on their real life. Dream serves to warn, instruct, direct, and foretell future events in a person’s life.
Are dreams significant in a person’s life?
Dreams are the messages of the night. It is also called visions of darkness, because it is during deep sleep that our inner soul becomes sensitive to the spiritual realm. The messages in the dreamscape contain symbols which are specific to the dreamer and so a dream dictionary can not be accurately applied for any serious dream interpretation.
Dreams can truly benefit the recipient only when it is properly interpreted. Some dreams occur from having too much activity during the day and it only reflects our mood, this kind of dream does not carry any significant messages. There are however, certain dreams which bring us warning of future events in our life and these are prophetic dreams and we should pay special attention.
Types of Dreams
There are basically 3 major types of dreams.
Type I is the carnal dreams that come from the internal soul of the person. . Past troubles which we have not properly dealt with can manifest fear, anger, and sadness and caused recurring dreams.
Type II is the Spiritual Prophetic dreams which is sent by God to foretell the future. This type of dream almost always speaks about the future and they are very important to us.
Type III is the dream we get when we are hyper active during the day. This type is more confusing and leads to disturbed sleep since they are haphazard and disjointed.
How are dreams interpreted?
In the bible, Proverbs 18:16, “A gift opens the way for the giver and ushers him into the presence of the great.”
Dreams Interpretation is a gift, it can not be easily learnt in a class setting, but it however can be imparted by a spiritual mentor. Impartation refers to the spiritual laying of hands upon the person and saying a prayer over them.
Dream is a form of divine communication that connect God with to us since God promised to tell his servant what is to come. Dream is a more complete system of authentic communication because it is a four dimensional message, it contains events, people, feelings and words or symbols. Dream can not be intercepted as in any man made device.
The dreams are interpreted much the same as the instantaneous flow of prophetic utterance, meaning given by the Holy Spirit. Peace with assurance that comes from the Holy Spirit will be the only guidance that ascertains the truth. In the book of Hosea 12:10, the bible says “I have also spoken by the prophets, and have multiplied visions; I have given symbols through the witness of the prophets.” This refers to prophetic dreams. Although anyone can claim that they can interpret dreams, the difference between true and false interpretation is that the truth will come to pass.
Philippines 4:7, “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
1Corinthian 14:33, “For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.”
JOSEPH THE KING OF DREAMS
Joseph’s first dream was about rising high above his brothers. Joseph’s second dream of rising was about his brothers and parents paying homage to him. God had prepared Joseph to interpret Pharaoh’s dream.
When God sends you two dreams on the same matter, it will surely come to pass without fail. The bible says that a matter must be established by two unchangeable facts; Matthew 18:16, 2 Corinthians 13:1 and Deuteronomy 19:15.
So why did God favor Joseph? Joseph honored his father Jacob and was obedient and trustworthy so he was chosen to be trained in God’s school of adversity. He was told by God what will happen to Egypt. Knowing is only half the solution without the how to solve it, knowledge is useless. God does not give us a warning and then we are to pray about it, in fact, we are to order our life around the dream so that we will not be affected by any crisis.
Joseph’s Interpretation of Dreams
Someone’s problem becomes our promotion and God’s making us famous by marketing us to the key people in the world.
Joseph’s first dream interpretation for the Cupbearer and the Baker in Genesis 40:1, was a preparation for him to meet the most powerful man in Egypt. Joseph’s second dream interpretation regarding the Pharaoh’s two different dreams; one about the corns and the other about the cows was God’s divine plan to exalt Joseph over Egypt. God caused Pharaoh to have those dreams.
Only the anointed one from God is able to answer this riddle. And only Jesus Christ is the baptizer of the Spirit and only Jesus can authenticate a gift and since it’s a gift, not all people are called to be interpreter of dreams. My people suffer from the lack of knowledge, Hosea 4:6. But God said in 1 Corinthian 2:9, “However, it is written: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. But God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.”
Finally, dream Interpretation is a spiritual gift, and if you have a dream you should consult reputable Christians of the same faith. I pray that you will have divine messages of the night from our Lord Jesus Christ. If you need your dreams to be interpreted you can check out my website at www.kingscepter.com and send me your dreams at prophet3333@yahoo.com. Please indicate the title of your email as dream interpretation. God bless you all.
Lucid dreaming means dreaming while you know that you are dreaming. The term was coined by Frederik van Eeden who used the word “lucid” in the sense of mental clarity. With practice nearly anyone can experience lucid dreams.
Lucidity is not the same as dream control. It is possible to be lucid and have little control over the dream. However, becoming lucid in a dream is likely to increase your ability to deliberately influence the events within the dream. With practice you may extend the amount of control that you have over dream events. Many lucid dreamers choose to do something permitted only by the extraordinary freedom of the dream state, such as flying.
Some people have objections to lucid dreams. They say that it is un-natural and could be harmful to the psyche. In my opinion this is not true at all. Perhaps if all of our dreams were lucid and controlled there may be some harm, but with our lucid dreams spread out among many “normal” dreams we have plenty of time for non-lucid dreaming.
While we are in a dream our mind accepts what we see and feel as reality. We often find ourselves in very unusual circumstances when compared to our waking life. You could be living in a different house or driving a different car. The sky could be green and the river yellow. In most cases we accept these things as being true. Why doesn’t the mind “think” ‘Hey! I don’t have this vehicle’ or ‘This isn’t where I live!’ or even ‘Hey! I know the sky isn’t supposed to be that color!’
This is what I call incongruities. Things in our dreams that are not “normal”. We must wonder, and many have, why our mind so readily accepts anything we experience within our dreams as being real. We know there are no monsters. We know the proper colors for things. We know our home and our daily life. While we are dreaming we often forget these things and we believe what we see in the dream.
Just knowing this and thinking about it can actually help you on your way to a lucid dream experience. An incongruity is one of the triggers to lucid dreaming. A trigger is that which inspires or begins lucidity.
Here is an example of this from one of my own lucid dreams:
I was driving a blue Ford Bronco down a dirt road. I think it was a late 70’s model. There was a young boy in the passenger seat. I was giving him a ride because his motorcycle had run out of gas. The bike was in the back. Suddenly I realized it. I did not own a blue Bronco! In the dream I slammed on the breaks and held my hands up. “I don’t own a Ford bronco!” I said, “I am dreaming!” from that point on I was lucid.
A recurring dream or nightmare can also be used as a trigger. If you have a recurring dream make a conscious effort to realize that you are dreaming the next time you are in that situation. If the dream involves a certain person or place try to think as you go to sleep, “The next time I see that house I will know that I am dreaming”. Since the dream is recurring it wont be long before you see that house, person, etc. This may take several attempts. Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work the very first time.
Another technique that works for a lot of people is asking yourself “Am I dreaming?” and leaving notes for yourself. Several times a day ask yourself the question aloud. Also write the question on a note and put it on the refrigerator. Put the same message in other places where you will see them throughout the day. Many people will find them self asking that question or seeing the question written on a note while they are actually dreaming. This will trigger a lucid dream.
My first lucid dream, that is the first one I had when I was trying to achieve lucidity, was triggered by a flying dream.
Try to go to sleep in the same place and around the same time as much as possible. It is best to sleep with silence as music or other sounds can affect your dreaming. If you do choose to listen to music while you are going to sleep choose soft and soothing music, preferably without vocals. Use the same music each time. Before you go to sleep concentrate on a trigger. My first time I said, “tonight I will fly”, aloud several times and I concentrated on it. The second night I had a flying dream but I did not become lucid. On the fourth night I had another flying dream and at that time I became lucid. I was then able to fly to wherever I wanted to!
The trigger or combination of triggers that you use will depend upon you. If you have a common dream theme this is a great trigger. Just concentrate on the next time that you see or experience that you will be dreaming. Think of it as often as you can while you are awake.
Lucid dreamers often comment to themselves in dreams. You may say aloud, “This is a dream! I know that I am dreaming.”
Make a list of questions that you have about dreams. Read the list often and look over it several times and concentrate on it before you go to bed.
Can you read text in a dream? Can you add numbers in a dream? These were some questions I had on my list at one time. I had read in a dream book that it was not possible to read text or to calculate numbers in a dream, but I didn’t believe it. I eventually found myself lucid in an office. I walked over to a calendar on the wall and I read the text describing a New England farm house. I turned to another man there and said, “You see? You can read text in a dream!” I turned back to the calendar to read again and found that the words had completely changed. That amazed me and I commented to the other man about it. Next I walked over to a desk and found a calculator. I added and subtracted numbers and came up with correct answers. Yes, you can read text and perform mathematics in a dream. I proved it to myself beyond any doubt and with more confidence than I ever could have by reading anything about dreams.
Keep a Dream Journal
Keeping a dream journal is one of the most effective tools to achieving lucid dreams. Try to write down your dreams as soon after you wake up as you can. Don’t just write a narrative of what took place in the dream. Record your thoughts and emotions felt. This will help you later on as you develop your dreaming research. Be sure to note all major elements, such as people, places, animals, etc.
Keeping a dream journal will also help you a great deal in understanding your non-lucid dreams. As you continue to write in your journal and re-read your previous entries you will begin to see parallels with your dreams and your life. Gradually you will be able to recognize what the symbols in your dreams are really saying to you.
Once lucid in a dream, people can often choose their actions and exert some deliberate control over the dream content. This ability has been utilized in the laboratory to study lucid dreaming and dream psychophysiology. For example, proof that lucid dreams occur in REM sleep was achieved by having subjects give a prearranged distinct signal with deliberate eye movements to mark the points in time when they realized they were dreaming. The dreamers’ reports of the eye movements they had made in the dreams corresponded exactly to their physical eye movements as recorded by means of electro-oculograms on a polygraph record. Reports from experiments conducted using eye movement signaling in lucid dreams can be found in the literature (Dane, 1984; Fenwick et al., 1984; Hearne, 1978; LaBerge, Nagel, Dement & Zarcone, 1981; Ogilvie, Hunt, Kushniruk, & Newman, 1983).
What Are The Benefits of Lucid Dreaming?
The scientific study of dreaming and REM sleep
A variety of psychological and recreational applications.
Lucid dreaming can be a powerful tool for overcoming nightmares
In therapy, lucid dreams appear to be promising for providing personal insight, assisting with integration, and as a safe environment for experimentation with new behaviors (LaBerge & Rheingold, 1990).
Many lay people are attracted to lucid dreaming because it offers an outlet for fantasy, an opportunity for adventure unfettered by the laws of physics or society, and free of risk. As such, lucid dreaming is for many a source of creative and inspiring recreation. Anecdotes indicate that lucid dreams are helpful for artistic creativity, problem-solving, and practicing skills for waking life (LaBerge & Rheingold, 1990).
Dreams hold the most vivid mental images attainable by most people. Lucid dreaming is probably the best method for achieving the benefits such as enhancing physical performance, learning, remembering and facilitating healing.
REFERENCES
Dane, J. (1984). An empirical evaluation of two techniques for lucid dream induction. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Georgia State Univ.
Fenwick, P., Schatzman, M., Worsley, A., Adams, J., Stone, S., & Baker, A. (1984). Lucid dreaming: Correspondence between dreamed and actual events in one subject during REM sleep. Biological Psychol, 18, 243-252.
Hearne, K. M. T. (1978). Lucid dreams: An electrophysiological and psychological study. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, U of Liverpool.
LaBerge, S., Nagel, L., Dement, W., & Zarcone, V. (1981). Lucid dreaming verified by volitional communication during REM sleep. Perceptual & Motor Skills, 52, 727-732.
Ogilvie, R., Hunt, H., Kushniruk, A. & Newman, J. (1983). Lucid dreams and the arousal continuum. Sleep Research, 12, 182.
LaBerge, S. & Rheingold, H. (1990). Exploring the world of lucid
dreaming. New York: Ballantine.
Image taken on 2007-08-18 12:53:26 by Pensiero.
What are Lucid Dreams?
Lucid dreaming means dreaming while you know that you are dreaming, and when you know you are dreaming within a dream you can also alter the dream course, with practice you can also develop full control over your dreams. You will be able to create anything the mind can imagine, change the environment even change your own appearance, have a chat with Abraham Lincoln or fly to the Grand Canyon.
The earliest recorded lucid dreams date back to the fifth century, the record came from a written letter by St. Augustine in 415 A.D. Another well-known recorded example of lucid dreaming came from eight century Tibetan Buddhists in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The Buddhists wrote of a form of yoga designed to maintain full waking consciousness while in the dream state. This ancient documentation of dreams is said to be more advanced than the knowledge we posses today.
People have been having lucid dreams for as long as the human mind has been dreaming. The first known use of the actual term “lucid dreaming” was by Frederik van Eeden in his work “A Study of Dreams” which was published in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research in 1913. (Van Eeden also wrote the novel The Bride of Dreams). Since then the term has become part of our mainstream.
Steps to Lucid Dreaming
“I don’t dream”, have you ever heard someone say this? Or have you even said this yourself? It is not a true statement, everybody dreams nightly, but some people do not remember their dreams. The first step in learning to have lucid dreams, like in my Intuition article, is have the desire to want to remember your dreams. Now before going to bed, have a clear mind, tell yourself that “I will remember my dream when I wake up”. This is a proven and effective way to help dream recall. Having a cluttered mind or worries can distract you from remembering your dream in the morning.
Have a regular sleep schedule, try and get a routine going with a consistent bedtime and wake up time, this will also aid you in your dream recollection. Avoid alcohol consumption or taking medication before going to bed. These things may hinder you from remembering your dreams. Diet also plays a big part in dream recall, fatty foods or just eating right before you go to bed will task your body with digesting food instead of getting the rest your body needs and will divert your bodily resources from the brain.
The most important step in recalling your dreams is to keep a dream journal. Keep a pencil and a notebook or tape recorder next to your bed so that it will be within reach as soon as you wake up. You want to make the task of recording your dreams as easy as possible. Having a small lamp by your bed will help if you wake up from a dream in the middle of the night and need to record it.
Do not get out of bed immediately when you wake up, lay there in your bed keeping your eyes closed and move as little as possible. Wake up slowly and stay relaxed, hold on to your feelings you have and let your mind wander to the images of what you have just dreamed, write down as many details as possible about your dream, do not judge the content, just record it, so later you can go back and evaluate it when you are more aware. Talking to people about your dreams to friends or participating in some on-line forums will also help dream recall.
How to Have a Lucid Dream
Once you get your dream journal going and are able to recall at least two dreams a night then you can start the steps to having a lucid dream. There are many ways to key yourself to the fact that you are dreaming but I will discuss a couple of the easiest for beginners. First there is Reality Testing (RT). How reality testing is done, is you ask yourself “Am I dreaming?” Finding that out in a dream is not always the easiest thing to do, but is usually quite obvious if you are dreaming or not. If you find yourself in an unfamiliar place, or doing something or seeing something that will not likely happen in reality, you will know that you are dreaming. Now if you are in your bed or in your own house, then you can try looking at something like a clock or reading a book or something, look away, then look back and see if the time is the same or the words you read are the same. Try changing the color of something just by thinking about it. Ask yourself this question “Am I dreaming?” several times during the day, then you will be more apt to ask yourself this in a dream.
The second way to realize that you are dreaming in a dream is to recognize a Dreamsign. When your recognize this dreamsign you will realize that you are dreaming. (ie. A pink elephant, meeting deceased people, or magically flying.) By keeping a dream journal and going back and finding things that are common in your dreams, you can choose a dreamsign that is unique to you. So when you see your dreamsign you will realize your experience as a dream, and can then further the experiments or work you would like to do in your dream.
Upon becoming Lucid
The biggest problem upon becoming lucid for newbies is that once they realize they are dreaming, they get so excited that it wakes them from their dream. Actually experienced lucid dreamers can have this problem also. There are different ways to extend your dreams, if your dream shows signs of ending some people have claimed success by spinning to help the dream come back, in other words making their dream self start to spin like an ice skater, and remind yourself the next scene will be a dream, to ensure you are still dreaming do a RT. Sometimes just running, or jumping can prolong your dream. Once you become proficient in achieving a Lucid Dream state, and are able to maintain this state to some degree, the next step will be controlling your dreams.
Controlling your Dream
Now the fun part! Once you are lucid dreaming the world is yours, anything you can imagine can happen in your dream. Have you ever wanted to be a superhero? Be able to turn invisible, to live as a millionaire, to sail around the world. The thing that I personally have had experience with is flying in my dream, the first time you accomplish flight in your dream you will have the most amazing sense of freedom that you have ever felt. Just think about it, if you could fly like a bird, the wind in your hair, the freedom to go anywhere, well you get the picture. People have used the experiences in their lucid dreams to improve their waking lives also, for instance, playing the piano better, improving at ice skating, or business success, some people even claim to have religious experiences.
Science has only just begun to examine the process of lucid dreaming. Some researchers view it as an evolutionary development of mankind and our consciousness expanding. Whether we are evolving or have always had this ability, we certainly are not taking advantage of all it has to offer. If we could become more disciplined with our dream work we would have many more options in which to learn and grow
Image taken on 2008-04-23 03:55:03 by I’mBatman.
Dreams – they intrigue us. They mystify us. They enchant us. Sometimes they scare us. What do we do with this whole other dimension of our lives? Do we just ignore our dreaming life – or can we use dreams in some way in our lives?
We all dream. Though some of us may think we don’t, sleep research has shown that, in actuality, we all really do dream. The problem is that some of us may not remember our dreams. We remember dreams when we shift to a lighter level of consciousness (measured by brain waves) when we’re dreaming. In other words, if we hear a noise, for example, or if we shift our bodily position, we come out of the deeper level of dream-stage sleep to a lighter level of consciousness, or even wake up completely. It is only when this happens that we remember what we had been dreaming about.
Dreams are fascinating – at least they have always been to me. Indeed, I have been working with my own and interpreting others’ dreams for many, many years, and I am a firm believer that dreams give us rich material to work with in our lives, if we are so inclined – and that we can, in fact, demystify and understand our dreams.
As a step towards this, let’s look at the actual phenomenon of dreams. One interesting thing I have learned from my work with dreams is that what we lump into the broad category of “dreams” may in truth be different types of phenomena. So the first step in understanding and working with our dreams is to know what “type” of dream we have had.
Now this may be a surprising revelation. Dreams are dreams, right? Well, think about this for a moment: have you ever had a dream that felt different from other dreams? For instance, have you ever had a dream that felt so real that you felt that you really were somewhere else?
Well, you may have been.
As strange as this may sound, there are many theories (including some in quantum or modern physics – which I certainly don’t profess to fully understand) that alternate realities and other dimensions exist – and our nighttime experiences may actually be visits to these other realms. As eerie or “outlandish” (no pun intended!) as this may sound, if you believe that our consciousness is not ultimately limited or bounded by our bodies, this idea can make perfect sense – because when we’re sleeping our bodies are quiet and our minds and consciousness are less bombarded by noisy feedback from our bodily functions, thus being freer to “leave the body” and roam.
So oftentimes when we’re sleeping our consciousness is off exploring and experiencing, and some of these experiences may be translated into the form of dreams – experience dreams – whereas others may be forgotten or slip into oblivion, at least from our conscious or semi-conscious awareness.
And, to complicate matters further, the illusory veil of time may be lifted, and we can be exploring other times as well – including past lives.
So, the next time you wake up and feel like you’ve been somewhere else, remember this: maybe you have been.
(Phew! Still with me? I told you dreams were fascinating….)
As exotic as this type of “dream” experience may be, other types of dreams may seem more mundane in comparison.
Some dreams really do represent a sorting out of the day’s experiences or working on problems, as our brains sift through and correlate information and experiences. These dreams are usually mundane and quotidian. Included in this type of dream experience, however, are very creative dreams in which we actually solve problems we’re working on and receive answers we have been looking for. A classic, and oft-cited, example of this type of creative problem-solving dream is the model of the benzene molecule, whose structure was received by Kekule, a chemistry professor, in a dream after he had been puzzling over this question; the dream was of a snake biting its own tail and twirling in a circle.
One interesting type of dream is that in which we are communicating with others on some level. If you wake up and feel that you were having a discussion or communicating with your long-lost love, you may, in fact, have truly been doing just that. In these communication dreams – or communication experiences – the person being engaged in dialogue can be living or “dead.” Some communication can come in the form of guidance and can be coming from our spirit guides (or guardian angels, angelic presences, or whatever terminology you wish to use).
Some dreams are “psychic” dreams, in which we receive information we have no other concrete way of knowing. These include precognitive dreams that can give us information about the future, as well as clairvoyant (French for clear-seeing) dreams that can give us glimpses of things going on in the “real world” while we are dreaming.
Some dreams are mainly expressing fears or desires we may have, especially those that may be lying below our conscious awareness. These dreams serve to make us consciously aware of these fears or desires so that we may work on them, and these dreams may also represent our actually working on these issues at an unconscious level.
One of the richest types of dreams is that in which we are working on personal or spiritual growth issues. In these dreams we are receiving (or generating, whatever your point of view) information on these issues. These dreams can be the most content-laden and most rewarding for us to work with, as they point out things for us to look at or work on, or connections between and among factors in our lives that we may not have realized were there. These dreams may also be the most cloaked in symbols.
Many dreams are one-time scenarios that we only have once, but we also have recurring dreams, dreams that repeat the same theme over and over again, sort of a nocturnal reverie leitmotif. These dreams are usually, though not always, more significant than single dreams and can represent general issues that we are working on (whether we realize consciously that we are working on them or not). Over time, as we make progress on the underlying growth issues, we will tend to see these dreams shift and evolve.
So there is a true variety of different types of dream experiences – a veritable cornucopia of dreams. And, to make the experience even richer, any one dream can be a combination of different types of dreams. For instance, we can have a dream in which we are talking to someone we know, which takes place in another country and time period. This dream may be both an experience, in which we are actually exploring a past life, as well as a communication dream, in which we are actually exploring a past life connection with someone we know in real time and are communicating with him or her on some level in that other time period. And this dream could also have a psychic element as well, if something were revealed about the future.
This is one of the fascinating aspects of dreams. (Can you tell how excited I am about dreams?) Dreams are truly a very rich and complicated phenomenon – or set of phenomena.
Now the next question is, do we want to do anything with our dreams? I am a firm believer that looking at our dreams and attempting to work with them in some way can be very rewarding for us. They can give us information about our lives, and they can certainly give us insight into ourselves as we move along on our paths and evolve. For those of us who are into meaning and like to understand things in our lives, dreams provide a rich vein of material to mine.
I must say at this point that my orientation toward dreams starts with a spiritual assumption, and that is that we are here to learn and grow. (And wouldn’t life be boring if we weren’t?) So my work with dreams is very much colored by this assumption. And, as we learn and grow – and evolve – in our lives, dreams can be a powerful tool. Without this assumption and orientation, we may regard dreams as no more than an oddity, a nighttime venture into the irrational, and a curiosity devoid of any use or practicality.
And, interestingly, in my work with dreams, I can’t ever remember working with a dream that had no true meaning.
So, if you’d like to delve into the magical world of dreams and see what you can gain, I’ll take you on a guided tour of how you might approach your dreams. (Why not? You’ve come with me this far!)
First of all, I would recommend only working with the dreams that feel significant to you, whether you understand them or not. We often remember a dream strongly upon awakening, sometimes to the extent that it will stay with us throughout the day, resonating as it is evoked at odd times by different things. These are the dreams I would work with.
Some dream-workers recommend keeping a journal by the bed and programming yourself to wake up from every dream and record it. My approach is less active. I operate under the assumption that we’ll generally remember the significant dreams and that, if we take too proactive an approach, we might be disturbing our sleep too much. Being rested is too important in our stressful world to deliberately disturb sleep!
Once we have a dream that we feel is significant, the first step, as mentioned above, is to figure out what type (or types) of dream it was.
After we know what type(s) of dream it was, we then want to try to understand it. This is where we get into the realm of dream interpretation, because dreams are so often veiled in symbolic form. And this is also where things can become sticky, because good dream interpreting is somewhat of an art and requires skill.
It also requires intuition. So throw out all your dream dictionaries that tell you that a certain symbol has certain meanings! A dream is not a generalized story, aimed at the general populace with general meanings; it is a specific message for the dreamer alone and, as such, it is expressed in the dreamer’s own vocabulary. The dreamer alone has the keys to understanding it – or a good dream interpreter who uses intuition to decode the meanings specific for the dreamer.
And that’s another fascinating aspect of dreams: any one dream can have several different meanings – and all of them equally valid meanings for the dreamer.
So, sharpen up those intuitive pencils and let’s start tackling those dreams!
After you’ve determined what type(s) of dream you’re working with, you’ll want to follow these steps:
1. Ask yourself (or the dreamer) how you (or he/she) felt about the dream, both upon waking and in retrospect. Was it pleasure, fear, anxiety, optimism, relief, etc.? Our feelings about our dreams are keys to their meanings.
2. Allow yourself to get into a very relaxed state of consciousness and clear your mind as you go over the dream’s unfolding sequentially in your mind (or as the dreamer relates the dream to you, if it’s not your dream). What things go through your mind as you review or listen to the dream? What is evoked? What percolates up from your subconscious?
3. Instead of focusing on how “bizarre” the dream seems, approach it as a very rich, cogent, and, yes, respectable event. If we are just focusing on the bizarre quality of dreams, this serves to distract us from their credible validity and the richness in insight they can offer to us.
4. Then work with each symbol in the dream independently. Focus on a symbol, while asking yourself (or the dreamer), “What does this mean to me (or you)?” For example, we might feel that coins in a dream signify riches. However, if the dreamer’s husband was a coin collector, the symbol may also be saying something about the dreamer’s husband or their relationship. I once had someone relate a dream to me that she had had, very upset because there was a cat in the dream and someone had told her that a cat in a dream means death(!). When I asked this woman how she felt about cats, she replied, “Oh, I love cats!” Well, obviously for her the cat in her dream did not necessarily mean death! Remember, too, that any one symbol can have more than one valid meaning.
5. Ask yourself what the general theme of the dream is. What area(s) of your (or the dreamer’s) life is it related to – work, relationships, childhood, etc.?
6. Go over each “story” segment of the dream and work to understand it as a discrete little unit.
7. Put all the pieces, or segments, of the dream and their meanings together. What picture emerges? How does each segment relate to other segments?
8. Pay attention to any words or phrases that are prominent in the dream. Puns and plays on words are common in dreams and often meaningful.
9. Look for any elements that may have particular significance for you (or the dreamer). What do these elements mean? (For example, a numerologist may have numbers pop up in dreams and these numbers may have numerological significance that contributes to the dream’s meaning(s), or a florist may have flowers or plants appear prominently that may have significance.)
10. Look at the other people who appear in the dream. How do you (or the dreamer) feel about each person? Further meaning may be gained by also looking at each person as you (or the dreamer). Are these people parts of yourself (or the dreamer) that are embraced, disowned, or suppressed?
11. Remember, again, that any one dream can have several different meanings. What different meanings does the dream have? What pictures emerge? What is the dream telling you?
Working with our dreams and practicing dream interpretation can take time and patience. However, we gain more skill and confidence over time.
It can definitely be helpful to keep a dream journal of significant dreams that you’ve had, with the plan of rereading them periodically. Often when we go back and read over dreams that we’ve had a year or more ago, we can gain even more insight. We often understand our dreams even more and realize the issues that were being expressed. Going back over former dreams can also give us perspective on the shifts we’ve subsequently made in our lives, how we’ve evolved and grown.
Dreams represent wonderful and abundant material and, interestingly, we all have our own individual dream signatures, types of dreams unique to us. Some people have fairly straightforward, short dreams, while others have long epic, complicated, and interwoven oeuvres. As much as I enjoy interpreting dreams for others, I get just about as much enjoyment seeing dreamers’ “ahas” of realization, when they suddenly see their dream make sense to them.
Dreams can give us answers we’ve been looking for. Dreams have even saved people’s lives when they’ve had heavily symbolic dreams that turned out to be about health conditions they had been unaware of, such as cancer!
Allowing yourself to explore your dreams and understand them can open up whole new vistas and dimensions for you – and definitely enrich your life. You can understand yourself more and feel more in control of your life. You can demystify those nighttime enigmas – and maybe even save your life! You can even have fun! So, allow yourself to go on a “magical mystery tour” of dream exploration!
Sweet dreams!
Image taken on 2008-01-25 15:45:04 by smif.
Image taken on 2006-10-13 10:38:05 by zenera.