Dream Interpreting

Dreaming is a natural function of the human mind. Everyone dreams for their entire lives. Even if you are not aware of your nightly dreams, the process of dreaming still goes on.

Nocturnal dreams are very powerful. They have served to inspire songs and lyrics, fables and fairytales. They prove to us the creativity of the human mind, the reality of a powerful Source we are all connected to.

Dreams do not predict the future. They do reflect, however, at a deep unconscious level, feelings and emotions we may not be aware of at the time. By examining your dreams, you can learn and understand your true feelings and desires. Our daily experiences trigger emotions. We learn to step apart from our experiences and manage our emotions. Then, we can either change our behavior for the better, as well as make true a beautiful desire.

Dreamwork or dream processing performs several fundamental purposes. Sleep and rest are essential for the brain to refresh itself and recover from the busy and challenging daily experiences it constantly processes and sorts. One function is to create order and meaning to what can be a very disjointed and seeming unconnected soup of images, feelings and emotions. Part of this dreamwork, involves sorting out the collective “junk” in our world that flows in and out of the mind. The mind also works to sort thoughts and things of little value (material) from ideas of high or spiritual value.

Dreams are usually very difficult to understand. They do not operate in time. They work out of time. Humans construct time to make order in the world. But dreams are generated from the natural world. The universe has its own laws. It creates in the here and now. So dreams have a timeless feel. They go beyond the three dimensions we on earth are used to. Dreams have a silent quality. Here, light and shadow are far more important than sound. Our dreams have a multi-dimensional holographic quality and strength unfamiliar in waking.

Dreams need to be interpreted. This is because we normally operate on two or more levels of consciousness, ranging from the superficial level of body or form, to deep internal and truer level of thoughts and feelings. We often deny uncomfortable and painful feelings. This may be necessary just to continue and succeed in our daily living. But there is a cost. The cost to denying ones true feelings is a dull or numb state of existence shrouded in illusion.

Many people do not remember their dreams, or only a few fragments, and probably from only the last dream before waking. Emotions are often represented in the dream in symbols. Dreaming of an ocean wave signifies strong release of emotion. (In fact, the dreamer may even feel he or she is the wave.) A fish means trying to find connection to universal life. The meaning of the symbol vary, however, based on its context in the dream.

When we grow courage to explore our true feelings, the fear we hold about the original thing or experience we buried is dissipated. Our imaginations can easily grow fear out of proportion to its source. But we discover the fear we hold is usually unfounded, or at least outsized. Through positive work on dreams, we can help release the blocks we created and experience countless wonders and joys in life we have denied ourselves.

Throughout the night we have 3 to 5 dream or “REM” cycles, experts say. Our minds produce from 5 to 8 dreams every night.

Dreams are a roadmap to our unconscious, but not the answers themselves. Hardly ever are there clear and direct routes. In fact, they are puzzles themselves. It takes diligence and patience to work with them. But the satisfaction and rewards of greater awareness of yourself are invaluable.

If you have the desire to grow and find great riches and fulfillment in your relationship with life, yourself and others, dream interpretation is a wonderful tool. Do not worry if you think you do not dream, or dream little. You can easily let go of this belief after practicing the following steps and waiting patiently for the results:

1. Organize your time to save a good amount for rest, sleep and eating healthier. A healthy body is good for dreaming.
2. Try to go to retire at night preferably before 10:30, optimally by 10. This is because our bodies go into overdrive if we extend our waking time too long. Overdrive is not good for good sleep and dream cycles.
3. Try not to eat little or nothing an hour or so before bedtime.
4. Cut out all tv, especially news, at least an hour before bedtime. Use this time for quiet and relaxing, reading, meditating, etc. Some people play sounds from the ocean or raindrops. Use your favorite way to wind down.
5. Purchase a good dream dictionary. This is essential for when you begin to interpret your own dreams. If you’re new at this, you may not think you need a dictionary now. But if you’re serious, you’ll soon get curious about something you remember in a dream that you just have to understand.
6. Place a notebook along with your dream dictionary on your nightstand as well as a pen or pencil. These are your dream journaling tools.
7. As soon as you can upon awakening, write anything you remember from dreams throughout the night. It may only be one strong dream or fragment from the very last one. If you should awake during the night, take the opportunity to write anything you recall.
8. It is okay if you don’t recall anything. The steps you take here cultivate the space for you to remember.
9. Don’t be concerned that what you write down makes no sense. Continue to follow good dream cultivation habits. Eventually, your dreams will begin to make sense.
10. Finally, it’s never too early to use your dream dictionary. By the way, my favorite one is by Tony Crisp, a popular authority on dreams. Why did I dream of eating fish? What does an eagle in a dream mean? What does it mean that I’m riding on a train? What does it mean I often dream I’m flying? Why do I have the same dream over and over?

After a few months of dream journaling, go back and read your entries. Highlight the points dream experts call “energy points or nodes”. Give titles and “search words” to each dream based on the main themes. As you do this, you will begin to discover patterns to your feelings, themes and sub-themes.

Now, I’m going to use of one of my recent dreams to show you how I discover some meanings and important feelings pertaining to my life reflected in the dream…

Sweet Travel With Mom On Train/freshly washed grey sweats/

A lovely time traveling with Mom on a special train. The train cars are filled with very neat piles of freshly folded washed sweat pants and tops. They belong to the male athletes riding the train, bound for various sports events. Mom and I are communicating silently and synchronistically. In fact, while she is absolutely present, I don’t actually see her form.

The train moves slowly, sometimes not at all, through an urban area on a raised track above the street. Whether the train is moving or not is of no significance. I feel very close to Mom as we travel together no matter where. The important thing we are here.

And I’m focused on the fresh smelling gym clothes. I sort through some I like. Most are just plain grey. But there is one set of salmon color sweats I like. And take. There are only a few athletes around, and the clothes are plentiful. At one point I look out the window and see another train beside us on the next track. It seems like that train is moving. Or is our train moving? Two athletes want to get off. They may have missed their stop, and now they are getting off a moving train on a raised rail track. Kind of risky. But the next stop is not for many miles…

This was a sweet short dream with a heavenly quality. I don’t have many dreams like this, so I hope to remember it. The dream was also partly lucid. This means I was partly conscious of myself dreaming a dream. This is very good because it allowed me to actually participate in the dream. I could not remember what I consciously acted in real time. But it gave me a sense of clarity, strength and purpose, as if I was playing in my own destiny.

Mom passed on from this life 20 years go. I dream of her from time to time, not often as lovely as this. Most recently our “visits” have been very good. Notably, Mom is not present physically. This makes no difference. Her presence is very strong, so it felt like we were sitting close together. I may have made peace with our differences by now. And the dream reflects this.

I looked up “train journey” in Tony Crisp’s dictionary. “Aspect of your journey through life that have connections with other people and a pre-determined end, limiting your individual will, and passing through certain stages; journey into self-awareness, often referring to aging and death, especially where there is a feeling of departing or time or departure.”

That certainly fits the spiritual journey I am on. My dreams are most always of wandering, traveling, journeying across frontiers, moving along landscapes — coastal, plains and mountains, as well as underground in caverns — sometimes beautiful, often filled with urban ruins and rubble.

I’m almost certain what the sweats mean in this dream. Generally, clothes in dreams signify your public image. Crisp writes, “Different clothes represent different attitudes and feelings.” Because these are casual clothes I like to wear around my apartment, they must mean I feel very comfortable with Mom, and perhaps, myself. Why piles? Why freshly washed? Perhaps I feel clean, or cleansed myself. Hawk writes that fresh clothes represent new feelings about yourself. I do feel happier these days. I also looked up salmon color. The closest color Crisp defines is orange. “Warmth, religious feelings, intuition.”

I’m not sure about taking the salmon sweats for myself. I guess that’s stealing. After all, they are not mine, although the owner, if there is one, is anonymous. I do have thoughts of taking things that aren’t mine. But they are very fleeting thoughts. Sometimes it helps to remember what you were doing the day up to or even 48 hours before the dream. Unfortunately, for this dream — it transpired the night of January 5, 2022 — there is nothing in my journal that helps me understand.

And what do the two male athletes preparing to jump off the moving train signify? Perhaps a time in my own life when I was more than willing to take risks or act impulsively? But I’m not sure. The energy that moves the dream through your sleeping mind comes from Source. But experts say the “stuff” or content, including people, in the dream, is your creation. If this is true, then the two men are me. Why two? Not sure. But spiritually, the number 2 signifies the duality of life. We are constantly unconsciously trying to reconcile the tension between love and hate, our will and God’s Will, giving and receiving, etc. Reconciling them brings harmony, kinship and cooperation. True or not, if I interpret the two male athletes as my brothers, then I am increasing the positive power of this dream.

Quotations…

Dreams are the touchstones of our character. — Henry David Thoreau

In dreams begins responsibility. — William Butler Yeats

We are such stuff / As dreams are made on — William Shakespeare

The whole life is a succession of dreams. My ambition is to be a conscious dreamer, that is all. — Swami Vivekanada

They say dreams are the windows of the soul — take a peek and you can see the inner workings, the nuts and bolts. — Henry Bromel

Questions…

Do you remember your dreams? Do you have the courage to remember them?

Have you found them helpful to understanding yourself?

Are there certain themes, emotions and feelings that stand out?