Find a Doctor Who Can Save you From Depression and All Mental Illnesses

Dream interpretation is like the Internet: you can open many windows that lead you to another level of knowledge as you research the content of your psyche and your reality, in addition to learning to understand how people around you think, feel and sense.





You only have to write down your dreams. Write them down and wait. When you have around 5 dreams in your notebook or PC file, you will start to understand how to interpret them because you can relate the messages you received. This will be the beginning. Continue writing your dreams every day, and after many dreams, you’ll see the complete picture of what is happening in your psyche and around you.





Of course, it is essential to have a glossary with the dream symbols, which have been elucidated according to the scientific method of dream interpretation discovered by the psychiatrist and psychologist Carl Jung. I am a writer and have improved this method and can provide you a relevant glossary in my ebook, while Jung was too ignorant to do so. I continued his research and discovered that craziness is actually caused by the anti-conscience, which is untamed and very violent.





Only someone who is not a psychologist or psychiatrist could discover the existence of this wild conscience (anti-conscience) because all scientists follow the same basis for their research. However, their foundation is wrong. The same thing happened when the human beings believed that Earth was flat, whereas it turned out to be actually spherical. They looked for solutions based on the wrong impression about the Earth and therefore, none of their conclusions were correct.





All psychiatrists and psychologists believe that our conscience is right and we have to do what it tells us, even if we accept advice from someone else. Most people in our world think exactly the same.





However, my discoveries obtained by interpreting dreams revealed that the human conscience is absurd, ignorant and idiotic whereas the unconscious that produces our dreams is wise and saintly. Jung had concluded that the human being should listen to the advice of the unconscious mind but always do what one’s own conscience decides.





He thought that the wise unconscious that produces dreams to cure us from depression and craziness would also cause craziness. This is because Jung could not find another explanation, and he was afraid to continue investigating this finding. He accepted ignorance and stopped his research at a certain point. He was guided by the unconscious as well because he was not ready to learn the entire truth.





My research was not based only on the previous notions of the scientific world but also on the facts that I observed as a poetess. In addition, I could observe the works of many scientists that were consistent with each other, and all these resources revealed the same reality. Therefore, I abandoned the rule of my own conscience and followed only the directions I received in my dreams and symbols of daily life (that can be interpreted like dreams) that were sent by the wise and saintly unconscious mind.





No scientist would ever agree to do so; however, I did this because I clearly saw how crazy the human conscience was and I understood that far more craziness could originate only from the conscience and not from the unconscious as Jung mistakenly believed. Only the conscience shows us several signs of craziness and not the perfect unconscious mind that works like a doctor.





This is why I discovered that the human being is basically a monster and that one has to tame this violent nature and learn how to live peacefully, respect others and help them, so that one is happy and everyone in this world is happy too.





The other factor that the scientists ignore is that happiness is impossible on Earth because of the terror and violence that exist here. Terror destroys everything. This is why schizophrenia and psychosis and all the terrible mental illnesses that torture our population exist. Everything starts in our own psyche, which worsens in the crazy world we live in.





Everything in our world pushes us towards the labyrinth of craziness, helping the anti-conscience destroy our conscience completely. It is completely impossible to cure schizophrenia, psychosis or any mental illness in a world governed by terrorism, violence, immorality, corruption, greed, hypocrisy and futility.





If everything in our world is absurd, how can our population be balanced, calm and happy?





On the other hand, if the human being is a monster that has to be tamed and taught wisdom, how could one create a world that would be different than one’s own nature? One could only create a hell characterized by poverty, prostitution, wars, cruelty and indifference to human pain.





The solution for humanity and especially for each individual is dream interpretation, which is synonymous with craziness prevention. Everyone must prevent craziness as soon as possible, since it already exists in our psyche and even characterizes our conscience. With the invasion of the anti-conscience into the conscience, one becomes crazier, until one gets lost in the labyrinth of craziness.





We see dreams every time we sleep because the wise unconscious tries to save us when we sleep from the inherent craziness, so that the anti-conscience cannot invade our minds. The unconscious sends us mysterious messages that we have to learn how to decipher because if they could be easily understood by our conscience, the anti-conscience would understand them as well and distort them. We would then have no protection against craziness.





Depression is a warning that craziness is coming or that it has already arrived. You have to do something to change your life and behavior; otherwise, your depression can become a neurosis, which can easily worsen in a very short period of time if you do not treat yourself.





You need not go anywhere or pay any doctor. The wise unconscious is your doctor, the best that you could ever find. You only have to write down your dreams daily and relate them and study their meaning after translating dream symbols into words. You also have to follow its guidance to completely develop your conscience, forever eliminating the anti-conscience.

Seven Reasons We Should Listen to Our Dreams

Some believe dreams are just random firings of the synapses in our brain. Others say that dreams are one of the brain’s ways of processing information from previous day. But is that what the Bible teaches us about dreams?

I don’t believe it is.

The Bible both tells us that God communicates through dreams and give us examples of God communicating with people through dreams. Below I’ll examine some of what I teach in my course about dream interpretation at a Christian university and online Bible college.

Some Scientific Observations Concerning Dreams
Sleep laboratories have proven that everyone dreams one to two hours each night during a certain period of sleep known as alpha level, which is light sleep. Every 90-minute cycle of sleep begins with alpha, then goes into deeper sleep which is called theta, and finally deepest sleep which is called delta.

At the close of the first 90-minute cycle each night, the individual returns to alpha level sleep, where he has a short, five-minute dream period. The next time he cycles up to alpha, he has a ten-minute dream period. The third time in alpha, the dream period is about 15 minutes, and so on. If one sleeps a full eight hours, the entire last hour is essentially spent in alpha level sleep. Thus, the average person sleeping for eight hours a night will dream about one to two hours of that time.

Alpha level sleep is where one has what is called Rapid Eye Movement (REM). Rapid Eye Movement is exactly what it sounds like: the eyes of the dreamer begin moving rapidly. He is actually watching the scenes in the dream, and thus his eyes are literally moving back and forth, observing the action. By observing the alpha level sleep when Rapid Eye Movement occurs, researchers in sleep laboratories have determined when a person is dreaming and how much time is spent dreaming in an average night.

Seven Reasons We Should Listen to Our Dreams
1. God declared that He WOULD speak through dreams and visions in the Old Testament.

And He said, “Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream�? (Num. 12:6).

2. God declared that He DID speak through dreams and visions in the Old Testament.

“I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets�? (Hos. 12:10).

3. God declares that He WILL communicate through dreams and visions in the New Testament.

“And it shall come to pass in the last days,�? saith God, “I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams�? (Acts 2:17).

4. God declares that He WILL COUNSEL us at night through our dreams.

I will bless the Lord who has counseled me; Indeed, my mind (inner man) instructs me in the night (Ps. 16:7 NASB).

5. Rather than our dreams being fatalistic, dreams are calling us to change SO WE WILL NOT PERISH.

For God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; Then He openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, That He may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man. He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword (Job 33:14-18, emphasis mine).

6. God does very significant things WITHIN dreams. For example, He established the Abrahamic Covenant in a dream.

And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him....And God said to Abram....In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying... (Gen. 15:12,13,18, emphasis mine).

7. God grants supernatural gifts THROUGH dreams.

In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, “Ask what I shall give thee....�?

“Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge Thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this Thy so great a people?�?

“...Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee....�? And Solomon awoke; and, behold, it was a dream (I Kings 3:5,9,12,15).

What have you been dreaming? What may God be trying to communicate with your through your dreams? I encourage you to take note of your dreams and work to interpret them. If you are not sure how to interpret dreams, please read my previous article, “Principles for Interpreting Dreams�?.

Another Example of Dream Interpretation

In some of my past articles I have discussed the principles for interpreting dreams, given an example of dream interpretation, and written about why we should listen to our dreams. With dreams being both an important means of God communicating with us and because dream interpretation is generally a rather misunderstood concept, I felt it would be good to provide another example of God communicating through dreams. Below is an example of dream interpretation involving a co-worker of mine, a lady who used to edit my materials and take Bible school classes from me at my Christian university and online Bible college. She came to me with the following dream:

In the dream, she entered her house and smelled smoke. She went upstairs looking for the fire but she couldn’t find it. Then she looked downstairs, but could not find it. She went into the kitchen and the smoke smell was stronger. She opened upper kitchen cabinets and could not find the fire. She opened the lower kitchen cabinets, flames leapt out, and she awoke.

At the time, we could not understand what the dream was saying. Two months later, she went to the doctors with an intestinal ailment which was diagnosed as inflammation of the intestines. It was a stress-related disease, and the doctor put her on medication which took care of the inflammation.

Do you see that her dream was warning us of this physical ailment two months before the doctor diagnosed it?

Her dream said, “In her house there was a fire.�? Her house was the place that she lived - her body.

The fire was in the kitchen. The kitchen is the place we eat, and thus symbolized her digestive tract.

The fire was not in the upper cabinets, which would symbolize her upper digestive region, or her stomach.

It was in the lower kitchen cabinets, which would symbolize her lower digestive region - her intestines.

The dream said, “In your intestines, there is a fire,�? two months before the doctor diagnosed it.

A year later the dream returned. She realized immediately that if she did not relax, the stress she was experiencing would bring another visit to the doctor’s office. She did relax and was able to offset another attack. Awesome counsel! Worth listening to, and worth acting upon. This is an example of a subjective dream which was talking about things taking place within the individual. It was providing her with God’s counsel, instructing her of calamity to come if she did not mend her ways. WOW!

A guide to dream interpretation

Most of us dream. But only a very small percentage of us understands that dreams hold much importance and opportunity for our self growth, improvement and self discovery. But many mystics of both Eastern and Western origins are aware of the fact that dreams hold a wealth of untapped knowledge. Because of its inherently vague nature, dreams and the art of interpreting them never entered mainstream sciences. Jungian psychology is the closest mainstream science that took dreams seriously.

This article is a concise description of the method of dream interpretation that I use. There are several points/guidelines to take note.

1. The dreams are often symbolic representations of what we are experiencing or are about to experience in the near future. I have found that my dreams often convey messages of occurrences that will most likely happen within a month or so.





2. Usually the people that we encounter in the dream symbolize the different aspects/characteristics of ourselves. For example: a woman may represent a feminine aspect of oneself even when one is male in the waking hours. Much of our repressed tendencies also tend to manifest themselves as characters in dreams as well.

Have you ever wondered why we sometimes appear and behave so differently in our dreams. Well, my take is that dreaming offers an outlet for us to be 'somebody else' that we never had the opportunity to be during our waking hours.

1. Often how we feel and the emotion we felt during the dream reveals and conveys much about the meaning of the symbols.

Intuition and the willingness to examine ourselves with brutal honesty are two very important factors for successful analysis.

Below is a list of commonly encountered symbols. In my opinion, we should always take into consideration the fact that symbols hold certain semantics and meanings that are specific to individuals. Thus the interpretations of symbols are not generic and therefore there can be no hard and fast rules with regards to dream analysis.

Common dream symbolism

Water- associated with emotion.

Ocean or any large body of water - often represents the subconscious mind. The state of the sea often is an indication of the emotional state as well

Eating/digesting- Trying to understand an issue/situation

Walking- associated with learning and assimilating.

Path, road or pavement- symbolises life or spiritual Path/journey

House- symbolises our self. Within the house, the various rooms could represent the various aspects of self.

Snake- symbolises knowledge.

Tree and forest - subconscious feelings that governs our emotions

Bridge- a transitional phase or period of transformation / change

Below is an example of a dream and its interpretation.

Dream

Miss A was visiting a foreign country. She boarded a train that has a stop in a shopping complex that meanders through mountains and terrains. She remembered telling the train driver that she wanted to alight in the shopping centre so that she can find her way home.

Instead of alighting at the intended destination, she alighted at a strange place. She had difficulty getting to her destination. She contacted her partner (boyfriend). Though they communicated through the phone, she was still stuck and lost in that unfamiliar place. By this time, she was starting to get depressed. In the moment of depression, she woke up from the dream.

Symbolism involved

Foreign country- unknown knowledge, new experience Train- accelerated learning and understanding Through mountains and terrains- ups and downs Find the way home- spiritual path Train-in-charge - guiding aspect Her partner - male/ mental aspect Queen shopping center station - an intermediate stage that must be attained.

Interpretation

Miss A is currently experiencing and/or learning something that is still unknown to her. It is something that is rather difficult for her to grasp and apply. She is/will be experiencing some feelings of ups and downs. However, if understood, the newfound understanding and knowledge could significantly accelerate her self-growth and discovery. However, for the time being, it is something not within her experience yet (as symbolized by alighting at a strange place instead of the designated station). When she tried contacting her male partner (which symbolizes using her mental reasoning), she was still confused and thus became depressed.

Well, that's all for a quick lesson in dream interpretation. I hope it is informative and beneficial.

Happy Dreaming...

Perchance to Dream: Your Magical World of Dreams

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!

Perchance to Dream: Your Magical World of Dreams

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!

Dreams – Do They Have a Meaning?

There are too many recorded incidents to dismiss dreams as mere ‘vestiges of the day’ that get projected on the silver screen of the mind at night. For example, dreams have foretold impending deaths, saved people from certain fatalities, helped solve complicated problems, helped achieve some astonishing discoveries and inventions and have even turned the fortunes of many.

 

Our own experience also points to the fact that, at times, dreams do try to tell us something vital or important, but we are unable to comprehend them. The problem is that dreams don’t speak our lingo. They speak in symbols and require thorough knowledge of dream interpretation or a competent dream expert for interpretation.

 

In my years of experience in interpreting dreams, I have gained some immense insights into the meanings and workings of dreams. There are many, who claim that they don’t dream. We all do, only many of us don’t remember them on waking up.

 

Let us see some common dreams that most of us have dreamt at some point in our lives:

 

?          Exam dreams: Whether we are brilliant in studies or less than average performers, we cannot deny having had those frightful examination dreams. These run something like this: We are unable to reach the examination hall and the clock is ticking away; our pen just refuses to work; we just don’t seem to comprehend the question paper or recall the answers...the variations are endless. Fortunately, such dreams are not related to examinations at all. They suggest that we are being tested or scrutinised in some way in our waking lives. These may also be related to our self-esteem and confidence or the lack of it.

 

?          Chase dreams: Who has not broken into a cold sweat running scared from an assailant or a murderous mob in dreams? Howsoever fast we ran, the pursuer always seemed to catch up. At the exact moment of getting caught, we woke up with a start! Although these dreams can arise from an actual fear of being attacked, they often stem from our feelings of anxiety in waking life. These dreams indicate avoidance or running away from some unpalatable situation, rather than confronting it. These dreams are more common in women due to their physical vulnerability.

 

?          Naked dreams: Turning crimson with embarrassment on finding ourselves completely or partially naked in public in our dreams generally leaves us unsettled on waking up. Such dreams are often a reflection of our lack of confidence or self-esteem in real life. We may be hiding something and are afraid that others might discover it by seeing right through us. Nudity also symbolises our fear of getting caught or exposed in something that we have done. This dream can have variations, which can range from embarrassment to feeling proud about your nakedness in public. Each, of course, has different interpretation.

 

?          Falling dreams: Almost all of us have experienced getting scared out of our wits while plunging down from dizzying heights in our dreams. No amount of convincing can rid us of the fear that we will not actually die if we do not wake up before we hit the ground! Falling can be of two types – one when we wake up alarmed before we hit the ground, the other when we do a soft landing, slowing just before the point of impact. Both have different interpretations. Generally, falling is an indication of insecurity, instability and anxiety. Such dreams occur when we feel overwhelmed and out of control in some situation in our waking lives.

 

?          Dreams of losing teeth: Dreams of falling teeth are quite common. These may take the form of teeth crumbling in our hands or falling out one by one with just a light tap. Such dreams not only horrify and shock us, but often leave us with a lasting image. It was thought that such dreams represented malnutrition, which may have been true for some dreamers. Actually, such dreams reflect our anxiety about appearance and how others perceive us. Don’t we all fall for that dazzling smile! Teeth are used for biting and chewing and represent power. To dream of losing teeth indicates powerlessness in some current situation.

 

Alas, dreams are certainly not limited to these themes. Just anything can be encountered in the windows of our mind. We are sometimes left perplexed by the very nature of our dreams – Why did I see a snake in my dream? What was my long lost friend, whom I had forgotten, doing in my dream? What was that woman, whom I had met only once, getting excited about in my dream? How did I explain this mind-boggling problem so simply and accurately in my dream? The dream content is infinite.

 

All dream imagery is symbolic. Each dream symbol is person specific. In other words, what a symbol represents for one person can have an entirely different meaning for another. This is the reason why dream dictionaries generally prove useless. Of course, a common streak runs through all symbols, but they have to be interpreted in the context of the dream content.  

 

But, if you can relate the changes happening in your life to the kind of dreams you are dreaming, you can certainly take a step towards understanding the meaning. It will help you immensely by putting your mind at ease.  

 

So, don’t let your dreams go waste, you never know what you will unravel. Great opportunities and fortunes await those who are able to interpret their dreams.