Reading Into Your Dreams...What Does It All Mean?

Dreams are a reflection of what is really going on with us while we're walking around going about our lives. Dreams show us things that are deeply unconscious, things that we probably aren't thinking about all day long while we're at work, at home, spending time with our family, or planning our next vacation.

Our dream life can act as a system of checks and balances for what is going on with us. Dreams can be a useful insight into our deepest desires, fears and more. We can even teach ourselves, with a little practice, how to actively participate in our dreams and control our dreaming process. This can deepen our sense of awareness and understanding both when we're dreaming and awake.

Why should we care? They're just dreams. Here are three pretty good reasons.

1. We get to look deeper into our own personal psychology, what makes us tick.
2. Uncover the root of fears that might be holding us back from achieving our goals or living a happy, full life.
3. Save money on psychics by unlocking all the answers about our past, present, and future just by paying some attention to our unconscious. This brings things into consciousness...and that's just the beginning of the good stuff!

So lets get started. The exciting news is you get to practice dreaming every night! Things you'll need:

1. A pen and notebook by your bed. (Write down your dream as soon as you wake up. Jot down what happened and how you felt about it. Don't worry about it making sense, just get it on the paper.)
2. PJ's and your bed. (For sleeping comfortably!)
3. An introspective book. (For pre-sleep inspiration)

My favorites bedside reads are:

Dream Dictionary, by Tony Crisp

Breakdown: Look up any topic and it will give you insight into interpretations, from a sampling of 3,000 dreams combined with common dream images.

Favorite Take-Aways: So many interpretations of the airplane dream. Attacking aircraft: feeling attacked by doubts, self-criticism, or outside critics. Being grounded: sense of not getting anywhere. Difficulty landing: difficulty achieving a goal. Plane falling rapidly: "pit" feeling that one gets when feeling anxiety about the outcome of a situation. Dreaming of famous people: Desire to be noticed and acclaimed for your potential. Man, maybe that's why everyone is addicted to tabloids and celebrity culture.

Journey to Ixtlan, by Carlos Castaneda

Breakdown: Become a fly on the wall and a front row participant simultaneously for the teachings of Don Juan, told through the personal experience of Castaneda. The key concept is seeing, Don Juan's version of the living, growing, mystical experience of life, where there is true perception of reality and of oneself. This is a perspective-changer book.

Favorite take-away: Don Juan's instruction to practice seeing your hands while you sleep. This technique of Don Juan's teaches lucid dreaming. It seems un-attainable until you try it a few times!

Intuition - Knowing without Logic, by Osho

Break Down: Osho teaches how to understand and use our instincts for individual growth and development. It deals with the difference between the intellect and realm of the spirit.

Favorite Take-Away:

"When the body functions spontaneously,
That is called instinct.
When the soul functions spontaneously,
That is called intuition.
They are alike and yet
Far away from each other.
Instinct is of the body--the gross;
And intuition of is of the soul--the subtle.
And between the two is the mind, the expert,
Which never functions spontaneously.
Mind means knowledge.
Knowledge can never be spontaneous.
Instinct is deeper than intellect and
Intuition is higher than intellect.
Both are beyond the intellect, and both are good." - Osho

These are all just tools, ideas, and suggestions for dream interpretation and lucid dreaming (that's the finding your hand one).

All the good teachers say to go with how you feel about your dream and start from there. Use your intuition to guide you. Let other information, like the dream dictionary or other popular interpretation methods, or even what your friends have to say, inform you second. Take ownership of your unconsciousness. No one else will completely understand or be able to experience your exact dream.

Ok, time to share. I had a dream last night that I was strapped into the front of a roller coaster that was free flying. It had no structure attaching it to the ground. I was flying fast through a large open field surrounded by sky, lakes, and mountains. At one point the roller coaster was diving me into a sharp rock on the water. I realized I was dreaming and pulled myself out of the potential crash and continued soaring through the sky and over the fields.

My Interpretation: I'm at a big transition phase in my life right now that is really exciting, invigorating, and also scary. I feel free and inspired for the most part but I also feel like trouble and danger creeps up on me fast (the big scary rock that was going to crush me). Luckily I can do something about it (soar back into my vast field!).

Your Turn! Let me know!

Comments

[rahulioizm]

I have all those books. I'm like one of those old ladies with a crystal ball.

[Jonahson]

Old Chinese proverb:- "He who sleep alot dreams a lot."

[ThePharoahsApprentice]

I'll have to pick up that Casteneda book, one of my favorite D.Juan quote...

"The basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is
that a warrior takes everything as a challenge, while an ordinary
man takes everything as a blessing or as a curse."

[ThePharoahsApprentice]

I've found that blanket interpetations of dreams don't work for diferent individuals. Having been given the nick name "Daniel", for my ability to interpret dreams, I've been told I have a gift to interpret dreams. My friends and family come to me for dream interpretations. I know that every time you touch a person you create/ strengthen an etheric connection between yourself and that person. It's this connection that I retreat to in order to interpret dreams. The best interpretations happen when I'm face to face w/ the individual - hence my problems w/ dream books, although everyone's got to make a living.

Most dreams are simply the last 24 - 72 hours of your emotional self, condensed into a movie. All of your hopes, desires, fears, anger, anxiety displayed before you in a short "metaphoric" way. There's distinct difference between a dream and a visitation.

I enjoyed your post, it informed me and reminds me of things I didn't know and/or forget to do. To add on to some of the things already said, two things that bring me more vivid dreams as well as greater control in my dreams are fasting, meditation and Tai Chi (Ann Hill mentioned Yoga and Tai Chi gets one "section", the I Chin Ching, of it's teaching from yoga). These three things help promote energy flow, relation, health, tone and perhaps most important, proper breathing.

Great post, thanks.

[Tara Stiles - Huffpost Blogger]

hey Daniel,

thanks for your thoughts. very cool. i agree yoga, tai chi, meditation, all awareness increasing practices enhance dreams and remembering dreams. most of my other posts and focus in my work is on the practice of yoga so i left it out a bit in this one...but right on!

have a great day and thanks.

tara

[ftem55]

I enjoy reviewing and finding the message within my dreams. I have received messages suggesting changes my behaviors and way of being. Just last night, I was reminded to loosen up, express myself freely and take responsibility for my actions. Stop being so uptight, stiff, worried about what others think, trying to please and then beating myself up for whatever I do because it is not quite right. I realized that by being free to express myself however I choose, while taking personal responsibility would really free me up, so you make mistakes, so what. This message came from a scenario in my dream where I was walking through a hospital that had a European section; the people were so uninhibited and relaxed with themselves. I said I would stop being so uptight to a man as I was leaving, there seemed to be cheers and camaraderie. My Guru taught me that dreams are in the language of the soul. Dreams have to do with what is going on in our life now; it's a heads up to what we may face soon. She also teaches to write dreams in a journal everyday first thing when you wake, even if it's just a feeling or a few words. I have practiced this for years and have found that the message usually comes after writing down the dream, because the words help to crystallize the symbolic pictures making it easier to understand.

[MrHobag]

Thanks for another wonderful article. I've been enjoying reading them all. This one reminded me of something I've been meaning to do for years. I've also started yoga recently, is there anything I can take from my yoga practice to my dream practice?
Thanks!!

[Anne Hill - Huffpost Blogger]

Having a strong yoga practice makes it easier to work with dream images using what I call emotional dream yoga. If there is a troubling figure in my dream, or a striking image that I have no idea how to relate to, the first thing I do is get grounded and take a few relaxing breaths.

I hold an image of that figure in my mind, and slowly allow my consciousness to merge with it, kind of like sinking into an asana. If the figure is in a particular position, I put myself in that position. If a particular emotion predominates, I take on that emotion.

I stay there filling out the "posture" for as long as I can, still breathing deeply, and ask myself these questions: "When do I feel this way in waking life? Does holding this energy in my body remind me of anyone else? Does this position take me back to another period of my life?"

A lot of dream interpretation techniques focus on thinking about the dream. But I get a lot of insights from taking this somatic approach as well. The body awareness that yoga helps cultivate is a great benefit to understanding dreams.

[Jonahson]

7 Common Dreams And What They Mean
Dreams are your likes and dislikes emotional inputs. When you react emotionally to externally phenomenon like when a child gets frightened we have actually created consciousness which is stored in our memory. When we stop thinking these stored consciousness will flow out. This can also happen when we cease our thinking during meditation. During dreams we are always the main actor.
posted Aug 20, 2008 at 20:32:20

[Checquoline]

I always heard that if you dream you are falling and hit the ground instead of waking up first, you will die in your sleep. I dreamed I was falling from a high cliff. I knew I was going to hit the ground. When I did, it was soft dust like feathers and I bounced a little. Then I was overwhelmed with the joy of being alive.

[tcagle]

My first wife was trying to quit smoking, and went on the patch. She woke up and said she dreamed she was a cigarette. Turns out she had put the patch on her forehead.

[Tara Stiles - Huffpost Blogger]

ha! I love that! no need to read into that one for deep-psycho-spiritual analysis! She had cigarettes on the brain, literally! Did the patch help her quit? I hope so! Have a great week. T

[tcagle]

She still smokes, but it may have helped her quit me! Thanks, Tara.

[PetePixxx]

Tara has such a wonderful way of bringing back the issues of a baby boomers youth. She is as much of a Woodstock generation as those of us who actually lived then. It's wonderful to review the thoughts of Castaneda several decades later and see that youth is still trying to figure it all out, and using the same book!