Dreams and Their Meanings

Dreams are the most common way that spirit will try to reach us, because while asleep our minds are relaxed and our conscious mind is asleep, thus allowing the subconscious part of ourselves to be more active. The correct term given to dream interpretation is oneiromancy.

Many people claim they have never dreamt in their lives. Everyone does actually dream and I mean everyone and we dream between 2-5 times a night, depending on how long we sleep for, it's just that we don't always remember them. Dreams often occur during REM (rapid eye movement) which is when our dreams are most active and is said to occur every 90 minutes, so if we slept for 8 hours then REM sleep would occur around 5 times, so you would probably dream 5 times during those cycles, although would only remember one dream or parts of several dreams, which would explain why our dreams can be confusing at times. It's simply a case of some people being able to recall their dreams with ease, while others find it more difficult. However, with practice you will soon be able to clearly recall your own dreams whether or not you're naturally good at it.

If we didn't dream then we would have serious psychological problems, dreams are really in a way our in built counselling system to help solve problems and release anger in a safe way, of course there are dreams where spirit can come in too, as we are so relaxed spirit find it easier to influence our dreams this is why it's most common that messages are passed on during sleep.

Try to slow down just before bedtime and start getting your mind and body into a "conscious dreaming" state, don't simply switch off the TV and crash out. Keep a notebook by the side of your bed. Occasionally you will wake in the middle of the night with a dream still vivid in your mind. More usually, you will slowly wake in the morning with fragments of a dream still in your memory. Gently pull these fragments together in an effort to recapture the whole dream. As soon as you feel your logical every day mind take over, write down quickly what you can remember. It may be only a single image, a scene that was part of a longer story or a symbol of some kind. Whatever it is, try to put it down in words or, if it's easier, draw a quick sketch of what your minds eye can still see.

Note: Heavy eating or drinking before bed can affect dreams.

Try this exercise if you have trouble remembering your dreams. When you're in bed make your self comfortable and close your eyes. Start by focusing you attention on your breathing, notice the rise and fall of each breath, spend a couple of minutes doing this.

Next, in your mind start counting backwards from 99, do this as you breathe in and as you breathe out say to yourself " I will remember my dreams" So on every in breath, count backwards from 99, and every out breath say " I will remember my dreams"

In breath = 99
Out breath = "I will remember my dreams"
In breath = 98
Out breath = "I will remember my dreams"
And so on….

This is a powerful exercise and if you do it regularly, you will find your dreams will become more vivid and easier to remember. You may find while doing this exercise that images will pop into your mind, note theses images too, and any other sensations you experience.

All dreams can be broadly divided into various categories, starting with the easiest and working up to the most subtle and rare of all.

Subconscious Dreams are the most common of all. They may be nightmares from which we wake in a cold sweat, or vaguely troubling stories often based on day to day life in which things always go wrong for us. These dreams are an expression of worry about issues in everyday life and are there to help us deal with these issues in a safe way.

Reoccurring Dreams often signify problems in real life that won't go away or are not dealt with. If you have a reoccurring dream on a regular basis this could suggest that the problem/s in question still have to be dealt with. In most case once the problem in waking life has been dealt with the reoccurring dreams will stop. All aspects of the dream need to be looked at in order to understand the problem, although in a lot of case the problem is often very apparent to the dreamer.

Problem Solving Dreams show us how to sort out a problem in our everyday lives. When people say "I'll sleep on it" they are paying tribute to the power of the unconscious mind to tell us what is the right course of action. This applies particularly when there's a clear cut decision to be made. We may wake up knowing what to do and if we examine our dreams for that night, it will reveal to us how the problem should be solved.

Warning Dreams are less common. They should not be interpreted as exact premonitions of future events but rather as suggestions from your unconscious mind about people or plans in your life. A typical one will involve a new love about whom you're not sure, a dream could warn you against seeing more of him or her. Other warning dreams could concern for example a car crash. This doesn't necessarily mean that you will have a driving accident, but it could be warning that you should concentrate more on your driving.

Encouraging Dreams are the opposite of warning dreams. They seem to give the go ahead to a plan of action, a new project or a developing friendship. Sometimes these can come right out of the blue. In the midst of a difficult and tense period in your life, along comes a truly inspiring dream. This means that the future is much brighter than you can see from your present, everyday existence. You must learn to distinguish between genuine dreams of encouragement and mere flights of fancy. We all indulge in wishful dreams, whether waking or sleeping. If you feel that you are, in some measure, controlling a happy dream, shaping the scenes and narrative in your favour, you are having a daydream from your unconscious.

Creative Dreams occur to artists, designers, writers, poets and engineers and ordinary people like you and me. If you are an artist or musician, you can receive wonderful inspiration from dreams. I often dream of music and lyrics.

Time Dreams are those dreams which genuinely take you forward or backward in time. Forward looking dreams can be premonitions but more often than not, they will have a morbid streak. They usually seem to predict disasters rather than happy events, but remember these dreams are more likely to contain an element of truth rather than be totally accurate in every detail. Dreams that go backward in time may well reveal aspects of yourself in a previous life on earth.

Lucid Dreams these are my favourite types, this is where you are dreaming, but you are aware of it and because you are aware you can control the dream. These types of dream are good for astral projection and spirit communication because once you are aware that you're dreaming you can try to get out of your body and also ask for spirit to come close, another thing that can happen in lucid dream state is seeing your physical self, because we are aware that we are dreaming we can sometimes become aware of our physical selves, seeing your physical self should not to be confused with being out of body, not unless you have other sensations with it as mentioned on the astral projection page

The first lucid dream I remember having was quite basic in nature and it involved me being chased by a monster, this went on for quite a while and I couldn't escape and was getting pretty fed up with it, then all of a sudden I thought "hang on this is only a dream and nothing can harm me" so with this in mind I stopped running and walked towards the monster and the closer I got to the monster it started to change, It turned in to a butterfly and flew off. The meaning of the dream itself was suggesting that I was trying to avoid a situation in real life instead of facing up to it.

Don't try to analyse your single dream straight away. Let a week go by, and then begin to see whether a pattern is emerging. Are there similarities in your dreams? Do they embody a similar mood? Do the same symbols keep cropping up? If you keep up this sort of analyses your notebook will gradually turn into a fascinating dream diary. You can use the left hand page in each case for your day to day record of dreams and once you've given it a little thought you can then use the right hand side to write down your analysis of what they mean.

Everyone is an individual so in the end you must trust your own experiences. Remember to arrange your dream dictionary in alphabetical order for ease of reference and leave room to amend or alter definitions as time goes by. I would recommend that you get yourself a good dream dictionary, always stick to the same book as your subconscious mind will become familiar with the meanings and after a while your dreams will be more accurate to interpret. To get the best interpretation all aspects of the dream should be considered. Pay special attention if you get recurring dreams of a particular animal, as this could be your guide trying to contact you.

I think also too that intuition does play a part in dream interpretation, when I interpret dreams I look for the main "signs" if you like, then look at what each part is doing, where it's located, colours, who's doing it etc take this example (used with permission from one of our members)

"last night was very interesting indeed. I remember bits & pieces, Either I or someone who was with me was pregnant. I am certain of that. After that all I can remember is watching this radar screen showing an extremely terrible storm coming.

The radar showed this circular storm that was above my house, the next thing I knew this huge bolt of lightening hit the house. I was terrified!!!, It seemed as if the house caved in on me but I wasn't hurt! then before I could even think of doing anything another bolt hit & then I woke up"

Notice that I've highlighted key words, pregnant which could suggest a new beginning a new life. You have circular and could also suggest new beginnings as the circle of life or a complete circle has been reached in ones life and a new cycle is about to start. Then you have house which represents us as a whole, although no specific room was specified so would suggest all areas of our life. Then of course you have the lightening and bolt, which could suggest these changes coming out of the blue and very quick happening without giving us time to think. Then there's storm which again would suggest sudden changes and things building up to these changes.

Very often once you start to interpret it your intuition will start to kick in and often pick up extra little bits and pieces that may not even be in the dream.