“Last night, I had the strangest dream!” How many conversations in your life have started that way? People are fascinated with the movies that play in their head while they’re sleeping. Some believe that dreams can predict the future. Others say that dreams depict real life. Still others believe that dreams are a manifestation of what we want to be. Interpreting dreams has evolved over the years to what some consider an art form.
Consider some of these other facts about dreams and dreaming:
The dream world is fascinating, full of speculation, hope, and sometimes even fear. We can wake up from a good dream feeling refreshed and hopeful. On the other hand, we can wake up from a bad dream feeling tense and apprehensive.
Ever since Freud's Interpretation of Dreams was published, there has been recognition of the importance of dreams. But even before that there were dream interpretations. People had superstitious notions about dreams - for example, "Something is going to happen because I dreamed it was going to happen."
This is a common misconception. Regardless of what some people might say, if you dream you are falling and don’t wake up before you hit the ground in your dream, you will not die. If you dream that someone close to you dies, that’s not an omen to warn you of their death. Dreams do not predict the future.
What dreams can do is provide a sense of insight into ourselves. They can help us cope with situations we’re unsure about. They can guide us in a certain direction when faced with uncertainty. They can simply give us an overall good feeling as we dream of something pleasant.
The dream state is an experimental playground which gives you a chance to explore and express emotions without the usual inhibitions you may display in your waking life. Dreams provide an avenue of expression for that part of yourself that knows both your history and your potential as a spiritual being.
They are another way the universe provides guidance about relationships, careers, and health problems. Through dreams you may find answers to your spiritual questions and even receive encouragement to some challenge in your life. While some dreams may allow you to release bottled emotions from your day's activities, others can lead to profound insights in a psychological or spiritual way.
Acquiring the ability to interpret your dreams is a powerful tool. In analyzing your dreams, you can learn about your deep secrets and hidden feelings. No one is a better expert at interpreting your dreams than yourself.
In this book, we’ll look at dreams and dreaming as a science as well as the various meanings that dream content can have. This is not meant to be a definitive guide to dreams. It is simply a starting point for you to look at what “movies” your sub-conscious is creating at night and how you can apply it to your life and effect change if needed.
Remember that a dream unifies the body, mind, and spirit. It provides you with insight into yourself and a means for self-exploration. In understanding your dreams, you will have a better understanding and discovery of your true self. So stay a while -- explore, discover, have fun, and find out what's in your dreams!
That may seem like a silly question, but think about early man. Have people always dreamt even when the world around them was quite simple and mundane? The answer is yes. What did man do with these odd images that appeared during their sleep? Well, they did what we do today – tried to interpret them!
Dream interpretations date back to 3000 -4000 B.C. where they were documented on clay tablets. For as long as we have been able to communicate our dreams, we have been fascinated with them and strive to understand them.
People in primal societies were unable to distinguish between the dream world and reality. They not only saw the dream world as an extension of reality, but that the dream realm was a more powerful world.
Back in the Greek and Roman era, dreams were often seen in a religious context and messages from the gods. Temples were built around the power of dreams. It was believed that sick people who slept in these temples would be sent cures through their dreams.
In Egypt, priests also acted as dream interpreters. The Egyptians recorded their dreams in hieroglyphics. People with particular vivid and significant dreams were believed to be blessed and were considered special. People who had the power to interpret dreams were looked up to and seen as divinely gifted. In the Bible, there are over seven hundred mentions of dreams.
Tracing back to these ancient cultures, people had always had an inclination to interpret dreams. Dreams were also seen as prophetic and an omen from outside spirits. People often looked to their dreams for signs of warning and advice from a deity, from the dead or even the works of a demon. Sometimes they look to their dreams for what to do or what course of action to take.
Dreams often dictated the actions of political and military leaders. In fact, in the Green and Roman era, dream interpreters even accompanied military leaders into battle to help. Some interpreters aided the medicine men in a diagnosis. Dreams offered a vital clue for healers in finding what was wrong with the dreamer.
Dreaming can be seen as an actual place that your spirit and soul leaves every night to go and visit. The Chinese believed that the soul leaves the body to go into this world. However, if they should be suddenly awakened, their soul may fail to return to the body. For this reason, some Chinese today, are wary of alarm clocks.
Some Native American tribes and Mexican civilizations share this same notion of a distinct dream dimension. They believed that their ancestors lived in their dreams and take on non-human forms like plants. They see that dreams as a way of visiting and having contact with their ancestors. Dreams also helped to point their mission or role in life.
During the middle ages, dreams were seen as evil and its images were temptations from the devil. In the vulnerable sleep state, the devil was believed to fill the mind of humans with poisonous thoughts. He did his dirty work though dreams attempting to mislead humans down a wrong path.
The potential for an immense array of experiences in consciousness is always there. What we actually receive depends upon our attitudes, motivations, the measure of our attunement, and the extent to which we have made applicable what was received in earlier dreams and in waking experiences.
The dream world is a strange yet fascinating place! There are several different kinds of dreams. Let’s look at those in our next section.
Daydreams
Studies show that we all have the tendency to daydream an average of 70-120 minutes a day. Day dreaming is classified as a level of consciousness between sleep and wakefulness. It occurs during our waking hours when we let our imagination carry us away. As our minds begin to wander and our level of awareness decreases, we lose ourselves in our imagined scenario and fantasy.
Lucid Dreams