What Did That Dream Mean?

I had a strange dream the other night:

My deceased husband invited me to a party in the deep forest….he sent me a message to drive on the train tracks to find it…..just as I was about to enter a clearing where the party was, I saw a big train stopped on the track facing me…..it had an engine with a big smiling face…..like the Thomas trains kids play with…..it mocked me and “said” let’s see who gives up first…..so I sat on that track in a new white convertible patiently waiting to get to that party…..while I picked names for that new car!

You’ve all had those crazy dreams; the kind that leaves us asking, “What was THAT about?” And when you try to tell others about them, their eyes glaze over because the dream only makes sense to you; and only if you take the time to interpret it.

Here are some curious dream facts:

• Blind people dream. I have a friend who has been blind since birth and he has confirmed that.
• Everybody dreams. BUT we forget 90% of our dreams so many people think they don’t dream.
• Dreams prevent psychosis. Some of us should dream more often.
• Not everyone dreams in color; some dream in black and white.
• Dogs dream. I have seen and heard my own sweet dogs dreaming and running in their sleep.

I have always been fascinated with facts like these. But I have been most intrigued by dream interpretation. As a child, I paid close attention when my mother and her sisters took a stab at interpreting dreams using superstition. For example, if you dreamed of a death, they said it was a sign of a birth; if you dreamed of a birth, it was a sign of a death. And they believed dreaming of a marriage, was the sign of death to come (how true).

As I learned about life, I knew I couldn’t depend on superstition to interpret dreams. So, when I was in college, I took a remarkable class called, “The Everyday Use of Dream Interpretation”. We were instructed to keep a dream journal next to our beds and train ourselves to wake up as soon as we were aware of a dream, then jot down everything we could remember. Those that reported never dreaming started to have more awareness of their dreams.

Next, we studied a variety of dream interpretation methods, theories, and dream types.

• Dream dictionary interpretations are put together based on social research intermingled with superstition and tweaked by psychologists to develop the dream meaning. One dream dictionary I like (DreamDictionary.org) explains why we dream about falling. “When we fall in our dreams it really means we have lost control with some sort of situation in our life. Falling in is a way our unconscious communicates with our conscious to let us know that something needs to be fixed right away.” I have had those dreams, have you?

• Psychologists use dream interpretation to treat patients. Freud wrote a fascinating book called “The Interpretation of Dreams”. He believed the motivation of all dreams is wishing something were true so we dream it. He also wrote about the cause of a dream being in the events of the days preceding the dream which is still used in today’s dream interpretation.

• The most interesting dream types are dreams of sensation where we actually feel things happening to our body like being shot, burned, or even picked up out of the bed. When I was recently at my Florida house trying to decide to sell it or not, I had one of those dreams. I had the very real feeling that someone (or thing) had plopped down heavily on the bed. It felt so real that I woke up startled saying, “who is that?” I joked with my friend that it must have been my deceased husband telling me it was OK to sell the house. The point is, when we have sensation dreams, they feel very real at the time.

• This will be the favorite dream type for our readers: sex dreams. There are different versions of these dreams and each has different meanings. For example, if you are not homosexual, but dream of having sex with someone of the same sex, it’s about your self-esteem. Dream interpreters believe sex dreams are rarely about actual sex. Instead, they believe sex dreams are about the coming together of conflicting parts of you. Take it from me; dreams like this can be very real and startling.

The interpretation of the dream (not the dream) can give us insight into things that have happened, they can be healing, or they can connect you to thoughts and feelings you are ignoring while awake.

And, you can take these steps to interpret dreams:

1. Learn how to recall your dreams; keep a pad at the bedside. If you don’t remember them, you might be missing an opportunity to learn something about your life.

2. Decide if the dream is worth interpreting. Some dreams are just pure entertainment provided by our brains. But if the dream was attached to a strong emotion or it leaves you really puzzled, it’s probably worth interpreting.

3. Ask what the dream is about on the most obvious level. Dreams are confusing and they can’t be interpreted until you remember the symbols and metaphors in them. In my opening dream, I had to first recall the symbols: the train, party in the woods and the new car being named; I had to “replay” the dream, write that down, THEN ask myself what recent real world situation resembled that. In other words, why did I dream about those symbols or that metaphor?

4. Lastly, ask yourself what feelings and emotions did the dream bring out? Did the dream make you feel scared, happy, sad, concerned, healed, etc.? That’s important to answer in order to connect with what, in our most recent past, had given us those same feelings? Will thinking through that bring you to insight and possible action?

Dreams are just another part of our reality with which we can use to interact with life. They are an important part of who we are and interpretation of them can only be done by the dreamer. My next post on dreams will be about recurring dreams. In the meantime, get your dream pads at the bedside and tell us what your experience with dream interpretation has been.

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