Exlporing Your Dreams
Get into the habit of writing down your dreams straight away. That means having pen and paper-preferably an notebook-at your bedside and the determination to wake up and sit up after a dream and immediately write it down. It is a good idea to put the day and date at the top of the page before going to sleep. This is an outward expression of your serious intention to take note of your dream; and it also means that, on waking, you can get straight down to the business of writing out you dream.Record your dreams in as much detail as possible. Anything in a dream may be important when it comes to interpretation. What in the dream itself seems to be quite trivial or merely incidental to the main action may, in fact, turn out to be the key that unlocks the meaning of the whole dream.
LOOK AT SEVERAL DREAMS TOGETHER:
Don't think you have to work out the meaning of every dream straight away. Of course, there is no harm in jotting down what strikes there and then as its obvious meaning. However, before finally making up your mind about the meaning of any single dream, it is best to make a record of several dreams and look at them together, to see if there is a common pattern. There may be a recurring image, or different images saying the same thing
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF DREAMS:
A dream not only appears within the context of an ever-continuing series of dreams; it also occurs within the context of your life as a whole-your family life,work,love/hate life. Your dreams reflect your deepest emotional responses to your waking-life experiences. It follows, therefore, that a correct interpretation of your dreams will only be possible if they are viewed in the context of your outward life.This obviously includes what is happening to you now, the situation you are in, problems, ambitions, fears and so on. It may also include, the whole or any part of your past life. Your most deeply seated attitudes, hatreds, prejudices, habits, fears, guilt feelings and pains of all kinds may stem from experiences in your early life.
SEQUENCE IN DREAMS:
Often the part of a dream that is remembered first and therefore recorded first is the last part of the dream. In fact, the tendency is to remember and write down all the sections of a dream in reverse order. This should be borne in mind when getting down to the business of interpreting your dreams: sometimes, for instance, the last part of a dream gives a solution to a problem posed in the first part of the dream.
SIMPLE MEANINGS:
What has been said about the deep meaning of dreams needs to be balanced against other considerations. Not all dreams have profound psychological significance. some are mere repetitions of the day's events. Nearly all the dreams that young children tell us about are of this kind. Some dreams may have straightforward physical explanations. A full bladder may cause you to have a frighteningly embarrassing dream about wetting your pants.So do not assume that every dream has a deep meaning. Not every dream will contain a life-transforming revelation-but any dream might!
THE UNCONSCIOUS:
The interpretation of dreams is the royal road to a knowledge of the unconscious activities of the mind. There can be no reasonable doubt that there is and unconscious dimension in the human psyche or mind or personality. We frequently find ourselves doing things that we did not consciously intend and that may even contradict our conscious intentions. The reasons for these actions may not be immediately apparent, but everything has a cause. If, therefore, the causes of these actions-their motives-are not conscious, they can only be unconscious.The phenomenon of post-hypnotic suggestion gives supporting evidence for the existence of unconscious mental processes. We have all seen or heard of cases where people have been hypnotized and then told by the hypnotist that on waking they will perform a certain action. On waking the people have done exactly what they were instructed to do,but when asked why they did it, they couldn't answer.
Types of Dreams
- INSIGHT DREAMS and REVIEW DREAMS review what is going on in our lives and may hint on how to fix or improve circumstances. Review dreams tell us what our subconscious mind thinks of how we are living our lives, while insight dreams occur when a person is down or in doubt of themselves.
- LUCID DREAMING is when the dreamer notices something in the dream that is impossible or unbelievable. It causes the person to become aware that they are in a dream rather than physically experiencing it.
- HYPNOGOGIC IMAGES aren't really dreams, they are more like a vision you see right before sleep. Most people do not realize it happens.
- RECURRING DREAMS usually signify importance. Usually our subconscious mind is telling us that it is sending an important message. Often times minor details are different, but important for interpretation. Although you have a recurring dream, your subconscious isn't always sending the same message, the meaning depends on what is going on in your life at the current time.
- ESP DREAMS usually predict future incidents. Precognition is when a person dreams about an event before it happens. Psychometry is a dream that teaches the dreamer about a person or thing that is unknown. Synchronous is when someone has a dream that another familiar person has at the same time.
- SYMBOLIC DREAMS usually have a message and are trying to tell you something you don't already know. You usually dream in symbols, so the disturbing message won't wake you up. Symbols are different to everyone, they aren't universal.
- DAYTIME DREAMS/ DAYDREAMS aren't really dreams because the dreamer is usually in control of the story played out in the dream.
- ORACULAR DREAMS are religious dreams where the dreamer feels they have experienced a divine revelation or a message from a religious being.
- FANTASY DREAMS are dreams in which an undisguised wish is fulfilled.
- NIGHTMARES are a form of dream where there is a constant feeling of dread and fear, usually the result of a guilty conscience. They may be like a form of self-punishment.
- PUNNING DREAMS involve symbolism where the symbol is some sort of pun on the real object (verbal, reversal, visual, pun on proper name, etc.).
~ from various sources - authors unknown
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