Dream Clues

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Three know-hows for dream interpretation

What if I don't remember my dreams?

I often hear this question in my master classes. “I don't remember my dreams. What if I don't have them at all? As soon as I wake up, dreams disappear at once"

Answer:

Everyone sees dreams. In some cultures, there are beliefs that everything is dreaming: animals, trees, rivers, mountains, and the earth itself. If you do not remember dreams, this is a fairly common occurrence. Sometimes this happens because people are so immersed in the "earthly" reality that their consciousness simply displaces dreams and dreams; sometimes due to the fact that we live from day to day in such a tight schedule that there is simply no room left to be distracted by dreams, sometimes for other reasons that I do not know.

Offer

Before falling asleep, mentally or aloud ask for space, or any spiritual helpers who are significant to you: "Help me remember my dreams today." This will help create a friendly atmosphere, it will become, in a way, an invitation for dreams and the dreaming world. After that, give yourself more time to wake up, slow down, stay open to dreaming a little longer - dreams will feel an invitation and reward you with an image, a feeling, a scent, or a memory.

Even if you only remember a small piece, write it down. Dreams are holographic. This means that each piece of sleep is connected to the whole. He can become that thread, pulling on which, it is possible to unfold the dream, in all the fullness of its images and meanings.

You can also dream a little throughout the day: use your imagination, play, keep in touch with bodily sensations and feelings. This will allow a little weakening of the dictatorship of consensus / "normal" reality and a little closer to the world of dreams.

Finally, try telling a fictional story about yourself. It's funny and often contains information that is also present in your dreams.

What do dreams tell you? How to understand their meaning? Process therapist and Jungian analyst David Bedrick, over the years working on this topic, has identified three pillars that can help convey the secret wisdom of dream messages to their addressees.

1. Remember: the language of dreams is made up of symbols

To understand dreams is to understand symbols. If your mother, your father, your spouse, or your best friend appears to you in a dream, you should not confuse these figures with real people. Even if you are dreaming about Jesus, Buddha or your spiritual teacher, you should not assume that this is them, in person. Instead, think of them to the ray as qualities or ways of being that are aspects of yourself, aspects that you are not aware of. Also, if in a dream you see a monster, a bandit or an offender, it is not at all necessary to consider this as an indicator of future or present events in real life.

How to interpret the symbolism of such dreams? Suppose you dreamed that your partner was cheating on you. This may mean that some part of your being is not interested in your usual lifestyle, social circle, or value system. This part of you wants "you" (your usual, everyday "I") to leave and explore a different way of being.

Or, for example, in a dream you are chased by a monster. This may mean that you are afraid of a part of yourself and are trying to escape from it. For example, some are intimidated by their own vulnerability because they have been hurt in the past. For such people, their own vulnerability can take frightening forms in dreams, from which, of course, you want to flee.

Now let's imagine that you are dreaming of a vomiting person. It is not at all necessary to consider this dream as a harbinger of your own illness, or of someone close to you (maybe so, or maybe not). However, it may mean that you should have pulled something out of yourself, stop holding it inside, decide to tell the truth, which may be unpleasant, or stop "swallowing" what you do not want to accept.

However, this does not mean at all that some of the dreams cannot reflect physiological processes, or be prophetic. Some of their dreams can really tell you about a friend's illness, carry some kind of warning, etc. I am only trying to emphasize the symbolic properties of dreams, since our tendency to literal interpretations can prevent us from accessing the psychological wisdom hidden in dreams.

2. Remember: you are not you

Just like the people who inhabit your dreams are not literally yourself, you also may not be yourself. Nevertheless, most of the narrators of their dreams perceive and experience their dreams as if the symbolic figures from whose face the dream occurs are really them. For example, I say: “In my dream, 'I' was driving along a one-way street in the opposite direction. All the rest were driving correctly. " I may become worried, thinking that "I" is indeed moving in the wrong direction in life and that I need to correct my course. Nevertheless, such dreams are most often seen by those who are more inclined to follow the course set for them by others, instead of going their own way, in their own rhythm, or paving their own way. I tell the dream from "my" point of view, like someone who feels that he is moving in the wrong direction.

The polarity to this position is a brave and independent person who is able to go against the general flow. Or, if I had a nightmare that a dark cloud descended on me, "I" believe that this is happening to me. If, while awake, I feel like a dark cloud has enveloped me, this may mean that I am sad and depressed. But, in fact, this dark cloud is also me, a certain part of me that has descended on another part of me. Then, while “I” feel a victim of a dark cloud, a dark cloud may think that now I need refuge from the bustle of the outside world, that I need to turn inward, hide from the light into the world of feelings and dreams (which is symbolic meaning of going into a dark cloud). Or, suppose someone criticizes "me" in a dream. I am not only someone who is criticized and offended, but also a critic. It may be that I myself should not judge others so harshly, or myself, or it may be that the dream advises me to show more conscious criticism of the ideas and people I accept.

The Spanish poet Antonio Machado wrote “I am not me. I am the one who walks next to me, invisible to me. This can be helpful advice when working with dreams.

3. Remember: dreams solve problems in an unusual way

Do dreams help solve our life problems? The shortest answer is yes, but they don't always give a linear solution. For example, suppose you have a relationship problem that you are working on while struggling to listen and understand. At the same time, your dreams recommend that you stop listening, instead start talking, insisting, even screaming. Or, for example, in your life you are struggling with fatigue and loss of energy. You can try different foods, exercise, and sleep patterns to get more energized throughout the day. And at the same time, dreams are advised to let go, quit and not spend so much energy on something that is actually not so important to you. Or, let's say you lack self-esteem and everyone around you says that you should more assert yourself and show yourself as you are. Dreams tell you that you should start playing a musical instrument, finish your scientific work, or spend more time in nature.

Sometimes dreams, nevertheless, provide a direct, linear answer to our difficulties, but more often they offer a new vision of our problem - a vision that opens the door to options for solutions that you could not even think of.

Einstein said that it is impossible to solve the problem at the level at which it was created. Dreams follow this wisdom, commenting not just on the content of our problems, but also on our way of perceiving those problems. Above all, they shift our vantage point into the world of myths and symbols, thereby broadening the context within which we assess our problems and seek ways to overcome them. This can be especially useful for those tasks that turn out to be especially stable against all our good intentions and efforts to solve them. Often, our problems are an expression of ourselves, and it is not our circumstances that need to change, but ourselves.