Caveats Concerning Dream Interpretation

Here are some caveats concerning the interpretation of your dreams. 

I have mentioned several times that dreams are usually not literal, with some exceptions such as telephone dreams in which literal messages are given. There is a natural tendency to interpret some elements such as common symbols like a car or house in a literal way when they appear in a dream. This can lead to misinterpretations that can have negative consequences. 

Suppose you dream that the stock market is going to crash, so you immediately sell your stocks. Although it could be a literal warning, the dream may have nothing to do with your stocks. Instead, it may involve some other aspect of your life where a crash or severe downturn occurs and the stocks are just symbolic of that event. 

As another example, suppose you dream that you should move to another named city. It is not a good idea to immediately quit your job, pack up your things, and move to that city. 

The move you need to make may be a psychological one that is symbolized by the other city. You should ask what the other city means or represents to you and ask for further guidance. If you really should make a physical move, you will receive other signals through flashes of insight or other dreams. 

Another caveat relates to the occurrence of time in a dream. Psychological time in a dream is not the same as physical time, and often an event that appears to be immediate in a dream will require some considerable time to occur in physical time. This is one of the reasons that prophecy is so controversial. 

Sometimes I have been given a time in a dream that was literal such as a dream concerning a problem with one of my eyes described in my book. Other times the reference to time was more opaque and not easily determined. The best that can be said is that the event of concern may have been associated with other events in the dream, and the key to when this event occurs is found in the occurrence of the associated events. 

The dream may simply be showing you your probable future if you make a certain decision. Whether or not this occurs, and the timing of it, is up to you. I will be dealing with this subject much more extensively in my posts next year. 

My final caveat concerns the depiction of a person or event in a dream. You may dream that your life has fallen apart, and in your waking life, that is how you feel at that moment. This does not mean that this represents your reality going forward; it means you have had a temporary setback and with the right perspective, you could have a dream the next night showing you in a positive mood and on a better path. 

Your dreams can show your state at any given time, and may do so in an exaggerated way. They are not saying that it is your lot in life. In fact, they are often a reminder that you need to make a change in your attitude, associations, or surroundings to change your current state.

A Cryptic Dream and Expanded Awareness

Last Saturday night I had a cryptic dream about a past president. In the dream, I was talking with a President of the United States. It was not Barack Obama, but seemed to be George W. Bush. I told him that I now knew his secrets. There wasn’t much more to the dream. He listened but did not respond to me. 

This dream is interesting for two reasons. It demonstrates an expanded awareness, which I will explain, and possibly has a meaning on more than one level. This dream incorporates something from the next day that I have witnessed on numerous occasions—elements from a TV program or movie not yet seen. 

Sunday morning I thought about the dream as I had breakfast and began some chores. I could not see how it related to anything that I had recently experienced or been thinking about. 

Before starting some cleaning, I looked at the TV guide for the first time, which came as an insert in the previous day’s paper. I noticed a 2-hour program on FDR covering the 24-hour period right after Pearl Harbor was attacked. 

The description said secrets revealed about FDR. I watched the program and realized that my subconscious had incorporated the secrets aspect of the program into my dream. This has happened on many other occasions, when I was puzzled by a dream only to realize it related to a movie or some TV program I watched later. 

Now, I believe this dream could be saying more than just showing me it was a precognitive view of a future event. Lately, I have been working intensely to better balance my logical deductive abilities with my intuitive ones. 

Someone who is President of the United States could easily represent my higher mind that, if followed, will lead to a uniting of my states that include the logical, reasoning and intuitive, emotional aspects of myself. My saying I know your secrets in the dream may be my belief that I have uncovered how these states should be united from the perspective of my higher mind. 

The selection of George W. Bush as the President may simply be my association of him as the last president who took us to war instead of FDR who took us to war in 1941. And the TV program the next day was readily available and perfectly suited to the message the subconscious wanted to deliver. 

In the final analysis, the dream interpretation must feel right to the person who has the dream. No one else can say that my interpretation is right or wrong because there are far too many variables that determine the symbols and their significance in a dream. 

You must discover for yourself how your mind works. When you do, you will find that dreams are not nearly as mysterious as they once appeared to be.

Recalling Dreams and Meditation

In my posts, I have written about some of the things we can do to improve dream recall and the quality of our dreams. These include the following: proper amount of sleep, avoiding strong drugs, maintaining a good diet free of junk foods, and regular daily meditation. 

The proper amount of sleep will vary from individual to individual, but you should feel refreshed when you start the day. Too little or too much sleep can be detrimental and will affect your sense of well-being and your dreams. 

Strong drugs can adversely affect your body chemistry and result in nightmares or dreams depicting a strong imbalance, as can certain foods. I am not talking about drugs prescribed for a serious medical condition. That is a completely different subject for a later posting. I am talking about artificial stimulants or depressants. However, some prescription drugs may cause strange dreams or nightmares as a side effect.

Food that taxes rather than nourishing the body can also result in dreams that depict the body’s reaction against the food and the body’s struggle to obtain homeostasis. 

Finally, meditation is a key component in our lives for obtaining the maximum benefit from our dreams. Meditation reduces stress, brings about internal harmony, and establishes our intent to be open to guidance from the higher self. 

The maximum benefit from our dreams can be obtained when the body is not struggling with imbalances. If we want solutions to problems in our daily lives, we should strive to keep the body healthy and well rested. The dreams can then focus on areas such as our jobs, financial issues, social issues, family matters, and personal growth. 

When we stray from healthy lifestyles, we are reminded as I was in my dreams. Many years ago when I was trying to improve my heath, I was occasionally eating burgers from one of the fast food restaurants. One night in a dream, I was in my kitchen with the burger and was told to put it down the garbage disposal. 

Another time, when I was entertaining, I ate too many potato chips, and drank too much wine. I dreamed that night that I entertained Babe Ruth, who was known for excessive eating and drinking. 

Daily meditation helps to bring peace and harmony into our daily lives and establishes our willingness to receive guidance from a higher power. Spiritual channels are opened when we dream, so the guidance rises above the level of the individual consciousness to a universal level. 

The advice we receive takes into consideration our spiritual lives, and is not just a creation by the body consciousness or a response to worries and concerns of the day. For those who seek visions from their dreams, a view of the future, I think that daily meditation is essential. 

There are many approaches to meditation, and some say their way is the right one. I think that success with meditation is not determined by the use of certain chants or music, yoga positions, or the following of a guru. I believe that success is determined by our willingness to let go of the inner talk we are consumed with each day, and surrender to a higher power. 

I have known some who have achieved enlightenment in a short time, and others who spend a lifetime in a futile pursuit. The goal should not be to achieve what someone else describes as success; the goal should be to enter into a silence where you can experience that sense of peace and connection to all of life. The goal should be to experience your true self. 

Next year I am going to start focusing on the nature of time and the future as it unfolds for us in our dreams. I will discuss some of the science concerning time, as well as the personal ramifications for us in our daily lives. Some say we shouldn’t know the future, and others say we can’t know the future. I intend to address the positions of both groups and provide my answer to why I think it is important that we know our “probable” future. 

At this point l will just say that events do not happen the way most people think, and our dreams show us how we create the future we experience. It doesn’t just happen; psychic forces are at work building the future long before we experience it physically.