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Interpreting your dreams is not an exact science. A method may be perfect for one person but inappropriate for another.

I have been recording my dreams since I was about ten or eleven years old. Some dreams have served as springboards for stories. Others are merely entertaining. Then there are those that give great insight to my life, that make me realise something about myself.

A couple of years ago, I became more interested in my dreams and began reading books about them. One of them was about lucid dreaming. Do you know what lucid dreaming is? It is when you are dreaming and you realise, while still in slumber, that you are sleeping. Once you realise this, you can try to exercise power over your dream. Have you ever had a lucid dream?

Before I read this book, I never had. (At least, I couldn't remember having one). But after I knew about them, I really wanted to have one. So I did what the book suggested; I became more conscious about consciousness. During the day, I would ask myself, "Am I dreaming?" Of course, my answer then was, "No, I'm not. I am fully conscious."

Once I asked myself this question enough times, it became a habit. One night, I was sleeping when I thought, "Am I dreaming?" My answer: "Yes, I am!" Once I realised this, I asked myself, "Now that I know that I'm asleep, what do I want to do in Dreamland?"

Since then, I have had several lucid dreams. Some people find it difficult to get their dreamself to do certain tasks. I've had difficulty changing my scenery. Some people have difficulty flying at will in their dreams; I've never had this problem. On occasion, I have difficulty getting someone to appear whom I want to see. Other times, this is not a problem.

If you want to know more about lucid dreams, please e-mail me or look in your local library for books about it.

Another book I read was called Understanding Your Dreams by Alice Anne Parker. I suggest that you read the entire book, but here is a summary of what I learned:

• Pg 23: The three basic barriers to satisfying dream work are:

  1. Not being able to remember dreams
  2. Not being able to understand the dreams you do recall
  3. Most of us simply don't have enough time to record our dreams

• Pg 4 - 21: The 8 step process for understanding your dreams:

  1. Record the images of your dreams (try dream circles - a circle for each image or event, one big circle to describe the central action, smaller circles surrounding to represent sequence of events. Make arrows to connect related images. Highlight actions or images with greatest intensity, or put stars by them.
  2. Think about what word or phrase would best express your feeling in your dream.
  3. Think about when you experience this same feeling in your waking life.
  4. Think about the significant activities in your dream. Take notice of the framework in your "normal dreams" that you take for granted). Work with a partner who can act as a "sounding board". Sharing dreams with one you trust enriches dreams and collective awareness. Increased consciousness is highly contagious.
  5. List the characters in your dream. What part of you does each dream figure represent? Real people in dreams may represent themselves or your feelings about them. Use a couple of words to describe these characters. Ask yourself what aspects of you are reflected by them.
  6. List the significant places, objects, colours, and events in the dream. You have a "personal dream vocabulary"; when working with rich imagery derived from your interests, ask yourself how you feel about the particular details in the dreams that caught your attention.
  7. Ask yourself what changes, if any, would you like to make to your dream. Make up alternate endings; use "lateral thinking". Review the changes as you fall asleep.
  8. Briefly summarise the dream's meaning. How does this apply to your working life?

Psychologist Carl Jung has created these five principles of dream interpretation, (this is taken straight out of my notes from Psychology of Religion course):

1. The dreamer is his or her best interpretter: the dream is yours and will make the most sense to you.
2. The dream compensates for the consciously held attitude: this is the balancing principle. It is an "escape valve" that helps you to achieve psychic balance. An example of this is battle fatique", when soldiers during wartime dream of the homefront.
3. Dreams are best interpretted in series: an isolated dream may not yield much information.
4. Dreams are trying to communicate to you: while Sigmund Freud believes that dreams censor an individual to the reality of the unconscious, Jung says that a dream has a message that it's trying to tell you.
5. Content of a dream is often positive if you can hear it: it can enhance your life.

Whatever way you deal with your dreams, I suggest that you do deal with them.