Many dreams seem to lack significance and these are eaisily intuitively screend out. Dreams rich in emotion, plot and/or symbolic are almost always potentially significant.
We always dream; remembering depends on when/how we wake up and whether we’re tuned in to paying attention. A notebook by the bed is key when wanting to pay attention.
While some dreams may be sent by God to give us a specific message, in most cases the gift of dreams refers to the their ability to reveal to us important aspects of ourselves.
Dreams naturally speak a language of symbol and metaphor. The meaning of those symbols, while culturally shaped, is idiosyncratic. We know better than any expert the associations of the symbols that occur. However, since we sometimes resist seeing the relevant association, it is sometimes useful to consult others.
Many people believe that people in our dreams primarily represent different aspects of ourselves. Quite probably, they occasionally represent “introjected others” as well.
The emotional content of a dream is often central to its understanding. It is often helpful to consdier what the dream might be saying about places in our lives where we feel the same emotion.
The “meaning” of a dream may reside in it or may be projected onto it. Either can be valid and/or useful.
One of the central purposes of dreams is to raise certain questions and suggest certain alterations of our conscious orientation.
Sometimes it can be useful to do something concrete (perhaps a ritual of a sort) to connect something we feel is significant in the dream with our life.
To have your REM sleep interupted, continually, your memory gets lost. It doesn’t have time to download the information the day before into your memory. Studies are clear. People need deep REM sleep.
An hour or two into sleep, we’re in the deepest sleep. Not dreaming. Then we go into REM cycles
Processing Dreams (Rather Than Interpreting):
Sometimes there is a meaning to draw out, other times, there is a meaning to apply to it.
Recurring Dreams Are Always Significant.
We evaluated some dreams.
Active imagination is a close cousin to inner healing prayer.
Carry through an unfinished dream or nightmare, with a light hand, by daydreaming about it. Bring it to a conclusion.