Chapter 3

INTERPRETING YOUR DREAM

Let’s Put Your Dream in the Proper Context First
With any type of communication, having some appreciation for the context of the idea being communicated is just as important as the literal translation of the idea itself. How many times in a day does someone ask you, “How are you doing?” And how do you generally respond to this question? Doesn’t your response depend upon who’s asking the question? Even a simple question such as this one gets interpreted differently depending upon the type of relationship you have with the person who’s doing the asking of it. If the question came from your best friend, in comparison to if it came from the cashier at the local grocery store, or your mother, or your boss, or whomever, do not those same four words conjure up a different meaning for you? In this example, who’s asking the question provides the context of the idea being communicated. The idea itself is the actual question, “How are you doing?” 

I don’t mean to be over analytical about something so simple because this could very quickly lead to confusion, but every one of us takes these interpreting considerations into account every time we hold a conversation with someone. We’re so adept at translating in this fashion that the process hardly makes a conscious impression; we just do it. Dreams, the language of your unconscious mind, are no less sophisticated to decipher. With dreams, however, it is the category the dream falls into which provides us with the context of the message. And it is the elements within the dream that convey the message (the “words”) itself. We have to account for both of these aspects (the spirit of the message as well as the literal “words”) if we are to clearly understand what it is our dreams are trying to tell us. 

There is no need to ever feel intimidated by this part of the process of interpreting your dreams because, remember, you already utilize this contextual translation skill numerous times a day without ever giving it a second thought. To interpret your dreams, you’ll use this very same skill; the only additional expertise you’ll need is an understanding of how to apply it to the perspective of your unconscious mind. With this understanding you will easily be able to put your dreams into the proper context; and after you put your dream in context, clearly interpreting the actual message your unconscious is communicating will become a much simpler task.

So what are the dream categories exactly and how do we determine which category a specific dream falls into? Believe me this won’t be all that painful to wrap you mind around. First off, there are only five dream categories we need to familiarize ourselves with, so it’s not like we have to set about memorizing the 3,000 plus hànzi (Chinese writing) characters before we get to the good stuff. The dream categories or dream types are as follows: Conflict Dreams, Wish-fulfillment Dreams, Problem-solving / Information Dreams, Astral Travel Dreams, and Prophetic Dreams. The category a dream falls into will give you a general idea of the message it is trying to convey because, as stated before, it provides the context of the message being communicated. Referring to your dream worksheet, the Time Reference (Past, Present, Future, or Spirituality) that the elements of your dream derive from provide one of the main ways of deciphering what type of dream it is that you’ve had (in other words, which dream category your dream falls into). Later on we’ll look at how the elements in our dreams (the People, Things, Places, and Activities) communicate the actual details of the message. But let’s start with acquainting ourselves with the five dream categories; what they are (or rather, what is the context of their message), and the distinguishing attributes of each.

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Dream Categories

CONFLICT DREAMS

What are Conflict Dreams?

Conflict dreams function as your spiritual progress reports. They’re your nighttime reviews. Your Spirit is constantly attempting to communicate to your conscious awareness the areas in your life which you either need to be more attentive to or handle in a more productive way. Conflict dreams represent your Spirit’s endeavor to communicate this message to you through dreams. They’re called Conflict dreams because their purpose is to show you where (in your life) you are in conflict with your spiritual purpose. These dreams play the role of your constructive critic. We have these types of dreams frequently.

For many of us, the majority of the dreams we recall fall under the category of Conflict dream. While this type of dream does cause you to feel different degrees of disconcertion, the point of a Conflict dream is inherently constructive. Most of your nightmares are Conflict dreams, though not every Conflict dream is disturbing to this extreme degree. Some are more subtle. But all invoke some feeling of disquiet (from slight anxiety to all out terror).

We all occasionally fall into the trap of entertaining negative thoughts during our waking hours. Any thoughts in the spirit of passing judgment (either towards yourself or towards another), any thoughts in the spirit of pessimism, manipulation, yielding to the idea of limitation, etc. is a negative thought. Conflict dreams are merely your unconscious mind’s way of trying to make your conscious mind realize the unpleasantness you are attracting to yourself as result a of the negative thoughts you have been entertaining during your waking hours. And the way these dreams get this point across is by highlighting and exaggerating the negative emotion excited by the negative thought it “speaks” of. For remember, your emotions are born out of your thoughts, and it is your thoughts which create your personal reality. The more Attention you give a particular thought, the more intensely you will feel the emotion it incites. Positive emotions signify thoughts which are in alignment with your Spirit’s intention. Negative emotions signify thoughts which are misaligned with your Spirit’s intention. It doesn’t matter whether you are asleep or awake; this “emotional guidance system” works the same way. Your Spirit is using your emotions to talk to you about what it is you’ve been thinking (and thus creating) which may or may not line up with what it knows to be in your overall best interest. Conflict dreams are always about pointing out those misaligned thoughts which are littering your mental aura. They are your opportunity to recognize (so that you may correct) destructive thinking patterns. The level of disquiet you feel in a Conflict dream is an indication of the amount of Attention you have been giving a negative thought. If you obsess over a negative thought long enough, the result is always a nightmare. This is your indication that you are reaching a spiritual crisis point. And if you don’t correct the negative thought pattern your nightmare is warning you about soon, the crisis will evolve into something more dramatic in order to try to get you to realize that you need to address this disturbance. 

What characteristics distinguish a Conflict dream?

-     Conflict dreams only draw from your Past and Present memories.

-     The emotions you feel during a Conflict dream are always unsettling. The greater the degree of unsettlement you feel (such as in a nightmare) is an indication of the extent to which your dream has been trying to warn you regarding the matter it is reflecting. Each successive dream dealing with the same negative emotion (or misaligned thought) will grow more emotionally intense if (in your waking hours) you have been failing to effectively deal with the negative thought which is at the root of the negative emotion your dream is illustrating.

-     Conflict dreams have an erratic, random quality about them. This disorder is part of the reason why they can so effectively exaggerate the negative emotions you feel while experiencing them. The erraticness of a Conflict dream promotes a sense of confusion, which in turn exaggerates the core negative emotions you were already feeling. Have you ever noticed that the more erratic your Conflict dream is, the more intense the negative emotions you experience in the dream will be? Nightmares are often highly erratic.

 
WISH-FULFILLMENT DREAMS

What are Wish-fulfillment Dreams?

Wish-fulfillment dreams offer you a window into your desires. They can oftentimes be highly symbolic. In other words, if you hit the lottery in a wish-fulfillment dream, it’s not an indication that you are soon going to hit the lottery in your physical reality (this would only be the case if this were a prophetic dream). Whatever emotions you felt as you experienced hitting the lottery in your wish-fulfillment dream (happiness, optimism, security, well-being, etc.) are the undernourished desires your dream is trying to call your Attention to. Wish-fulfillment dreams are your unconscious mind’s way of trying to point out to you the desires you have been denying yourself in your waking life. These desires are always in alignment with your Spirit’s intention, that’s why the emotions felt in these dreams are always positive and invigorating. You would do well to be more Attentive to the thoughts you have in your waking life which incite these same emotions. Such Attention would invariably lead to those same positive desires (not necessarily the literal event in your dream that sparked the desire, but the desire itself) to manifest itself in your physical reality.

 
What characteristics distinguish a Wish-fulfillment dream?

-     Wish-fulfillment dreams only draw from your Past and Present memories.

-     The emotions you feel during a Wish-fulfillment dream are always positive and exciting.

 
PROBLEM-SOLVING / INFORMATION DREAMS

What are Problem-solving / Information Dreams?

Problem-solving/ Information dreams are exactly what their name implies; they offer illuminating information or outright solutions to the puzzles which have been perplexing or harassing you in your waking hours. Problem-solving / Information dreams can serve as the landscape your mind uses to practice the solution to a problem (working them out unconsciously); or these dreams may simply reveal the solution to the problem to you without your having to mechanically work it out in the dream. Either way, the value of Problem-solving / Information dreams is tremendous. However, a prerequisite for receiving a Problem-solving / Information dream is that you have to have asked for the information or solution before it will come to you. And the way you ask is with your desire to receive the information or solution, you do not necessarily ask with your words. The strength of your desire is the catalyzing factor, not the utterances that come out of your mouth.

 
What characteristics distinguish a Problem-solving / Information dream?

-     Problem-solving / Information dreams draw from Present memories, and also highlight aspects of your (immediate) Future.

-     Surprise is the key emotion felt in a Problem-solving / Information dream. These are the dreams that make you wake up and go, ah ha! I got this now!

 
ASTRAL TRAVEL DREAMS

What are Astral Travel Dreams?

Astral Travel dreams are real experiences that we have while our physical bodies are sleeping. We are not just our physical bodies, remember. The essence of who we are is Spirit (this is our likeness in God). Our body is merely the vehicle our Spirit uses to experience life; but our experiences in life are not limited to the physical plane of reality. Esoteric literature refers to the dimensional planes which exist above the physical dimensional plane of reality as the “astral planes” (these are dimensional planes which vibrate at a higher rate than what our physical senses can detect). And superimposed on our physical body, each of us also has many astral bodies (bodies composed of matter which vibrates at a rate higher than what our physical senses can detect). Our physical body, actually our whole physical reality, is merely an extension of that which is drawn from the astral planes. In fact, without the astral bodies, the physical body could not exist. But it is not necessary for the astral bodies to have a physical counterpart in order for them to exist. Before you were born into this physical world, you had an astral body. And that which we refer to as “death” is merely our Spirit severing its link to the physical body it had been using. The physical body dies when the Spirit severs its link (for it is your Spirit which animates and gives your physical body its life in the first place). The Spirit survives “death” because the Spirit is immortal. And it continues on experiencing life, after “death,” using an astral body as a vehicle for expression. And as our physical body sleeps, we often take the opportunity to travel about the universe using our astral body. This is what an Astral Travel dream is, real experiences that we have in our astral body, while our physical body is sleeping. In our astral bodies, we can astrally travel to places on the physical plane (sometimes to peek in on our loved ones, etc.), we can astrally travel to “heaven” or “The Other Side” (sometimes to visit with loved ones who have passed on, etc.), the possibilities are endless because on the astral plane, there is no “time gap.” Our thoughts are manifested instantaneously. We can literally think ourselves anywhere instantly. 

 
What characteristics distinguish an Astral Travel dream?

-     Astral Travel dreams may draw from your Past and Present memories, but they must also highlight aspects of your Spirituality.

-     Astral Travel dreams are extremely vivid. These dreams feel absolutely real because in actuality, they are real. All of us experience astral travel dreams on a regular basis, but it is the rare astral travel dream which is actually remembered. The more relevant an astral travel dream is to a concern in our waking experience, the more likely it is to be remembered. If the astral travel dream is simply a nightly dalliance (a reprieve from the pressure experienced in the physical dimension), it will oftentimes be forgotten upon awakening.

-     Astral Travel dreams are never incoherent; they always unfold in a logical sequence. These dreams are always in color.

 
PROPHETIC DREAMS

What are Prophetic Dreams?

As the name suggests, Prophetic dreams offer you a glimpse of the future that is presently unfolding. The future, however, is not a fixed preset. Prophetic dreams can only tell you what is to come given that all the presently unfolding variables remain unchanged. Every Prophetic dream is also an Astral Travel dream. However, not every Astral Travel dream is a Prophetic dream as well. It might be helpful for you to use your consideration of the square and rectangle relationship to help you grasp this idea in that every square is also a rectangle, however not every rectangle is necessarily a square. 

 
What characteristics distinguish a Prophetic dream?

-     Prophetic dreams may draw from your Past and Present memories, but they must also highlight aspects of your Future and Spirituality.

-     The emotions you experience in a Prophetic dream are both profound and intense, so much so that these emotions stay with you even if the events of the dream are consciously forgotten upon awakening. But the Prophetic dreams that you do consciously recall are very rarely ever forgotten, and can be recollected with a vividness of detail that may surpass even your waking life memories, years after having the dream. The emotions felt in these dreams can either be positive or negative depending on the nature of the impending event. Whichever way you feel (positive or negative), surprise is always a component of these emotions. It is the surprise emotion element which distinguishes a Prophetic dream from an Astral Travel dream.

-     Because of the Prophetic dream’s relationship to the Astral Travel dream, the two share this common distinction: Prophetic dreams are never incoherent; they always unfold in a logical sequence. Prophetic dreams are also very vivid and are always in color.

 

Refer to you Dream Worksheet. Look at where the elements in your dream were time referenced; then review questions 3 and 7 on the back of the worksheet. This is all the information you will need to categorize your dream and understand the context in which it was communicated. Using what you now know about the distinguishing characteristics of each dream type, take the information you just gathered from your worksheet and compare your dream’s characteristics to the distinguishing characteristics of each dream category. The dream you had should only fit one category. Which one is it? Make a note of it. We’ll come back to it later.