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Dreams
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Decode your dreams



A dream is like a story. And, dream interpretation is a story about a story based on interpretation of the symbols, discovers Tuba Raqshan.
We knew that dreams were powerful. Not just those dreams which inspired us on a motivational level but also those which are merely the figments of our unconscious mind. Every dream has a meaning, including the bad ones or nightmares. Dr. Michael Lennox, one of America’s most recognized and respected dream interpreters, explains the phenomenon.
 
Storybook of your mind:
“A dream is like a story. A story is told in any language with different symbols. Dream interpretation is a story about a story based on interpretation of the symbols. So, if the dream goes this way, ‘I am walking along a path and I stumble upon a snake and it stops me. I am frightened and wake up’. Then, the story (or dream) is told on the basis of symbols like path, walking, snake, stopping and frightened. The interpretation goes this way, path means your private movement through life, walking means I am moving forward, stopping means that I am stuck and there’s something in my life which is stopping me. Snakes are interpreted as transformation because they shed their skins and are prepared for a new one and it’s represents a change in my life which I am a little frightened of. That’s dream interpretation, in simple terms,” says Dr. Lennox, who has been interpreting dreams for twenty years.
 
Realization route:
The unconscious mind has a desire to speak with the conscious mind and does so in dreams. “Dream interpretation is used to open up a dialogue between a person and their inner self or the hidden part of them. By spending time with your dreams, you have a deeper experience of your subtotal thought. I think dreams are helping us find our wisdom the same way that we get smarter when we process our memory and know more facts than we did the day before. In dreams, our soul gets wiser by expanding its awareness, and this happens whether you remember or not,” says Dr. Lennox.
 
Dream value:
The process of dreaming is creative. And, dreams are valuable. Keeping a record of your dreams can help you get a deeper awareness of your inner self. A dream diary, where you write down your dreams, can be a helpful tool. “If you do remember dreams, you have some more value available to you in the process. If you write that dream down, you are increasing the value of it. If you think about the dream and what it might mean or ponder over it, you increase the value even more. If you discuss it with somebody else, you increase its value manifold. You should do something creative to express your dreams, like a drawing or a poem or dance around your living room or act the dream out,” suggests Dr. Lennox, whose tryst with Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams at the age of 15 inspired him to embark on the journey of unraveling the mysteries of the unconscious mind. After studying at the Jung Institute, Los Angeles, he obtained his Master’s and Doctorate in Psychology from The Chicago School, formerly known as California Graduate Institute.
 
Guide to dream interpretation
1. Keep a record of your dreams.
2. A dream diary is where you write down all your dreams
3. Everything in your dream represents a part of your psyche.
4. The people in your dream represent a part of your personality.
5. Locations in the dream represent how you operate in the World. For example, your home in the dream is representing your sense of self.
6. Activities of your dreams will represent the different areas of your life.
 
 
 
Bad is good:
Dreams about death can be scary. Bad dreams or nightmares are, contrary to popular belief, a good sign. “Dreams about death are great. Most people are scared of death. Dreams are a world of symbols and shouldn’t be taken literally. Death is an ending which necessitates that there would be a new beginning. Death is one of the most powerful symbols in dreams. It means that there would be some kind of a shift in the change which is going around but so significant that it’s normally represented by a death.”

But, how can nightmares be a good sign, we pondered? Dr. Lennox says cheerfully, “I love bad dreams. Scary dreams and difficult dreams are where the juicy stuff is happening. Bad dreams are a way of processing the scary parts of life. Dreams are a way to compensate or balance it out. Sometimes, when we survive a really scary experience in a dream, we get better at surviving scary experiences in our waking life. It’s like a practice only that it’s in an unconscious language of symbols and a fantastical world. The worst the dream is, the better value it has for the person having it.”
 


 
Why do we dream about snakes?
“Snakes are wonderful as a symbolic representation of change because we all know that snakes shed their skins. It’s a sort of a common piece of knowledge that just about any human being would be aware of snakes and therefore, the association we have. Snakes in a dream means that we are growing and once the snakes grow, they shed their own skin. This represents the ability to transform and change. Dreams of snakes are very common because we are always shifting and changing. And, we’re also frightened by change or excited by it. People who are frightened by snakes are intimidated by the change while those who are excited, view change as something dynamic,” says Dr. Lennox.

Trivia: Serpents as symbols
Snakes are found in different symbolic representations like the Caduceus of physician’s logo, which represents healing and transformation in form of health. There’s an image in union psychology called ouroboros which is a symbol of a serpent eating its own tail. It represents a change that is never ending in an infinite way.
 
Mental pictures
Dreams reflect things which a person might not know about themselves. “I think dreams mirror all those things which are in the hidden part of life. They also do represent the mental state and certainly, in the areas of stress. Dreams take a snapshot of where a person is at any given time reflecting joy and ascension like dreams of flying or a deeper, darker, stressful thing in the form of a nightmare,” says Dr. Lennox.

 

Directed by: The mind
In our dreams, we usually meet people who we had never met before or see places which we had never been to. Dr. Lennox, adds, “I think the unconscious is an enormous place. So, the random people who we meet in our dreams are images that inhabit our enormous unconscious realm. The fact that it happens is an indication and proves that greater part of life is in the invisible or the unconscious mind. The mind is an extraordinary place and the most extraordinary places are in the imagination. It’s a place where we bring ideas from seemingly nowhere into a conscious awareness. That place is so vast that infinity exists in there. Certainly, I who have heard thousands of dreams, appreciate that somehow, when the body is asleep and the mind is doing its thing, there is a window which opens up between the tiny little part of our subconscious mind and an enormous world of the unconscious. There is an endless supply of alien places. I love that the mind is capable of conjuring these things up.”


Dream index
Top 10 dreams and what they mean
Flying

General Meaning: Ascension, things going well.

Flying is so pleasurable; it is the top dream image that people mention to me. This doesn’t’ mean it’s the most occurring dream, but the most talked about, I imagine because of how fun it is. A flyer in a dream may be celebrating their good fortune, but it could just as easily indicate that something is not being attended to on the ground and the flight is an escape.

 

Pregnant
General Meaning: New thing brewing (idea, project, cycle in life)
Women and men alike have pregnancy dreams. A baby, conception or pregnancy usually indicates that the dreamer is in or planning a new factor in their life (project, job, baby, idea, relationship, etc.) Women can have this as a wish fulfillment dream as well.

 

Hot Sex
General Meaning: Inner resources joining together
Not always about the act, sex in a dream is usually about two energies getting together. For instance, if you dream about having sex with your boss, you may be dreaming more about integrating your own inner authority.

Sex with someone who you would never consider in real life
General Meaning: Inner resource is different than first identified
You’re doing it and you look down (or up) and suddenly you’re having sex with one of your parents or your sixth grade teacher who looked like a Bulldog. This is like joining with an inner resource that is a) unknown to you or b) unthinkable.

 

Falling
General Meaning: Feeling out of control with life path
This dream happens in all cultures. What a falling dream about is usually connected to not knowing where you’re going to land. (My father used to say, “It’s not the fall that kills you… It’s the sudden stop.”)
Teeth Falling Out

General Meaning: Insecurity
Teeth do three important things for us socially. They express joy (revealing them in a smile) the indicate aggression (bearing them is a primitive method of intimidation and claim of power) and they prepare us for sustenance (chewing, grinding our food). Lose them and you’d be pretty insecure about your place in the world.

 

Naked in Public
General Meaning: Vulnerability
Especially in our culture nakedness is akin to vulnerable exposure. We don’t like to be naked in public, generally speaking).

 

Back at School
General Meaning: Lack of preparedness
Since school was the first place we are faced with responsibilities, it is often where we return to in our dreams when processing fears associated with our readiness to take something on.

 

Being Chased
General Meaning: Troubles that never go away
People rarely see their assailant in such dreams, as they are the unknown, free-floating anxieties that follow us wherever we go. They can also represent the issue that someone never resolves, such as money troubles or relational problems.

 

Slow Motion
General Meaning: Inability to get to desired goals
Feeling stuck in a situation in life can lead to dreams of trying to get out of a setting but unable to move, or barely so. Like a chase dream, these can be associated with a sense of danger as well.
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