What are the meaning of dreams? Whether they reflect lost memories, repressed emotions or prophetic warnings - anyone can use dream interpretation to unlock the secrets of the unconscious mind. Some people use the art of lucid dreaming, enabling them to wake up in dreams and talk directly to the unconcious mind through the use of dream characters.
Dream Interpretation
Dream interpretation has been around since the times of the ancient Greeks and Egyptians. They believed that the meaning of dreams were prophecies, premonitions and warnings from the gods.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) described dreams as “the royal road to the unconscious”. The psychoanalyst believed that dreams are an excellent way to come to terms with repressed feelings and therefore move closer towards Enlightenment.
Dream Dictionary
Today, anyone can discover the meaning of dreams using an online dream dictionary, in an effort to understand the language of the unconscious mind.
A dream dictionary generally comes in one of two forms; the traditional or the scientific. The former may be based on myth and old beliefs while the latter is more closely linked to modern dream psychology. However both use very specific dream symbols which translate to direct interpretations.
Dream Symbols
Dream symbols are an ideal way to understand the meaning of dreams. Here are some common dream symbols and their possible meanings.
- Animals – often symbolize repressed emotions. For example, if a person perceives lions to be aggressive, they could be harboring anger.
- Blood – excessive blood may represent an emotional upheaval.
- Dying – dreaming of someone dying is rarely prophetic, and instead represents the end of a phase in life, such as quitting a job or moving home.
- Nudity – represents vulnerability or a fear of being exposed to others.
- School – can be literally translated to a learning experience, or it may represent a repressed childhood memory that needs attention.
- Walking or driving – can represent the passage of time, or it may be literal.
- War – represents a real life issue that requires aggressive or affirmative action.
Lucid Dreaming
Lucid dreams occur when a person realises that they are dreaming. This allows them to wake up in dreams and guide the scenery, plot and characters in any way they wish. The quality of the senses are improved so that the dream can be as authentic as real life. Sometimes lucid dreams are even more vivid, becaused lucid dreamers are not restriced by the laws od physics. They can move through walls, become invisible, zoom in on distant locations, teleport, and manipulate colors of the dremworld. They can even strike up a conversation with their unconscious mind in the form of a cat!
An experienced lucid dreamer may have lucid dreams every night. But they still have a good number of normal passive dreams, which can be subject to dream interpretation.
That said, lucid dreams are a much more effective way of receiving messages from the unconscious mind, as it is even easier to make direct contact and understand dream symbols. Besides clarifying the meaning of dreams, lucid dreaming is also used to fulfill fantasies, overcome creative blocks, solve problems, improve confidence and explore the universe.
If you found The Meaning of Dreams interesting, you might also like:
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