DREAM INTERPRETATION
There are many reasons for dreams. They reveal to us that which has been suppressed or hidden or they give us an analogy of the events that are transpiring in our lives today. They give us insight into our real thoughts and feelings on a matter. Often our subconscious manufactures our dreams to make us see what is going on in our lives. Our subconscious knows what we need to learn from our dreams even if we do not. Our rational mind often tries to 'rationalize' the dream but frequently falls short whether it be from fear, avoidance, or lack of experience in dream analysis. A keen insight into our own psyche is helpful when trying to analyze a dream. A dream could occur to show how we are connected to the people in our lives in order that we might better understand our connection to explain the relationship between us - to explain why we feel the way we do about them. A dream may offer us information about upcoming events or events from past lives.
Dreams fulfill so many purposes - they explain about events or fears - e.g. they may show us some unfinished business in a past life that we need to finish in this life. It may be our subconscious's way of working itself through a problem. It may be to show us how we connect and interconnect to people around us. It may reveal to us some conscious or unconscious thoughts that we have on a matter or reveal a solution to a problem that we hadn't thought of. It may reveal to some talents or latent abilities that we have that we were unaware of - to improve our self-confidence - to add to our abilities and accomplishments in this life. They may reveal the reasons for fears we have now - for example, in a past life you rode horses and you were accidentally killed falling off one and in this life you are afraid of horses but don't know why.
A dream of death can represent many things, such as an end to an old way of life and a new beginning. It could be to prove to us that life does not end but is ongoing. It may be because we fear death and it is giving it to us for us to heal and remove the fear. As I said, our subconscious knows what we need.
EXAMPLE #1
Someone has dreams of a bear chasing them, for the sake of argument let us say it looks like the same bear every time. In these dreams they always manage to avoid the beast but only by a slim margin. In the dreams they can feel his hot breath on them, or feel the rush of air as his claws rake past the outer layer of their skin.
This dream could represent one or many things. It could represent an ability to get out of tight situations. The bear could represent someone in their life who has bear like qualities and is 'on their case'. It could represent feelings of persecution. Their being chased by the bear could also represent a totem and them running from their own power - to avoid claiming it. It could be a dream brought on by past life memory - a life in which they were killed by a bear. It could also represent a base part of their own nature that is both animalistic and savage - some part of themselves that they seek to avoid. It may even represent a future event. Dreams are quite complex and there is no cut and dried explanation for analyzing them though some would like us to think so. The explanations are as varied as the people who have them are.
EXAMPLE #2
This dream is about you and a 'friend'. You are both walking on a white dock and your 'friend' suddenly throws herself off the dock into the deeper part of the clear, calm waters past the sandbar. She continues to sink until she hits the bottom where it is a lot darker and makes no attempt to swim. The area is neither deep nor dark but she stays there anyway, sinking like a rock. One person would argue that she has thrown herself into the waters of life to give herself to God and the higher power. Another might say that she is an aspect of yourself and that the dock and the water both represent your higher self and your connection to spirit. Someone else might ask if you want to hurt yourself? However your own gut feeling and dream analogy is even more accurate - you realize this is just an analogy of your 'friends' life and has nothing to do with you - it shows what she has been doing lately - though on a conscious level you hadn't realized it until just now.
Your 'friend' has suicidal tendencies and has thrown herself off the dock to commit suicide. As you see her sinking to the bottom and making no attempt to save herself you realize that she is going to hit bottom before she can begin to correct and take control of her life and that she had done it all herself. You weren't really paying attention to her plight because she has whined and complained for so many years and every time you see her it is the same thing. You further realize your friend has gone off the deep end in her thinking and actions as they are no longer considered normal - they are quite irrational in fact. These actions when you stop and look at the dream, parallel her life. Lately she has not been behaving in a rational and sane manner, instead she had done many things which were not of the norm. She has done everything to screw her life up no matter how others have helped. She has spent all her money frivolously with no thought to paying her bills or buying food for her kids - she hasn't paid her rent again. Now with the dream fresh in your mind you look and realize that certain things did not make sense. She gets a bit of money and instead of paying some bills and/or buying groceries, she spends it foolishly - she buys a movie, fills the car with gas so she can bomb around, buys pizza and pop. 'What the heck' she says, 'It was only $100 and wouldn't have paid off all my bills anyway so I might as well enjoy it'. She has whined and blamed it on a hard life and circumstances yet you now know the truth. 'Besides' she says, 'I just know everything will be ok. I don't know how, but it will'. And two months later she is forced to claim bankruptcy. The people connected to her call the board of health and when they investigate they report her slovenly habits to the landlord and she gets evicted. A very accurate dream analogy I would say.
EXAMPLE #3
A person dreams of being near the water. Depending on what they do at the water, it could represent an association with water and life on a spiritual level. Swimming might denote enjoying their spiritual connection and embracing life. Playing with dolphins might indicate a playfulness or a playful attitude towards life. Riding in a boat might indicate a closeness to spirit but not being fully connected - they have put a barrier between them and spirit [feeling close to spirit but afraid to let go]. If water makes them feel good - makes the person feel connected to their inner being - it may represent a cleansing both inside and out especially is the person feels rejuvenated, cleansed, content or invigorated by it.
As I said, the dreams and their interpretations are as varied as the people themselves. There is no cut and dried method of deciphering dreams, only a guide for trying to put together the puzzle.
