Dreams. Why are dreams often hard to understand?

Posted on June 1, 2015 Updated on July 12, 2015

Dreams

Here is some information on the various kinds of dreams. Sigmund Freud, the originator of psychotherapy in its present form, paid a great deal of attention to his patients’ dreams. He regarded dreams as the royal road to the unconscious. Freud felt that childhood frustrations were extremely important, and he believed that all adult dreams reflected childhood incidents, which had been suppressed, or buried in the subconscious mind. Whether this is always true or not, it does appear that some of your dreams do relate to things that happened to you when you were little, and that your understanding of these dreams can help you remember incidents from your childhood that you have forgotten because they were unpleasant. Now there is some question in my mind, whether it is worthwhile to dig up unpleasant incidents from early life. I have usually found them best left forgotten, but that is another subject.

Another type of dream is the repetitive dream, one that recurs from time to time. Such dreams are often brief and frightening, like being chased by a monster, or falling. These dreams usually reflect a period of stress in your life.

Still another type of dream is the wish-fulfillment dream, in which you want something very badly, cannot get it in your real life, and so you dream it. Wish fulfillment dreams often occur after the death of a loved one or the break-up of a close relationship. You dream that you are with the person you love. This is very common.

Another type of dream is the clairvoyant dream. You dream of something that is happening somewhere else, or something that is going to happen in the future. Whether you believe in this sort of thing or not, I have found these dreams to be very common. Many of us have had the experience of being in a situation and remembering what is going to happen next. This can be very uncomfortable until you get used to it. Clairvoyant dreams can be very useful to you.

By far, the most common type of dream is the dream that simply reflects what is happening right now in your life. The people and events are usually disguised just enough to be hard to recognize. Now this isn’t always so, as some dreams are crystal clear. You dream of real people in your life, and the incidents closely parallel what is actually happening to you. People who are closely in touch with themselves and who are open to their experience of life often have extremely clear dreams. However, most dreams are symbolic of what is happening in the real world, and have to be interpreted.

to provide useful information. Very often your dreams can give you information that you are not aware of on a conscious level, and so interpretations of your dreams can be immensely valuable.

Why are dreams often hard to understand? Because, in most cases they accurately portray exactly what is going on in our lives, and most people are unwilling to accept this information. This is usually the case with people who don’t remember their dreams or who think that they don’t dream at all. You know from your own personal experience what happens when you tell someone the total truth. It’s something you don’t do too often, and then only when you are prepared for fireworks. And so we usually avoid most truth in order to be comfortable. Well, our dreams are equally considerate. They make us work to unearth their truth, and we have to prove that we really want to find out their meaning. I guarantee you that it’s worth doing.

As an example, suppose that you dream that someone in your life is stealing from you, or lying to you, or hiding something from you. In this case, it would be very worthwhile for you to take a close look at what is happening in the real world. It may well be that this person is indeed doing something that could harm you, that you have been aware of this on a subconscious level, but have been unwilling to accept this information into your conscious mind. Just think how valuable this kind of information can be to you.

As you learn to understand your dreams, you will probably find that each of your dreams is unique, and that it is not useful to look for a simple set of symbols that stays the same from dream to dream. A snake or a spider might be one thing in last night’s dream and another thing or person in some other dream. In my experience there does not seem to be any reliable set of universal dream symbols.

There is one other type of dream that is very useful, and that is the lucid dream. This kind of dream is unusually vivid and clear, so clear that it seems more real than the outside world. In the lucid dream you are fully aware of every sight and sound, and you feel and smell everything even more than in real life. The most unusual feature of the lucid dream is that you are fully aware that you are dreaming, and are able to control your dream. You say to yourself, “This is my dream; I am the dreamer, so I can control this dream and make it come out any way that I want to!”. And you do. Lucid dreams are especially important, as you can use them to control your life. Just as your dreams accurately reflect what is happening in your life, your life also accurately reflects what is happening in your dreams. It works both ways, as your dreams affect what is in your mind, and the workings of your mind create the world as you experience it. This could be a lengthy discussion, and there isn’t enough space her to do it justice. So, even though it may sound a little hard to believe, please accept for now that you can use this recording to gain mastery over your life by gaining control over your dreams. It really works, and it is also a great deal of fun. Dreams can be much more enjoyable than real life.

There is a type of psychotherapy that deals entirely with dreams as they relate to your life right now. You start by training yourself to remember your dreams. One way you can do this is by waking up after each dream and making a few quick notes on a pad beside your bed. Another way is to tell yourself when you are going to sleep that you will remember your dreams in the morning. This works also. When you recall your dreams, you ask yourself three questions. First, was I the hero of the dream? (Meaning, did I cause things to happen, or was I having things done to me) Next, how did I feel in the dream? And, finally, how would I make the dream different? Over a period of time, this simple exercise can give you control over your dreams, and over your life. You will achieve this same goal through the use of this recording.

Once you learn to take control of your dreams, you can talk to anything that frightens you and ask it to reveal itself, to tell you who it is and what it is doing. If you are having a frustration dream, you can tell yourself, “I know that I am dreaming, and I can get read of this uncomfortable dream any time I want to wake up.” You can learn to leave any dream that you wish to leave.

I hope that all this information on dreams and dreaming is useful to you. Please try some of the techniques, and find out for yourself how to use your dreams for beneficial change.