Dream interpretation can be difficult for many reasons. For one thing we might not always know what our dreams are trying to tell us. Sometimes it might seem like our dreams are contradicting itself. Also, prophetic dreams can be terrifying and instill fear for some possible future outcome that we would do anything to avoid.
This article discusses some of the challenges related to dream interpretation and gives a few basic guidelines to navigate them.
1. Record your dreams
The most basic first step to dream interpretation is to record your dreams. Buy a journal. Keep it next to your bed. Write down your dreams as soon as you wake up.
Dream recall becomes better as you practice. This is foundational but not always easy. I sometimes wake up at three or four, deathly tired, but with a dream in my head. I know that if I go back to sleep I will most likely forget it, so I have to go through the trouble to write it down immediately. This is disruptive to my sleep but worth it, especially if the dream was important.
Recording dreams also helps us to review them again later on. We might have no idea what a certain dream means but something might happen in our physical circumstances that suddenly makes certain dream themes or messages more clear.
2. Instead of asking, “What does this mean?” try asking, “What does this mean to me?”
In the past I would often consult the internet for answers to what certain symbols, animals, and figures meant when trying to interpret my dreams. More often than not, this didn’t really give me much insight into the dream or what it was telling me. But when I started asking, “What does this mean to me?” things became much more clear. I was able to extract insight more readily. This is because the meaning that, say, a certain flower or animal has to me, might be completely different to the meaning given on some random website.
But as with most things there are exceptions to the rule. I also believe that there are certain things that have a more universal meaning. For example, water is most often associated with emotions. A house is often associated with your soul. So, if the question “What does this mean to me?” doesn’t bring clarity, it is often helpful to dig a little deeper.
3. Keep questioning. Keep digging.
It’s rare for us to interpret our dreams perfectly from the get go. As with most things in life, it does take some practice. Sometimes our interpretation is just plain wrong. I went through a phase where I thought that my dreams were completely contradicting itself and misleading me. The reason for this was because I was interpreting everything that it was showing me through my ego and not through a spiritual perspective. If one interprets dreams through the lens of the ego and not through the lens of the soul, it is really easy to misinterpret your dreams. The thing that fixed this for me was reading Jung.
Reading Jung helped me with dream interpretation
Within the first few pages of Modern Man in Search of a Soul, Jung tells a story of a man of “prominent position” who has the following dream: The man dreams that he has a great journey to take and is rushing to get to the train station. He rushes around, struggling to get everything together, briefcase, baggage etc. When he eventually gets to the platform he watches as the train departs. He then sees that the train is moving in a strange s-shape and concludes that the driver has to speed up or else the rear of the train will be thrown off the track. But when the driver eventually does speed up, the rear coaches start rocking and the dream ends in the train crashing.
When I read Jung’s interpretation of the man’s dream I realised that I would have interpreted it very differently. I also realised that my interpretation was completely wrong! Not only in interpreting the man’s dream but also in interpreting some of my own dreams.
I’m very familiar with this theme of rushing about in dreams. The worst thing about these dreams is that the efforting somehow pushes the destination further away. There is no getting to the car in the thundering rain, no matter how fast you’re running. There’s no getting to the test on time, no matter how fast you’re driving. You’ll end up taking a wrong turn somewhere. Needless to say, I hate these dreams. But these dreams have shown me the importance of being present and not rushing, the importance of paying attention to what is going on in the present moment and not running towards some perceived ultimate destination.
Jung (unlike me) did not have much trouble to interpret the man’s dream. He writes, “Here, too, we can understand without much difficulty the situation represented by the dream. It pictures the patient’s fantastic haste to advance himself still further.” Jung thought that the patient was becoming too ambitious without stopping to pause and reflect on how far he’d come. He further writes, “He should have contented himself with his achievements, but instead he is driven by his ambition to attempt to scale heights of success for which he is not fitted.” So, the dream was not telling the man to move faster. It wasn’t telling him to get more done. The dream was telling him to slow down. The dream was saying, reflect on how far you’ve come.
Overcoming blind spots in dream interpretation
This experience told me that I might have a few blind spots when it comes to interpreting my own dreams. Reading Jung has shown me that dream intelligence is very different to ego intelligence. In fact, dream advice can sometimes be completely counter to common sense. My rushing dreams weren’t telling me to, work harder, do more, move faster. It was saying: slow down and pay attention. Ego says: More is better. More work, more projects, more opportunities. It tells you that you have to sacrifice your health now for some pay-off later. The latter is particularly foolhardy but I’ve often fallen into that trap. Higher intelligence says: Do less. Rest more. Pay attention to the things that matter. Health. Forgiveness. Work that brings you joy. (Related posts: Rushing, Process over progress.)
Anyone who is interested in dream interpretation should read Jung, but Jung’s academic writing isn’t the easiest thing to read. It is for this reason that I usually recommend people start with his memoir, Memories, Dreams, Reflections. His memoir is truly brilliant and life-changing.
Do I have to read Jung to improve my dream interpretation?
You don’t necessarily need to read anything to get better at dream interpretation. Another way to get better would be to just keep questioning. You could ask: What does this mean? Is the dream really saying X? If it is saying X, what does that mean? Keep questioning. Answers eventually come. Usually when we get to the truth of what a dream is trying to tell us there is this inner aha moment. The advice feels true. It might even contradict common sense or cultural norms, but the message feels true and right. So it’s important not to immediately override the dream message with ego ideas. So, be willing to question, especially if it’s a recurring dream.
4. Don’t ignore warning dreams
No dream is more difficult to deal with than a warning dream. Some of these dreams can be terrifying, especially if it involves the well-being of others around you. In recent months (since reading Memories, Dreams, Reflections), I’ve become much better at dealing with these dreams. This is partly because I realised that these dreams are there to empower us, not scare us. If we did not have some agency over the outcome, then there would be no point to the dream. And there’s always a point.
Not all precognitive dreams are warning dreams
Not all dreams are warning dreams. Some dreams might just give advice. Others might just facilitate a change in perspective. Also, not all precognitive dreams are warning dreams. For instance, some precognitive dreams might show something good happening in the future. But many precognitive dreams have some sort of cautionary theme to it. So, precognitive dreams often tend to be warning dreams.
Recognising warning dreams
I’ve become good at spotting warning dreams more recently. An example of a warning dream would be the train crash that Jung’s patient spoke of. That dream ended in a catastrophe: the train going off the rails and crashing. Warning dreams can often evoke emotions like fear to get our attention. These should not be ignored. Also, the worse the catastrophe depicted in the dream, the closer one should pay attention. It’s important to analyse all the dream elements (symbols, figures, metaphors, etc) to get a good understanding of what the dream is trying to convey. Jung’s patient did not heed the warnings of his train dream. It’s not clear what exactly happened, but Jung writes, “He tried to exploit the professional opening that tempted his ambition and ran so violently off the track that the train-wreck was realised in actual life.”
So, never ignore a warning dream.
It is also important to note that not all warning dreams will leave you feeling fearful or terrified. You might simply encounter a dream figure that has a message. Or you might hear a very loud sound or alarm in your dream. Loud noises in dreams also signal to me that I am not paying attention to something critical. Actually, as I’m writing this I’m realising that there has been certain dream themes that has recurred lately and I’ve not taken it seriously. This is a topic for another post but recurring themes in dreams are also something to pay attention to.
What to do about warning dreams
So, what should we do with warning dreams? As mentioned in rule one, we should write down every last detail that we can recall. We should then make sure that we have clarity about what the dream is showing us. Keep investigating, keep questioning until we are certain that we have clarity. Don’t worry too much if you do misinterpret some aspects. If it’s important enough, your dreams will usually guide you through some follow ups.
The next step would be to find out what we can do to prevent the unwanted outcome. This can also be fairly tricky. If we always had the answers to everything, if we always navigated our journey perfectly, we would have no need for warning dreams. So, the fact that we’re having the dream in the first place indicates that the answers that we seek might not be readily available.
Dream interpretation, ego intelligence and higher intelligence
Again, there is usually a difference between ego intelligence and higher intelligence. We have to be willing to be wrong and not override whatever the dream is telling us with some ego narrative.
In a previous post on emotional work (Emotional Work: Anger), I mentioned that I had a terrifying dream that showed me that I had some anger issues to deal with. Suffice it to say that a part of me was deluded enough to think that I was okay with anger, that I had a handle on it, and that it wasn’t a big deal. In fact, I’d ignored the first dream that had showed me my anger was an issue. I ignored it because I misinterpreted it.
In the first dream I’d had an anger outburst, but considered myself justified in my reaction because I deemed the other person responsible for provoking me. In the second dream I also had an anger outburst but when I woke up I could not for the life of me understand why I’d reacted the way I did. The second dream clearly showed me that this was my issue. And the dream scared me enough to take action. When I had that dream, the only thing I could ask was, How do I deal with this?
The answer came to me in a day or two. I remembered that I’d seen this book on Anger by Thich Nhat Hanh in the bookshop. I’d wanted to buy it but for whatever reason procrastinated on it. But after the dream, I knew I couldn’t delay any longer. So, I went out and bought it and read it. I’m not free of all anger but something profound did shift for me after I read that book. And I still apply many of the principles. This is only one (but very significant) example of how a dream has helped me to navigate something very difficult in my life.
When you have a warning dream consider the message calmly
Another thing that is important when dealing with warning dreams is to not panic.
I felt fairly tortured by some warning dreams at one point in my life because I did not believe that I could do anything about the outcome that I was being shown. I later realised that a prediction is only useful if it empowers us to take action. Also, we often have some time to act. In other words, we often have weeks or months to get our act together. That’s not to say that we should be carefree. But we should not be paralysed by fear either. Both states are unhelpful. There are also times when we might not be able to do anything about the outcome and we should simply accept what we are being shown. This is usually the case when we’re being shown some unhealthy trajectory of someone close to us. Sometimes all we can do is give advice and hope for the best.
5. Cut out dubious substances
This is the last rule, but arguable one of the most important. Why? Because dubious substances can really affect our clarity when it comes to dream interpretation.
Smoking affected my dreams. Not only were my dreams telling me to quit but I also just struggled with dream interpretation when I was smoking. To have a clear idea of what our intuitive voice is telling us we need to keep our bodies fairly pure. That’s been my experience. So, a clean diet, pure water, less mental noise, all of these things can contribute to better dream recall and interpretation. In my experience the more dubious the substance, the more negatively it will affect your dreams. For example, alcohol is worse than nicotine, but nicotine is worse than excessive caffeine.