Why do YOU look for meanings in your dreams?

Dream interpretation is firmly ingrained in oneirological history. This is clear from historical evidence and research that can easily be found on the web.

Personally, on my journey I have found no reason to believe that dream events symbolically represent real life events. However, dream events can literally mimic real life ones (If you go to a theme park for a day there's a decent chance roller-coasters will feature in your dreams that night) and, in my opinion and to a certain degree vice versa (precognition (but that's another story, let's stick to the topic in hand)).

However, by the existence and activity of this forum it it clear that I am in a minority! So my question to you is, why do you see fit to interpret dream events and compare them symbolically to waking reality events?

I look forward to hearing your views :)

I dont look for meanings ever, I just can see the sense in it for a few reasons and one is that we only recall a very few of the dreams we have and they may not be the important ones and when I have a good night (my best is 13 dreams recalled) all vivid and interesting how would you work on sorting them out.

I have used dreams to sort out issues and solve problems but they were fully lucid dreams and I had a purpose so it was no different that having a think about something and working it out at anytime

I guess that we want to know why we had that dream. It must mean something. But, as you said, it could be because it happened in real life and our dream is a representation of that event. And i think that one can only interpret one's dream. I don't find the point of asking another person to interpret my dream. Only i can find the meaning. For example, in a recent dream i had, i was with a friend, lost in a school, trying to find a chemistry class. I tried to use my phone to call him but my phone didn't work. Now, if i asked someone to interpret this, he/she might say things like: "Well, maybe it means that you want to go back to school but you don't know what to study, maybe chemistry, and you are still lost in your thoughts, etc etc." Only i can interpret my dream. And i did. It was simple. That day i was watching an episode of Breaking Bad where the chemistry teacher and his student were lost in the desert and the teacher tried to phone home but the phone didn't work. Funny, huh? Today i dreamt i was strongly arguing with a friend that i don't see for weeks. It's because i'm still mad at him. So, i guess it's healthy to try to interpret our own dreams. It can mean something. Life events, worries, our state of mind...

What you are describing is a very direct response and I agree that in those cases they are linked to some event but dont IMO they required any interpretation as the meaning is clear and link solid. I find there is around two days between some event in waking life and the link in the dream

Peter wrote: I find there is around two days between some event in waking life and the link in the dream

I've noticed this too. Our dreams are based on deep memories, not our short-term memory that keeps getting erased all the time. They come much deeper and it must take a few days for our life experience and thoughts to form a deep memory that is indelible. And dreams use memories as 'building blocks' to construct the environment.

On the other hand, I've had a few dreams that are based on a television show I was watching just before bed, when I was already starting to go into 'sleep-mode'. So that actually contradicts it.

But dreams that are based on deeper memories tend to feel like they have a lot more meaning. Those 'television' dreams are just our minds musing over our short-term memories. Meaning is always in the eye of the beholder and I can look at a cloud and see a crocodile while someone else see's a butterfly.

We should ask ourselves how we feel about the dream events and not logically try to interpret it. Sometimes we 'just know'! Dreams are based on emotions and memories in my opinion. Putting it into words to help us remember and share them with others is the best we can do, but they can be lost in translation.

Same for short term events in dreams and they are normally associated with high emotion linked to an event and can be continuous from waking to sleeping or closely followed by a few hours

Yea, it's emotion and memory that are the pilots of dreams in my opinion. If something I saw on TV created an emotional response in me, I will dream of it later sometimes.

No matter what, dreams and subconscious thoughts are based on memory and emotion, whether deep-seeded or fleeting-short-term-thoughts. When you close your eyes and let yourself go, it just happens, and we let it happen as if our dreams have a mind of their own, and it uses those to construct the dream. Then we wake up and try to make sense of it because we are the ego and we feel a need to explain and rationalize everything. Sometimes the ego is awoken within the dream and we are lucid with a sense of self and I have tried to find meaning in my dreams in real time as it's happening, but it's a lost cause. I just can't do it. Dreams are so irrational and it seems to make sense and things look familiar, but when I wake up I realize I was in a drunken dream stuper and my mind was in an altered state!

There is meaning, but it feels like it's a different language within myself and my two perspectives of it, ego and subconscious, don't see things the same way. But I still feel the need to find meaning in it.

Why? I don't know. I happen to love puzzles and seek meaning in the abstract and that's why I do it. But it's hard. But then again, if I stop thinking too hard and just feel it and just know what feels right it makes sense to me.

No matter what, dreams and subconscious thoughts are based on memory and emotion

Thats fine for simple stuff but I feel at some level we move past this and start creating like we do when we get a new thought. The building blocks are there but original thoughts come in and when in void states its a new experience that needs new eyes to see it. I dont seek meaning as it is either very obvious or really why bother as if you do find meaning so what, does it really matter that much.

I do seek meaning about the dream but for the dream and not for daily life, two worlds why confuse them

I read your response and will just let it all sink in and ponder this for a while.

torakrubik wrote: Dream interpretation is firmly ingrained in oneirological history. This is clear from historical evidence and research that can easily be found on the web.

Personally, on my journey I have found no reason to believe that dream events symbolically represent real life events. However, dream events can literally mimic real life ones (If you go to a theme park for a day there's a decent chance roller-coasters will feature in your dreams that night) and, in my opinion and to a certain degree vice versa (precognition (but that's another story, let's stick to the topic in hand)).

However, by the existence and activity of this forum it it clear that I am in a minority! So my question to you is, why do you see fit to interpret dream events and compare them symbolically to waking reality events?

I look forward to hearing your views :)

I deem dream analyses important for several reasons.

• I can analyse a dream and get new insights from it to which I can put onto my life or make sense of a life thing I couldnt do before. So to gain more life understanding.

• Im more creative when dreaming and even have dreamed up several inventions I could actually do (I'd love to do a couple of them and register them).

• Ive been seen future events in dreams. (Prophecy). On top of that, dreams can give us good warnings too. (I just responded to someones dream on one of the threads which I believe was a warning to her about what she is doing in real life). Via listening to dreams, they can help one stay out of trouble. My dreams help me to know if a family member is about to run into big trouble (thou sometimes its a feeling I get without an actual dream).

• I like to learn about our subconciousness and the best way to do that is throu dreams. Our subconciousness and knowing what lays there is important as it does affect us in daily life. We can be fooling ourselves about something in daily life but the emotions will come out in dreams.

Knowing our subconsciousness is to help to know ourselves.

HAGART wrote: No matter what, dreams and subconscious thoughts are based on memory and emotion

Im not sure about that, there seems to be other factors going on too.

It doesnt explain people who have a dream of a future event or people who have dreamed up brand new inventions out of the blue. There was one famous invention in which two different unconnected people in different parts of the world at the same time... unknown to each other invented the same thing (sorry I cant now think of what big invention it was.. maybe someone can jog my memory).

I think this could of thing could show an universal consciousness going on out there.

I think this could of thing could show an universal consciousness going on out there.

Or just people thinking and at the same tasks. No more than a lot of people deciding to eat something odd for T on the same night.

Its hard to pin down fact from what we would like to belief at times and there are a lot of people on this planet all sort of doing the same thing.

Peter wrote:

I think this could of thing could show an universal consciousness going on out there.

Or just people thinking and at the same tasks. No more than a lot of people deciding to eat something odd for T on the same night.

Its hard to pin down fact from what we would like to belief at times and there are a lot of people on this planet all sort of doing the same thing.

The invention thou was something very big.. like invention of the light globe or something that big!! (it was something which changed our world). So not something one would expect two different people to dream of and create at once. Something which before then hadnt been done or thought of ever before.

but then you are right.. even something that big being invented at the same time could be a coincidence.

Its a fascinating thought and it could be there is some form of universal consciousness and really no reason why not so I just debate it for fun. I had heard of what you might be referring to and cant remember is the inventors were related in any way buy research projects of not but it happens often enough to give it some credit.

If so then who thought of the idea first and did the second one pick up on it because they were tuned in and thinking about the same ideas, mind robbing... :)

Peter wrote: Its a fascinating thought and it could be there is some form of universal consciousness and really no reason why not so I just debate it for fun.

I had heard of what you might be referring to and cant remember is the inventors were related in any way buy research

They were unrelated and didnt know each other and were in different countries.. far away from each other. They were both shocked when they become aware that the other had done it too.

I guess if they knew each other we could consider .. telepathy or dream sharing of people who are close. But being so far apart, it could of makes those things not at all likely so the only thing I can come up is universal consciousness.... (unless chance but the odds of that in this case was probably less likely then the chance of universal consciousness existing).

I havent heard this happening with other inventors at the same time (I guess most inventors wouldnt even like to share they got the idea from a dream)... thou of cause many do dream thier inventions up and then make them. Some see very complex plans for them in their dreams.

...

I had a very weird dream like that one time myself.. I was looking at all these very complicated plans on paper for something, for some invention..but the plans were so complex (pages of complex diagrams to build something).. I couldnt work out what it was. Who knows if my knowledge was being in a certain area.. maybe I would of been able to understand the plans I saw!! I will always wonder about that.

The new things I have seen in my dreams (inventions) have been simple things which I havent seen or heard about in real life... great ideas.

There is more to dreams than just memory and emotion, but I would say they are the foundation upon which it is built. I suppose our perception of waking reality is built on it too when you think about it.

I have also heard of two scientists dreaming up the same invention, but forget who or what it was. Scientific breakthroughs tend to happen around the same time when a new discovery is made though. The new discovery becomes the keystone needed to put it all together, and it takes a pair of great minds who think alike.

Everything in life or dream is meaningless until we put meaning onto it. As consciously aware human beings, this is a trait we have that is, i think, unique to our species (in terms of placing meaning on our lives). If i give my horse an apple (my horse who is 55 million years evolved) she will only see it as desirable food. Even the word 'apple' is meaningless. Language is the tapestry of our existence, and allows us to add meaning to everything. So then when i hold the apple in my palm, and my horse's soft muzzle takes it, I feel something meaningful in that moment. It could be as small as 'I like the feeling of my horse taking the apple from my hand'. Or as deep as 'This apple is a symbol of my love to my horse. She is the apple of my eye. This apple holds seeds of wisdom that i will share with my horse, and my horse will share with me.' In archetypal terms do i become the snake tempting her in the garden of Eden? :D Any or which way, there is meaning. If i felt nothing, i mean, NOTHING at all and the whole process was meaningless, I 1. Probably wouldn't bother giving my horse an apple as she doesn't need an apple. Or 2. I might just be giving my horse an apple so she can experience pleasure because i am a compassionate human being and anthropomorphising the experience of the relationship with my horse.

Language and meaning are one and the same thing. Once we start to interpret the world through language, we create meaning. Dreams are also a language. If i can say...'I was in an elevator, and it took me to the moon, and on the moon i met George Bush, and he was eating candy floss' I have created meaning. Interpretation of meaning is different. I have a choice here. I can interpret the dream, or i can just put it down to a random set of events that happened in my life and all got thrown into the dream mix.

When i was 5 I ate candy floss and it made me sick. I threw up everywhere.

When i saw George Bush on TV the other day i felt quite sick.

Quite often i feel like i'm on another planet when i watch TV.

So we can see how the tapestry is woven here.

BUT. Out of all the triggers i experience every single day of my life, these 3 came together in one consecutive dream....because i am human i have the ability to ask...

WHY?

Well, perhaps i might remember that my dad was the one who gave me that candy floss. And then told me off when i was sick.

Perhaps i felt he was always power hungry and over controlling...in a sickly sweet kind of way

Perhaps it was time to give him a taste of his own medicine?

Perhaps I feel like escaping to the 'moon' isn't a healthy option and perhaps i should address him on these issues? Rather then just repeating the same old candy floss patterns.

Perhaps getting too much of a good thing can be bad for you? Even if you wanted it in the first place?

Wow, so many questions!

Unraveling them may or may not help me live my life to my fullest potential. ??? Dunno? I just don't think it's a freakishly evolutionary accident that we have this ability to place meaning on our lives and dreams through language, symbolism, and archetypes. I think it is part of the human experience. Consciousness conversing with unconsciousness. How lucky are we to be able to wake up and be lucid at the meeting point?

I made that whole dream up btw. My dad's cool. I Love candy floss. George Bush is an alien.

Great question though. Especially since you asked 'Why?' ;) Seriously though. It IS a good question. I have always said, nothing is sacred. But then if nothing is sacred then perhaps I can make everything sacred?

(I wrote a dissertation on this subject which is why i've got carried away with it, sorry :) I'll stop now.

interesting post, I would add one step in there and that is in the first instance there is feeling. The apple or the candy floss both started out in you mind as feeling and that can be the experience. After that comes meaning associated with the feeling so we have two steps there.

What I try to do when I dont really need meaning is to stop at the first step and base future actions on feeling more that meaning. For me it is more intuitive and can be fun, it is also relaxing and makes for more simple actions.

I agree that meaning can be and is important but also term it as the human condition and think it is overrated a lot of the time as self worth can be associated with what ever meanings you come up with and that open a can of worms

TillyPink wrote: Everything in life or dream is meaningless until we put meaning onto it.

I agree, and with everything else you said too. It was well written and I understand completly. (Then I started to ramble on myself, but maybe you all will find meaning in it.....)

All we see is just colors, but then we make out shapes and then give them names. And some shapes have more familiarity than others. I see colors right now in the shape of a laptop, but not just any laptop... MY laptop and I remember all the good and bad times I have had with it. Others won't see that, but only the shape that they call a laptop, not the meaning that I see behind it. (The same goes for EVERY object in the room you are in, and the entire universe).

And that is just sight. The same goes for sound, smell, taste, and touch. They too have shapes that we give names too such as notes for sound, textures for touch. Some are foreign and some are familiar. Some we regard as pleasant and others painful. A screeching sound, a sharp texture, a harmonious melody, a soft texture. (foreign/familiar = memory; pleasant/pain = emotion. The basis of our perception of reality and dreams).

And all these senses can overlap, and it doesn't always take synethesia to realize this. Common language uses terms like, 'the dish was only one note', or 'that's a smooth song', or 'that dish works in harmony and my taste buds sing', or 'too many sharp notes in that song', 'that visual artwork stinks'!

That's the reality our brains have made for us. Without it, we would only sense meaningless shapes. (Which is how I suspect I viewed reality in my first 2 years of life for the most part, not knowing what things were, what function they had, and they were all nameless).

We view dreams the way we do reality and it's what we are use to, but it can actually work backwards! I once had a short lucid dream in which I was showing off and I raised a Ritz cracker off the ground and made it shatter in mid air from about ten feet away. When I woke up, I was puzzled how I knew it was a Ritz cracker since it was ten feet away (too far to know visually), and vibrant orange unlike any Ritz cracker in real life. I just somehow knew. (I have many examples, but that was the first one that made me ponder this). I think the thought of the cracker and knowledge of it came first and the visual came second as a supporting role. Complete opposite of how I sense things when awake.

I don't know where I'm going with this, but I liked saying it. I should collect all my ideas and make them clear and write my own dissertation. At least for myself.

(One last deep thought: When we recall our dreams, and put them in words, we tend to say, "I did this", and "I did that." Who is the "I" in that sentence? If we are nothing but a collection of thoughts (I think therefore I am), then the objects in the dream, which are dreamed and thought up, are also a part of you. You ARE the dream, not just a character in it. The entire dream is your complete self. :shock: Think about that... I'm starting to. :ugeek: )

HAGART wrote: That's the reality our brains have made for us. Without it, we would only sense meaningless shapes. (Which is how I suspect I viewed reality in my first 2 years of life for the most part, not knowing what things were, what function they had, and they were all nameless).

Since practicing during waking life for LD'ing, I am beginning to become the infant/toddler again, touching, feeling, noticing the colours of things around me with no judgement as to what they are. It's a very mindful act. In mindfulness practice we might taste say, a grape, and not think about the grape as a grape, just be mindfully aware of the sensation and the effect it has on the tongue and in the mouth and how that extends to bodily sensations. Everything in mindfulness is 'meaningless' to some extent...but somehow for me, to take away the meaning, the language of it, it almost becomes more sacred to me. It's all a paradox.

HAGART wrote: I think the thought of the cracker and knowledge of it came first and the visual came second as a supporting role. Complete opposite of how I sense things when awake.

Agree. You 'thought' the cracker into existence...gosh, some would say that is how we continually expand our world...thoughts always come first. In physical reality we just perceive it to be the other way round. Now come on HAGGART ... what did the ritz cracker mean to you?? Deep inside? :D

HAGART wrote: (One last deep thought: When we recall our dreams, and put them in words, we tend to say, "I did this", and "I did that." Who is the "I" in that sentence? If we are nothing but a collection of thoughts (I think therefore I am), then the objects in the dream, which are dreamed and thought up, are also a part of you. You ARE the dream, not just a character in it. The entire dream is your complete self. :shock: Think about that... I'm starting to. :ugeek: )

Yup me too. Topically appropriate Descartes quote there. I've always been aware of this when doing dream work, but in LD'ing it's very exciting to explore. I had this LD a few weeks ago and i won't go into it all but part of it involved me standing inside the frame of an open window. There was a half lit garden below me and 2 women were walking down there. I wanted to jump but I felt scared...i don't fear flying, it was something else that was haunting me ...anyway, i did so many reality checks, I knew i was dreaming 100%....and i felt sad that I still couldn't let go (big metaphor going on there) But you know what i missed? The most obvious thing that dawned on me after? I was already in the garden!! Flipping heck...i AM the garden, and the window I'm clinging too...that thing that was haunting me? My thoughts! It was so emotional when i realised i started actual crying! So who exactly IS that woman clinging onto this 'window of opportunity' (see what i did there? ;) ) Which goes full circle and actually answers the OP's question...this is why i interpret my dreams. To help remove obstacles...since everything in dream is essentially a thought, like your ritz cracker, i want to help myself think great things into existence. There's no stuff in dreams (or perhaps in waking life either)...just thoughts.

Explore the full potential of the levitating ritz cracker!! That can of worms Peter mentioned...it's totally open in my dreams (and in waking life) and I'm cool with that! Well, as long as there's rum I am.

Gorr, i've never been able to answer a question directly!

Write your 'dissertation' and we shall all mark it for you. Don't forget we are all dream characters here. So you might get some weird responses. :D :ugeek: