Do you assign meaning to your dreams?

[mango-meridian]

Last night I had a dream, but the only thing I can remember is at the end, a woman tapped me on the shoulder and told me that I was about to forget everything that had just happened. And she was right. Kind of spooky and it got me wondering about dreams once again.

Anyway, what do you think about them?

 

[star.trip]

Dreams are very complicated. Sometimes, I dream of a group of beings that comfort me in my sorrows. Other times I dream of the person I loved and still love (it has been a long time since we have seen each other, but these dreams are as if we were meeting and telling each other how we are doing in life).

For me they have a psychological and spiritual meaning.

 

[ConfusedClouds]

I don't dream very often. Most the time I don't think anything of them.

Sometimes when overtired/stressed I can get very specific work related ones (waking up suddenly feeling guilty I fell asleep on the job, only to see I am in my bed so definitely 'allowed' to be asleep!)

But in the past year I have had a couple of very specific and poignant dreams that really caught me. Very relevant to the ongoing psychology at the time (one actually involved my therapist and kinda scared myself, a couple of weeks after 'quitting' therapy - I then re-made contact and discussed this with her).

 

[Noct]

I get really disturbing dreams if I remember having any dreams at all. Otherwise/usually it's just pitch black for the night. Oddly enough they often have coherent plots, but are really dark and/or bizarre. Sometimes it's very visceral. But usually they don't relate to anything, only are influenced by my body state.

Once I ripped out my eyes in my dream and had them replaced with some vining plant that tore apart my face from the inside out because of a cult threatening my few actual friends. But I think that was my dream because I was having a really bad sinus headache that night and the pain tends to rest/centralize behind my eyes. I certainly woke up feeling like I had ripped out and replaced my eyes.

 

[LunarLight]

No, I think they don't make sense.

 

[Agon321]

It depends on what you mean.

I can't explain it, but I often feel like my dreams are more "real" than my life.
In a way, these dreams are more intense and vivid.
Maybe I'm just trying to escape reality and that's how I react to my dreams.

I also have sleep paralysis regularly, which isn't the most pleasant thing in the world, but I've gotten used to it and it doesn't really matter to me.

I don't think I can see my future in my dreams, etc.
However, dreams give me a strange and pleasant feeling.
It gives me a small hope that after death, maybe my consciousness will be in a better place.

 

[Forever Sleep]

Out of fascination, I've looked into the symbolism behind dreams in the past. Especially if they are reoccurring dreams. Like- maybe my subconscious is actually trying to tell me something... Maybe I should try and find out what. I find that weird though. Why would the brain 'speak' to you in a language of symbolism it doesn't actually understand without the help of a translation book? Unless dreams come from some central place.

Sometimes I wonder if the brain is trying to come to terms with more traumatic events. Sometimes I have nightmares about a person from my past I'd much rather forget. Sometimes I wonder if that's my brain trying to get me to face them and get over it properly.

One thing I read that I found interesting was that all the characters in our dreams aren't actually other people, they are elements of ourselves. I used to often have (really scary) dreams of people trying to break in to a childhood home. This interpretation claimed that these people were aspects of myself that I didn't want to face. The advice was to learn to lucid dream- where you gain some control over what happens in the dream and, to let them in and face them.

Only once did I ever come face to face with them. Weirdly, it was the most sinister version yet. This time, it was in a flat I once lived in and what looked like blood was pooling under the front door. I opened the door this time and I think we all just had a chat! That seems to happen a fair bit actually. A bit like a horror film. There's all this tension. All this anticipation of something truly awful that's about to happen which seems to go on and on and then, nothing much happens at all! Sometimes, I even kind of realise it's a dream at the crucial moment.

I wonder if anyone here can lucid dream or, if they've even tried. Dreams are so weird though. So incredible really. All that detail.

 

[vitbar]

I'm a frequent dreamer. All I can say for certain is that my hopes and fears would be obvious if anyone could see my dreams.

 

[mango-meridian]

Out of fascination, I've looked into the symbolism behind dreams in the past. Especially if they are reoccurring dreams. Like- maybe my subconscious is actually trying to tell me something... Maybe I should try and find out what. I find that weird though. Why would the brain 'speak' to you in a language of symbolism it doesn't actually understand without the help of a translation book? Unless dreams come from some central place.

Sometimes I wonder if the brain is trying to come to terms with more traumatic events. Sometimes I have nightmares about a person from my past I'd much rather forget. Sometimes I wonder if that's my brain trying to get me to face them and get over it properly.

One thing I read that I found interesting was that all the characters in our dreams aren't actually other people, they are elements of ourselves. I used to often have (really scary) dreams of people trying to break in to a childhood home. This interpretation claimed that these people were aspects of myself that I didn't want to face. The advice was to learn to lucid dream- where you gain some control over what happens in the dream and, to let them in and face them.

Only once did I ever come face to face with them. Weirdly, it was the most sinister version yet. This time, it was in a flat I once lived in and what looked like blood was pooling under the front door. I opened the door this time and I think we all just had a chat! That seems to happen a fair bit actually. A bit like a horror film. There's all this tension. All this anticipation of something truly awful that's about to happen which seems to go on and on and then, nothing much happens at all! Sometimes, I even kind of realise it's a dream at the crucial moment.

I wonder if anyone here can lucid dream or, if they've even tried. Dreams are so weird though. So incredible really. All that detail.

Yes, I've definitely encountered this viewpoint. I went down a small rabbit hole with dream interpretation a year ago (because that's the kind of nerd I am lol) and it touched on dream symbolism. I dunno if I believe all of it but it was definitely interesting.

The big takeaway I got was that all the elements in our dreams, including people, are only potent symbols. They're not the thing themselves. So for example if you have a friend that you find especially trustworthy and that person shows up in your dreams, that person is nothing more than a filler for "trustworthy person".

Another interesting tidbit I learned is that in dreams where you're being chased, the thing chasing you in your dreams is always hindered, injured, lessened or diminished in some way. I think that's always been true for me but I'd have to think about it. (Of course, you may not know unless you turn around and look at it.)

 

[Privateer2368]

Yes.

Sometimes I've dreamed of events before they happened.

Sometimes there's a figure there who explains what they mean.

 

[Pluto]