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The meaning of dreams. If you remember a dream and it was intriguing, or emotional, the first thing you want to do is attach meaning to it. It is debatable if a dream ever has a definite meaning.

Meaning of Dreams: Literal

The first step I always take when someone shares a dream with me, is to find out if the dream has a literal quality. Health dreams, for instance, have a tendency to be very literal.

meaning of dreams

For instance, a business man kept having dreams of his secretary taking money out of the cash register. He interpreted it as a sign that he needed to give his female side more energy. He started to embrace and honour his anima (which isn’t a bad thing). But one day, he walked in on his secretary actually grabbing money out of the cash register. the dreams had been a literal warning.

Downside: of course not every dream is literal.

Meaning of Dreams: Symbolic

Usually a dream is interpreted symbolic. Either through the use of dream dictionaries or through personal association.

meaning-dreams

You write down your dream, make a list of every symbol in it and write down the first thing that does to mindful that symbol.

Downside: this method can block some people some times. When you ask them for their first association they look at you in despair and shrug their shoulders.

Meaning of Dreams: 5 Ways

When you are seriously interested in dreams you might have read some good books about them (here is a list of 10 books about dreams I recommended, let me know if i missed a good book).

But in reality, most people jump around intuitively from one method to another. Here is an interesting blog I have written about 5 popular techniques that can help you interpret dreams.

meaning of dreams

Shamanism is one of the oldest religions and the use of the shamanic drum can put you in a trance, with or without help from plants.

Gestalt is an intuitive technique that can help you find the gestalt in a dream. In that way, it resembles the use of Jungian archetypes rather close.

Jungian dream interpretation has been around for decades. It has become very popular, because this method is also very intuitive.

Dream Tending is -in my eyes- a very soft and gentle method, where you give a dream the chance to gently unfold.

Content analysis: there are several dream sites where you can insert your dream into a database that will be used by dream researchers. DreamsCloud is one of them.

Meaning of Dreams: Personal Consultation

This is of course my personal favourite. Getting professional advice on your dream can give your dream so much more depths and meaning.

A professional dream worker can use a variety of techniques. Read this blog that I wrote about questions that can help you determine if a dream worker will add value to your dream.

meaning of dreams

Of course you can always sent me an email if you want a dream consultation. You can also visit my online course page to se if there are courses that might enhance your general knowledge about dreams and mythology.

Because getting involved with your dreams is an investment in yourself.

THIS CONTENT IS CREATED BY SUSANNE VAN DOORN, AUTHOR AND OWNER OF MINDFUNDA; MAKING THE FUNDAMENTALS OF PSYCHOLOGY, MYTHOLOGY AND SPIRITUALITY EASY TO USE IN YOUR PERSONAL LIFE!

What is Mindfunda about?

My name is Susanne van Doorn, I am a Dutch psychologist, blogger and author. I have been working with psychology, dreams and mythology ever since I finished my study in psychology at Tilburg University. I made this independent site to share insights, and recent scientific articles about the brain, dreams, and mythology for use in your personal life.

This posting is categorised as Dreamfunda:
Everything you need to know about dreams. Practical How to’s, the latest scientific research, the most commonly used ways to attach meaning to dreams. This and more is given to you for your everyday use in this part of Mindfunda

Read more about Mindfunda here, or visit our Courses Page.

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Dream analysis, how do you do that? What does my dream mean? Is a question many people ask themself if they wake up in amazement. This article will give you 5 possible ways that are used to unravel the message. I will mention some good books that you can use to apply the method to see if it resonates with you.

Dream analysis way #1: Shamanism

Shamanism is the oldest religion in the world. Living in small groups, Homo sapiens had one or two wise men or women whose function was to be a bridge between earth and sky. They were selected in prescribed ways: chosen by the other shamans, called for in a dream. It was an innate quality.
Shamanism has gotten a new vibe: people want to go back to human nature and get callings in dreams. The trend is now to be your own shaman.
A shaman uses dreams to get in tune with the rhythm of the earth. A way of finding the Schuman resonance. The extended knowledge of ways to induce psychedelic experiences using herbs and vegetables is described by Paul Devereux in his book the long trip.

A good introduction to shamanism is the book of Tom Dale Cowan. Inn this intelligent, clear written book he explains about the basic principles of shamanism. Traveling to the different realms of reality, tuning into natures vibes, exploring your inner imagination to enter the different realms.

Dream analysis way #2: Gestalt

Gestalt focusses on the images of a dream. It does not want to analyse an image to pieces, it wants to look at the whole image, the Gestalt. Frits Perls became one of the prominent spokesmen for Gestalt and his “Verbatim” a collection of his workshops. Perls was not very easy on his workshop participants, he made sure that they came out of their usual way of acting. In his dream analysis he was always looking for the “top dog” and the “underdog”, a way that many people still use when they interpret the content of their dreams.. If you have not read it, you might want to add it to your list of dream classics.

Dream analysis way #3: Jung

Carl Jung broke all the rules of science when he treated day dreams and fantasies as realities. He drew on ancient mythologies, shamanism, and science, pouring them into a tasteful appalling sauce. The book that will tell you most about how to apply his method of working is his book Man and his symbols:

If you really want to understand the ideas of Carl Jung and enjoy all the notes in the Red Book you might want to buy the readers edition:

The readers edition will be so much easier for you to read and handle because it is so much smaller. Reading the Red book has led me to so many good relevant literature that has opened my eyes to a new perception of mythological stories and if Jung his life.

Dream analysis way #4: Dream Tending

Steven Aizenstat focusses on four ways of dream analysis. The psyche is multidimensional. Just like a shaman, Steven distinguishes three realms of consciousness: personal unconscious, the collective unconscious and the world unconscious.

The heartbeat of dream tending is that dreams are alive. A dream is not static, written down in words and brought to an therapists’ office. A dream is alive. Dream characters are more than symbols, they have a mind of their own (something we all have experienced).

Another shamanic oriented notion in dream tending is that everything dreams. Not only creatures with spines like science says, but rocks, trees, plants, insects too. It is the same presumption as Anne Baring takes when she asks the thought-provoking question: What is the dream of the cosmos? In an animated world, everything is dreaming says Aizenstat.

The last presumption of dream tending is that dreams happen now. You could be dreaming, or being dreamed as you read this.

Last year I heard Steven speak for an enthusiastic crowd at a dream conference of the Iasd. I think dream tending is a pleasant mixture of old insights in a new coating, with a foreman that has an appealing charisma.

Dream analysis way #5: Content Analysis

Content analysis has been around since the late ’50s early ’60s. Especially the ground work of Hall and van de Castle is still the leading way in current dream research. Whenever someone wants to graduate using dream work, using this method is the way to gain respect in the community of dreamers. Dream texts can be qualified and analysed using the categories distinguished by Hall and van de Castle.

Untill Milton Kramer’s work Dream research, contributions in clinical practice” gets published at the end of May 2015, you can get more information from the master himself: Robert van de Castle wrote Our dreaming mind. A classic, filled with research about dreams. Here is a link telling more about content analysis.

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THIS CONTENT IS CREATED BY SUSANNE VAN DOORN, AUTHOR AND OWNER OF MINDFUNDA; MAKING THE FUNDAMENTALS OF PSYCHOLOGY, MYTHOLOGY AND SPIRITUALITY EASY TO USE IN YOUR PERSONAL LIFE!

What is Mindfunda about?

My name is Susanne van Doorn, I am a Dutch psychologist, blogger and author. I have been working with psychology, dreams and mythology ever since I finished my study in psychology at Tilburg University. I made this independant site to share insights, and recent scientific articles about the brain, dreams, and mythology for use in your personal life.

Read more about Mindfunda here, or visit our Courses Page.