The Art and Science of Dream Interpretation

Dream interpretation is both art and science. It begins with something established and applies it to the obscure, employing the known and a bit of pattern recognition to make sense of the nonsensical.

Let's say you want to interpret your own dreams. A dream dictionary is an enormous help, but it takes more than that to get an accurate overall picture of what your dream means. A printed or online reference gives you just the jumping-off point. I do suggest investing in an inexpensive print version, though there are also several helpful sites online that offer extensive dream dictionaries at no charge.

I'll use an example of a dream I recently interpreted. The dreamer was the passenger in a car when she saw a row of several houses on her left, each of the structures in some stage of burning. She noted that the flames were progressive: the first buildings were little more than the charred skeletons of homes, while the last in the row had as yet not received any fire damage at all, though the dreamer knew instinctively that it would soon burn, too.

There was considerably more to this dreamer's recollection, all of which I took into account while working on her interpretation. I also knew quite a bit about her life, which also helped to pinpoint a meaning. (This is where self interpretation wins out over paying a stranger to do it for you!) For the sake of brevity, we'll examine only the first phase of this dream.

Taking things strictly from the dream dictionary, the row of houses would imply the lives of people around the dreamer. The fire could imply a number of things, from sexuality to being "burnt out." In this case, using all components of the dream and looking at how it related to the dreamer's life, all of the houses represented all of the times the dreamer had been forced to start her life over from scratch. Coming to the end of the row with only one house left was indicative that she felt she was approaching a point of no return, a final burnout from which she couldn't recover.

Generally speaking, dreams are not prophetic, and your dreams of necking with Celebrity ABC don't mean you're fated to be together. That's not to say there aren't prophetic dreams, but they are very rare in my experience. As for the favorite singer/actor, it's one of those Freudian moments when a dream is probably just a dream (and a common one, to boot.) There may be times when a celebrity in your dreams is significant, depending on the overall content and the context in which your dream-self interacts with that person. If you're dreaming of romance, chances are it's nothing more than an extension of a crush; but if your dream strays into unknown territory, take note of the details.

Suppose you dream about a celebrity you once idolized but haven't thought of in years. You're not dreaming of them in a romantic or sexual context, and they don't come to you as the stage character you once adored. Perhaps their actions in the dream are wholly out of sync with anything you know about them. In that case, you should look at the original character you once loved, thinking of how that personality trait or traits may play into your life today. Then go to your dream dictionary and your own life, look at the other aspects of the dream, and put it all into the perspective of your life as it's happening now.

The vast majority of the time, our dreams reflect our mental and emotional take on the things we're living at the time of our dreams.

If you're one of those people who doesn't recall their dreams, there are ways to help you remember. Perhaps you wake with the imagery still vivid in your mind, but by the time you leave for work, you forgot you dreamed at all. The best way to retain the images is to write them down, immediately and in as much detail as you can recall. I know people who sleep with a small notebook next to their bed, jotting down particulars the instant they wake. It only takes a few moments to get things started, and the earlier you record the specifics, the less likely they'll become clouded by the issues that confront your waking self.