The Five Different Types of Dreams

I have had two recurring dreams for as far back as I can remember. They sometimes vary in small details, however, for the most part they remain the same.

The first one is strange in that I can view it but not myself. That means, that I don't have any idea how old I am in the dream. In fact, I have no real conscious idea of my own body. In many ways it is as if I'm viewing the dream remotely.

The dream takes place on the porch of my grandmother's house. It's a beautiful sun shiny day in late spring. The air is crisp; not too hot and not too cool. The sky is a stunning vivid shade of blue. There isn't a cloud in the sky, yet I see a huge rainbow that seems to span the length of my field of vision.

As I watch, totally in awe of the beauty of nature, I sense that my body is beginning to shake. I have no reason for the thought since I can't see my body. However, the concept is clear in my mind. Then I realize that it isn't me that is shaking, but the earth itself. I remember thinking it odd since, as a rule, we don't have earthquakes in Oklahoma.

As the ground begins to split open, panic sets in. Yet I cannot move. I'm glued to the spot. Then as I watch, in terror, balls of fire begin falling from the sky. I remember thinking that they look very much like the scene in "The Ten Commandments" when God rained fiery hail down on Egypt because the pharaoh refused to let His people go.

With that thought, I always wake up. I've never gotten any further in my dream. I have no idea of its ultimate conclusion. I only know in my heart of hearts that I don't really want to know how it ends.

Because of this and another recurring dream, which I'll share with you later, I've always been interested in the meaning of dreams. It is a fascinating subject with a wide variety of theories.

Some people believe that dreams are a link to the deepest recesses of our psyches, but few experts totally agree on their purpose. Some say that dreams are a way for us to problem solve while we sleep. Others say that our dreams try to give us knowledge about our lives - - past, present, and future. Still others suggest that our dreams have no meaning at all.

The one thing on which most dream analyzers do seem to agree is that they have significance. The trick is determining exactly what the significance truly is.

Over the next few articles, I intend to share information about dream analysis and some of the most popular and well-respected theories about the meaning of dreams. To begin, let's start where we should, at the beginning.

There appear to be many different types of dreams. Some even combine together to make the dream more difficult to understand and infinitely harder to analyze. In the purest form, however, dreams can be put into five categories of dreams: Aspirational, astral, liberating, problem-solving, and psychic.

Aspirational dreams deal with our internal wants, desires, and wishes. For example, a young girl who fancies herself in love with her current beau, might have a dream where he asks her to marry him or she might even "view" her own wedding in elaborate detail.

Although similar in nature to psychic dreams, aspirational dreams don't always deal with reality and might not even flow in any kind of orderly pattern. Because an aspirational dream deals with our imagination or fantasies, they don't have to make perfect sense.

Aspirational dreams might end with us achieving a desired goal or they could show us why something we desperately want might not be the right choice for us. Sometimes, they end abruptly without any definitive conclusion.

Astral dreams are sometimes remembered but just as often forgotten as soon as we awake. These are the dreams where we generally meet with friends and family who have already passed over. According to many new age believers, it is also the time that we spend with our spirit guides; strangers that we only recognize in our dream.

The purpose of Astral dreams is for us to gain assistance from those in a unique position to see the big picture, while we can only deal with where we currently are and what we want. Astral dreams tend to have a logical order, unlike the wild and often confusing situations involved in other types of dreams.

There are no limits with regard to time or space in an Astral dreams. For this reason, we will often choose a location that we always wanted to visit or someplace where we have always felt safe for the background of our dream.

Generally, the people we pull into our Astral dream will be happy; happy to see us; happy with their after lives; happy in every respect. For this reason, Astral dreams are almost always quite pleasant. And, although we might not remember it, once we awake we automatically have an answer to whatever question or situation was plaguing us prior to the dream. It's like our thoughts are suddenly crystal clear with the right decision.

Liberating dreams serve a very important function. They help us to get rid of fears, insecurities, and frustrations that we can't seem to deal with when we are awake. These regrets, worries, and concerns are often buried deep inside our subconscious and, for that reason, we might not even recognize them as issues in our daily lives.

Liberating dreams are almost always confusing. They happen in a non-logical way. Like pieces of a puzzle before they are put together, these issues flow into our dream in no particular order.

Liberating dreams also generally involve some form of denial. That is often expressed in the dream by running away from something we fear like a tiger, a bear, or even an imaginary monster. Sometimes, we can even call them nightmarish because they force our conscious mind to deal with something that we can't, or won't, recognize when we are awake. That deep seeded fear, therefore, takes on an evil form.

In truth the creature or monster we are attempting to escape from is actually ourselves. Until we become willing to deal with that part of ourselves that needs help or repair, there won't be an escape from the monster we conjure up in our dream.

Problem-solving dreams are pretty self-explanatory. If you have ever gone to sleep with a problem on your mind, only to wake up with the perfect solution crystal clear, then you have experienced a problem-solving dream. This type of dreams is the way for our sub-conscious to get through to our conscious mind.

I've often woke up in the middle of the night with the perfect ending to a piece I have written or recipe with which I was struggling. These types of dreams are very common even if we don't realize what they are.

Psychic dreams almost always happen in sequential order. Unlike some of our other dreams, which can be either in black and white or color, psychic dreams are always in the brightest, most vivid colors that we can imagine.

Oddly enough, you don't have to be intuitive to have a psychic dream. Of course, if you are, it might help you better understand the experience.

The purpose of psychic dreams is generally to deliver a warning. Sometimes the dreamer receives enough information to deal with the warning once they awake. Other times, they might only be aware of feeling of discomfort or uncertaint fear that only crystallizes when it must finally be faced.

For example, I once had a dream about a car accident in which a little red Pinto was crushed by a semi truck. At the time, I didn't know anyone who owned a Pinto, much less a red one. However, shortly after the dream occurred, I became fast friends with a co-worker at my new job. One day, when my car wouldn't start, she volunteered to drive me home. You can imagine my surprise when she led me straight to her little red Pinto.

Most of our dreams actually serve a viable purpose. Once we understand what they are trying to tell us, we can use them to achieve both short-term and long-term goals. The trick, of course, is figuring them out and that, my friends, is the subject of my next article.