Meaning of dreams

[Little snowfox]

Oh no! Not about the 'meaning' of dreams! lol, just kidding.

But, I have noticed that on this specific forum, a lot of the people do not think that dreams have meaning. Often, on most dream fora that is completely the opposite. So I am curious about the why of this. (The believe dreams really are very random creations of the brain, and meaningless.) I have even read somewhere that it is a waste of time to try to figure it out.

It is probably obvious already that I do believe in the meaning of dreams, but that does not matter. I like exploring the other side as much as exploring my own.

So, why do dreams have meaning, or why are they completely random and meaningless?

(I do not talk about lucid dreams by the way, I did not try that very often yet. Only this past week, and some years ago for one week).

[zombiebrain]

you could call me a dream atheist:)

I believe that dreams are random reflections of our feelings and thoughts that arrange themselves into full images and stories.

as opposed, lucid dreams carry more meaning because your thoughts are THERE, filling up your world, you'll know what I mean after having more lucid dreams.
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[Red Ochre]

I'll admit it -- I too will find meaning in my dreams sometimes.

And why not take meaning from dreams? Perhaps it really is complete random nonsense. But the way I see it, it's the same kind of nonsense as trying to extract meaning from tarot cards: no matter the spread, you will still find a way to make the cards fit your life. Some people might call that intuition and I'm okay with that. Others might feel that since the cards themselves don't already hold some core of truth -- that you have to actually SEEK IT OUT by examining your life and wishes -- well, then, it's all pointless, you can do that just by writing in a journal or something, why add in all that mysticism to it? I'm fine with this perspective too.

However, I feel that one of the most important things to learn is the ability to look at your life from different angles. Often times I think we're just too close to our own lives. Yeah, that kinda sounds silly, it's YOUR life, how can you not be close to it... But really, think about how much of our daily existence is determined by forces beyond our own personal will. There are other people with their thoughts and actions, our upbringing and culture and all the fears plus mental filters that come with that, our physical health, our wealth or lack thereof, the economy, our education, the weather (yes, weather of the ordinary kind -- ever had a much looked-forward-to appointment spoiled by an abrupt thunderstorm or a great day defined by the sheer amount of sunshine you got?), and so on. And that's not even counting things like disease, natural disaster, sudden luck or misfortune, etc. There is a lot of noise around us, and really the only way to stay FOCUSED is to block it out, ignore it. At least consciously. Subconsciously, we still soak it up.

In my interpretation, dreams are the subconscious’s way of taking all of that background noise, putting the pieces together into something that makes sense – or at least is organized into some kind of story – and then presenting it back to us. We “live through” it again, only this time we don’t block it out because all those details have been condensed into something we can focus on.

Of course, there’s an obvious problem. Dreams are far from logical, and are usually symbolic rather than literal. Trying to put them into a context that is useful can be difficult. But it can be done, and I can honestly say that dreams have helped me understand things in my life that in waking life seemed too complex to unravel, where I was just too close to see the whole picture. They have also helped me understand myself a bit better, the way I associate things, the fears and desires I have, and so on.

They also occasionally seem to predict the future, at least on a small scale. I assume it because my subconscious has picked up on all the puzzle pieces I’ve missed by being too busy with the daily grind, and simply proceeded to put them together.

For instance: In one dream, an ex-friend and her boyfriend come to visit. I meet them at a train station. The woman is in a wheelchair (she isn’t in real life), and she seems unhappy. We are in an old town, with buildings that seem on the brink of disrepair. Later, I go into “labor” but don’t actually deliver a child. The boyfriend consoles me and takes me to the hospital (which looks like a hospital that is close to my hometown growing up). We make out, yada yada yada.

A few days later, in real life, the ex-friend and her boyfriend really do come to visit. We gather up some more people and travel up to the neighboring town, an old mining community that is now slowly losing its population to the bigger cities up north; most its building are fifty years old or older and lacking regular upkeep. We go to the city’s “haunted” museum – an old train station plus inn that was shut down when the mines were, and is now a museum. We have a fun time, come back. Now the NEXT evening, I have a presentation to make at one of the dormitories on campus – the coloration of the dorm building is nearly identical to the hospital back home. I don’t want to because I am not feeling well – stomach flu – but I go anyway. Ex-friend and boyfriend walk me there before leaving town.


So how did my mind manage to create a dream that so closely reflected those two evenings? I can guess.


The visit itself: ex-friend had mentioned she would probably visit.

The train/museum: she had expressed desire to visit the museum while up here. The only off thing is that I hadn’t been there before and didn’t know that the place used to be a train stop until I heard it from the tour guide. At least, I didn’t know that I knew it. I probably picked it up in some conversation without realizing it, or it is just an association with mining itself (I knew about the town's history).

Labor/stomach flu: I was likely already getting sick at the time of the dream.

Hospital/dorm: I knew that I had a presentation to give. It being a hospital in the dream is a natural progression from the labor theme.

The wheelchair: this probably symbolized the woman’s mental state. Either that or wishful thinking.

The making out: Purely wishful thinking…sigh.


So my mind was already supplied with most of the details, see? My subconscious just put it together. I probably could have done so consciously as well if I had cared to, but I didn't. Pretty cool if you ask me.

P.S., I hope you enjoyed the novel. I was bored.

[dylan9236]

sorry Red Ochre I didn't read the whole thing for obvious reasons...maybe later.

Personally I do not believe dreams have 'meaning' as such, however I do believe they can tell you a little something about yourself.

If you pay close attention to the events in your dreams, it is often very easy to see how your mind sculpted them from things you saw or did recently. Some people who beleive that dreams have meaning would say that these events that shaped your dreams are the things that are most important to you, but I think it's just that they are the things that stood out to you the most because they were out of the ordinary. Either that or they were the things that you did not pay too much conscious attention to during the day but that your subconscious mind thinks you need to examine a little closer.

Just guesswork on my behalf but I think it has some merit. Interested to hear other people's opinions of course

[Little snowfox]

Red Ochre, thanks for your thoughts! I think we do filter out a lot during a day, and I agree with the idea that our subconcious probably takes in a lot more. Your thoughts led me to thinking about people with autism. I wrote my final essay about Autism about 6 years ago, but did not cover dreams. I wonder how they dream. Because one of the idea`s about what they have, is that they do not filter out all that we filter out, and become overwhelmed if they do not completely close themselves off (in whatever way). I am not quite sure if this indeed is the problem, I always felt things where missing in that theory. But if it is maybe a different way of sleeping and dreaming could play a role. (just a thought that was flying by, nothing more )

I also like how you point out that it helps us to see the whole. It does put us in different positions in story lines that might not be the same, but relevant in the symbolic way anyway.
I do believe that dream stuff can be seen as symbolic. We have the ability to think in symbols, it is part of how our mind works with information. Letters are symbols as well, its only a shape but has meaning when it is put together with other shapes. Our mind is able to translate it for us.
I believe its more or less the same with dreams. Different happenings, objects, smells, colours, people or whatever.. make a complete story for us. One that we can follow while being in the dream. And one, that gives us thought during the day (if we remembered). I do not know how it is for others but my mind directly starts watching it all together and starts working on what this or that was about.

Dreams are also very very personal, and tell huge stories about the dreamer. About yourself.. which is meaningfull is it not?
If one person is chased by a monster in a dream, he/she might fight it by throwing a sword (or whatever ) in the monsters belly.
Another person dreaming about the monster might run away.
Yet another dreamer might have many people with him/her that all run or battle the monster.
The way a person responds 'alone' is already meaningfull, like a mirror of the persons state of being during daytime.

And really.. if I stay with the monster example. Is it not true that a monster would symbolize any kind of dangers/something going very wrong/fear? Is the monster symbol, just random? It does not mean one of these things?
Take the spider, many people fear the spider, in my dreams, it is (as I believe it) a symbol for fear, pure fear. I dream about spiders when I am dealing with scary stuff in the awake life. In one dream I might deal with the spider and throw it out, in another I might be scared to death and run, hide, scream.
When I am overwhelmed in real life by emotions, I often dream about storms or something like it. Are my storms totally random right then? Or do they mirror me in a symbolic way?
To me.. this is just so very clearly telling me about how am doing in the awake life. It, to me, really is a mirror. Quite meaningfull and handy and 'really' not only random. The mind just seems to find the images that fit with a certain state of mind, a certain believe, a certain problem etc. It seems random, if you do not understand your own minds symbolism
Your own minds symbolism is created out of all of your experiences, and the person that you are.
Another for example might find the spider extremely fascinating, so it would mean something different for that person.

I do think that some dreams are more random then others, some dreams are full of meaning, some are not (or just more difficult), so it seems to me.

[marsmenschli]

random..such a funny word
but i say the wrong one if you want to describe dreams.

if dreams are random that means that there are just constant flashes of different images in front of you.
this is probably not how you would describe a dream.

meaningless or nonsense would be a better word for it.
but i say just because we cannot explain something doesnt have to mean that they are meaningless.

there is a hole in the knowledge of mankind. feel free to fill that hole with anything you want. (people have been doing this all the time. thats why they came up with "god" or "soul"

of course there is no must. but i'm used to question everything. thats who i am. and for me i want to fill that hole.

thats why i take an interest in dreams. thats why i try to analyze my dreams. thats why i read books about dream....

btw. dreams are not improtant or we would remember our dreams every night.

neurologist will tell you that dreams are "brain-garbage"
well i like to analyze this garbage to see what i've eaten in the past, or maybe if i have eaten something that was after the expiry date

[jake_uwo]

I think that dreams can have personal meanings but not in the way that dream books or whatever relate certain dream elements to something specific. For me sometimes I do find insight during some dreams, not all. Not really in any lucid dreams, however during a lucid dream I think that there is alot of opportunity for self reflection.

Really if you have a dream wake up from it reflect on it and find that there was something in the dream that has meaning to you, well then I guess the dream has that meaning. I do think that dreams are mostly a random compilation of thoughts or whatever but that doesn't necessarity mean that they are meaningless to you... unless they are.

Bottom line I think its all about what you get personally from each individual dream.