[PsychNitrous]

I want to say first off, I'm kind of hoping this can be a kind of discussion of the various beliefs about dream interpretation and where it comes from. I've held belief off-and-on about being given messages of some sort in dreams, but I've never really solidified any of my thoughts or beliefs.

I've been seeing a lot if interesting and very specific symbolism in my dreams lately, and it's making me question my beliefs. There have been some really interesting examples. Last week I went to bed one night very anxious about a conversation I had to have with my boyfriend. That night, I dreamt about snakes chasing and attacking me. I've had several dreams lately about losing and breaking teeth, and I've been under a lot of stress lately. These examples have shown me a lot of correlation between my dreams and waking life.

The weirdest example is from last night. I was having a random dream, can't even recall what it was about. There was a quail in this dream. I remember it because it was random and out of place. I looked up the meaning of seeing a quail in your dream, and it means something like good things are coming. Yesterday I was offered a new job, and this morning I got a call for an interview for another job I really want.

What do others believe about "coincidences" like this? I'm beginning to wonder if something or someone is trying to send me a message, but I don't know. Maybe I'm just noticing things that make sense to my life right now?

[Thunder Bow]

Dreams are sacred mirrors. This is how our minds process our days events and our feelings about. Dreams are all about feelings.

[PsychNitrous]

Originally Posted by Thunder Bow

Dreams are sacred mirrors. This is how our minds process our days events and our feelings about. Dreams are all about feelings.

Why do we interpret things the way we do though? How is it that I can dream about being attacked by snakes, and dream interpretation says it represents a situation causing anxiety? Why didn't I just dream about talking to my boyfriend, if that was what was causing my anxiety?

[Thunder Bow]

The snakes may represent other people attacking you verbally. Losing teeth, may mean maturity, or less biting words. The quail may be a part of you, and how you appear to others in real life.

[NeedHaldol]

I have several recurring dreams.

First is that I cannot find my car.

Second - my teeth crumble and fall apart all crunchy like.

I have a dream where I cheated on my wife, but in the dream I do the logic and realize I happened before I met her.

Then the classic one about missing an assignment for school and won't be able to graduate.

[Thunder Bow]

Not finding your car, means it is not as important to you as it once was. Losing teeth means your words no longer have a bite to them.

[treevoice]

I'm not sure what the best way to approach this would be for your mind specifically, but there are a few different ways to talk about this that I think are all different perspectives of the same idea.

From a scientific perspective, your brain contains many layers of physical forms (some from very early on in our evolution or "the lizard brain") and others, such as the pre-frontal cortex, which are more recent evolutionary additions to the brain for what we would think of as "higher faculties". Each layer of the brain has different purposes and communicates in different ways. Language, for example, is a very specific region of the brain where as other regions of the brain may communicate with emotions, or symbols. During our waking life, we are often focused in the language centers and generally involved in the world around us and the future/past worries we have to focus on. When you sleep, you are not consciously focusing your attention, and the subtle aspects of your brain are more free to interact and communicate. From that perspective, you could say that your brain is communicating to your "higher mind" the things which it has been working on in the "subconscious".

If we take further down the rabbit hole, we are coming to understand that all of what we call the universe is essentially a more-or-less infinite expression of intertwined and self-organizing energy, which is experienced in limited capacity by the human mind. We also are coming to understand that what we call the universe is likely not the only realm/dimension that exists. We're coming to understand that quantum particles behave in what we can only refer to as magical ways - existing in multiple places at once, jumping across space instantaneously, etc. Quantum entanglement is a spooky fascinating phenomenon in which particles that are intertwined, no matter where they exist across space time, can influence each other instantaneously with no direct contact.

You could wrap all of this up into a spiritual package, if that speaks to your understanding. We are all manifestations of (divine?) consciousness and we are occasionally graced with instantaneous understandings (realizations, "light bulb moments"). It only makes sense that we don't pay attention to this much in waking life, but during our vulnerable sleep states, we are more receptive to the subtle energies of the people, world, or even spiritual energies around us - or even those of our own inner mind.

Any way you slice it, it's not a terrible unrealistic thing to say that our dreams can communicate with us in meaningful ways. In fact, your sleeping brain experiences dreams almost indistinguishably from waking reality (this is why sleep paralysis is necessary - otherwise, you would physically enact your dreams). Sure, sometimes they are a product of chemicals or random firings, but it seems the more attention you pay to your dreams, the more they begin to hold real meaning. I tend to believe we wouldn't dream at all if it didn't serve a purpose. Maybe you could try keeping a dream journal and see where this path leads you. Sleep on, dreamwalker. <3