The time it takes to understand a dream can be much longer than it takes to have it.
It’s one key point when it comes to dream interpretation.
Unbound by physical constraints, unlike other information transmitted through your five primary senses, dreams are more than pictures: they’re communications affecting all the senses. You’re making a mistake if you limit them to just literal interpretations.
Sometimes people refer to this type of information as a “sixth sense” one sees with a “third eye.” They’re referring to a keen intuitive power, a natural ability to know things before other people, to see things others don’t see, and to know what others don’t.
That sort of viewpoint shrouds the dream information in a cloak of mystery and wonder. Perhaps it can seem like that to those who don’t have much experience with this sort of thing. For those who seek to develop the facility by using information obtained in this way, we should note the perspective and then move on. It’s simply not useful to dwell on that aspect.
The helpful attitude is to realize “it” happens. Then to ask how we can make the information more useful and even more reliable. If we let it affect our ego, get carried away on a flight of fancy, the consequences can be tragic.
It’s best to approach the phenomena as scientifically as possible, especially in the matter of mindset. Yet let’s not kid ourselves. When it comes to non-physical phenomena that can’t be readily measured, you can’t approach it using an entirely scientific manner. It’s a misuse of the scientific process and ignorant. Science rightly applies to that which can be measured in some way.
Dreams considered as messages
The medium is the message, communication theorist Marshall McLuhan wrote, summing up his belief a communication medium should be the focus of study, not so much the messages it carries. While that can be debated, the more significant point he made is the medium itself affects the way the message itself is perceived.
Yet dreams, when considered as a communications medium, are limited. You can’t replay a dream for yourself or someone else how you can replay a TV show with a DVR or real life when you’ve taken a picture of a scene. This can complicate any attempt at dream interpretation.
Even so, there are other factors that dreams, as a medium, present that complicate their interpretation.
There will never be other witnesses to a dream.
You can’t take notes during a dream.
Further, the dream experience is immersive. You can’t interpret the dream while you have it.
Well, sometimes you can. People can do all kinds of things in dreams. Your interpretation is likely to be stunted, however, and if you follow through with attempting interpretation when you’re awake, you may very well find out that the interpretation you came up with during the dream is all wrong.
A real understanding needs to wait until you wake up. Interpretation is best made with your conscious mind.
Anyone who has been dream journaling for a time has had the experience of trying to shoehorn the experience of the dream into a few words in their journal.
Nobody but you, yourself, can interpret a dream for you. The best someone else can do is to guide you through the process and make suggestions.
Dreams as messages
Mostly, dreams are messages from yourself to yourself; from your subconscious to your conscious mind. If we’re open-minded and honest, we’ll acknowledge dreams sometimes can feature messages from the other side. If we’re trying to maintain an objective scientific outlook, we can’t say what or who (because we can’t measure or see what we can’t touch), but we can make informed guesses about it. We always have to use our ability to reason as best we can. To do this well, we have to be as detached as possible to this most intimate phenomena.
As in the physical world, just because someone tells you something doesn’t make it true. Yet, when it comes to truth or lies, sometimes the listener is guilty of muddling the message because they hear what they want to hear.
Another adage: actions speak louder than words. All of these psychics, religious, and whoever calling these entities angels, guardian spirits, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, demons, aliens from another planet, Vishnu, memories of a reincarnated self don’t know because these kinds of things don’t manifest physically. Just as you, the best they can do is make informed guesses.
Maybe you feel an overwhelming feeling of love and understanding. That might be a “good” entity, you think.
Can’t lust sometimes be mistaken for lust? Can’t love be misinterpreted?
How about a feeling like your skin is crawling, a miasmic sickness?
Can’t fear be the result of a warning? Isn’t being warned about something bad happening to you that you can prevent good?
You can say, “I had this vision of a young woman wearing a cloak with all of the stars of the universe on it. I had this experience of overwhelming love, of being known better than I’ve ever been known. She told me to love them. Just love.
I think it was the Virgin Mary.”
That’s a whole lot different than saying, “The Virgin Mary appeared to me.”
It doesn’t cheapen the experience to say you don’t know for sure. It’s being a rational observer. Relevant details are what separates an average observer from an outstanding one.
Get those details. Organize those details. Then think in bets.
It’s useful to remember how a dream is elegant the way a flower is.
A flower looks to be a green stem and some petals, but that’s not all. It’s photosynthesis. It’s pollination. It’s all of the systems it takes to live. It’s a loss of petals at the end of summer. It’s all those things. Dive in to the meanings, the symbols.
A powerful, useful dream interpretation is an accurate dream interpretation.
My dream
My question:
Should I put the Dream Recovery System for sale on Amazon?
Amazon isn’t the only avenue for books and other media. I’ve ordered all kinds of things from them over the years. I’ve had mostly good experiences. They get items out on time. I have nothing against Amazon as a business or a service.
I also love the fact you can read reviews. It’s a significant form of entertainment. I’ve written reviews for things, and I love receiving upvotes.
All that being said, it’s not suitable for any one company to have too much power. Capitalism, democracy (things which I believe in) can only thrive when it’s not so concentrated. When it’s concentrated, then it becomes something else that’s not so good. Amazon is too big for our good as a society, especially when they’re well known to access confidential business information from their merchants to then turn around and build their own products. This pattern is unethical.
It’s well worth it for any business to think twice about selling their wares on Amazon.
The dream came through like I was watching a football pregame show. A single stocky player dressed in the uniform of the Indianapolis Colts stood there, right hand on his right hip, helmet in his left hand holding it by the facemask:
He’s a professional lineman skilled in running the ranch dressing play. If that’s what your team is running, you’re going to want him on it. He’s a great off-season acquisition.
Even with a short dream like that, there are several data points.
The stocky player
Standing alone
Indianapolis Colts uniform
Right hand on the right hip
Helmet
Lineman
Ranch-dressing play
A team using a playbook
Want him on team
Great off-season acquisition
A total of 10 data points! As a child, Black Elk was in a coma for several days while he had his vision. There were thousands and thousands of data points in his dream. No wonder it took him his whole life to understand. Each data point must be considered in relation to the others to get the full meaning of the dream.
Unfortunately there’s no grading system where you can tell what percentage of the data points you remembered. Or the skill with which you consider them in relation to others. There’s no feedback. You could completely mess this up. I could mess this up. The blind are leading the blind with a lack of concrete data. The best you can do is hope you’re getting it right.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that it’s useless to try.
Like in so many other areas, it’s not helpful to expect a straightforward yes or no answer. Sometimes there are many possible paths we can take. Even a dream with just 10 data points can take a while to understand.
In the end, I took the dream to mean that if I was serious about making money from selling my system for remembering dreams, learning to deal with Amazon would have to be part of the process. They’re too big to ignore.
Further reading:
The hidden meaning of brown shirts and rainbow collars.
Also on the blog:
James Cobb RN, MSN, is an emergency department nurse and the founder of the Dream Recovery System. He aims to provide his readers with simple, actionable ways to improve their health and maximize their quality of life.
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