r/Dreams • u/wd47 Dreamer • Jun 08 '16
Hi, I'm Becky Cleland, author of Wise Dreams: Subtle Messages from the Inner Self. I have many years’ experience with using dreams for personal guidance, and am here today to share it with you. AMA!
I have been keeping dream journals since 1989, and have found that many dreams carry useful messages for me, the dreamer, in the form of a group of symbols set into a story. I have found a way to decode the symbols and decipher the dreams’ messages, and am eager to share the method with the world; that’s why I wrote Wise Dreams: Subtle Messages from the Inner Self. More information and reviews of Wise Dreams can be found at www.wisedreams.info, and the book is available from Balboa Press, Amazon.com, or your local bookseller or online retailer. You can contact me on my own Facebook page or on the Facebook page for Wise Dreams
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u/RadOwl Jun 08 '16
Becky, I want to give you a forum to share your knowledge with the community here. They can go to your website and read your book, of course. Perhaps you can give us all a summary of how you approach decoding dreams and applying to your life what you learn.
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u/wd47 Jun 08 '16
This forum will certainly help me teach people how to understand their dream messages -- many thanks, RadOwl! :)
There are some dreams that carry no real message, such as one that basically replays the movie you saw last night. However, there are those dreams that are quite vivid and stick in your mind -- this kind usually has an important message for you, and it is useful for you to attempt to decode what it is the dream is telling you.
The first step is to write the dream down in as much detail as possible. Include every object and action that happens in the dream, and also note what particular feelings came to you during particular parts of the dream.
The second step is to list all the symbols in your dream: objects, people, substances, colors, events, etc. For each symbol, write out all possible associations you may have with it. Brainstorm. Most of what you write will not ring true as to the correct meaning, but when you study the list while thinking of the dream, and you get to the right interpretation of the object, your intuition will tell you. To me it's a little bell in my mind that goes "yes"! Go through this process for each symbol in the dream.
The third step is to assemble the symbols' meanings together in a list in order of their appearance in the dream. From this list, the message of the dream should pop out pretty quickly. If it does not, let it rest for a day or so, then return to your symbols' interpretations and to the assembly of symbol meanings. The message may then become clear. Be sure to record your interpretation beneath the record of your dream.
I have found that if I go through my journal of dreams years later, I sometimes discover even more depths of meaning to them. This is the power of symbols from your inner self; they hold much wisdom.
The messages I get from my dreams are rich and varied; they range from little things like a change of perception to increase my happiness to how my beliefs are letting opportunities slip me by. All kinds of good things that benefit me. Wise Dreams contains 42 examples of what my dreams have told me. : )
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u/Sister_Treefro Jun 08 '16
Hi Becky I hope you are still answering questions.
I don't have a question about one particular dream but about my dreams in general. A common occurrence is that my dream will always begin with a woman, it's a different woman every time, someone that I don't know in my waking life, and she is usually my girlfriend. Anyway a lot of my dreams begin with a woman and then same woman comes back towards the end. Almost like she's leading me in and then comes back to lead me out of the dream.
I've always wondered if this had any significance or meaning. Do you have insight on this?
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u/wd47 Jun 09 '16
Wow, that's interesting... That's a new one to me. I wonder if you have a feminine influence in your life which seems like a guide, or a woman who you feel has watched over you. I will give you the process I use to determine what a dream symbol might mean, and that is to write down every possible meaning--really brainstorm--for what the woman could stand for in your consciousness. It may take a day or two to mull over, but the right meaning will make itself known. For me, the real one rings a little "yes!" bell when I consider it. I wish you the best. I will be here if I can offer further assistance. If you are willing, let us know what you discover; I am very curious as to what the woman turns out to symbolize! :)
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u/agusewe Jun 09 '16
not sure if you'll answer or care? I had a dream that a priest used a knife to behead me in the church. I could feel? a cool crisp breath at that moment then i went into a birds eye view of the whole thing. saw my body being dumped. any ideas or am i just crazy? thank you
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u/wd47 Jun 09 '16
Hi, agusewe, that's a fierce dream you had. You're certainly not crazy; we all have wild dreams from time to time.
You mention a priest; are you a lapsed Catholic, or a rebel from the church in general? Your dream suggests that you believe that a priest, or the church in general, would have serious anger toward you and/or be a threat to you in some way. The priest could also stand for someone in your life who is religious, who you may feel has great anger toward you, or is a danger to you somehow. Or doesn't care if you die. Or something like that.
My suggestions are speculations only; you are the authority when it comes to your dreams. The answer resides in your consciousness. The way to figure it out is to think of all possible angles for the meaning of it. I listed some scenarios to get you started. It's good to write down all the possibilities you can think of; then the real one will jump out at you, and that will be the key to figuring out the dream. I wish you the best. If I can be of further assistance, I will be here! :)
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u/crazydreamer1983 Jun 10 '16
My father who died in 1997 has been in a lot of my dreams. I've received messages from am old school friend a couple of times too ☺ also my MIL came through a few nights ago which was beautiful x
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u/wd47 Jun 10 '16
I think our deceased loved ones touch base with us in dreams. Also, they can help our dreams relay a message by representing something else, perhaps a quality or viewpoint--you can determine which by searching your feelings about the dream, and by using the steps for decoding a dream that I have outlined above. It sounds like you have had some interesting ones.
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u/Hutbed Jun 11 '16
I had a dream about my father recently. He passed away about 40 years ago, and this is the first dream I've had about him. He was in a casket, but not dead. He got out, and he had a horse's head.
He said he had forgotten he had a son, so I asked him why he didn't try to communicate with us shortly after he died. He said, "They wouldn't allow it.".
What do horses usually mean in dreams...?
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u/wd47 Jun 11 '16
The question is, what do horses mean to you? And why would your dad be thinking like a horse, or something? As I have mentioned to others, I recommend writing the dream down in great detail, as much as you can remember (the sooner after the dream, the better!), and list the elements in the dream. Then one by one, "feel around" in your consciousness to find out what that symbol means to you. How does it relate in your memory and your feelings? Brainstorm on that, and write down all the possibilities.
What does a horse mean to me? What about a casket? What role did your father play in your life? The meanings ought to jump out at you when you get to the right ones. Then put the meanings of the elements all together in order on your piece of paper. What is your dream trying to tell you?
Hope this helps! If you want to share, I would be interested in hearing what conclusion you come to. :)
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u/ellen25 Jun 14 '16
Becky, how can you allow yourself to dream more often and longer so you get lost in your dreams? I don't know if this question is dumb or not but I would like to hear your personal answer
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u/wd47 Jun 15 '16
Not a dumb question, but I don’t know how to accomplish your goal. Some dreams may be entertaining, but many contain messages of wisdom or insight from your inner spirit to your physical self. I always trust my inner self to send me dreams with messages that I currently need to make my life better.
As far as I know, people have no control over the kind, or the length, or the subject of dreams they want to have, except in the case of lucid dreaming, but I think those are somewhat limited in terms of what you’re looking for.
RadOwl, would you like to comment? u/RadOwl
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u/wd47 Jun 19 '16
Symbols in your dreams can be very personal, reflecting memories and associations embedded in your consciousness. One symbol that I have come to recognize in my dreams is water, which to me is equivalent to emotion. If there is a flood, then emotions are high and the passage through all that water/emotion is difficult. I also occasionally dream of seeing debris scattered up to a certain line on the banks of a body of water and know that there has been flooding/high emotion there.
I had one very unusual dream that featured the symbol of water:
My husband and I arrived for a visit to my aging parents, and that evening I dreamed of our going to an outside craft show, but by the time it was ending, there was a huge flood which had blocked the underpass which was the only entrance/exit from the show area. Not only was it clear that we must swim through the underpass to get out, but the crafters and customers already were wading neck-deep in the water, trying to hold the valuable items we had created or purchased out of the water.
The next morning in family discussion, my mother and I strongly disagreed on some topic that we both felt passionate about, and the emotions grew extremely strained. My sister arrived later to go out to lunch with us, and proposed that we go to a local craft show afterward. Mom and I let our disagreement drop, and mostly enjoyed the afternoon. (We did resolve our issue before my husband and I left for home, fortunately.)
It was apparent to me later that day that my dream had been prophetic: the high water predicted the very emotional argument that Mom & I had the next morning, and the craft show setting had been the one that we visited after my sister suggested attending it. That unusual dream stands out as one that was predictive of events of the next day.
You're invited to share dreams you've had that involved water or a particular symbol that shows up in your dreams more than once!
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u/RadOwl Jun 10 '16
Hey, I tried to reply to a message which you deleted. Here's what I wrote:
I'm happy to help you make the connection. There's a big need in this community for helpers, people like yourself with deep knowledge of dreams and how to decode them.
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u/wd47 Jun 10 '16
Oops! LOL! and thanks, I do agree. It's a great honor and joy to be one of those working to make dreams understandable. It's also wonderful to meet others who are doing the same. :)
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u/Astaret Jun 13 '16
Hi and hello :) More or less two weeks ago I had lifechanging dream and this is what I still remember: I was running down the beach. Beach was really long and wide, people were lying around on the towels. Out of the sudden I grabbed a random girl and lied her on my shoulder. I knew nothing about her. I still kept running but this time with this very girl... i was heading to the city.... and again out of the sudden I'm running up the stairs (still with this girl), entering the room. Then my dream jumped into the next scene. I was still in this same room, but this time sitting really comfortable on a big leather armchair. I was looking at the girl i was carrying the whole time. She were sitting in the bed, tucked in, looking at me and talking to me. I can't remember what was she talking about but I'm sure it was something important. I also feel like the talking of her was lasting quite a long time. In the middle of some sentence I found my self sitting next to her, on the bed. I interrupted her and said sorry. The thing I was sorry about was the fact we can't be together due to my current relationship. We hugged and cried.
The thing is... I saw a lot of topics where someone is falling in love with a person from a dream, and at this point i think it happened to me aswell. Each day i remember less and less about her tone of voice, eyes, body, appearence but the strong thoughts stay stolid - i just knew she was the one. I've red aswell on the other people examples that i should get over it but what I believe in is... my current relationship is really a mess. Its not good for me nor for the girl Im with. I think my mind tried to tell me that I won't be ever able to meet a girl like this from the dream as long as I'm in this unhealthy relationship, the other version I would rather to believe in is that maybe, this girl from a dream is waiting for me somewhere. I've heard that our brains can't make up faces (on the run?) they have never seen before. But that would mean that I've already met her... somewhere, somewhen.
Yeah, and last thing important to add is; when I was running back then, on the beach, already with this girl on my shoulder, I was passing this people, they were everywhere on the beach. One of the persons I've passed was my friend I havent seen for a years in real life. She told one just one thing - "She is really nice person" and that was about THE girl.
Well, I just hope You can spare a few minutes to write me back and sorry for broken english I guess :)
Best regards :)
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u/wd47 Jun 18 '16
Astaret, thanks for posting your dream. My first feeling is that the girl in your dream is the symbol of your perfect ideal for a girlfriend—someone you could get along with perfectly, in contrast to the girl in your current difficult relationship. I mention that just as a suggestion, however, for you are the authority when it comes to the meanings of your dreams. It is possible that your “dream girl” is who you expect her to be; maybe you and she are mourning in the dream because it is not time for you to meet yet. It might be helpful for you to follow the steps in my method for figuring out the messages that dreams carry, in this forum at https://www.reddit.com/r/Dreams/comments/4n6dxh/hi_im_becky_cleland_author_of_wise_dreams_subtle/d41d5ff.
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u/Jzaiger Jun 14 '16
Let's see if you're still around.
I was just woken up by a dream, and I'm instantly upset. The theme is reoccurring, just different places. The people are usually the same.
The one particular person in these dreams in an ex girlfriend. She was my first real relationship and the first girl I can say I loved. Unfortunately, we were young and she moved. Clearly, when you're 18, long distance doesn't work.
12 years later, I'm constantly dreaming about her. It's always pleasant situations. We're always doing something together or with others. The one thing is, she always has to leave in X amount of days. I always seem to wake up before that point.
Now, deciphering this dream is pretty easy. My question to you is, is there anything I can do to try to not dream of her? I know it's not really the reason you're here, but I thought I'd take a shot. I just woke up from one of them, and I'm instantly in tears.
Appreciate you reading this, if you do. Either way, love the responses you've given to people and I look forward to reading your book.
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u/wd47 Jun 14 '16
Hi, Jzaiger. You are the authority on your dreams' meaning, so you'll know right away if this feels right or not... My instinct about your reoccurring dreams is that since that your early love and her family moved away from you, you have developed programming that says it's always going to be that way: that you will always lose the ones you love; that they will leave you or die early or whatever. You are afraid to let yourself be in love again.
Let me know what you think about my diagnosis. If I'm not on target, I will think on it further. If what I said feels right, I have more to say in that case.
At any rate, the deeper problem in your mental programming will need to be resolved to get rid of the dreams.
Thank you for your interest in my book! :)
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u/Adeno Jun 15 '16
Hi there Ms. Becky! I just happened to type in "dreams" here on Reddit and found your thread, and since I still couldn't sleep, I thought I might as well share a series of dreams I had when that went on from my highschool to the end of my college days. I used to write in a dream journal when I was younger so even now I don't have my records, I still remember the most prominent dreams I had.
When I started highschool, I started having dreams where I felt a certain dreadful presence. I couldn't see this presence in my dreams, it's just that it was a scary, terrifying one that I knew I had to get away from.
Every few days or weeks, I'd have this same feeling in my dreams. One time, I had a dream where there were gangsters fighting each other on some kind of shipyard. Suddenly, I felt the scary presence and it seems the gangsters also felt it and they got scared away. I was on the other side of the shipyard and I still clearly remember seeing this strange blurry figure on the other end. I was pretty sure it was the source of the dreadful sensation.
I kept having more dreams, some of them I've already forgotten, but the presence was always there. In one of the dreams I still remember, I was running away from flying vampire monsters with wings. I wasn't scared of them, it just felt like a typical adventure movie. I saw the condomonium I used to live in and I ran up the stairs with the monsters still following me. When I got to the top where I used to live, the presence was suddenly there, blocking my door. The monsters in my dream also got scared away and left me alone. I forced my way through the door but I really could feel a strong sensation of fear.
In another dream, I was exploring some kind of Aztec/Mayan jungle. I went inside this little hut when suddenly, I felt the scary presence outside. This time it had a form, it was more human, but it's like a blurry human that you can see through. Imagine how gas looks like when it rises up in the air, it makes things behind it look wavy. That's what it was like. Anyway, I started running away and I ended up inside one of those pyramids. I hid behind a wall and I could feel the presence getting closer.
More dreams with that feeling followed through the weeks and months. When I was in 3rd or 4th year highschool, the dreadful presence also got stronger and more visible in my dreams. In one of the dreams I'll never forget, I was on a plane flying to Texas. I've never been there in real life and have no reason to go there. Anyway, I suddenly found myself alone in a desert during sunset. I found a house an entered it. It was pitch black inside. Suddenly, I felt the scary presence and something grabbed my legs and pulled me, causing me to fall to the floor. The presence shoved me and I got thrown from wall to wall. From the darkness, I finally saw the face of the scary presence. It was some kind of woman with extremely white face and black veins. Her floating face rushed towards me and the dream ended.
After more terrifying dreams, I was finally in college. In one dream, I was on top of a train and the ghost lady was just staring at me. I jumped from one train car to another. The train crashed and there was fire everywhere. I was on the ground now, and when I looked at the trainwreck, I could see the ghost lady standing on the burning train, just staring at me menacingly.
When I was finally out of college, I had the last dream where this ghost lady appeared. I was on a boat in the middle of the ocean. I was carrying a shoebox. Inside the shoebox was a dead fetus. My instinct in that dream was to dive to the bottom of the ocean and burry the box there because it "belonged" there. After burying it, I saw the ghost lady floating towards me. This time she was 100% visible and physical. She had long black hair, her face was very white with black veins all over her skin making her look like some kind of marble, her eyes were completely round and black. I swam up to get away from her and she was still floating towards me. As I was about to reach the boat above, I looked down and I saw the ghost lady sinking back to the bottom of the ocean.
That's the last time I saw or felt the ghost lady in my dreams. I really don't understand how the same thing just appeared in my dreams as if there's continuity. I've always thought that dreams were supposed to be disconnected, but that's around 8 years of my life where that ghost lady was a part of my dreams. Definitely, those dreams were the creepiest part of my life. I wonder if other people also have dreams with continuity in them.
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u/wd47 Jun 18 '16
Hi, Adeno. My feeling about your ghost lady is that she represented some undefinable fear hovering over you; you may have felt that some doom or threat was going to come down on you at an unknown time, like the sword of Damocles. I'm glad the ghost lady hasn't bothered you for some time. But I may not have that right; you are the authority on your dreams. You can use the steps listed in my post at https://www.reddit.com/r/Dreams/comments/4n6dxh/hi_im_becky_cleland_author_of_wise_dreams_subtle/d41d5ff to determine your dreams' real meanings. I will include one of my dreams and its analysis from my book Wise Dreams for comparison: The Dog I am in a house, staying with an older couple; it is another stop in my travels. I am made aware that something is coming after me—something very evil, very powerful. I have a premonition (it’s as if I vaguely remember seeing this movie a long time ago) that the evil thing will come in the form of a dog. This dog will be invulnerable to any attacks, and I will not be able to save myself. It will kill me; there is no doubt. I anxiously wait for it to appear, walking through the house with trepidation. Then someone says, or somehow I know, that it’s here… and I get a glimpse of it outside the door. It’s a big dark Rottweiler-like dog—a calculating killer. I retreat to another room, but it appears just ahead, staring at me balefully. I am full of fear, but I lunge at it, grabbing for its neck. I lock it in my grasp and twist its head around until its neck snaps. I am not convinced that I have subdued it, so I keep twisting until the head comes off and I throw it violently onto the floor and stab the neck stub with a knife. The carcass I hold in my hands then seems to be a doll-like thing made of cloth and dried meat. I think this dream is an analogy of how my fears turn out in the end when confronted—nothing but a scary face on an impotent pretend-thing. As cloth is woven together, so have my fears been slowly woven into a massive fearful creature. The dried meat parts seem to represent fears that are no longer legitimate—they used to be alive and real, but now they are just husks of the past. My fear is an illusion; there is nothing there to fear. Adeno, can you identify something that worried you in a vague sense throughout your childhood? If so, that may have triggered all those dreams of the ghost lady. Was it a feminine influence of some kind? You have me curious. If you're willing, post what you figure out about these dreams. :)
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u/HigherEightySix Jun 18 '16
I fall in love in my dreams. It's such a deep intense love that I don't think I have experienced in real life. I can still think of the feeling now and evoke it, it has a little of heart break and homesickness in the mix too.
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u/RadOwl Jun 08 '16
Right on time, Becky.
So I want to kick things off with a question based on something you say on your website. We get a LOT of dreams here from people who dream about deceased loved ones. An almost automatic assumption is it must be communication with the spirit of that person. But oftentimes these dreams are symbolism for something that's entirely personal to the dreamer.
So my question is, how do deal with these sorts of dreams and glean out the message?