Some would be affronted at the notion that dream interpretation is a relatively simple exercise. In truth there are three primary psychic mechanisms at play that foster our nightly dream creation,

Wish Fulfillment
Counterbalance
Maturation

The other 20% comprise spiritual and esoteric matters such as precognition, telepathy and psychic cleansing and practical determinants like keeping us asleep when we need more rest. The spiritual aspect of our dreaming mind is individual, sacred and difficult to itemize since there are literally billions of possibilities! In this article I want to focus on the big three psychic mechanisms at play in the hope of inspiring you to learn even more.

Wish Fulfillment

All of us have hopes and wishes near and dear to our hearts. Some of these wishes we know are hopelessly unlikely to be realized. We may have had our hearts set on them since childhood and their failure to manifest may be causing us great despair, perhaps even depression.

Our unconscious mind, housing among many other wonderful things, a powerful and profound need to survive, is attentive to this lament and leaps to the rescue. It responds to these keenly felt desires by providing us with a vivid display of the realization of our heart’s desire. A play depicting so brilliantly our desire realized that we can believe if only for a few minutes that it’s come true! We can carry on with the belief it has been realized and be happy once more. Our faith is confirmed. We are loved. Be happy! Upon awakening some will be convinced that the dream is a precursor to the true realization of this dream further enhancing those feelings of joy, faith and fulfillment.

A woman who wants to conceive dreams of her baby. In her wish fulfillment dream she walks into her child’s bedroom and picks up the child. She holds the baby to her breast resplendent with deep feelings of connection, nurturance and parental joy. She awakens adamant that she may even be pregnant until the full force of her recent hysterectomy hits her consciousness. You might think that this was a cruel trick her consciousness has played on her but in fact it was a loving and encouraging gift sent by her unconscious mind to help her move forward. A lift out of her depression if only for a brief period to help her get on with the other wonderful things that do bring her fulfillment.

Counterbalance

Occasionally we experience periods of time when we are so completely focused in one direction we are at risk of becoming unbalanced or unhinged psychologically. We may be getting swept up in a political or religious movement; we may be obsessing about a love affair, friend or relative; we may be overly invested in an outcome related to career or physical goal. There are many ways we can get caught up in looking at matters from a somewhat obsessive, singular perspective to the neglect of an alternative, more wholesome and inclusive ideology.

Our unconscious mind leaps to the rescue once again by providing us with dreams that will offer us that much needed counterbalanced perspective. It will subtly (or not!) slap us on the side of the head to wake up and take a closer look at both sides of the story before jumping in whole hog with all our energy firing in one direction. An easy and rather efficient way to discern if this is true is to ask ourselves what is the opposite of our dream? If I’m flying in a dream, what is the opposite to that and how might that be like something I’m doing in waking life? Groveling? Being a stick in the mud?

A man dreams that while talking to a friend he deeply admires in his waking life, this man suddenly laughs wickedly inviting him to join him in some rather nasty activities that involve hurting and taking advantage of other people. When he awakens the next morning he is rather shocked to have dreamt about this wonderful person acting so vile in his dreams and fears this may be revealing something about this individual he had failed to notice in his interactions with him. Upon deeper reflection he realizes that he has been idolizing this man. He had put him on a pedestal, making him a subject of hero worship which was undermining his own gifts and unrealistically elevating another. A pattern he was trying to break because it always led to disappointment, bitterness and depression. By considering the opposite of the dream theme he was able to alter a previously erroneous and self-defeating psychological pattern.

Maturation

Human have stages of development just like every other living being on the planet. There are markers which signal our shift from one developmental stage to another. Physicality, emotional shifts, and cognitive advancements all work together to indicate that we are marching forward at a pace that is within normal ranges of the human maturation process. Sometimes we fall behind and once again our unconscious mind comes to the rescue with a dream series designed to help move us along the maturation continuum.

A child dreams about monsters living under their bed and awakens every night screaming in terror. Parents soothe and cuddle the child back to sleep wondering what all this means. Is the child being bullied at school? Is the child developing a neurosis that needs psychiatric attention? (These things could all be true!) But in this child’s case the monster is their inner self chasing them around to get them to pay attention to the fact that they are failing to meet the demands of their inner biological need to mature.

They are not rising to their prerogative to have their own mind and speak their truth. They are stubbornly adhering to a babyish need to be coddled and protected when that isn’t the case at all. They are manipulating adults in their environment to take responsibility for them when they are perfectly capable to doing that themselves. In fact they are twenty something years old and lagging far behind in their maturation process! Yes for brevity sake this case is an exaggeration but perhaps not as rare as you might imagine.

Taking You Home

Don’t toss or shrug away the potential of your dreaming mind to empower you to wholeness, fulfillment and maturity. Your dreams are brought to you to help you live life to the fullest, to reach your ultimate potential in every aspect of your life. Ponder and play with them. Allow them a much deserved central place in your psychic life. I promise you it will be the single most explosive change you can make and it’s all you and free of charge. Freud and Jung both referred to dreams as the royal road to the unconscious. Take this road. I guarantee it leads you home.

Announcement

My online dreams dictionary was rebuilt this past month and let’s just say I’m just thrilled with it!