“Dreams are postcards from our subconscious, inner self to outer self, right brain trying to cross that moat to the left.  Too often they come back unread: ‘ return to sender, addressee unknown.’  That’s a shame because it’s a whole other world out there – or in here – depending on your point of view.”

~ Dennis Koenig and Jordan Budde~

This morning I met with my Dream Team for breakfast. A small group of friends and colleagues, we have been meeting every other Friday morning for years.  We formed the group after reading Jeremy Taylor’s book When People Fly and Water Runs Uphill.

Since I was a little kid I have been fascinated by the meaning of dreams.  I used to come down to breakfast and tell my siblings and parents about a dream that I had had, sometimes to some merciless teasing.  And now in dealing with conscious and unconscious minds professionally, my interest continues.

Taylor states that dreams always come in the interest of our health and healing, and they come to tell us something that we don’t already know.  While dreams dictionaries can be helpful, the meanings are always personal and come from your own frame of reference.

For instance, you and I may each have a dream about a cat.  The dream dictionary will have a sort of universal meaning perhaps.  But we each may have different experiences with cats in our lives, so the greater meanings will be personal to us.

If you want to learn to make use of this “night movie” that comes to you in your sleep, you can begin by training yourself to remember them.  Keep a paper and pen by your bedside, and as soon as you awaken, jot down the images, impressions and feelings that occur to you.  Later when you are up and about you can write about them more fully in your journal.

Dreams are amazingly ethereal.  Most of them we don’t recall.  And even when one is especially vivid or emotional, and you tell yourself you surely will remember it, it will often evaporate in the morning light.  If you get in the habit of jotting them down, you will find that you remember much more easily.

When you do write or discuss them, ask yourself, “What does my dream mean?”  Or “What does this image mean?”  You will be amazed at how answers that you may not be aware of will pop up.  And chances are, it will serve your life in some way.