Dreams as Guidance
to Life's Questions
by Kevin Todeschi
If you woke up one morning and suddenly realized that you lived
with friends and advisors who could provide you with helpful
and consistent advice about your life, wouldn't you want to
check in with them - at least occasionally? What if you discovered
that this advice extended to much needed insights into any area
of your life, whether it was romance, work, health, spiritual
growth, finances, relationships, even your future? You might
think it foolish to ignore the wisdom of individuals who knew
the answers, who loved you unconditionally, and who only had
your best interests in mind. And yet most individuals ignore
this very insight every day because it comes to them in the
form of their dreams - and it is a wealth of insight and guidance
that is just waiting to be tapped from the subconscious mind.
Regardless of what we may think to the contrary, science has
proven that everyone dreams. The challenge is simply that we have
not conditioned ourselves to remember let alone work with our
dreams. A secondary challenge may be that we might think dreams
too difficult to understand, but the truth of the matter is that
individuals can instantly learn how to work with dreams even if
they don't understand every symbol. For example, this is the dream
of a middle-aged man:
I dreamed that I was
looking at a shiny new car in the show room on a car lot.
It was beautiful and I decided that I wanted it. I tried
to get into the car but there was no key. When I finally
found a salesperson with the key, the car wouldn't start.
When the car was fixed and finally started, I couldn't
get the car in gear -- the car rolled backwards off of
its platform in the showroom, crashing through the showroom
window and into the parking lot. I quickly got out of
the car and suddenly the hood opened and the engine rose
out of the car and started heading towards me. I ran off
in a panic.
At first we might wonder what the individual's dream
was all about, but what if we were told that in real life
this individual had just been offered a new job that looked
fairly attractive? Is it possible that the new car in
the dream is somehow connected to the new job offer and
that neither will be as promising as it first appeared?
For
the most part, dreams contrast and correlate the activities
that are going on in our lives. They often provide the
dreamer with other ways of looking at activities, relationships,
and concerns that have been on his or her mind. Working
with a dream simply suggests that we get a sense of whether
or not the dream is positive, negative, uplifting, a warning
- whatever it may be. After we have a sense of the theme
or the feeling of the dream, the next step is to attempt
to discover what area of our life appears most connected
to that dream. In other words, even if we don't understand
every symbol, can we get an idea of what the dream may
be suggesting about our life?
Some scientific studies have suggested that the conscious
mind filters out more than 95% of the stimulus coming
to it. Although this may sound high, we are generally
not aware of such things as the feeling of the clothing
on our body, the sensation of the glasses on our nose,
the sounds of the heating and air conditioning system,
the intensity of the light in a room, the noise being
made by a co-worker sitting near us - most things around
us - unless we draw our attention to them. The same is
true about our subtle interactions with others, our intuitive
insights that lay just beneath conscious awareness, and
our spiritual prompting that originates from the level
of the soul. Yet, all of these things reside within the
realm of the subconscious mind and can be brought to the
surface. In fact, that is why individuals can often remember
more that went on at a crime season under hypnosis than
they remember consciously. It is the subconscious mind
that awakens while we sleep, providing dreamers with insights
and guidance about their bodies, their minds, and their
souls.
In terms of a physical dream, a twenty-year
old woman had the following:
I dreamt that I was hungry and
went to the refrigerator to get something to eat. When I opened
the fridge I was horrified to see that the bottom shelf was
covered with big, ugly cockroaches.
If you had to guess about the dreamer's diet, would you
guess that the dreamer was prone to healthy eating or
instead that the dreamer had been eating garbage? Even
if you did not know that a refrigerator can be symbolic
of the food you have been eating, the dream suggests that
there is something bad about the dreamer's food.
A dream that ultimately
dealt with a dreamer's emotional feelings and concerns occurred
for a woman in her fifties:
I dreamt that I was trying to
go back into a building that was being destroyed. I was trying
to save something. Everything around me was crumbling and
I suddenly realized that there was nothing in the building
worth saving. Saving my life was more important.
Since dreams oftentimes contrast and correlate the current
events in the dreamer's life, we need to ask the dreamer
what was occurring in her life at the time of the dream.
If the dreamer responded with the fact that she was having
second thoughts about following-through on her decision
to divorce her husband, what would you say the dream was
suggesting? Obviously, the woman needs to move on.
In terms of spiritual guidance dreams, a humorous dream
occurred when a man in his sixties wrote out the question
before falling asleep in order to see if he could obtain
the answer in his dreams:
"What do I need to work
on spiritually?" His dream was as follows:
I dreamed that I was in the army (I have never been in
the army) and I was some kind of a drill sergeant doing important
paperwork. My desk was filled with important papers and things
that were scheduled -- everything was neatly organized and
in it's proper place. Suddenly a younger man came into my
office unannounced. He was singing and dancing and appeared
to be having a very good time with himself. To my surprise,
he jumped up on top of my desk and started tap dancing all
over my paperwork. Everything that I had neatly organized
was in disarray. After making a thorough mess, the man continued
to sing and dance and danced right out of my office. Immediately,
I picked up the phone and called security and yelled into
the receiver, "I want that man arrested, and I want to
know who he is!" I slammed the phone down, very angry
for the interruption. Suddenly, security came into my office
bringing the man who had caused the disruption. They announced
that they had caught him and that he was "the company
clown."
From the dream, do you think that the
man needs to be more serious and regimented in his life, or
do you think the dream is telling him that he needs to become
more relaxed and to learn how to enjoy life? Obviously, the
dream is suggesting that the dreamer is already too serious
and too controlled. In the same way that this individual sought
dream guidance, each of us can ask virtually any question and
receive helpful insights from our dreams.
Having worked with dreams for more than twenty-five
years, I am convinced that even a novice to the world of dreams
and dream interpretation receives valid and helpful guidance
anytime that she or he is asleep. All we really need to do
is to attempt to begin remembering our dreams. Perhaps putting
a notepad next to the night stand will jog our memories in
the morning, or maybe we're one of those individuals who makes
several trips to the bathroom during the night - keep some
paper near the sink and simply jot down a few notes before
falling back to sleep. The best thing to do is simply to begin
writing something down every morning, even if it's only "I
feel tired." The more we let our 
subconscious
mind know that we are open to the inner world of dreams, the
more we avail ourselves of a wealth of knowledge and insight
we always had available but just never knew where to look
for it.
Kevin J. Todeschi
is the author of two popular books on the subject of dream
interpretation: Dream Interpretation (and More!) Made
Easy and The Encyclopedia of Symbolism (reprinted as Dream
Images and Symbols). A frequent media guest, he often
interprets dreams on the air. In addition to his work
with dreams, he has been a student and teacher of the
Edgar Cayce material for more than twenty-five years.
As an international speaker, he has lectured on five continents
to thousands of individuals. A prolific writer, his previous
works include Edgar Cayce on Soul Mates, Edgar Cayce on
the Akashic Records, and Soul Development: Edgar Cayce's
Approach for a New World.
Edgar
Cayce Books on
Dreams
