We've all done it - cornered a friend in the pub and told them about last night. Our dreams, that is. "I was my dad, for some reason, and we were all out in Bad Bob's. Then I was chatting up this girl and she turned into Mary Harney and asked me where I had buried the hamster. It was mad…" Fascinating though this is in our own heads, our friend's eyes soon begin to glaze over and she develops an overwhelming urge to go to the bar to buy a round. You can stop the friendship rot with a course in dream interpretation.
Dream interpretation has been around since ancient times, although people were divided on whether dreams predicted the future or if they were an insight into the mind of the dreamer. The ancient Hebrews believed dreams were a link to God and biblical bigwigs such as Solomon, Jacob and Joseph were all visited in their dreams by God or prophets. The Talmud, written between 200 and 500 BC, contains around 217 references to dreams and states that a dream not interpreted is like an unopened letter from God. However, others held a less spiritual view.
Plato believed that dreams were an outlet for taboo thoughts and actions - a place where people could let it all hang out without fear of censure. This idea gained credence much later in history with the theories of Freud and Jung but before they propounded their ideas, dreaming could be dangerous. For example, during the Spanish Inquisition, even those who talked about taboo subjects in their sleep were investigated as possible heretics, "for that is wont to return in sleep which occupies a man during the day".
In modern times, Freud revolutionised the concept of dreaming, bringing it to the forefront of his psychoanalysis. He believed that there were two types of dream content - manifest and latent. The manifest, or superficial, content held no real meaning, as it was a cover for the underlying significance of the dream. Once this latent meaning was discovered, the dreamer's base wishes would be revealed. Jung was a student of Freud but they fell out over differing theories on dream meanings. Jung held that dreams weren't just a mask for animalistic instincts but rather an aid to self-discovery and healing. He thought that dreams could offer a solution to problems faced in waking life.
Naturally, interpretation courses today don't all take the same approach to analysing dreams, but they will all give you the tools to decode your dreams. For example, you might dream that you are married to Nicole Kidman and wake up feeling delighted with yourself and the way you handled that awkward moment when Tom came back begging for forgiveness. The way Nicky just shook her head sadly and took your arm - the woman has a lot of class. However, not all is as perfect as it seems. A quick scan under "actress" and "married to" in a dream dictionary reveals that your fancies will result in disappointment and sadness.
A course will also run you through the most common dreams and their meanings. Some common dreams include being chased, being naked, flying, loosing your teeth, taking exams and falling. If you dream that you are loosing your teeth, for instance, then you may be afraid of being embarrassed in a particular situation. Another explanation is that teeth represent power, as they are used for biting and tearing. Therefore, dreaming of loosing your teeth could mean that you are feeling disenfranchised. Or you could have actually lost your false ones and are worried that your bin man is going to think that you are Jeffrey Dahmer's successor… To successfully interpret your dreams, you look at what's going on in your life at that moment and make a reading based on the facts.
The average person spends about six years of their lifetime thinking they are the King of France, keeping Brad Pitt in an oven glove or believing that their mother is a Black Widow spider. That's six years of really interesting stuff that happened to you going undiscussed, people... |
