How to Explore Your Dreams

Now that we know how to record and remember our dreams, it is time to consider how to explore these nighttime wanderings.

To begin, when recording your dreams (however you choose to do so), write in the present tense. Then make a note of the day and date of your dream. Another good idea is to give titles to your dreams. You will soon realize that by titling your dreams, you are giving new insight to them. And many dreams are actually “theme dreams,” that is part of a sequence of similar ideas. This can become an excellent way of tracking your emotional progress during different periods of your life. If you would like to expand on this emotional tracking, remember to write down significant daytime events that were taking place during the times of your dreams.

Although a single “aha” moment in a dream is a significant part of dream interpretation, know that dreams have many levels and therefore can have many “aha” moments. Always look for multi-level meanings to your dreams.

Draw your dreams. This, I find to be very significant in revealing true objective meaning to the dreamer. Remember to put color into your drawings (see the last two installments of dreams in this blog). The act of drawing is a creative process and as such, reaches deep inside the creator, revealing more of what our inner psyche knows. For instance, see if your drawing is done in light fanciful strokes, or poured on with thick deliberate heavy marks. This act reveals more of your emotional mood at the time of your dream.

Another wonderful way to record dreams for all those who love to write, is to put the dream into poetic form. This also will give wonderful objectivity and much added information. Try it for yourself and see!

Give your dream an ending. If you were awakened before the dream came to its natural conclusion, give your dream an ending. Write down your own way to finish this dream. Go with your feelings and just write stream of consciousness, do not do this exercise with your brain, but rather with your heart.

For the actors, try physically enacting the dream from the viewpoint of one of the characters in your dream. Employ your friends to help out with this exercise. This is best done with others, but can also be done alone. Simply act out the character roles one by one, addressing empty chairs or props for the other people in your dreams. Frequently, body memory will allow an emotion of recollection to spring forth during this exercise.

A fanciful and metaphysical idea is to create a dream mask of one of the more important characters in your dream. Then wear it while enacting their part in the dream. Also note your feelings while creating the mask. You will be calling on your memory for details.

Another interesting way to interpret dreams is to add “Part of me” to everything you dream about. For instance, “I run through the dark forest part of me, chased by unknown parts of me.” Well, I think you get the idea. This method can add amazing “aha” moments for you.

And lastly, please remember that dream fragments can give amazing insights to your dreams. Sometimes we recall only a fragment because our dreaming mind has carefully edited memory so that the dreamer gets a very clear and symbolic picture from the tiny fragment. So give these fragments credence and be prepared to work with them.

42 thoughts on “How to Explore Your Dreams

  1. diane

    Hi, I my son had a dream his older brother was inside a casket dead. with a big gold ring on his finger what does this mean

    Reply
  2. Candice

    I had a friend pass away in 2010. She committed suicide. Her and I have been friends since I was in Kindergarten in 1989.
    I kind of lost contact with her from 2001 – 2005 and I visited her in Texas in 2005 then I lost contact with her again until 2007. She wanted more out of life and she wanted to provide for her daughter who was 3 at the time. So she decided to join the military and I took custody of her daughter. She slipped into a severe depression and came home. She let her mom convince her I was trying to take her daughter and she ran off then I finally convinced her that I only care about the girl.. but had no intentions of taking her unless I felt she was being put in harms way. So she moves in with her mom then she moves in with other friends and I finally talk to her again. She ended up having a stroke and being put in the nursing home and her mom took custody of her daughter. when she got out of the nursing home her mom told her that she couldnt have her daughter back. So she got depressed & desperate to fulfill the void she had by dating a man. She contacted me a couple months later cause she felt the need to get married to him and I tried to talk her out of it.. not so much the relationship but the marriage so soon after she had just met the guy. She married him anyway and I was there for her.. I was the only friend/family member to show up to her wedding. She soon found out after marriage that he was still sleeping with his son’s mom and he sold her belongings to get money without discussing it with her. She got put in a hotel room when she went and checked herself into a domestic violence shelter (I had no clue she was in).
    The day she died I couldnt get out of bed and I didnt know why. I was in a depressed crying mood and I didnt know why I called my family and everyone was okay but my husband came home and told me that I should get up and get a shower and go to the store with him and I should make me feel better. When I get to the store parking lot I get a phone call from my friends husband. He told me that she had passed away the night before .. she hung herself in a hotel room.
    The day of her funeral her mom had the preacher make it sound as if her friends were the ones that killed her by leading her down a rebellious path and her mom refused to allow her daughter talk to any of her friends that came. They told the lil girl that we, her friends, are the ones that killed her mommy. The lil girl is terrified of us cause of the grandmother.
    I have these dreams often… its my friend its like she is trying to tell me something and I dont know what. She keeps taking me to her daughter but then she disappears or I wake up. I can feel her around all the time. I can think of her just in an instant .. even if there is nothing around to remind me of her. Do you think she is trying to give me a message? Or am I just losing it?

    Reply
  3. lizdallas

    Hi,
    About two months ago, I dreamed that my ex boyfriend came to visit me with his friend. We had some conversation then he kissed my lips and left. When I woke up, I feel his kiss. Two weeks later, I had three continous dreams in one night. First, he came to visit me, then I asked him where do we stand. His responsed was “you are it for me and we are for each other. Lastly, he told me that he did read my email a year ago. Usually, when I have dreams about him, I would get a text message or email from him, but I didn’t this time. And recently, I had a dream seeing my ex boyfriend and a lady holding a baby. My ex boyfriend caressed her face and padded the baby bottom. Next I saw only my ex holding the baby in his arms. I have mix feelings about these dream and not sure what they all mean.

    Reply
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  7. Carol McCulloch

    This will be the day my dream will come true if it was remote viewing, or something.
    Last week I dreamt that I was walking/floating inside an old building(school?). I have visited this place in my dreams before, but today I was looking for something or someone. Some people where sitting on folding chairs outside of this ceilingless booth w/a door inside of the room. The outside of the booth was tacked w/letters and I think mementos that belonged to people. I walked around the booth and saw a group of people gathered standing behind the table (holding letters and mememtos like the type tacked onto the outside of the booth. A woman that was standing addressing the group of people on the other side of the table saw me. I realized that I was holding a letter in my left hand and a type of musical/noisemaker in my right hand. She looked at me and said “Let’s kill this (problem). Scott will contact you within a week”. I thanked her profusely because I have been waiting to hear from him w/great anguish. Than, I woke up.

    Reply
  8. PRETTY GIRL

    Hello! Before I met my recent bf. I had this dream (several times) that there was a man showed me that he cares for me, he hugs me, comfort me, protect me and I can really feel it though I can not see his face clearly. Then when I met already my bf I don’t dream this guy anymore. What does this mean. Is my present bf is the man in my dreams before?

    Reply
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  10. Rita

    My husband had an affair about 10 years ago with my ex sister in law. we are back together now , even though I was very hurt and betrayed by both, I forgave them both, But I have this dream so much that she is where we are at mostly family gatherings and she is soooo friendly(we use to be good friends also).In my dreams I am pretending it doesn’t bother me but in side I am hurting so bad. I try to be so friendly and then she will always be caught coming on to my husband before I wake up..I wake up upset, needless to say. What does this mean….

    Reply
  11. Wondering

    Hi Sadira,

    I need your help figuring this one out. Yesterday a friend of mine text me out of the blue (I havent spoken to him in many months) and asked me to give him 3 lottery numbers so I texted him the 3 numbers that kept coming to my head. So today at work a new coworker of mine (I just started working there this Monday) told me of a dream she had last night: She said she was with some friends and they were all doing the lottery but whoever would win the lottery would get killed. She then left wherever they were and went to her car and when she got to it, she had a ticket on her car in the same amount, the same number (except the ticket was outstandingly in the hundreds) that I gave my friend for the lottery when he texted me. Please help me know what this may mean. Good? Bad? Ugly?

    Reply
  12. LINDA

    I dreamed that i was a little girl in another time, my mother had put me to bed because it was bedtime, but i was wanting to see my cousin because she was bringing in her boyfriend who was to be her new husband within the month. I came into the room in which everyone was sitting, i could see all the women sitting there at a bench like picnic type table, they were talking and there was a few men also talking, they didn’t see me until my cousin got there, she came in and everyone greeted her, i was standing in the doorway and i remember someone accidentily closing the door and locking me outside, this was a long time ago when there was long thick shutters that closed places up specially when there was a storm coming, they closed all the shutters but everyone was talking so loud they didn’t see, or hear me outside, the storm came i was outside, and i froze outside all night.

    Reply
  13. Sue Periard

    i’ve had this dreams (the same dream) since about the age of 6. i can only recall the bedroom i was in. i’m in bed with lots of blankets on me.. i’m cold.. i suddenly wake up and all i can see are tarantulas EVERYWHERE the celling, the 4 walls of my room, and my blanket is covers full of tarantulas, pillow headboard, dressers , i mean everwhere… my heart beats 1,000,000 times fast….i cant scream and then my head falls back on the piloow and i wake up … drenched.. can anyone tell me about this re-occurant drem…. i am now 53 and still get them .. not so often but i get them …..

    Reply
  14. MIchaela

    My Fiance had a dream about him buying a camp ground for $300,000 & this is really what he wants to do & wants us to move out west to find this camp ground we don’t have the money right now to do so & I will be supportive if this is ever happens because I know I could help him do this I want to run a business just like he does of our own it would be so cool to do this can this mean that it could happen or is it just something that we just want?

    Reply
  15. Linda Hamner

    I had this dream, I will call a nightmare, almost 4 years ago. I faced my dream friday, I was so scared, I took a 1/2 pill of xanax. My dream was so real to me it consumed me. I had dreamed that if I got into the mri it would pull the metal in my chest, I had a single bypass, cabbage, as some may call it. I am still here today, but it was so stressful. It only took me almost 4 years to do it but it is done. I felt I had no choice and although it was not the end of the world, it just shows hows one can take a dream so realistic. I just hope I can deal with a dream so realistic in the future and not be so afraid. I am 57 years old and this is embarassing for me to share.

    thank you for listening, whoever you are

    Reply
  16. Milagro

    I have had dreams about a tsunami and the first time 4 years ago i was stading downtown in milwaukee were iam from n it was just me unter a bridge watching as it came over the city n just recently the dream came back except this time i ws on a building with ppl who had survived this and then my childs school appared in perfect condition so i went in and the class room was dammaged by water n there were bodies of dead children and also of my children but then my baby camwe crawling to me and my other three came running but the other kids were not alive the just layed there dead. what does it mean and whay am i having his dream again about the tsunami is this the second part of the first dream. is there something iam missing because i dont understand it.

    Reply
  17. Tanya

    I have been having dreams of MY Marriage but i’m not yet married, and my future husband sometimes does not have a face. Is this dream only because its the desires of my hearty??

    Reply
  18. Malillo

    My husband died April 2008, we were not living together when he died. After the funeral i have been dreaming about him. Recently i been dreaming about him almost every week, and in most dreams we are making love. Please help me with this one its worrying me.

    Reply
  19. BEN

    Last night i had a dream on how my elder brother got lost in a river.We found him but could not even recover his dead body.Please i will like to know the meaning of the dream.
    Thanks

    Reply
  20. timisha

    i keep dreaming about my ex he is dead now but the last dream i had he told me he had something to tell me and that he would write me a lettter!wat does this mean?

    Reply
  21. Lashonda

    I have dreams about some house with a pool in the back and the same rooms i never seen before and now i’m starting to have dreams about winning the lottery i had one dream about a lottery bill board with 41 million then another dream with a bill board of 29 million.Then looking at a lottery ticket and the numbers match with the numbers that was drawn do it mean i’m on my way to win the lottery soon.

    Reply
  22. Carolyn

    Hi my name is Carolyn. I broke up with my boyfriend well over a year ago. I moved away and wanted to start my life anew. I tried to be friends with him knowing that he was involed in another relationship. I truley wanted him to be happy even if it meant having another person in his life. However when I called him he would become abusive verbally and angry. In other words, I guess you can say he trying to push me away. I ‘ve forgiven him for the pass. seeing that I was no longer available as even a threat because I live many states away from him. I know that being just his friend is the only relationship we could have with one another. I was hurt when he rejected my friendship and then I became angry because I thought that this meant that he never really not only loved me but didn’t like me even. Well, he did push me away and friends dont treat people like that they care about. I stopped calling him and its been months. The weird thing is besides feeling rejected and used in the past he still comes into my dreams. You see I’m involed with horses and he is a jockey. I moved to Lexington Ky which is horse country and theres pictures of jockeys everywhere you look. I’m thinking that’s what triggers it. I am moving on with my life and even though I forgave him, remembering all the pain an sacfrices I did in the name of love. When I feel that there was no real love all along makes me angry and that is a negative feeling that affects me and others that are around me. I dont want to give him that power or transmit my energy to him, he dosen’t deserve me. He was angry and controlling and I deserve so much more than that. I guess wanting a friendship so I could really prove to myself that being just his friend and wanting him to be happy was indeed asking for something that he could reject and feel in control by not letting me have it. Finally I think that theres a big difference in Love and empathy. He has rejected my empathy. He is incaple of loving anyone too many issues besides being an acholic even though sober for 15 years! He addicted to meetings and he uses the program to his own advantage. Hes what they call a dry drunk passive aggressive. I dont want to feel anything about him, yet i have compassion for the sick. I just dont want him to invade my dreams because he isnt part of my future. How can I get rid of these unwanted intrusions?

    Reply
  23. Butterfly

    I have been divorced now for almost 10 years and I just recently my ex has been in my dreams. I do not want to be with that person yet one dream was that he and a mutual female friend were going somewhere and were sharing a hotel room and saying that it was platonic and they were just saving money. I got upset and in my dream knew that they were going to be together. – why would I dream that when I do not want to be with him? Thanks

    Reply
  24. dom76

    i remember being in and apartment with some females they were going to a club but one of the girls said that she wasn’t going i ended up at this lady friend apartment in the same building and the girl that didn’t go to the club wit the other girls ended up at my friends apartment some how i found out that one of the girls was involve wit my husband who is my ex-boyfriend and this man started chasing me he tried to kill me but the police caught him

    Reply
  25. Kristina

    Hi Ariel,
    Thank you for giving me the opportunity to ask my question. On the night of the last New Moon I had a very live dream. It was a surprise to me as I seldom remember dreams and this particular image wasn’t even on my mind before, but if the dream comes true it will be the answer to all.
    Kristina

    Reply
  26. jennifer gallagher

    in my dream i was in a car driving down the street and ther was a car full of adults and one baby.i see this snake like gliding up up the street on the side walk it was red and blue and as the car was almost about to pass the snake nobody at the moment had seen the snake but me and i had told everyone hey look at that snake.we slowed down and wre looking at the snake but then it was wired because it raised the front half of its body and it looked like a cobra it was wierd but then the driver had stoped the car and we thought the snake would just keep going down the street but instead all of a sudden it went straight for the car towards my window that was down it got in thecar and i had jumped out everyone was like in slow motion for some reasonand what i could remember was panicing trying to get the baby out of the car and yelling for everyone to get out of the car .i knew in my dream for sum reason that the snake was 6x more deadly with one bit than any other snake .ne way i got the baby from the car and the ediots that were in the car had eventully got out and started to try to get the snake one guy got bitand automaticly started convoulsing but the others just keep trying to get the snake as if they were trying to stab it i was just trying to move around with the baby a get out of the way but it had felt as if the snake was there for either me or the baby it was weird i know but so in color and i canot forget it does this dram have purpose.and will you apply to my e-mail please

    Reply
  27. Sadira

    That maybe a reality but most likely, it means that he will be going through a change or transition. Watch for any other dreams and clues as to what type of death the spirits are referring to.

    Reply
  28. Sadira

    Both you and your daughter are on the same frequency. When you go to sleep, your spirit leaves your body and travels. You will travel to and have experiences according to the level of consciousness that you are on. Your daughter and you were both attracted to the same place because you are on the same or similar level of consciousness.

    Reply
  29. Sadira

    Dreaming of spirits can be a warning or a message. Before you go to bed, ask your own guides to help you to understand and to remember what is being said to you. If it doesn’t happen the first time, keep trying. Your spirit guides will help you.

    Reply
  30. Sadira

    I know that water means change. The type of change depends on the type of water. Rough water means difficult times, calm clear water means a nice change, etc. to see goddesses or spiritual beings usually mean that you are on a spiritual journey and you have helpers. So, the water symbolizes a spiritual change and it maybe something significant.

    To dream the dream of being killed, usually is a past life experience. Something that may have happened in a past life.

    Reply
  31. Jennifer French

    Hello,
    In the past week, my dreams have included spirits. Each night is a different person and place. The first night(dream)bits and pieces come in and out. When I wake up I can’t remember enough to write it down in a journal. I know these dreams are significant in some way. Can you help me with this? I would really like to find out what these spirits are trying to tell me. Please help.Thank you! Jen leigh

    Reply
  32. Pushpinder

    hi
    i always see myself near to water (mostly near to sea). after a strong struggle like some hurdles in my way like a darkness, i see nothing, then after then i reach a beautiful place but nobody is there I’m alone. & sometime i reach in gurudwara (worship place of Sikh’s) & one time i see Goddess Lakshmi.

    Another dream:
    someone kill me very cruely sometime with knife and sometime with bullets. but when that person goes i bcome alive again and feel no pain i feel alright like nothing was happen.

    plz tell me about something about my dreams

    Reply
  33. Chrissy

    Hi Ariel,
    I wonder if you can help me interpret this dream, as it is unlike any other I have had before. It happened a few weeks ago when my great nana who was 95, was in hospital with pneumonia. She passed away a few days after. Im not sure if this was in anyway connected to her suffering, but that is the only thing that I can remember being of significance on my life at the time of the dream. Please email me privately if you can. (I apologise for the lenght of this content). Thank you!
    I dreamt I was involved in an accident of some sort (a car crash I think) and I passed on to the next realm. I was lifted out of my body and became invisible (spirit-like) to those around me. I could see a blue light that was quite far away and knew I had to go into the light. I walked across a field and the further I walked, the more the scene of my death behind me became a blur, and the light became clearer.
    I came to a fence in the field and a jester stood on the other side. The blue light surrounded her like energy. She was very energetic and lively, wearing a medievel, red and yellow striped jester’s outfit. She had short blonde hair that I remember thinking was very srylish. She seemed to be a guardian or something of the sort and she took my hand and helped me over the fence.
    The world behind me completely disappeared as we stepped through some kind of invisible barrier into her world. It was like the medieval times. Full of castles and jesters, fresh food markets and coloured flags above the doorways. It was very sunny and there appeared to some sort of festival or parade happening.
    I really liked being there, it was like a huge party and had a brilliant atmosphere. I turned around and could see more people who had passed on coming through the ‘invisible barrier’ with their own jesters. But, none seemed to be as comfortable as I was.
    My jester ( I think her name was April or Alice), informed me that I could have a second chance and go back to my world, but warned I wouldn’t be there long. So I went back and was revived at the scene of my death.
    Then 6 weeks later (in the dream), I was standing in my bedroom with my mum and looking out the window. It was late afternoon and I could see the fence from the field off in the distance. I told my mum that I would be leaving soon and she lit a candle by the window ledge.
    As the sun gradually set, I became more and more frightened that my jester wouldnt come to get me. I became invisible, but my mother could somehow still see and speak to me. I was horribly frightened that I would be stuck between the two worlds and ‘wander as empty soul for all eternity’. But hours later, the jester came (her presence acknowledged by the flame of the candle going out), and we returned to her world.
    I was back in the sunshine and having a great time. She introduced to a male jester who she said had been incredibly worried that I wouldn’t return to their medieval world because he was very much inlove with me. This made me feel guilty that I had left him in the first place.
    I was then overcome with worry and frightened as I remembered something about my brother dying in a car crash. It was too happen soon after my second death and I rushed to the entrance where the ‘newbies’ entered the jester’s world.
    All of a sudden my twin sister appeared, and has she did so, some sort of visual memory came to me and I was shown how my brother avoided death in the car crash, and my sister was killed instead.
    She was crying and very upset because she didn’t want to be in the afterlife and she ran into a building on a construction site, where she proceeded to sob in the corner saying “i dont want to be here!”
    I comforted her and took her my jester who stood with the jester that loved me. They decided to give my sister and I another chance to live, but we couldnt go back to our previous lives.
    I argued that I didnt want to be an infant again and have to wait all those years to see my parents and brother again. So the jesters said they would be our parents in the new life, and we would be their two teenage children. The male jester held up a large (metal) silver swirl which for some reason meant that we could live in a house across the street from our old family. We were very happy about this, and returned to our first world as a new family where I was a boy. We displayed the metal swirl near the front door.

    Reply
  34. kristen

    Hi,
    I don’t know if your allowed to give advice or not but this one dream strikes me as weird…..
    see I was in a forest one of my fave. places because it gives me peace. well i was playing with a snake (also if you know me i like snkaes) and it bit me. well i the first time it didn’t penatrate the skin. and i wasnt scared i simply pinched it by the kneck and it let go. well i was playing with it calmly again and it bit me a second time….wasnt to worried it did penatrate this time and i saw the green vinome injecting itself to join my blood(it was like a quick flash).then i tried pinching the kneck to get it off but this time it wouldnt let go.so i tore off the body and pealed the head off. this is were its funny to. snakes usally leave 2 holes right. well this one left 4 holes that penatrated! i still wasnt worried but instead curious for a sec. then i relized that it was Poisonous. so i started walking through the forest going no where thinking i have to get it out off me. then i think suck it out but i dont want to because the snakes mouth has been on it (germs) so i decided to do it anyway thinking living is better or more important than “GERMS” so im sucking and spitting while still walking to no where and its kinda hard to suck like my blood is to thick.so im only getting a little at a time. then after like walking about half a football field i drop to my knees and hit the ground not dead but feeling like someone druged me. im feeling tired then it all blacks out.
    could you possiably wirte me personally on your thoughts about this.

    Reply
  35. Ariel X9775

    Hi Gina Rose,
    Thnx for your comments~! You are quite right~~our answers are right there in our sleep, if we know how to access them~!
    Much luv & lite,
    Ariel

    Reply
  36. Gina Rose ext.9500

    Hi Ariel,
    Great article…..I was just given a loud answer to something bothering me, in my dreams, a couple of nights ago.
    Dreams are very powerful and can show you answers IF you know how to interpret them.
    Good Job !!!!
    Blessed Be )O(…Gina Rose ext.9500

    Reply

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