Since the dawn of time people have been fascinated by their dreams. Every culture has developed beliefs regarding lucid dreams & how dream interpretation works.

LOS ANGELES - March 25, 2022 - PRLog -- More than any other belief, the idea that dreams can be interpreted is one of the most universally held.

Indeed, if one googles the word "dreams" one will be bombarded with links to websites claiming they are able to help us to interpret the secret messages hidden in dreams.

It's certainly peculiar that humans throughout history share a belief that dreams hold cryptic messages, but is this fact or fiction?

Is Dream Interpretation Real?

The vast majority of dream interpretation books and websites are absolute hokum, offering little more than fictional explanations based on irrational and superstitious thinking.

The worst offenders are the "dream dictionaries" which offer bite-sized explanations for any dream theme one can imagine;

Dream of falling? - feeling out of control.
Dream of being chased? - trying to escape a repressed memory.

Worse still, some dream dictionaries even go as far as to claim dreams offer a clairvoyant glimpse of the future:

Dream of crows? one may soon receive bad news.

While these answers may sound appealing, or even occasionally reasonable, they are based on nothing more than the author's imagination. There is zero evidence or reason why such interpretations would have any relation to reality.

The Science of Dream Interpretation

Every now and then people stumble across a "dream interpretation expert", often these are scientists or psychologists who offer what seem to be a more reasonable and modern explanation of dream symbolism.

However, the basis for modern dream interpretation shares more in common with ancient superstitious thinking than science.

While entire systems of dream interpretation exist, be they based on the work of Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud or Fritz Perlz, it is important to remember that these too are based on little more than conjecture, assumptions, and a creative use of metaphor.

There is certainly no good reason to assume that any of these explanations have any bearing on reality.

Can Dreams be Interpreted?

A dream uninterpreted is like a letter unopened - The Talmud

The core problem with the belief in dream interpretation is the assumption that dreams hold a hidden message. There is certainly no good reason to think that dreams are "unopened letters from the unconscious".

The simple truth is, that as it currently stands, we do not know why we dream.

One of the most plausible current theories for dreaming is that dreams are involved in memory consolidation. In other words, our dreams are the brain's way of taking new information and incorporating it into our storehouse of memories.

The brain is an incredibly complex piece of computational biology, and consciousness remains one of the most stubborn of riddles. So, it goes without saying that the process in which our brains process and store memories, and how these are incorporated into our conscious experience, will appear very mysterious when observed without an understanding of these processes - and dreams certainly fit that criteria!

Moreover, the idea that every human brain uses an identical set of symbolism undermines our individuality, and the uniqueness of a journey through life. Is it plausible that an Amazonian tribeswoman's dream symbolism would match that of a Brooklyn hot-dog vendor?

If anything, the concept that "dreams are unopened letters from the unconscious, waiting to be interpreted" has everything backwards. Instead, it is more likely that dreams are like letters being sent from waking reality to our unconscious mind; they are the brain making sense of the strange reality it inhabits.

In simple language, the strangeness of dreams reflects the complex ways in which the human brain processes and makes sense of our world.

How to Interpret Dreams?

When attempting to make sense of dreams, there is one major hurdle - one is always working in retrospect - our dreams are experiences that one recalls rather than lives.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to stand in the world of dreams and explore the meaning of the dream while it happens?

Fortunately such an ability is possible, and it is known as "lucid dreaming".

Lucid dreaming offers us the chance to be awake and aware within dreams, and to dream consciously.

Rather than work with fuzzy memories of dreams, lucid dreaming gives the chance to interact with the dream world as it happens. It's a hands-on field trip into the world of dreams!

While it is unlikely that people find hidden messages within dreams, and even less likely that they will foretell the future, they are certainly a fascinating glimpse into the processes of the mind, personality, and a unique psychological landscape.

Just because dreams may not send cryptic messages, it doesn't mean that there is not a lot that can be learned from them.

Lucid dreaming offers those interested in dreams a chance to experiment and explore the concept of dream interpretation directly, without being bogged-down by irrational beliefs or dusty old theories steeped in dogma.