Dream Translation

Dream translation involves several stages. The first stage involves a clear understanding of dream structure. Consider the following dream:

Dream: I dreamed about being chased through the night by zombies who wanted to eat my brains. In trying to escape, I recall climbing to the roof of houses. I remember seeing an older gentleman playing chess. I recall climbing off one roof, unsettling a chess board, with the notion that the chase was over.

The "I" in this dream identify a distinct element of dream structure--the dreamer. No dream occurs without a dreamer. The dreamer is the person experiencing the dream. In dream context, the dreamer represents consciousness and the psyche. In your dreams, you are your consciousness and your psyche. You represent your awareness and perspective of life. Whatever influences the person you are in a dream reflects an influence on your awareness and perspective of life.

Another distinct element of dream structure involves all other aspects of the dream. Everything in your dreams other than you--whatever you sense, witness, or experience--represent an influence. In dream context, the wind in your face, the grain of sand beneath your feet, the people you meet, even your reflection in a mirror represent specific influences that significantly affect your consciousness.

The second stage of meaningful dream translation involves understanding the influences producing dream content. Dreams are a product of influences affecting you subliminally. These are influences that affect your life and consciousness below the threshold of your conscious awareness. Your dreams are products of subliminal influences.

Understanding dream characterization is the third stage of dream translation and the most difficult to grasp. Our social and cultural differences significantly affect dream content and how we perceive certain dream images when we wake. However, two rules of dream characterization remain consistent from culture to culture. The first rule is that all dream images are representations. Instead of words, your subconscious mind conveys its impression with metaphoric images of the influences affecting your life and consciousness. The second rule of dream characterization is that all dream images reflect something mental. Dreams occur in the mental domain. The objects and people in your dreams are not physical images. They are mental images. The vehicles, rooms, and food that appear as images in your dreams reflect mental vehicles, mental rooms, and mental food.

The final stage of dream translation involves the order of the process and the context of dream imagery. Like ripples in a pond, your translation of a dream should flow from its center. In your dreams, you are the center. Start by considering and interpreting your position and role in the dream. From this point, consider the most immediate and prominent dream images or situations you recall. When you recall your dreams, you are recalling a series of images. These images are like Egyptian hieroglyphs, they are pictures and symbols your subconscious uses to express its impressions. In most hieroglyphic expressions, a single symbol does not convey an entire message. The same is true of dreams. One dream image by its self does not completely convey the message an entire dream expresses. Translating the meaning of one dream image without considering others in the dream deprives the entire dream of its message and impact. Considering the entire context of a dream is more important to understanding its message than the meaning of any single image.