Dream Interpretation-symbolism?
I was wondering...how is it that all dreams can be interpreted the same for everyone-if that is even a correct statement. For example, I dream about snakes ALL the time and I know the meaning of them in my dreams and I am afraid of snakes in real life, but what if someone who loves snakes or owns one as a pet dreams about snakes...couldn't it be that the symbolism of snakes in that persons dream could mean something else?
You are right about that. Symbolism basically is based on statistical method. The owner of the dream should know the symbol rather than general symbolism. That is why those so called website or books are only reference. They have no fixed truth basis. In other words, different background and different culture could have different symbolism.
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Filed under: Dream Symbolism
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References :
References :
Dreaming is basically your mind’s way of organizing your thoughts and knowledge while you are sleeping. Therefore, anything that you dream about is directly correlated to your consciousness and subconsciousness. Since no two people can share a consciousness, they can’t share dreams either.
You might see the exact same dream with your friend but it will be for very different reasons and will mean very different things.
References :
If you are interested in knowing more about dreams, The Mind At Night by Andrea Rock is a great book to start with: http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Night-New-Science-Dream/dp/0465070698/ref=pd_ys_iyr63
References :
insight
http://dreamemporium.com/dream_symbols.html
you can interpret your dreams better than i can because you are intouch with your inner thoughts and feelings.
i do think dreams have meanings…
References :
It does and it doesn’t. A lot of different things come into play.
You ever notice that different people can watch the same movie and argue over what it means? And what they saw was *exactly* the same.
But, you know something? To some extent, it doesn’t matter.
Just as for most people the emotional pattern of life is recognizable, for most people the symbolic pattern of dreams is recognizable. You know the kind of thing a person’s dreaming mind is likely to want to talk about; you know the ways people’s dreaming minds have expressed themselves before; hopefully the dream reporter will tell you any strong feelings they have about a dream — and you wing it.
The diversity of dream languages is actually why I like dream interpretation: if it was always the same, if those dream dictionaries did any good, then it’d bore me. But every dream is new; there are no rules. There’s just a dreaming mind, which is doing the best it can to get some message across, without access to language.
And then, there’s the fact that the person you’re explaining the dream to will know (almost always) when the interpretation is right: they’ll say, "Yeah, that one! Right there! I respond to that!" So that helps out a lot.
So, overall, yes, specific dream symbols might very well be ideosynchratic to the dreamer: but the kinds of ways the symbols are used will tend to be the same.
Conrad.
References :
A link to the dream interpreter’s wiki; it’s a bit sparse, but the project’s still young. And all are invited to contribute. [http://dreamwiki.wetpaint.com]