Dream Dictionary

Many people believe that they do not dream although this is not true. REM (rapid eye movement) proves everyone dreams. Sometimes we go through periods where we remember our dreams quite vividly. This usually correlates with periods of crisis. Dreams are changing us in profound ways whether or not we remember them...so remembering them doesn't appear important to how they affect us. Dreaming is like a digestive organ that assimilates, releases and helps us to process experience.

However, enhancing your ability to remember your dreams does allow you to speed up your growth - because you are able to see the uncanny way some part of the mind seems to guide you - and you are able to work with the unconscious information consciously. It also allows you to see how dreaming has a different time sense that shows you how dreaming actually has prophetic information.

When we dream we are using a part of the brain that developed before language. We sometimes think of the left side of the brain as being associated with language and logic, and the right side associated with a holistic awareness, responding more to images. CAT and PET scans of the dreaming brain however, show that many parts of the brain are active during dreaming. The sections that are inactive keep us from acting out our dreams. The limbic/emotional region is highly active during dreaming.

At the same time, it seems that switching between the image driven/dreaming brain that responds emotionally to the imagery - isn't the 'same brain' that wakes up and begins rationalizing and planning the day's routine. Many people have been able to increase their ability for dream recall using the following technique:

Teach yourself to wake up more slowly. Don't be quick to jump into the day's routine with your mind. Keep a diary by your bed to record your images before they slip from your mind. While still in the 'dream state' think of one or two words that capture what you were just experiencing in the dream. You will be amazed at how things will happen during the week that have those words as a theme.

It is not important to remember everything, because through the night the same message can be repeated in several themes. Note some of the symbols that were in the dream and explore what part of your life is undergoing scrutiny.