Each night when you’re deep asleep, your mind gets even busier than it is during the day. Your rational brain and ego are silenced as you delve into a whole new world where you can go anywhere, be anybody, and do anything. You dream! And, within those nighttime adventures, are profound keys to your psyche and intuition.
What messages is your intuition sending you through your dreams? Are you listening? While our dreams often seem like bizarre and disjointed tales that don’t make sense, they’re actually incredibly important to your waking life. Dreams are one of the most remarkable places you can look to for intuitive insight and direction. They can help you connect with your higher knowing, heal old wounds, work through problems, and even give you insight into the future.
Dreams have played a significant role in our cultures, experiences, and decisions since ancient times. For example, our Egyptian, Greek, Chinese, and Roman ancestors all practiced dream incubation. When a person wanted insight on something, even a health problem, he would conduct a ritual asking for guidance through a dream and then sleep in a sacred dream temple. Often, dream interpreters would then help them understand the messages they received. Even in more modern times, dreams have influenced world leaders, inspired renowned artists, and given insight to great scientists. For example, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt is said to have initiated the building of a new airport in Washington, DC because he had a dream that foretold an accident due to the poor shape of the current airport.
There are several ideas about dreaming and what happens when we dream. Scientists have focused on the neurons firing in the brain and physical aspects of dreaming. Quite a bit of scientific research has actually shown that people who are deprived from entering the dream phase of sleep, or the REM stage, exhibit symptoms of irritability and anxiety. Studies have also shown that your brain waves are actually more active when you are dreaming than when you’re awake.
Many psychologists believe that dreams are a portal through which your psyche pours information into your consciousness as a way to work out difficulties that are repressed. They also enable you to get in touch with hidden parts of yourself and great wisdom that you’re not yet aware of. Some psychologists include dream interpretation in their practices. I personally went to dream therapy when my mother died and believe our weekly discussion of my dreams enabled me to finally heal from both her passing and our complicated relationship.
And, from a metaphysical standpoint, dreams are a way to connect with the Divine. In this case, dreams can help you develop your intuitive and psychic abilities as well as connect with the All That Is and people who have passed. In fact, you can ask Spirit for a message, just as our ancestors did in ancient times.
When I work with clients and talk with callers on my radio show, The Colette Baron-Reid Show, I’m often asked about dreams. One of the most common questions is about prophetic dreams, especially those that have to do with death. For example, I recently talked with a new clients about a recurring dream she’s had in which she dies in a plane crash. Worried that it was prophetic, for most of her adult life she’d gone to great lengths to avoid plane travel. I was positive she wouldn’t die in a plane crash; in fact, I saw her in the future traveling a great deal and loving it. As we talked, I prodded her to use her intuition to get to the message within the dreams. She realized that her plane dreams usually came during the times in her life when she felt she’d lost control and had let herself become the helpless victim of a situation. I encouraged her to notice how the dreams were a message from her intuition encouraging her to unbuckle her seat belt and take more control of her life.
By the way, dreams about dying RARELY suggest an actual physical death. Like the Death Card in my Wisdom of Avalon Oracle Cards, they indicate a death of the old and rebirth. Ultimately, you’ll only know if it’s prophetic when you get to future. So, rather than worry or get anxious about a dream, I always encourage people to use their intuition to discover how they can apply the greater message to their life now.
So, how do you know if a dream is significant or just subconscious dumping? When a dream lingers and you remember it like a freeze frame, there’s something in it for you to work out. Use your intuition! And, for extra insight, my book Messages From Spirit has an extensive symbol dictionary that will help you delve deeper into the messages your intuition and Spirit are sending.
Exercises:
Start a dream journal. For the next week, keep a notebook and pen on your bedside table and commit to writing your dreams down first thing when you wake up. We forget most of our dreams within a few minutes after we wake up, so it’s important that you start writing the moment you wake up. And, even if you can’t remember, write whatever comes to mind. Then, after each dream, write down your intuitive interpretation. No editing. Write down whatever comes to your mind first!
Incubate a dream! Before bed, think of something you’d like insight on. Practice a ritual to clear out all of your conscious beliefs and emotions. (I highly recommend meditating or journaling.) Then pray to Spirit for a message to be delivered to you in your dream tonight. And, trust that Spirit will give you the message. Be sure to keep your dream journal next to your bed to write it down the next morning. Then, as I said above, use your intuition to decipher the message.
By the way, if you want to learn more about dreams and dream incubation, my colleague Denise Linn, author of The Hidden Power of Dreams, has just started a dream online certification course. To learn more about it, click here.
In service and love,
