The Simple Truth About Dreams

When I first became a student in the School of Metaphysics my teacher used to say, “If it’s simple and it works, it’s metaphysics.” I have always remembered that. Metaphysics is simple because it is Universal Truth. Truth is profound, clear, and direct. I think sometimes people forget that. They think that something has to be complicated to be meaningful.

The School of Metaphysics sponsors the National Dream Hotline® each year (the last weekend in April) to educate people around the world about dreams. Freud became known for the truth that every dream is about the dreamer. Jung discovered that dreams are symbolic and there are universal symbols. The School of Metaphysics research into dreams has brought to light the universal language in which dreams communicate. We call it the Universal Language of Mind. Knowing the symbolic Universal Language of Mind gives all of us tremendous power to know ourselves.
Learning this language changes lives because it enables people to see themselves from the perspective of their soul.

The School of Metaphysics teaches two principles about dreams: (1) every dream is about the dreamer and (2) every person in the dream symbolizes an aspect of the dreamer. Putting this knowledge into practice revolutionizes how you see yourself, your life, and the world. During National Dream Hotline® we aid people to Self Respect by helping them understand that their dreams are about them.

Simply knowing that a dream is not literal but symbolic can completely alter how people view themselves and their relationships. People often call us because they dream about an old boyfriend returning and they think it means that their boyfriend is going to come back into their life. Or they dream of their spouse with another partner and start believing that their spouse is having an affair. When they learn that these dream-people symbolize aspects of themselves, it gives them power. The dreams tell them about their own thoughts and attitudes, not about the physical events in their lives. Because people can control themselves and their minds, knowing what a dream is telling you about yourself enables you to have understanding and self control.

Recently I spoke with a student who remembered that before entering the School of Metaphysics she used to have dreams about her niece and nephew drowning, and was afraid it meant that these children were going to die. When she learned that the dream was about her, and that her nephew and niece symbolized her own new ideas, her fears were relieved. Even before she knew what the dream meant by having the symbols interpreted, knowing that they were symbols changed her feelings of helplessness and panic.

The woman had her dream interpreted, and learned that it meant that she often felt “overwhelmed” by having so many activities going on in her life. When she got busy, she’d lose sight of the new ideas she was beginning to form. This interpretation made sense, as she had been thinking for awhile that she wanted to live a more purposeful existence. She was tired of getting up, going to work, making money, and coming home. She had ideas that there was something “more” to life, she wanted to know what it was, but she’d put that aside when she had too many things to do. She thought she didn’t have time to fulfill her desire for a more spiritual life with deeper meaning. Knowing what her dream meant helped her to become more committed to forging a new direction for herself. She became a student in the School of Metaphysics, learned to concentrate and meditate, to set goals, to be more purposeful, and she ceased to have the dreams of her nephew and niece drowning!

Many people think that dreams are literal, either coming from memory or foretelling a future event. During the National Dream Hotline® at our World Headquarters we received phone calls and e-mails from many people who feared that the dreams they remembered were telling them about some physical event in their life. One woman (who has had some undiagnosed health problems) dreamed of having cancer and losing all her hair to chemotherapy. She thought the dream was a cancer diagnosis. Several people had dreams of spouses or boyfriends or girlfriends who were “cheating” and they thought it meant that their partner in life was being adulterous. A number of people had dreams of being shot or killed and feared it meant their own impending death.

One particularly poignant dream was reported by a woman whose ex-husband had had a fatal car wreck. The dreamer said that at the time of the accident her ex-husband was in the process of leaving his second wife. The dreamer and her ex-husband had planned to get back together when his divorce was finalized, but he was killed in the car wreck before they could resume their relationship. His wife at the time of his death had his body cremated. The dreamer said that when she and this man were together they had discussed cremation and “were both very much against it.” In her dream, the man was behind a closed door, yelling for her to help him as they cremate his body. She can’t get to him and can’t open the door.

The dreamer said that her ex-husband’s death had occurred over 12 years ago, and she had had this nightmare at the same time each year ever since he died. She also said that she had been in counseling for years. “I understand this deals with items I have not been able to deal with. But what items?”

When I read this, my heart went out to this woman. She had been trying for over 12 years to sort out what was troubling her, but she didn’t have the insight she wanted. The dream wasn’t telling her that her dead husband was haunting her for letting him be cremated! The dream was telling her of her own need to change, to use her experiences to expand her awareness and to produce understanding. She needs to open the door to understanding. Her subconscious mind was screaming at her to learn, to change! The death of her ex-husband obviously stimulated thoughts and emotions that she had yet to understand. She was fixated on the past experience of her husband’s death and cremation because she had not used it to learn about herself and transform. The subconscious mind wants understanding. Helping her dream ex-husband means giving understanding to the subconscious mind.

Understanding the meaning of the dream can bring this woman peace of mind. Simply knowing that a person in a dream is an aspect of yourself, that death in a dream symbolizes change and fire symbolizes expansion can completely transform how this woman views herself from now on. In five minutes of hearing what her dream means she might make more progress into self-awareness than 12 years of counseling has provided.

To make dream interpretation a part of your life, begin by writing down your own dreams. You can learn the Universal Language of Mind through studies with the School of Metaphysics, in person or online at www.dreamschool.org. The Dreamer’s Dictionary by Dr. Barbara Condron is an excellent reference book that you can use to look up symbols and to consider why particular symbols appear in your dreams. Use the messages to make a difference in your life! Apply them, cause changes in your self and your attitudes, and your dreams will change.

Some people think of dream interpretation as a fun thing to do. I see it as a fundamental skill that all people need to know. We all dream every night. Our dreams come from the inner self, or soul, for the purpose of communicating the Truth about who we are, how we think, and how we can fulfill our reason for being here. Sometimes people ask why the messages in dreams are veiled. They aren’t; we need to learn the language they speak. Just as a child learns words to speak their native language, learning the symbolic picture language of the mind enables us to receive communication from our soul.

When everyone on the planet knows how to interpret dreams, the consciousness of the universe will be raised! We will get along much better with one another, for as we know ourselves, we have greater peace of mind. When our fears are relieved (and dream interpretation will do this), we trust each other more completely. A simple thing like remembering and interpreting dreams has profound consequences for ourselves, our lives, our relationships, and our world.