Different Types of Dreams

Repetitive Dreams

Repeated or recurring dreams are fairly common, and it can safely be said that they are important to whoever dreams them, carrying a message which will be very well worth recovering. If your recurring dream is one which you have had since you were very young, which occurs again and again, it very probably refers to an aspect of your personality which has been a problem to you for your whole lifetime, though not one which has necessarily caused you waking problems. When you have recognized the issue which the dream is confronting, and trying to force you to confront, it will disappear.

Remember, however, that a recurring dream may also have a relevance to some current problem or preoccupation. Consider, for instance, a recurring dream in which a dog appears in a frightening context. It may be based on a subconscious fear of dogs; maybe one frightened you when you were in your cradle, an incident which you have completely forgotten. If you dream of being chased by a dog, the dream may well have its basis in such an incident, but i may recur when you are consciously or unconsciously feeling insecure and vulnerable, under circumstances as different as being offered a position of authority at work, for which you feel unready, or trying to decide whether to make an approach to a woman you fancy, but fearing rejection.

Predictive Dreams

We have always treated predictive dreams with great caution. There are some published examples which are, to say the least, extremely persuasive, and if many of them can be rationally explained, there are others which cannot. It would obviously be silly to look for predictions in every dream we have. Many people, on the night before a long flight, dream of an aircraft crashing. It is impossible to know for how many this has been a fatal prediction, but the number seems unlikely to be large.

Treat such dreams with caution and good sense. If you dream that your plane is crashing, there is no good reason to cancel your flight: the dream will simply be a reflection of your tension and a (perhaps unconscious) fear of flying. If you dream that that plane is piloted by a red-haired man with only one arm, and you are welcomed on board next day by a red-haired pilot with an empty sleeve, you might do well to be worried! However, most of them are only concidence according to statistics, although you think that the dream are predicting your future.

Practicality should always be underlined when we think of dream interpreatations. It is not a modern, untried theory - it has been used in many cultures throughout world history - though it is only in the present century that a general concensus has been reached about the way in which we should look at our dreams and discover how they can help us.

Nightmares

For details, please see Health - Nightmares .

Lucid Dreams

For details, please see Lucid Dreaming .

Further reading:
1.Dreaming Insights by Gillian Holloway