Dreams and what they mean

Most dreams are just a replay of the recent  events. The minds way of filing away memories and making sense of it all.

Some dreams are different in that they represent a message sent by the subconscious.

I often think that our consciousness consists of two separate processors.
Our waking thinking mind and the primitive lizard brain that runs all the background tasks on auto pilot.

The problem is that they don't  always play on the same team. When you are in harmony with your inner self, then it's all good.

Often however they are at odds, or the silent back seat driver has some criticism.

Since the silent one is without a voice he messes with your dreams.

So what does all of this mean and how does this help interpret dreams.?

Simple.

Every weird dream that you have ever had, was that back seat driver making a comment about where you are, or the route you have taken. Sometimes, actually most times its critical of your choices as they might contradict some inner moral code, but occasionally the message is comforting and is intended to help you navigate through the myriad of life's maze.

Recurring dreams are really interesting as they are symbolic.

They are the foundation of rudimentary language.
One needs to think carefully about those dreams that keep on coming. Often with slight variations. They are the building blocks of the  language that your back seat driver has evolved to communicate with you.

Many would argue that the dreams are predictions of future events or divine guidance.

Let's begin by dispelling any such hocus pocus and focus on the facts as I understand them. Any dreams that end up appearing to have predicted a future event, can be discounted as a lucky fluke. Just like one tends to remember the successful predictions of a psychic and overlook all the misses. Dreams aren't about the future. They are about the here and now. Sometimes they talk about the now and how it might play out in the future and even then, its not divinely guided prediction, but the regular kind, that everyone can use to  predict that the sun will rise tomorrow morning, or that you will one day get a speeding fine, if you keep on driving as fast as you do.

There are places that you keep going back to in your dreams.

Situations that you find yourself in, dream after dream.

Each one slightly different but similar enough to qualify as recurring themes.

You quickly forget these dreams and as you get older, you don't even remember that you dreamt at all.

Except when on rare occasions they  freak you out. Then you remember.

What you want to try is to wake up after the dream and replay the dream in your head. Review it as if  you are telling the story to somebody. This usually helps form the memories.
Then, when you go back to sleep and  get up at the usual time in the morning, go over the memory, to make sure it's all there.

Trust me, this gets easier as time goes by. And you will find that you remember your dreams with greater clarity after a while.

While you are having your morning coffee, trying to "kick start" your brain, try to find stuff from your dream that relates to events from the previous day. All those are usually housekeeping tasks that a normal healthy brain has to do, so you can set them aside.

Don't worry about those, as they are not important and will soon pass from your mind.

While we are dispelling dreams that aren't useful we could talk about the unusual night you have before some  big day, when you are anxious or are grappling with a problem. Often you toss and turn before your first day at school, or before an exam. The dream pattern you have on those nights is of a problem solving type that is most often a result of your back seat passengers not knowing why you are anxious. Sometimes he is very observant, but at other times he is an idiot. Remember lizard brain is wiley but not smart.
On very rare occasions, this problem solving mode, with  the dreams grinding through problem over and over, one might  wake up with a new perspective. But more often that not your passenger is just having an anxiety attack.

Don't worry about that dream either.

When you change your waking patterns and eat in the middle of the night, as you do in Ramadan, you might  get a few nights worth of psychedelic dreams. These too we will soon pass.

What you are looking for are those vivid scenes that take you back to times past and places that you have been.

The thing you are looking for is to boil the images down to a series of scenes and then try to  understand what those places, meant to you in the past.

What  emotion or thought does each conjure in your mind.

Don't listen to those people who have mapped out the dreamscape.

Those who would have you belive  that dreams of flying mean, escapism or that dreams of death mean this, and marriage means that.
All of that is irrelevant unless you it want to mean something.

It's all about causation and correlation. If you learn that a bird means something, a death means something else, you are learning a new language and teaching your back seat passenger a new range of vocabulary.

So in the end he understands what symbols to evoke to reach you.

You don't need to go this route, as initially it will lead to a series of miscommunications that could lead to a frustrated passenger, who might  just give up on you altogether.

Nothing worse than a sullen, sulking passenger who let's you go astray, just to make a point.

What you want to do is listen to what he has to say, and use your big brain to try and understand what he is telling you.

Only you, can do this, because the back seat driver doesn't have any words or schooling.

All he has is your poignant memories to trigger emotional responses from you.

And you need to try and understand what the message is.

The best way to illustrate what I mean is to share some of my dreams and what I think they meant.

Then maybe you try with your recurring dreams and figure out  what you can learn from them.

I often dream of airports.
Being in a foreign country on a trip, with some form of contra band that I can't bring back. Like my car, or gun.
Checking out of hotels, and agonising over the fact that I might not be able to afford the bill.
Being back in Umlaas Road in the shop that was my first attempt at business.
A failed attempt, I might add.

Let's start with the airports.
I am on auto pilot when I travel. There is a process to follow and I just follow. Lots of queues and signs and waiting and it's all good, if you just follow.

Sometimes in dreams, I find myself on the wrong side of things.
I am in the queue where people are arriving when I should actually be in the area behind the glass going the other way, departing.

Over the years there have been many versions of essentially the same story.

Here is what I think.

The airport and the structured rules represent religion and how easy it all is when you simply follow the guy in front of you. But sometimes you look up and you are not actually on the path you set out on. And there doesn't seem like there is any way to get back where you belong. Where you should be.

I get this dream when I have a crises of faith. When my actions are at odds with my moral compass. At those times I  examine my actions and try and identify what I am conflicted about, and try and decide  how I can get back the respect of my silent passenger.

It's really important for you and your silent passenger to be play nicely as, I believe the inner harmony depends on this. If you are conflicted and at odds with your self, you will be miserable and make those around you miserable.

The recurring  dream of being at the end of the holiday and stressing over the checkout process, is the passengers warning that there is lurking danger. Not physically but as a result of compartmentalised thinking. Most of us handle so many problems and crises at the same time that we learn to compartmentalise. We often put issues into their own box and forget about them while we deal with other matters. Often we forget about something that we placed at the back of the queue and the passenger sends us a reminder. Often he right and can save you from disaster if you listen. Sometimes this checkout dream points to consequences. You are doing something that has unavoidable consequences and he is pointing this out. As the "bill" that you must pay.

In the  contra band dream you are abroad, but find that you have your gun, knife or even car with you. And you don't know how you managed to be abroad with this item, but can't imagine you you are going to get back home.
Again you have strayed from the path and need to get back, but you need to hide your guilt or else you will be found out.

There is an element of guilt, in all these examples. The passenger is also your conscience. (seems like a really bad, judgemental partner.)

Remember he is you, and he wants to help.

My dreams of finding myself back in the farm shop are really odd. I am usually my current age and I am back in the shop and I open the doors to lots of customers. The shelves are bare and the cold room full of old dried out meat from decades ago. And the I am using an till to ring up sales and I am really embarrassed by the fact that we just don't have stuff to sell. I have money and pledge to buy lots of stock and sort out the store.

My job over the last two decades has been to sort out people's businesses. They see me as authoritative and helpful in getting their lives in order.

Seems I am being told that I too had a failed terrible and disorganised business. And I am meant to learn humility.
I am also being told that I now have the tools, means and skill to overcome the problems that I had in the past. And that I should remember where I am from and use my means to sort out matters from my past. Unfinished business as it were.

Don't forget this is literally advice from the primitive lizard brain.

𝓜 𝓟𝓪𝓻𝓪𝓴 

June 2015