THE FIVE STEP DREAM TECHNIQUE. Find the meaning of a dream in minutes.
Step 4 - SYMBOLS. Dream symbols deal in associations with present or past experiences and like a hologram, they carry a slice of deep experience which, like a window within a window, opens up in a dream. Key symbols often lead back to the same or meaning so you don't need to overwork symbols.
SYMBOLS ARE UNIQUE TO YOUR EXPERIENCE. A red rose reminds one person of love because they received flowers from a loved one on Valentine's Day. It reminds someone else of sorrow because roses were on the casket of a loved one. Trust your own experience to get the meaning of your dream symbols, rather than looking up "dream dictionary" books that give generalizations that rarely apply to you. Proceed with confidence; understanding dream symbols is as natural as getting the punch line of a joke.
TWO METHODS TO FIND THE MEANING OF A SYMBOL. There are two main methods to explore your memory and find your associations to a dream symbo and once you see how easily they work, you won’t get side-tracked by dream dictionaries. To crank the wheel of dream understanding, try each method – Association and Amplification.
The Past Association Method of What a Symbol Means. Sigmund Freud discovered the concept of "past associations" in which you take a symbol and say, “What does that remind me of?” Then take that memory, which is your first association to the symbol, and go backward in time to what that reminds you of. Keep going back in time and at each point, ask yourself how that past association might relate to the symbol and keep going until a meaning clicks. For example, a young college woman in her early twenties dreamed:
"I am in a department store in the coat section. On one rack I see pink coats but pass them and pick out a light grey coat. I am happy with my selection yet at the same time, feel disappointed."
Selecting the pink coat as a symbol, she applied the Association Method. At first, nothing in her past came up about pink coats then she suddenly remembered how a few months before, she had been in a department store as her college roommate shopped for a coat. She asked herself how that related to her dream, came up blank, then suddenly remembered that while in the store, she had actually seen a section of pink coats and was drawn to a coral coat. Still, the symbol was not yet meaningful, so went backward in time again, asking herself what she had been thinking at the time. Bingo. It flashed that when she had seen the coat, she said to herself, " I meet my true love, I might consider such a coat."
As soon as that memory flashed, she realized the dream was talking about relationships and the new man she was beginning to like; the day before she had wondered whether he was her true love. Alas. In the dream, she picked out the grey coat, so the dream told her that the new guy was not "the" one, which proved correct; it helped her keep feelings under control and review what she wanted in a relationship. This is an example of how working backwards with memories related to a dream symbol adds to or cracks the meaning of a dream.
The Amplification Method of What a Symbol Means. Psychologist Carl Jung named the second method of uncovering clues to the meaning of symbols, which he termed "amplification". Take a symbol and instead of going backward in time, think of parallel meanings or associations it brings up for you now. For example, if rose is a symbol in your dream, think of what the rose brings up such as love, beauty, a wonderful smell, gentleness, softness and so on. See if any of those associations bring meaning to the dream story. For example, in the above dream, to the dreamer, a coat meant warmth, security and protection, which happened to be the qualities she wanted in a long-term relationship.
SYMBOLS AS A GAME OF CHARADES. Even the words we use to speak with are merely symbols. For example, the letters in "s u n r i s e" they have no logical link to the morning event of the sun rising above the horizon and in fact, most meanings of words come to us in a symbolic, indirect way per the expression, "a picture is worth a thousand words."
Try a playful attitude with a symbol, as though playing a game of Charades. In Charades, a person mimes a phrase without speaking, like pointing a finger at your ear as if to say, “sounds like”. In Charades, a visual display leads to alternate, associated meanings and the same thing happens in dreams where we see a visual and “associate” it to a new meaning.
SYMBOLS AS COLLAGES. Symbols are often a play on words, common expressions, or t.v. and song jingles which are used by the sleeping mind as collage pieces, to get a point across. One person saw someone in a dream with their head missing; the dream was using the expression "he lost his head" to make the point that the dreamer was acting rashly in a particular situation. Another person saw someone whose torso was turned backwards from the waist up in a dream, so that the bum was facing forward. In waking life, the dreamer was familiar with the expression "Doing something ass backwards" as something done poorly, and that was what the dream meant to say about some of his activities!
SYMBOLS MIRROR HOW YOU COMMUNICATE. Your psyche use familiar expressions and patterns of how you normally express yourself. Take a look at how you communicate. If you are polite, symbols and characters will tend to be polite. If you are poetic and like to elaborate, your symbols and scenarios may be detailed and profuse. If you express yourself in a direct way with as few words as possible, your dreams may try to pack a lot of meaning into a few symbols, like a summary. One lady in a dream group was a writer. Her dreams usually came in three acts: the introduction, scenario and conclusion. The hero and heroine were always easy to spot and her dream plots worthy of Hollywood productions. Another person in the group was an accountant; his dreams had lots of numbers and details.
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