WHY DO WE DREAM?

Did you know that by age 60 you will sleep 175,200 hours, dream 87,000 hours with
197,100 dreams? There are a significant number of people who remember their dreams but
a very small percentage who are aware of what their dreams mean. Our vision here at the
School of Metaphysics is to educate people about their dreams through columns such as
this one, books, the annual National Dream Hotline, and through our classes.
There are several questions that people tend to ask about dreams. For instance, why do we
dream and where do dreams come from? Your dreams tell you about your present state of
awareness, this is why we dream. Dreams come from an inner place we call the
subconscious mind and are presented to you in images which, when interpreted in the
Universal Language of Mind, become personally relevant to you and your life. The
meaning of these nighttime messages can literally change your life.
When studying dreams and learning to interpret them, you need to know the two universal
principles which apply to everyone, everywhere, at all times. The first of these principles is
that every dream is about the dreamer. The second principle is that every person, place and
thing in the dream is the dreamer. We as human beings are very multi-faceted. A great
majority of us are only aware of a small part of who we are. You can learn to expand your
awareness of yourself by learning to interpret your dreams.
People in your dreams represent aspects of yourself. An aspect can be defined as a certain
way in which you think and express. When you are dreaming of someone of the same sex
[for example a woman is dreaming of another woman] this person symbolizes an aspect of
your conscious mind. These are the ways in which you express yourself while awake. A
person of the opposite sex symbolizes an aspect of your inner Self. The way to identify
these aspects is to imagine yourself describing them to someone else. Here is an example:
You are dreaming about a co-worker of the same sex. In your daily life you perceive this
acquaintance as being compassionate, generous, and strong. These are the qualities of self
(your Self) which are being addressed in the dream. You might not use these qualities to
describe yourself, yet they are being brought out in your dream because your subconscious
mind wants you to see that they are a part of your character. This is one way dreams expand
our awareness -- we learn that we possess qualities we may not have known we had.
A question often asked is, Why do we dream? Some theories state that dreams are a way
in which we release stress. If this were true, then more people (especially those who are
stressed-out) would remember their dreams. Remember that dreams come from the inner
you, more specifically they are communications from your subconscious mind. All day
long we are busy moving through our waking lives, taking in sensations from all around
ourselves. During our nighttime slumber our conscious mind is stilled, providing us with
the opportunity to receive communication from our subconscious mind.