And no, it doesn't make you crazy or a new age moron. Dream interpretation goes all the way back to the Babylonians, which for those of you not so historically inclined, ballparks people paying attention to dreams as early as 2000 BC. The notion of dreams being wish fulfillment began with Freud, partially due to his explanation that most people were not capable of thinking in abstract enough thought to understand the true symbolism. Jung was one of the first modern thinkers to offer the conflicting opinion that the subconscious mind is far more complicated that Freud wanted to attest, and to offer such a simplistic view was leaving out the factors affected by individual experiences. I'm not going to waste the whole post explaining why, as usual, the more complicated view of a situation is usually the one that's more accurate. You should probably just run with it on this.
First, let's acknowledge the obvious - your brain is smarter than you are. Your sleeping brain has more neurons available to think and process than your waking brain, when it's not busy processing eyesight and enabling you to sit in front of your computer or watch asinine reality TV. I'm pretty sure that if you could take an IQ test sleeping, it would be monstrously higher. Your cognitive abilities are heightened. Your thought processes occur on a higher level. YOU ARE SMARTER WHEN YOU ARE ASLEEP.
While a good portion of dreams will be reliving things that happened during your days, (this is part of how memories transition into long term from short term) those dreams are easy to pick out and discard as having any relevant knowledge. What we're mostly concerned with here is those dreams that you wake up vividly remembering. The more detail you remember - the more important the message is. It's the question of being able to interpret the information that you are given. Let's assume that you don't have vast experience in understanding symbolism, and that you need a bit of help with this aspect.
The one thing that all people well versed in dream interpretation will agree on that you need to accept before moving on, a person is not simply the person you think it is. You must first acknowledge the aspects of that person - especially if they are acting outside of their logical real life behavior, is the details that should be most attended to. It may represent aspects of yourself, or an entirely different person all together. This is one of those things that you'll get better with after practice. Your brain is unconcerned with looks, it picks the most convenient vessel to convey it's point, which is why maybe it'll pick an ex to demonstrate problems with your current relationship. Or your old house to illustrate points about your past. Figure out the actual subject matter, and then you can progress.
Symbolism is the big thing with dreams. The best site I've found for accurate symbolism is Dream Moods, which has a supremely in depth database. The most important step to begin this process is to WRITE DOWN the dream, every detail you can remember. If you're sitting at a table, what shape is it? What condition is it in? These are all details that are relevant. Remember, your dreams can't spell it out for you- you can't read in dreams, so all that is available is pictures. In the same way that a picture is worth a thousand words, a dream picture is worth the same. And every portion of that image is relevant. Writing down every detail will help you remember things you may have forgotten, and gives you more material to investigate and interpret. While any symbolism site can only give you a rough guideline, you're going to have to use a bit of your own intuition to really understand. The standard definition of water in symbolism has to do with your emotional state of mind, and you should consider the state of the water - but if you're a lifeguard or recently nearly drowned, you might have different life experiences affecting the interpretation. Always consider how it pertains to your life first, before immediately accepting the symbolism at face value.
The most important thing about dreams to acknowledge, is the FEELING you associate with the dream. Dreams have a tone, just like a song or a movie, and that tone sets the premise for everything revealed after. Acknowledge this feeling first, and consider it grander than anything else you find out about the dream.
While we're acknowledging that your brain is smarter than you are, let's touch on the future. Your dreams have the ability to see many steps ahead of where you can actually see of your future life, they can see facts of a situation and come up with the most likely conclusion. Similar to playing a chess game with yourself, it can make jumps to realize the outcome of a situation. Dreams of this nature are designed to either help you figure out what you should do, or get you comfortable with something before it happens if it's beyond your control.
Once you get comfortable with this process, there's way cooler things you can do - like lucid dreaming and influencing your dreams to influence your waking life. But we'll touch on that later when you are a bit more in depth with the procedure. :)
Moral of the story? Pay attention to what your brain is trying to tell you!
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