Many a student of dream theory (and application) tends to focus on the spiritual side, seeking wisdom, insight, inner growth,and a host of other good things. Pam and I do some of that as well, and we would never disparage anyone seeking to understand the deeper levels of life...but this particular Hub will ignore that aspect altogether and instead limit itself to attempting to illustrate the several ways dreams can help us in daily life:

1. Warning Dreams. These have been with us since Biblical times. Every Sunday school student is familiar with the Egyptian Pharaoh's dream of the seven lean kine and seven fat kine. Joseph's ability to interpret that dream allowed Joseph to warn the Pharaoh of Egypt that after seven years of plentiful harvest, there would be seven years of very hard times...which allowed the country's ruler to direct his countrymen to store up food like crazy during the good years. In this fashion, mass starvation during the Egyption version of the Great Depression was niftily avoided.

Many of us have equally important dreams--important to us, at least--in the Here and Now. Fortunately, you can become your own interpreter, no need to ask a medium to try getting in touch with Joseph's ghost.

2. Confirmation Dreams. A lot of folks, yours truly included, spend an inordinate amount of time being nervous about "stuff". Will that job interview actually result in a job offer? Will she accept that marriage proposal? Is that new car really a lemon? Etc.:-?-?-?-?. Nerves never really help the situation, and a simple but sure word from the dream world can be immensely reassuring. Since avoiding an ulcer has got to be a good thing, it follows that understanding a true confirmation dream is also a good thing.

3. Answer Dreams. These somewhat overlap with Confirmation Dreams. For example, finding out that the new car is a lemon would be definite confirmation if the owner/dreamer was already pretty certain the vehicle was both yellow and sour. Then again, it would thoroughly qualify as an Answer Dream if, surprisingly, the answer was no: The car is actually a true jewel of the automotive art; it's the mechanic at the dealership who's the lemon.

4. Breakthrough Dreams. The Spiritual Breakthrough Dream is both powerful and uplifting but not the topic of this page...and the Practical/Mundane Breakthrough Dream easily falls under the Answer Dream heading. Thus, we'll say no more for now about Breakthrough Dreams and stick to categories #1 through #3 as described above.

If a dreamer could remember only a single image on a given night of sleep and dreaming, and if that image happened to be the one above, what is the dream trying to say?

Don't ask me! Not a clue.

Say what?

No, it's true. A given image or even a given action sequence can have a virtually infinite number of meanings, quite literally as many meanings as there are dreamers. This is because:

1. No two dreamers are alike; each is as unique as a snowflake or a fingerprint. This being so, a single image may mean one thing for one individual and something entirely different--even opposite--for another. This is so despite the ubiquitous "Dream Dictionaries" that would have you believe otherwise. Example: The cat-in-the-sink dream image above could not possibly carry the same meaning for my paternal grandfather (a lifetime hater of cats), my ex-wife (allergic to cats and fearful of germs), me (cat lover), and/or a professional photographer who specializes in "negative effect" shots (which this one is).

2. Dreams exaggerate. I recall one dream from roughly 25 years ago wherein my (now ex-) wife and I were running from some very nasty men...but as we ran, I was shooting them with a .45 Long Colt revolver, and--not true in every dream by a long shot--they were conveniently dying when hit. No, I do not have a history of killing people, even those that appear to need it...but we were able to figure out the meaning. Our income had recently begun to increase, and we were beginning to pay off one bill after another. Guess you could say it was our own personal version of Kill Bill. Exaggeration...but it got the point across.

3. There is a Dream Censor--at least that's what some call it--whose job is to hide the real meaning of dreams from the dreamer when the Censor concludes that, as it was so well stated in A Few Good Men: "The truth? You can't handle the truth!" The Dream Censor does not consider itself our enemy but our protector. Trouble is, if we'd prefer to face reality dead on without all the sugar coating, getting the real message is sometimes like the Japanese trying to figure out what the Navajo Code Talkers were saying.

Sounds pretty overwhelming, doesn't it? Certainly it can be. Then again, things like walking and (gasp!) potty training are pretty overwhelming to a newborn infant...yet most of us manage to master the process over time. Likewise, most of us can learn to master the art of comprehending our own Warning, Confirmation, and Answer Dreams over time.

That's said, let's take a closer look at the Warning Dream.

In late February of 2009, I had a strongly remembered dream that included long minutes of watching our tabby cat, Kitten Precious, stare intently into the distance. As in the photo, she sat perched on a counter in front of a television set covered by a maroon or purple cloth, possibly a towel. Every so often, she would glance in my direction, utter a single, abrupt "meow!" and go right back to staring in the same direction.

I keep a dream journal, and this was one dream I recorded in some detail. It had the feeling of a Warning Dream somehow, and that is significant: First impressions count. They are not always right, but they do appear to be right more often than wrong. One or another of our cats will accompany me on a dream state journey now and then, but not that often...and besides, this just seemed to be more than that.

When Pam and I discussed the dream the next morning, we agreed it was a warning in fact. But...a warning about what? For a few days, that key point was not clear. Then, just six days after the dream, my employer announced all overtime would be eliminated as of March first, 2009. A speedy but in depth analysis of our finances told us almost immediately: All the cutbacks possible would not be enough to allow us to survive with our boom town house payment and other bills. The drain would be slow if we fought the inevitable as hard as we could, but within six months we would have so little left in savings that leaving Colorado (where we were at that time) would be financially impossible.

In other words, we wouldn't have enough left to rent a U-Haul truck.

The decision was made to get out of Dodge: At 2:30 a.m. on April 17, we headed for southern Arizona, where we are now happily ensconced on an off grid acreage we are purchasing with little more to go on for the present than the Social Security payments I began taking on May 1, 2009. Things are still tight financially, but here--on Pam's old stomping grounds, where her health is always best and the desert always fascinating--here we can definitely make it long term.

Did finally recognizing the meaning of the Warning Dream speed our departure from Colorado? We think so. Was that important? Again, we think so: We're just now able to "batten down the hatches" for the coming summer monsoons. Had I been slower to file for Social Security, even a few weeks slower, we might have lost the land before we fairly got settled here.

Without the Dream Censor's cloak of illusion, we'd have had six days more to prepare...but Kitten Precious is the finest friend a human could have; we'll not complain about that brief delay in comprehension.

Perhaps my most dramatic Confirmation Dream to date occurred way back in September of 1974. My (ex-) wife and I were living in Rapid City, South Dakota, but had applied for a job as group home houseparents in Huron, South Dakota, some distance to the east and north. Acceptance depended on a Board consisting of fifteen members. We were on tenterhooks, going broke in Rapid City, hopeful but none too sure about actually getting the position in Huron.

One night, a friend and I were discussing dreams over a restaurant meal at a Deadwood restaurant. I mentioned a dream I'd had in which I'd flown (like a bird, not in a plane) cross country from Eugene, Oregon (where I'd been living at the time), coming to rest in the upper branches of a huge tree. There was more to the dream, but the key was my knowing even as I lit in the tree that this was the western South Dakota area--even though it was a dense forest with no other people or any evidence of so-called civilization in view.

I had told my friend how nervous we were about the job in Huron. Now, mentioning this flying-to-the-tree dream, I stated,

"That's the dream I got to here on."

The instant those words were out of my mouth, we both froze, staring at each other in perfect understanding. The audible rendition of that sentence sounded like,

"That's the dream I got to Huron."

Neither he nor I had any doubt: My wife and I would get the job. And just a few days later, we did; the phone call from the Board Chairman came through. We were on our way. True, we blew up a U-Haul truck getting there, but that was still less stressful than pacing the living room floor for day after day, wondering....

Answer Dreams are actually the trickiest ones for me to grasp. I'm quite sure I have ten of those for every one I figure out and actually interpret as such. But one dream from this morning fits the category quite well, so here we go:

Let's pick up the action where people were yelling, "The seawall has been breached! The seawall has been breached!"

As previously stated, dreams exaggerate. But to continue: I grabbed a piece of flattish debris by the forward edge and shot out over the ocean, a huge tidal wave from the breached seawall pursuing with a vengeance. But the improvised boogie board could do the job and did, staying ahead of the humongo wave until the thing flattened out. Oop. A bit ahead, unfortunately, the ocean was going to drop off like some thousand foot seawall waterfall, a plunge no one could survive.

But, hey. It's my dream, there is suddenly visible a large, lichen covered, rocky ridge. Steering the boogie board to the right allows a (for some reason barefooted) landing on the rocky ridge. A bit later, another man lands there in similar fashion. I want him to give me a "high five". He refuses, saying,

"I'll give you a high one; financial linen."

Okay. Better than nothing...but...financial linen?

As it happens, I think I understand this one. (It's early, and only time will tell for sure.) But if I've got it right, the breached seawall and ensuing tidal wave represent the economic slump in Colorado...after all, Pam and I did get out of there just ahead of total disaster, not unlike outrunning a tidal wave that will drown your tail if it catches you. The rocky ridge, in the dream extending all the way back to the mainland, refers to the area in which we now live, which is on a broad valley floor surrounded at some distance by mountains that certainly look rocky at the very least. And the heart of the Answer Dream lies in the final two words: Financial linen.

Linen is used, in my world at least, as a term referring to sheets and pillow cases for a bed. There is an old saying, "You made your own bed; now lie in it." Therefore, the conclusion: I haven't made my own bed yet, not in this area in which we've lived for the past two months. In fact, I have yet to come up with the cottonpickin' blankets!

The answer, then? With only a "high one", I've got some really serious work to do, at least four times (four more digits) than I've done to date. Perhaps more job applications. Or, if the two great job interviews I had last week both do turn out to be like the dream I got to Huron, and I get hired part time by both.... Well, in that case, working myself hard enough to convince one or the other to upgrade me to full time...not to mention fixing the various leaks in the camp trailer and the storage semi, getting the oversized TV antenna installed so Pam has something to watch, and about a zillion other projects that require both momentarily nonexistent funding and time-limited energy.

@#!!%$&<> Dream Censor. The message still got through, and I'm stuck with the truth. No wonder the weather at eleven p.m. is thunder-growling and dropping raindrops all over the place, never mind the lightning flashes. Good thing this land is worth the entire hassle, with our first rainbow of the year showing up this afternoon and more (and better) to come with the monsoons....

Thanks for reading,

Ghost32