Do Dreams Have Meaning? Here are 7 Interpretations.

I’ve always been a vivid dreamer. And after my spiritual journey began, I started noticing the different types of experiences these dreams brought to me. I was also able to remember them even hours after waking up. I began to wonder – do dreams have meaning?

So, I started keeping a “Dream Diary” next to my bed. And sometimes, I would wake up several times through the night, just jotting down messages that my subconscious was throwing at me. Later in the morning, I would sit down and reflect on what the dream could mean.

Years into dream analysis and interpretation, it is thus my understanding that dreams are a very powerful gateway into our subconscious mind. They can come to us for many different reasons. And so, here is my spiritual take on the meaning of dreams, based on personal experiences.

#1 – Dreams that Predict the Future

Can dreams from the night before come true? Rare but not impossible, sometimes you will realize that you recognize a place, person, or event. Because it happened in your dreams first!

Some real-life examples of prophecies in my own life include :

• One morning, when I was supposed to lock my room to go visit my parents for the weekend, I woke up dreaming of water leaking in the kitchen. I went outside, groggy and rolling my eyes at how superstitious I was being. But sure enough, overnight, the piping from upstairs had leaked through the kitchen and the wall was growing increasingly damp by the minute. Mishap managed!

• My mom envisioned I’d say yes to get married on a whim, and that I’d be head over heels in excitement, whereas the guy would be calm and peaceful. That is EXACTLY what happened at the time we both said yes to each other. Which was literally within 24 hours of meeting and spending time together! And I was the excited kid that couldn’t stop grinning, whereas my twin flame played it super cool.

• Me dreaming of a giant temple. And several months later I visited the spiritual city of Haridwar in India with my family, we randomly walked through this temple that none of us had ever been to, and yet, I was able to tell my parents exactly what would come next as we walked up the stairs. It was surreal!

#2 – Dreams for Healing and Closure 

Whether we see an ex-lover hugging us after a terrible breakup or a passed-away loved one that’s meeting us to affirm that they’re doing okay, dreams can help everyone reconnect with souls that are not physically around us due to the present circumstances.

For instance, when my grandfather passed away, I had a dream where he was sitting under a tree and meditating. He wore an orange, saint-like robe and looked very peaceful. At the same time, he felt distant and like his “connection” with me had become complete. This dream allowed me to understand that he had moved on to a better place and while I don’t have to “forget” about him, knowing that his soul had completed our soul contract in this way brought me a deep sense of comfort and closure.

This concept is also depicted beautifully in the mystical book, Immortal Talks : Part 1. In the book, two souls reconnect with each other in a dream. And then, the healing they needed to receive through meeting in person, was achieved on the astral plane.

#3 – Dreams with Divine Guidance

Our conscious mind is very skeptical, so dreams are a perfect opportunity for us to gain insight from the Spiritual Realms. Many famous artists including Stephen King, Maya Angelou, and children’s writer E.B. White admit that their best works came to them during their sleep!

Some interesting incidents from my own collection include :

• There was an instance when I was working in a corporate job where I had a dream of the solution to a problem that I had been stuck with for days. After waking up from the dream, I was excited to try the solution out and the issue really got resolved! I even told my team lead about this, and to not give me the credit because it wasn’t ME.

• Before I met my husband, I kept seeing signs of “Canada” and the name “Sagar” wherever I would look. I didn’t understand any of this, and I had no intention of moving, so I kept ignoring the message. Then one day, in my dreams, I saw a spiritually guiding figure merge into my now-husband, and tell me I am meant to go to Canada. This, along with a conversation with my cousin sister sparked the idea of finally meeting my man!

Similarily, this analysis about finding the Divine Light in dark times was what compelled my friend to wake up in the early hours of her day and share the divine guidance.

#4 – Dreams to Purge Subconscious Fears

Our dreams can help us face our innermost hidden fears. You may see nightmares and awful things which you fret about might happen in real life. This is the type of dreaming science most often talks about.

Some examples include:

• Having an argument at work and then dreaming about getting fired. This could simply mean you’re scared to lose your job.
• Watching a scary movie and then having nightmares at night. Pretty common, which is why people who have an active third-eye chakra in the spiritual journey are advised not to watch such movies.
• Fearing that you’ll be abandoned by your romantic partner and then having a vivid dream of them cheating on you.

The examples above are more straightforward but sometimes the meaning of a dream can be more complex and will take a hot second to interpret. One of my clients would often see a recurring dream of being chased by a man, with an ax in his hand. Eventually, through our work together, she realized that the man was her own subconscious being hard on her, trying to “tame” her inner child. When she finally “faced her fears” in the dream, that man stopped chasing her and backed away.

As I also mentioned in the beginning – when I started seeing more nightmares than ever, using a Dream Diary to write down what I saw right after I woke up, helped with interpreting these dreams. You can try the same for yourself. This is a significant step to healing your mind and heart, and becoming a braver, more loving person.

Related read: 7 Journaling Techniques to Deepen Your Healing

#5 – Clearing Karmic Debts Beyond THIS Life

In a dream state, we are not limited to the rules of our human life. Our mind may sleep but our soul is always working to maximize our spiritual growth.

Related read: correlation between sleep issues and spirituality

As an example, dreaming of a romantic relationship with someone else while you’re already happily married is NOT an indication of infidelity, but more likely an old connection that’s being completed through the astral plane.

You may also experience traveling to different realities where things are more beautiful or time-traveling.

These are lesser-explored avenues for me, but I am a strong believer in parallel universes and that’s how I interpret what happens when say, I’m dreaming of a High-Techlife that Earth has nothing remotely close to achieving.

These are all ways of clearing your karma and making the most of your soul’s learning plan.

#6 – Manifesting Reality through Your Dreams

People who train themselves in self-healing through Lucid Dreaming have confessed that they have manifested wonderful things for themselves by working in their sleep, including no longer needing to wear specks! Here’s an awesome video by lucid dreaming expert, Charlier Morley, that explains what happens in Lucid Dreaming.

If you are like me and are feeling drawn to become a lucid dreamer yourself, you can learn directly from Charley through his signature program called Experience Lucid Dreaming. Over the span of 30 days, he guides you towards dream mastery and he equips you with the tools and techniques for recalling, tracking, interpreting, and planning transformational lucid dreams.

Through a scientific process which he calls 4D’s of Lucid Dreaming, he unlocks new ways to:

• Heal pain & trauma (he’s helped hundreds with PTSD),
• Gain spiritual insights & answers from your spiritual army like soul guides, higher self, etc,
• Improve your real-life performance (used in sports training),
• Rewire your brain & habits, and more.

You can join his free masterclass here, and get a taste of what the program entails. In his full program, I’ve loved learning the science behind how the mind works in dream-state versus lucid dreaming, how we can create an effective dream diary to recall our dreams, and then get very hands-on with rewiring nightmares.

For anyone that’s curious about the subject, I highly recommend his 30-day program.

#7 – Seeing Past Lives

To me, there are a couple of characteristics that affirm whether a dream was a past life or not. These include:

• The dream makes logical sense, and it’s like seeing a real-life story from a different time, except you’re in it.
• The dream vividly stays with you days, weeks, and years after you first see it.
• It connects dots in your current life and helps you heal an aspect you weren’t previously able to.

I started seeing past lives in my dreams only after I visited a healer for a past life regression. A few months later, the dreams began and they have helped me to continue healing in the most profound ways.

One such memorable dream was about being abducted as a child and kept in a house where two women took care of me. One was my grandmother in this life, and another was a lady I didn’t recognize.

One day, when I visited the Bangla Saheb Gurudwara in New Delhi, a lady in a wheelchair called for me to feed her. As I sat next to her and put one bite after another in her mouth, I started crying profusely.

There was an intense connection and only later did I understand why. She fed me before, and I fed her as we met again. Our Karmic bond was completed.

Final Thoughts: Do Dreams Have Meaning?

I want to end with the thought that if we spend a third of our lives sleeping, and a sixth of it dreaming, shouldn’t there be an actual basis behind these dreams?

Shouldn’t there be something much deeper at play, that we tend to brush off as a coincidence?

I think so – yes. From the above examples and from countless others that I continue to experience through myself and my clients, I can see that dreams are a gateway to profound spiritual guidance, healing, and epiphanies.

Have you tried dream interpretation? What were your discoveries? Share in the comments below, I’d love to know!

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