Issue 96, August 2006
Good Dream, Bad Dream?
©Jane Teresa Anderson, August 2006
What’s the difference between a good dream and a bad dream? You’re probably thinking the answer is pretty obvious, that a bad dream leaves you feeling scared, sad, confused or unsettled and a good dream leaves you feeling wonderful, hopeful, loved or guided. Then again, you know that I wouldn’t be asking you this question if the answer was that simple!
Let’s start by looking at two dreams recently shared with me. Read them through and ask yourself which is the good dream and which is the bad dream.
Aaron’s Dream: The Gateway.
Aaron* dreamed he was looking for a new house. He had an address to check out and was driving there with a dream friend in the passenger seat. As they rounded the corner, the driveway gate came into view. The gate was open and the entrance was wide enough to drive through easily. Instead of driving in though, Aaron stopped the car and said to his passenger, “The house is in proportion to the size of the gate. This is your moment of choice. If you want a bigger house, imagine the gate is bigger”. The passenger and Aaron both focussed in the dream, making the gate wider and wider until they were satisfied that the kind of house that has that kind of gate would be the kind of house they were looking for. They drove in.
Jasmine’s Dream: The Dog Pen
Jasmine* dreamed she was looking into a garden. The garden was really no more than a large lawn, with no trees, shrubs or flowers. A low-fenced wooden pen, like a sheep pen, occupied the centre of the garden. A small, black, curly-haired dog was running up and down furiously inside the pen, unable to explore the garden beyond the pen fence, let alone the wider hills beyond the garden. Jasmine felt sorry for the dog but also felt it was in the dog’s interest to be in the pen where she felt it was safe from the dangers of the open countryside.
What do you think? Which is the good dream and which is the bad dream? Or are both dreams good? Or are both dreams bad? I’m not going to tell you the answer just yet! Instead I’m going to give you another clue, by sharing the interpretations of these two dreams. Once you’ve read the interpretations, you may have a better feel for your answer.
Aaron’s Dream: The Gateway. Interpretation
There are two levels of meaning in Aaron’s dream. The first level is quite obvious. Aaron has recently come to understand that the only limits in life are of your own making. In the past Aaron’s quality of life reflected his beliefs about his worthiness. His job and his income, for example, exactly matched his expectations even though any number of other people could see he was capable of so much more. Recent experiences had jolted Aaron awake to his situation, and he had started to expand his expectations (widen his driveway gate) to suit his desired goals (symbolised by the bigger house in the dream). Aaron’s dream was reinforcing his new belief system, practising it, running it through and establishing it firmly. Whatever changes Aaron had made to his thinking in recent weeks his dream showed his unconscious mind was in total accordance with the new concept. Except for the dream passenger, of course, and Aaron managed to persuade him to come round to the new way of thinking in the dream. (Everyone in a dream represents an attitude of the dreamer, so the passenger was one last attitude that Aaron needed to convince, and it was easy!)
The second level of interpretation for Aaron’s dream is based on the fact that most dream houses represent the dreamer’s mind. So Aaron, in his dream, was finally acknowledging that his mind was far bigger than he had previously recognised, and that if he was more open-minded (like the bigger driveway gate) and perhaps more welcoming (like the driveway gate again), then he would break free of the constraints of a restricted (smaller) mind and enjoy all the benefits of accessing his totally abundant (big house) mind.
Good dream or bad dream?
Jasmine’s Dream: The Dog Pen. Interpretation
Animals in dreams often represent our instincts or energies, especially around survival issues. When survival is at stake (shelter, food, mate, money) our natural instincts come to our aid. Jasmine’s instincts, in the shape of the dog, were penned up, restricted and frustrated, unable to run free as nature intended. In the dream Jasmine was sad about this, even though she reasoned that restricting her instincts (the dog) kept her safe. Did the dog in the dream agree? Hardly, being that frustrated! Dogs need to run! Our natural instincts need to find some form of expression!
Jasmine recognised the dog in her dream. It looked exactly like a pet dog a millionaire acquaintance of hers took everywhere with him. He was inseparable from his pet. Once she saw this connection, Jasmine understood her dream. Her ‘millionaire’ instincts, her natural money-making survival instincts, were being penned up and restricted because she was fearful of taking the kinds of risks you need to take to make that kind of money. Jasmine’s dream showed how she traded her considerable instincts for making money for the comfort zone of her day-to-day job where she felt penned up.
Good dream or bad dream?
What’s your verdict? Aaron was over the moon with his “good dream”, and so he should have been. It was fabulously uplifting and endorsing. Jasmine felt unsettled by her “bad dream” all day, which was understandable given the strong emotional feelings she experienced in the dream.
In their own eyes, Aaron had a good dream and Jasmine had a bad dream, but how do you see them? Here’s the final clue so you can make your decision. These are the Dream Alchemy Practices I gave Aaron and Jasmine, based on their dreams, and a little insight into what happened next for each of them:
Aaron’s Dream: The Gateway. Dream Alchemy Practice & Results
I gave Aaron a visualisation to do 20 times a day for a week, ten times a day for the second week and twice a day for the next month. He was to visualise being back in his dream making that gate extremely wide in one easy move and then visualise going through the gate and driving up to a huge and beautiful new house. He was to add feelings of absolute delight and joy at knowing this house was his new home.
Aaron’s results came in fast within one week of his visualisation. A new job with a record-breaking salary came out of the blue when he was head-hunted by a company that recognised his skills, and, within a month, life became more abundant and sweeter on every level.
Jasmine’s Dream: The Dog Pen. Dream Alchemy Practice & Results
I also chose a visualisation for Jasmine’s Dream Alchemy Practice, to be done with the same regularity as Aaron’s. Jasmine was to visualise walking up to the pen and opening a gate to let the little dog out. She was to visualise the dog jumping in joy – and she was to feel this joy throughout her body – as he ran to explore the green hills beyond the garden. As she visualised him loving his freedom, she was to feel excitement – the excitement of freedom, knowing the millionaire dog’s instincts were perfect and that he would bring her wonderful gifts from his travels.
By the second week of her visualisation Jasmine surprised herself by saying and doing things she had believed were “not in my nature” before. Her freer, more exploratory attitude led her, a month into her visualisations, to initiate a new project that took her way out of her old comfort zone. Six months later her project was showing all the signs of evolving into a successful business, and Jasmine was talking with seriously interested investors.
So, what’s your final verdict? Which was the good dream and which was the bad dream?
I’m sure you’ll agree that a dream is as good or as bad as the dreamer’s experience of it, and that all dreams are good dreams when you not only learn something about yourself from having them interpreted but also do a Dream Alchemy Practice that creates a positive GOOD outcome.
It’s all in the Dream Alchemy Practice. Aaron’s “good” dream showed his newly emerging “good” belief and the Dream Alchemy Practice worked to ACCELERATE that emergence and really establish that new belief. Jasmine’s “bad” dream showed a belief that wasn’t working well for her, and the Dream Alchemy Practice worked to CHANGE AND TRANSFORM that old belief into a more positive one.
Next time you wake up and think, “Oh, I had a bad dream”, remind yourself that the GOOD thing about your bad dream is that, once interpreted, it offers you an insight into yourself which you can TRANSFORM by creating a Dream Alchemy Practice to suit. How good is that?!
(If you need a little help in transforming your “bad” dreams, you might like to read my new e-book, “How to Stop Bad Dreams & Nightmares”, which outlines the meanings of the most common “bad” dreams and offers suitable Dream Alchemy Practices to apply in each case.)
Sweet (good) dreams!
* Names changed for confidentiality. Aaron and Jasmine both offered their dreams and outcomes for teaching purposes.
Jane Teresa Anderson
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