DREAMS ARE A PORTAL into inner levels of consciousness. The people, places, and things that bring the dream-stories to life hold meaning for the dreamer. They are symbols representing Mind activity. These are universal symbols, personally applied to convey a message for and about the dreamer. You can think of dreams as a conversation. You call your friend to share your excitement for a new movie and set a time for seeing it together. This is a simple task because:

1. You and your friend speak a common language, and
2. You know how to use words to get your ideas across and your friend knows how to receive words with understanding.

Dreams work the same way. They use a common language - the Universal Language of Mind - for communication. Your inner, Subconscious Mind wants to tell you its viewpoint on the previous day. It waits for a time to deliver its message when the conscious you is more inclined to listen (when you're sleeping). When we wake up remembering sights and sounds and happenings from the inner worlds, we say, "I had a dream last night!" Sometimes, like this 63-year-old dreamer from Florida, we wonder what that dream means.

I was in a hospital waiting room talking with a large woman who was telling me she had had 22 children.(1) I was amazed because she really looked good and not very old.(2) I do not recall why I was there.(3) When this woman left I turned around for my purse and it was gone.(4) Of course I was frantic and searched the entire floor hoping that it had been discarded and that only the money was missing and not my credit card, license, etc. Since this dream I have had two others in which I have lost my purse. Any ideas as to what this means?
- Female Dreamer, Florida

Since it takes place in a hospital, this dream centers on healing. This woman is becoming aware of the place polarity [1] has held for some time in many of her ideas. Realizing this surprises her [2]. The numerology in this dream shows the dreamer's ideas are drawing upon the positive and negative factors of creation. A part of her knows when to initiate action and when to wait for something to occur. Until now, she has not seen a purpose [3] in understanding how her own thoughts are creative. Acknowledging her accomplishments brings to mind how she has taken them for granted symbolized by losing her purse [4].

What is most interesting here is the separation made in the dream between losing her money (which she can accept) and losing her credit card and license (which is less acceptable). In the language of mind this is a clear distinction pointing to the dreamer's shifting in values and how this shift might affect her self-value. A new level of awareness concerning this is the nature of the healing that is taking place in the dreamer's mind.

In the more general climate of today's economy, this dreamer related this message to her waking belief that the financial problems in the housing market didn't affect her because she owns her house. She had made a series of choices throughout her life that produced this stability, comfort and security. This was what the woman with 22 children in her dream represented in her waking life. As she gave it more thought, the dreamer realized her own security does not help the four or five neighbors on her block with "For Sale" signs in their yards. These people's lives, she discovered, are in the throes of upheaval because their properties are in jeopardy. The dream was alerting her to how their misfortune impacts her.

She was not thinking about this connection until her dream was interpreted. Thinking of others in this way opened her thinking. What will the outcome be? Will her she keep her neighbors or lose them? Is there a way she can help? Should she? Who is she to get involved? The dreamer sees answering these questions as the work of healing, for herself and maybe even her neighbors. In this case, the economic news from her daily life is at work here, evidenced by the dream images related to value exchange: money and credit cards.

The current economic lessons, facing our society and the world, involve admitting economic consequence. Those who respond by learning the lesson of moderation will find a transformation in values that will naturally lead to new ways of thinking. Those who have already learned these lessons can be in a place to teach, guide, and counsel those who want to learn. Since the arrival of the new year, a definitive shift in theme has taken place in the dreams received at www.dreamschool.org that will invite this to happen.

GOING WITH THE FLOW

In the first weeks of 2009, the most popular dream theme reported involved babies! Last year, pregnancy, birth, and children ranked as the seventh most common dream theme. Dreams surrounding birth tell us about our hopes for the future, our willingness to act on those hopes and how we nurture our fondest dreams into reality.

This is in keeping with general collective attitudes about any new year. People are inclined to review the previous year, count their blessings, then create resolutions for growth and progress in the coming year. This self-evaluation is one of the consciousness movements we are studying at the College of Metaphysics with the Global Lucid Dreaming Experiments (GLiDE). For this reason, it is not surprising that the new year would produce a bounty of these kinds of dreams.

This year, we are also taking into account the global economy. Financial accountability hit critical mass last fall and the repercussions will continue to become known from now forward. For those who, through this stimulus, "woke up" to new levels of awareness, baby-dreams indicate this consciousness shift. These dreams indicate the initiation of thoughts and behaviors that change the direction of Self. This would be positive Subconscious Mind feedback to the efforts many are putting forth to learn how to change from desire rather than fear, from choice rather than force. In addition to what we may learn about societal or global trends in dreaming, keep in mind that dreams are intended for personal soul growth and spiritual enlightenment.

Anytime babies appear in our dreams, it is a sign that something new is happening in our consciousness. How the baby appears in the dream - cared for or abandoned, happy or crying, safe or in danger - tells the dreamer what he or she thinks about that new idea. As with everything in our universe, there is a time and a season, an ebb and flow, a rhythm to life. The key to prosperity lies in cooperating with the flow. Any new parent will tell you that "going with the flow" is what caring for a newborn is all about.

The key to the following mother's peace of mind is recognizing the difference between her dream-baby and the baby she holds in her arms. She writes:

I'm dreaming all night about the baby. Whether awake or asleep, she is constantly on my mind. I can't get away from her. I love my baby, but I am finding I am becoming resentful. I'm tired and I want time to myself. How can I stop dreaming about my baby so I can be rested enough to enjoy her when I am awake?

For this new mother, the new way of life is becoming an obsession. It is dominating her thoughts and she has lost sight of why it was so important to her. This mother needs a break. She identifies the needed action when she says in the dream, "I want time to myself." Everyone needs alone time, to think, to reflect, to imagine, to learn, to create, to produce, to rest, to rejuvenate. It is amazing how a half-hour bath, yoga lesson, or walk in the park can turn resentment into forgiveness. Many depleted mothers judge themselves harshly, falsely believing their need for space and time indicates a failure at mothering. It is more likely that this new mother's constant baby-consciousness is the result of too much mothering. Intentionally, exposing the self to ideas, conversations, and relationships not related to baby can be just what this dream message ordered!

Think women are the only ones who recall baby dreams? You'll enjoy reading the following new father's dream.

My wife and I are at the mall. She goes into a furniture store while I stay with our baby who is in a stroller. She begins to cry and I begin rocking the stroller back and forth. She gets quiet and her eyes grow big as she takes in the sights around her. She is holding a flower in her hand that seems to be coming to life. I wake up wondering if that flower came from our garden.

This dream is filled with rich symbology: the wife, mall, furniture store, stroller, eyes, flower, and garden are distinct archetypal images each with their own meaning and relevance to the dream. Once translated, this dreamer learns how a commitment to himself is progressing. The use of intuitive tools - probably clairvoyance - gives this dreamer the power to manifest his new idea. Experiencing this new way of life brings two blessings: increased perception and awareness of the purpose of love.

Another dreamer, a 39-year-old childless female from the UK also experiences baby dreams. She writes,

I have been having this same dream for around six months. I leave my partner and totally disassociate myself from him. I know he will be suffering but I can't bear to face the fact so I literally switch myself off from him and everything that goes on around him.

Having written this here, it suddenly dawned on me what I think it could be. I desperately wanted children but had to have a hysterectomy last April. Since then, I have not let myself think about the fact that I missed out on having a child bcause it is too painful. I have distanced myself from 'feeling'. I also have recurring dreams of finding babies that have been abandoned. I take them on and when my dream is over and I wake up, I am so contented. It's like a wave of total bliss in my mind. WHAT CAN I DO?

In light of dream-babies symbolizing new ways of thinking, this dreamer has a different way to view her recurring dreams. Following through on new ideas produces the "blissful" frame of mind that only fulfillment brings. Each time this dreamer gives real attention to ideas she entertained then dropped, she is giving life to new dreams. "Leaving her partner" in the dreams is a symbol for where the abandonment begins - in a refusal to respond to what her inner, subconscious mind is manifesting for her. It might be helpful for this dreamer to reflect upon the possibility that she relies upon regret for motivation. Where this is found to be true, replacing the regret with a sense of purpose will change this woman's experience of her own creativity.

The connection this dreamer makes as a result of writing down her dream experience - her aha! moment - is a valuable lesson for all of us. Recording dreams focuses the power of the whole mind toward inner communication. This effort is similar to meditation. Both strengthen right brain activity. Interpreting what is received strengthens left brain activity. Recording and interpreting your dreams, then, is one way to develop more of your brain power. Dream recall is largely a function of expectation. In these times of personal and global change, expectation is a powerful mental component in our lives. When we dream about pregnancy, expectation is the "topic" of that sleep period.

Consider this dream from a 37-year-old Canadian:

I dreamed I was expecting another child, and I went into labour. It was VERY real! I could feel the contractions, and it seemed like it was in real time... not like some dreams that jump around... the nurse was doing an ultrasound and I could feel the cold gel, and her moving the wand on my belly. She asked if we wanted to know the sex of the baby, and I thought well, we're going to find out soon anyway, so I said yes, while praying it was a girl. She told us we were having a boy. I was a little disappointed, but still very happy.

The labour progressed, and I could feel him being born. The nurse wrapped him and handed him to me and we called him Eric David (which I thought an odd choice. I wouldn't have chosen that in reality). I softly stroked his little bald head, and joked "you might want to get used to this look, little guy!" (my husband is bald....) I felt resolved to go through the whole child rearing again, although we have three teens already.

A new idea is coming into this dreamer's life. It might be a starting a health program, opening her own business, or earning a degree... the dreamer will need to assess the conditions in her life and identify what is new. She is eager for it to become a part of her daily life yet she realizes a need to slow down in her conscious thinking so the idea can more fully develop. There are things to identify in this new way of life that she has yet to consider. This may be the timing of when to begin, communication with others who will be affected by her choices, or perhaps costs involved in the endeavor.

The dreamer has a healthy sense of humor about this because she appreciates how little conscious thought she has given this idea up until now, and here it is manifesting in her life! What gives her this ease in accepting this surprise birth? Experience! She has brought other ideas into being, nurtured those ideas into maturing aspects of self. This gives her the confidence - the inner knowing - that she can initiate new ways of life, now!

We end this exploration of baby-dreams with the dream of a 38-year-old woman from Arizona:

I was in a truck, my ex-boyfriend was driving, and there were some other people in the vehicle. I was riding in the back of the truck with a small child. We were driving up a mountain and the child pointed out to me how beautiful everything was, how glorious, and how connected to God all the beauty brings to us. I noticed as the child was talking, that everything was more beautiful than I could imagine, and I was feeling very peaceful.(1)

We all arrived at a cabin in the mountains where we would stay for vacation. I unpacked my luggage and found a doll in the top of the closet, a life-like baby doll, that I had forgotten about from the past. I activated it, and it came alive. It had all the characteristics of a real child, including memories, and I felt a little frightened of it. I knew that once it had been activated, it could not be turned off, and I was responsible for meeting all its demands. There were two of my friends in my room with me, and I mentioned that we should go outside to see all the beauty of nature, but they declined, saying that they had to leave soon anyhow, and so we stayed in my room. I was aware that my ex-boyfriend was somewhere in the cabin with other people, and I wondered if we would be engaging in our relationship again.

This dreamer's new idea holds positive expectation as she meets a challenge in her life [1].

In the Universal Language of Mind, a doll represents the dreamer's imagination. As I describe it in The Dreamer's Dictionary: "If the doll seems alive it can indicate pretense, which is imagination without will power." In this dream, the doll, which is from her past, is life-like. This indicates the dreamer has used her imagination before to manifest thoughts and desires in her life. Some of these she did not understand which is why she is afraid in the dream.

She has learned, however, that her thoughts are creative - what she images will come to pass. This realization bolsters her new positive thinking that she hopes her Subconscious Mind, in the form of her ex-boyfriend, will support.

This dream and its interpretation teaches a universal truth: thought is cause, and the physical is its manifest likeness. The Buddha said, "We create our world with our thoughts." This means how we think is just as important as what we think. It is helpful to know, as this dreamer has discovered, that when we add will power to what we imagine our world can become a beautiful place!

You are welcome to contribute a dream for interpretation. Send your dream to dreams@dreamschool.org and be sure to note that you are a PLW subscriber. Until next month, sweet dreams!

© 2009, Dr. Barbara Condron

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Since 1977, Barbara Condron has made guest appearances on radio and television shows and been interviewed by newspapers here and abroad. From WGN in Chicago to WGNO in New Orleans, from PBS Latenight in Detroit to BBC Radio in London, her expertise in her subjects and her ease as a public speaker have made her a media favorite especially on call-in shows. Her affection for using media to connect people was behind the National Dream Hotline®, the annual weekend of sharing dream research sponsored by the School of Metaphysics, a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to developing spiritual potential. She served as International Coordinator for the hotline from its inception in 1989 to 2000.

In 1997, Barbara created www.dreamschool.org to share School of Metaphysics research and answer questions from dreamers online. Now she is pioneering global dream awareness through heading the Global Lucid Dreaming Experiment at the College of Metaphysics in the Midwestern U.S. The experiments seek to collect the largest body of experiential knowledge to date concerning specifically, lucid dreaming, and to analyze the data making it widely known. Her books include The Dreamer’s Dictionary and Every Dream is about the Dreamer. She also created the documentary Ten Powers of Dreaming, a study of dreams that have changed the course of history.