Is everyone going dream mad?

So according to the BBC a new craze seems to be sweeping the land.

“What is it?” I hear you cry. Well, it seems to be dreaming. Not just any old type of dreaming though, it’s Lucid Dreaming.

Groups, seminars, workshops and apps all connected with helping you to lucid dream seem to be springing up all over.

So what is lucid dreaming. Basically there are two aspects of dreaming that can be referred to as lucid. Firstly it’s simply when the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming. Secondly, it can refer to the dreamer being aware that they are dreaming and taking control of the direction the dream is going. It is the ability to do the latter that seems to be grabbing people’s attention.

Have you ever been aware of being in a dangerous situation in a dream and thought “I can just fly out of here”, struck your Superman pose and taken off? That’s lucid dreaming!

Some of the apps that are available seem to influence the kind of dreams that you have by suggesting settings/emotions etc through music that you preset before you fall asleep. However, true lucid dreaming needs none of these gizmos. If something is happening in your dream which you don’t like (and you’re aware that you are dreaming) then you can choose to change what is happening, either by fighting back, leaving the situation, flying away or what ever else you choose to do. There you go – that’s a freebie from me to you!

Oh and one last thing before I sign off – if the dream is in bright colours and it all feels good: just go with it and don’t change a thing!

Sweet Dreams

‘Don’t worry – it was just a nightmare!’

How many times have you been told this as a child or even said it as a parent?

When I was young I had a dream/nightmare that would recur once every 18 months or so. It really scared me and even now, all these years later, I can still recall scenes from this dream very vividly and certain parts still makes my heart race with fear.

In my 30s I happened to be in a seminar where people were talking about dreams and said that is any of us had dreams that they could remember we could write it down and they would try to interpret it for us. Immediately my recurring dream from childhood came back to mind, so I wrote it down and handed it in.

Well, without going into too many details, it turned out that the purpose of these recurring dreams was to instill fear in my life and, more specifically, to believe that if I found myself in difficult situations no-one would be able to help me. This was a lie, but I believed it and as I grew up I was quite insecure and doubted my own abilities. Am I saying that all of my insecurities were a direct result of these dreams? No, but looking back I can now see that the dreams played a part.

Talking through what happened in the dream and dealing with any lies or fear that is raised by the dream could help to diminish any long-term effect. Dreams which God has originiated in us will bring a sense of hope. Nightmares don’t do this so, therefore, we do not need to accept any message that they try to give us.

As I gain experience in interpreting dreams for people, I have come across a significant number of people who have been paralysed by their dreams. “I can’t….” , “I won’t ever be able to ….”, and so on, are common phrases used by people who are still haunted by nightmares from childhood.

So if you, or one of your children, has a “bad dream”, please don’t simply dismiss it – replace the lies with truth!

Sweet dreams

You do what? That’s really interesting …….

So last week I went to get my haircut at a different hairdressers from where I usually go (courtesy of a voucher I got for Christmas!!)

Of course the congenial hairdresser started off with the usual gambits: how long have you lived here? do you have kids? etc Then came the million dollar question ………. “do you work?”

Now, here’s an opportunity – do I grab it or do I kop out? Well in for a penny, in for a pound. Deep breath – here goes: “I run a website  interpreting dreams for people”

That either opens up a conversation or kills it stone dead! There is no other reaction. Thankfully, in this case it was the former not the latter. So for the next hour we chatted about her dreams:

• why being pregnant in a dream doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to have another baby in real life (much to her relief!);
• why do people who’ve died appear in her dreams
• what being scared of losing teeth in dreams mean

The conversation then moved on to how she visited mediums occasionally and what did I think of them? are they real? Well. what do you say? I replied that some of them probably do tap into real spiritual sources, but that when I do ‘spiritual readings’ I connect with a completely different source that brings encouragement and hope to the person I’m doing the ‘reading’ for. My hairdresser would have been up for input there and then, but I’m ashamed to report that I chickened out 😦 But I’ll be back and she’s very interested in finding out more about The Dream House, so all is not lost.

So next time someone asks what you do, what will you say?

Sweet dreams