Dream Interpretation Submission Form Instructions: (skip to the submission form)

Dreaming is easy. Not necessarily pleasant, but it's certainly something you can't avoid without some
strenuous suppression. In the early centuries of Christian monasticism, when dreams were considered
to be temporary demonic possessions, the ability to successfully avoid dreams involving sin (specifically,
lust) was considered to be a divine ability that even saints could not aspire to. The difficult part lies in
describing a dream.

Perhaps most importantly, you need to consider your audience. As in this case your audience is going
to be us, you might want to look at who we are and where we come from in terms of interpreting dreams.
Most importantly, however, there is a method by which we feel you can successfully communicate your
dream. This method is also an important step towards the ultimate goal of your process, which should
be an ability to successfully interpret your own dreams.

First, keep in mind why you feel you need an interpretation. Clearly, you do not feel as though you need
an interpretation for every dream you have every night. There is something special about a dream that you
end up remembering and mulling over during the day, because it has elicited some kind of strong response
from your conscious mind. Try to discover what kind of emotion or feeling your dream has elicited. Did
it make you feel panicked? Aroused? Frightened? Once you discover (if you can) the overarching emotional
contour of your dream, you (and we) can begin to piece together the events in the dream and discover
why they made you feel the way they did.

Second, don't worry about what parts of the dream you can remember or which parts you have forgotten.
Usually, you will not remember all, or even a large part of your dream. Dreaming involves a different
state of consciousness than waking does, so necessarily you will experience your memory of the dream in
a different way than you experienced it while the dream was happening. This doesn't matter! What we are
trying to achieve in this website is a space in which you can focus on the therapeutic effects of dreaming,
which means that we are focusing on the useful ways in which dreams provide an immensely personal
experience from which you can gain an extra perspective on your waking life. If you remember a certain
part of a dream, then we will assume that is the important part. Now, it is also possible that you forget parts
of dreams because they are so intensely traumatic that you cannot even think them to yourself, much less
communicate them to other people. If you feel as though that is the case, perhaps you have discovered
that traumatic, forgotten parts nevertheless effect the emotional contour of the dream, and even if you
wake up from a dream you don't remember, you may nevertheless be intensely frightened (or aroused),
and that fear, even though it is attached to nothing, can be extremely useful if you're interested in discovering
what you're afraid of.

Third, keep a mental list of the characters in your dream, and focus especially on their relation to you in
the dream versus their relation to you (if at all) in your waking existence. When you dream, people you
encounter in your waking existence can be used as reflections of the parts of you that these people elicit
in your interactions. Your father may bring out your belligerent side in your waking life, so the presence
if your father in a dream may indicate that it is about your feelings of anger and frustration. Keep
especially in mind your point of view in the dream. Who are you in the dream? The interesting thing about
dreams is that your point of view can shift from character to character, or you can even simultaneously
inhabit the minds of several characters. This leads us to the fourth precept:

Fourth, remember that the dream was created for you and by you. If your cousin is in a dream, she isn't
literally in your mind, even though she may look real (or, for that matter, she may have seven arms and
two heads). What you are dreaming about is a projection of your cousin. What this means is that you
have taken your memories of your cousin, including your impressions, opinions, and feelings about her,
and created a character in your fantasy mind which may have as much to do with your concept of family
obligation as it may have to do with your specific waking interactions with her.

Dream Submission Form:

Good luck! We have included a sample dream in the form to give you a basic idea of what to include,
but ultimately the ball is in your court insofar as the communication goes. We will post some of the dreams
as well as interpretations on the site, but rest assured you will get a response within the space of three
days.

Name (Optional):

Where you are from (Optional):

Your Favorite Thing in Three Words (Optional):

Enter your dream in the space below. It would greatly aid our interpretive process if you include both what you remember from the dream itself and your waking emotional response to the dream. Tell us what you find disturbing, confusing, exciting, memorable, or otherwise unusual about the dream.

DISCLAIMER: We are a free site, and, due to the volume of submissions, we cannot guarantee that your dream will be interpreted and posted on the site. We will, of course, read your submission! Our methodology section contains quite a bit of information as to how you might come to interpret your own dreams, and if you read the dreams we have already interpreted, you will get a feel as to how we approach the process of interpretation. Thanks!

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