Interpreting Dreams

For as long as civilizations have existed, and probably before that, interpreting dreams has been an inseparable part of being human. Dream interpretation is not a subject that is confined to experts, psychologists and psychiatrists, because we all try to quickly interpret our dreams, at least in those first few moments after waking from a dream, and often for hours or even days afterwards. We are all dream analysts to some extent.

The importance of dream interpretation in people's minds shifts from one era to the next, from century to century. Dream meanings were of paramount importance to the Egyptians, while druids and rulers of Northern Europe were known to consult various pagan deities who would, it was thought, use their dreams as conduits for important messages and advice and the rulers would even make decisions based on them and, in fact, would sometimes not go into battle until they'd received their dream advice.

However, records of dream interpretation as we may recognize it go as far back as 25BC in the 'Book of Giants and Civil Life', which was written by Philo Judas and describes Abraham as the first interpreter of dreams. Before this time dreams were considered to be messages from gods and spirits, external messages planted within our heads while we sleep. The Chaldeans were well known astrologers and dream interpreters, regarding dreams as advice or bad omens of future events, and were great influencers of Egyptian and Assyrian culture and intellect.

During the Victorian era dream interpretation was treated as a source of amusement, though this attitude was slowly changing with the help of people like Dr Charcot, who studied the mind and how the subconscious can affect the way we think and behave. Dr Charcot was famous for his experiments with hypnotic suggestion and later studied the effects of dreams and how people reacted to things they had dreamt about - especially in relation to nervous diseases. Though most of Dr Charcot's theories on the subconscious and dreams have since been proven to be wildly inaccurate, his studies paved the way for future psychoanalysts and psychologists to explore the subconscious and, therefore, dream interpretation.

As the twentieth century unfolded and psychoanalysis became widespread, through the likes of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, it was inevitable that dream interpretation would become an area of our lives that would rise to prominence. Today we are more aware of our 'selves' than ever before, which is largely to a rise in widespread intellectualism, which in itself has come about through people having more spare time to think and ponder the meaning of life and the universe. As education progresses and becomes available to the masses it is inevitable that we would start to look inward, to our spirituality and inner thoughts. Couple this with the enormous amount of information available to everyone on the internet, on sites such as this, we are all able to discover how to interpret our dreams from our homes on computers, or even on the move with the use of mobile technology.

There has never been a more exciting time to be human with such opportunities for self-discovery as we have today. We are now able to share our dreams with other people all over the world, and gain responses to our thoughts almost instantly from people who hail from a huge variety of backgrounds and cultures.

Interpreting dreams has entered a new era of global awareness from which we can all benefit.