For Jung, life was a great mystery, something about which we know and understand very little. He never hesitated to say, ‘I don’t know,’ and always admitted when he had come to the end of his understanding. Since dreams reflect life, it is hardly surprising that dreams are just as intriguing, challenging and ultimately mysterious as life itself and some times just as difficult to understand.
If you have looked through this encyclopedia and are still having problems understanding what your dream meant, it might help before you go to sleep to ask your dreaming mind to make a confusing situation clearer for you or to present you with images or symbols that you can understand. When a dream seems important but you find it impossible to understand, ask yourself just before you go to sleep to be sent another which will give you further insight.
If you can relate the dream to a particular incident, problem or situation in your waking life but cannot understand the message, think about the incident before making your request. Some dreams reflect the worry associated with problems, showing that you are wasting your energy and could be putting it to better use. Even insoluble problems can be helped by a change of attitude—and that is how dreams can help.
Put your request as a direct command to your dreaming mind. In your thoughts, just before you go to sleep, state to yourself quite clearly what you want to know, and tell yourself that in the morning you will remember all that you have dreamed. To show you are sincere, you might want to put a notebook and pen by your bedside in readiness to write down the first thing that comes into your mind when you wake up—your dream. Sometimes it can take a few requests, depending on the link between your conscious and unconscious mind, but eventually your efforts will achieve results.
found out in waking life. Cheating and faking in dreams may also suggest feelings of inadequacy in waking life.
If you were performing a trick in your dream, try to remember if your audience was impressed or not, as this dream may suggest that you are trying to manipulate people in waking life.
If you were plotting or scheming or are a part of a group of people plotting in your dream, your unconscious is telling you that you are not being completely open and honest in your dealings with everyone in real life. Dreams of hiding or dreams in which you lock up your possessions or hide them away in a safe, strong box, under the floorboards in the attic may also represent some form of deception or fear that you are not facing up to.
See Also: Surreal impossibility entry in SURREALISM AND FANTASY.
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