CHAPTER 5: Functions and types of dreams – AoteaRa: Dawn of the Sun

The most basic and prevalent function of dreams is probably their healing function, which is aimed at restoring a balanced and healthy flow of energy in the body. This function is common to most of our contemporaries. These dreams help uncover the root of a problem, which usually originates from a personality distortion in need of healing and transformation. Furthermore, these dreams may provide insight into the most effective approach to address the issue.

The value of such psychological help lies in its customized nature. Dreams provide a custom-made recipe for a particular dreamer, taking into account all of their unique traits and life history down to the smallest details. Additionally, the dreamer receives instructions on only what they need to work on at a given moment, nothing more. This is because the dreamer must have the necessary resources to handle the task, and only by making changes at this level will the dreamer be able to deal with the next layers of the personality. This order of work is optimal and perhaps the only possible one. It is important to acknowledge that no human psychologist or spiritual teacher is capable of providing assistance on such a profound and individualized level.

Dreams that serve this healing function can take many forms. They may be vague visions without a clear scenario, as if the sleeping brain is fixated on the day’s problems and continues to dwell on them throughout the night. Though it may seem impossible to derive any benefit from such dreams, this is far from the truth. While these dreams lack an elaborate plot, they indicate that something in the dreamer’s life is consuming too many resources, such as time, mental energy, and emotions. This issue is blocking the normal flow of energy and life, and therefore, measures must be taken to restore balance.

Another common type of dream — those with a clearly defined metaphorical scenario — can also have a healing function, even though some may be overly dramatic (e.g., nightmares). In such dreams, it is necessary to interpret the symbolism in order to understand what problematic areas in the dreamer’s life are being reflected, what is occurring there but is concealed from the waking mind, what underlying issues are causing the problem, and how this can be utilized to remedy the situation.

The same function can be served by recurring dreams. These dreams metaphorically point to a certain unfavorable pattern in the dreamer’s life that keeps reappearing. This pattern requires, at the very least, recognition. We will discuss these and other types of dreams in more detail in the following chapters.

Dreams can provide healing not only by offering insights for reflection and self-healing, but also in a “compensatory” manner. For instance, dreams can allow the dreamer to rest, relax, and enjoy whatever they are missing in real life. Although such rest is more “illusory” than the experience of waking life, it can be quite beneficial.

Carl Jung said the following about the healing function of dreams:

“The general function of dreams is to try to restore our psychological balance by producing dream material that re-establishes, in a subtle way, the total psychic equilibrium. This is what I call the complementary (or compensatory) role of dreams in our psychic make-up.”
(Carl Jung “Man and his symbols”, 1968, p.34)

When we’re thinking about different types of dreams, we can also look at dreams that are colored and dreams that are black and white. A popular question is why one person always dreams in color while another claims all their dreams are black and white. If we examine the color scheme of dreams from the point of view of symbolism, the explanation might be quite straightforward. The colorfulness of a dream may reflect how the dreamer perceives life. Someone may be too categorical, dividing everyone and everything into only good or bad, black or white, as shown in their dreams. For another person, for instance, life could lose its colors; reality could turn into a gray routine; feelings could become dull; and dreams may reflect this perception with an appropriate color palette. These are just general ideas about possible causes of black-and-white dreaming, but they show that the way in which dreams occur can metaphorically point to aspects of the dreamer’s personality and/or life that could be improved, revitalized, or healed.

When a person removes major energy blockages and restores inner balance to a minimally acceptable level through self-healing work, the dream function takes on an expanded character. Along with the typical function of providing psychological help, another aspect of dream work is added. This aspect is related to special training and obtaining information on the astral planes, which is usually associated with spiritual growth and development.

This type of dreamwork is often associated with dream yoga, an ancient practice used by Eastern monks to achieve enlightenment in a relatively short period of time. While Eastern monks primarily use lucid dreaming to practice Dream Yoga, people with non-monastic lifestyles usually have lucid dreams containing a great deal of symbolism that must be decoded to understand the deeper essence of the astral experience. Unfortunately, not everyone who practices lucid dreaming is aware of this. As a result, valuable information obtained on the astral plane is often lost. This topic is addressed in a separate chapter of the book.

When discussing the educational function of dreams, it is important to address their role in training or preparing the dreamer for specific actions or events in real life. In a dream, a person can work through a relatively similar scenario to what he or she will experience when awake in order to develop a skill, reaction, or habit in response to a catalyst.

Unfortunately, many dreamers misunderstand this function of dreams. They believe that a victory won in a dream is sufficient for personal growth and development, and that no further action is required. However, these “astral warriors” may overlook the fact that when they learn a skill or achieve something in the astral realm, they must translate that achievement into their waking life as soon as possible. If you leave your achievements only on the astral plane, life will surely present a real-life catalytic situation in which you will inevitably need to apply the skill you learned on the astral plane (e.g., the ability to forgive, say “no,” control anger, conquer fear, etc.). If inner work is done in advance, a difficult and unpleasant life lesson may be avoided. If it has already been learned through preparatory work in a dream and subsequent application of the learned material in practice when it could still be done voluntarily and not under the pressure of imminent difficulties.

This ability to “choose” certain life events that normally seem beyond our control is the real magic. But in order to be able to use it, one must be fully committed to working with dreams and putting their lessons into practice. And here the ability to understand the symbolism is crucial. This is because the astral image, whether in a lucid or ordinary dream, is an intricately encoded symbolic reflection of what is happening in waking life. Therefore, the dreamer may not be able to recognize the connection between the dream and waking life and consequently, may not understand what is required of him or what the real-life (and not only astral) victory is.

Also, the experience of undergoing training in a dream may be completely erased from the dreamer’s memory for the sake of maintaining the purity of the real-life experience, even though such training in dreams may be quite lengthy or not even limited in time, since it takes place in time-space.

As a special kind of dreams, we can mention clairvoyant dreams. These can be either lucid or not. These dreams leave a clear and distinct impression on the dreamer’s mind and are “clear” in that they are not encoded in metaphor: they are non-symbolic, literal dreams. This type of dream is relatively rare and is usually experienced by people with the gift of clairvoyance due to pre-incarnative reasons and/or a lifetime vow to serve. However, the possibility of such clear dreams should not be discounted for people who lead ordinary, mundane lives and do not display the evident gift of clairvoyance.

Clairvoyant dreams can be prophetic, in which case our consciousness accesses a timeline of potential future events and conveys this information to us. This enables us to make choices that lead to a more favorable outcome than what was shown in the dream. Such dreams usually feel different, but they are rare compared to “ordinary” prophetic dreams, in which future events are shown metaphorically almost every night. We will discuss this topic further in the following chapters to learn how to recognize these dreams.

In some cases, clairvoyant dreams can reveal information hidden from our conscious mind behind the veil of inborn amnesia, such as past lives. However, caution is always advisable when interpreting such dreams because the metaphor may be so appealing that one might be tempted to take it literally. The consequences of such a mistake can range from an “innocent lie” to ruining a life. Therefore, a special chapter is devoted to these types of dreams.

<< Previous Chapter

–Table of Content–

NEXT CHAPTER >>