Kim Pentecost

It is time to dice it up a little and offer you an opportunity to get some of your Spiritual and/or Intuitive questions answered. Once a month, I will answer your questions as comprehensively yet briefly as possible and suggest other resources as they apply to the topic.

I sometimes have foretelling, or precognitive dreams. How can I tell the difference between a precognitive dream and a fear-based dream? JB, NY

Dream interpretation is extremely complex. Generally speaking, there are three types of dreams with multiple sub-categories, which include: working through karma (lessons) right now, earlier in this life, past life, pre-Earth; Soul work (things we do in Universal time); and precognitive.

Most of our dreams fall into the first type because we are not paying attention to the messages during our waking hours. These vary and generally include: 1) showing us aspects of ourselves that we are not acknowledging, 2) helping us deal with unresolved issues, or 3) helping us hear our internal guidance (Intuition).

Dreams that are Soul work are frequently dreams that most people do not remember. Often, they are experiences that our Souls can understand, but our human selves have no way to interpret. Another common experience is our Guides downloading information important to personal growth.

Often, seemingly scary precognitive dreams are truly about change that you are resisting. If someone dies in your dream, look at the qualities or behaviors of that person that you don’t like. They are the same things in you that, on a deeper level, you want to release. Understanding and acknowledging the teaching can stop that particular variety of dream. Talking with a professional can help you understand and work through the issues and fears that are being shown to you.

In general, if it is an actual precognitive dream, the information will be shown to you multiple times. You must decide what to do with that information. Sometimes, it is enough to acknowledge the vision to change the outcome. If the dreams are truly about someone else and you choose to share the information, it is critical that you share this information in a positive, non-scary way. In all cases, before acting upon your dreams, ask your Spiritual team and listen with your heart when you are calm and centered and only then proceed.

Being able to understand what kind of dream you are having takes some practice and must be taken on an individual basis. There are simple and accessible tools to help you begin to understand and work with your dreams. One, of course, is keeping a dream journal. By writing down your dreams, you can begin to see patterns and gain a tremendous amount of insight to your life, challenges, gifts and growth. The Hopi [Indians] and Aborigine in Australia teach that what we call the dreamtime is real time and our daytime is dreamtime. We can work so quickly, deeply and thoroughly in our dreamtime, it is no wonder dream interpretation is held with such sacredness so by Elders, Shaman and tribal people.

A few years ago, a group of professionals that work with dream interpretation got together to compare our work. We were made up of a Jungian, a Native American dream therapist, a cognitive therapist, a certified dream interpreter and myself. We were given three dreams to interpret. We worked the dreams in our own methods. In each case, we came to, basically, the same conclusions. It was an insightful informal study that proved to us, at least, that truth is truth and the method of getting to that truth, when done in integrity, can take many forms.

There are a lot of books that can help you interpret your dreams. When choosing a book, as you scan the information, make sure that it feels positive and is not fear based. One that I have found particularly helpful is Dream Bible, by Brenda Mallon. We learn and heal in our dreamtime. It is imperative that our night activities be as positively focused as our day activities.

Groups have also formed around the country to support dream work. You can usually find them through your local metaphysical bookstore or holistic magazine. It is an excellent way to develop your understanding while having fun. One last thought. You can also ask your Spiritual team to help you understand a dream, to take a break from dreaming or to change the dream if it feels harsh. You can do this before you go to sleep or when you wake up in the middle of a dream. Remember that the dreams are to help you on your path. Work with your Spiritual team and your dreams for better understanding of your life and your growth.

Here’s to empowerment and understanding through dreaming!

Kim

I invite you to email me your questions with the subject line: Questions for ezine.