The meaning of dreams

All people dream at night more or less. Our dreams combine verbal, visual and emotional stimulation into a sometimes ridiculous, illogical but often exciting storyline. Have you ever thought what your dreams should mean? Should we look at them literally or figuratively? Or maybe there aren't such a thing as the meaning of dreams? Do you think dreams might be prophetic?

Many people believe, that there are some meaning of the symbols we see in our dreams. For instance, it is said, that flying birds are a sign of prosperity to the dreamer, symbolize feelings of freedom, liberation from weight of responsibilities. A cat in our dream represent a feminine aspect.Cats attacking you represent the enemies. If you succeed banishing them you will overcome great obstacles and rise in fortune and fame. There are a lot of dream dictionaries where all the meanings are divided by categories or alphabet. You can find such a dictionary almost in every bookshop or even online and search for the meaning of some symbol.

The science analyzes dreams from more complicated perspective. Psychological theories are based on the idea that dreams allows us to sort through problems, events of the day or things that are requiring a lot of our attention. For example, Sigmund Freud viewed dreams as guide to the unconscious. He believed that dreams allow the unconscious mind to act out unacceptable thoughts and desires, that we aren't able to express in a social setting at the real life.

There are few other theories of dreams and no one knows which is the most impartial. It's an individual choice what he or she wants to believe. Some researchers say, that we solve our problems or think through issues by dreaming, others believe to some symbols meaning, but, as Sigmund Freud once comment, we should't forget that, "Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar." :)




References:
http://petrix.com/dreams/
http://science.howstuffworks.com/dream.htm

Pictures from my own album.