Lucid dreaming and flying dreams
“Of course this isn’t a dream,” I said, “everything is perfectly normal, and anyway, if it were a dream I would be able to fly.” I did a half-hearted little jump to prove my point to the two guys I was talking with, and instantly shot up into the sky. “So,” I thought, my heart super-excitedly beating fast as I looked down at the two men standing outside the church, and Michael manoeuvring our car
Dream play
You dream of a field of lavender in full bloom, swaying in the wind, beautiful yet overwhelmingly same-same, and perhaps a little too heady: what small change would make this dream more comfortable or inspiring? There are probably myriad possible answers, but let’s take an obvious one. You could add oases of lush roses to the field of lavender, apricot and fig trees for dappled shade and thirst-quenching fruit, perhaps a crystal clear waterfall, a
Dream wake-up call
Our dreams show us what’s really going on in our lives, what runs below the surface yet influences our every move. They show us what we hide from, what we deny, what unconsciously drives us, and what conflicts us, as well as what is shifting and changing and potentially coming to fruition in the shape of new insights, creative solutions, and growth. And they frequently show all of this to us in wildly colourful, sometimes
The sleep-in challenge
How much dreaming time do you lose by sleeping six hours instead of eight? Go on, have a guess, or work it out based on everything you know about sleep and dreaming so far. Since as long as I can remember, I’ve always needed lots of sleep, and generally fall asleep within minutes of closing my eyes for the night. It’s very rare for me to lay awake at night, and for this, I am
The misinterpretation trap
You wake from a hauntingly beautiful dream of time spent with an ex-lover, and the sheer delight sends you scurrying to make contact, or, at least, to tell yourself that somewhere, out there beyond the trappings of the body and material world, the two of you reconnected, forgave, or shared new understanding. It’s so deliciously tempting to interpret such a dream literally, so easy to turn tail on everything you know about how to interpret
An invitation
“You should do a podcast show about dreams,” said Belinda, a self-confessed geek friend, ten years ago. I groaned. Podcasting was only vaguely on the periphery of my awareness, and the thought of getting my head around yet another kind of technology for my business felt overwhelming. I was already doing quite advanced html work developing my website – which had originally launched back in 1998 – and was preparing for the inevitability of adding
How to discover a dream’s message
“What is my dream trying to tell me? How can I discover the message behind my dream?” I hear these two questions a lot. They’re similar, but subtly different. The first implies a belief that a dream sets out with a message that it needs you to hear, or that the purpose of a dream is to deliver a message, whether from your inner self or from a spiritual or divine source. The second implies
Yesterday, today, tomorrow
I met two strangers at a party a year or so before I began my work in dreams, almost 30 years ago now. I say strangers, because when I asked around afterwards, nobody else remembered seeing them. Both men, and both a lot taller than me (I am quite tall), they seemed to act in unison. “We have three questions for you,” one or both of them said. “Who are you?” they began. This must
How to become an intuitive dream interpreter
“When I listen to your podcasts, you seem to interpret dreams so intuitively and accurately. How can I develop my intuition to understand dreams?” This comment, from an avid listener, took me by surprise at first, as I had believed The Dream Show podcasts helped demonstrate the tools and techniques people can use to interpret their dreams, but it took only a little contemplation before I realised she was right. I do ‘seem’ to interpret
Your 2019 alchemy bowl
I’d love to inspire you to create an alchemy bowl, a vessel to collect totems from your dreams and act as a sacred alchemical kiln. It’s a variation of ancient divinatory practices, healing rituals, and wisdom oracles, given a dream alchemy twist. It’s a way of consolidating and connecting the insights you draw from your dreams across a period of time, and then allowing them to surprise you by revealing themselves in transformational combinations. That’s