SelfhelpMagazine

by Richard Wilkerson, Dream Educator

I understand your concern. We all get a little frightened when we loose control over what is happening to us, and dreams can often feel very real.

The falling dream itself is one of the most popular and early remembered of all dreams. While some theories talk about falling having to do with how easily we used to fall as children, and other theories talk about the falling indicating a fear of loss in security or of a relationship.

In my opinion, the best and most recent ideas take another approach. Falling is very close to ...flying! By telling ourselves before we go to sleep that we would prefer to fly than fall, we can often take control of the fall and turn the dream into a flying dream, which is exhilarating in contrast to a fear-filled experience.

To help us understand our dreams, it is often useful to look at our dreams for questions that will help us better understand our daily living.

Both of the theories discussed above can be converted into questions for considering our own lives

1. What in my life seems to be falling out of control?
2. How can I turn this out-of-control part from falling into flying?

Often, like in the dream, just being aware that you can is enough to make the switch from falling to flying.

It is also interesting to note that the Hitting-Bottom theory is a popular theme for many folk tales. In fact, many, many people have hit bottom (the ground) in dreams and through stories throughout time, and lived to tell about it, myself included. Again, this theme is most useful when interpreted along the lines of questions for our own lives, as we did with the dream example outlined for the above dream.

About the Author:

Richard Wilkerson is general editor for The Internet Dream E-zine, Electric Dreams, and director of DreamGate, the Internet Communications and Dream Education Center. He writes the Cyberphile column for the Association for the Study of Dreams Newsletter.