The Dream Journal

by Adrian Cooper

One question that I am frequently asked is how to make better use of sleep-time for ongoing development. One of the best ways of accomplishing this is by means of a dream journal.

We have already discussed communicating with the subconscious Mind just before sleep which is a very powerful method of making use of the time before sleep to address the subconscious Mind.

Very often answers and messages arrive during and just after sleep.

These messages are often answers to your questions of the night before arriving from the subconscious Mind, and very often from the most powerful source of all your Higher-Self, or more correctly Inner-Self, Who is most closely connected to our Divine Creator.

During sleep, messages will arrive visually during dreams, sometimes directly, but often symbolically.

Very often the answer will arrive the moment you awaken by means of the voice from within.

These are extremely valuable messages that most people miss, either by forgetting dreams, dismissing the voice as a symptom of waking, or often simply forgetting the moment the mind wanders to more pressing matters such as getting out of bed for the day ahead.

This is a great pity because so much valuable information arrives during these times which is subsequently missed.

One of the very best actions and habits to adopt therefore is maintaining a bedside journal often known as a "dream journal".

A large blank notebook is the most flexible for this purpose as you can simply place the date at the top of each entry and write as much as you need to without being restricted for space.

The ideal arrangement for a dream diary is to use a large notebook, placing your dream recollections on the left side pages and the corresponding notes and interpretations on the right side pages, thereby keeping everything in context for easy future reference.

Each pair of pages in your dream journal will therefore be dated and headed "Dream recollections" on each left side page, and "Dream analysis" on the corresponding right side page. Arranged in this way everything you write down as soon as you awaken is maintained in complete context, and will always make sense when reviewed in the future.

It should be noted that sometimes dreams do not make immediate sense. It is not until a series of dreams have been experienced, noted and analysed that a complete meaning emerges.

The same journal will be used for noting down messages from within, from the inner voice. The moment you awake and before doing anything else at all, imediately write down any messages received in your journal.

Before going to sleep it is an excellent idea to get into the habit of repeating an affirmation such as:

"I always have total recollection of my dreams when I awake".

This will impress upon your subconscious Mind the fact that you are to remember your dreams after you awake, and soon your subconscious Mind will exert its influence accordingly.

And as we discussed last week, this is also the time to ask your questions and expect a response the follow morning upon awaking.

Your dream journal must always be kept easily available next to your bed with a pen to write with. As soon as you awake, either in the morning or during the night, or after a nap, immediately and without any hesitation concentrate on recalling your dreams.

The moment you awake write down everything you can remember of your dream or dreams, not leaving out even the very slightest detail. Often it is the smallest details that have the most significance.

This should become a daily habit from the very moment you awake.

You will quickly find that recalling your dreams will become progressively easier and more automatic as time goes by, and the action of recalling and writing down your dreams will become a welcome habit and soon even exciting as you look forward to discovering what messages have been received during sleep.

As time progresses, you will very likely find your dreams becoming progressively more vivid, and sometimes you might even start to enjoy fully interactive and controllable Lucid Dreams, all as a direct result of maintaining your dream journal.

During the day put aside some time to analyse your dreams of the night before. It is best to do this while relaxing completely in a place where you will not be disturbed. Those who have advanced to the stage of the ability of deep meditation will find it particularly beneficial to consider the meaning of dreams while meditating, especially where the dreams are symbolic and further interpretation is necessary. During meditation further clarification will often arrive.

First of all, look at each individual dream as a whole and understand its meaning. Sometimes the dream will have no particular meaning being simply a scenario generated by the subconscious Mind, or a fantasy in which you became involved within the Astral spheres.

It is also very important therefore not to attach meanings to dreams that might not exist at all. This all takes practice, but soon you will begin to differentiate the meaningful dreams from the fantasies, and indeed very often even a fantasy has a symbolic meaning. For example, a dream involving a fantasy scenario of being at sea in a luxury liner might represent a deeply embedded desire to go on a world cruise.

As with all types of introspection and self-analysis it is extremely important to be totally and completely honest about this process and not to convince yourself of scenarios that really do not exist. Compare each dream with your current life, your aspirations, including all problems, hopes and worries, and see if there are any similarities.

If there are similarities write them all down and determine what the dream is saying about your life or any particular aspect of your life. If you are able to determine a definitive message within the dream, then you should follow the guidance contained within the message straightaway if appropriate to do so.

Dreams are a very important mode of receiving messages from the inner spheres of reality or even from your Higher-Self. If you are not immediately able to determine a link between your dreams and your life as it is at the current time, then see how the dream might be related to your future aspirations.

If your dream has no seeming relevance to the past, present or future as relates to Earth time, then you should keep the possible message conveyed by your dream in Mind and write them down in your dream jornal, and remain diligent as you go progress your daily affairs for circumstances appearing which might be relevant to your dream.

Remember, dreams often originate within the inner spheres of life and reality beyond the confines of space and time, where the past, present and future relative to the physical world all exist concurrently in the "Eternal Now".

Your dream might therefore be telling you something about your future, possibly even your immediate future, known as pre-cognitive dream.

The most powerful and therefore important messages are often delivered by recurring dreams; dreams which have the same theme for more than one night, and it is within these dreams where particular attention should be focused.

Sometimes dreams can represent a whole series of messages that will need breaking down into sections in order to analyse the meaning of each section effectively. Again it is important to note that not every dream has a particular meaning, but in order to determine which dreams do have a meaning, no dream or aspect of a dream should be overlooked. The aspect you might choose to overlook might be the very aspect of the dream containing a particularly important message.

Again, it is also important to remember that dreams can be highly symbolic and not contain specific details that are readily apparent for what they really are. An example of this might for example be where you are experiencing a series of dreams containing blockages; blocked pipes, blocked sinks, blocked appliances and so on.

These blockages might well symbolically represent an Energy blockage in your life at either a physical or emotional level. You might for example have a blockage about going to see your doctor about a medical condition that is causing you some concern.

It might be a blockage at the emotional level where for example you are intentionally delaying contacting or seeing someone about an important matter. It might be a blockage at the mental level where you are having problems with thinking about certain things, concentration, motivation and so on.

Some symbols might appear in dreams in much more subtle ways such as particular shapes, sounds or smells; all of this symbolic imagery is meaningful, and accordingly well worth the time to fully interpret and to understand.

An example of symbolism for example might be a series of dreams about pipes, or even blocked pipes that you need to unblock. Such a dream might well be indicative of an intestinal blockage for example, or am emotional blockage, or being in denial about something. This is why dreams should be analyzed with an open mind, and nothing should be dismissed. Overt ime it will make sense, especially if the dream is recurring.

The value of dream recollection can be most profound as may be clearly seen from the foregoing, and is therefore a most worthwhile exercise.

Messages are continuously being delivered by everyone ranging from your Higher-Self, from all levels of beings in the inner spheres of life and reality including human beings, and also from your subconscious Mind, all of whom often use dreams as just one of many means of delivering important messages often requiring urgent attention.

The Higher-Self through the subconcious Mind and the chakras is constantly delivering messages and guidance. Most people alas are too focussed on immediate material things to hear them. Using sleep-time and the dream journal is therefore a convenient and powerful way of hearing this important guidance.

As you progress however and pursue the exercises detailed in this book you will find that messages can be delivered more directly into your waking Consciousness at any time, particularly during meditation, and even during full waking Consciousness by means of impressions, inspiration, and in the inner voice.

I will finish with this quotation:

"Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your
vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is
the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil". ---James Allen.

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