A symbol is a thing or an image that is a definite representation of an indefinable meaning that cannot be expressed by our conscious awareness. But a symbol is only a symbol. It doesn’t contain any meaning or deeper truth, it only reflects it. Like how a mirror represents our face but cannot smile or cry on its own. Symbols acquire their symbolic value through the awareness of meaning that they evoke in us. Illuminated by our dreams, they tangibly reflect back our search for meaning.

Symbols may seem like an abstract concept but we are constantly surrounded by them, from swooshes to golden arches, from partially eaten fruit to black mouse ears, from crescents to crosses. We become immersed in symbolic shorthand and frequently begin to value the symbols more than the meaning that they originally represented. Our once meaningful and evocative symbols often become meaningless and empty signs, hollow designer label shells of the significance that they once reflected.

Many academics and marketeers study semiotics, the science of signs and symbols, in an attempt to understand our behavioural patterns and deeper motivations. But as our semioticians rationalise our symbols, they quickly become reduced to deconstructed definitions that simply state ‘this means that’, and so lose their richer meaning. A bull in a wide green pasture probably means something different to us than a bull in a china shop, but is usually semiotically reduced to just some bull.

But semiotics only gets half the picture; it only analyses the symbol and not the space around the symbol. The space around it is what gives the true context and meaning to the symbol. A symbol without a space is an empty ritual and as a reflection of meaning, a symbol is only half the story. It has no significance. It is in the space around those symbols where we find meaning. Our unconscious awareness goes beyond the half truths of semiotics and works in the holotic space where the symbol and the meaningful space around it remain connected.

In our dreams, the spaces are as important as the symbols, because without the spaces, symbols cannot attract and reflect meaning. It’s like when we know we are really beginning to learn or understand a foreign language because we can hear the gaps between the words rather than the individual words themselves. In the same way, the space between two people is never empty. It is filled with meaning in their gestures, their vocal tone, their body shapes. It cannot be isolated to either one. It is their connection, their relationship.

Following my guest appearance with Chris Evans on his Radio 2 Drivetime show I have been inundated with literally (or should that be numerically) thousands of emails asking for help with your dreams.

I have managed to reply to lots of them but it looks like I won’t be able to answer you all individually. I am giving priority to those dreamers who seem to be in the most genuine need of some assistance and I am sure you will all understand this approach.

However, as the psychologist and mythologist Joseph Campbell said ‘A myth is a public dream; a dream is a private myth‘ so I will be posting some of the more common subjects that we all dream about and what these dreams often mean to us. This means you may not get an individual interpretation of your individual dream but there will be even more searchable information about dreams available on the website.

So before dashing off an email to me, try using the wee search box on the front page. This also searches the Nodcasts (podcasts about sleep and dreams) so you can often find what you are looking for.

I have purposefully not included a dream dictionary function on the site. Interpreting a dream is not just about looking up symbols and doing a simple semiotic ‘This means that’.  As Aristotle said ‘The most skilful interpreter of dreams is he who has the faculty for observing resemblances’. Many self acclaimed ‘dream experts’ have a very poor grasp of this principle and claim to use their intuitive skills instead. Intuition can be useful but is no substitute for a really solid grounding in fundamental theory and practice.

As soon as a dreamer starts sharing their dream with me, I am listening out for patterns of symbols. It’s like being a jazz musician; you need to listen for the rhythms and the resonances. Then when you hear a pattern or even a fragment of a pattern, you can start jamming with the dreamer until they hear their own tune.

So take these fragments of meaning from the Diary and the Nodcasts and try weaving them together to make some deeper sense of your own meanings and myths.

And for those you intrigued by how popular culture reflects our dream culture, Joseph Campbell was the man who inspired George Lucas to create Star Wars…

However, as we do this our unconscious awareness has no rigid scripts; it is very improvisational in nature. As we blend our current experience with more ancient wisdoms we make it up as we go along, playing out our family of contextual identities into our surroundings. What seem like trivial social interactions are deeper projections and reflections of who we are and who we could be. We fill the spaces around us with unconscious cues and clues as we try to connect with each other, and so establish contact with our deeper selves.

Our dreaming awareness knows that the best way to for us to connect is to continually create space and possibilities for each other. This is what we all do, every night in our dreams as we act out different characters and meet all sorts of people who seem to hold some sort of unspoken meaning for us. We project our identities into the spaces we create and this unconscious dialogue enables us to converse with undiscovered parts of the self.

In our waking realities, we often do the opposite. Instead of creating space and possibilities for each other, we tend to close each other down. By blocking offers from others, we end up blocking valuable offers from our own selves. The more space that we create for others, the more of ourselves we can see. Rather than blocking someone else, no matter how antagonistic they might seem, it makes much more sense to open up to them and see what they have to offer us.

Opening up to others and hearing what they have to offer us often means letting go of our preconceptions. The more we let go of who we think they are, the more we notice about who they really are. And the more we notice about them, the more we become aware of ourselves. This often gives voice to our unconscious awareness and opens us up to talents and understandings we didn’t even know we had. In our dreams, we let go, notice more and use everything we encounter, and the more we do this in our waking lives, the more connected we become.

Without connection, there is no reflection, and other people are the best mirrors we have. And if we want to influence someone, the best way to persuade them is to reflect their dreams. By creating space for them to dream and to connect with those dreams, we make them a dream offer that is almost impossible to refuse.

And even more amazing than the epic unconscious dreamscapes that we create so easily is the fact that we all dream. Each one of us. Every night. It’s a natural process that requires no entrance fee, no monthly subscription, no expensive stimulants, no easy payment starter interest rates. All we need is a quiet space and the opportunity to close our eyes for a while.

But, many of us are utterly convinced that we don’t dream. People often proudly proclaim ‘I just don’t dream’. Or ‘I don’t have any time for dreams, I’m too busy’. Usually too busy chasing a dream in waking life that somehow is never fulfilled. However, we all dream. We have to. It is fundamental to our psychological health and physiological well being. When deprived of dream rich R.E.M. sleep we rapidly become confused and unable to cope with the simplest tasks in our waking reality.

When people say ‘I just don’t dream’, what they are really saying is that ‘I just don’t remember my dreams’. They just don’t remember the amazing experiences that they create for themselves every night. Although not remembering our sleeping dreams may seem to be of little or no consequence, the same thing often happens in waking life. We forget our dreams. We start off with great dreams of who we want to be, the wonderful people who will become our companions in this great adventure, the wealth that we will acquire and the stories that we will tell of who we became and the great deeds that we accomplished.

Then a few years later we are asking ourselves questions such as ‘Why am I doing this job?’ ‘Where is the meaning in what I do every day?’ ‘Why am I doing something that seems to have no real purpose?’ When that starts to happen, it is a sign that we are forgetting our dreams and as we do, we begin to become confused about our identity, our meaning and our purpose. Our dreams and our reality have diverged so much that there seems to be no way forward.

Pablo Picasso remarked that ‘All children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up’. In the same way, we are all born as dreamers. Our challenge is to keep dreaming as we grow and to bring our dreams to life in our waking realities. But because of the pressures and the routines of waking life, we routinely ignore the messages of our dreams and leave them unexplored and forgotten.

1. Your dreams will find your dreams.
2. You create the dream that dreams you.
3. What happens inside, happens outside.
4. If you have a why, you will always find a how.
5. You are dreaming right now.
6. A symbol without a space is like a bull without a china shop.
7. If you want to know who you are, look at what you are doing.
8. All need is unrequited love for the self.
9. If we never listen to the truths of others, we will never hear our own truths.
10. Meaning is what really matters.
11. Our dreams and stories don’t always give us the endings we expect, but they always give us the endings that we need.
12. The closer you get to the edge, the more you realise that there is no edge.
13. The best story always wins.
14. Own your own dreams.
15. Change your myth. Change your reality.
16. If you want to know about dreaming, ask your dream. In a dream.
17. Creativity and play are serious survival strategies.
18. Our shared spaces connect our private myths and our public dreams.
19. Other people are the best mirrors we have.
20. Show others how to dream their own dream, rather than forcing them to be in your dreams.
21. Your dreams need space. Walk in a wild place and listen to your heart sing.
22. The most successful organisations are the ones that dream.
23. Your future arrives one dream at a time.
24. Your dreams are in the spaces all around you.