That's what I always ask myself too. I think it's sometimes an intuitive feeling. For each person it's different. For me, if there doesn't appear to be anything in the dream that is discernibly connected to me in some way, I tend to question it more deeply. Also, if I'm watching some event unfold in a dream like it's a movie, it's cause for questioning. I think sometimes our spirit guides are showing us things in a dream. In my case, most of my dreams are symbolic and I really have to analyze them to interpret them. I rarely ever see anything happen directly, with the exception of presidential elections.
When is a dream just a dream? What is it about a dream that makes you or others feel it needs interpreting? What is the trigger for that?
For me, there is a quality about a transpersonal dream that differs from just a personal dream. For one thing, personal dreams usually have people I know in them. And they just feel more immediate. But personal dreams often need interpreting, just as much as transpersonal dreams, because all dreams contain symbols and metaphors. The psyche thinks in symbols and metaphors. It is one way that we can understand concepts that are beyond our everyday knowledge, i.e., to see a situation via a metaphor that we do understand.
Also dreams in a way are always personal, since the dream is a subjective being who is processing the world around them. But people who are more interested in global issues are probably going to have more transpersonal dreams.
As for how to tell the difference between a personal versus a transpersonal dream, I think that comes from practice. If you start remembering your dreams regularly, you'll be able to tell the difference.
Personal dreams, for me, usually involve people I know personally. Transpersonal often involve people I don't know. There is also a more mythic quality sometimes. And a feeling, almost like a sound, that occurs. Transpersonal dreams feel bigger to me.
@matildagirl @coyote @chromosomexy @ana
For me, it is the feeling of the dream that is the factor which helps me differentiate between dreams with messages & regular dreams. In regular dreams, the feelings are typical of everyday life‐ joy, worry, puzzlement, etc. In dreams with messages, I wake with a feeling of something outside of the normal which I find hard to describe. Sometimes it's a sense of urgency, or a feeling that the dream is more realistic than others. Sometimes it's the people or situation in the dream make me take greater notice.
Think of a time when you felt like someone was watching you, even though you couldn't see them. In that case you felt something vs observing it. This is similar to how we feel in helping to determine what kind of dream we just had. You can notice someone looking at you and not give it a second thought, yet when you feel someone watching you-without even seeing them, it's hard to ignore the feeling.
Dreams with messages also stay with me longer after waking, unlike the typical dream where my subconscious is working on everyday problems or replaying recent events.
You both made some wonderful observations. Thank you both for sharing. I also feel similarly.
Cindy, it is possible it could be Texas. I have never visited a Texas beach so I am unfamiliar with what they look like. Amazing how similar the dream actually were isn't it?
Had an interesting dream this morning which made me pay attention. There were a few layers to this dream, most of which I don't remember. In this last layer I was in a foreign country on a neighborhood street looking at a stray cat which was near some parked cars and I had been concerned it might get hit by a car. It seemed ok however and I walked to an outdoor business and bought something (to eat I believe) and for change received back money that I took to be from Saudi Arabia. I now had a mixture of Saudi cash and U.S. cash.
The neighborhood didn't remind me of the Middle East, but I felt I was in Saudi Arabia for some reason and I felt there was some intrigue and a bit of danger to being there. I made my way to an office building and then to a waiting room which was for a therapist/ counselor. This room was some sort of a portal back home to the U.S. As I entered the waiting room I realized I didn't have my purse but in the end it didn't matter because someone threw it into the waiting area and it landed on a sofa.
I woke up thinking that Saudi Arabia was going to be in the news and it would have to do with money or payments that come to light.
I went to the bathroom and had some more time to sleep so I asked before I feel back asleep if I could learn more about this dream.
I then began to dream of a Turkey being roasted in the oven.
My feeling is that there will be something in the news regarding Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Perhaps a U.S. link as well or perhaps the U.S. in quietly investigating. Money will be part of the issue, a bribe or deal, likely secret. While the money I saw in the dream was not actually Saudi or Turkish ( I researched), it was colorful money and had values greater than 100 on the bills.
Curious about something:
Have any of you recently dreamed about packing for a trip and/or going on a trip, whether by land, sea, or air? Wondering if any of you have had 'travel dreams' and, if so, what feeling did the dream provoke in you?
I should note you might not have been actually traveling in the dream -- I also mean dreams in which you are planning to take a trip, packing for a trip, making your way to your destination, boarding a boat, plane, etc.
Thank you for indulging my curiosity and not-so-scientific research here :)
@SisterMoon Looking back through my dream journals I found three dreams about travel/trip within the last year. Maybe they will be of help for your research. I've kept dream journals since 1987. A couple of years ago I was going to toss them out but my husband encouraged me to keep them and transcribe the contents. Which I did. Now I have 78 single-spaced pages of dreams and, like the buckets of water in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, they just keep coming.
11/21/21: Walking in a city neighborhood with my husband, looking for a house that we would like to have. All the houses (free standing and town houses)had chutes leading down their small front lawns to the street. The chutes were filled with black walnuts rolling down to the street. As for the feeling provoked: an adventure, fun looking for a house, and amusement/mystery about all the black walnuts.
4/4/21: On a train going home. I could see that the train was coming uncoupled in the middle and I was in the back part. I ran for the front but the train had already been separated. How would I get home? I stopped and visited at a school where I used to work but I wanted to go home. It was dark night and I was still 6-7 miles from home. I thought I could probably walk or find a place where I could call my husband to come get me. Feeling provoked: mild panic, how to get home?! Then I figured out a way - under my own steam with help from my husband.
1/28/21: I was driving on a 2 lane road through a forest at night. I came to a T intersection and a stop sign where I heard a man's voice feebly cry out for help. I came to a stop, my car's headlights lit up across the road a large, beautiful female deer in the forest Should I help the person who cried out for help? I opened the car door and shouted: Who needs help?! I woke myself up crying out these words. Feeling: comfortable in the forest at night, so happy and magical to see the beautiful female deer in the forest, wondering if it was safe to respond to the faint male voice calling for help but thought I would at least ask who needs help.
I frequently have dreams where I am on some sort of transportation ( Car, bus, plane) or where I am packing for a trip, in a foreign country or in a different state from which I reside in real life. At times they have been predictive dreams which have come true in the not to distant future. Other times they are personal or seem to be built on day residue ( things I that have occurred in some way during the day).
Curious about something:
Have any of you recently dreamed about packing for a trip and/or going on a trip, whether by land, sea, or air? Wondering if any of you have had 'travel dreams' and, if so, what feeling did the dream provoke in you?
The *majority* of dreams that I remember have to do with packing and/or travelling! Usually I am with a group of people.
The dreams provoke anxiety. Either I can't find what I need to pack, or I am trying to get packed "in time", or when the actual travelling is the emphasis, I am usually trying to guide and assist the other members of the group, who are usually clueless about what they're doing and unresponsive to my warnings.
Since I remember dreams most nights, this means I am having packing and travelling dreams several times every week, week after week after week.
Thank you for your replies! I am finding the metaphor of travel as expressed through our dream state to be particularly important at this current moment.
Please let me know if you (or anyone you may know) have any travel dreams in the immediate future -- I am looking for such dreams as related to a theory I have re: collective energies of the current moment (i.e., beginning with the end of December '21 through January '22 [and perhaps even into February -- I guess I'll see as we go along!]).
@ana yours are particularly intriguing to me, both due to the imminent nature of the travel and because you often appear to be a travel guide assisting others in your dreams -- would you say these dreams have increased in frequency lately, or have such travel dreams occurred several times a week going back months/years? (If the latter, then it is likely unrelated to my working hypothesis of the moment.)
I've no dream to share, but I am intrigued by your theory, and look forward to reading more about it as things progress.
@chromosomexy July has been figuring in my dreams lately. For some reason, regardless of the dream, whatever happens it all seems to be happening in February or July.
@pamp when I had my dream last month, the time seemed to line up with July. Maybe we'll have something more to celebrate for Independence Day this year...
Also PamP, I'd like you to look at the time stamp of your last post: 1/11/2022 2:22 pm. That's quite auspicious!
@sistermoon I have had travel and packing dreams for many years but yes they have become more regular over the last year or two. As for being a guide, I've wondered at times if in my dreams I'm hanging out with other souls and trying to work with them. However, in waking life I have acted as a field trip guide in a professional, educational capacity-- it's not a role that's confined to the dreamscape. I don't know if that makes it more likely to be something "just in my head", or not.
@ana wow….this has been me night after night
Next time you're on the dream tour bus, say "hi!" Maybe I'm there too. lol
@sistermoon Here is a recent travel dream that I had not thought to add. It was about a former colleague who died (in waking not dream life) two days before the dream (8 December 2021). I learned about his passing the evening of the dream.
My husband and I traveled to a shopping mall where I entered a hallway section of offices. I greeted a former colleague who was sitting in one office looking sad. Then to another office where the recently passed former colleague was standing. He was preparing for a journey, a few other people were around him with papers and books and other items. I stood beside him to his right and gave him a side hug with my hand at his upper back. I could feel a small flat round device through his shirt attached or embedded in his back; it was a locator beacon. I stopped in another office to say hello to a few former colleagues and then rejoined my husband and we traveled on our way.