Dream Types

ClarificationA Clarification Dream provides insight into your experience of a current or past situation in your life. It presents an aspect of your life, usually a recent situation, often in an exaggerated manner. Key elements often have a different appearance than they do in real life.

For example, a person might appear as another person you know who has similar characteristics. A clarification dream often conveys what you subconsciously feel or think about a particular aspect of your life, or how strongly you feel about it, even when you might not be aware of those thoughts and feelings in a waking state.
InteractionAn Interaction Dream involves contact with another person, often a loved one who has passed on, but also can be a spiritual guide or someone who is still living. If the person is someone you know, they appear as themselves rather than looking like another person (realistic, no symbolism).

Dream content can vary, but often some particular feeling or sense is conveyed to the dreamer, such as a feeling that all is well with this person. Sometimes unfinished business is resolved or the dreamer's questions are answered during the dream state. Occasionally, actions that occurred in the past with this person are reversed, such as when someone who harmed you in the past comes back in your dream state and offers you a kind action.
MessageA Message Dream contains information from a source outside of yourself, usually with an indication that you or someone else needs to know something or that some action may be needed. It can be similar to other types of dreams, except the content is influenced by a source external to your own consciousness. The purpose of the message could be to clarify a situation in your life, reassure you that you are on the right track or tell you that you are off-track in an area of your life, answer a question you have had in your mind, solve a problem you have been pondering, or provide a creative idea to apply in a project you're working on.

The only ways to discern that a dream message is from a source outside yourself are:
  • Through your own intuitive inner knowing.
  • By having it verified by an intuitive expert.
If you receive any specific information, it's a good idea to confirm it with a verifiable source (for example, if you receive an indication that your sister is ill, check with her directly).
PremonitionA Premonition Dream predicts or gives some indication of actual future events. The only ways to discern a premonition dream from any other kind of dream are:
  • Through your own intuitive inner knowing.
  • By having it verified by an intuitive expert.
  • By waiting to see if the premonition actually comes true.
RehearsalA Rehearsal Dream involves a run-through of an actual planned event you're expecting in the near future. This type of dream allows the subconscious to prepare in advance for an important or potentially traumatic event. Depending on your emotions about the event, your subconscious may choose to run through either the best-case scenario and the pleasure you expect the event to bring, or the worst-case scenario and the potential disasters that you're afraid could happen. In the worst-case scenario, because the dream tells you what your fears are, you have a chance to work through them before the event, if you choose to.
SymbolismA dream contains symbolism when one or more key elements, or symbols, are featured prominently and the dreamer experiences those elements as having great significance (even if the dreamer doesn't know what the symbol means). These key elements almost always represent something other than themselves and carry a hidden, deeper meaning.
TimelineA Timeline Dream presents a sequence of events or elements from a portion of your life, beginning at a certain point in your life and ending at a later point. A timeline dream usually portrays a series of events from the past, but can also include current and future events or situations. The events or elements in your dream may be unfamiliar (not literal) but they represent actual circumstances in your life. A timeline dream usually also functions as a Clarification Dream, so pay attention to the details.
ToxicA Toxic Dream is usually a very realistic, upsetting dream that is most likely to occur when your body's cleansing system is overloaded during sleep. They are usually terrible nightmares and their purpose is often simply as a signal that you went to bed in a physically toxic state. These dreams can result from a number of factors the day before, including:
  • Eating refined carbohydrates (sugar, white flour), processed or junk food, additives or preservatives.
  • Eating any foods within 2 hours before going to bed.
  • Ingesting drugs or other substances that stress the body.
  • Encountering environmental toxins (mold, exhaust fumes, etc.).
  • Being stressed (stress hormone by-products load the body's cleansing system just like external toxins do).
  • Being emotionally toxic, such as going to bed angry or hateful (holding on to emotional upset creates a stressful physical state).
  • Not getting enough rest (sleep-deprivation robs the body of its critical nighttime cleansing cycle, leaving more toxins in the body).