Dream Interpretation Made Simple: A review

 

If you’ve ever considered your dreams might have some meaning, this book is a good place to start. The illogical nature of dreams creates skepticism about their usefulness, but the author (Praying Medic) believes dreams are messages from God.

The text is short, less than 200 words. The back half contains a useful guide (dictionary) to symbols and their biblical reference. Most symbols in dreams have more than one meaning. Buildings for instance might represent a church or a business or something conceptual like an institution. Animals can be evil or good depending on the context of the dream. No one interpretation is complete or perfect but there are similarities across the landscape.

 The Bible is full of examples. Daniel interpreted King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (Daniel 2) about the eternal nature of God’s Kingdom. Mary and Joseph were warned to go to Israel and escape Herod while the Magi were also told in a dream to keep away (Mathew 2).

But there is a lot differing opinion on the subject from Christians. We should all agree however, that God does give us dreams. “I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.” Joel 2:28 (NLT).  

Job’s friend Elihu tells him about the way God speaks. “For God may speak in one way or another, yet man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, while slumbering on their beds, then He open the ears of men, and seals their instruction.” Job 33:15-16 (NKJV)

 What about a person with no spiritual awareness of God or salvation or righteousness? The book is written to believers so Medic doesn’t really address that. Our spirits take messages from God while we sleep. Often we see people we know in conflict or emotional distress. Often dreams are warnings to us to change some behavior or relationship.

The Holy Spirit warns, instructs and blesses us through our dreams.

According to Medic, “Dreams show us a different reality. In them, God reveals truths of which we are unaware.” (p. 21)

His advice is to record your dreams every time. 

You will have more dreams if you learn to take them seriously. I can attest to this. I started writing mind down in summary form immediately after I woke up. I still do this. Not a night goes by that I don’t have some kind of dream, often multiple dreams. That only started happening after I decided to take seriously the messages from God. I only remember tiny bits of information but it’s surprising how much symbolic wisdom can come from evaluating your seemingly random dreams.

A good number of them are personal. Praying Medic warns the reader to be careful who you share your dreams with, especially when you don’t know what they’re about. 

The best piece of advice I found in this book is to note how a dream made you feel. 

Emotion is a critical part of knowing where the dream originated, meaning what is the spirit behind it? Evil spirits will try to pass messages to us in dreams as well. Emotions like fear, hatred, lust and violence are from demonic spirits. They can be represented by darkness, aliens, rats and countless other symbols.

We shouldn’t use a symbol like a body of water, for instance, and say it represents only one thing. A lot of the symbolism depends on the nature of the dream. Drowning in a raging ocean is vastly different than surfing on a sunny day. I’ve had violent dreams were I was being chased by knife wielding assassins, I’ve also dreamed that I murdered someone. The first one was terrifying. I couldn't fall asleep after that, afraid of the dream staring all over again. 

In the second dream, I killed a person and conjured as much emotion as if I was screwing hinges on a bedroom door. The violence wasn’t the point in the second dream, it was in the first.

I can’t say whether everything in the book lines up completely with the scriptures. But he certainly makes an effort of it. The back of the book contains a helpful guide to spiritual discernment of dream symbols. He references the glossary with biblical passages for each word, all contain multiple scriptures.

Are there elements that don’t completely fit into an evangelical/protestant doctrine? Perhaps, I’m not the best judge of that.

This is admittedly a weird, unknown subject that probably raises some eyebrows. Much of dream interpretation is subjective, opening it up to charges of New Age silliness. Who can say what a dream means given the very conceptual nature of them? I think in most cases we can figure out for ourselves by following a common format to symbols. 

I’ve been fortunate enough to wake up, many times, and know immediately what my dream was about.

I subscribe whole heartedly to Praying Medic’s advice though. Write them down, value your dreams and you’ll have more of them.