Dreams are a direct conduit to the intuitive mind. You can use your dreams as problem-solving tools in the waking world -- but first you have to remember them and learn to decipher their sometimes confusing messages.

New research, published today in the journal Nature Communications, shows brain activity during the dreaming phase of sleep is remarkably similar to brain activity when we’re awake and processing new visual images, suggesting the brain “sees” dreams.

What’s the difference between dreams, visions and fully fledged Out-of-Body Experiences? Can we chalk it all up to imagination? Is there any empirical data that suggests we can actually “move” outside our bodies while fully conscious? If so, what actually “moves?”

An interesting side effect of the coronavirus pandemic is the number of people who say they are having vivid dreams.

Although no one can say for certain what dreams are, where they come from, or even why we have them, there's no doubt that they are important to the quality of our lives. Even people who claim not to dream (they just don't remember their dreams) are in some subtle way affected by their dreams, if only as an unexplainable...

Although science knows what dreams are, it is still not known exactly why we dream, although plenty of theories exist.

Perhaps you have always ignored your dreams or devalued the messages from this part of your psyche. But most cultures of the world have used dreams as healing tools, and Freud and Jung proved the great value that dreams have for us as conduits to instinct, buried memories, and the unconscious.

The saying goes that “eyes are the window to the soul.” The same thing can be said of dreams. Dreams reveal to us the state of our soul; they mirror our feelings and preoccupations by painting a cinematic picture of how we are experiencing life at that moment. Dreams don’t lie. They are not concerned with pulling the wool over our eyes and going along with our preferred version of the truth. Dreams are honest mirrors. We just need to work out what they are reflecting.

Dreams can often be confusing and blurry experiences. Reduced critical thinking, little to no access to our true memories and heightened impulsivity and emotions during normal dream states often make for head-scratching moments when our eyes first open in the morning.

As we move deeper into the twenty-first century, we find ourselves in the midst of a tremendous and extraordinarily difficult transition from a world fragmented into often hostile groups and ideologies to a world where people are united by their common humanity. Our dreams hold the potential to transform the...

Dreams want us to heal. And they are prepared to do everything in their power to help us to do so—even plague us with night­mares, if that’s what it takes to get our attention. But what if we keep having nightmares?

Summarizing a message from the unconscious can be awkward at first, but be patient with yourself. Any seeming lack of clarity stems from the fact that these messages are given to you in a new language— the language of symbols, of the right brain, of the unconscious. When you try to understand these messages with your left brain, you tend to take them literally.

Most people pay no attention to their dreams because of the prevailing notion that dreams are nothing more than noise in the brain—vestiges of waking experiences that linger in the nervous system. Let me be frank: That assumption is simply false.

While enjoying my dream, it suddenly stops, like a frozen computer screen or a TV show put on pause. In the center of my dream a pop-up window appears, much like on a computer. The window expands into a door, and a spirit guide/guardian angel dressed as a Franciscan monk in a long, brown, hooded robe with a knotted-rope belt and leather sandals steps through the Sacred Dream Door. His hood covers his face. “Come with me. We have something to tell you.”

When you pay close attention to both your conscious life and your unconscious, your unconscious doesn’t need to knock on the door seven times to get your attention. The artist Salvador Dali once commented that he used to have dreams, but stopped at some point—perhaps because he had shared the mes­sages of his unconscious through his expressive art.

Although radically different in terms of their content and feel, the range of dream states are just as complex as waking states.

In a 2016 New York Times article, “A New Vision for Dreams of the Dying,” the work of neurobiologist Dr. Christopher Kerr is discussed. Dr. Kerr believes that end-of-life dreams have a therapeutic function and can help not only the dying but also their families.

If you believe in the paranormal you might not be surprised if you hear stories of deceased loved ones appearing during the night, huge explosions heard just as someone is drifting off with no obvious cause, and other peculiar occurrences.

Dreams have provided useful information in medical diagnosis for centuries, beginning in ancient times with the shamanic traditions of the indigenous cultures around the world.

In my brighter vision of what is to come, our society will be guided by dream helpers. Their constant work is to help those around them to use dreams for guidance and healing. It is recognized that dreams diagnose problems before they manifest...

Getting a fright from a dream is very normal. But our brains don’t have a secret plan to freak us out with nightmares. In the olden days, many people believed dreams were a window to another world.

Dreams are bizarre. Because of this, they’re inherently interesting. Dreams can teach us about the nature of consciousness, reveal to us personal and universal truths through symbolic language, and enable us to make lasting changes in our own lives. I have experienced all of these through my own dreams.

Somewhere in every meaningful dream is the potential for per­sonal growth. Your dreams give you clues about their meaning through the settings, characters, sym­bols, actions, reactions, and especially resolutions. The resolution of a dream is often...