If you want to known and understand the meanings of dreams, we need to cover a few points first.

Most of these points are found in the ancient study of Huna. A book by Serge Kahili King, entitled, "Mastering Your Hidden Self" is the reference we can use for this.

This book has a chapter devoted to dreams. While King explains how these can be interpreted into meaning, the real core of this is actually in another section devoted to analysis itself - and what "huna" means.

While the word "huna" means, literally, "secret" – it’s a secret hidden out in the open. It means closer to "things not seen" than something not able to be seen. And you’ll find that tradition in all the oldest and most modern books in self-help and spiritual training. Both. Check out Earl Nightingale’s "Strangest Secret". Or Napoleon Hill’s "Think and Grow Rich." Or half a dozen other books, religious or otherwise.

These books tend to tell you of things known as "common sense" as they are widely known. It's just that people aren't really seeing what they know.

In King's book, it's pointed out that people dream all the time - all day long, in fact. You probably have seen this when you have woken from a daydream after a heavy lunch. That "dream-world" is always present, just ignored or suppressed most of the time. You'd be amazed what you find when you simply look for it. Lots of data there.

Now King also had a rather interesting approach to analyzing anything. It seems that there are four approaches to interpreting any results:

Objective - what just happened that I observed? Subjective - are their any feelings I have about what happened? Symbolic - is there anything that this all stands for or means? Holistic - how could this fit in with the goals I have or what I'm doing?

These may be obvious to you - and you can start out by using any one of them, something you may have already observed. Some of the most experienced and learned kahunas actually use all four at once - being able to get a broad conceptual understanding of the situation as it unfolded (or afterwards). They then can see the world around them in a much broader view.

Some only think with their feelings and this blocks their view of the world around them. By only "feeling" their way through life, they cut off experiencing other world-views and real empathy with the world around them. They can no longer observe on other levels, using feelings as a convenient crutch.

Throwing away the other 3 ways of analysis also throws out other possible conclusions and solutions. Too often, a person who merely "thinks" with their emotions or feelings will be reacting instead of actually analyzing or interpreting. And that reacting can block out other results.

Practice will make this easier for you. And another tool is to simply release all the various feelings and their underlying desires so you can analyze more clearly. To do this, select quiet spot where you won't be disturbed and sit comfortably, relaxed. Then let all the various feeling and their underlying emotions flow out of you and dissipate. As you do this on a regular basis (preferably in the same time and space), you'll be able to access the other analysis tools more easily.

At that point, you can then utilize all the ways of analysis. This enables you to extract all possible meaning more easily from any given dream or vision - whether they occur at night, during waking hours, or as a sudden insight or inspiration.

Good Hunting.