There are four foundational principles that I use when doing dream interpretation. These are explored in greater depth in my EBOOK Unlocking the Power of Your Dreams and I’m going to break down one of the most important ones in this article: Take the Metaphoric Meaning Before the Literal.

These four principles establish that dreams are the universal language that connects the whole human family. These principles make it possible for me to hear a dream from anyone in the world and be able to discern it’s meaning in a significant way for the dreamer. The four principles are:

• All Human Beings are Equal
• Humans are Dual-Natured (lower nature & Higher Nature)
• All Dreams Guide Us to Develop our Higher Nature Qualities
• All Dreams Use Metaphors to Convey These Messages of Growth

Catastrophic-Type Dreams and the Metaphors

Often times when people dream of a catastrophic event, such as a flood or school shooting, they wake up fearing the dream is prophetic and they want to do something to prevent it. They wonder why are they having this dream and what does it mean to them. The vividness of details of these kinds of dreams stick with the dreamer long after they awaken.

The tendency is to think the dream came to warn them that something catastrophic may happen in the future. While this is somewhat true, it’s not true in the way the dreamer first thinks.

All dreams exists outside of space & time. Dreams come in advance of situations in order to prepare us. The dreams show us areas of growth. For example, if you have a dream of a school shooting, there may be a lot of fear that comes up. That fear is the key to the solution for the dreamer.

To get to a state of not feeling fear, the dreamer needs to have a lot of Courage to look at things in new ways, to do new things, to develop new skills. When they develop these new skills that prepare them for the situations they’re facing in real life then they won’t have fear anymore because they have the skills.

It’s like when someone is just learning to drive a car. In the beginning, there’s a lot of fear and that’s good, there should be fear. Driving is a big responsibility and if not done properly can cause injury or damage to the driver or someone else. So the fear signals that there’s a need for learning new skills. Once the new skills are learned the fear goes away and the driver is capable and competent to drive on roads now.

Our life circumstances are like that as well. When a situation is occurring that requires new skills, our dreams will reveal to us that we have fear and the fear indicates where the learning is needed.

Ultimately, the dream is showing the dreamer where there’s an area that needs developing and if the dreamer develops these qualities then if the horrific dream scenario does end up happening in real life the dreamer will be prepared to help because they are not limited or constrained by the fears they may have had if they did not have the dream.

How do you use a metaphor in a nightmarish situation to transform your Self?

The key to transforming metaphors in nightmares is to become the positive opposite of the nightmare. So if you are in a flood in the dream then you need to flood the environment with positivity. If you are being shot at in the dream, then you need to “shoot out” encouraging words to others in real life. If you are being buried beneath an avolanche in the dream then you need to be an “avalanche of positivity” in real life.

This isn’t going to happen over night but it gives the dreamer a vision to work towards. Gradually, over time, skills develop and fears subside. Then if a catastrophe ever were to occur in real life, the dreamer will be calm and fearless and be able to help a lot of people.

This is one of the key strategies in dream interpretation.

What catastrophic dreams have you had? Leave them in the comments below and tell me what other dreams you would like to read about.