By Idara Mowette
Op_Ed
As much as it is true that people who practise witchcraft may use spiritual practices they believe can manipulate dreams or initiate people through experiences such as eating in dreams, I am not saying that such experiences are impossible.
What I am saying is that we need to approach dreams more objectively, rather than from a biased position where every dream of eating is automatically interpreted as initiation into witchcraft or evidence of spiritual manipulation.
Dreams are far more complex than that.
In my book, The Fourfold Dream Theory, I introduce a framework that categorises dreams into four broad types: Nightmare Dreams, Visionary Dreams, Symbolic Dreams and Imaginative Dreams.
The theory is important because dreams do not all function in the same way. A dream can be frightening without being a spiritual attack. It can contain symbols without being a divine message. It can be incredibly vivid without being prophetic. And it can even combine characteristics of more than one category.
For example, a person dreaming about eating could be experiencing a symbolic dream, an imaginative dream, or even a nightmare containing food. The dream may be influenced by emotions, memories, personal experiences, desires, fears or things encountered before sleep.
Could there be dreams that have spiritual significance? Absolutely.
But should we automatically conclude that every dream of eating means spiritual initiation?
I don’t believe we should.
Before assigning a meaning to someone’s dream, we should examine the dream itself. What happened? How did the dreamer feel? Were they participating or observing? What was happening in their waking life? What possible influences could have contributed to the dream?
This is not an argument against spirituality. It is an argument for discernment.
When people are already frightened about their dreams, confidently assigning frightening spiritual meanings can create unnecessary fear and misinformation. We have a responsibility to be careful with the interpretations we give people.
The purpose of The Fourfold Dream Theory is not to tell you that dreams are meaningless, nor to convince you that every dream is supernatural. It is to give you a framework for understanding the different ways dreams can occur and the ways their elements can overlap.
The Fourfold Dream Theory encourages us to look beyond the obvious and ask a more important question before interpreting a dream:
What kind of dream am I looking at?
Because perhaps the greatest danger is not dreaming itself. Perhaps it is misunderstanding what we dream.
The Fourfold Dream Theory invites you to question assumptions, examine your dreams more carefully, and discover a more objective way to understand the mysterious world we enter when we sleep.
