Do you fly in your dreams?
Some people dream of flying often, while others never do, and there are reasons why this experience is not shared by all.
Dreams are the result of your unconscious mind (UM) trying to communicate what it is currently processing to your conscious mind. You may be processing what happened that very day, or something that happened to you in high school or as a small child. The UM does not process in sequence, so just because you processed something about your childhood one night, it does not mean you will pick up where you left off and continue with that particular process.
One of the best ways to describe how your dreams can be deciphered is to think of your conscious mind as an island in the middle of a vast ocean. The ocean represents your UM, making up your unconscious self — your life’s experiences, your knowledge, your emotional responses, etc. The ocean floor is what we share as our collective human knowledge. The sky and anything associated with the sky is from outside of ourselves, the collective metaphysical knowledge.
Take a dream of an airport, for example: the airport itself represents a place from where we prepare to transition to a metaphysical or spiritual part of our selves. If you fly in a plane it means that you are using some type of mechanism to elevate yourself to a position of higher thinking.
This often occurs when you are using a method to access your higher consciousness such as meditation, inner reflection, prayer, etc. Dreams in which you fly without a device and just take off on your own, on the other hand, are the most delightful dreams to hear about and to have.
The person remembering the dream always has a wistful and, dare I say, dreamy, expression when talking about these dreams; for these are the very lucky ones who really feel comfortable in their spiritual or metaphysical world. They often seem to regret having to wake at all.
Birds, butterflies, bats, and other flying creatures hold messages about your higher consciousness’ state of mind. So we look to these sky beings for clues about what’s going on in your metaphysical realm. The sky itself, whether night or day, stormy or filled with white cotton clouds, signifies the state of your higher consciousness.
If you don’t dream of flying it’s most likely that your UM is simply processing the life you have lived and are currently living, and that’s just the way it is for you now. There is nothing you can do to achieve flying in your dreams that you aren’t already doing (except for relaxing and learning to let things be as they are). You are most likely a more practical, down-to-earth kind of person, and that’s as it should be for now.
When you do dream of flying it is just your UM showing you the connection between your awake life and the ‘extra’ ordinary that is all around us at all times. Most likely the message is in the “feel” of the dream. Did it make you uncomfortable? Were you frightened or did you feel out of control?
Or were you euphoric and hopeful? Usually your dream feeling signifies the core message of the dream. Remember: the dream is only trying to communicate what the UM is working on right now. It’s saying, “Hey, just thought I’d let you know….”
If you dream of crashing planes and things falling from the skies, that’s a whole other type of message. When things fall from the sky and explode, your UM is letting go of preconceived programs about your higher consciousness. That plane ‘don’t fly no more.’ It must go down. This usually denotes a change in belief systems or a shifting in the conceptions you have about the spiritual realm.
This is a good thing; old programs that no longer serve you are being destroying alchemically in flames so you can rise from those old beliefs as a phoenix to new possibilities. So while it may be an immensely disturbing dream at the time, it means your UM is simply letting you know that some turbulence was encountered and some old programs needed to be jettisoned so you can recreate your conception of spirituality.
Dreams of flying may mean different things to someone who flies in real life. In this instance, flying is less a metaphysical representation of something else, but rather, it is simply something meaningful in their lives. If they fly as a career, it is their work arena. If they are hang gliders or glider pilots, flying holds a different meaning for them; flying is their means to enjoying life, which is really what spirituality is all about anyways — enjoying this human
life.
Dreams are the portals to our unconscious mind, that for sanity’s sake must remain in the background during our waking hours. But to sleep, perchance to dream, is the opportunity to dive in to that ocean of our unconscious selves and work as a conscious being to become whole.
You can learn more about dreams in my book Dream Analysis Handbook, where you can look up what last night’s dream meant, because Dreams Speak to us all; we just need to know the language