Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Cynthia Interprets Dreams


(Article originally posted in the Sedona Red Rock News)
There are times man can fly without wings. It’s the same time you show up to class naked or found yourself stuck in a tar pit facing down a mammoth.

They are our dreams.
Cynthia Richmond was at the Sedona Welcomers monthly meeting as its featured speaker Wednesday, March 23, at the Hilton Sedona Resort at Bell Rock.

Richmond has been interpreting dreams for some time now, appearing on national television on shows like Oprah.

It became obvious that dreams are of a personal nature as Richmond asked the group of women what dreams they wanted more understanding of. It took a little prodding before anyone asked anything, but then quickly got on a roll.

Richmond covered the gamut while there, and showed how all dreams have symbolic meaning. Here are a few of the archetypes she helped explain:
  • Innovation: Often dreams are cited as a way people have invented new machines, such as the sewing machine. These dreams use a combination of a relaxed state of mind with intuition to allow the waker to realize what he or she had been missing.
  • Not finding the bathroom: Richmond said she had had a hard time getting this interpretation into print when she wrote her own column, as it was not breakfast reading material. But at the risk of ruining that bagel or eggs, the reasoning behind this dream, she said, is that someone has an issue they need to let go.
  • Being back in school for a
    test/being naked in public: These often reflect a fear of being unprepared. They are some of the most common dreams and can also relate to anxiety felt when someone is about to meet a new person capable of being judgmental.
  • Being chased: This is another common one. Something is starting to slip from the dreamer’s control. Sometimes it is a problem that has been avoided to long and needs to be faced.
  • Recurring: This happens when a similar issue to the cause of the original dream happens or when an issue has never been resolved.
To work on gleaning more information from dreams, Richmond said that talking out loud can be a good start, particularly talking with someone who has worked with dreams. Writing a dream journal can also help, as well as provide a basis for new interpretations down the road.

She said there are things beyond symbolism that happen in dreams as well. She gave creedence to dreams which seem to predict the future, as well as dreams that seem to allow a person to connect with “the other side.”

Richmond pointed out that dreams occur at the lighter stages of sleep, contrary to popular perception. She said dreams tend to cycle in their meaning as the night progresses.

The first dreams of the night deal with the stress of the day before. The middle of the night dreams are usually the ones which deal with fantasy — the flying ones, etc. Dreams more toward morning are ways the subconscious tries to convey a message for the future.

The Sedona Welcomers will next host Sedona International Film Festival Executive Director Patrick Schweiss on Wednesday, April 27, at the Sedona Hilton.

Sweet dreams.