Revelatory dreams are more common to men than women. This may be because more men concern themselves with questions of what the universe is.
If the dreamer creates a mental or emotional tension in themselves through the intensity with which they pursue such questions—and we need to accept that often such intensity anses out of anxiety regarding death and one’s identity—then the self-regulatory process of dreaming might well produce an apparent revelation to ease the tension. On the opposite tack, research into mental functioning during dreaming, or in a dreamlike state as in research using LSD, shows that there is an enormously increased ability to access associated ideas, allow feeling responses and achieve novel viewpoints. Freud pointed out that dreams have access to greater memory resources and associated ideas. P H. Stafford and B.H. Golightly, in their book dealing with LSD as an aid to problem solving, say that this dreamlike state enables subjects to ‘form and keep in mind a much broader picture . . . imagine what is needed—for the problem—or not possible . . . diminish fear of making mistakes*. One subject says ‘1 had almost total recall of a course I did in thermodynamics; something I had not given any thought to in years.’
Although humans have such power to scan enormous blocks of information or experience, look at it from new angles, sift it with particular questions in mind and so discover new connections in old information, there are problems, otherwise we would all be doing it.
The nature of dream consciousness, and the faculties described, is fundamentally different to waking awareness, which limits, edits, looks for specifics, avoids views conflicting with its accepted norm, and uses verbalisation.
A nonverbal, symbolic scan of massive information is largely lost when translated to waking consciousness.
My experience is that the content of revelatory dreams is almost wholly lost on waking.
If the individual explores the dream while awake, however, and dares to take consciousness into the realm of the dream, then the enormous waves of emotional impact, the massive collection of details, the personality changing influence of major new insights, can be met.
The reason most of us do not touch this creative process is in fact the same reason most of us do not attempt other daring activities—it takes guts.
See also: creativity, problem solving in dreams. [1]
Symbols of secrets and deception in dreams may be offering you a warning.
If you were cheating or someone cheated at your expense in your dream, this was certainly a warning. For example, if you cheated in a race, in a game or in a relationship in your dream, are you willingly involved in some kind of deception in waking life? If you are, your dream is urging you to mend your ways; on the other hand, the dream may also be suggesting that someone is cheating on you. Any hint of counterfeit goods, fakes or forgery in your dream also suggests that you are not being true to yourself or honest with others in waking life.
If the fake is an antique of some kind, this may be referring to a deceit that happened in the past.
If you are caught cheating or deceiving somebody in your dream, perhaps you are in danger of being [2]
An attempt to withhold the truth, hide something, or lie.
The idea of “protecting” someone from the truth.
Using secrecy as a strategy to accomplish something you couldn’t accomplish otherwise (such as throwing a surprise party).
Secret or stealthy actions can represent a feeling or fear of someone gaining power or control using stealth, or of you doing so yourself.
See also: Confiding, Privacy, Cover, Hiding, Quiet, Code, Password, Investigator, Underground, Trickery [3]
If you dream of hearing a secret about somebody, there will be intrigue among people you have trusted.
If you dream of repeating a secret, this a sign that you will have to defend yourself against malicious gossip. [4]
See also: Integration Dreams. [5]
It is possible that you will not only go through a complicated emotional stage but that you are also involved in something not suited to you. [6]
To repeat a secret is a sign that you will have to defend yourself against malicious gossip. [8]
2. Be careful; someone is being deceptive. [9]