For example, one person who dreamed of a headless man in uniform was told in his Cayce reading that instead of losing his head over his duties by following the letter of the law and getting too caught up in his job, there was a greater lesson to be learned by following the spirit. A person who dreamed of a wild man running through the streets, shouting, and causing a great deal of trouble was told that the dream was advice for him to control his temper. One woman dreamed that a friend of hers was speaking to her. She noticed that the woman had beautiful false teeth of different shapes - but every other tooth had the appearance of pure gold. She was told that the gold teeth represented the spiritual truths of which she herself was often speaking, but they were false because she hadn't applied in her own life what she had been preaching. Another woman dreamed that her mother-who had died-was alive and happy. Cayce assured her that she was not trying to fool herself, that her mother was indeed alive and happy: "... for there is no death, only the transition from the physical to the spiritual plane." (136-33)

In trying to arrive at a dream interpretation, one possibility to consider is that the dream is largely literal. For example, seeing ourselves eat a salad in a dream may indicate the need for change in our diets to incorporate more salads. We may dream of someone we have not seen or heard from in a very long while, and then meet that person a short time later. In other cases, the action may be more symbolic of what is happening in waking life. Dreaming about different roomswhich we haven't yet explored could be pointing to the unopened doors of our own personality. A car often symbolizes our physical body and the need to make a change or correct a physical condition.

On the other hand, dreams of birth and death are often more symbolic, as they point to new beginnings and perhaps the end of doing something the old way. In other words a dream "death" is often the death of a part of our personality. For example, a woman who dreams of attending the funeral of her minister's wife may be allowing the spiritual aspects of her own life to be overlooked or "laid to rest." Dreams of being pregnant or taking care of a small child who really doesn't exist in the waking state isn't necessarily a prediction. The dream could merely be pointing out a new condition which will be coming our way or a new idea to which we will soon give birth.

When dreams give guidance or seem to pass judgments, it is usually in response to values and ideals we have previously set for ourselves. Most dreams can be seen as a kind of comparison (Cayce used the word "correlation"). While we sleep, a comparison is made between recent actions and the inner values we hold. For example, one woman was advised for health reasons to avoid eating chocolate, and yet she continued to eat it anyway. She had a dream in which she was crossing the border into Mexico illegally for the purpose of buying chocolate. Obviously, she would be the best one to determine that her dream was simply pointing out she was doing something she had been told not to do; at one level, she knew it was "illegal."

Scientific studies have shown that each of us dreams, but not all of us remember. If we'd like to try working with our dreams, we need to begin by keeping a note pad by the bedside so that we can jot down whatever we remember immediately after waking up-even if it's only a feeling. If we get enough sleep, if we expect to start remembering our dreams, and if we make an effort to record whatever is on our minds when we first wake up, we should be able to start remembering our dreams in a relatively short period of time. As we look at what's going on in our lives and then look at a particular dream, we'll begin to have an idea of what individual symbols may mean to us-especially if the symbol repeats itself in later dreams. The symbol won't necessarily mean the same to us as to someone else because dreams are as individual as dreamers. There is a simple five-step approach to working with dreams that even the novice can begin using immediately: Write down your dreams each day. Begin by realizing that the feeling you had about the dream is at least as important as trying to come up with one interpretation; besides, because of the multiple levels of our own beings, dreams generally have more than one meaning. Remember that-for the most part-every character in the dream represents a part of yourself. Watch the actions, feelings, expressions, and conversations of these characters in your dreams and measure them against the activities in your waking life. Watch for reoccurring symbols, characters, and emotions in your dreams, and begin a personal "dream dictionary" of these symbols and what their importance is to you. When working with dreams, remember, first of all, that your dreams can be extremely helpful even if you don't recognize immediately what they mean; and, secondly, remember to practice, practice, practice!

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