Off The Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe - Theresa Cheung: Dream Life vs. Waking Life

Episode Date: July 13, 2021

This is the podcast episode of your dreams… literally. Dream decoding expert and best-selling author Theresa Cheung joins Kaitlyn to talk about what dreams mean, why we have them, and why we should all embrace our dreaming lives. Basically, dreams are free therapy sessions that you can tap into with the right tools. Kaitlyn and Theresa get into Kaitlyn’s reoccurring dreams, analyze the bizarre reoccurring dream of an OTV producer, and dive into the common themes that appear throughout our dreams and our nightmares. It turns out that life becomes infinitely more interesting when you tap into your dreams, so get ready to hear from an expert who has been studying them for decades. Sweet dreams, vinos! GOODY’S - To purchase, go to Amazon and use code 1VINE to receive $1 off a 4 count 6 pack! EUROPEAN WAX CENTER - Visit waxcenter.com to book your reservation today and check out the new line of products. And remember, your first wax is FREE. GEICO - Go to geico.com and in 1 5 minutes you could be saving 15% or more on car insurance.  OXICLEAN - Visit oxicleancoupons.com now where a coupon is waiting for youSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Conix Ontario at 1866-531-2600 to speak to a advisor free of charge but mGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with i gaming ontario hey everybody you're listening to kately bristow's podcast off the vine take it away brie wine lots of wine hey be on the mic turn it up let's go hey ramen pinot ready for the show everyone's welcome so come on in because o tv it's about to begin hey welcome to off the vine i'm your host Caitlin Bristow. You guys know me well. You know I have cray dreams. I have some bizarre and sometimes frightening, reoccurring dreams and some dreams that I can actually control. I'm one of those people that I can realize in a dream that I'm dreaming so I could do like crazy things that I wouldn't do in the real world and I get away with it. I didn't really realize that was not extremely normal until more and more people, including Jason, would ask me how the hell I could remember those insane details in my dreams. And I realized that that, that it's not very common. So that's why I had brought on dream decoding expert and bestselling author

Teresa Chung to dive deep and help me decode my dreams and other dreams that I know people that are listening to this have had too. So Teresa has been researching and writing about spirituality, astrology, dreams, and the paranormal for the past 25 years. She has a master's degree from the King's College, Cambridge University in theology and English and several international bestselling books. So just wait until you hear what she has to say about my dreams, about reoccurring dreams. I'm sure you guys have had two. I don't really know what to say. I feel like so many things finally make sense to not only me, but also my producer, Minnie. So let's enter the world of dreams with Teresa.

Oh, my gosh. Thank you so much. I mean, I've got lighting on me, so there's that. That always helps. Lighting always helps. How are you? I'm very well something. Isn't it wonderful? I'm here in the UK. That is. That's blowing my mind. I mean, the power of Zoom. And, you know, I would have never been able to meet you. Otherwise, when I used to do them only in person and now we can, you know, meet each other all the way across the world. What time is it there for you? It's about seven o'clock in the evening. Oh, is it really? Oh, my God. Gosh. Yeah, all day is done, almost. I'm so excited to talk to you today because dreams to me are,

that's what I wish I went back in life. If I had another career like path for myself, I would have chosen to do what you do with dreams because they're fascinating. It's fascinating. And I just have so many questions. I mean, I have so many reoccurring dreams that we will obviously get into. And I need you to decipher some of them because I'm sure you've heard them all and mine might be really weird or they might be very normal. I'm not sure yet. But before we get into all that, I just want to kind of learn more about you and hear about you because this is our first time obviously meeting. So I want to know about your background. And I know you've a master's degree in that you've been researching and writing about spirituality, astrology, dreams and paranormal for like 25 years. Oh, for all my life.

I was, I was born into a family of spiritual. Oh, wow. Like astrologers, traveling family and home educated somehow ended up at King's College, Cambridge, where I read theology, study of religion, and then kind of became spiritual rather than religious. And maybe because of my academic credentials and my new age, you know, I'm like a new age encyclopedia because I was born into it. I have had the blessing of publishing book after book after book in this area. Yes. But you know what's fascinating is that I've been around. for a very long time for a kind of a niche audience, but the pandemic has unlocked an interest in spirituality, divination, dreams, astrology as never before. And testament to that is I'm on

this podcast with you. It's a dream come true. It's amazing. And that's all I've ever wanted to talk in a common sense way, a practical way, about these mysterious topics about what's mysterious in life and here I am doing it so thank you yes thank you universe and thank you for aligning us together because I'm so into this stuff too and I find that it is such a mystery and for some reason when there are things like that in life that are just on another deeper level I feel like people like almost pretend it's not happening like how do our brains go to a place when we are sleeping where it's like a production like there's costumes there's makeup there's You can walk down a grocery aisle and there's everything seems to be on the shelves where it's

supposed to be. And it's just a wild concept to me. And I've always had vivid dreams. Did you grow up with vivid dreams? Absolutely. Yes. I have my dream life and my waking life and the two kind of like complement each other because I was encouraged as a child because of the family I grew up in to always record my dreams to talk about my dreams as if they were as real as my waking life. And I thought that was a normal thing to do. It was only when I went to university in the sort of the normal world as such. So I realized it's not how people behave. So I've been on a learning curve there. But for me, it's just normal. The dream life is me continuing in an altered state. Because when we fall asleep, we don't stop. A part of your brain remains wide awake in the world of your dreams. And it's an

astonishing world of your own making. And I can go into all the reasons why we dream and if you want to know about that. But it's like going into a hall of mirrors, really. And what most people need to understand about dream interpretation is that the reason dreams don't make sense or often don't make sense is because they speak to us in symbols and metaphors. And the modern life, you know, modern times we've lost that ability to look, beneath the surface of things to what lies beneath. You know, it's not literal a dream. It's psychological using archetypes symbols to tell you something really, really important.

Your dreaming mind is your best friend. It's trying to give you life advice. It's commenting on your life all the time. And every time it does that, it's trying to give you a message that you need to go away and interpret. Wow. And is that what, because you have the book called the Dream Dictionary A to Z. Is that kind of, you can get this book and then look up what your dreams could mean? Is there really kind of something from A to Z in there?

Well, it was actually originally published way back in 2006 as the element in psychopedia of 20,000 dreams. HarperCollins published it. And it's been a big success. But because of the pandemic, of course, it's been reissued. It slimmed right down because paperbacks are more accessible into an A to Z of common dream symbols. But these are universal symbols. As I always say, the universal symbol is a starting point, a launch pad for interpretation, but you need to bring your personal associations. For example,

if you dream of a dog and you love dogs, that's a symbol for unconditional love and loyalty. But if you have had a bad experience with dogs, it's a different kind of interpretation. So you've always got to bring in your personal perspective alongside the universal and the collective. Right. So, okay, I will get into my dreams eventually because, I mean, there's a lot to unpack there. But what does it mean when somebody, because I always wake up and I will tell my fiance, like, exactly to a tea, what happened, what people are wearing? And I'll just name it all. And he goes, how does your brain do this? And he does not have vivid dreams. Like, if he does, it's very rare. What does that mean if that part of your brain isn't still going through the night? What does it mean? Well, a lot of people write to me and say, I love what you're saying, but I don't dream. First of all, I clarify, you do dream. You are just not recalling it.

We all dream. Research shows every single night we have at least five or six dreams. But we've got into the habit for whatever reason of not recalling them, of not remembering them. And there could be many reasons for that. One of them is the message that people around them are sending them, not you obviously, but maybe in the past that people. the nonsense that what comes from the unconscious, what is intuitive, what is invisible and what is unseen is not of substance and it's logic and rationality and reason. So there needs to be a shift in attitude as well for dream recall to come. He's very logical. He's very like black and white

kind of guy. But dreams can be very logical as well. I mean, you know, actually you can bring your logic into your dreams. That's another thing. You know, if you want to wake up in your dreams and know you're dreaming when you're dreaming, you have to be quite a logical person. So he could unlock that ability. But, you know, poor dream of call can also be to do with a very, very busy, stressful life. And that as soon as he wakes up in the morning, his mind's racing about the day ahead, because you do need to give yourself one or two minutes as you wake up to stay with the dream and stay in that beautiful twilight state where all these images and feelings and scenarios bubble to the surface. And it really is worth it because great works of art.

literature, innovation, science, discovery, have been inspired by visions in a dream. You know, did you know that Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was a dream? Jacqueline Hyde, Robert Lewin-Stevenson, was a dream. Even Stephen King, many of his novels, Misery, he dreamt a fan locked him in his house and forced him to write a book. These are all dreams. And also scientific discoveries, music, art, Salvador Dali, his art, photographs of his dreams. Dreams are an incredibly rich resource and so many of us don't

realise that and it breaks my heart because when you tap into your dreams and are able to pick out things from them, your life becomes infinitely more interesting. You are able to see beneath the surface of things. You realise that everybody is a mystery and you are so much more deep, creative and powerful than you realize. That's so interesting that you say that because I've never really thought of it that way, but I do get creative in my dreams, and I always talk about the production level. I'm like, I wake up and I'm like, I mean, my brain is really genius

with what I've got going on in there, and I wish I could be that creative in real life. Maybe I just need to tap into it more because I am a creative person, but my dreams are just complete next level. and they go from like happy to like the darkest of dark dreams and like just everything is so very real and I do I always wake up and if I don't remember a dream I'll go through certain things so I'll like look at a water bottle or look at a light and I'll try and like do anything to help trigger something in my brain to remember a dream and I usually do remember them

once I do that and sit there in those first few minutes of waking up and oftentimes I'm so overwhelmed by my dreams that it will put me back to sleep when I'm trying to go through them because they are so intricate and like there's so much going on that I overwhelm my brain and I'll like fall back asleep just trying to think about a dream. Oh, that's incredible. I mean, I'm like you too when I wake up and I can't remember a dream. I feel a little bit sad. And that's actually right because research shows that dream recall is healthy. It is good for you. It is good for you emotionally and psychologically. You know, it's actually very, very healthy to have good dream recall. Research shows that it is. People who, you know,

Your partner, I know, is not having good dream recall at the moment, but encourage him to connect with his dreams because it's good for your brain and it's good for your heart and your soul. It really is. And cultures that place dreaming center stage, you know, indigenous cultures that place dreaming center stage, there's no incidence of depression or crime. And I find that's really beautiful and inspiring.

That the world of the dream, they know that you are not defined by the material, your body, this stuff. that your essence, your soul, that's who you truly are and that's who you connect with in your dreams. And one of the reasons, lots of dreams are very dark. You mentioned you had dark dreams is because dreams give us an opportunity to meet our shadow. And in waking life, we can't do that because we'd hurt people. We'd harm ourselves and others. However, your dreaming mind knows that you need to understand and heal and resolve all these areas of your personality. So it gives you

an opportunity to meet the monsters in your dreams where it's safe. You can safely role play. You can safely interact with them. You can safely learn from them. Because the shadow side actually often is really important for personal growth and evolution. Yeah, we need to confront our shadow side. It's a very important part of our lives. It is interesting because I do these shadows that you speak of, like they show up in my dreams and it's something I really actually talk about in real life to my therapist some of these reoccurring dreams and I'm like well why am I still having them and it's it's crazy how like a dream can be so vivid and reoccurring and then it can all of a sudden not happen anymore and I wonder if that's when the healing happens if that's like

you know you are brilliant yes exactly you have recurring dreams because you're not getting the message of the dream because every dream has a message even ones that you think are really like ridiculous or trivial. Each one of them happens for a reason to give you a message and to point your attention to something in your waking life. As soon as you get that, that dream's not going to come back or it will come back in a different way offering a different perspective on the issue. So you're absolutely right. Recurring dreams are because you're not getting the message and you need to uncover the meaning of it. Okay. So then how do you decode a dream and understand what your brain is trying to tell you if it's like, I know it can be as simple as a dog, but what if it's something like so out there and that you're like, why would my brain ever do that? Like this is like, um, she would kill me if I said her name about what she dreamt about. But she had a dream and her dogs are like her children. Her dogs are her children. She's obsessed with them. And she had a dream that she had a dream that she,

she was burning them and it like haunts her for it's haunted her for months now and she's like what is wrong with my brain or what is my brain trying to tell me if that would be my dream nothing's wrong with her brain the burning is something is harming her and and harming her her sense of emotional intimacy because the dogs are so so important to her emotionally it's nothing to do with the dogs there's something outside of that but the dreaming mind uses the symbol of the dogs because it knows it's going to speak to her. It's going to get her right here in her heart, and she's going to pay attention.

What is she doing, what does she feel is happening to her that is emotionally damaging? And how does she need to protect herself? That's how I would interpret it. I need more details of the dream. But that's why the dreaming mind is seizing on the dogs because they matter so much to her. And they are intimacy, they are love,

they are emotional connection. She's burning that. So is she destroying something? kind of emotional connection with someone or something, not her dogs. It could be something work related or something important to her. She feels that she's, is damaging herself with it. She's pushing away. He needs to basically go through association and look in her waking life. What in my waking life makes me feel the way this dream makes me feel? It's nothing to do with her dogs. That would make sense because they obviously have such a, like,

emotional attachment to her heart that that's why they would come into her dreams like that. That's so interesting. What person or situation is making her feel that way, that there's some kind of either self-harm or something is bothering her, right? And she needs to connect. When she feels in her waking life, the same emotion that that dream triggers, that's where the answers lie.

And she needs to do association until she gets it. And she also needs to ask her dreaming mind the following night to comment, on the dream because people make the mistake of thinking one dream is it. Dreams like a Netflix series, they comment on each other and you've got to tune in for the following night because the dream the following night may well, you know, illuminate what happened the previous night. That's why I encourage people to always write down their dreams because sometimes you need to look back a week and you'll see the threads.

You'll see how your dreaming life is a commentary in symbolic language. It speaks to you in the language of symbols. Of course it does because you're in a different state of consciousness. You went to a different country and you wanted to understand the language. You'd have to, you know, learn the language. So if you go to a different state of consciousness, you need to learn the language of that, which is the language of archetypes and symbols. Like a cross, for example, for many people mean spirituality, religion, right?

So if that appears in your dreams, that's what you've got to look at. You've got to look beneath the surface. And when you say record your dreams, you mean just writing them down? down or in a voice voice recorder if that's easier but don't feel you have to make people get stressed when they write down their dreams thinking they've got to make a story stop trying to make them into a story

just write down the key words they won't make sense write them down in the present tense because that's a really good way to do it to show its current and then put it aside and don't come back to it until later in the day when you have had distance then you can look at it

and start doing association with each of those words For example, if you dreamt in green, you know, there was a lot of green. What is symbolism associated with the colour green? It can be associated with money. It could be associated with nature, with new beginnings. Or if there was people in your dreams, it's not them you're dreaming about. It's what these people symbolise about you.

For example, if you have a friend who's very fiery, it'll be your fiery nature that that symbolises. It's not the friend. You have to realize, you know, if you've watched Inception, I say this time, and everybody stops and stares at the dreamer. Christopher Nolan, who himself is a very vivid and creative dreamer, that's why he wanted to do Inception, that wonderful movie, to show his dream life.

He got it exactly, absolutely right. Not everything about that film is correct about dreaming, but that scene, I return to it time and time again when I'm talking about dreaming to help people understand because it really frees them when they stop thinking that it's literal. Yeah. You know, you dream you're in a car and it crashes. Oh, my goodness, I'm going to crash tomorrow or this, that kind of thing.

Now, I'm going to complicate things here because I'm talking about 99% of dreams are symbolic. There is a 1% less than 1% that could be psychic, precognitive, telepathic. And I write a lot about those as well. And they are being studied by scientists, dreams that are so very, very different. I call them night visions, and they have a very very different feel. But the great majority of our dreams are symbolic. But just as valuable, just as valuable, because you mentioned therapy and counselling. When you go to a therapist and counsellor, a good one will encourage you to ask questions of yourself.

Every night you've got that happening for free. Your dreaming mind's doing it for free. It's encouraging you when you wake up. Why did I have that dream? what does a symbol of a tree mean to me? You know, how can, you know, the strength of the tree, the growth of the tree, how can I, what's that commenting on in my waking life? What do I need to be stronger?

What do I need to lay down roots with? That's how you start having to think. And it takes a while, but once you get in the habit, it's brilliant fun. And I love it now when I go about my day and I had a dream and I know my dreams just commented on it so brilliantly. I mean, I always pay attention to them, but now I'm going to even more so to try and think of symbolism and what does that mean or what could it mean? Because I feel like through my whole day, my brain is daydreaming almost. And then when I go to sleep at night, it's like, I have great sleeps. I'm like not a terrible sleeper. And I feel like that helps me be able to get into my

dreams more. And I am one of those people who can control my dreams at times. And so now I want to, I'm going to start recording what happens in my dreams when I wake up because I do think that would be interesting to be able to go back or like, you know, because I'll forget my dreams at the night after. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, I'll write down my dreams for my therapy sessions. But I wanted to know, because I heard you did some work or met with somehow Russell Brandt, which is so I would love to crawl in that guy's brain for a minute and then get the hell out. But like, he is hilarious. Actually, it was episode 71. of his under-the-skin podcast.

And if you want to roll about laughing, because as I said, I'd only been just plucked, I mean, I have written, because I'm an academic and an author at heart, a researcher. And I have been very, very well published by leading publishers in this area. But it was only then the interest suddenly unleashed. And a lot of that was to do with Russell

because he was interested in precognition. Yeah. And seeing the future. And he put me on his podcast, I went to your studio, this is pre-COVID, and I think he thought I was a neuroscientist. And it's very funny because it's very dissonant in the beginning. The two of us are like, you know, and I'm very nervous. Yeah, of course.

And I ended up, and this is how bad it got. I wanted to quote all the scientists I've worked with, all the neuroscientists. And instead of quoting that, I ended up quoting Patrick Swayze in Ghost. I have no idea. You know, he had that effect because he's so tall. But at the end, I think it's very funny. People who remember Russell, you know, he's got very serious and spiritual now in his fun days.

He's cracking jokes because I've written a book about psychic animals and we talk about psychic. And he's, it's a very funny interview because he doesn't know what to do with me. He doesn't, because I'm, you know, I'm me. I'm not, you know, a celebrity or anything. And he can't. Right. He has no idea how to cope. And I don't either.

And I'm sort of saying ridiculous things, you know. Oh, gosh. That would be amazing, though. Yes. So it is a very funny interview and was surprisingly popular because of that. Well, yeah, of course. I feel like that would be such an interesting podcast because of everything you just said where he didn't know what to do with you.

You didn't know what to do with yourself or him. It was just like a world where you're like, how am I sitting in front of Russell Brandt talking about this? And he's like, this isn't like, I don't know who you are, but you're telling me you know about my dreams. Because he had all these notes prepared and he wasn't looking at them all. He was just off the cuff and it starts very dissonant, you know, in these awkward interviews when it just doesn't work.

Right. And then half-fall through, there's kind of a crack-up laughter moment. And after that, it's very funny where it just gets more. more stupid. But yeah, yeah. I love stupid humor though. But he must have crazy dreams. He said, actually, it was difficult. We did talk a little bit about dreaming and he said he only has nightmares, which is very revealing. And I wanted to tell him that's a gift because nightmares are a gift. They're trying to heal you. But we moved on to other topics because we also talked about the afterlife and all sorts of spiritual topics. But I wanted to tell him that that's his internal

therapist trying to help him deal with a lot in a safe he has a lot of demons yeah that's that makes a lot of sense what so do you with the afterlife what is your association with the afterlife like do you do they come in dreams or have you just studied the afterlife i've written hundreds of books about i mean i literally i'm a you know i'm not a serial killer i'm a serial author i have written so many books about the afterlife typically because i have been around a long time i usually leave my email address in my books these 20 years and people will write their stories of afterlife experiences, near-death experiences, angel encounters, all these things. So I collate these stories and put them together and say, well, look, here is data of what, you know, anecdotal stories. So, but I've also

worked with scientists researching near-death experiences, which is fascinating, you know, the likes of even Alexander, people like that. She's not a scientist, Anita Morjani. I've, I've worked with scientists who are researching afterlife stories and to see what's going on and mediumship as well. And my book, The Afterlife Is Real, did very well where I talked about science. Oh, I'm getting that. It's cool. I love, I find the afterlife. So just because I've had experiences with it that I am such a believer and I love all books on it. So I'm definitely going to have to get that one. And I've just started recently getting into reading again where I just can't put books down. And you've written like, I mean, how many? Over 40?

I do you know, I've lost count. I'm very, very blessed. You know, I'm currently with Harper Collins, but I've been with all the publishers and huge variety of new age topics. But my dream dictionary is the one that's, you know, really, really is who, where I get the most call-ups for because it's so popular and it's been around for 20 years and being reissued. But yeah, I can't, I think at least over 50. Wow. That is so. impressive. I don't even know how one, like my fiance got a book deal actually with Harbor Collins for two books. And the amount of work that it takes for one is beyond. And it's just incredible that you've had over 50 in your career. That's absolutely huge. And I'm like, gosh, I could go into every different direction with you for like eight different podcasts. You're like, let's focus on this. Let's focus on this. But I really do want to hear about these dreams that myself and some of my listeners have been having, but my one, my number one reoccurring dream that I have all the time

is that I get shot. And I always think I'm going to end up in a situation where somebody has me at gunpoint, like in my real life, I think so. But I'm always getting shot in my dreams, and I always pretend that I've died so that they stop shooting, but I'm still alive. And I don't feel it. I'm just numb. And it doesn't wake me up. I don't get shot. And I go, oh, I'm awake. I lay there. and I'm just, I pretend that I've died so that it won't keep shooting. That is an incredible dream, and you are a dreaming being clearly. I love it. It's lovely to be someone who is so engaged with their dreams.

For me, obviously, I don't know you personally, but the shots are things that people have against you, criticism that others have, and your dreaming mind is telling you the best way to cope with it is to pretend it doesn't hurt you. Just let it go. That's what you're doing. just, you know, you're in, I mean, being who you are, you're going to get people who want to pull you down. Like I think Donna's shooting me in my dreams. Obviously, if you're a big well-known figure, that's what's going to happen. And you just got to shut it off. Like you're

doing in your dream, your dream's telling you what to do. Just ignore it. Doesn't matter what other people say about you. The only thing that matters is what your dreaming mind is telling you and who you are, because you are enough. It doesn't matter what they say. Let it go. Don't read the reviews. read the criticism it's nothing to do with you it's that all every time people are critical to you or to others it says more about them than it does about you that's what that dream is trying to say it's not real it's their issues it's not yours because so i can yeah i i truly truly always think i'm just going to end up being in the middle of like a shooting and so that's where i need to learn to you know not to get so literally and

and decode it for myself. You find that, you know, you are the subject of criticism for whatever reason or heated exchanges. Your best approach is to just, it's not, let it go. It's not just lay down. Leave it.

It's just, don't engage. Don't engage. Because if you got up in that dream and tried to fight off the bullets, you would be dead. You're doing the right thing. Just let it, don't just ignore it. It doesn't matter.

You just let it go. I love that. And I never see who, is shooting me it's just uh you know they they are shooting me and i don't know to expect you know because i i don't know because i'm not you know huge online in any way but you would get a lot of criticism yeah yeah oh yeah i do these invisible critics these trolls or whatever it let it go okay that's that's hard for me because i love what i call it standing up for myself sometimes but i i just feel like i need to stand up for myself why why

Why give them the power? Why? What does it matter? You do you. You do you. That's true. And I try and live by that because I'm such a, you know, I'm very authentic to myself. And it was like the biggest thing I ever try and preach is to be your authentic self.

And so to me, I'm like, well, I authentically like to chirp back and clap back at people. No, what it's saying is you don't need to do that because you're wasting energy. You have huge creative energy. Why are you giving out that energy that you could be using for your own projects and your own self-care, for your own relationships, for what nurtures you? It's wasting energy. In that dream, if you stood up and tried to fend off the shots, you'd be shot to pieces. It won't get you anywhere.

Just, as I said, don't worry about it. Just let it go. Okay. it's so different for like an actual celebrity because I feel like they get I mean they get hated on so much worse than I do but I feel like I'm so attached to my audience and I I'm just like so I put things out there for them I try and like listen to their feedback so when I'm presented with someone so negative, I almost take it personally because I feel like I've let these people in so much where celebrities don't really let, you know, like, Jenna, yeah, Jennifer Aniston doesn't like let people in and, like, because she's got boundaries and she doesn't need to where I'm like, everybody that listens to this podcast is family and then my social media

becomes a community. And so it, like, affects me more sometimes. Sometimes it doesn't affect me at all. It really depends on if I'm on my period or not. the people who genuinely love you, you're true fans, and I'm sure that would be 95% at least. That works. That's great and that's why they love you. But, you know, if you're just getting negative criticism

that's hateful and horrible, block it, play dead. And don't let them know that they've got to you. Yeah. Because, you know, that's what the dream is saying. Yeah. The dreams, they get very deep and very into. intimate. And as I say, I feel honored you're sharing your dreams with me because when people share their dreams, when people write to me, I'm very respectful because they are sharing a piece

of their soul. I don't realize it often. So if anybody says to you, I had a dream last night, I feel it's a very sacred experience to hear that. It really is because people are sharing. You're right. And there's oftentimes where I want to tell people my dreams, I'm like, I don't want to bore them with this because sometimes when people tell me their dreams, I'm like, can I get to the point? But you like, like you start remembering all these different things and you're like, oh my God, and then this happened. And it's so much more real and excited in your brain. But I'm like, I have to tell someone. I always think that dreams should be, it's a personal conversation with yourself. You are. And I think you're the one. I think dreams

should be the dream journal should have a lock on it and it's just for you. We don't need to share everything in our lives. Dreams are a mystery. So keep that. mystery, we're never an amazing dream, unless it's giving you a great title for something or a idea for a show, that's different. But the majority of the time, it's deeply personal and it's just for you. And it doesn't really, you know, your dreams don't really want to be others to know so much. Yeah. No, I was, I was seriously just going to say something about your little doggy in the back because I saw, is it a boy or girl? Yeah, I just saw this little head pop up in the corner and I was like, I'm such a dog lover.

I'm like, I have two dogs at my feet right now. Two little golden, fair little, actually. Golden Retrievers. I have two golden retrievers. I called him my sole dog. Yes, he is, can't be without him. It's just absolutely adorable. Yeah, I know.

I feel that. No, he's so staking cute. Okay, I want to tell you my other reoccurring dream because it's that I'm in this huge production. I grew up dancing, and sometimes it'll be my old dance performances I'm supposed to perform in this huge production. And I cannot remember any of the choreography. I don't remember any of my lines or how it's supposed to go. But I'm like in the exact same costume that I did growing up. And like, there's curtains and there's celebrities and there's these performers and people are doing like the craziest things, like acrobats.

And I go out there and I'm like, just trying to. to follow along with the people in front of me and blowing it the whole time. Well, when you have dreams about being on stage or in a production like that, what it is, it is about concern with how visible you are and how you appear to others. And you feel in the dream that you're not, you know, keeping up and your dream is trying to say nonsense, you're on stage, you've arrived. What do you mean? This is a big Broadway production.

It's trying to show you that it doesn't really matter if you don't remember. you're in in the mix my brain is like the fraud police coming in and saying you're not supposed to be here and you're not supposed to be on stage dreams like this are similar with dreams about you know being unprepared for an exam and i've never met someone who's a slacker who's had that kind of dream it's usually people who are very perfectionist and very successful most successful people politicians in particular that i i've worked with have that kind of dream and it's usually the mark of a perfectionist of someone who, you know, it's very, it's, it's, it's a typical dream that successful people had. And that's why they're successful because they drive themselves so hard and they do want to do their best. So it's not, actually, it's quite a good sign. But I think it's a positive dream because you are in the mix, as I say, in that dream. You're on the stage already. So you're dreaming mind saying, just, just go with the flow. Enjoy the show. Enjoy the show. It doesn't matter if you mess up. People like. you because they put you on stage. Wow, that's cool. I like that one. Thank you for that.

And what does it mean when you can? Because some people or most people I feel like I talk to you cannot control their dreams where I can be like, ooh, I'm dreaming right now. I'm going to go do something really cool. Or one time I was in a grocery store and I said, how are all these things labeled? Like, how does my brain know that all these things are labeled and have names in every aisle? And so I'd go up to each thing and read the ingredients. And like, I'll realize I'm dreaming and go do whatever I want. Well, basically we're talking about a category of dreaming, which is astonishing. And I'm actually, my next book next year is all about this. It's about lucid dreams. It's adding another book to the mix. It is. Gosh. Yes, another one. I can't stop.

I really do. That's amazing. It's called How to Catch a Dream. And it's about basically, you know, most of us, at least at one point in our life, would have had an experience when we are aware we're dreaming when are dreaming and it's extraordinary exciting when that happens again to return to inception that movie was all about lucid dreaming and it triggered a massive interest in it but it's an ability we all have we you know most have had it as children but over time we've forgotten how to do it and I would encourage more and more people to learn how to do it because when you're lucid in a dream your brain doesn't actually know the difference between when you're awake and when you're asleep you can role play you can be or do anything you can learn things in in a lucid dream

it it's incredibly empowering and a huge confidence boost you know literally if you can dream it you can do it so it's the holy gray of dreaming basically it's it's it's highly i mean that's to me i'm like okay i'm at the holy grail and then the next day night i dream and i'm literally angry jealous fighting people like full of rage and I'm like my brain like just goes from one thing to the next very easily that's great don't ever that's nothing to wrong with that that that's a highly creative brain you know that's that's what that make your brain making connections and all these emotions in your dreams are fantastic because you're cathartically releasing them and dealing with them in this safety remember in your theater of your dreams it's safe yeah it's

safe to get rid of these phoenix in waking life sometimes we haven't got time to to deal with our anger or unresolved issues because life moves on but there are probably things from your past that you need to deal with but your dreaming mind is quietly at night helping you do that so go oh i'm dealing with it in my dreams i am like literally punching my boyfriend from high school in the face and like it's wild cathartic it's highly cathartic and very healing and it's something that you need to do to move on to the next phase to let it go and evolve to the next phase of your personal growth and development that's why we're here on this planet is to evolve to constantly learn and grow and dreams help us do that and what holds us back is these negative

emotions and traumas from the past that's the biggest blocker for our evolution is the negative thought patterns and negative things that have happened to us and we haven't fully dealt with them we've shoved them under the carpet because we're so life is so busy now that people are constantly having to you know there's no time to really fully understand themselves but dreams help us understand ourselves better you know because if you haven't got self-knowledge you haven't got wisdom but how do I stop of being so angry in my dreams because I'm like okay I should be moving on from the next like my high school sweetheart really like broke my trust in my heart and like it was awful but that was how many years ago I'm 36

six years old. I shouldn't be still punching him in the face of my dreams. Dreams happen when you are growing up, you know, it's very formative time. It imprints on your brain. The thing is, you know, that's when you get older, things sort of brush off you a bit more. But that's why childhood, if you get negative, you know, parents and careers are very negative to children, why it can be so hard to break what's been said. And of course, that really, you're a formative time, right? And maybe at the time you didn't have enough time to talk it through with him or others. You're encouraged to put, you know, we are often our, you know, brave face on it. That's the worst thing to say sometimes, no, we need to deal with these emotions. We need to

understand them. So you're going to take you back to that over and over again because it needs to be worked through. It needs to be healed. And it will do over time. It will do. Your dreams will help you do that and every morning you wake up after a dream filled with rage and start contemplating it that's part of the process and that is part of the healing process that's good to know because i thought maybe i just had some anger issues that i wasn't dealing with but it is like when you say that we are here to evolve and grow and learn i believe that so much and the older i get the more i am I realize the importance of like getting to know yourself and like dissecting everything that you think and feel and dream. And I just think like it's one of the most important things we can do in our life is get to know ourselves better and what we want like our legacy to be and who we are as people. And like so many people get lost in the busyness of life and sweeping things under the rug. And I'm such a feeler. Like no one feels their feelings quite like me. And I feel like dreaming is such a big part of that for me because so many of my. my emotions that I maybe can't feel when I'm busy through the day just come on full force in my

dreams. Oh, that's beautiful. And I wish I'd had your wisdom at your age. It's only in the last few years that I've really fully got it, you know, self-knowledge. So many of us just don't know who we truly are. You know, we're trying to chase expectations of others all the time and all society or whatever. And self-knowledge, you know, as Aristotle says, it's the beginning of wisdom, all wisdom and really understanding who you are and along with that what truly matters and that's why I think we had the lockdown dream phenomenon during the pandemic when everybody was dreaming it was because our dreaming mind was trying to get us to focus on what truly mattered and I think a lot of us saw beyond the material yeah 1,000 percent and now I'm like wait I want things

to slow back down again because now it feels like it's just like jumping back into like the craziness. I'm finding it hard. I actually thrived during the lockdown. It was a time to sort of off that treadmill and really think and focus on the quality of life. And I love the fact that Disney produced a movie, which it's almost like every single one of my books was in there. Soul. Oh, I, so I've watched it already like five times and I watched it fall asleep. I love that movie. Absolutely. And he, because he thinks he wants his mission on a, earth is to be a musician and he gets what he wants and he goes I don't feel how I thought I'd feel at the end of the day it's the taste of a pizza a feather floating the companions yeah the cat

it's just and I people now say to me you know when I'm doing intervals just go and watch soul that's really what I write about yeah my do yourself a favor yeah you know and it doesn't surprise me because I actually spoke to the co-founder of Pixar, Lauren Carpenter, who's double Oscar winner and Science Director of Disney. And he's now a scientist researching consciousness. He's a physicist, and I interviewed him two years ago because I was working with a team of scientists that he was a part of. And it doesn't surprise me at all when Disney's going down this really spiritual route.

And it came to right. It's almost like they sensed with the pandemic we needed that beautiful movie. that's the thing people are craving that kind of of show and things to watch which i love i think people are going more down a spiritual path than than ever before which i'm completely down for and i really wanted to get to this one dream because it's my producer who's on here right now and it's i like bug her i'm like it's messed up okay and we're just like she's she's dying right now okay so she used to have this reoccurring dream it hasn't happened for years and years, but she used to have it nonstop about 15 years ago from age 10 to 25. So that's 15 years of

this dream where she was in a, she was in a really long industrial style kitchen that had nothing in it but silver countertops and clean shelves, almost as if the entire kitchen had just been completely cleaned and sanitized, except it had one small stove top at the far end of the long island where a very peculiar man was wearing dress pants, shoes, and a turtleneck with a ponytail. He was frying something. And as soon as she gets closer to see, another man that looks similar to him walks into the kitchen, bites off the other man's cheekbone, and spits it into the pan, and fries it. Okay. Very specific. I need several hours to, unpack the psychological depth of this dream but it's fantastic and it's recurring so it's clearly

something very important for her it's very graphic but she's like terrifying for 15 years to be dreaming that well it's interesting because also that period from 10 to whenever she's been dreaming it is when dreams tend to focus more on on life choices and everything but let's unpack it she's in a kitchen homes in dreams are the self Young, the father of dream interpretation, called Dream Homes, the Mansion of the Soul. Now, the kitchen is emotional nourishment, because food in dreams is what we take in. Now, in that kitchen is a man wearing a dress with a ponytail, if I'm correct. Dress pants, shoes, and a ponytail.

And a ponytail. So are they in a dress or is it? No, just dress pants. Just dress. Well, the ponytail suggests to me childhood and inner. and also controlling, because hair is vitality and strength. So it's something sort of very tightly controlled. Now, sorry, the man, because it's quite a long dream, the man is frying something.

Yeah, he's in the kitchen, frying something. And when she gets closer to him, another, oh, the frying pan's empty. And the other man comes in, he bites off his cheekbone, spits it in the pan and starts frying that. Well, that, I mean, the cheekbone, the face is intimacy. and aggression and also the two men in the dream represent the masculine aspects of this lovely lady and how she's regarding them that maybe struggles with being assertive

or feeling comfortable being assertive because there's violence and pain in this dream with the masculine archetype. It's all about the masculine archetype being controlled um and feeling that you know that it's that she should she be assertive shouldn't she not it's damaging her but the kitchen is the heart of the home right this is a is a dream about emotional intimacy as never before and it's to do with the masculine because we all have masculine and feminine within her and it's trying to to get a handle on that

with her masculine, maybe her desire to be assertive, maybe she feels that she shouldn't, if she does, that it's going to damage her. Yes, she feels like she could be too assertive. Yeah, yeah, that it's damaging to her. So the dreaming mind wants maybe to her to bring in more softness to these masculine qualities. and less harm because look at it the men are cooking emotional substance but it's damaging it shouldn't be it should be a lovely dish they're preparing i'd like that dream to evolve into these two guys which is the masculine within her preparing a lovely dessert without violence so it's that's so interesting because because she is one of our friends and in our friend group she's the only one of

of a lot of girls who doesn't have sisters and she is like the like yes yes that's that that makes perfect perfect sense but yeah but the but being too assertive or whatever and too feeling that she's got to compensate you know just to maybe sort of bring in some more of the feminine the nurturing qualities and and um that will be a kinder dream it's it's and that's interesting because she hasn't had it lately, and that's since she's had two kids. Uh-huh, exactly. I hope that dream will go, that she is kind of softening a bit and not feeling that she's got to, you know, sort of like, you know, tap into the, it's the male archetypes in there

that she needs to understand that, you know, the ponytail is so interesting, though, because ponytail's innocence and childhood, but as I said, it's also restraining something that should be wild. I mean, hair is a symbol of strength and vitality, and it's all pulled back. So it's like, I think she's had to have a tight lid on her emotions because that's what I get the sense of. And maybe that has tipped over to overcompensating with being a little bit too aggressive.

Right. Wow. We, okay, she's, she, I don't know if you can read her messages that she's just saying, oh my God, thank you, thank you. bless us because that that probably resonates and make someone say this is why I need that book the dream so I could because I would have never known that that a ponytail meant this or that this means masculine energy like it's so interesting it's a masculine energy within her it's not right these are her well masculine traditional masculine attributes you know I don't because other people

in your dreams are representing that side of you like you said right yeah the hall of mirrors you're stepping into hall of mirrors these are mass mass. masculine qualities within her, right? She's, you know, that have got a bit of a bit out of hand because there's damage going on. One of them is injuring, biting, is very aggressive. Yeah. It's an attack.

So she needs to go back to that kitchen and have a bit more, more harmony. And emotions are not to be feared. But, you know, that's, it's because, you know, the kitchen is, is emotional nourishment. Emotions are not to be feared. Yeah, that's... And not to be... Put a barrier around her.

Protective barrier. Yeah. He doesn't need it anymore. Stop biting cheeks and make a bake a cake, Minnie. Jeez. Also, clothes are protective barrier because you mentioned the clothes. That's another sign of protective barrier.

You know, the, you're paying attention to the clothes. This is all, you know, protecting, protective barrier. Yeah, because people always have that dream, too, that they're naked in front of a crowd or that their teeth are falling out. Those are like, I feel like very much dreams that a lot of people have that seem to be the most common ones. Especially with the, you know, because I was writing pre-social media that these have increased teeth falling out especially, which is all about appearance. Oh. You know, of course it is, you know, because it doesn't look very attractive. When your teeth fall out, it's all concerned about appearance.

but the dream is also in its beautiful way saying, look, when babies lose their teeth, it's a sign they're growing up. So it's encouraging you to grow up a bit and to go from one phase of life to another with grace. There could be fear of aging as well, all these things. Oh, yeah. I've got that. Social media age when we're all like movie stars,

you know, everybody is doing it now. Teeth falling out dreams have dramatically increased to my inbox. Oh, yeah. I bet. And I was, so within our team, my assistant and my podcast team, we were all saying about this recurring dream and we're like, wait, I have that dream too. Wait, I do too. Wait, I do too. We all had the same dream that a tsunami wave is coming in and we're either on a beach in a glass house or in a tall building and a tsunami wave comes and it's coming for us, this just huge life ending tsunami

waves. Well, that's classic because water, anytime water appears in a dream, dream, it's emotion. So a tsunami suggests tidal waves of emotion. What you need to have is dreams where you're swimming and you've got your head above water, not drowning and not being beaten about it's, it's emotion. So that would make sense that that's like a more emotion. And what your dreaming mind would love you to do is to return to that dream and actually swim in the in the emotion because emotion is what makes life worth living. You've got to swim in it with joy, not let it just hit you and drown you and suffocate you. So pay attention.

I love that. Whenever, you know, drowning dreams are very, very common. And typically when they happen, people are feeling overwhelmed with emotions during the pandemic, drowning dreams increased dramatically. As did dying dreams, people dreaming of death of loved ones. Yeah. That's just death is an end, but it's also a beginning. It's just saying things are changing.

Death is actually meaning changing the dream. It doesn't mean death, literally. Right. yeah i often i actually often have dreams i'm pregnant as well which new beginnings new beginnings okay i do have those all the time having super sometimes it can actually be a sign that you are but what's crazy is i've had so many of my friends dream that i'm pregnant too but but i'm not not yet anyways it's new what they mean it's what a baby is you think of it's a new start it's new beginnings new life that's what it means a new beginning something exciting and

something new, full of potential. And if your friends are dreaming that about you, that's beautiful. You appearing in other people's dreams, it's fascinating because it shows that you represent something very powerful to them. Because remember, they're dreaming about themselves. So something about you has touched the soul. Isn't that beautiful? That really is.

I get a lot of DM saying that I was in their dream the night before, and I'm always like, crazy. That's beautiful. Now I know why. That's beautiful. Not crazy. It's beautiful. Imprinted their soul.

And an interesting one is that, you know, I asked some of my listeners what their reoccurring dream was. And a lot of people like, oh, me too, me too. Same thing. Because I'm sure it does have all to do with like similar emotions of overwhelmingness, insecurities, all those kinds of things. Because, and this happens to me too, where you're in a dream where you're trying to hit or get somebody off of you and you can't calling 911. You can't. In a lot of my dreams, I am like eight feet tall. and I'm trying to walk in heels, but my legs buckle and I can't walk.

What does that mean? Obstacles, feeling, again, that something's holding you back, something's blocking you. It's obstacles, isn't it? It's very, very simple. It's feeling like there's so much to do, you know. And you can't do it. And you can't do it. So maybe your dreaming mind would like you to just take one baby step at a time

and not try to tackle everything altogether. It is a sign of overwhelm. When you have dreams of being buried alive or wading through mud, these kind of dreams or phones not working, it's a sign of a bit of overwhelm and that there's so many creative strands going on in waking life that maybe to focus on the one rather than everything. Otherwise, it's going to get on top of you. That's what that dream is trying to show you.

Yeah, that's, I feel like screaming and a scream won't come out. That's, yeah, same. Yeah, yeah. But scary dreams are the biggest gift because the scarier the dream, the more likely you're to recall it when you wake up. And all your dreaming mind wants is attention. It just wants you to notice it.

Just acknowledge your brain and what it's thinking. It sounds simple, but when you break down all the science of dreams, like it's such a intricate world, the dream world. And where can people go to find your books? Are they all? Because you're more on Facebook, right, than Instagram or you're like? Yes, I am. Yes, Facebook mainly, Trees of Chummel.

author and Instagram, but I'm also got a website, www.tresachung.com. As I said, I'm first and foremost an author and a researcher and a speaker about dreams. I speak to companies and clients about their dreams all the time. That's mainly what I do. And it's only since the pandemic, actually, that people have, you know, asked me to talk more about it. And I am so blessed that there's such interest in our souls. Because that's what I think we meet our souls in our dreams. And the part of us that I believe is eternal. Wow. It really is beautiful when you think about it.

And I do, and I'm sure you do encourage everyone that's listening to pay more attention and write down what their dreams are and try and find the deeper meaning to just get to know yourself better and your soul and who you are. Yeah. Get to know yourself. Self, self, the beginning of wisdom. You know yourself. Everything else will fall into place. Love yourself as well.

That's the journey of a lifetime too. A lot of problems. not only lack of self-knowledge, but lack of self-love. And that takes a lifetime to really, really fully think, I'm enough. I'm, and what's external is great, and I learn from it, but it doesn't define me. And that takes a long time, but your dreams are there. You know, we all want in our life someone who's loyal, who's loving, who tells us the truth. That's our dreams.

Someone's got our back. And that's us deep down at the end of the day. that's us and that's all we can ask for. Oh, that's really beautiful. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and wisdom and your really incredible words and everything you said. Even just listening to talk, it's very comforting. Oh, thank you. Thank you. It really is. He's fallen. And yes. What do you call him again? Your soul dog. Arnie, the soul dog. I love it. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. And I'm sure you have really opened up people's minds. and hearts to their dreams.

So you're just lovely, and I appreciate you. And thank you again for coming on. Well, thank you, Caitlin. And keep having those wonderful dreams. I will. Thank you. Have a good day. Oh, good night.

Good night. You have a good night. Take care. Bye. Thank you for listening. I'm Caitlin Bristow. I hope you all have sweet, sweet dreams or nightmares and remember them. Just write them down.

And I'll see you next Tuesday. Thanks for listening to Off The Vine with Caitlin Bristow. Get new episodes every Tuesday exclusively on podcast.com, the Podcast One app, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts.