When is a dream just a dream?

[FaeFollower]

:) I think the title pretty much makes it clear what I'm asking...How do you know if a dream actually means something, or if it was just a fluke? I had a really strange dream two nights ago, which would not be at all weird, since I have bizarre dreams a lot, but it was two days ago and its still not fading from my memory (which is weird for me), and, it still makes sense, even though my dreams almost never make sense once I've been awake for more than a few minutes (I'm not sure if that's true for everyone, I think it probably is). Sooo...how do I know whether I should be exploring it further? I've never really paid much attention to my dreams before.

Um...should this be in new pagans? I wasn't sure so I posted it here, but please someone move me if it should be elsewhere. :)

[DebLipp]

In my experience, dreams can be from the subconscious (psychological) or the superconscious (psychic) or a combination of both. Some are meaningful and many are not.

If a dream seems significant (yours is hanging around, so that seems significant to me), and if it doesn't seem to tell you anything specific about the future, then assume it is psychological and begin exploring the imagery. Start with the images that seem most important, the ones that you remember most strongly.

[Calzaer]

A dream is never "just a dream"; they all serve a purpose of some sort. Even if that purpose is just to take out the emotional garbage.

[Loreley]

In my opinion, *all* dreams are just dreams.
It is your choice whether to assign extra meaning to them or not based on:
1. The content of the dream
2. What's going on in your life at the moment
3. Your personality
4. Questions that you may have, and so on

When a dream is significant, you "know" it. You know because that dream would relate to something that's important or meaningful to you personally.

Or it might make you especially happy, or scare you, or sadden yo, or raise any other strong emotions. So you would ask yourself why. You would have to explore, and see how that dream relates to something important, figure out the riddle.

[FaeFollower]

Thanks so much! I wonder if anyone could direct me to a thread/website which explains some dream interpretations...? :) Or, maybe you can just help me right here. (Long, dull narration ahead.) Sorry, I didn't know this was so long...

Okay, my dream was of this woman who was married to a man, happily, and she had a really close friend (The friend was dressed all in white, but other than that, I couldn't see any features) and the friend was kind of...stalking the husband, I think. I think the husband might also have been having an affair with the friend, but the friend, somehow, didn't know that the person he was married to was her friend...(Confusing?) So then, it's night time, and the husband and wife are standing outside a big black wrought-iron gate, when the friend drives up in a black car (it sort of looked like a hertz) and she's crying. She gets out of the car and points a gun at the man, and she says...something...I don't remember what. Then she shoots the man and turns the gun on herself. She shoots herself in her heart and there is this big red stain on her white gown. Then it turns sunny, and she sort of...floats, up to heaven...It ended right before I woke up with this man's voice saying, "And so the heavens opened up to her, much to the dismay of Pam." I woke up knowing Pam was the man's wife. It's been three days, and I can still remember all that. It's really strange for my dreams to have a 'plot' like that. Any ideas? :)