Another reason to write down your dreams

It happens to me in big and small ways: I dream about an acquaintance I haven’t thought of, let alone seen, in months or years, and the next day I bump into him at the grocery store. Or, I dream I see a little girl carrying a metal bowl shaped like a kidney bean, and then next day I see a child of the same age balancing just such a bowl in her hands. Sometimes it’s a dream of a place I’ve never seen, but then stumble upon, or of a stranger who tells me something, that days or weeks later I hear someone else tell me in waking life.

This isn’t as “out there” as it may at first seem. As someone who works with dreams professionally, I find myself talking about dreams with people from all walks of life, including accountants, engineers, carpenters, doctors, and more—and even those who say they don’t believe in things they can’t put their hands on will often admit that there was this one time that they had such an inexplicable experience. It’s probably happened to you, too: Something from a dream pops up in waking life, and you feel a little jolt of recognition.

So, why not be prepared? Keeping a dream journal is one way to track the magic in your dreams.

Exhibit A: The Dream Report

The written dream report helps us document extraordinary dream events such as precognition (knowing something before it happens), synchronicity, and mutual dream experiences with others (two or more people have the same dream or dream elements on the same night), by providing a dated, and written record of what we dream.

So, go ahead and write those dreams down. And when you do, follow these guidelines:

• Always write the date at the top of the page.
• Give your dreams a title, and make a sketch or drawing when words just won’t do. Titles and sketches also help you locate dreams more easily when you’re trying to find the one that proves your point.
• Keeping your dream journal electronically (on your laptop or tablet, etc.) has pluses and minuses. But when it comes to finding a particular dream, the search capabilities can’t be beat.
• When you do have an instance of precognition, clairvoyance, or any extraordinary dream experience, mark it in your dream journal. I make notations in the margin, or you can keep a running index at the back of the journal noting the date, dream title, and nature of the event.
• And most of all, have fun doing it. There may well be ordinary explanations for what we dreamers call extraordinary, from selective perception to the law of chance. But either way, being on the lookout for patterns, meaning, and magic, tends to lead to a life filled with beautiful patterns, meaning, and magic—so why not!