As far as I know, we dream of things that are on top of our minds during the day. Sometimes we remember our dreams.
They are an abstract accumilation of the days thoughts compessed into a small little folder in our minds.
They are not neccessarily true in how they are played out, only true in that the things dreamed about were on top of our minds recently.
If you give thought to the dream you will see that many of the individual details were on your mind, and all the dream did was to bring them all together.
Enjoy them and forget about them.
Its uncanny how some seem to come true though. I guess hidden goals get thrown into dreams at times too.

Well, thats my take on dreams. ~zoot.

my ex has bad dreams too. he told me of a dream he had the other night. he woke up crying and concerned for me. he has done the same thing to me. coming over to the house just to see me after a nightmare he had.
i think to dream of someone's death implies that he is losing that person and it is sad and scares him.

my dreams are always very very vivid...big, loud, full of color and noise. years ago, when i had a bad dream about my ex-husb, i would call him & sure enough, something crappy would have happened to him. after i got over him, i stopped really dreaming about him. now i find that i'm not so much dreaming about my ex-finance' (the one that brought me to ds) but i dream of monsters alot. i mean, like i was 5 kinda monsters. earlier this week i dreamed i was trying to get to the ex, screaming his name. last nite, i dreamed i was being chased by a giant metal monster that wanted to rip me to shreds. i tried to hide but there was nothing around to hide in or under. it was very bizarre. i do wonder what it means. and i don't think you are thinking too much into it. i think alot of times we discount the meanings behind our dreams too much. now, i don't exactly know what the meaning is behind a giant red & black metal monster chasing me means...but, damn it's got to mean something, right?

I think some dreams are inspired by what you're worrying about and things that happened and you can normally trace their source back to a TV show you saw that day or something. They may still help put together pieces you couldn't do consciously. I've had a few dreams during this divorce, especially, and at other key times in life that I can't explain. I guess I'll sound hokey, but I do think sometimes God speaks to us about what to do through dreams. In the 'dreaming the spouse I'm divorcing died" case, though, I think it's about people thinking about the end of their marriage, 'losing' the other person, dealing with repressed anger, etc.

I once had a dream my X made me crawl on all fours with a leash aroung my neck at his families thankgiving dinner-My daughter told me she dreamt he killed me because he hated me so much and wanted to be free of me but still wanted to play the great guy routine-That is when I knew I had to leave-his personality is alot like Scott peterson.I think we sometimes dream certain truth and fears we can't face in reality.

Last year at about this time I had a really strange dream. Someone kept opening all of the windows in our house and I kept arguing that it is too cold to have the windows open. But they just kept opening them. That morning I told my stbx about it and he just kind of rolled his eyes. I left for school, and he stayed home. No work that day. He went into the basement to sart some laundry and thought he could smell something like a gas. So he called the gas company and the did a carbon monoxide test and we had extremely high levels. The guy said another day, we all would have been dead. So I look at that dream as it was warning me. By the way, there was a dead bird in the furnace that came down through the chimney.

Here, the unsexy version:

During REM sleep neurons throughout your cortex are activated, most scientists believe as a by product of repair processes. These 'neural residue' take the shape of thoughts, visions, stories, as neurons interact with highly accessible salient content that is affecting the life of the sleepy person. Do they mean anything? It depends who you ask. Most neuroscientists will say NO. There is no interpretation to them. It is just pure crazy thoughts you have while sleep that make no sense and do not have any applicable meaning to real life.

Now, if you as modern psychoanalysts, then may tell you that the meaning is what you give to them. By themselves they have no value or no objective meaning, but to you, it may mean something.

And finally if you ask traditional analysts, then they would believe that there is an objective and clear meaning in every dream.

sorry this was probably the most boring and uninspired reply ever!

newinpitt, you gave me the unsexy version.....so what is the sexy version??? :)

Kab7... sexy version:

I once had a dream of a monkey riding a hippo wearing a cowboy hat and trying to shoot pink flamingos with a paint-ball gun. I woke up just before the sexy part was going to get started.

And to think I am getting paid right now.

first, i wanted to say that i think that was his lame attempt to be near you...but if he really did have a dream about you dying....here's a point of view:

Dreaming about Death

To dream about the death of a loved one, suggests that you are lacking a certain aspect or quality that the loved one embodies. Ask yourself what makes this person special or what do you like about him. It is that very quality that you are lacking in your own relationship or circumstances. Alternatively, it indicates that whatever that person represents has no part in your own life.

To dream of your own death, indicates a transitional phase in your life. You are becoming more enlightened or spiritual. Alternatively, you are trying desperately to escape the demands of your daily life.

******
isn't that a telling point of view?!!

i definately believe we work out our lives in our dreams!! we may not always understand them, but alot of times they get us to think...i believe it depends on each individual and how we chose to use our dreams in our current situation.

Dreams are simply your "conscious" (yes, I say conscious for a reason) mind or higher self giving a message. This message is given during dreamtime I believe for many reason...one of which i would like to think..that it is not altered by others thoughts, feelings, the environment etc. which explains why so many seem so bizarre. If you often have prophetic dreams that actually "come true" then you are intune with your higher self. dreams are usually symbolic in nature but are not all that difficult to decipher if you are true to yourself and can honestly see what is happening and what you are feeling in your "awake" time. I'm going to get off my soap box right there ..difficult to explain but I do know there is another DS member here who would tend to agree... :)