Some dreams are straightforward and you understand their meaning right away - it was simply a dream about some event or person. However, if you awake puzzled, intrigued, pondering what could have been an odd dream, and perhaps there were certain key images, objects, places, animals etc. that seemed to play a key role or theme in the dream, then your dream could be a 'parabolic' dream.

A parable is simply a story that has some meaning and the best examples are numerous ones in the Bible where Jesus was an expert at using stories (parables) to make points.

So is there something in your dream that can't be taken at face value and is not readily apparent to you? Did that symbol reappear in the same dream or successive dreams? If so, particularly where symbols are involved, then this may be the sign that your dream was symbolic and may involve what we refer to in our research as Christian dream symbols.

To understand Christian dream symbols and better understand the dream itself, we first need to start at the beginning - what is a dream?

Dreams can be defined as a single image, series of sequential images, entire scenarios (i.e., a play) occurring involuntarily during sleep. But dreams are actually one of the least understood human phenomena despite all of the recent research on the topic of dreams. We know the brain and body need to rest and thus sleep occurs, but our brains are still very active, particularly during REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. We typically have what we would call dreams anywhere from three to six times per night, although hardly any of us recall even a single dream consistently every night. But we know this occurs through observing brain waves and eye movements during REM sleep patterns. REM sleep only accounts for about 25% of a total night's sleep but this is where we have the most vivid dreams, and these occur most frequently a few hours before dawn.