The first part of the dream, I was not looking from my eye-view, but as though I was looking at a movie of myself. I was standing outside the gate outside my house and climbing into a van I'd hired to travel somewhere. It was raining heavily, I could -feel- the rain on me, and -feeling- is something I usually only experience in Lucid dreams - but I was not lucid in this dream. Ordinary day, no particular emotions at this point.

The van was moving. I was now no longer looking at myself like I was in a movie, but from my eye-view, like one does in real life. The driver was a slightly balding man with a moustache, totally unfamiliar when I think about it now, just a random hired van driver. The rain grew less heavy. The van swerved close to some rocks, that were on the edge of a canal- a familiar one, the one in the lane that leads to my school in real life. I remember feeling as the van approached the edge of the canal (like I usually feel when the school bus nears the canal in real life- not out of fear, but more out of a wild imagination-) how insane it would be if the van slipped and toppled over into the canal.

The van's front tyres knock onto some large rocks on the edge, and the van is catapulted into the air towards the canal water for a few seconds that seem like in slow-motion. At this time in the dream, my hand is on my chest and I feel as though my heart is going to just pop out of my mouth, and I'm thinking 'Oh fuck! I'm going to die!?' I didn't scream, completely speechless. My mouth was slightly open and I was almost thrown off my seat; I saw the driver's arms in front flail off the wheel and his head move forward from the sudden jolt. All in slow motion. I felt total shock, total fear, and this is I think one dream of mine that felt most real than any other I've had.

But instead of the van falling into the canal, it is stopped by some more jagged rocks. Total flood of relief, as though my circulation had only then just been rebooted. No signs of damage to the van from the inside. I felt no physical pain, since nothing had actually happened to the van, except it becoming airborne. I saw the driver in front lie unconcious with his head and arms on the steering wheel. I slide open the door of the van and step out. Still scared shitless.

The place turned into a beach-like area, an unfamiliar one, and the rocks that the van lay on were rocks on the edge of a small cliff over the ocean, currents crashing onto them now. I step onto beach-sand, and I see my mother and my cousin (and few other people I felt familiar with in the dream, but I don't remember now) walking towards me. And I was telling them something like 'the van was just airborne, I was almost killed..' and my mum told me something like 'oh. come in and eat something, lunch is ready...' as though I'd just told her 'oh look the sky is blue' or something.

The end.
So, what was that supposed to mean? One of my most real dreams, had no idea whatsoever it was a dream, felt panicky and still had that heart-in-my-throat feeling when I woke up, all the way until after I'd brushed my teeth and changed and had breakfast. Like I'd just actually escaped death by a few inches.
Nothing much to tell about myself. I'm a student in high school, have been able to lucid dream since about 7 years ago. I do like the beach, and have a sort of morbid fascination sometimes with disaster, like I mentioned how I wonder what would happen if my school bus toppled over into the canal in real life. But nothing too psychotic, just a very curious imagination. Very open minded, and would love to hear interpretations of this dream please?

Also, I was wondering- what is Dream Interpretation really based on? Where do you learn it? And how reliable is it? -could an interpretor be totally off the mark in his interpretations or are their very often general meanings for certain images in a dream?