Looking for meaning

Ok, so I'm a newb, here's my story:

I've been lucid dreaming since I first heard about it when I was a teenager (I'm a ripe 29 right now). I remember my first (lucid) dreams being like training sessions. FIrst I could jump very very high, then I could fly. I've been able to stop bullets, kung fu fight hordes of baddies, and ride my motorcycle faster than everyone else.

My triggers are generally helpless situations. Say if I am wrecking my motorcycle in a dream, I realize I am dreaming, and I can save it. If I am cornered in a house WAY out in the desert by a villian with a gun, I realize I am dreaming, and deflect his bullets. So yeah, I guess my triggers would be 'the Impossible', or 'helplessness'.

Well, a few nights ago I had a dream that has been bugging me. I was lucid, and I 'developed some new powers' so to speak. I turned invisible. It was great actually. In the dream I tricked all my friends into playing hide and seek with me. Anytime they'd come into the room I was in, *poof* I'd just go invisible. I was having so much fun, I started taunting them with it. Well, they got mad and left. So I was in this room in the same house, talking to this mouse (think Stuart Little). I said to the mouse, "Watch this!" and two things happened. The one was normal, I was levitating. I rank that up there with flying or jumping. But as I was levitating, I could emit light particles from my hands, and I made myself a 'cape' of these light particles too!

Its the most power that I've had in a dream. I have no idea what it means. Any ideas? Any ideas where to find lucid dream symbolism on the 'net? Any ideas why I would have this dream with 'no trigger'?

Oooo... one more thing, the dream did turn nightmare at the end, but I woke up instead of kicking a$$ and taking names. There were people being tortured and I was helpless to stop it. Usually thats a trigger, but like I said I woke up. So it was kind of reversed...

Where can I find some meaning?

If you were to ask me, I'd say that there is no book that can tell you what your dreams mean. Too often I think people record successes rather than failures (like if you dream of fish and then get pregnant, they say that fish means pregnancy or fertility). What they don't write down are all the times you dreamt of fish and had nothing happen.

If there is any significance to your dreams, I think they can only be translated by you. Consider your emotions during the dream, or the lasting impact it had on your daily life. Did it bring up any real life issues?

I think that your growing power may just be a higher level of skill you're starting to reach. I still have a little trouble with flying. I also find it hard to go through walls sometimes. As for your helplessness during your nightmare, ask yourself if it has any bearing on real life. Because to me, those are the only dreams that have "significance."

Having powers in dreams is fantastic excitement-wise, or, at least for me. :D
I've had dreams where I could form a ball of blue ice in my hand, and shoot lightning, and somehow get the ground to open up and almost drown whoever my opponent is meant to be... Oddly enough, though, I haven't found that I can control my own element - Air. *shrug*
Unfortunately these dreams and powers have been one-offs so far :(

Anyway, to answer:
I've found the same as zwishenzug - there isn't really anywhere that you can find true dream meanings... they're all sort of... one sided.
There are websites and books, but I'm skeptical of what they say.

Air is my favorite element to control. I control the weather in my dreams by invoking the "feel" of the elemental.

I went through the same kind of thing you did, the training sessions, and I agree with zwishenzug, they are a way for us to develop our abilities on that side as well as a method of growth for our spirits. Light is a very powerful energy to control its uses are innumerable. The druids of old taught about light shields, depending on the color and intensity it could be used for many things, even aligning yourself with a plant or animal so that you could speak to it, I use mine to ward of nasty energies along with protecting my or healing my friends.

There is a catch 22 when using light energy though

You stand out.

The brighter the light in a room the sharper and darker shadows will be, light seems to be my calling so I use it but in turn I have had to deal with those not so fun shadows so to speak, and it seems that you in discovering the same energy drew some attention to yourself as well, (your nightmare end).

Don't let it bother you though, another thing the druids taught was that in order for one to grow you must be presented with change or conflict, if you just sit on your duff stagnating you will not grow. But if you have adversaries so to speak or changing situations you must adapt to, you will grow and shine more brightly, so I say go for it :D

Oh as for dream interpretation don’t waste your money on those books like the others said only you can interpret them, others that are personally close to you may have insight if they are into this kinda stuff... But take Freud for instance, he had some serious issues, that man needed to get laid something fierce... everything from one of Freud's dream interpretations had something to do with sex or sexuality or getting a boner. :mrgreen:

This will probably do little to answer animator's original question... my own experience searching for meaning among the scientific studies and the accounts of "dream experts," has resulted in no true answers. I tend to take a perspective that dream lucidity often delves into spiritual truth as it appears some others do also -but maybe that's a whole 'nother thread...

Most of my dreams also entail me learning or attaining "superhuman" or supernatural abilities such as emitting light, flying, ability to go through walls, etc. What do these things mean, or how do I translate them into a practical understanding for the "real" world? I don't know for sure. But I do believe, that every aspect of every dream has meaning on various levels, most of which I have yet to learn. I think of it as a challenge to incorporate what I'm learning in dreams into wisdom (which some equate with delusion) for every day life, but I can't shake the inclination that there is preparation for other things such as life after death... Anyways, I will say that these dreams have led me overwhelmingly towards a desire to know God and to seek Truth rather than to turn to science (which, though helpful for managing temporary mundane things, does little to nothing for my soul or my spirit)