Interpretation: In a dream, school is a place where one works out situations with a feeling of familiarity or a place where the situation can be controlled. For teens it’s the backdrop for many social issues.

Interpretation: You are being controlled by circumstances or another's will.

Interpretation: To see chains in your dream, signifies your need to break free from a routine, old idea, or a relationship. If you are being chained, or you hear clanking chains, then some part of you is being forcefully controlled or held in check. However, if you dream of unattached chains, whether on you or someone else, you will soon be free of all your worries.

Interpretation: To dream that you are playing a computer game, represents your ability to manipulate others into doing what you want them to do. Sometimes this dream also is suggesting that you are trying to escape from problems in your real life. If you dream of being a character inside a video game, it means you are feeling controlled by others.

Interpretation: A dream about a parade float suggests that you are being distracted from achieving your goals. You need to take control of your destiny, and stop being controlled by fear of failure. Time is passing.

Interpretation: Dreams about the ground and soil represent having a solid foundation for life, in terms of your own inner strength, and your support system of friends and family. A dream that strongly features the ground tells you that you need to approach your goals with practicality, but also let your instincts help guide you. If you dreamed of lying on the ground, you are being warned against getting drawn into activities you can't afford, or that will harm your reputation. Sometimes, a dream about the ground can refer to being grounded. Perhaps you are feeling restricted by your parents, or controlled by other authority figures in some aspect of your life. Also see "Digging."

Interpretation: To dream of turning on a lamp foretells an unexpected reward for a past kindness. To turn out a lamp suggests that you will have a holiday or a well earned rest. A dream of red lamps is a warning of danger due to uncontrolled passion or temper. An unlit lamp indicates a disappointment, while a dim or flickering lamp forecasts news of an illness. To hang a guide lamp outdoors or in a window foretells a stroke of good luck. To break a lamp portends difficulties through lack of trust. Many bright or decorative lamps are a sign of coming festive occasions. Also see "Lava Lamp."

Interpretation: A dream featuring very bright light means you will solve a problem by learning to look at it in a new way. It is a sign that you should trust your instincts. To dream of turning on lights foretells an unexpected reward for a past kindness. To turn out lights suggests that you will have a holiday or a well earned rest. A dream of red lamps is a warning of danger due to uncontrolled passion or temper. To dream of flickering or flashing lights suggests that something is preventing you from solving a current relationship or family problem - it could be your own emotions or preconceptions that are getting in the way. Try to cool down and look at the situation in "a clearer light."

Interpretation: If you dream of puppets, you are worried about being controlled by outside influences - or repressed fears - which are preventing your progress or enjoyment in life.

Interpretation: If you dream that an animal with rabies bites you, this suggests you have strong inner feelings of anger and unexpressed hostility. You must learn to express your anger in a controlled anger before it erupts in a destructive way.

Interpretation: Recurring dreams can be extremely informative and important to decipher. Your subconscious mind has gone to a great deal of trouble to send the same "dream telegram" several times, and it will generally continue to do so until you recognize the insight being offered, or outgrow the issue being addressed. Often these dreams recur for a discrete period of time, such as during childhood, adolescence, college years, or during a specific relationship or period of employment. If you outgrow or move away from a certain lifestyle you may stop having the recurring dream, unless something in your current situation strikes a similar emotional chord from your past; then the dream may resurface, like an emotional "home movie" of certain feelings and moods.

Recurring dreams often come about for one of two reasons:

First, the dreamer has a recurring pattern in waking life that has not been consciously recognized. These dreams replay an objectively honest, though highly dramatized picture of some behavior or tendency that has an ongoing impact on current circumstances. A woman who chronically gave too much of herself dreamed repeatedly that she was a caterer, although she had never worked in the hospitality field. A man with an uncontrolled temper dreamed he carried a sword with which he beheaded anyone who crossed him. A woman who married into a rigid, old-fashioned family and tried to accommodate their restrictions had a series of dreams set in Nazi concentration camps. Like many recurring themes, these dreams reflected current conditions waking life, and illustrated the ways in which these people contributed to the very things that troubled them.

A second common connection with recurring dreams is a cyclical area of unresolved feelings or concern for the dreamer. People who have suffered abuse, trauma, injury or loss will frequently have recurring dreams about their painful experience which lessen in frequency and intensity over time. Any type of personal grief, loss, or anxiety can have a ripple effect that makes us feel vulnerable, and unable to adequately control the elements of life. When faced with any experience similar to the area of loss or threat from the past, we may dream again of the lover who left us at the alter, the teacher who ridiculed our speech, or the childhood friend we haven't seen in years.

Recurring Dreams Try to Problem-Solve: In many recurring dreams we are attempting to resolve a problem; these attempts may help slightly, be laughably ineffectual, or make matters worse. These attempted solutions often reflect the manner in which we are trying to go about matters in waking life. It is important to identify the part of your life that is being reviewed in the dreams, but it is also important to examine the way you respond during the dream action. You may notice that you are waiting in a line where you will never be served, or that you are zealously trying to chop wood with a butter knife. Recurring dreams shed light on things we're missing while we are awake; sometimes we can see we are barking up the wrong tree, and other times we are given clues toward a more workable solution.

You Are the Authority on Your Dreams: Whatever your recurring dream, you can assume it is reflecting something in your current life situation, even if the dream takes you back in time. Presuppose there is something useful and constructive within your recurring dreams, and examine the action and setting from a metaphorical perspective. These dreams can reflect the pieces of your life in a more meaningful whole, so sort through their action carefully. Examine the common dream themes to stimulate your personal associations to dream imagery, but remember, these descriptions are strong probabilities, not rules. You are the best judge of what your dreams reveal.

Interpretation: To dream that you are playing a video game, represents your ability to manipulate others into doing what you want them to do. Sometimes this dream also is suggesting that you are trying to escape from problems in your real life. If you dream of being a character inside a video game, it means you are feeling controlled by others.