The Dream Book: Symbols for Self Understanding

Having spent more money than i care to recall on therapy and self-help books that didn't help, i can't tell you how exquisitely and how painlessly significant this book has become for me! I first read it in the early 80's and to this day refuse to spend a single night without it somewhere within arm's length. It is the best source of wisdom and guidance i have ever known. I have gifted many troubled friends with copies of this book, not because i grew tired of the middle of the night phone calls begging for answers to their most recent frightful dreams, but because i knew they would benefit from learning their own unique and personal dream symbols. It is especially adept at giving children an extremely efficient tool for dealing with their nightmares! Ask anyone who knows me- they will tell you how profoundly this book has changed my life (and my friends lives!) for the better!

I have literally had the first edition of this book since 1984 or so and I loved it from the beginning. I have consulted it hundreds of times over the years and have shared with friends. Then I saw that there was a new edition and I promptly ordered it. There are many new symbols in this new edition, which is fabulous! What I like about this book is that symbols are interpreted in a more spiritual context. It’s easy to read and a very helpful tool in interpreting dreams. If you are interested in what your dreams mean, you won’t be disappointed with this amazing book.

Betty Bethards was a fantastic and well respected guru who taught me in the 1990's Bay Area how to interpret my dreams using her Dream Book. She always said: "Ah, that dream got your attention. Now, what's your lesson hidden in the symbolism?" I am glad to see that Charles is continuing the book's distribution, since her passing. This book not only has hundreds of dream symbols, but it opens with a lesson on how to interpret your dreams. This is a fantastic accompaniment to meditation. For those of you who were fortunate enough to be taught by Betty, the book brings you back so far, you can almost hear the song, "Night Rain" by her Son playing in the background.

I disliked that the author seems to only be able to understand this material through her religious teachings. There are many assertions made about humanity as a whole that are very certainly not true.This book is mostly a pile of dream symbols. She has not determined the meanings of archetypal dream symbology by analyzing 1000's of dream accounts and looking at what the meaning was for most people. what the symbology meant to them. She has "determined" the meanings, by "channeling her God-self." So... she sat down, relaxed herself, and waited for her mind to come up with meanings.This is about her. The definitions are about what they mean to her personally. AND she did not come to these meaning by having dreams and discovering what they meant for her. She sat down and listened to her "Channel". As though she has some direct correspondence to divine wisdom about the universe. I find this world view at best disgusting, and at worst harmfully destructive to anyone who wants to understand themselves.While the ideas she presents about dream imagery are very personal, they are presented as information that applies to all of us. Instead of encouraging readers to discover their own meanings, which is the only thing of value, she mainly encourages us to look them up in an "unabridged" dictionary of dream symbols. If this is an abridged book of definitions.. what was it abridged from?While she occasionally pretends to encourage us to understand the symbols as they relate to ourselves, she mostly and predominately contradicts that, and instead interprets us for us.Anyone who wants to understand anything about themselves should ignore this tripe, and instead read Jeremy Hopkins "The Wisdom of Our Dreams."

I have had the original version of this book for years and have studied dream interpretation as well. This book is the real deal. I remember going to a book store and going though various books on dream interpretation and the dream symbols all said something different and did not resonate with my life at all. I likened them to fortune cookies or the horoscopes you get in the newspaper. I use Betty's book all the time and have learned much from it. It has absolutely helped me figure out why things are happening in my waking life. The symbols in this new edition are a welcome addition as well.

I knew the author. Her book is the most accurate Dream reference I know of.. I had a much older copy worn and in terrible shape,  but what a book... Betty's is as authentic and it sells beyond her passing over. It is very well received and I recommend it highly.

This is THE book to use as a guide for interpreting your dreams - I have found it absolutely invaluable. For the first couple of years after my wife died, I was immersed in dreams, often waking up several times during the night, writing feverishly in my dream notebook and the next morning I would use this book to help me get into my own interpretation of what the dream was trying to tell me.We all dream and we all need to dream (avoid drugs that interfere with dreaming - will serve to drive you even more insane than we already are) and even if we don't remember them, they are vital to healthy living. If you are interested in gaining consciousness, then telling yourself to remember them, keeping a notebook and pen next to your bed, writing them down with the lights still off, then using this book to help with your interpretation will make a huge difference in your life.

anyone who wants to know more about dreams should get this very useful book! i bought one for a friend too!

Best book I've ever read, couldn't put it down. So much more than I expected. Would highly recommend it. Fabulous!!!

I found this interpretation of dream symbols far too simplistic. There was no depth or understanding I felt. Very disappointed but there we are!

This author is one of only a few that write on the subject of dreams,who realy knows their true meaning and how to decipher them in a clear and simple manner. An essential book for anyone that wishes to start working with dreams and begin to understand their true self and life purpose.

This book was not what I really expected after having read some of the reviews on it. Although the book did give a reference to some of the symbols that people encounter in their dreamstate I found the analysis of the symbols overly simplistic and not detailed enough. I have read other books on Dreams that were much more detailed in the analysis of the dreams and the symbols encountered in them. For someone looking for a book that gives a general outline of dream symbols this book would be O.K. but if you are looking for something with greater depth I think you would need to find some additional material.