I find that if I don't remember my dreams when I wake up, the images may come back to me out-of-the-blue during the day, or even when I am just lying down to go to sleep the *next* night, and I think "Oh yes, *that's* what I was dreaming about...It can even be a dream I had had some time before and something during a day's events revives that image.
Quite often, I can recognize the elements of a dream as being something that I have seen/heard/read during that day and are part of some kind of brain/experience processing system. I reckon a lot of dreams are like that. Now and again, though, I think we can all be blessed with what I call "Dreams that are More-Than-Dreams", where you are taken to some other dimension or place of awareness. You somehow know, even while you are 'dreaming' it, that this is more than a dream.
The most wonderful and powerful "dream" I had like that happened to me many years ago, but the picture of it and the feeling of it has stayed with me. I was born with a stillborn twin sister (this is the reality, not the dream). At the time when I had this "dream" I was an adult, life was trundling along and although every so often something would make me think of her, she had not been in my conscious awareness. That day, I had been reading a passage in a book about forgiveness, which involved making and signing a kind of declaration of forgiveness to all the people in your life you felt you needed to forgive. In the forefront of my mind, at the time, was my (now ex-) mother-in-law ! My twin did not figure on this list at all - but somehow, subconciously, I suppose she must have, too deeply for me ever to want to admit to myself.
The dream was so beautiful. Some people came to "collect" me and they were very excited. They took me to a wide open space and somewhere in the distance I could see a speck of a figure coming nearer. I walked, and then ran, nearer and nearer to this person, and they did likewise. I remember thinking in the dream "This is just like in the films, cue the background orchestra !" Between me and this person there was such a recognition, such a joy, such an incredible amount of laughter, I could never describe it. All I can say is that it is something I have never, ever felt on this earth. From both of us, there was this kind of unspoken "Is it you ? No ! Really ?" and then the wonderful peals of laughter and recognition. The strange thing is, I could never say what this person looked like, even whether they were male or female, it was just the recognition and the joy of our being with each other, and that we had not been with each other for a long, long time. That was more than enough.
No doubt someone could come along with a logical or psychoanalytical interpretation of all this. I don't care ! The experience I had left an imprint on me that no words or "logic" could ever erase, and I am so grateful for it.
There is a fabulous sequel to this story. A few years after this dream experience, I went to an open audition for a production of Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" (storyline in a nutshell: twins parted in shipwreck, both think the other dead, re-united at the end). I had gone for a totally different part, a character in the sub-plot, and would *never* have put myself forward for the part of the female twin - afraid my own emotions would get in the way. Well..... I was offered that part, too great a change to miss, playing Viola, I took it ! It turned out to be the most fantastic completion to that dream experience and the connection with my twin. I like to feel that someone (or some several) up there (or wherever they are) were and are looking after me.
I feel I have gone on enough...Thanks for starting this topic. I have lots more I would like to say about the world of dreams...No doubt I'll be coming back, and very interested to hear of other people's experiences.