Empathic Symbology

Empathic ability, dreams (regular, lucid, prophetic, and dreamwalking), omen reading and synchronicity. What do all of these thing have in common? To answer this question, we will look at the meaning of each of these terms individually, and then bring them into a much larger single focus, a ‘big picture’ if you will.



An Empath is a person who has an acute or highly developed sense of empathy. In the paranormal and in some works of science fiction and fantasy, empathy is a paranormal or psychic ability to sense the emotions of others. It is distinguished from telepathy, which allows one to perceive thoughts as well. Occasionally, Empaths are also able to project their own emotions, or to affect the emotions of others.

a. a visionary creation of the imagination : daydream
c. an object seen in a dreamlike state

A Dreamwalker is one who works with and within the dream to understand, to create, to heal, to meet with elderhearts, to journey this realm (out of body), to work with other worlds and realms, to teach, … to be one with the ultimate ONE.

A Lucid Dream, also known as conscious dream, is a dream in which the sleeper is aware that they are dreaming. When the dreamer is lucid, they can actively participate in and often manipulate the imaginary experiences in the dream environment. Lucid dreams can be extremely real and vivid depending on a person’s level of self awareness during the lucid dream.

Prophetic Dreams, also referred to as precognitive dreams, are believed to be a form of extra-sensory perception (ESP) in which a person is said to perceive information about places or events through paranormal means before they actually happen.

An Omen is an occurrence or phenomenon believed to portend a future event. An Omen Reader is one who interprets dreams, and signs of synchronicity, omens, in the outer waking world.

Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events which are casually unrelated occurring together in a supposedly meaningful manner. In order to count as synchronicity, the events should be unlikely to occur together by chance.

A Metaphor is language that directly connects seemingly unrelated subjects. It is a figure of speech that connects two or more things.

Now that we have taken a look into the different meanings of the terms listed above, what we need to do now is see how they all come together, like puzzle pieces which make up a much larger picture.

So how do we bring these seemingly random ideas together into one single boiling pot, and produce a cohesive idea that encompasses them all?

The Empath

An Empath, more than most people, is somewhat like a radio receiver in that they are able to tune into and receive most intuitive information that is being sent out by others, who would be like a radio transmitter. The Empath is particularly hardwired to pick up on the emotional currents that are being sent out by others. And whether it is a learned behavior or a genetic predisposition, is of less importance than the fact that they do it at all.

Quite a bit of this intuitive information, that is being thrown their way, is taken in and interpreted in such a way that the Empath can readily and easily relate to it. This happens at the unconscious level most of the time, so it seems to the Empath that the information is coming out of thin air because there is no rational thought process involved at the conscious level.

All the same, though, this process involves the use of interpretation and metaphors. This occurs when the intuitive information taken into the Empath at the unconscious level is interpreted. It is generally compared to a similar situation that has occurred within the Empath’s life, allowing the Empath to identify and empathize with the person, who is sending out the intuitive information, they are focused on. So a similar experience within the Empath’s life, can literally become a metaphor for understanding the other person’s perspective, emotions, and thought processes.

The Dream

There are many different types of dreams, and they can be categorized into several different types. The regular dream, which is a series of images and emotions which are pulled from experiences had in the waking world and thrown into the dream state of the unconscious mind, usually in a woven mesh that is hard to interpret on its surface, is one type.

Another is the lucid dream, which occurs when one retains a sense of conscious control within the dream state. This means that the mind doesn’t simply flow with the dream’s procession, and instead has use of its cognitive processes, because it holds onto its self awareness outside of the dreamscape.

A third type is the prophetic dream, which has the potential to foretell future events. But this type of dream is highly open to interpretation. And it can become even more muddled when one hears of an event occurring that seems to go hand in hand with their dream. The mind then interprets the dream through any possible correlation between it and the event that has happened, and deems it prophetic. But post-cognition is not prophetic, because the interpretation of the dream’s metaphors occurs after an event coming into fruition.

Before we move on to the next type of dream, I want to bring these a bit more into focus first.

When awake, most people exhibit brain wave patterns that can be classified into two types of waves, beta and alpha. Beta waves are those associated with day to day wakefulness. During periods of relaxation, while still awake, our brain waves become slower, increase in amplitude and become more synchronous. These types of waves are called alpha waves. The first stage of sleep is characterized by theta waves, which are even slower in frequency and greater in amplitude than alpha waves. During a normal nights sleep a sleeper passes from the theta waves to the delta waves. Delta waves are the slowest and highest amplitude brain waves.

That being said, the next type of dream is that which occurs when we are awake, called the daydream. A Daydream is: a dreamlike musing or fantasy while awake, especially of the fulfillment of wishes or hopes. This type of dream occurs in the self aware state of consciousness and is based less on metaphor than it is on wish fulfillment. So it is relatively straight forward in its design, because the daydreamer keeps conscious reigns on the flow of the dream.

The Metaphor

A Symbol is a word, phrase, image, icon or some other thing that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention. Symbols are used to represent complex esoteric relationships, ethereal concepts or something invisible and intangible. Symbolism is the practice of representing things by means of symbols or of attributing symbolic meanings or significance to objects, events, or relationships. Symbology is the study or interpretation of symbols or symbolism. In essence, symbols are a type of metaphor, used to offer a simple explanation about someone or something that another person can easily relate to.

As within dreams, symbols, also called omens, can be found in the waking world. The discovery of such a connection, between two seemingly unassociated things, people, or events, is called synchronicity. This is done when the mind searches for meaningful answers outside of the its societal norm, where the rules for interpretation of such things are explicit.

An example of synchronicity would be an experience I had when I was a teenager. I was outside smoking a cigarette (yeah I know, bad for me..lol) and a bird landed right next to a window in our living room. It then rose up and flew behind the house. Not a minute later I saw my mother standing in the window looking at me with her death glare. Needless to say, I got punished. But beyond that, my mind interpreted that bird’s actions as a warning……’Run, cause your about to get in trouble.’ And had I followed the bird behind the house, I wouldn’t have gotten into trouble. Or maybe I would have. Who is to say at this point?

The Correlation

So now that we’ve been through each individually and have brought them into a more singular focus, do you think you understand the correlation which binds all of these things together? Whether on the conscious level or the unconscious level, its all about metaphor, symbology and interpretation.

Empaths, who are like radio receivers, are especially prone to these things, whether it is through dreams or omens discovered in the waking world. The only difference between the two, for an Empath, is the level of conscious thought that goes into the process of interpreting such symbols.


~ by Misuchi Sakurai on April 27, 2009.

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