What is a dream really?

I had this really creepy dream...what could it mean?

• Everything in the dream was colored in sepia. I don't remember a lot of the dream, but the ending I do. So everything was this creamy, manila color (including the sky,etc.) and I was in my neighborhood (in suburbia). However, instead of other houses on the horizon there was city of skyscrapers (and remember once again everything in this dream is sepia!) and factories on the horizon. For some reason I started looking at the clouds over the city and out of nowhere this funnel shape ascended from the sky. It wasn't like a tornado though; it was like a pillar connecting the clouds to the earth. Suddenly my mom appears by my side. Voices in the back round are all going "whoa, what is that thing?" and then I realized the strange cloud-pillar-thingy was shaped like a bomb when its unleashed. I also recalled that the setting of a nuclear bomb is so sudden you won't even know it's coming. Then I realized I was going to die. My mom took my hand and I could see fire in the color of cream, rushing in slow-motion, towards us. (note: in the dream I was standing on my front lawn) For a moment I was scared but then some female voice in my mind said, "are you ready? here we go." Then something really amazing happened. The flames and debris swirled in a milky sand colored spiral around me. I started levitating or something and then I watched my hands (I dream like I'm inside my body) turn into golden motes of dust. Then I was blown up to the heavens or something. It felt SO real though. Like I was soaring. I mean if dying actually felt that way, people would want to do it. I turned into sepia dust and felt myself ascending into the clouds. I can't find how the dream relates to anything in my life. What does it mean?

• Answer:

  the sepia color could mean that you find life bland -- or it could mean that you are dreaming of something from the past. Have you made a big move at any time? Has there been a dviorce or separation? Has someone died? This could have happened at anytime in your life, even your babyhood, since you may be dreaming of the past. Often, as children, we can sense a 'big storm' coming in our personal lives, and when it comes it can feel as if a bomb was dropped. The effects can devastate us, flatten us, and make us feel as if we're completely rebuilding ourselves. Usually we drift through a period of time until this rebuilding starts. I may be way off base, but a surface look at your dream suggests you may have some unresolved issues from your childhood. Possibly something happened recently that has brought these not-quite memories to the attention of your memory. Your dream hints at where to start looking for answers: Your mother. Hope something in this resonates for you.