Having had premonitory dreams since I was little, I have found that I kind of let my own dreams speak to me and have decoded most of the symbols I find in my own dreams. However, when I go through dream interpretation books written in Europe or in North America, I feel the interpretations are way off...
See, I am from an African country and my interpretations seem to be right on point for people from the same culture. ..
So my question for you is: do you think that culture (with all the symbols and codes it carries) affects dream symbols and therefore dream interpretation?

Good question farafina, I like ones like this - something I never thought about before, thank you.

Just as is also the case with Near Death Experiences, I do believe that the symbols encountered in our dreams must be to a great degree appropriate and relevant to the culture in which the dreamer lives in their waking life.

People living in India for example are much more likely to see ascended beings of light as a religious deity consistent with their beliefs (Krishna etc), while in the Western world as a whole many people would be more likely to see Jesus Christ, even if they are not themselves regular church goers.

While I do feel that a person's culture has a significant influence on the types of symbols seen in their dreams, there is also considerable variation between people in the same culture as well. I believe that our dreams are written in the almost unique language of our own unconscious mind, and that in the end we are therefore each the best possible interpreter of our own dreams.

What a particular symbol means to the next person's dreaming mind may or may not correspond to exactly how our mind interprets it. That is precisely why interpreting other people's dreams especially if they live in a completely different culture from your own is such an inexact art, rather than it being in itself a science. There are no wrong or right answers to any of this. Only ones which are both more helpful and relevant to the person who is asking for our assistance in interpreting their dream.

Hoping this answers your question, and I am always pleased to be able to interact with people from many different cultures such as your own in a friendly and I hope helpful manner, as we are doing now via the internet.

Kindest regards,

eye_of_tiger  

Thank you very much Eye of Tiger for the complete and detailed answer.
I kind of thought along the same lines actually. In a sense, this also calls into question the relevance of all these books about dream interpretations, doesn't it?

I mean, a young man who has grown up in rural China or a young woman who has grown up in urba Nigeria may find it completely "off-topic" to look up their dreams in a dream dictionary published in Belgium or Russia!

I agree with you that looking within ourselves for the meanings of our own dreams is the best thing to do...

To take the idea that 'we' are capable of interpriting our our sub conscious is a very Freudian concept and I think perhaps misses the question. Tiger it seemed to me that you were very close with part of the idea of East interpriting one way and West the other and then I think you moved away.
If dreams do have a meaning, and I'm not totally conviced they do, then it can only be a meaning that applies to the culture the dreamer grew up in, indeed is it possible to dream of something you have never heard about?
Could an eskimo dream of an echidna or a butterfly, if they never heard of them, how could they do it?
As you can tell I'm still struggling with this myself (and enjoying it).