What's in a dream; a scientific and practical interpretation of dreams 1901 [Hardcover]

by Gustavus Hindman Miller

eng, Pages 207. Reprinted in 2015 with the help of original edition published long back [1901]. This book is in black & white, Hardcover, sewing binding for longer life with Matt laminated multi-Colour Dust Cover, Printed on high quality Paper, re-sized as per Current standards, professionally processed without changing its contents. As these are old books, there may be some pages which are blur or missing or black spots. We expect that you will understand our compulsion in these books. We found this book important for the readers who want to know more about our old treasure so we brought it back to the shelves. Hope you will like it and give your comments and suggestions. What's in a dream; a scientific and practical interpretation of dreams 1901 [Hardcover], Miller, Gustavus Hindman,

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Psychology, Spirituality, Self Help, New Age, Witchcraft

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1910

About the author

Gustavus Hindman Miller was a prominent American merchant, manufacturer, financier, author, and civic leader based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Born in frontier Texas in 1857, he was raised under modest and often difficult circumstances following the early death of his father during the Civil War. Despite these hardships, he pursued an education in Coryell County before entering the mercantile world alongside his brother Frank.
In the late 1870s, Miller moved to Tennessee and began a career in retail, first working as a clerk before founding his own businesses in Burrustown and Bell Buckle. By 1889, the Miller brothers had relocated to Chattanooga, where they established the Miller Brothers Company, a department store that would grow to become one of the largest in the South. Designed by architect Reuben Harrison Hunt, their flagship building was a landmark of downtown Chattanooga, admired for its architectural innovation and commercial success.
Alongside his retail ventures, Miller held significant positions in banking and manufacturing. He was President of Hamilton National Bank, founder of Buster Brown’s Hosiery Mills and the United Hosiery Mills Corporation, and an investor in various real estate and industrial enterprises. His leadership extended beyond business into civic life, and he was a member of Chattanooga’s elite social clubs.
An accomplished author, Miller wrote both fiction and nonfiction, including Lucy Dalton, Is Marriage a Failure?, and his best-known work, What’s in a Dream?, a popular book on dream interpretation. He also co-authored The Millers of Millersburg, a detailed family history. A lifelong Republican and a Unitarian, he balanced business with literature, often writing in the evenings after long days of work.
Miller married Nancy Tennessee Jameson in 1879, with whom he had eight children, three of whom survived to adulthood. In his later years, he maintained large agricultural holdings in Georgia and Mississippi and traveled extensively. Known for his energy, vision, and integrity, he remained active in business and public life until his death in 1929.
Miller’s legacy is reflected in the institutions he helped build, his literary contributions, and the enduring impact of the Miller Brothers Department Store on Chattanooga’s commercial development. His life journey from humble beginnings to regional prominence exemplifies the entrepreneurial spirit of his era.

Reviews

[Morgan · Rating 1 out of 5]

People come to me with their dreams, asking for interpretation. Sometimes I'm asked what my references are for dream interpretation and I admit that they are internal—intuition and insight into the analogies of the subconscious. Occasionally I come across a book on dream interpretation, like this one, and I'm reminded why I don't use them. Firstly, no book knows what's going on in any given dreamer's awake life, hence the dictionary definitions of what a dream's various elements might mean is likely to be off. Secondly, many of these books have a tendency to try and predict the future, saying things like, "You'll be successful in sex/love/business/etc." and no dream can tell you that for certain; rather, dreams take components of our waking lives and rearrange them in ways to show us different perspective on our pasts, our presents, and our possible (but not definitive) futures. Thirdly, these books are laced with sexist and racist crap, making gross generalizations based on gender and negative associations based on race (just look at the entry for "Lips" and you'll get the idea). So next time you've got a dream that needs interpreting, put aside your books and just talk to someone.

[Alison McDonough · Rating 3 out of 5]

And my personal favorite....."If you dream of buttocks, prepare for good times ahead"
Woohoo! Bring on the good times!

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

Painfully, disappointingly bad. I found this in my library's psychology section, with hopes of broadening my understanding of some new symbols in my sleep. You'd have better luck understanding your dreams if you opened a bag of fortune cookies. I am usually not so harsh, but the descriptions in this book are so vague and short that there is no real applicability to dream analysis. If you've read a more comprehensive and realistic dream book, such as Dictionary of Dreams by Rose Inserra, this one will be of little use to you.

[Jason Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Dreams either mean nothing or everything..." Thus spake Roland Deschain in Wizard and Glass which means this book is total bullshit. I think I've had two or three "everything" dreams in my life where a dream accurately predicted events that happened the next day. I had a dream that my old roommate had had some kind of falling out with his new roommate and that they were going their separate ways. I called the old roomie to tell him about it, laughing all the while at how ridiculous it was. Turns out he was packing up to move out as we spoke because that was kind of what happened. Both of them were friends, and there had been nothing at all to indicate that something like that was on the horizon. Super coincidence, or was I getting a message from another level of the tower? Hell if I know. Roland also tells us that "not all messages are sent by friends," so I had better proceed with caution.

I got this book for fun about 20 years ago, and I confess I did enjoy looking at it from time to time to see what someone else thought my dreams meant, but the novelty wore off after a while. Also, it was usually wrong. I would try to shoehorn the interpretations into my day, and since one often finds what one is looking for, I was able to do just that if I tried really hard, but I couldn't always manage it.

Take the "Toys" entry on for size.

"To see toys in dreams foretells family joys, if whole and new, but if broken, death will rend your heart with sorrow.
To see children at play with toys, marriage of a happy nature is indicated.
To give away toys in your dreams foretells you will be ignored in a social way by your acquaintances."

But what if you dream about swinging into a castle with Robin Hood to rescue a couple of kids you babysit from Beastman... and maybe Merman? (Masters of the Universe characters. And give me a break; I had this dream probably 25 years ago, and can't for the life of me explain why I'm remembering it now.) Anyway, you get into the castle, find the boys in the dungeon but find they're being treated just fine... No wait, it wasn't Merman, it was Trap Jaw... Anyway, the boys are fine, enjoying their repast and ask if they can stay a little longer, then you go into another room where there's a dresser with a mirror which you look in, then see a princess come in behind you, so you turn around to talk to her, and she draws nearer to you because she's kind of flirting with you, then as she leans her face towards yours you feel something touching your stomach, look down and see a claw protruding from her dress, caressing your abdomen and getting ready to rip it open with a swipe, so you step back in alarm, then the bottom of the dress opens up and you discover that it's not a princess at all, but a monster crouching down and operating some kind of reverse marionette which is the top half of the princess, then the monster chucks the puppet aside, stands up, and runs toward you, but you pull a sword off the dresser, and cut the monster in twain, then into fourths, and you hack and hack and hack it to pieces, but the pieces reform into smaller Masters of the Universe toys which keep coming after you, and the more you hack, the more MOTU toys you make, and they come on and on and on, then... I don't remember what happened next. I might've woken up then, though I thought I got out of the castle some kind of way. Like I said, this was probably 25 years ago, and sometimes I can't remember dreams upon awakening even though I remember that I had one and will rack my brain trying to figure out what it was.

Anyway, just what the tiddly-poo am I supposed to make of that? I guess it counts as broken toys, but death did not "rend my heart with sorrow" anywhere near that time. How could it? Nobody I knew died. Maybe it was the castle that was important? Let's see. "To dream of being in a castle, you will be possessed of sufficient wealth to make life as you wish..." HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! Lies, book. Lies!

Maybe "Dungeon?" "To dream of being in a dungeon foretells for you struggles with the vital affairs of life but by wise dealings you will disenthrall yourself of obstacles and the designs of enemies." Hmmm. No, I don't recall disenthralling myself of anything back then.

Perhaps "Mirror." "To see others in a mirror denotes that others will act unfairly towards you to promote their own interests." Well, shit. That happens all the time. Maybe that was it, but I don't know... I'm not convinced.

There are four entries for "sword," but none of them apply since I wasn't wearing it, didn't have it taken from me, see others bearing one, and the sword wasn't broken.

And there's no entry for Robin Hood or Masters of the Universe if you can believe that. Worthless book!

You know, I used to have dreams all the time, and that one was actually kind of ordinary compared to some others. I kind of miss my dreams. I still have them, but they're few and far between now, maybe one every few weeks, and they're not always as exciting as that one anymore. Alas.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

My first ever dream interpretation book. I bought this book when i was barely a teenager because i thought it would be fun to find out what my dreams actually meant. Unfortunately, this book gives short definitions to every word and it seems like every definition i've came across was always something negative. It seems written very "horoscope-like".

The only good thing that came from this book is that it pushed me forward into believing that dreams do have meanings. It has helped me fine-tuned my thoughts on what my dreams actually meant and has even given me advice on how to go about my waking life.

This could be an OK starter book for dream interpretation but there are far better books out there that have more details for each word and is not so negative.

[Johnflynch · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book, and every book like it, is epic bunk. dreams cannot be interpreted this way because people create their own symbols unintentionally. the only way a book like this could be correct is if the readers subconscious assimilated the information and applied it. which is possible but 1. unlikely and 2. makes the content a self fulfilling prophecy which is of little personal use.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great dream reference introduced to me by a former roomie. Biblical refrences. I miss picking it off her shelf after a night of dreaming. Time is overdue for me to get my own copy!

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a dictionary of dreams in order by words so you can search for items alphabetically.

More of a reference type of book than a reader.

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got this for Christmas and really enjoyed this!!! I love interpreting dreams and kept a dream journal when I was little - this made me super happy :)

[Alanna Fowler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this, I just wish it had some phrases as well! I sat and read through this in 2 days and it's a book I will come back through for my whole life!!

[Cass ☾ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Conor Primett · Rating 2 out of 5]

To pick up 12,000 Dreams Interpreted by Gustavus Hindman Miller is to enter not a dialogue with the unconscious but a mausoleum of symbols. On its surface, the project appears democratic, even generous: twelve thousand entries offered to the lay reader as a way of unlocking the mysteries of the unconscious, each dream a clue, each symbol a meaning. Yet beneath this encyclopaedic scope lies something hollow and unsettling. What masquerades as guidance is in fact foreclosure; what pretends to be wisdom is mere reduction. Miller’s dictionary of dreams is a cultural artefact less of psychology than of anxiety, less of the unconscious than of its commodification.

The project is haunted from its inception by the nineteenth-century desire to catalogue, classify, and freeze into place what is by nature fluid and shifting. Dreams, which speak in paradox and ambiguity, are here pinned like butterflies in glass cases. To dream of water, Miller tells us, is to anticipate disgrace; to dream of snakes is to fear betrayal; to dream of weddings is to expect death. Again and again, ambivalence is stripped away and replaced by a single, invariably negative reading. Dreaming itself becomes a perilous activity, less a dialogue with the psyche than a constant rehearsal of doom. What is missing in all of this is precisely what makes dreams valuable: the play of meanings, the polysemy of symbols, the capacity for images to signify differently depending on context, temperament, or life stage.

Here the contrast with Jung is decisive. For Jung, dreams are not forecasts but conversations. The unconscious speaks through archetypes, images with a depth that cannot be exhausted. Symbols are not signs; they do not have a single denotation but invite exploration. The snake may be temptation, yes, but also wisdom, rebirth, the ouroboros of eternal return. Death may be literal, but more often it is transformation, the end of one psychic phase and the beginning of another. The house is not bad luck but a metaphor of the psyche itself, its rooms chambers of the self. Where Jung insists on ambiguity, Miller insists on certainty. Where Jung sees invitation, Miller sees omen. The result is not dialogue but foreclosure, not individuation but stagnation.

To trace this foreclosure in detail is to measure Miller’s book against Jung’s archetypal catalogue. Consider the shadow. For Jung, the shadow is the repository of all that the ego refuses to acknowledge: impulses, fears, desires. To dream of shadow is to begin the difficult work of recognition, to integrate what has been denied. Integration of the shadow is the first step in individuation, the process by which the psyche moves toward wholeness. But Miller reads darkness only as disgrace, misfortune, failure. To the dreamer he says: recoil, reject, fear. What should be the beginning of growth becomes a dead end.

Or take the anima and animus. Jung taught that these contrasexual figures appear in dreams as guides, mediators, or seducers, representing the psyche’s drive to balance logos and eros. A man’s anima might appear as an alluring or mysterious woman; a woman’s animus as a commanding male figure. These images can dominate if unintegrated, but they can also guide toward creativity and wisdom. Dreams of such figures are invitations to dialogue. Miller, by contrast, flattens them into omens of seduction or rivalry. There is no sense of possibility, only danger. Again the dreamer is instructed to recoil, not to engage.

The foreclosure is most devastating when it comes to the self, the archetype of wholeness. Jung often encountered dreams of mandalas, circles, or houses as symbols of the self, the psyche’s deepest drive toward integration. To dream of exploring a house is to dream of exploring one’s own depths. To see circles is to glimpse the whole. But Miller offers only banality: houses are misfortune, circles are omitted. The dreamer is denied the very image of individuation.

One can continue through Miller’s dictionary, contrasting entry after entry. Snakes as disgrace, where Jung sees wisdom. Mirrors as vanity, where Jung sees self-confrontation. Weddings as omens of death, where Jung sees coniunctio, the archetypal union of opposites. Death as literal mortality, where Jung sees rebirth. In each case, Miller closes where Jung opens. The difference is not simply interpretive but ontological: for Miller, symbols are fixed and external; for Jung, they are dynamic and internal, mediating between conscious and unconscious.

This has profound consequences for the reader. For Jung, the goal of dream work is individuation: the integration of unconscious contents into consciousness, the movement toward wholeness. Dreams are one of the psyche’s primary languages in this process. To engage them is to move forward. To misread them is to halt. Miller’s book halts. It teaches repression, not dialogue. It instructs the dreamer to reject shadow, fear anima, misrecognise self. It encourages neurosis, not growth. It keeps the ego barricaded, the unconscious feared, the psyche fragmented. It is not just unhelpful; it is actively harmful.

The harm is compounded by tone. Entry after entry is suffused with negativity. Dreams become things to fear, not invitations to explore. The unconscious becomes a reservoir of threats. For Jung, neurosis arises precisely when the ego refuses the unconscious. Miller institutionalises this refusal. He makes fear the default. He turns the dream into a danger. The reader is taught to distrust their own psyche. The book becomes an anti-psychology, a handbook of repression.

And yet, as Adorno reminds us, failure itself can be revealing. What Miller’s book demonstrates is not simply one man’s mistaken interpretations but an entire cultural anxiety. It reveals a society unable to tolerate ambiguity, desperate for certainty, willing to reduce symbols to signs. It shows the nineteenth-century urge to catalogue extended even into the unconscious. It shows the commodification of the psyche itself: twelve thousand entries packaged as a product, sold as certainty, consumed as entertainment. The unconscious is stripped of its mystery and sold as a bathroom reader. This is the culture industry at its most insidious: the very depths of the psyche colonised by banality.

And yet, by negative example, the book teaches something vital. It shows why Jung still matters. It shows why individuation is essential. Dreams are not threats but invitations. Symbols are not omens but openings. To treat them as Miller does is to close off the path of wholeness. To resist his foreclosure is to reclaim the dialogue. The book’s very failure points the reader back toward depth psychology, toward the necessity of integrating shadow, anima, and self, toward the possibility of individuation.

Thus, 12,000 Dreams Interpreted earns two stars. It is fascinating as a cultural artefact, instructive as a symptom, occasionally hilarious in its absurdity. It is useful only as a negative example. But as a guide to the unconscious, it is impoverished, reductive, and obstructive. It betrays the symbolic imagination, obstructs individuation, commodifies dreams. It teaches fear where there should be dialogue, certainty where there should be paradox, consumption where there should be growth. To read it is to laugh, yes, but also to glimpse the nightmare of certainty.

And so the Adornian crescendo must ring in conclusion: this book is less about dreams than about culture’s refusal of them. It reveals how the symbolic imagination is flattened by the culture industry, how the psyche is colonised by banality, how individuation is thwarted by certainty. It is itself a dream — a dream of control, a dream of certainty, a dream that refuses the unconscious. And like all such dreams, it is, finally, a nightmare.

[Creative Choices · Rating 2 out of 5]

I purchased this book because of my interest in the topic and the beauty of the book. The introduction is complete and interesting. The layout of the book gives the reader ease of use, the topics are extensive, easy to locate with a comprehensive cross reference throughout the book. The beauty of the book is what makes it stand out among similar titles. It is unfortunate that the positive aspects of this book stop there.

I have spent extensive time studying the mind from many aspects, everything from a psychological/scientific point of view to a parapsychology/psychic/spiritual point of view. In that I have come to believe that there many truths and all areas should be considered.

From my perspective this book seems to carry a negative overtone. Not that Miller's interpretations are all negative, there just seems to be a strong negativity throughout his commentaries. This, I'm concerned, may instill needless fears in those "searching for answers". I strongly believe one truly needs to go with their own personal feelings about their dreams; if their feelings from the dream are negative it represents something negative, and if they are positive it represents something positive.

I have read several books on the subject, as well as compared interpretations between authors, in this I found Miller's "views" were much his own and not a general consensus. Not to mention he seems matter a fact in his interpretations leaving no room for personal exploration. That said, there are many other books on the subject which can guide one to their own interpretations while still providing a general meaning to what a dream symbolizes, giving individual value to each interpretation .

[Nikki Nielsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I look at this book everytime I go to Barnes and Noble and I finally bought it. I have looked up my dreams for the last few nights and so far learned that dreaming of going to the dentist means I doubt the sincerity and honor of someone, hearing a serenade means anticipations will not fail me, cutting down a tree means I am wasting my energy (maybe looking up my dreams is the waste of energy? :), and dreaming of living in a castle means I have prospects of being a great traveler.

There is nothing in this book about a cliff. However, sustaining a fall, while being very frightened, denotes I am undergoing a great struggle but will eventually rise to honor and wealth since I didn't sustain an injury. *phew* Dreaming of being in pain means useless regret over trivial transactions.

I love this book simply for the fact that dreams and the psychological translations of dreams fascinate me. However, this really isn't a very 'comprehensive' interpretation book for our day. There is nothing on yelling, cliffs, or airplanes, yet there are translations on spleens, figs, yule logs, and jackdaws.

[Eva-Marie Nevarez · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've only flipped through this at times but after seeing what I've seen, which wasn't much, I've come to the hopeful conclusion that this must be one of the poorer dream interpretation books out there. I certainly hope this isn't the cream of the crop because if it is I'm sticking with my own conclusions.
Unless you're trying to find "falling" or "spiders" you'll be out of luck and that's very childish. I wanted more in depth interpretations and I wanted to be able to delve deeper into dreams I remembered.
If you're looking for a book to actually help you interpret your dreams keep searching. If you're looking for something to pick up and take a look through once, for no real reason, this is it.

[Lex · Rating 1 out of 5]

The worst dream manual out there. As a dreamworker, working analyst and Jungian, I have to say that this man's interpretations are so far off they are nearly polar opposite to the actual symbology. I was excited when I plucked this from a thrift bookstore because it is illustrated and was seemingly of great quality. I sat down while shelving to see what it had to say about dream symbols I've worked the field over, and I was shocked at how incredibly wrong C H Miller was and appalled at his lack of depth and misunderstanding of the collective unconscious which is the major source of psyche's images. This book is written by someone who had zero knowledge of the history of symbols. Throw it out.

[mairywo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this at a goth store waiting for a friend who couldn't decide whether or not she wanted a really interesting belt (she didn't in the end).[return]I only pick up this book about every half year as I usually can't remember my dreams. And if I do remember them, only one in every dozen or so is disturbing or weird enough that I want to know what it means. More often than not I'm not satisfied with the answers this book gives me, but that could either be because I don't really believe in it or because there are too many different themes in my dreams. It's entertaining though, trying to figure out how to apply an interpretation to what is currently going on in my life.

[Regina Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reason I read this book is not to interpret the dreams, but rather see mental connection of dreams, thoughts and how mind will solve them. I do agree that dreams set up a mood for the day and people tend to act on their mood, but dreams do help to solve problems even in a sleeping stage. This can be even observed in interpretation of dreams:
To Dream of being chased by a monster - you will suffer great misfortune.
To slay a monster you will gain success in your deeds.
Study has been done that the person that has been playing ski on simulator and was failing, after sleeping person gained some percentage on it.
So sleep up guys.

[Shelia Timmons · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like to read dream dictionaries so I really liked this book. It has some old-fashioned interpretations, but that is why I like this book. I collect dream dictionaries, so if you do this one is a must have. I also love all the dream quotes from the Bible.

"And it shall come to pass in the last days," saith God, "I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." -- Acts 2:17

One of my favorites!

[David]

A century ago, Gustavus Hindman Miller wrote a dictionary of words describing things experienced in dreams and gave his interpretation of them. Psychic, Linda Shields recognized that a whole lot of new words have entered the picture in the past hundred years and decided to update Miller's book. Having only a 12,000 word vocabulary of dream symbols seems adequate to this rather silly book, but I suppose people with limited vocabularies would be those most likely to attend to the ministrations of a psychic. Why my library wasted money on this drivel is beyond me!

[erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

bathroom reader.
so everything in this book is totally bizarre and every dream you ever have is bad...someone will die, or you will have ugly children, or you will lose all your money with just about anything you have a dream about.
but at the same time it's also hilarious! i try to find the most bizarre dream analyses ever when i'm taking a....well you get my drift. :)

[Marian Yee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Appreciative and thankful for the attempt to list and categorize dreams. Unfortunately, many of us have dreams that cannot be found in the book.
Sometimes a dream could be categories in two different areas and the interpretation is too vague or confusing to make any sense. Perhaps, another follow-up edition is needed.

[Jodi Velazquez · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you want to have fun - get this book! After awakening and remembering your dream you can look up the true meaning of the dream and see what is really on your mind. So many times I had to laugh at how my mind turned my daily problems into a comical dream. The only negative aspect is that some nights I don't dream!

[Audra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. It left out sexual dreams. It was very good for compiling the different possibilities in one place saving readers the research. I admit to skipping the history part as I felt it wasn't needed.

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought a different dream dictionary that was highly recommended and I prefer to use this one. It has more items in which to look up and the authors cut to the chase with the meanings! Highly recommend this dictionary!

[Jerrod Stephan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book for basic dream interpritation.

[Kate Zirkle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun reference book.

[♥adrienne♥ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say that it really frustrates me when I can't find the dream I am looking for in this book. It happens a lot. When I do it's good though.

[Mo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, but I've seen better.

[April · Rating 2 out of 5]

Its a beautiful book, but I don't find dream dictionaries that useful.