Using AI to Interpret Dreams- a peek inside my heart

Greetings Dreamweavers and Plant Lovers! Today’s post has been percolating in me for a while, and I'm kind of guessing that it's probably been percolating in you too, because the question of artificial intelligence is being asked in every corner, every arena, by every craft, every industry, every task... by literally everyone. This is the issue of our times. My guess is that among my listeners and readers, the knee jerk opinions of everybody probably runs the spectrum from being pro AI to strongly anti AI to everywhere in between. This makes sense- we’re in a really divisive, polarizing time where strong opinions abound.

I am no expert in these matters! My brain doesn't really think or process or arrange in a way that understands computers and algorithms, and therefore AI. So, with all honesty, I have not done research on what I am about to share. I haven’t done a deep dive. I am just sharing my thoughts as they exist in February of 2026. As I believe it, in a month, year, and decade the world will be completely different. Maybe that will make what I’m about to write completely obsolete very soon; but, because YOU ask a lot about using AI to work with dreams, I’m here to share those thoughts and ideas with you.

So, what do I think about AI and dreams?

Firstly, and most importantly, YOU are the authority on YOUR dreams. I am the authority on MY dreams.  Each one of our dreams are custom tailored to us, for us, by us, on behalf of us, to wake us up. No one else, whether that is a shaman, a medicine person, a dream teacher, a dream scholar, a dream researcher, can tell you what your dreams mean! So whether you are using ChatGPT, Google, or any other form of AI to help you interpret your dreams, please remember that those sources have ONE seat at the council table where you bring your dreams for consultation. They have ONE voice. They are not THE ONLY voice.  (Your therapist has one voice, I have once voice, etc.)

My concern is that people are only looking to AI, to ChatGPT, for making meaning of their dreams. Before this all existed, what were people doing? Often this would show up as ONLY looking to google or ONLY looking to a dream dictionary, and then deciding, for example, that “if a snake shows up in my dream, it must mean that I’m having a transformation.” Perhaps that might be a general theme of what people believe that snake means. But for you, Snake might actually be referring you to that magical experience you had with a garter snake back when you were a kid and wanting to remind you about reconnecting to your inner child self. It may mean nothing about Shakti and kundalini and transformation, which is what google was trying to tell you.

The real concern here is that, if you are outsourcing your authority to anything or anyone outside of yourself, then you are not honoring the wisdom that dreamt you and that is within you. You are at risk of missing the juice, the transformational power that your dream has enfolded within it. So please be careful, tread lightly, and remember that your dreams are about a relationship with you.

Secondly, another teaching I have from the wonderful Jeremy Taylor, author of the book Wisdom of Your Dreams, is that “no dream comes to tell you what you already know.” All dreams break new territory in terms of conscious awareness. This is one area that I’m always tracking in regards to dream interpretation. AI, as far as I understand, is a summation of the totality of all known information that it's been fed, right? But dreams do not come to maintain status quo. They don’t come to affirm that which already is accepted. Dreams are emergent, they are groundbreaking, they are cutting edge, they are evolutionary. So, if we are just relying on an AI model that is working with existing data or information, then we're not fully allowing the emergent new evolutionary potential within every single dream to be honored, opened, and undammed. We are cutting off our ability to dream and dreamweave something new, a new world.

I should pause here to share that I have a knee jerk worry over AI. I don't really use it. I have used it once to interpret a dream simply because I felt like I needed to understand what was happening in the world, to catch myself up in terms of relevancy. The answers that came back were fine, they spoke to me. I didn’t have a big “Aha!” or a big insight or revelation, but I did have some resonance and that's great.

So, bringing me to my third point: What I am REALLY looking for when I seek meaning of my dreams is that bigger “AHA!”  That flood of energy that feels like a dam opening up, goosebumps, a heart opening, a surprising emotion- like tears or laughter, etc. The feedback that I received from AI felt like, for lack of a better word, “meh.” It was missing one of my favorite parts of a dreaming life, a dreamweaving practice, a life that is woven and formed by dreaming’s wisdom… which is how downright fucking magical it makes life feel.

If you have had any number of years doing a dreamweaving practice, you know what I mean. Just like the increase in synchronicity, the increase in things in the waking life showing up in the dream world and vice-versa, the flow that happens and the outcomes that occur when we are aligning with the cutting-edge evolutionary element of dreaming's wisdom. It’s pure magic- there’s no better word. It happens so regularly, with increasing frequency as I spend more time walking in deep relationship with the dreams. If we outsource our power and authority to AI, will it gain the ability to replicate this feeling of enchantment? That’s a big concern of mine.

Finally, I want to bring in my late friend and mentor, Tierney Salter, who ran the amazing business The Herbalist in Seattle, where I worked for many years. (Go check them out, they’re still around). About 15 years ago, Tierney told me, “If you use a calculator, then you are going to lose your brains, lose your ability to do mental math!” It was actually illuminating, even revelatory…and it’s so obvious! I think we need to remember that that we have to use our brains or we will lose our brains. If I am outsourcing my imaginative quality, my meaning making function, my ability to re-enter dreams and ask for more insight, my ability to pay attention and track symbols in waking life, then I will lose my imagination.

If I am outsourcing my imagination, then I will lose my imagination.

That is what worries me the most about working with AI for dream interpretation.

In my opinion dreaming is one of the most sacred, holy, soulful, transpersonal capacities that we have as human beings. It’s literally wired into us! We all have it. We have an ability to dream the future, to connect to through our dreams. Our soul selves, our past and parallel life selves, our ancestors, our deceased loved ones, the future ones, are all built in and accessible to us through our dreams. So, if we are outsourcing any part of the dreamweaving process: the ability to make meaning, seek meaning, and imagine and dream with the future, that means that we are outsourcing the world that we are dreaming, the world that we are weaving, the world that we are dream weaving, and therefore the world that we are creating.

Human beings are dreamers. We were born this way, we were made this way, we evolved this way, and it is precious. I can honestly say that my dreaming is one of the most precious parts of my human experience. Some people say that it's the access to our souls. I also know that Spirit moves and works through all things, and evolution moves and works through all things. I walk with a deep and abiding trust in Spirit, a willingness to be wrong, and prayers to be flexible, to be able to hold paradox, and to not fall into fundamentalist rigid viewpoints and to stay open to all possibilities that Spirit brings my way. I also know that AI is here right now. Spirit brought it here! And I also pray that we can be with it in a good way, a helpful way, a kind way, a life affirming way, a way that is rooted in the wisdom of the earth, that is rooted in a knowing that we are all related. If an AI model shares those views, those prayers, then maybe I'll be proven wrong and maybe that's possible. Maybe that's where I'm ignorant and don't know how the whole thing works, but I'm willing to be wrong.

I suppose just consider this a little reminder from your dream friend Lauren Morgan saying to you: don't outsource your authority. Don't outsource the wisdom of your dreams. If you do that, you're outsourcing your soul. Your dreams are precious, emergent, evolutionary. They are a connection, a contact point to you and your soul. All that made you, wove you, dreamt you…Don't give that away. Stay open, stay curious, and consider all things external to you as a voice at your counsel table. And remember: the only voice that matters is the voice of your heart and your body when you resonate with “Aha, yes, yes, yes.”

So blessed be your dreaming, blessed be your dream weaving. Blessed be your meaning making, dear ones.

And thank you for being here.