Coriat defines the flying dream as having its origin in a childhood desire to be freed from conventionality and restraint. He says that this dream is invariably characterized by a keen sense of delight and freedom.

Stanley Hall with the courage of true greatness attributes the flying dream to atavism, or ancestral memory.

None of these explanations, with the exception of those of Freud and of Coriat, are incompatible with the Christian faith or with that of the theosophists, who construe this dream as a corroboration of their belief in the flight of the spirit. Occultism also upholds the flying dream as an actual experience of the soul. Among the exercises given by occult teachers for the control of the astral forces, etc., is the practise of rhythmic breathing. Swedenborg's power as a seer, it is said by his biographers, was largely due to his rhythmic breathing, which he utilized unconsciously to induce a state of trance.

Typical dreams frequently furnish Gypsy interpreters with a clew, when geomancy and symbolism are complicated. The Gypsies interpret flying as a fortunate dream.

Raphael, on the contrary, qualifies it thus: "To dream of flying denotes that you will escape many difficulties and dangers: If you dream that you are trying to fly very high, you will aspire to a position that you will never reach and for which you are not qualified."

A Witches Dream-book gives the following:

"To servants this means liberty; to the poor it is a dream of riches. To fly very high from the earth and without wings is fear and danger, as also to fly over the houses and through the streets and forlorn ways signifies trouble and sedition."

Hovering, Gliding, Ascending or Rising and Falling are attributed generally to the same sources as the dream of flying.

Havelock Ellis, however, adds that as a rule the falling dream comes at the end of a flying dream and that being usually accompanied by fear, it presupposes an organic origin, perhaps a circulatory or nervous trouble, even apoplexy or epilepsy.

Freud attributes it to eroticism, as in the case of the flying dream, but adds that in woman it frequently has its origin in the fear of a moral downfall. He classifies it as a typical, sexual dream of fear.

Manaceine attributes the falling dream to the fact that on falling asleep the dreamer does not feel that he is supported by the bed, and that therefore he has the sensation of being in the air, i.e., unsupported.

Bruce thinks the falling dream arises from some slight disturbance affecting the heart action.

Raphael interprets this dream as foretelling the loss of a sweetheart; to a sailor it augurs shipwreck.

The gypsies generally agree that it augurs losses and crosses, unless the dreamer should pick himself up afterwards, in which case this dream foretells changes and movings.

Swimming is generally attributed to the respiration, but Ellis qualifies this by adding that it is sometimes due to cutaneous sensations. Freud holds it as erotic dream associated 'with childish memories. Coriat classifies it among the dreams of freedom, flying, etc.

Raphael and other dream interpreters are almost unanimous in agreeing that to dream of swimming with the head well up is an augury of success in business and in love affairs; with the head under water this dream implies trouble and unpleasant news; in dirty water slander and malice; if you dream of sinking ruin will follow.

Nakedness or Being Insufficiently Clad. Freud and Ellis agree that this dream is due to the perception felt in sleep when one has thrown off the bed covers and is exposed. Freud divides this dream into two varieties, one in which the dreamer is indifferent to his condition, and the other in which the dreamer is overwhelmed with shame. The latter he classifies as having a sexual content.

Coriat considers this dream as a residue of childish memories, a desire to abandon all social restraint

The interpretations of the dream-books are more or less synonymous.

Raphael, Poverty and disgrace; Witches dream books translate it as disappointment, also a sign that the dreamer will suffer an affront. To the gypsy interpreters it augurs sickness, poverty and misfortune generally.

In connection with this typical dream of nakedness, the following extract from Der Grune Heinrich by G. Keller illustrates the antiquity of the dream interpretations by the gypsies, witches, etc.

"I do not wish, dear Lee, that you should ever come to realize from experience the peculiar, piquant truth contained in the situation of Odysseus, when he appears before Nausikaa and her playmates naked and covered with mud! Would you like to know what it means? Let us consider the incident closely. If you are ever separated from your home and from everything that is dear to you, and wander about in a strange country, when you have seen and experienced much, when you have cares and sorrows, and are, perhaps, even miserable and forlorn, you will some night inevitably dream that you are approaching your home; you will see it shining and beaming in the most beautiful colors; charming, delicate and lovely figures will meet you; and you will suddenly discover that you are going about in rags, naked and covered with dust. A nameless feeling of fear seizes you, you try to cover yourself and to hide; and you awaken bathed in sweat. As long as men exist this will be the dream of the care-laden, fortune-battered man, and Homer has taken his situation from the profoundest depths of the eternal character of humanity."

Dream of the Death of Parents or of Dead Persons. Freud and Coriat classify this as a wish dream, and they subdivide it under two headings, the dream in which the dreamer is unmoved and the dream in which he is grieved. The dream without attendant grief is not a typical dream, in that it is used to cover another wish in the Latent Content. The dream attended by expressions of grief, however deep, is a desire for the death of the person dreamed of: if the wish does not exist at the time of the dream, it must have existed at some time in the past. Freud gives an example of a woman who dreamed that all her sisters and brothers suddenly grew wings and flew up into the sky. Of course, he says, the lady wished all her relatives dead or she would not have had this dream.