Margaret, 39, from Glasgow, sent in this week's dream, which she says has recurred many times. Margaret, who has written a novel, says that more than anything else in the world, she would love to get it published.

This dream illustrates exactly how the subconscious tries to put its message across in the simplest possible way. In fact, unaware, Margaret has all but interpreted the dream for herself - in her description of it.

However, contrary to the popular belief that the best person to analyse a dream is the actual dreamer, Margaret was, and has remained, too close to the woods to see the trees. In other words, to interpret a dream accurately, the person doing the analysis must remain detached. Therefore, self-analysis requires an individual to view the dream as if he or she was a third party.

MARGARET'S DREAM

I am walking on a long, straight road when I come across an enormous pond, about 300ft by100ft. It is full of fish of different colours, shapes and sizes. The pond is man-made and tiled in blue and white. There are several slip roads leading in all directions from it, but they all go uphill. At the far end of the pond, I can see a bridge that joins up with

the straight road again.

Despite the feeling that I should cross the bridge and follow the straight road, my curiosity side-tracks me. In different versions of this dream, I follow many of these slip roads, but never seem to get anywhere, at which point, I always wake up. The dreams are colourful and pleasant, and I don't want to come out of them, because I want to find out more

THE INTERPRETATION

To begin with, we find Margaret travelling a long, straight road (her path in life). Then she comes across a pond that is full of fish of different colours, shapes and sizes. In this instance, the pond and fish represent life and all its distractions going on around Margaret. Their diversity symbolises people of different backgrounds and races (the different colours). To seal this part of the interpretation, Margaret makes a point of saying that the pond is man-made.

Next, she discovers several slip roads that lead in many directions, but all are uphill. It is no mistake that the words ''slip'' and ''uphill'' are used. These roads represent alternative distractions from Margaret's route; distractions that lead her nowhere. Indeed, she makes a point of saying that she is side-tracked. And this is the point - each slip road she follows in life (alternative distractions) prevents her from achieving her destiny (the long, straight road).

This becomes clear when we consider that Margaret adds that she had a feeling that she should cross the bridge, which would have put her back on the straight road (back on track). However, her remarks about the dreams being pleasant and colourful, to the point where she doesn't want to wake up, but instead find out more, presents Margaret with a problem. These comments suggest that Margaret enjoys these distractions from her main goal.

A clear message emerges from Margaret's subconscious. If we link this dream to her desire to see her book in print, the answer becomes obvious. Any successful author will tell us that to get a book published requires effort, single-mindedness, a certain amount of thick skin - to ride the rejections - and determination. Distractions from that goal usually prove to be disastrous.

In this sense, then, the bridge symbolises a point of no return. To stand any chance of getting her book published, Margaret has to make that her one and only target, then keep it in her sights, for as long as it takes - she has to get back on the straight and narrow!