Dreams certainly are Prophetic (predictive)
Dreams can and do predict (prophesy) the future very accurately. But not for everyone and not every dream does so. Just because you do not experience this in your life does not mean that it doesn't happen.
As far as dream symbols, when I dream they usually mean what they mean. For instance, when I dream one of my fish is going to die, one of my fish is going to die. If I dream a certain person is going to be sick, a certain person is going to be sick.
Some dreams have more details than others also. On October 5, 2004 I dreamed about a baby being born, and so was another baby, the second baby weighed more than the first, it had yellow eyes, and the labor was a breeze. Nine months later, all these facts came true. THe yellow eyes meant jaundice. My sister had a baby, my daughter's cousin had a baby an hour later, both labors were extremely easy, and the baby had jaundice. Additionally, I dreamed this (and posted it to the internet) on the day my sister conceived.
Dreams are prophetic for some people. Namely, prophets. I post my dreams to the internet in a media that can't be tampered with to prove their prophetic quality and they never fail because God never lies. Read Job 33. God constantly speaks to us about the future regarding our dreams but if you don't believe you don't receive.
My family has all witnessed first hand my dreams coming true about them and about me regularly, daily, weekly.
Not all dreams predict the future but some most certainly do.
But when they are prophetic they are obvious and straight forward and they don't require a magician to figure out the symbols.