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Language of Dreams
Dreams take us not into ourselves,but out of ourselves. .. Richard Jones
Dreams hold us in fascination. It's an experience that
takes us to another realm of existence. We try to make
sense of it upon waking,that is if you can remember the
dream. It's not just you and I who marvel at the series
of images and events .
Scientists, researchers and psychologists have their
own questions: when do dreams occur? What is the
purpose of dreaming? Parapsychologists believe that
dreams serve as channels for psychic communication.
You and I know that dreams transport us into a world
that defy logic, transcends time, space and physical
barriers.
Our dreams are our own stories, a series of stories that
are real in the dream world. We mingle with our long
departed loved ones,alive and very much part of our
lives; celebrating with us, struggling with us, talking to
us, touching us. We meet long forgotten friends or
acquaintances. We meet strangers.
We move in and out from one scene to another, travel to
places we only fantasize about, or what about the terror
you felt during a nightmare? In dreams, we meet faces,
we confront danger, we enjoy a celebration, we experience
success or failure, we have adventures .
Yet, how many of us think about what that dream meant.
Was there a message? Do you remember any symbols?
What of the people in your dream? How did you feel
when you woke up?
NATURE OF DREAMS
Sleep is essential to dreaming. This is not about lucid or
active dreaming, or induced altered states to trigger
dreams. This is not about monitored dream states in
a laboratory setting. This is about the ordinary dreaming
state we all experience. Dreams that visit us in our sleep,
our experience, our adventures that can go from the
bizarre, to the sublime and to the ridiculous and
to disconnected events.
Sleep is a time to step back from the real world, from
the anxieties, from the confusion, from the passions,
from the logical part of us, from reality. In sleep, we
drift into a world that is spontaneous, requires no logic,
no analysis, no express cerebral activity. In our dreams,
we do not have to exercise judgment or be judged.
Does the soul travel during sleep? What kind of world
awaits us when we go to sleep and enter the dreams
state? Are dreams inspired by God, by some beings,
by spirits from our past? What about evil or tramp
spirits that are believed to roam the world? Was the
dream an extension of that movie we watched?
How can our spirit or soul mingle within a world totally
different from our conscious world? Strong emotions
find their way into our dreams. So do our innermost
fears and insecurities. What about shadows? Some
events in our lives cast a long shadow. Our deepest
secrets may reveal themselves in another context
in our dreams.
Freud and Jung were famous for their exploration of
dreams.They had different approach to dreaming. Freud
stated that dreams do not reflect reality,is as varied as
thoughts in the waking state. He had a regressive
approach to dreams. Jung believed that the dream
psyche passes a wealth of contents and living forms
equal to or greater than the conscious mind. He took
the progressive approach. Jung spent years exploring
his own dreams, thus providing useful information on
the correlation of symbols to dreams.
There is an increasing interest in dream interpretation
and working with dreams. There is a connection between
our dreams and our regular lives in the regular world.
Could we stop and make some relevance of our dreams
and our reality? Dreams provide access to our inner
world. This makes it worthwhile to explore and try to
understand our dreams, and perhaps find a connecting
bridge to our reality, discover those hidden creative
talents, unleash those suppressed feellings
in a positive way.
Dreams may have a message to help us confront our
demons, our deepest pain , or remind us of forgotten joys.
Dreams can also be precognitive,that is, it may warn
the dreamer of the potential of unpleasant events.
Dreams may at times reflect suppressed or unexpressed
emotions and passions and highlight sexual tensions.
A closer look at dreams may be helpful to one's spiritual
development or hint at lack thereof. Some of the experiences
in dreams convey wisdom,happiness and beauty as
well as pain and sorrow. Are you interested to find out what
your dream meant? You've heard about dream journals.This
requires patience, perseverance and dedication.
ELEMENTS OF DREAM INTERPRETATION
In his book : Let Your Body Interpret your Dream, Eugene Gendlin
has these pointers as a guide to dream interpretation:
Experience and experiment with your dream, focus. It is
not about trying to intellectualize the dream, but to experience
the dream and to feel it. Listen to the stirrings within, be
open to change, be forward moving.
Associations: Feeling- what did you feel in the dream,
what in your life feels like it? Yesterday,what did you do
yesterday? What preoccupied you?
Drama- place- what was the main place in the dream,
have you ever been in a place like that? How did it feel?
Character -Who was the most important character?
Were there unknown persons? Who do these people
remind you of?
Working with characters-
What part of you is in the dream, what feelings arise
when you consider a particular character. What adjectives
can describe that person, be that person,imagine yourself
to be a particular character. How would you feel and act.
Can the dream continue? Vividly visualize the end of any
important scene. Watch and wait for any change in images
and feelings.
Decoding techniques
Symbols - think of symbols, what was that thing, what is
it used for?It could be a house, shapes, colors,
animals- endless symbols.
Body analogy- Was there any object in your dream that
can be an analogy for the body?
Why would the dream make these changes?
Developmental Dimensions
Childhood -what childhood memories are related
to your dream
Personal growth- how are you trying to develop?
Sexuality could the dream be about your current
feelings or actions towards your sexuality
spirituality- creative or spiritual potentials
might the dream reflect
It is believed that Gendlin 's use of the body association in
dream work has some precedent in the Gestalt method.
He takes it a step further with the bodily sense and awareness.
As strange as our dreams are at times, dreams are real to us
in the dream state. It is present and vivid , yet difficult to
remember when we wake up. We are puzzled about having
been in another world in our sleep. The intensity of the
relationships and events which we actively take
part in are forgotten.
Dream becomes a forgotten language.
by Bonnie Moss(c)2007
