DREAMS.

[Jonathan123]

There have been recent posts about dreams, and although it may seem a controversial subject, it may need some interpretation. Carl Jung, to me the greatest psychologist of the 20th century, and Clement Freud, used dream analysis as an important tool in recovery from anxiety and other mental conditions. When we sleep the conscious mind is shut down and the unconscious takes over. We have no conscious control of the unconscious mind. All our memories are in there, our fears unrealized, our hopes and longings which may have been unrepresented all are freely available in the unconscious. The unconscious is never biased one way or the other, but gives us important insights we may need to know about ourselves. Nothing is ever what it seems in a dream. The language of the unconscious is in symbols. Dreams about sex may have nothing whatever to do with sex but may be telling us that we need to be joining something together, a uniting of some sort. Death dreams imply an ending. Perhaps a way to let anxiety 'die'. If we listen carefully and don't jump to conclusions then so much benefit can be gained from dreams. But they do need analysis. I used dream analysis a lot in counselling. Never be embarrassed by a dream. It's never what it seems. Books on dreams are useless. Other than those by the masters. A dream is a very personal happening, and one persons dream. although it may be like another's, can have an entirely
different interpretation. When recovering from GAD I had a recurring dream about America. Tall buildings and the US flag flying at the top. America was 'The new world' and the skyscrapers were a symbol of 'standing tall' It also represents freedom. It took a while to get there but I did. I now saw those dreams in a new light, although, at the time they were meaningless. My old counsellor explained them to me. The subject of dreams could fill many books. Carl Jung wrote an auto biography in which he had recurring dreams. 'Memories, Dreams and Reflections'. Worth a read.

 

[Camden]

Yes, Jung and Freud are the pioneers of dream interpretation and solving the mysteries of the unconscious. I have a book “The Interpretation of Dreams” by Freud. It’s a little dense but it is informative and it’s an excellent insight of Freud’s original and authentic research. I agree with you that most dream books are pointless because all people are unique and have different experiences and walks of life. It makes perfect sense that the same dream likely has totally different meanings to two different people.

It wasn’t until recently I opened up to a family member who is a retired counselor about my vivid and often surreal and disturbing dreams. She says that objects, people, and situations in dreams are not meant to be taken literally. Taking the time to interpret what each object in the dream represents is usually the best path to dream interpretation. Again, the same item in two or more people’s dreams will not have the same meaning.

Over the weekend I dreamed about sensory overload and being harassed by coworkers, former classmates from high school, and even by my family members. It was a strange and uncomfortable dream in which I was in a room with an open door and a large window. Aforementioned people would tap on the glass and try to sneak in the door behind me. I opened the cabinets in my room and found other peoples’ dirty shoes and old photographs. My privacy and personal space was being invaded. I felt like an animal at the zoo with all the onlookers tapping on my window.

The next scene I was walking through a parking lot while it was raining. I was pushing a cart full of boxes and suddenly a colleague came to help me. He helped push the heavy cart and opened the door for me. Inside the door, the fire alarm was going off. I began panicking and everyone in the hall was furiously looking at me as if it was ME who pulled the fire alarm.

 

[Cuchculan]

I have always considered dreams to be like a sorting out process. If we imagine the mind as been like a computer. Each day we take in so much information. When we sleep it is sorted out. There are things we need to remember / hold onto. Long term memory. Then we have things we have no real need to remember. Short term memory. But these things can't just flip around like crazy each night. They have to do so in the form of a dream. Are knitted together with latent dream content. I always describe latent dream content as the BS content of our dreams. It means nothing at all. Just there to patch everything together in a dream like picture show we are going to have.

Other factors do come into play. Fears we might have. Mentioned up above was the subconscious mind. This can house a lot of our fears. They are buried deep away. As that part of the mind is active as we sleep it is only obvious we might have dreams that involve our fears. It is in this part of the mind that we are doing our sorting out. That things we need to remember will be stored.

As to how we can remember a lot of we do? I like to use the word ' trigger '. Much like we have a trigger for our anxiety. A red car drives by you in the street. Your subconscious mind will get to work with all things red. Ever be walking along and have this memory just pop into your head? Wonder where that came from? Simple trigger to the subconscious mind. We have this image appear. I like to think this is how Deja Vu works as well. That feeling of ' we have done this before '. We might have done something similar. In a dream. Had it triggered by something as we walk along a street. It feels like we really have done that exact thing. I would not go that far. Is just a fleeting feeling. Thrown at us by the subconscious mind.

Always an interesting topic. One people can debate. Symbols in dreams and all of that stuff. Not something I have ever really been in to. I remember a lot of my dreams. But I am not looking for symbols. I am more looking for things that have happened over the past few days or so before I had the dream. Be it a conversation. A movie. A book I am reading. Have read a good few books on dreams and dreaming. By some of the names mentioned in the OP. Always make for interesting reading.

 

[Jonathan123]

Hi. Cuch. I wonder then why we dream? It all seems so pointless, unless there is a reason that we can't comprehend. Is is that nature has given us this gift so that we can begin to realise that all is not what it seems. It is difficult for many to accept that we even have an unconscious mind over which we have no control. So why is it there? Very little in human psychology has no purpose. If we dismiss dreams as being no more than mere thoughts thrown up by the unconscious mind, then we miss something of great value in our recovery process. It is an individual opinion, and I do appreciate that. But I have seen dream interpretation in action and, believe me, it's surprising how it can help in pointing the way forward. Thanks for that Cuch.

 

[Cuchculan]

I think if we didn't dream Our minds would be on overload. Build up all of these things we see and hear and learn in life. Have to sort them all out. Rather than just having them sitting there. Sort of imagine we deal some things as we sleep. If we tried to deal with these things when awake it might be too much to begin with. Thus the subconscious mind, in a sense, is making things easier for us.

Don't doubt some of the other theories. Just never looked into symbols in my own dreams. More looked at the previous few days. Could find good reason why I had the dreams I had. I could link them to things I watched, heard, talked about and the likes. Even death dreams.

People may arrive at various answers for various dreams. I just think the answer is more simple.

 

[FirstJack]

This is a really fascinating issue. I don't know much about it. But I am just wondering if some dreams are not symbolic in any ways. Years ago I had a bad injury and most of my dreams at the time of the event were dealing with just 'reliving the experience' in dreams A dream was like watching a video of the event. That video or dream replays every once in a while. It seems be the same video of the same event...very literal. Is it possible there is some symbolic element to this kind of experience?