University

Learning lessons about life; the ambition to improve your life skills or status. Or it can link with your own experiences of university life. In which case it is worth defining what your overall impression of university was – loneliness, pleasure, intense friendships? See: school 

Your individual potential and learning ability, but often the university is associated with ‘higher’ learning or personal advancement leading to opportunity. It might also link with something important you are learning or aspiring to; something important you have to offer but are not yet fully aware of.

This becomes clear once we recognise that the human mind does not work from the top down, but often from the bottom up. Our waking self usually only thinks in ways it already knows or has been taught. Most people when asked, “Who are you?” reply by saying their name or what they are known for – I am a housewife – a steel worker – etc. But who are you? Your name was given you and can be changed – it is not you? We all live in readymade phrases that are put there by words or things we have learned or seen – but do they reflect truly you?

“Who are you?” In fact it is the most difficult question to answer and has been used for centuries in methods of helping people cut through to realising who they really are.

It helps to be clear about this point of allowing fantasy if one understands the way completely unconscious inner events gradually emerge into consciousness. W.V. Caldwell, writing about the way Van Rhijn has defined the levels of consciousness says there are four stages. It says that dreams come from a part of us that is not known – unconscious. To become conscious the impulse has to travel through levels of our mind{

An interesting example of these four stages and how someone can work through them is given by Reich. When the abdominal tensions of a patient were released the man found his body making spontaneous movements. These were allowed and the movements gradually led the man to take on the posture of an animal – he and Reich both felt it to be a fish. This puzzled both of them as to it meaning, but as the movements continued the man first realised he felt like a fish caught on a hook and line, then suddenly, that was how he felt in regard to his mother.

As can be plainly seen, the first level is seen in the example as the man’s unconscious abdominal tensions, built into his physical structure. When these are loosened and considered by the man’s conscious attention, and the spontaneous dream process is allowed to function, level two manifests as movement and gesture. This moves to level three where the movements are recognised as a symbol – the fish. Then the fourth level, insight and understanding are achieved when the man realises the fish represents previously unconscious feelings he has about his mother. At this point he can verbalise and analyse. I believe that being aware of such facts enables us more easily to open ourselves to the process of self-regulation and trust what it produces. It is not by thinking about a dream that makes it known but by working with the process that has taken it from the psychosomatic, through the postural upwards to the dream level and then beyond it to the thinking mind level – ones conscious self.

This shows how the deeper usually unconscious mind is the source for much that then becomes conscious thought. The Neomammalian or Human conscious brain, known as the neocortex, takes up 85% of the total size of the brain. Despite its size it may not be the most powerful., Describing the three brains – the reptilian, the mammalian and the human conscious brain – in its instructions to planning advertising campaigns says, ‘Our Reptilian Brain is more powerful than the Limbic (emotional) Brain, which in turn is more powerful that the Cortex (thinking) Brain. It is best to take all three brains into account when planning a marketing/branding campaign.’

Nevertheless, it is this Older Reptilian ‘brain’ that is involved in much of our daily life in activities such as speaking, writing, reading and doing skilled tasks. MacLean describes this, ‘brain’ as “the mother of invention and father of abstract thought”. With it we are able to learn the complexities of language and analysis, along with self-awareness and examination. It gives us the ability to reprogram old behaviour patterns to some extent, and to be personally aware of our relationship with others, rather than simply responding from old behavioural patterns. It, if linked with the older brains, can become very wise in its understanding of being human.

Example: An actual example of this is of a woman who wrote telling of a recurring dream in which she discovered a door in her house she had never seen before. Beyond it was a whole apartment she has never known or used. It was obviously an area of her life she had never lived in, but she had no idea what it was. So, the technique of exploring the dream while awake was explained, and she imagined walking into the new apartment and observing what she felt and what memories arose. A soon as she entered the apartment she began to remember and feel again things that had happened in her childhood. Her mother and father had separated when she was very young and her mother had constantly presented her father as weak and of no value. But the feelings that arose were of the love of beauty and art that her father had shared and helped unfold in her. But she had kept that part of her closed because of what her mother had said. Now it was open to her again and she could allow it to unfold further in her life.

An important point here is that the woman did this working alone on her dream, not with professional help or supervision. See Dreams – Practical Techniques – Potential

 Learn from Your Dreams – They are the Greatest University

Many people have amazing dreams but apparently learn nothing from them. If you come away from a dream empty handed then you have received a wonderful communication and ignored its message. OK, it may be difficult to understand. So what, things are not handed to us served up with gravy. Struggle with it, pray for help with it, live with it, for this is a message that is vital to you.

And yes, I mean vital. Without understanding your dreams you are like a ship in a storm without a rudder or even an engine. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/

Of course it is not an easy teacher for its lessons have many levels of meaning. See Dreams.