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Creative Uses of Your Dreams and Incubation

From all the dreams and information that have already been dealt with, an enormous number of conclusions can be drawn. It is hoped that many of these do not need to be enlarged upon; but because it may not be clear from what has been said, the subject of purposeful use of dreams will be explained in greater detail. For instance, it was mentioned at the very beginning that dreams have helped such varied fields of research and expression as science, literature, philosophy, psychology, and so on. It has to be admitted that most dreams that have given such service have been spontaneous, and often unsought, but in a few cases people have purposely set out to gain information from dreams that they could not easily get in waking consciousness. Businessmen, scientists, laymen, and doctors, have each looked to the dream for help in their various enquiries. In some cases they did not understand the process of dreaming, and so were handicapped.

Others had gained an understanding by analysing previous experience, and were better able to use dreams as tools in their research. How this is possible must be reasonably clear from the other features. The dream emerges as an expression of what is happening in all the departments of our being. The unconscious biological processes that have made us a living being – the physical and energetic processes of our body, with its digestion, circulation, metabolism, etc. – the relationships between different parts of our being, such as body and mind, sexual and ambitious drives, self and others, all are dealt with in dreams. Likewise, all that we have ever experienced, read, thought, studied, heard or seen, is all stored in the complete memory of our unconscious. Nothing is lost. This vast storehouse of learning and experience, coup led with the wisdom latent in our very cells, built in from millions of years of life experience, are all available to the dream. A later chapter will show that we are not limited even to our own vast memory, but can pick up thoughts from others through telepathy or expanded consciousness. Therefore, to have a question answered by a dream, is to receive a reply from the most advanced and best educated computer in the world. Even a new-born babe can rely upon the biological knowledge of its cells, which open to it, as instinct and intuitive response, the wisdom of the ages.

The examples of Robert Louis Stevenson gaining ideas for his writings, Kekule discovering the Benzene ring, the dreaming of Kubla Khan, and the dream foretelling the nationalisation of Iranian oil, illustrate a little of this. Another example is quoted in Dreams, The Language of the Unconscious by Hugh Lynn Cayce. The dream occurred to a member of the New York Stock Exchange, on March 5th. 1929. He says, ‘Dreamed we should sell all our stocks including box stock (one considered very good). I saw a bull following my wife, who was dressed in red.’ This dream was interpreted to mean that a crisis was approaching on the stock market, and all should be sold. Unfortunately the man did not heed this advice, and suffered the collapse of the stock market six months later.

The famous acrobat, Tito Gaona, stated in the April 8,1974, issue of Sports Illustrated:

I have sometimes dreamed my tricks at night … and then tried to master them from the dream. … I also do what I call a double-double…. It is a double forward somersault with a double full twist at the same time. It has never been done before. No one else does it. It is a trick I dreamed one night. (Quoted from Our Dreaming Mind by Robert Van de Castle.)

Boccaccio, in his Life of Dante, gives details of a dream had by Jacopo, a son of Dante. After Dante’s death, it was discovered that the last thirteen cantos of the ‘Commedia’ were missing. This caused much debate as to whether they had been written, and all involved searched everywhere. Jacopo and his brother Piero were induced by others to try their hand at writing the missing cantos themselves, but before doing so Jacopo dreamt that ‘his father Dante had appeared to him, clothed in the purest white, and his face resplendent with an extraordinary light; Jacopo asked him if he lived, and Dante replied, “Yes, but in the true life, not your life.” Then Jacopo asked him if he had completed his work before passing into the true life; and if he had done so, what had become of that part which was missing, as none could find it. To this Dante seemed to answer: “Yes, I finished it”, and then took Jacopo by the hand and led him into that chamber Dante had been accustomed to sleep in when he was alive. Touching one of the walls, he said, “What you have sought so much is here.” Then Jacopo awoke and although still night, called upon a friend, who went with him to Dante’s old house. Waking the present owner, they were allowed in, and on coming to the bedroom and looking at the wall indicated in the dream ‘found a mat fixed to the wall. They lifted it gently up, when they found a little window in the wall, never before seen by any of them. In it they discovered several writings, all mouldy from the dampness of the walls,’ and found them to be the missing cantos.

It can be argued, of course, that Jacopo must have noticed the mat before, even if he had never seen beneath it. Therefore it could possibly have concealed a hiding place; but what is important is not the question of whether or not he had seen this, but the fact that he had not consciously thought of it as the hiding place. Even if he had considered it as a hiding place and forgotten it with the passage of time, the dream still presented him with a new combination of ideas – the mat and the cantos. If this is the limit of dream perception, and I am not agreeing that it is, then it still puts the dream in the position of a competent computer. It still shows it as having entrance to our complete memory, and seeking deductive answers from it.

Here is another example of creative dreaming. “Dimitri Mendeleyev was born 8 February 1834 in Russia. In 1869 he was puzzling over the problem of chemical elements. They were the alphabet out of which the language of the universe was composed. Mendeleyev would frequently while away the time playing patience while waiting for a train. He had the cards in rows facing him and he had written chemical symbols of an element, its atomic weight and then a shortlist of its characteristic properties. Mendeleyev realized he was on to something, there was a pattern appearing but he couldn’t quite grasp it. Momentarily overcome by exhaustion he rested his head on his arms, almost immediately falling asleep and had a dream – the periodic table.

Having admitted this much, we are still faced by a problem, namely, how can we get the dream life to respond to a particular question? Suppose we are a scientist researching on cancer cure, or an archaeologist searching for an elusive clue in his studies, or a philosopher seeking to understand life; or just you or me trying to understand how best to use our abilities; how can we go about finding an answer to our problem? The two dreams quoted already help us towards an answer, even though they are not induced dreams in the sense that we are seeking. They help us because they are induced dreams in a different sense. They are induced by the dreamer’s interests. For the one dream is by a stock broker who recorded and attempted to analyse his dreams. The dream is induced because his interests in life are deeply bound up with the stock exchange. While Jacopo’s dream was induced by the search and by others urging him to finish the cantos.

From just these two dreams we can see that a dream response can be induced by being emotionally and intellectually involved in the question or problem answered. Therefore, if we are going to ask a specific question, it will have a greater likelihood of producing a helpful dream if we become as involved as possible in it. A person I once met had a mother much given to the study and practice of positive thinking. The man wished to take his wife for a holiday abroad, but did not have and could see no possibility of getting sufficient funds to finance this. His mother persuaded him to live positively, however, and told him to plan his holiday anyway. This he did, arranging all details. As time drew near he still did not have sufficient money, and began to get somewhat apprehensive as to how he was going to pay fares and hotel costs. This situation lasted right up to a week before the holiday began. Then he had a dream of a particular horse winning a race. Searching through the papers the following morning he found such a horse by the same name, and bet on it, which was something he never usually did. The horse won, and he had his holiday.

I mention this because here we see the man not only intellectually and emotionally involved to a large degree, but also financially as well. These really are the ideal conditions to provoke a dream to answer our question or problem. I have used this method myself with some success, one dream being a direct answer to a direct question. At the time of the dream I had been researching on the psychological effects of Yoga exercises or postures. I practised the postures and tried as far as was possible to discover consciously what they did to the emotions, instincts and mind. I then asked myself, just before going to sleep, if there were inner effects I was unconscious of. If so, what were they? In this way I hoped to induce a helpful dream. In fact, I had several, but one in particular helped a great deal. In it I was on an underground train. Two black men were standing in the aisle. The train was nearing my station and I passed them to get to the door. One would not stand aside, even after I said ‘Excuse me’, so I had to push past him. This annoyed him so much that he rushed at me with hands extended to strangle me, but I caught his hands in mine, and gradually forced them down from my throat. As I did so, I thought: ‘This is what Yoga has done’ (i.e. given me the strength to stand against the black man).

The meaning of this dream is not readily understood until it is realised that these black men had appeared in other dreams. In one. he got my throat and began to strangle me, and I could do nothing, but awoke in terror. Here we see the unconscious or black parts of my nature which I associated with my instinctive drives and fears, throttling my conscious life. The second dream is therefore saying that Yoga was developing the strength to face and deal with one’s unconscious fears and repressed urges. There is still a conflict, but at least my conscious self can meet its fears on equal terms, which is a very great part of the battle.

Becoming involved in a question is not all there is to inducing informative dreams. Earlier on I suggested that a baby, even though new born, can draw upon its biological past, the result of which is instinct, but the baby cannot ask the same sort of question as we do. Its questions are all associated with survival, feeding, sleeping, relating to its mother, and so on. Even if it could ask a more intellectual question, such as, ‘How can one make a better mousetrap?’ any dream that did give an answer would be quite incomprehensible to the baby. In short, while our dream producing mechanism may have entrance to infinite wisdom and resources, it nevertheless has the problem of explaining it to a very limited intelligence – namely us! In other words, we cannot ask a question that is beyond our present comprehension. If we did get an answer it would be meaningless. The question and answer are all bound up in each other. Dr Washington Carver, in seeking inner intuitive answers to scientific questions, had the same problem. He had before him the task of synthesising various products such as milk, glue, printer’s ink and oils, from peanuts and sweet potatoes. He had to modify his questions, however, to get understandable replies.

This faces us with fresh information as to how we must approach the effort to induce dreams. First of all we have to exhaust the limits of our conscious research into the question. We should read about it, study it, experiment with it, becoming involved as deeply as possible. If an answer to our problem is not forthcoming from these conscious efforts, then we have to realise that what we seek does not lie in the known areas of our knowledge. With the present information at our disposal, we are not able to arrive at a solution. Most breakthroughs in knowledge or understanding, however, are not explainable with the old facts. So we have to let go of our present conclusions, opinions, concepts and feelings, and admit that these present aspects of ourselves do not appear to hold the solution. Or if they do, we cannot see it. Then we have to sleep on it and watch our dreams.

The result of this might be that:

(a) We have no noticeable response at all.

(b) We have only a partial reply to our question.

(c) We have an amazing dream that reveals the answer.

If there seems to be no response, we have to keep trying, and record any dreams that occur. It might be that the dreams are not properly understood, or else we are more deeply involved in some other issue. If the reply is partial, then further dreams may enlarge upon it. It may be that a total reply would be beyond our present comprehension. This is very noticeable when watching a dream series. As it proceeds, and one has gained understanding of the broad outlines of something being revealed, the dreams begin to portray greater detail, which is understandable in the light of what has been learnt; or else our attitudes and concepts are so fixed in one direction of approach, that we have to be gradually led and introduced to new areas. Then the subject proper can be introduced. In this way, a researcher into the problem of migraine headaches might be directing his experiments along the line of a particular type of chemical, but the dream might hold information dealing with it under a physiological approach. Therefore a change of attitude would have to exist at the very start of gaining what the dream holds in store. We have to be willing to let ourselves be educated by the dream. This can take a long time; but then so does any research, for we need to grow in understanding and ability to the point where we can comprehend and make use of what we are seeking. Leonardo de Vinci designed the helicopter, the submarine and the bicycle chain, but it took technology three hundred years to be able to apply this man’s ‘dreams’.

Some of those whose insight into the hidden process of human life amount to genius, have claimed that intuition is based upon vast experience or education. This education or experience can have been forgotten, or be the result of years long past, or even, as some claim, from past lives. The point is, however, that this knowledge is tapped, not by remembering it, but in receiving a sort of summary of its entire comments in regard to a particular question. As an example, let us say that a doctor examines a young girl, and has an irrational feeling that she has a rare blood condition. He cannot for the life of him think why, but nevertheless sends her for a blood test to check his feelings. Much to his surprise the condition is confirmed. This makes him really sit down to ponder how he knew; and after a great deal of searching he discovers the reason. In college he had read a novel mentioning a strange mark on a man’s body, which turned out to be a symptom of a blood disease. Later, in medical school, he noticed in passing the colour of a person’s eyes with a blood condition. Both incidents were lost to consciousness, but his intuition signals the essence of his knowledge by making him ‘feel’ uneasy about the girl’s condition, and irrationally (i.e. without knowing for what reason) suspect a blood disease.

That is an imaginary example, but there are plenty of real life ones. Seventy years ago, Morgan Robertson wrote a book called Futility. Robertson had been a seaman, and also had an inventive ability, having invented an improved type of periscope. The book he wrote was about a ship named ‘The Titan’. This had a displacement of 70,000 tons, 800 ft long, had triple screw propulsion, speed of 24 to 25 knots, was designed to carry 3,000 people, and had only a few lifeboats. In the book the Titan hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic and went down.

To understand what I mean about intuition, I have only to explain that the ‘Titanic’ had a displacement of 66,000 tons, and was 852.5 ft long. Like the ‘Titan’, it also had triple screw, speed of 24 to 25 knots, carried 3,000 people and had few lifeboats. It too sunk in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg.

Heinrich Schliemann not only believed his irrational feelings, he did something about them. The son of a poor German clergyman, he educated himself, worked his way into a monied business; then, at a time when all the world scoffed, he set out to discover the mythical city of Troy. Later, he unearthed one of the richest treasures in the world at the Mycenaean Palace in Greece. All this from believing his inner feelings about the ‘fairy stories’ of Troy and King Midas. Schliemann himself says it was due to a past life in ancient times, and his irrational feelings were memories from that time he could not explain with present facts. Whether we believe this or not, his intuition, from whatever source, proved correct.

The prophesies of H. G. Wells also stand in a similar light. Working from his knowledge of his day, he spoke of such things as an atomic war, aerial fighting craft, armoured tanks, air conditioning, intercontinental air travel and television. In a similar vein, as a great devourer of scientific information, Jules Verne prophesied many of the important scientific discoveries and applications that were to follow. One of the most interesting of these amazing intuitive insights into facts is displayed by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver’s Travels. Written in 1726, the fictional Laputian scientists discover that the Planet Mars has two moons, and one of these travels around the planet twice as fast as the other. It was only in 1877, that Asaph Hall, an American scientist, was able to confirm the truth of this remarkable statement. How Swift came by this information is unknown.

Another interesting case is that of Rafael Scherman. As an infant In the nursery he started collecting envelopes because of the various hand writings displayed on them. From then on his consuming passion was a study and analysis of handwriting. As his knowledge of this subject grew, his ability to determine who wrote a particular sentence became more than just a reasoned conclusion; it became intuitive. Cornelius Tabor, a newspaper man who wrote of Scherman’s work with the police in crime investigation, said, ‘I was introduced to him (Scherman) by Dr E.K. I showed him an envelope addressed by a lady he certainly did not know. He glanced at it briefly and then set to work. He described in minute detail the lady’s appearance, her figure, the colour of her hair, her features and suddenly it seemed that she came to life in front of me – he imitated her manner of speech. He seemed to know everything of her character. He told me her life story as if he had suddenly become a part of her very existence.’ (From – My Occult Diary)

What has all this got to do with dreams? They are simply used as instances of the unusual knowledge, foresight, inventiveness, and powers of insight the human mind can exhibit, especially in its intuitive side. They are but a dewdrop in the sea of examples that could be given, but as long as they bring home one point, they are enough. The point being, that any thoroughgoing dream researcher will never discard ideas presented, just because they do not fit his or her present opinions. We are always enlarging our facts to fit increased human knowledge and experience. Let us not then cast away an idea because it will not fit the smallness of our conceptions, or because it seems ridiculous or irrational. Neither let us believe it without testing it. Once more, the balanced way.

If we approach the dream with an open mind, an involvement in our question, and the willingness to be educated, we are certainly on the right tracks. If we add to this the constant interest and enthusiasm in our subject that men like Rafael Scherman have shown, then we bring to the dream an ever widening sphere of experience and knowledge through which it can express itself.

It has to be pointed out, however, that the past ‘knowledge and experience’ explanation of intuition in dreams and waking does not fully account for it. Scherman’s abilities, for one, do not entirely fit into this. If we read the lives of Andrew Jackson Davis, or Edgar Cayce – Man of Miracles – Neville Spearman, we shall soon see this. A study of their lives does show one interesting fact that furthers our knowledge of dream research. To state it briefly, the question asked, and how it is asked, has enormous influence on the answer received.

This has already been hinted at when mention was made of Dr George Washington Carver and his discoveries. When studying Edgar Cayce’s life, we find that several of the important aspects of his intuitive knowledge were not displayed until someone asked him the right questions. For instance, Cayce eventually began to give personal information on people’s latent capabilities, talents and problems, but this did not begin until a man named Lammers asked him questions on subjects he had not considered before, and so had never bothered to ask himself about.

I once made the experiment of asking a young man of very unphilosophical nature, a series of questions, rather like the Socratic method. Within fifteen minutes, as the questions awoke a realisation of his own experiences, he was talking pure philosophy, but he could not repeat this alone, without the questions.

The issues that arise from this are probably not of importance to the average person interested in dreams, but for the serious investigator they pose a very real problem; for one may have certain information that cannot be elicited because we do not know what questions to ask, or how to ask it. While this may seem of little importance at present, with very little stretch of imagination, a time can be foreseen when the present scientific method will attempt to incorporate the intuitive type of research into its sphere. Then, those found capable of dreaming or intuiting answers, will be as much a part of a research establishment as laboratory workers are today. Therefore, the framing of the question will be a serious undertaking. Basically, it has to elicit a response that remains understandable, but is not bound by preconceptions and already known facts. It must be more in the line of ‘What do I need to know? ‘What is best to consider?’ rather than a too pointed question arising from already held opinions. In this way we may discover that another intelligence other than our conscious self is working within us, and we can make contact. Of this, Shane Miller tells the amusing story of the little boy who took a pole to measure the depth of the pool at the bottom of the garden. Each day he measured it, and each day it seemed to show a different depth. He pondered on this, and one day found the thrilling answer. There is Someone, or Something, at the bottom of the pool, moving the stick up and down. The boy realises he is not alone!

Working along similar lines, Professor James Bonner of the California Institute of Technology tried to analyse scientific creativeness. He questioned a number of researchers and scientists about intuitive knowledge gained in their work. He then set down his findings as follows:

(1) Define the question. This may itself be a creative act, since to recognise a question that has not been asked before may take great creativity.

(2) Stuff with facts. Once the question has been defined the potential scientific creator must have all the information he can get. He may have to do some experiments; he reads the literature, he gets together all the information that he can imagine bears upon the subject.

(3) Wait. The scientist may mull the facts over; he may worry; but in principle what he has to do now is wait.

(4) A solution pops out. Perhaps many solutions pop out. Often solutions emerge when one is half asleep, or perhaps during a day dream.

(5) Assess the solution. The scientist must now ask himself whether his new creative idea is a useful one or not. Is it good or bad? Does it unify everything that is present to be unified?

Getting down to methods, these should now be reasonably clear to understand. Having worked and worried over the problem, having looked to see what other people have said about it, or what other people have done along similar lines, we now approach the bed, but before actually climbing in, it is best to sit awhile, and consciously go over what you have thought, what you plan, what you hope, concerning the question. Cover the doubts, ideas, difficulties. Try to pierce the veil that hides the answer. If it is a personal problem ask ‘What shall I do? What is the best course of action? Or, how should it be approached ?’ If the question relates to work we plan to do, such as starting a business, investing in a venture, or beginning some undertaking; run through the plans, and ask, ‘Have I missed anything? Are there factors I have not considered? Is this for my best interests? Any suggestions?’ Then drop thought of the subject, get into bed, and go to sleep. When you wake, whatever the time if you remember a dream whether it seems like an answer or not, set it down lest it be forgotten. If you wake and cannot remember any dreams, lie quietly for a while, trying to remember as explained earlier, and ‘Good Luck!’

The Creative Dreamer

To Use Or Discard

In a sense, no dream in itself is creative. By this I mean that even though a dream may present an entirely new idea, or new energy, it rests upon the person who dreams as to whether they will take up and use the dream contents. Because of this we can liken dreams to the gauges and dials on the instrument panel of a car or aircraft. Despite what the instruments say, the driver can choose to ignore them. While the other extreme is to become so bound up with them, that freedom of will, the sense of experiment or daring is impaired. For if dreams are like the instrument panel, and picture what is going on throughout the machine, and what its relationship with the environment is (altitude, inside and outside temperature, speed, and so on), then each activity by the pilot also changes the instrument readings. The truth of this is easily seen in dreams. Any changes we make through a conscious decision, often entirely change the dream contents and their tone. In other words, the change has not come through doing what dreams have suggested, but following some conscious direction. This is especially true where the outer change influences our feelings, or deals with the basic patterns of our behaviour. Sometimes it is contact with a new friend that triggers this change, or discovery of new ideas in books; or a change forced through the pressure of outer events. For someone who had recorded their dreams but never worked on them, then read and used the ideas in this book, definite dream changes could occur.

Possibly this can be seen in two dreams quoted by G. Heyer in his book Organism of the Mind. The first dream is of a man who was naturally sociable and Outgoing. His interests were in events and outside things. A friend had talked him into practising meditation, however, and he began to look inwards. Here is his dream: ‘I was standing in my house looking out of the window. I saw a garden I had never seen before, and decided to go out and cultivate it. I took fork and pick, and began digging the garden, which was all over-grown. I worked like a navvy. Suddenly I began to unearth live grenades and bombs. I was terrified that these would explode, and I hastily went back into the house.’

This is clear enough. The garden he has never seen before represents his own inner feelings and experience. It is overgrown because he has never ‘cultivated’ that part of his life. He finds that to do so requires a great deal of effort. Also, as the work continues, he becomes conscious of possibly dangerous and frightening emotions within himself that make him wish to give up meditation. This is not a criticism of meditation, merely a description of what we should expect to find and deal with as we progress with inner cultivation. After all, bombs can be de-fused, and grenades let off where they will do no damage.

The other dream is that of a young girl quite opposite to the man. She is shy and introverted. Her life has been much spent in the garden he had never seen her own inner feelings. She decided that she must make a change in her life, and become a bit more sociable and outgoing. She took a holiday at a big hotel, danced every evening, and chatted in the bar. Then she dreamt, ‘I was in the hotel room looking out of the window. As I looked I noticed that the scenery was slowly moving past in a circle. This began to speed up, and I realised it was not the scenery going round and round but the hotel. I became terrified and felt I must get out. I ran down to the entrance, and saw that the hotel was like a huge tree. It was turning round and round being twisted off its roots. I jumped to the ground just before it fell.’

The circling hotel reminds us of the gay whirl of events the girl is now in. It is the merry-go-round, the new ‘circle’ of friends. But this is twisting her off of her roots, her basic character anchorage, her basic self.

These are both dreams critical of the new change or, at least, warning of the stresses it brings. Some outer changes bring the inner self out of the rut it has got into however. A person may be in a constant pessimistic state, which is reflected by dreary dreams. Unexpected outer events like sudden acclaim for their work, or offer of a new job, may make them decide to throw off the pessimism, and their dreams correspondingly change.

From what has been said, and from the analogy between the pilot and his instruments, we can see what the most creative relationship is with our dreams. They are guiding principles; a panel of information about ourselves. This self knowledge can be used constructively or ignored. If it is ignored we must face the consequences, social and internal. For if our speedo shows we are breaking the law, we mustn’t jibe if we get caught. Or if we are out of fuel (energy) we can stop, rest and refuel, or if it is an emergency, press on as far as possible until the car stops. These are decisions the driver has to make. But he can make them a lot more capably and shrewdly if he is watching the instruments.

Therefore, a dream only becomes creative when we take note of it and use its information. The creativity lies in blending our conscious functions of will, decision, focused intelligence, and attention, with the suggestibility, diffused and intuitive intelligence of the unconscious. It is only when the merging of our conscious and unconscious interests take place, that the real creative fire is sparked off. Only the marriage of these two produces the magical infant, or divine child. The dream is only a needle on the instrument panel, reflecting hidden events in ourselves. Will we see them? It is always how we use information that fulfils or dulls us.

Thousands of men had seen oyster shells upon the hills. But it took Leonardo Da Vinci to realise that they showed the land had once been under the sea. The creative spark only comes when consciousness wrestles, struggles perplexes itself with what it sees of the unknown, the hidden, the resistant. It is not enough merely to see. One must also ponder, experiment, suffer confusion. Then the known and unknown mingle and mate, and produce a child. For this very reason, as Blake says, ‘Eternity is in love with the productions of time’, for time reveals the hidden contents of the eternal.

FAIRY STORIES AND MYTHS

Any attempt and success at interpretation or understanding of dreams is a creative act. I have likened it to the mating of the conscious and unconscious, the known and the unknown. In dreams it is often actually portrayed as a marriage. Sometimes one of the partners is black or dark skinned representing the darkness of the unknown; while the other is white, showing the light of consciousness and the known. Even if we do not do anything with the understanding, the interpretation has yet been creative. The mating has produced a child. In other words, we have become more aware of ourselves through the interpretation. Thus the child is consciousness – we have become more conscious – we have grown in awareness! The thing that we now know, did not previously exist as it now does. It was not known in the unconscious. Neither was it known in the conscious. The dream held it in embryo, but consciousness worked on it and brought it into being. The instrument panel is a record of events. They remain meaningless unless the pilot looks at them and interprets them in the light of his knowledge and circumstance. The blending produces more awareness of the situation and how it can be dealt with.

This blending is different to either of the previous factors. Using this knowledge to help us interpret our dreams, we can look around us and see that since the beginning of awareness as an individual, mankind has been attempting to understand dreams. But here I use the word dreams in its widest possible significance. I mean not only experiences of the night, but all the fragrant, half sensed, stumbles towards knowledge; all the hopes, feelings, misunderstood stirrings and urges man has struggled to clarify. All the great religions, all the myths and legends, the scientific enquiries, the classical literature of the world, are all men’s interpretations of their dreams. Music and the arts, poetry, social struggles, are all an attempted understanding of man’s real nature. For we constantly struggle to be and know what we are. If we wish to fully understand our dreams, then we must see that many of the symbols appearing in our dreams also appear in the religions of the world. They appear in art and literature of all times and all nations. And what is so striking is that when we review Hercules’ labours, or Odysseus’ quest, or Mithras’ slaying of the bull, or Christ’s baptism, or Shiva’s relationship with Shakti, we see that the heroes are struggling with things of our own dreams. The only difference is that in the great legends, myths and religions, the hero has arrived at a conclusion. Hercules procures the golden apples; Odysseus brings home the golden fleece; Christ reaches eternal life, and so on. While in our own dream series, we are still struggling with serpents, or unable to face the lion-headed giant caterpillar, or get past the disgusting man. It is therefore obvious that we can learn how these other heroes (for we are the heroes of our own dreams) have won through. What have they done to pass through their own social and inner difficulties as symbolised by the monsters and trials of their adventure?

The important thing about these religions and legends is that they are dreams plus consciousness. In other words they are the creative expression that arises from dealing with the unconscious or unknown in the right way. The reason I have gone to great lengths in explaining all this, however, is because through proper study of them our own dreams become more understandable. Also, in seeing how difficulties have been met, we find possible means of dealing with our own problems, outer and inner. This is why religions and legends have stood the test of time, much to the consternation and plain disbelief of the purely intellectual, who knows nothing of his own inner processes.

To give two brief examples of what can be gained from such sources, two well known parts of our heritage will be explained from this point of view.

Generally speaking, outside of the Catholic faith, the image of the Virgin Mary is smiled upon. Even where critics point out that many older religions also had virgin deities who gave birth to a holy child, they still often fail to see its significance as far as mankind is concerned. This does not mean, however, that a few with understanding have not openly pointed out that the Virgin Mary represents an active principle in every person. Literally, every person can turn to the Virgin Mary for help. But let me explain. Seen as dream symbols, the members of the holy family keep their historical religious significance, but they also gain a personal, inner significance to the man outside any religious beliefs. Mary is said to have conceived from the Holy Ghost and given birth to Jesus, son of God. Joseph is said to have originally doubted and questioned this. but in a dream was assured of its truth. Now, let us look at this just as we do a dream, and see what results.

MARY She is said to talk directly to angels, and to be a virgin. From this we can see that Mary represents the intuitive, receptive part of our own nature. Our feelings, our own virgin nature (i.e. that part of us not interfered with by thoughts, doubts, fixed opinions, biases and pre-conceived ideas) is open to new ideas, new opinions, new feelings. The Holy Ghost is invisible yet expressive of God. That is, it is an unknown part of us, that yet expresses the energy of our whole nature, or the energies that brought us into being. So Mary conceiving from the Holy Ghost means that our own state of receptivity, of freedom from bias and prejudice, of ‘pre-conceived’ ideas, can receive parts of our nature that are as yet unknown. This is really only common sense. No new idea comes to any man with a closed mind and heart. No discovery is ever made by a person who believes they already know it all. To receive the new, we have to have at least a part of our mind ‘virginal’.

JOSEPH He questions and doubts. So Joseph represents that part of oneself that always questions and doubts the new, the seemingly irrational, the intuitive side of us. He has to sleep and dream (become unconscious) to contact angelic – intuitive wisdom. Therefore we can say Joseph represents intellect, fixed opinions, revealed knowledge. He is a builder or carpenter. This signifies that he uses ‘dead’ or visible – that is, known ideas and facts – to build his opinions with. When men believed it was a fact the world was flat, and united this with the idea of sailing to the West, the result was the opinion that the ship would topple over the edge of the world. Even today we have to admit our knowledge of things is only partial. Therefore we have to beware of only building with the known. We must also be sympathetic to Mary, the receptive and intuitive, that ‘gives birth’ to the unknown and invisible.

JESUS He is not the son of Joseph, the intellect, but of God, the inner Self, the thing behind all creation. He is the creative being who arises from a union between the conscious and the unconscious. He is the Redeemer. That is, the unity between our Source, and our Consciousness, can lead to a consciousness of our source. The energies that make us a breathing thinking being, although changed at death, nevertheless still exist. As science has shown, no energy is ever lost, only changed. The symbol of Jesus suggests that through the union of conscious and unconscious, the products lead us back to an awareness of our source. As this source is eternal, our awareness of it means that we are not lost in death, but our consciousness has now gone beyond the Outer, changeable part of our nature. Christ is therefore a redeemer because it is inherent in his nature, as a son of one’s Source and conscious life, to redeem the limited awareness of self into a realisation of one’s eternal basic nature.

Christianity is for many a huge confusing organisation, to which one outwardly either gives, or does not give, allegiance. I hope it is plain from what has been said above, that as far as our unconscious is concerned, and whether outwardly pledged to a church or not, each one of us has the Holy Family within us.

Turning to a non-sectarian type of reference, however, we see that a similar theme is followed. It is hoped that the story of Sleeping Beauty is known well enough not to need retelling here. To shorten what would be a very long commentary the story will only be dealt with from the time of the Princess’s sleep. Taken as a dream, we see that due to events, a beautiful and sensitive part of us has gone to sleep, or become unconscious. As this part, like memories of early childhood, dropped into unconsciousness, all its attendant faculties, symbolised by the court, are also lost to our conscious knowledge and direction. Being young, beautiful and virginal, the Princess is a similar figure to the Virgin Mary. But in the story she does not conceive from the invisible, but falls asleep due to a self-centred, evil, plotting, malicious attitude represented by the witch. Therefore she has to be interpreted differently due to story content. We see her then, as the beautiful, loving and happy side of our own soul or inner self.

If we have had a reasonably happy childhood, and have been lost in the feelings of timelessness, wonder and intimate participation of simple events that children experience, we see the Princess as representative of this part of us. We also see that this beauty went to sleep when we were about sixteen (or even as early as nine in the face of contemporary cities and standards). Then we could no longer live in timelessness, or see the wonder of a leaf blowing down the road, or enter completely into a stickleback in a stream. All the attendant faculties of this part of us also slept – are sleeping.

Thus the interminable hundred years pass – the great length of time, of living in the world of time, passes, before the Prince hears a legend of the Sleeping Beauty. But what is this legend, and who is the Prince?

If, in reading this book, you have for the first time discovered the ideas relating to an unconscious, hidden part of you, with its promise of greater love, wisdom and beauty, then you have just heard the legend. But you have not heard the legend unless feelings have stirred in you telling you there is a ‘sleeping beauty’ to discover. The legend is the dim, subtle, difficult to prove feelings and hopes within us, that suggest a greater beauty sleeps and can be found. The legend is those hopes that tell us there is more in life if we would only search for it. It is a legend because most people believe there is no truth in it; a story fit only for children. While the prince is our conscious mind, our intellect and worldly experience, that feels incomplete, that knows a longing for this ‘other half. He is more than just our ‘conscious mind’ however. He is a particular state of consciousness; for he dares to search for a Myth. His longing, his incompleteness makes him brave, ready to test the truth or falsity of the Legend. He is certainly not an indifferent consciousness, who stumbles accidentally on the Beloved. He has to cut his way through the terrible briars and thorns surrounding the hidden castle. In these brambles others have been lost and died, for they are all the confusion, pain and ignorance that surround and hide our own ‘Sleeping Beauty’. To reach her we have to face, to experience, to cut through this hedge of ignorance, fear and cynicism that has grown around our own happiness and completeness.

But the Prince breaks through, and stands in amazement at the sleeping court. Then, finding the Beloved of his quest, he kisses her awake, and the court wakes also. So, when we dare to face the attitudes of mind, the events, the pains and fears that have cut us off from wholeness, then we enter our innermost self and find how much of us has remained alive yet asleep; in us yet unconscious. Kissing with our consciousness that which slept and was unknown, it comes into our awareness and awakens in us. Then they marry and live happily ever after. For when consciousness unites with its source, it finds completeness and happiness, and eternal life.

This interpretation may give a slightly false impression unless a further comment is added. Namely, it would appear that the princess has to go to sleep in us so that the critical intellect can develop. When this development has taken place, then the two aspects of self, the rational and irrational can marry.

It may not be immediately apparent how helpful the information hidden in fairy stories and myths is. As one faces the elements of oneself through dream interpretation however, such information is of enormous value. An attempt to understand something of the symbolism of the Greek Myths – The Gospels – Fairly stories such as Beauty and the Beast – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and the other classics, can be of enormous benefit. But it is possible that they only begin to make sense when we face similar issues in ourselves.

Some dreams are rather like fairly tales, also, possibly because both arise from the same source. But a fairy tale is usually a worked on’ or ‘interpreted’ dream. A dream seldom carries its issue to such a well worked conclusion as a fairy tale. That is why fairy tales can often help us to see what possible issues our dreams are leading to.

CREATING OUT OF THE DREAM

Once we realise that fairy stories, myths and religion are ‘worked on dreams. we can create our own Legend and our own Religion!

Possibly this needs some explanation to avoid misunderstanding. If we accept Jesus or Mohammed or Buddha as historical personalities, their uniqueness rests upon the fact that they demonstrated in their everyday lives what they saw within themselves as truth. They lived and were true to their deepest feelings. As far as dream analysis is concerned, they had completely come to terms with the outer world, and their own world of instincts, feelings, sexual drives and so on. If we think of life as a creative act, like painting, then we see that what a great artist expresses on canvas, these men expressed in everyday living. Their life was their canvas. The heaven that they had found was expressed in their daily life.

What I am trying to say is that what we find and understand in our dreams, we can express outwardly in acts, or in art. This aspect of dream interpretation has already been mentioned, but not in detail. As it is so very helpful, a little more explanation will be given.

Therefore, let us take as a starting point the act of writing our dream. Then let us see how, once we have spent time on interpretation the dream can now be re-written. In the first place it is a product of the unconscious. In the second version it becomes a unity of conscious and unconscious. Here is the dream:

‘It was Christmas morning when I had this dream. I had actually woken up and wondered if I ought to get up and see if the children had got their presents. Then I must have fallen asleep and had this dream. I dreamt I woke up. The light was on in the bedroom, and I looked towards the bedroom door, which was ajar. It was dark out there, but a shaft of light went out from the room through the open door. In this half light I thought I saw a movement. This caught my attention and I stared intently. The door was now open wider and it was no longer dark outside the bedroom. I could now see that it was a small white mouse that moved. It was walking towards the children’s bedroom. We were all staying in a friend’s seaside holiday cottage at the time. I asked my wife what a white mouse was doing in the house, and thought maybe it had been a pet left by a previous holidaying family. Wanting to catch the mouse I got out of bed and went towards it. As I did so I saw that it was not just white, but shining, very beautifully. It also seemed to grow larger. First to the size of a rat, then to that of a cat. I was now close to it and it looked enormous; shining with an inner light, white and radiant. It was a thing of beauty. Its eyes especially struck me; pink but also shining.

‘Turning round to tell my wife about it, I suddenly realised that it was not the mouse that had increased in size, but I who had got smaller. I also saw what at first I thought was my wife, also diminished in size to that of a large doll, sitting on the end of the bed. I waved to her. It was not my wife, but a tiny girl, very lovely with long curly brown hair to her shoulders. She waved back and I woke up:

Without trying to interpret this dream ourselves, we will follow the course of thoughts taken by the man who dreamt it, that led up to his re-writing it. First of all he could not understand any of its symbolism. Yet it was so impressive, almost visionary in impact, that he kept trying to understand. Not getting any ready made answers he tried association of ideas on the symbols. This led him to realise that the waking up meant that he was ‘Waking up’ to something. What he was waking up to was presumably symbolised by the lighted bedroom and the obscure movement. Something was moving in the house – in himself. At first it was only a hint of movement. Was something stirring in himself? He wasn’t sure. The fact that it was a mouse, and shining, he could not interpret at all. His relationship with his wife was changing, maybe it had something to do with that, he couldn’t tell; and that was as far as he got for some weeks. He still persisted in thinking about it, however, and suddenly he saw the meaning of his decrease in size and apparent hugeness of the mouse. He had been pondering it and remembered that Alice in Wonderland had also shrunk. This did not explain anything until suddenly he saw that in his dream the mouse had remained the same size. It had only appeared huge because of his changed relationship with it. He then saw that anything within him could remain unnoticeably small unless he approached it in the right way. Then, what had seemed unimportant could become huge. For instance, one might have feelings of love for one’s wife, but not think them very ‘great’. If she died, however, these seemingly small feelings could assume giant proportions. So he saw that through a different attitude of mind to things within himself, they could be made very big. He had often, for instance, turned away from his own ideas and experiences, preferring to trust greater authorities’ than himself. He now saw that these greater authorities originally had no more experience of things than he had. But each new idea, each new thought or concept they had received had been treated as great or possibly valuable. They had thus expressed their ideas and become accepted, while his own ideas were treated as little inconsequential things.

Again, this was as far as he got with the dream until he talked with his friend Velta Wilson about the symbolism of the shining mouse. She said that a mouse in fairy tales and mythology often represents the soul, or inner feelings. While anything that shines with an inner light symbolised the innermost self, the energy behind our life, the spirit or eternal part of our being. This opened up a whole new world of meaning for him. A mouse is something that often lives in a house unknown. It symbolises a part of himself only glimpsed before. It was tame, not wild, and it connected him with his central being, or spirit. It had been ‘lost’ by a previous ‘holidaymaker’. When one is on holiday, one ‘relaxes’ and ‘lets go’ of the many demands that press upon one. At such times we often glimpse parts of our nature, of desires and hopes, that were previously hidden and pressed back. Very often, we do not wish to return to the workaday world, because it is really something we force ourselves to do. We probably do not really like our work. Or else we do not like it under the pressure with which it is forced upon us. So we glimpse or see other parts of our nature, that on returning to work are lost or forced away. The dream is saying that a previous holidaymaker, or period of relaxation, brought the mouse and lost or left it. He saw a new part of himself that linked with his innermost being, and lost it. Now it is glimpsed again, and re-found. What the mouse represented to the dreamer is difficult to explain outside of his own words in the following story. But possibly we can call it a non-grasping attitude to life. Also a realisation that with all our thinking and striving, does this tell us who we are? In attempting to put it all into words, however, in a meaningful way, he hit upon the idea of the story. This, when it was written, greatly satisfied him. It brought all his inner feelings about what the mouse meant into focus. The story also continued to be a help to him in remembering and living what the attitude, the mouse and his relationship to it symbolised. Here is the story.

The Shining Mouse

There was once a time, and there always will be, when a man lived alone in a little house. He was really quite happy, because the house had most things he needed in it. It had a number of rooms, a cellar, five windows, and all that went with them. He never really went out of his house, but he often watched people out of his windows. This didn’t seem to bother him too much, because he managed to get all that was necessary; but he did feel lonely sometimes.

It was during one of these times of loneliness that he first heard the noise. It was not a noise he could really describe and say, ‘Ah yes, that’s running water,’ or, ‘Of course, it is the fire crackling.’ No, it was just a faint noise that set him wondering what it was, and where it came from. He had just been thinking that he really didn’t know what to do about his loneliness when it occurred. He got up and looked all through the house and out of the windows, but could find no trace, for there didn’t seem to be anything about that would cause such a noise.

After that he began to hear the noise quite often, and he used to make himself quite ill trying to think what it was. Or at least, he would think so hard he would get a headache and not eat his tea.

Well, this went on for a long time, and he was getting headaches all over the place, till one day he thought, ‘This is silly, I don’t know what the noise is. I have looked everywhere and can’t find out where it comes from. And if I don’t know what it is, or where it is coming from, how will thinking about it help? All I get is headaches.’ So he gave up trying to figure it out and began to eat his tea again. The strange thing was though, that the same evening, while he was sitting by the fire darning his socks, and eating his tea of brown bread and honey, he saw the noise.

I know that sounds silly, and one doesn’t see noises, but what I really mean is that he saw what had been making the noise all along. As I said, he was sitting by the fire, really not thinking about the noise, when out of the side of his eye he saw something shining in the corner of the room.

It was a little shining mouse as bright as sunlight, yet not casting any shadows. It was brilliant, yet you could look straight at it without being dazzled. Now, as soon as he saw the shining mouse he didn’t feel lonely any more. He didn’t mind darning his socks; which had always seemed a tiresome job; and he didn’t even mind eating brown bread and honey instead of cream cakes. In fact he didn’t seem to mind anything any more. He even thought of asking somebody in for tea one day. Maybe not straight away, but it was an idea.

You see, this all came over him in a flash. You know, like when you trip over, wonder what’s going to happen, then manage to stop yourself falling, and lots seemed to have happened very quickly. Well, it was like that. Seeing all this very quickly he thought, ‘I must have the shining mouse!’ and he ran to it to catch it. But something very strange happened, for as he ran to it the mouse got bigger and bigger. At first it was the size of a rat, then of a cat. Then it was as big as a house, and then as big as the world. The man was so startled by this that he stopped and looked around, only to see that it wasn’t the mouse that had got bigger, but he who had got smaller. Then he looked back, but the mouse had disappeared, and he was his normal size again in his room.

It had gone – almost as if it had never been there. Not even the noise that its shining made was there. For a little while at least he carried on darning his socks without minding. He ate his brown bread and honey without thinking, ‘I wish I could have cream cakes. I have brown bread and honey every day.’ And he carried on thinking vaguely about inviting someone in for tea. Then it gradually wore off, and he hated darning socks, he longed for cream cakes, and he didn’t think about inviting anybody in for tea, at any time.

So the days passed, and he wondered about the mouse. ‘It must be a magic mouse,’ he said to himself. ‘If only I could catch it I could do all sorts of wonderful things with it. Just think! I would always be happy. I could set my heart on anything and do it without being put off by being lazy, or doubtful or anything, I could show it to other people as well. It would make the troubled happy, the sick well, the unloved lovely; and I would become a very important man, and be thought of as very clever. Just think of that! People all over the world would want to come and see me!’

This time it wasn’t headaches he had, but sleepless nights. All the time he was wondering how he could catch the mouse. It became so terrible for him that he even set traps to catch it alive. Nowadays he often heard it, sometimes even saw it, but it always managed to elude his grasp.

In the end he became desperate. He took his chopper and began knocking holes in the walls, chopping up floorboards, poking about in the cellar, and moving everything upstairs; which made an awful mess, because some of it had got so dirty over the years. He ate hardly anything. He didn’t sleep very much, or wash, he just tore the house apart. But, oh dear, he couldn’t find that shining mouse. He couldn’t even find its nest or dwelling place. And then suddenly he began to cry. He really did cry; and the tears made white streaks down his face as they washed the dirt off. Then he fell asleep and had a long rest.

When he woke up he saw how his greediness and desire for fame had made him almost destroy his house. So, slowly he began to repair all the damage he had done, and clean up all the mess. In the same way that he had given up thinking about the noise, he now gave up trying to find the mouse. He was just so pleased to know it was there at all, and to see it occasionally.

And do you know what? Because he no longer chased it, that little mouse became so tame it slowly began to be about the house most of the time. When I last heard, it had started eating brown bread and honey for tea. He is the happiest man in the world.

So, if ever you are invited to tea by a man who doesn’t mind darning socks, or eating brown bread and honey for tea every day, just ask him if you might have a peep at his shining mouse!

It is interesting to see how such stories follow a similar type to fairy stories. Also, they usually express themselves again in symbols, or at least, in relationships, that amplify the dream, expressing its meaning. In this case the house is the man’s inner self. The rooms are his different feelings or functions. The windows his senses, cellar his unconscious, while the noise is his realisation of something that is missing from his life, realised because of his loneliness, and so on. The difference between this and a dream, however, is that the dreamer is conscious of the meaning of the symbols used in his story; while the symbols of a dream may need a lot of digging into oneself to understand. The story also extends the dream, explains it, carries it forward to conclusions. But it is not suggested that one use this method, or attempt to use it, on all dreams. There are only certain dreams which really lead to this easily. These we can call big dreams; those full of meaning, that do not just cover present difficulties, but offer wisdom about life in general. While some people may never find they can work on a dream in this way at all, if it is possible, it brings into focus things that have a very strong influence on the dreamer’s conscious life.

As for how one goes about writing such a story from a dream, the attempt to explain the interpretation to oneself in simple terms is all that is basically necessary. We then look for symbols we consciously understand, and let the events dictate how these symbols interrelate. Therefore, if I realise that a dream has told me I have been pig-headed for years; and it tells me the cure lies in allowing my sympathy and love to influence my opinions and emotions, a story already emerges. There was once a man who had grown up to be terribly ugly. Adults found him awful to look at, but children would run from him screaming with fear, for he had a head like a pig. The older he got, and the more he saw how people disliked him, the stronger became his desire to look like other people. One day he was walking through the woods in despair, lost and not knowing which way to turn, when he met a little peasant girl. She was dressed very simply, and although plain, was somehow lovely to look upon. But then the man approached her and she saw him, and although she gasped with surprise, she did not appear to be frightened or run away. When he told her his, plight, she took pity on him, and took him back to her house.’ etc., etc. The girl is sympathy, who the pig-headed man meets in his own depression. She is self-sympathy, his own feelings of being sorry for self, taking pity on self because of his plight. But if we continued the story, the man would learn from self pity that others have similar burdens, and his sympathy and pity be extended outwards, and his head become normal in unselfishness.

In writing such stories about what we have learnt from dreams, we clarify our inner situation. Through turning the parts of ourselves into symbols, we can also see how they relate to each other. We can therefore definitely class this as a means of interpretation, and also as an art, an expression of ourselves.

DREAMS AND POEMS

A number of people dream poems or prose. Samuel Taylor Coleridge dreamt his poem Kubla Khan. Unfortunately, he was only able to write down a portion direct from dream memory. He was then called out of the house and forgot what followed, and had to write the rest of the poem in the usual manner.

The following poem was also dreamt by a man, and remembered m full.

My dear, when I am gone think of me sometimes with a prayer. Make that prayer like a homely room that one can enter, full of memories like books against the walls, that one can open and read; with pictures in of things we did together. Carpet the floor with words of love I spoke, like falling leaves to make your pathway easier. For light, sort out the wisdom from my follies and use that. There will be warmth enough; for burning there upon the grate will be my feelings for you, like hot coals. And in that warmth, and in that flickering light, among those books, love me a little and remember, that I gave you the heart of a man.

As can be seen, this does not lend itself easily to interpretation as it is a direct expression of feelings. But usually poems in dreams either instruct one in a new idea, or conjure in a few words the essence of the dream. In the form of instruction, one dreamer had the words, ‘Each life is a gap in eternity,’ which had very deep meaning for her. It was like being told that her conscious life was only a fragment of her total self. The self she knew was but a part of her awareness, lost in time, a short forgetting of her eternal nature to experience the problems of individual life – a gap in eternity. The same woman had another dream that is illustrative of words, poems or prose catching the essence of the dream. She dreamt that a community of people were looking for God. They had decided that someone amongst them should be chosen as a mouthpiece for God. This would mean that the spirit of God would possess the person and talk through them. Therefore they were trying to choose someone who was most worthy and pure for this task. As they were trying to decide, a man amongst them stood up, obviously under the influence of spirit. This was a shock to everyone, as he was not a person they would have chosen, being rather uncouth. Then he began to teach them under the direction of spirit; and the words the dreamer remembered were ‘The vessel God chooses is worthy, the cup God fills is pure.’ In the dream the woman felt that it was God’s choice, not the people’s, while the sentence meant that whoever is chosen is thus purified by the spirit.

But the reason we are dealing with poetry here is not because it is a part of dreams, but because of the manner it can be used to aid interpretation. Just as stories and fairy stories can express more clearly the difficult part of a dream, so also poems and prose can sometimes help to express the incommunicable. In his book The Living Symbol Gerhard Adler quotes the poetry of a woman patient. She suffers from claustrophobia, and is seeking help. In the poem she tries to describe the anxiety and experience of her problem.

She writes:

The lightning strikes the granite peaks;

They cannot writhe, they cannot scream.

Their wounds bleed stones; their helpless rocks

Roll grinding in the glacier stream.

All night a mad, malignant wind

Buffets the ridge with blow on blow, And from the high tormented crest

Draws out a shrieking plume of snow.

The bridge of logs is swept away,

The path stops short on the moraine

At that black gulf where nothing lives

Except the nights’ inhuman pain.

No voice, no face, no living soul –

Only the two of us are there:

The eye looks at the Wilderness,

The Wilderness returns its stare.

The poem is still in symbols, but nevertheless bridges the gap between intellectual understanding and pure feelings. As Gerhard Adler points out, it illustrates the patient’s problems extremely well. Her intellect, represented by her ‘eye’ has only a painful, fearful relationship with the Wilderness of her natural forces, emotions, instincts, etc. The snow and the rock, beaten by the wind and water, can also easily be seen as her hardened or frozen feelings and emotions, battered by nature’s moving forces of growth and continual change.

Some dreams are difficult to interpret. Several factors lie behind this. It may be a preferring not to know these things because they are painful; we may unconsciously resist the forces of change as the woman does in her poem; or we are having trouble in clarifying an understanding of those areas of experience the dream is dealing with. If we take pen in hand and try to put in words the ‘feelings’ of the dream, sometimes the words will come readily and easily.

It must be understood, however, that we are not trying to become a famous or acclaimed poet. One is simply trying to put into words what is cloudy, obscure and unformulated within oneself. Therefore, in setting out to express a dream in prose or verse, we need not stick rigidly to the dream. To do so may prevent the emergence of the interpretation the poem represents. Remember that it was said interpretation is the dream plus consciousness. One often adds something to the dream to properly understand it. One does not alter the dream, because that is like cooking the books, or twisting the truth. But one can say, ‘That reminds me of this,’ which wasn’t dealt with in the dream, but complements it. Therefore, when we try to express the feelings of the dream in poetry, we have to stick to those feelings, but we can include any related material or images that occur to us as the poem begins to take shape. It may even be that the poem ‘comes alive’ as we proceed, and emerges in its own direction, and this is all to the good. It means that parts of us that have sought expression and consciousness are pouring out.

Not all dreams are usefully rendered into poetry. Often it is quite unnecessary to do so. But sometimes there will be a quality about the dream, a hidden content that we long to grasp, a meaning that we grope for, when a natural impulse will arise to express the dream contents in verse or prose. At such times it is well to follow the urge or the haunting idea.

DREAMS AND PAINTING

Some years ago, a very interesting book was published on dreams and paintings. It was written by a psychiatrist about a young woman who was his patient. She had a bad skin condition, was painfully thin, and suffered other neurotic symptoms. During treatment she showed the doctor a painting she had done of a dream. It was of a bird, a gate, and a winding path to distant mountains. Neither she nor the doctor understood the meaning or symbolism of the painting at the time. All she could say was that the bird wanted to fly to the mountains, but it could not get past the gate. The doctor encouraged her to paint more dreams, and gradually, working on the changing relationship of bird, gate, mountains, colours, and other intervening symbols, understanding dawned. The bird was the woman, the mountains the freedom from sickness, and the gate represented an event in childhood. An uncle had assaulted her near a gate, and the resulting fears and inner situation, prevented her from getting better. As the paintings went on, the woman dealt with the difficulties, and eventually the bird got to the mountains. She was cured.

This, quite by itself, shows how effective paintings of dreams can be in helping to understand a dream. Most of what has been said about stories and poems also applies to this type of interpretation. But paintings often have an even deeper impact upon us than words, even if the words are poetry. By this I do not mean that paintings are greater than literature. What I mean is that any word is only a description which, due to the quality of limited meaning words possess, effects us largely through our understanding of the word. A German sentence might be quite meaningless to an Englishman, and vice versa. But a German painting is beyond the limitation of words, and is as likely to be understood in England as in Germany. A painting, due to its forms and colours, their positioning and relationship, can make us experience or realise things we might find difficulty in expressing with words. If we see a painting of a man holding his injured child, with tears in his eyes despite the strength of his outer appearance, it evokes in us feelings it might take many pages to express fully in words. Also, the picture would be universal, words would not.

Why this is so, is very revealing. It is because the picture is an extension of the actual dream images. It is because a painting or drawing uses forms and symbols to express, just as a dream does. Therefore, when we paint a dream, we bring it to conscious reality. We bring it out into the open to be examined. We also make it secure, hold its images caught within the colours, or the strokes of the pen. Seeing it outside of us in this way enables us to examine it more carefully, and see what the forms make us feel. Just as on looking at the man holding his child, it would stimulate our associated feelings, and we would know them.

Later in the book, under the subject of mandalas and yantras, the idea of painting dreams is taken up again, and extended in its use.

Crazy As a Jaybird – Sane Reasons for Some Crazy Behaviour

If I am violently sick whenever I eat rice pudding, does it mean I’ve got a screw loose? Does it mean I’m crazy if as soon as I have fallen in love I immediately start to destroy the relationship? Am I on the verge of madness if I get an uncontrollable panic attack every time I hear the tune Lonely Ballerina?

Most of us have some really crazy behaviour or feelings. But it doesn’t mean we have anything wrong with our mental health. This may seem like a contradiction, but weird behaviour may mean our mind is working efficiently and according to plan. All it means is that at some time in our life connections have been made that produce behaviour that in the present circumstances seems completely irrational.

If we experience apparently crazy responses to events, then we may even think of ourselves as neurotic. But what does that mean?

One summer I was standing on a beach with my children. Our family dog, Merlin, was relaxed happily nearby watching us. The sun was getting lower and to catch some of the waning heat I moved to a large rock nearby and leaned back on it. Immediately Merlin looked anxious. He got up and looked at me, obviously disturbed. Then unable to take the panic he was feeling any longer, he bolted from the beach. Despite urgent and forceful shouts for Merlin to stop, sit, come back, he disappeared at top speed, with me after him, worried about roads he would run into. I eventually caught him a mile further along, heading home.

Why would my leaning on a rock spook Merlin? Was he crazy? No he was completely sane, and fortunately I fully understood what he was doing. As soon as he bolted I remembered a similar time two years earlier when he had rushed from the same beach like he was running from hell. It was winter and two of my young sons and I had cleaned up the rubbish deposited on the beach by winter storms. We had piled it together and made a bonfire. To add to the fun I had shown my sons how, if you put empty aerosols on the fire, they exploded with a thunderous explosion. To avoid danger we had used the large rock as cover, and at the time I had leaned on it in much the same way as I had that summer afternoon. After three such explosions Merlin could take it no longer and fled. So my once more leaning on it had triggered the old fear that explosions were about to start again. That was too much.

Pavlov pointed all this out to us long ago, but somehow we have failed to connect it to our own neurotic behaviour. Nevertheless, most of our own strange feelings and actions have the same sort of basis as Merlin’s panic – namely, past experience that is frightening or painful, and that caused us either to link something like a smell, colour, place or person with fear or pain, or that evoked a powerful feeling decision.

For instance when I left my first wife and was living with my present wife, we shared a lovely country cottage in a small hamlet. Although beautiful, the few months I lived there were an emotional hell because I was away from my children, and because of the pain of the divorce. I then moved to be nearer my children. But we had left some beehives at the cottage, and so six months later we started driving back to collect them. On the way I started experiencing severe stomach pains. The suddenness of this, and the fact I couldn’t find any physical cause for the pain made me investigate my feelings. As soon as I did this it was obvious that a part of my nature that was usually unconscious, was just like Merlin. The cottage was a place of torment – why were we going back? More to the point, how could it stop us going back? How could my inner Merlin avoid that pain again?

As soon as I understood the cause, I spoke to myself just as I might have spoken to my dog, or a disturbed horse – ‘Look, it’s okay. We aren’t going to stay at the cottage. We are going to collect the bee-hives and leave. You will not be pushed into that pain. As I did this the pain slowly melted and did not come back’.

Unfortunately many of the events that have caused us to link a place or smell with pain have been forgotten. They occurred in our infancy, perhaps even at birth, and are pre-verbal. Bernard, a manwho during a therapy session was sure he had relived the moments following his birth, told me that as he felt what it was like to be a new born baby, he experienced what he called an instinctive expectation of being greeted by warmth and welcome. This wasn’t provided by his parents. The greeting seemed harsh, as his birth had complications for his mother. The absence of warmth and welcome led to a feeling of not wanting to emerge, of wanting to ‘stay in the egg’, as he put it. This feeling response – conditioned reflex – of not wanting to get involved in the new environment of life outside the womb had persisted unconsciously all his life, causing him to be an introvert who did not want to be involved with other people except as necessity dictated.

Bernard had always explained his tendency to withdrawal as his natural character. He had never thought of it as neurotic behaviour. This is often the case. We rationalise what pushes from unconscious sources. It is only when such behaviour becomes very disturbed, or continually thwarts our attempt to love, or create, or lead a life free of depression or panic, that we might begin to re-label our behaviour. An important point to remember is that at the time of it original occurrence, the links or decisions we make are rational and perhaps a very important part of surviving. For instance Merlin’s flight from what may have felt like a real danger was rational. But his running from me leaning on a rock wasn’t rational any longer. It was now conditioned-reflexive behaviour. This is also true of my stomach pains and Bernard’s tendency to withdraw.

Unfortunately it isn’t easy to recall the experiences of our infancy. Without such memory we might not be able to re-evaluate our behaviour with real insight. But a quicker and more direct route of change is to walk in the direction the neurotic feelings forbid. Conditioning places a hidden barrier between our will and certain actions. Fish kept in a tank with a glass divider placed half way at first bump into the invisible glass. Then to avoid the pain they no longer approach the divider. It becomes a habit, a conditioned reflex. If the glass is removed, they still avoid the area. To live a life beyond the ‘removed divider’ we must move through the barrier, even though our habits will shout out danger, fear, pain!

The first time we do this will be difficult. The second time a fraction easier. And each time after will become less potent until we have created a new habit. A woman, Polly, who had the habit of turning to chocolate every time she needed her mother’s affection, turned this around in a few days. Her mother had never been affectionate, and so Polly had found a substitute in chocolate. This was not something she was conscious of as an adult. To change, when she felt the immense desire for chocolate, she had allowed herself to experience the longing without acting on it. Within hours the longing for her mother emerged from it’s unconscious hiding place. She was able to see the connection, and also realise that the hope for affection from her mother was not likely ever to be fulfilled. So the longing could be directed elsewhere from chocolate or her mother.

Try it. Move across the boundary!

Compensation Theory of Dreaming

Jung, Hadfield and several other dream researchers believe the dream process is linked with homeostasis or self-regulation – the sort of self-regulation indicated in the observations of MacKenzie, means that the process underlying dream production helps keep psychological balance, just as homeostasis keeps body functions balanced by producing perspiration when hot, shivering when cold, and the almost miraculous minutiae of internal changes. Despite self-regulation or homeostasis being an obvious and fundamental process in the body, in nature and the cosmos as a whole, it still appears difficult for many people investigating the mind to accept a similar function psychologically. See: biological dream theory;computers and dreams; self-regulation dreams and fantasy; movements during sleep; science sleep and dreams; sleep walking; LifeStream; People’s Experience of LifeStream; Opening to Life

All our lives we try to achieve a balance of the contradictory opposites within us, and whether in our egos we succeed or fail, every function claimed by the ego is balanced by its opposite in the subconscious. Only in the fusion of infancy, or of sexual orgasm, or in religious ecstasy do we escape the psychic wound of division.

Put bluntly, dreams are said to compensate for conscious attitudes and personality traits. So the coldly intellectual man would have dreams expressive of feelings and the irrational as part of a compensatory process. The ascetic might dream of sensuous pleasures, and the lonely unloved child dream of affection and comfort. But this is only the most basic aspect of compensation and is demonstrated in the example below.

Somewhere within the total personality, however, there appears to be a continuing integrative force; though an individual may be overwhelmed by their life experience, some part of one’s mind still seems to observe, evaluate, comment, and even attempt to integrate this otherwise hidden material with the knowledge of conscious life. This may disappear for brief periods, when the fears or pain occurs, but for most of the time it is clearly at work. No one knows what type of ‘thinking’ this may be. It appears to be different both from ‘reality thinking’ and ‘autistic thinking,’ from the patterns of conscious thought and the imagery of fantasy a kind of bridge between two types of mental process. Lawrence Lessing, in a Fortune article on recent sleep research, has written: ‘At the same time recent evidence shows that there may well be a second, lower level of dreaming extending down even into deep sleep, consisting largely of abstract thoughts or isolated symbols, much harder to recall than the generally vivid, active imagery of rapid-eye-movement dreaming.’

Example: In his book Psychology in Service of The Soul, Leslie Weatherhead tells the story of a little girl who while on a visit to a zoo was given a coin to get a small chocolate bar from a vending machine. She eagerly asked for more coins to obtain all the bars in the machine. The mother refused. The next morning the girl said she dreamt her mother had come into her bedroom and thrown a lot of chocolate bars under her bed.

Jung’s view of compensation was far more inclusive however. He quotes, as an example the dream of an elderly general he met while sitting opposite him on a train journey. The general told Jung that he had dreamt he was on parade with younger officers while being inspected by the commander in chief. On reaching the general the commander asked him to define beauty. This surprised the general as he expected to be asked technical questions regarding his service. He was embarrassed and could not give a clear answer. The commander in chief then asked a young major the same question and received a clearer answer. The general experienced feelings of failure and his grief woke him. Jung’s questioning led the general to realise that the young major who successfully answered the query about beauty actually looked just like himself when he was that age and a major. Further questioning led to the information that at that age the general had been interested in art, but the pressure of work and the rigidity of the military life had eroded the interest. Jung goes on to suggest that the dream in his late life was helping to compensate for the one sided development necessitated by his army career. The dream in fact reminded the general of this neglected side of himself.

This concept of wholeness, linked with the Self, which such compensatory dreams connect with is best seen in the collection of many years dreams by an individual undertaking their own personal journey to self acceptance and integration. Through an overview of dreams gained in this way, the two aspects of compensation become much more clearly drawn. The dream work, aimed at meeting the neglected or hurt parts of oneself, opens the way to more pronounced compensation. A man who was investigating a feeling of lack in regard to his marriage, gives the following account.

Example: As I was exploring my feeling I suddenly began to change direction and realised that from the very earliest period of my life I had certain filters in place that influenced incoming sensory information. This had come about because I noticed how critical I was of our next-door – upstairs – neighbours, and in examining it saw that I had filters to search all information for danger. This burst open in intense feelings and awareness of being a ‘weak chick’. A powerful internal struggle and something like an ‘oh God no!’ feeling accompanied it. I then experienced what it was like to be a premature baby and so weak. Being born two months prematurely had thrown my infant self into a high state of anxious survival where everything was felt as a potential danger. So my filters were examining everything for danger. Everything that moved or made a noise was a potential threat to my existence.

At first with laughter, then with pain I saw that this had made me suspicious of my own mother. I had not fitted the ‘norm’ in terms of size, strength or behaviour, so not only had I lived with a ‘danger alert’ process going all the time, but also with the realisation I was not up to scratch. Instead of the full term child who is more adjusted to the environment I had emerged still in a condition adjusted to the womb. My psychological state was also, I felt, quite different, a sort of experience of the death world, the world before birth and after death.

Society, I felt, has a sort of labelling or measuring system. It has emerged out of biological criteria of survival and fitness, and is largely unconscious. People haven’t even acknowledged they are acting under such drives. ‘My genes are best, and everybody else’s are abnormal. But only the best of mine are going to get through’. Out of this I sensed that mothers who have children who are not ‘the best’ suffer a great internal struggle about their child. Part of them cries out, ‘That is no child of mine!’

So the people who are not seen as ‘fit’ are not given social rewards, starting with such rewards as recognition and warmth from ones own parents, and escalating from there into recognition and rewards from social groups and organisations. I personally felt as if I were not seen as fit for several reasons. My premature birth led me to be slightly less robust, and also my mixed cultural background during a time of war made me less fit. I didn’t have the right label attached. Christy D.

As can be seen, Christy feels himself much less capable and accepted by his mother than someone who has had a normal birth. He feels his premature birth left him always paces behind those born full term. He sums this up by saying:

Example: Due to constantly searching for something I had lost too soon – the security of my mother’s womb – due to feeling I never bonded with my mother, I had felt agonised most of my life that I couldn’t be an ordinary husband emotionally and sexually. I pushed and pushed to see if I could grow to this ordinariness and finally felt that I had arrived, only to find that I was too late. Not only had my wife entered the menopause and lost interest in a sexual relationship, but also my children had grown up and I had lost the huge satisfaction of being with them as youngsters. So here I am in my late fifties without a sexual relationship and without the loving contact of youngsters.

The gaps in Christy’s life are obvious, and the urge or need to compensate is also plain to see. In fact Christy has an experience that he describes as follows:

Example: I realised that because I had always felt inadequate in a certain degree, I had used religion as a means of compensation. Suddenly I saw the need for hero figures to use for compensatory purposes for individuals and groups. The person may not be able to live out some aspect of their life. They may not get a sexual partner; they may not get recognition in their work; perhaps people treat them as of no account. For some people an actual physical disability stops them from living out their life fully. The hero/ine figure is then used as an image that has several functions.

For instance nuns in a convent will not live out their ability to get married or have a child. The figure of Christ is used as a compensatory symbol for this in that they marry Christ and their passion is through meditation on his being. In this way people use a hero/ine figure to compensate for what is missing in their own life. They can live their unlived soul through the passion of Christ for instance.

The figure such as Christ represents our own wholeness and complete potential. To compensate for our own unlived areas we look to this figure and have a taste of what we are not expressing outwardly through identifying with the hero/ine. Meditations on the figure might produce great feelings of love, pain, wonder, and recognition – in fact whatever is missing in everyday relationships. The Christian festivals appear to be a way of living out via the image of Christ the passions of life that we might not meet in our everyday life. The birth, the struggle, the love, the death, can all be partaken of. We can share the passionate experience of living in this way, even though in our own actual life we might not be able to live such a passionate and eventful existence. And I suppose television does this for many people today.

At first I had a strong feeling this sort of compensation was used by people who are inadequate in some way, a path for the weak, and a path that I had taken myself. This suggested by inference that I was less capable of living a full life than most. I had a sneering feeling about how people use this as a crutch, but then realised I was judging once more. ‘I need a kick in the arse. I’ve got an ability to see, but I put all these judgements on things.’

As I looked at the situation more fully though I saw that in fact nobody lives a complete life. No one is completely whole, expressing every aspect of their potential. So in fact we all relate in some way to the Christ or other such figures who represents, or in some way ARE the total potential of human existence; a mighty example of what human life can achieve.

Now I came face to face with Christ. I felt knocked over emotionally by it. It was an experience of meeting the most amazing creature or being one could imagine. I stood in front of a god, something that totally transcended human existence. Gods are often depicted as having some great power of destruction or creativity. They might be like a human being magnified many times, with loves and hates, huge powers, throwing lightning bolts and so on. My experience didn’t show Christ as anything like this. The transcendence was in the manner of Christ’s consciousness. Here was a being with no real power in a worldly sense. This being hadn’t created the world and couldn’t influence world history through power.

The consciousness, the being of Christ, existed by a form of love so magnificent I could barely look upon it. If love is the right word, this love penetrated every living thing and absorbed their most intimate life experience. The Christ took in every aspect of existence without any judgement whatsoever. This was its life and sustenance. So one could say this wondrous creature was a sort of parasite living off the energy of life forms. But this is only a part of what I experienced. Through total acceptance it took in all. It took every tiny memory of each individual. But in return, if we can share its immense passion it offers us its own life that compared with our own is eternal.

I experienced that not only does one inherit the gift of eternal life through identification with Christ, but also we share the awareness of all life forms. Through this we participate in the life and passion of all beings present and past. As I met this I was on my knees as it were because I couldn’t help loving this wondrous being. I couldn’t help feeling my own smallness. I wanted to lose myself in this being and be washed through by its radiance and hugeness. To be in its presence was the most amazing thing. If you can imagine standing before a cosmic being that had arrived from some other galaxy, and was millions of years old, perhaps ageless, had no physical form except our own teeming lives, radiated love so much that you were engulfed in it, and simply by being in its presence shared its magnificent awareness, this might give some idea. Christy D.

Christy acknowledges his own need for compensation due to feelings of inadequacy. But he goes beyond this to see that each of us are in some measure incomplete and compensation in its largest sense is about finding awareness of the wholeness underlying our own life.

The description of compensation above is an example of something functional. To be able to survive crushing life experience is a real achievement, not an imagined one, and is therefore functional. Using an image to evoke hope and motivation doesn’t make it less of an achievement. The process of compensation also links with patterns of love and strength actually lived by others. They are then patterns remaining in the collective experience of humanity and can be accessed. When we touch these powerful racial memories we may clothe them in the image of our cultural hero or saviour.

To be clear about this, the power that is found is a release of our own potential emerging from our core self. So in this sense the compenstaory image is a graphic presentation of our own innate potential. This emerges from our unconscious clothed in whatever imagery or ideas we can accept or allow, as do dreams. It can also be evoked by using such images in a compensatory way.

See: – LifeStream; biological dream theory; self-regulation dreams and fantasy; movements during sleep; People’s Experience of LifeStream; Introduction to Dreams

 

The Collective Unconscious

Some thinkers, like Jung and Sheldrake, see individual human consciousness like an island in a huge ocean in which there are countless other islands. Above the surface of the water – waking self-awareness – there is a sense of separate existence, with definite boundaries where the shore meets the sea. Beneath the surface however, one island is connected to all other islands. The land stretches away under the waves and rises here and there into other islands. So, it is thought, personal awareness, beneath our everyday consciousness, shades off into a connection with a collective unconscious we all share. Through this connection we may be able to arrive at insights into other people otherwise denied to us.

In recent years there has been a lot of research very strongly suggesting that the quantum level of the universe is such a universal memory and consciousness. See Physics – new physics and the mind

Jung describes the collective unconscious as the ‘inherited potentialities of human imagination. It is the all controlling deposit of ancestral experiences from untold millions of years, the echo of prehistoric world events to which each century adds an infinitesimal small amount of variation and differentiation. These primordial images are the most ancient, universal, and deep thoughts of mankind.’

However, such ideas have been stated long before Jung and modern psychology. Eastern philosophy has talked of the akasha, the fundamental substance that holds in it memory of all that has happened. In Western occultism levels of awareness have been defined for hundreds of years. At the end of the 19th century Dr. Richard Maurice Bucke wrote about Cosmic Consciousness that was described as having the same universality as the collective unconscious.

A lucid experience describes this very clearly:

Now it seemed as if my awareness went beyond the frontier. This was a very visual experience. I was seeing a vast desert and I knew this represented immense periods of time, perhaps what we call eternity. So it could be called the Desert of Eternity. Here and there in the desert were huge rock formations, a little bit like what one sees in Monument Valley in Arizona. But these rock formations were not plain or slightly coloured rock. Also they were immense. They had the appearance of massive mosaics – brightly coloured mosaics. But the mosaics did not form illustrations or patterns. However, some pieces of the mosaics were larger than others. And each piece might be in itself multicoloured and a sort of miniature pictograph.

As I looked at these massive formations I understood that they had been carved or created through events in the passage of time. Each mosaic, each part of the overall mosaic, had been formed by enormous creative acts, or by long-standing actions. So these latter were like ideograms or archetypes. So, for instance, mother creatures have cared for, fought for, died for their young. This pattern of behaviour has been so enormously potent and perhaps we can use the word successful, that it has created, shaped aspects of eternity. It has left its pattern, its artwork, on time itself. Thus eternity honours that pattern by giving it a place in the very structure of itself. No one being created such a mosaic in the formations. Such a mosaic was large and had in it the essence of all the lives that formed it.

So the rock formations and the mosaics on them represented influences that will flow into the future. They were sources of power or influence that shaped the phenomenal world. They were the body under the coat so to speak. See Archetypes – Links to

This explains some forms of intuition, as one person’s mind is said to connect to all others beneath the surface in the unconscious. In this way, questions or inquiry about a particular person will draw information pertaining to them from the enormous collective unconscious. In fact Einstein said that “Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust – we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper”. So our individual consciousness is rather an outcrop of a huge and ancient collective consciousness.

Edgar Cayce discovered in his adulthood, that he could put himself at will into the state of mind in which he could tap this unconscious reservoir of knowledge. Because he could diagnose people’s illness without examining them, his work was supported by doctors. Investigators of psychology and philosophy also sought him, and he dictated 14 million words while in this state of wider awareness. His findings suggest that we all have this ability to tap the wealth of unconscious information – truly a collective unconscious – but few of us can bring it to waking awareness. His biography, There is a River, and Seer Out of Season, are astonishing and inspiring books to read. See: Edgar Cayce.

We see this markedly in animals that are largely instinctive. Birds have no present memory of how to fly or build a nest, yet when the time comes they draw on something that enables them to express the collective experience of their species.

I am a Child of the Universe

If this connection is a fundamental part of everybody’s life, the waters of self and the waters of the ocean are not separated. Jung called this universal consciousness the collective unconscious. Other cultures have given it other names – the ocean of Brahm for instance in Hinduism. Within Buddhism there is also the phrase, ‘the dewdrop slips into the shining sea’. Australian Aborigines call it The Dreamtime.

The image of the dewdrop slipping into the ocean illustrates the individual becoming aware of melting the boundaries of their personal awareness, and becoming aware of the ocean of sentience within which they exist.

When we first begin to ‘hear the voice of God’ again – i.e. feel the immense power of the collective unconscious, the foundation of our awareness – we are often afraid, even terrified, as the story of Adam and Eve depicts. The fear arises because whether we admit it or not, we feel we might be swallowed up, be lost in the immensity. Basically it is a fear of death. See What Happens When I Die?

 Reaching the shore of consciousness

Looking back at the psychological history of humanity, at their emergence of identity out of an animal level of awareness, all consciousness was originally merged, as it were, in a great ocean or pool. At that point no creature had crawled out of that pool. Nothing had arrived at self-awareness. No sense of separateness or identity had emerged. Then out of that ocean onto the shore of self-awareness, perhaps for moments only at first, a daring creature crawled and said – ‘I am’. Doing so they left a mark – footprints, two stones rolled together, scratches on a rock, a cave painting. And those creatures still in the ocean looked out upon others and wondered, until a spark was struck in them too. Perhaps struggling for a closer view they emerged and gasping also exclaimed – I am – and added another rock.

So the ocean is the world of sleep, babyhood, life of the nameless herd, consciousness immersed completely in the streams of instinct, reproduction, eating, sleeping and the senses, the collective unconsciousness. But the shore is the pathway of consciousness, the spoken word, art, drama, music, education and questioning enquiry. We all take this path if today we can say ‘I am’! We too, in our infancy, emerged from the collective consciousness. We too were gained a soul, an identity, when we were given a name and speech. You too stepped out of the great waters of life – and will meet them again at death. See Programmed 

As already quoted, Jung describes this as the ‘inherited potentialities of human imagination. It is the all controlling deposit of ancestral experiences from untold millions of years, the echo of prehistoric world events to which each century adds an infinitesimal small amount of variation and differentiation. These primordial images are the most ancient, universal, and deep thoughts of mankind.’

What this means in practical terms is that through our dreams, or through any of the ways people access this immense reservoir of human experience, we can find patterns of behaviour – archetypes – and whole memories of people who have lived through and found solutions to the problems we face, or defined the understanding we are seeking. Also, Cayce found actual details of medicines and techniques that had been used successfully in the past and were part of the memory within the collective unconscious.

In trying to present this to sceptical colleagues and intellectuals and scientists of his time, Jung tried to explain his observation of a strata of being in which individual minds have their collective origin in a genetic way. This seems unlikely, and Rupert Sheldrake sees it as a mental phenomena. Dr Maurice Bucke called it Cosmic Consciousness. J. B. Priestley saw it as ‘the flame of life’ which synthesised the experience of all living things and held within itself the essentials of all lives. If we think of it as a vast collective memory of all that has existed, then we can say the life of Edgar Cayce exhibited a working relationship with it.

Such a collective level of mind would explain many things, such as telepathy, so called out of body experiences, life after death, which have always been puzzling because it is difficult to explain them using presently known beliefs. Mostly this difficulty has been because our language and the concepts arising from it insist of a duality of mind and body. However, researches into the nature of fundamental particles – quantum – show us that such divisions do not exist, except in our limited sensory view of the world.

For more information See: Quantum Physics; Levels of Awareness – Levels of the Brain – Consciousness – The Brain Mind Split;  Cayce, Edgar; archetype of the self; religion and dreams; sea; Dimensions of Human Experience

Collective Consciousness – The Dawn of Awareness

Dreams are an expression of biological life forming a dim awareness of itself, an ill-defined awareness as it came alive in the creatures swarming on our planet. Life became conscious in that way millions of years ago. From the human point of view we do not see it as a powerful form of consciousness. But the focused self-aware consciousness of human beings feeds back into that unfocused ocean of awareness because we are a connected part of it. That fundamental awareness, or what the Australian aborigines call the Dreamtime, and what a lot of people probably mean when they use the word God, is transforming constantly through the impact of new experience. This transformation comes about through an interaction between the focused self-awareness of human beings and that fundamental awareness behind existence. That core awareness is archaic and ancient, a collective experience of everything that has lived. That core awareness is unfocused, but in that is its wonder. It doesn’t particularise. It doesn’t end up being any one thing. It remains all encompassing, a collective. Because of the interaction between physical life forms and that core awareness it is evolving all the time.

At times I have explored that deep ocean of unfocussed sentience, and at one time as I dropped deeply into it I had the sense, or the awareness, that life has a unified consciousness. In that consciousness life has the awareness of millions of years of experience through all its creatures. This awareness developed into a living framework, a living matrix. Life learned how to build, how to develop an integrated system. The lesson was learned slowly, but it was unfolded from the already existing building blocks or framework that formed the universe. Integration means connectivity. It means symbiosis, working together for mutual gain. It means love in its most profound sense – the giving of self to another as happens in pregnancy and child rearing; as happens in life where to survive we live on the death of other things such as when we eat plants or animals.

All that life has learned is now a great matrix of influence that continues to flow into the way things work, and who we are. This is like an enormous structure that directs things and holds them to that pattern. I suppose this could be seen as a sort of establishment – what is established. But this would not be a real insight into that collective awareness. Because all the time, in a sort of flashing newness of creativity the collective awareness constantly upgrades, it constantly experiments, it constantly tries out new things. It does this because of the factor of randomness, because an aspect of the universe and life is chaotic, and it has through that a freedom to do the unexpected. And Life integrates what it learns.

Life learned how to build, how to develop an integrated system. The lesson was  learned slowly, but it was unfolded from the already existing building blocks or framework that formed the universe. Integration means connectivity. It means symbiosis, working together for mutual gain. It means love in its most profound sense – the giving of self to another as happens in pregnancy and child rearing; as happens in life where to survive we live on the death of other things such as when we eat plants or animals. All that life has learned is now a great matrix of influence that continues to flow into the way things work, and who we are. This is like an enormous structure that directs things and holds them to that pattern. I suppose this could be seen as a sort of establishment – what is established. But this would not be a real insight into that collective awareness. Because all the time, in a sort of flashing newness of creativity the collective awareness constantly upgrades, it constantly experiments, it constantly tries out new things. And it integrates what it learns.

Human society with its immense variety, it is enormous range of experience, its conflicts, its pain and challenges, is the most amazing source of experience and experiment. It constantly presents variety and opportunity to try out new things. And I saw that life is learning about energy exchange, about shifts, about not holding on. Or perhaps it has learned that and it is offering that as possible behavioural responses to us human beings. In any case, for me personally, I saw that I do not need to hold on to any particular form of relationship. One of the most powerful stances we can take is that of balance. Not holding on to the shifting experiences we meet is the balance that allows us to move and shift according to this moment, this need, this person we are dealing with now.

I saw that dreams express an archaic wisdom. They express that wisdom mentioned above that the collective awareness has gathered through unimaginable variety of life experience. It expresses the possibility of all the behavioural responses that it has learned. For instance, in human society there are all manner of relationship between the man and the woman. There are men with one wife, no wife, or many wives. There are men who never enter a relationship all their life. There are women with no husband, with one husband, with several husbands, or several partners. Of course the unusual forms of sexuality such as prostitution and homosexuality explore yet more varieties of personal experience. It isn’t that any of these are right or wrong, they are simply variations on a theme. As in music that satisfies, the theme may explore conflicts, pain, or discord as the music moves toward integration, toward synthesis and satisfaction.

It is not only genetic coding that influences us to respond to present events. There is also an experience that lies behind that coding. There are the millions of years of life experience that led to the code. The archaic in us exists because of connections. The whole matrix of life exists because of connections. Many of these are obvious as we see in the food chain, as we see in the relationship between plant life and the sun and the earth. We see these connections in the way that bacterial life and plant life and human life work together. One thing relates to and depends upon another thing. At a deep level we all acknowledge that dependence. We feel it as a sort of holiness or awe. We see it as a fundamental truth but unfortunately often ignore it.

Our tribal religions frequently, and unfortunately, get disconnected from that archaic source of life. The religion, although it states it is about the creative impulse in us all, often doesn’t help us to connect with that creative source, with that internal archaic awareness. So dreams, and the love that people have for each other, are always a more direct route to re-connection. They take us back to that wisdom, that tried and true experience. They arouse again the awareness of our connection with each other.

Some things life has learned are fundamental. Of course the collective consciousness has experience of all types of human relationship. That core experience knows that it is only out of the death of one life form that another exists. It is only by acknowledging and living our place in the scheme of things that we keep our own connection with that core of awareness open. In that way we maintain our integrity and growth. Each of us, from our forebears, from the circumstances of our birth and culture, through pain or wonder experienced, have achieved a particular shape or personality structure. Being that shape, we do not need to conform to somebody else’s shape or requirements. It is the variety that the core awareness treasures and absorbs. Our particular shape has its own qualities and weaknesses. What does need to happen though, is that we need to stand openly, as the shape we are, before that fundamental awareness. We need to bring ourselves just as we are to that connection with life so that it may experience us more fully. In that connection we share with it, and it shares with us. It savours us, and we savour it. If we feel guilty or attempt to hide parts of ourselves, then we remain unwhole. Unwhole in the sense that part of our nature is the core awareness. If we lack that we are only a fraction of what we might be. We are the odd shape we have become. With our core connection we are whole no matter what shape we are. Without that connection we remain separated and alone. See You Are a Dual Being

Certain things are holy, like motherhood, or fatherhood. They are holy because they are so fundamental to life as it expresses on our planet. Marriage is such a holy thing because it represents and is an expression of the wonder of reproduction and parenthood. This should not be confused with partnership, such as occurs in a homosexual relationship.(1) Because things such as marriage, that manifest the most primordial aspects of life, are holy we need to honour them, and perhaps kneel before them in some way. They transcend any one person’s life and experience. Because of this, things like motherhood develop into an immense archetype. In other words they become a focused collection of uncountable human experiences. All such huge areas of experience are patterns in the core awareness. They are immense patterns in the internal structure of human life. And although life itself honours them, although life itself largely flows through the patterns they are, life does not stop us making leaps right beyond the boundaries of those archetypes. In that way we make new connections new possibilities for life itself and for the environment.

() That is not to say that a homosexual relationship does not express another of the most profound aspects of life, that of love. But love should be seen as a transcending influence rather than simply a genital desire or an expression of need or dependence.

See Sorg.

Coded Language of Dreams

The Dream Is A Code

It ha been said that the dream can be likened to a cartoon, which expresses or comments upon a situation by symbols. The dream can also be likened to a strange language, which we have to translate to arrive at its meaning. As Nietzsche suggested, it may be that the dream is our own archaic language, which at one time was the universal thinking process of man. To some extent we can easily see the possible truth of this by a simple experiment. The experiment also helps us in understanding the language of dreams, and thus begins the process of interpretation.

The experiment is simply this – try to think without the use of words! To be more specific, imagine that you wish to tell someone that: ‘What most people call prophecy, if looked at rationally, is usually an unconscious analysis of present events, and our projection of their consequences into the future.

I have purposely given a rather difficult idea to use in the experiment, and it should be done now before reading on. Then one finds, that without words, one is thrown back upon the use of images, symbols, dramatisation and depiction of various emotions. It would be interesting to know exactly how the reader has been able, if at all, to express the given idea about prophecy. But here is how a dream has done it.

‘I was looking into a crystal ball, when suddenly I could see a whole file of men walking along some railway lines. I called John (the dreamer’s husband), and said “Look, there is a picture in the crystal!” He looked, but then pointed behind me, and I could see that what I saw in the crystal was only a reflection of what was actually going on in the street behind me.’

This experiment of expressing ourselves without words, is very important. It demonstrates a number of things necessary in dream interpretation. Firstly, it shows that the dream may be our heritage from the past. It could be the method of thought used prior to hamanity’s use of words. If so, it suggests that human consciousness is stratified, and our present type of consciousness is built over and developed from the older level. It also clearly shows how we link up ideas such as ‘prophecy’ with an object such as a ‘crystal’. The complex idea of the future being a reflection of the present is dealt with by the clever positioning of several images in the dream. The difference between speculative and logical thinking is also expressed by the man and woman.

If we explore this idea a little further, we will quickly be able to see how a dream might be able to use common objects and events in our everyday life. Just as we have seen how a crystal expresses the idea of the future, or prophecy, our favourite armchair could express comfort or our sense of relaxation. To understand such things we have to be careful to investigate just exactly what we do feel or think about such things. For instance, our car is something we use to get from one place to another. It is a vehicle. In a sense, a school is also a vehicle, it transports us from ignorance to knowledge. But if we always feel ashamed when in our car, because it is shabby; then the car used in the dream represents our shame, our desire for better things.

Therefore we have to carefully note what our relationship with the dream symbols is. Our dream may not use our car, but just a car; when it becomes just a means of transport, about which we have no feelings. Similarly, if friends or acquaintances are pictured in dreams, then they are used because of the ideas and emotions we associate with them. Therefore, a friend who is always miserable and unsure of himself, represents our own feelings of uncertainty and misery. The warm emotional friend likewise is a symbol of our own feelings.

Sometimes dreams play on words and symbols together. Thus, if we dream of finding an old leather bag which did not belong to us, unlocking it with a key. only to find rotten and evil smelling food inside, this would be a very caustic comment on our sexual relationships. In effect it is saying, I picked up an ‘old bag’, had sexual intercourse with her, but found it unsatisfying and in the end, distasteful.

Although we have said that the dream may be a pre-language thinking, now that words have been added to our experience, the dream will naturally use them. In fact the dream uses any available material quite without our conscious sense of appropriateness Thus, colours, words, images and feelings will all be collected to express the dream. In most cases, however, we can arrive at the meaning of the symbols through our own associations with them. Of course, many symbols, like the crystal, would be almost universal, but they are only universal because enormous numbers of people have the same, or very similar, associated ideas concerning them. If one’s mother had used a crystal ball to hit one on the head as a child, it would no longer associate with prophecy, but punishment. A look at advertisements shows us how often such symbols are used to quickly convey a message without words. Thus a doctor or nurse expresses healing or sickness – a lightning flash is energy, speed and power – a policeman, law, protection or conscience a shapely girl, sexual or emotional pleasures – and so on.

Very often, the dream picks up a theme from the day’s experiences, and uses it to illustrate some inner condition. The following dream is an example of this. ‘I was looking everywhere for some green stuff to eat. I saw a field of cabbages, but, as they were not mine, could not eat the leaves.’ A couple of days before, the dreamer had prepared a salad for dinner, as it was winter, and the family were getting few ‘living’ foods. So we see that the conscious concern over ‘living’ foods has been used as a symbol in the dream. Thus the search for green leaves represents a search for something of her own that is living. The woman had been wondering what her own personal capabilities in life were. As the dream shows, she will not be satisfied or feel happy by simply taking or copying what others have done, or eating the rewards of their labours.

One last thing about the use of symbols and our attempts to interpret. Some symbols may be used a number of times in different dreams. In such cases, or in analysis generally, we have to realise that a symbol is influenced by the symbols it is grouped with, and the way it is used. To understand this, if we realise that words are symbols of thoughts in daily life, we will see clearly what is meant. As a demonstration of how one symbol (word) can alter its meaning due to context, I do not think I can better the efforts of Leslie Weatherhead when he wrote:

“For instance, in Mesopotamia you might have an officer who had blue blood in his veins and who at Oxford had been a blue. Rarely would he be a blue after dark when the whiskey went round, unless of course he went out on the blue on some stunt or other. Then he might be in a blue funk, and the air would be blue with his language. But in time he would recover from his fit of the blues, get his leave and pay, and blue the whole of the latter in a single day of the former, and he wouldn’t spend it on blue stockings either.”

So when interpreting, although we have to understand each individual symbol, we also have to see that symbol in context with the rest of the dream. Only in this way can we understand it properly.

Listing Of Symbols

If we are working on our own dreams, we cannot simply lie on a couch and let somebody else ask us all the searching questions. We have to be the one asking the right questions, and the one on the couch finding the answers. In other words, we have to know what questions to ask ourselves, and also be able to relax and let spontaneous associations and replies come up. Now that something has been said about dreams in the earlier chapters, and the idea behind association of ideas dealt with, we can actually get down to the dream analysis.

So, we have had our dream, remembered it, and written it out fully. Our next step is to start the interpretation. To begin with, one of the best ways to do this is by listing the symbols. I will use a dream to demonstrate this that is fairly simple. Here is the dream: ‘I was lying in the bed that I slept in whilst on holiday. There were a lot of people round me and I had had a baby. Everybody seemed to be certain that I was going to die, and the child or children I had given birth to had been taken away. I thought that I would die (if I was going to die) when I expelled the afterbirth, but I didn’t seem to mind.’ The dreamer added the comment, ‘I had this dream during a fit of depression.’

‘Holiday bed’ is our first symbol. When this is written down, one must now ask oneself what this idea suggests. Some of the ideas that arose around this symbol are that one talks of ‘making one’s bed, and lying on it’. So a bed can stand for some condition that has been created, that we now have to face, This is suggested by the dream showing that it is the ‘holiday’ bed, pointing to some condition that occurred on holiday. This brought up the fact that just before going on holiday, the woman had received a letter from a friend she was deeply attached to. Part of the letter had so hurt her feelings that she had felt depressed all during the holiday. Here we have the ‘bed’ that was slept in on holiday. The dream is, in fact, pointing to the ‘fit of depression’.

Turning to the next symbol, we can call it ‘a lot of people’. This is associated with two things. It is all the parts of the dreamer’s life that are implicated in her depression. Also, all of those about her, who are likewise influenced. Other parts of one’s life are obviously involved in depression. One might usually he active and creative, writing letters to people, cooking extra treats for the family, etc., all of which are left undone during such feelings of unhappiness. Or at least, not done with the same spirit.

Then we come to ‘the baby’. In real life a baby is a blending of mother and father, and all they represent. A baby is a new thing that has been ‘born’ out of us and the circumstances we are involved in. The dreamer said that due to the pain caused by the letter, a new attitude had arisen to the person who had written it. We can definitely associate this with the baby. It had likewise been ‘born’ out of her present self, and her relationship with her friend. In fact, mystics have always spoken of their pupils as ‘spiritual children’. This usually referred to the relationship between the teacher and pupil. But we can see that the dream suggests a much deeper inter-relationship. When we enter the receptive or sensitive part of another human being, we often leave a seed there that develops into a new baby. a new attitude, an offspring of the relationship between us.

‘Death’ or ‘Dying’ is the next symbol. and in the light of what has already been said is not hard to understand. For with the birth of the ‘new attitude’ to her friend, she certainly begins to feel that her old feelings for the friend are dying. As she still associates herself strongly with these feelings, it is as if she is dying. If on the other hand, she could see that the old feelings are not worth holding on to because they were so susceptible to being hurt, her dream might have shown them as the death of an old friend.

The dream ends with the symbol of ‘the afterbirth’. The placenta is that which links our established body to the new growth. The new always develops out of the old – always builds itself out of the elements, nourishment, provided by the old. In this sense, the afterbirth can be seen as the in-between condition within the woman. She could not have given birth to a new attitude unless she was near to reaching those conclusions. It also suggests those parts of the affair that ‘hang on’ within one, even when the affair is over. Not until these have dropped away will the old die, and the new, more vigorous attitude come into its own.

Therefore, our list of symbols will look something like this:

HOLIDAY BED – when one makes one’s bed, one lies in it. The bed is my depression I felt on holiday. The dream is saying this is my bed. In other words, maybe I made this depression and had to experience it because of my own attitudes.

A LOT OF PEOPLE – All the parts of my nature involved through my feelings of depression, and the Outer consequences of this.

THE BABY – The new attitude that has sprung from my pain.

THE AFTERBIRTH – All the feelings that are still hanging on concerning my hurt.

DEATH – The disappearance or death of my old attitude.

From all that, we emerge with a very comprehensive message and analysis of the situation. Although not a long and complex dream, nevertheless, an enormous amount can be gathered from it. If we think of it as a letter to ourselves from our Self, we might write it out thus:

“The letter from P. hurt a great deal. But I could not have felt that hurt if I had not entertained the feelings about him I did. In a sense, I made ‘my own bed’ by thinking about him in that way. It followed that as soon as he did something that did not fit those feelings, they would be hurt.

Yet the hurt has been a positive thing, as it has ‘given birth’ to a new attitude that may help me see P. as he is, instead of as I wanted him to be. Obviously I am still hanging on to the old attitude, but there seems the promise that it will drop away from me. Then all the old attitude, along with its possibility of being so badly hurt, will die.”

Not all dreams are as straightforward to interpret as that one. Some dreams will be only half understood. Others always remain a mystery. The next dream is an example of a more difficult type. Where so many events and objects come into the dream instead of remaining closely bound in the one scene like the bedroom dream, it usually signifies a more complex dream.

In the dream,

‘A girl had been captured by a dwarf – she’d been in hospital previous to this. He was painting and made her help him, but took all her clothes. He made her help him climb on to a big platform. While he was painting someone came up through a trap door almost underneath her, and was shocked to find her there naked and frightened. He took her away, and he and his wife gave her some clothes – bundled her into them. They kept telling her the best way to get to London; but she didn’t really want to go there and kept protesting. They didn’t listen, thinking they were doing the right thing. They took her to the bus terminus and left her there, having told her several routes to London and suggested she either got a bus or a lift. She wandered around hoping no one would recognise her. All the buses seemed to be going to Black-heath. She went to a refreshment stand; the girl in front of her in the queue had orange squash, and asked “Would chips be very expensive?” She had orange squash and it cost 10d. A shop beside the stall was headed, “Christmas cards not decorations”. She went to a cafe – they were selling peas and Brussels sprouts or rolls.’

It should be explained that the dreamer had not been appearing in her dreams. Therefore we see it all occurring to ‘a girl’. The dreamer also made only these comments on the dream: ‘I suppose the girl represents me, or more likely some part or aspect of me. The dwarf seems to stand for ugliness, cruelty – the outside world? But I am obliged to help it. Rescue comes from below – my rescuer finds this part of me helpless and vulnerable – clothes it, but in the wrong things; helps it, but in the wrong way. From this I conclude that help for this part of me will not come from below. The rescuer offers ways but none of these is the right (acceptable?) way, and this part of me is not even sure it wanted to go on a journey – it only wants to keep itself hidden. I have no direct associations with “Blackheath” – except that it reminds me of Shakespeare’s “blasted heath” and just sounds a rather unpleasant place to go.

With its lack of outer associations, and length, the dream looks like a formidable problem to unravel, although this should not put one off attempting it. Even if only part of it is revealed, it is worth the effort.

Let us start with THE GIRL. In dealing with a dream like this, lacking associations, we have to let the dream itself do much of the explaining. For instance, if one saw a man’s hand holding a beautiful bunch of red roses, with a note attached saying, ‘With love’, would it need associations? In the dream ‘the girl’ is not the dreamer. She has also recently been in hospital. So immediately the images tell us that the dreamer has submitted to a healing regime recently, and also that she does not like to see herself mixed up with the things of her dream. For one usually only disguises oneself or appears incognito, if one does not wish to be ‘associated’ with the situation. In outer life the dreamer had just become really interested in her dreams, and we might tentatively associate this with the hospital or healing.

THE DWARF can also be dealt with by looking at it as it appears in the dream. The dreamer’s associations are not satisfactory because they do not explain the dwarf in this dream context. That is stunted growth – painting – undressing the girl – making her help him to a high(er) platform. Taking the image as it is, it becomes self explanatory. It is a part of her that is faced as soon as she submits to the healing regime. It is stunted growth of creative masculine abilities that need her help to lift it to a higher level of expression. In contacting it, however, it unveils her helplessness; it strips away the clothing of pretence and delusion she had swathed herself in. and makes her see how she relates to it – in fear and trembling.

Put in words of a more understandable nature; each of us, man or woman, has something of the opposite sex in us. The logical, cool, constructive male, underneath has a world of emotions, irrational hopes, intuitions and softness usually only associated with women. On the other hand, an emotional, motherly, illogical woman, yet has within her constructive, logical, creative male characteristics. Joan of Arc is an extreme example of the strength and masculine power a woman can wield when her male qualities blend with her female self. While perhaps Schweitzer, with his gentleness, long suffering, and lovingness, is an example of the male female union. In the dreamer, however, this male creative part of her is stunted in growth. (In psychology this male aspect of a woman is called her animus. The female aspect of a man, anima.) This part of her seeks expression in art, in creativity, but has to force her co-operation by stripping off ideas, hopes, etc. This taking away of her orthodox attitudes frightens her; just as it might any person who, settled in a career that offers regular pay and security, suddenly feels a powerful urge to leave all this and take up some less ‘sensible’ job. Most people are ‘rescued’ from this frightening situation by similar means to the dreamer. Their ‘common sense saves them.

Moving on to the MAN AND WOMAN, we see that they fit this role of common sense, mum and dad, figures. They seem to be the easily shocked parents who try to do their inadequate best for the child. They represent orthodoxy, possibly gained from her parents.

But such orthodoxy ill suits her. The clothing fits poorly; the directions are not aligned with the dreamer’s inner desires. That such help arises from below, further suggests that these are orthodox habits of relationship acquired in childhood from home and school. Habits are notably motivated from the unconscious – we do such things unconsciously – without thinking.

LONDON offers a more difficult symbol. It is, in the dream, recommended by the man and woman, so we can gain a little insight by aligning it with their possible attitudes. The orthodox usually prefer the accepted. the safe, known way of doing things. Therefore, if we think of London as a symbol of the centre of commerce, of worldly pleasure; the direction in which most people go when they wish to ‘make a name’ for themselves. Thus the dream begins to resolve into a representation of an inner conflict between two urges in the dreamer’s life. One is her own creative urge which frightens her because it tends to be unorthodox. This she has held back in growth due to her fear. The other urge is that of the orthodox desire to seek a more ‘sensible’ commercial career or at least, to be more concerned with outer life. As can be seen, this is a difficult decision to make due to the inner circumstances surrounding her own creative or inner nature. We can also see that the dream is concerned with very real problems in life, and with practical affairs. For if the dreamer chooses wrongly, she may remain unsatisfied for a very long time. As the dreamer says, ‘This part of me is not even sure it wanted to go on a journey – it only wants to keep itself hidden.’ This shows how we may prefer not to know about our real inner feelings because of the torment of decision they will require.

That the BUSES going to BLACKHEATH follow this, Is very explanatory of what the dreamer senses the consequence will be. All the buses are going to Blackheath, or ‘blasted heath’. This could be taken two ways, one being that any move to commerce or acceptance of outer instead of inner values would be a journey to a very black situation, or that consciousness of the decision cannot help but lead to a period of black despair. Possibly they are both true.

In regard to the last part of the dream, she says she ‘can make no sense’. I must admit I find this difficult also, made worse by not having been able to talk it over in length with the dreamer. Generally speaking, however, any search for food is a search for nourishment. Food and drink ‘sustain’ us, ‘feed’ us. Thus arose the saying, ‘Feed my lambs’, which in its religious setting means to sustain, to keep strong. the spiritual life of the flock. However, our dream does not have a religious setting. The episode of the refreshment stand follows upon the image of Blackheath and the dreamer’s ‘wandering around’. The feelings that arise from such images, if we place ourselves in them, is that of being lost, not knowing what to do, hopelessness. Certainly in such circumstances we would need sustaining, strengthening. If we ask ourselves how we sustain ourselves in such situations we see that some people use an effort of will, some reason about the situation, some pray, some visit a friend who cheers them up, some withdraw or hide the feelings by entertainment or outer activity. Without the dreamer’s comments on this, we do not know what she did, but the dream suggests that she feels the price may be too high, and buys only the least expensive of sustenance.

The next image in the dream is CHRISTMAS CARDS not DECORATIONS. Again we can only speculate on this due to the lack of associations. The fact that it follows the concern over the cost, may help; for Christmas cards are things we give and receive, unlike decorations which simply belong to us as adornment. So the dream image seems to suggest that if we are to receive help we must not count the cost. It is a matter of giving and receiving, of being willing to part with things, that life and events will bring its own reward. We send a Christmas card because we wish a friend to know we remember him. It is a self expression, not a concern over personal adornment, a making of our house, our self, more decorative. Then the decorations, of other people’s cards come naturally. So in applying this to the conflict, it says that in expressing what is in us, instead of simply worrying about seeing we are ‘decorated’ with security, things naturally come to us.

PEAS – SPROUTS AND ROLLS seem even more bizarre until we see that they all have something in common. They are all round objects. Quite simply, a round thing suggests completeness, the full circle, the whole horizon, an ‘all round’ person. So through give and take we arrive at the condition where we can partake of a more complete, whole sustenance, which will, because of its completeness, help us through the decision. This interpretation may seem far fetched until we see, from analysis of many dreams, that a spherical shape often refers to completeness, integration or wholeness.

However, the interpretation of the dream is far less satisfying than the previous dream. This is because it lacks the comments of the dreamer in saying whether or not these interpretations really apply. It also lacks details about the dreamer’s life that would confirm or deny the conclusions. Nevertheless, it is a good example of how we can get at the possible meaning of the dream symbols if we fail to find helpful associations.

Charlene Gowrie’s Dream Journal

Within me was the belief that nothing good could ever happen to me, that success in life was not for me and so my positive dreams I discredited. I decided to ignore my dreams. I felt that by trusting them, I was using them as an escape. I wanted a better life and I was committed to doing all within my power to improving myself and discarding the things I felt could not help me in my quest – and this meant letting go of dreams.

But somehow, I could not completely abandon the notion they meant something. In my more faithful moments, I knew that because of the mere fact of the dream, that they existed, proved that they had meaning. And I had my own personal experience with dreams – for as long as I could remember I had always dreamt the results of my examinations. Not the actual grades, but whether I had passed the exam or not. Strangely, they had also predicted the outcome of certain situations, like interviews and job situations. I found myself looking to my dreams to guide me. I looked to the dreams to help prepare me for the day, the future. And that’s why the anxiety causing dreams scared the hell out of me.

So I Would Not Let Go of My Dreams

So despite the doubt and uncertainty, there was a part of me that would not let go. Not the rational, logical, defensive, fearful part, but that part of me that believed and held on tenaciously to the possibility that dreams had to mean something. That part of me that believed in miracles, believed in goodness, believed in possibility and hoped; the part of me that felt that life was more than a pay-cheque; a little voice inside of me that said there had to be more.

Very occasionally, I would, because of a dream, visit a certain bookstore in which resided a particular Dream Dictionary. There, I would look up the symbols and would somewhat guiltily enjoy processing the dream. I rationalized that by not buying the dictionary, I was not taking the dreams seriously. After all, they were just dreams and it was ridiculous to give them any credence.

And this was my plight for a very long time – torn between trust and doubt, both co-existing at the same time, sometimes one stronger that the other, but both always alive.

Then Came the Spider Dreams

Then the spider dreams started, the dreams were not about the spider but for some reason they would appear in the dreams, just there, not threatening, just there. Well, doubt or not, I felt this had to be explored. Something about the spider dreams and what the dictionary said about spiders caught my attention. Maybe it was the depth of the explanation, that dreaming a spider did not just mean “money” as I had been told. Maybe because I felt the author was taking dreaming seriously and it was not like one of those other dream dictionaries that just gave a meaning without any analysis or offering any link between the dreamer and the dream.

The spider dreams had to do with not wanting to confront or handle difficult feelings. At this time I was actually dealing with the end of a relationship that I had invested very heavily in, and I did not want to see it end. One thing that I had always known about dreams (although I did not believe in them!) was that once you understood the message of the dream, the dreams would cease. As soon as I linked the spider dreams to my feelings about the possible end of that relationship, the dreams stopped occurring.

One Dream Ends – Another Begins

Then began the car dreams. Almost every night, I would dream my car was either lost or stolen. In the dreams, I would first panic, but reason would save me. Either I had forgotten where I had parked, or the car would be found in a different street, sometimes the police or members of my family would help me. Again I turned to the Dream Dictionary – and this time I bought it!

The dictionary was a gift from God. It helped me through one of the most difficult times in my life. I think what appealed to me the most was that it was myself helping myself. There was something mystical and comforting in that. And who knew better than me exactly what I was going through. I did not have to explain anything, all the information was there – and the support and guidance came from within me.

This meant a great deal to me – because though a natural skeptic, I knew that I could trust myself. It was not a drug, it was not a distraction – through the dream I was able to understand and manage what was happening to me.

It showed me that I was not alone in the Universe. That there was something out there that knew, that understood, that guided, perhaps even cared – there was a plan, even if I did not know what it was.

Moving Beyond the Small Me

Then I had the mandala dream. When I read in the dictionary what this symbolized, I was so impressed with myself. I had always wanted to hope and this gave me such hope for myself, for the future. It was fascinating to me that I had dreamt something that I had no knowledge of, to find it existed, to find it had meaning.

So slowly, my doubts gave way to faith. Slowly, I stopped wondering and began to see, to believe. Slowly, in my own time and at my own pace, things began to unfold. I began to give up the very little, nagging doubts, the inconsistencies, the nuances, and the questions. Slowly, I let go.

And then the ultimate test – what about the dream, the dream that I had placed so much faith in that had not materialized at all. I remembered it very clearly, although it was about nine years old. This had been the one red flag that I had never been able to stand down.

And do you know – on processing the dream I discovered that, exactly how things had played themselves out, had actually been said in the dream.

And so now I know – and that has made all the difference.

Characters or People in Dreams

Harry Bosma, who produces the best selling Alchera dream interpretation software, says of the characters in your dreams:

“There must have been some dreams that made you wonder why a known person appeared in them. This is especially puzzling if you haven’t seen that person for years. I experience this all the time. Everyone I ever met in my life keeps showing up in my dreams. I can’t blame day residue for it. If somebody appears in my dream, there has to be a special reason for it.

“I’ve been entering characters in my symbol book for a long time. Let me introduce you to a few. There’s Peter, one of my strongest helpers. He showed up riding on a horse in my ‘Cracking The Ice’ dream. Riding the horse he managed to crack the ice on a small lake, something I was unable to do on my own. I had to think for a while before I understood exactly why he appeared in my dream. Peter went to the same elementary school as I. One thing I eventually remembered about him was his inventiveness. This led me to realise that I use the appearance of Peter in a dream as a clue to consider whether I need to think of a more ingenious approach to an issue I am confronting.

There’s Frits, whose role I only recently got to understand. I could never see any pattern in the dreams he appeared in. Frits is a high school acquaintance, somebody who was often around, even though we weren’t really friends. I never fully understood it at the time. But it recently hit me that he was especially around when I was rebelling against the boredom of high school. He was having fun whenever I broke the rules, or did something else exciting. With that insight, looking back at the dreams, there is a pattern. Whenever my behaviour in a dream is more active than usual, he is around. He is the part of me that is having fun, because I’m not aware that I’m having fun myself.” 

Inner Characters: An important thing to remember to understand your dream characters/people is that usually we are not dreaming about that actual person but a living image of them formed by your memories, impressions, events lived with them and even your intuitions about them. Such memories are living parts of us and influence us inwardly, so we put them in our dreams.

Apart from defining how you see one of your dream characters, and what relationship you have had to them in the past, as Harry suggests, it helps to simply consider how you feel about them, what of their characteristics are most important or noticeable to you? But occasionally it isn’t what you see in their character, but what you feel about them that is important. For instance a person who has frequently appeared in my dreams is a woman called Ann. I felt a lot of sexual attraction to Ann – although she may have felt nothing for me – and she appears in my dreams whenever loving feelings or closeness are being dealt with.

So, if we really examine ourselves, we have a really wonderful ability to express as a huge range of different types, as shown in our dreams, the master/mistress of drama and expression.

A man I used to work for, Leo, has appeared in dreams where a problem regarding outer activity was concerned. So Leo represents for me ways of dealing with difficulties I face in the world. He is the confidence and courage I have innately to meet things constructively.

But many characters in dreams are not people you have ever met or known, not even characters from films, plays or books. So you can’t look back on them and ask yourself what you observed or felt about them. In such cases it is most helpful to imagine yourself as that character and describe who you are, exactly as you are and how you act in the dream – as the dream character. As an example of this, one character in a dream, an old man, was dying. He was nobody I knew. When I imagined myself as him and described what I felt, and what was happening to me as him, it was clear he represented the experience I was facing at the time. I was letting my old life, a phase of my life, my old self, die. This was difficult but it was happening, and the dream helped me clarify what I was facing. See Being the Person or Thing

One of the most helpful ways to find the qualities of a dream character is to give them a name. For instance you might basically feel that a man you have seen or know slightly seems a practical outwardly capable person. So you could give him the name of Mr. Practical. Mr Practical therefore is your ability in dealing with everyday life, or outward activities. There could also be Mr Sexy, Miss How Do I Look, and so on. Naming characters gets easier if you stand in their role imaginatively as described above.

But remember that a word in a sentence changes meaning, even subtly, as it is placed in a different context. The word light, for instance, can be used by saying, “I switched on the light.” Or we can say, “I felt very light-hearted.” Or even, “There was no light.”

Each of these brings about a different sense of surroundings or events. Similarly, the context of a character in your dream may change what you have defined of his or her qualities. So you must look to the context to get the final understanding as to what you dream character indicates in that particular dream. See Context/Theme

A person who appeared in many of my dreams was a woman named Su. My relationship with Su was one in which I had been trying to learn to love her without being possessive or grasping. So in my dreams she always depicted my attempts to love in that way, or my attempts to learn a fuller love.

In one dream Su is shown paddling an inflatable dingy to a local town, where I am going to meet her. But there were difficulties about this. At the time of the dream I was dealing with a lot of people in very direct relationships, and Su in this dream shows that I still haven’t ‘met’ or integrated the ability to love without grasping or wanting to posses. The difficulty in the dream suggests that I find it difficult to express this more open love.

In a later dream, experienced just after I had led a weekend activity, I dreamt Su was visiting or with us. But she didn’t look like Su at all, being dark, indecisive and a weaker personality. I was talking with her, or just with her, when I realised that Mike (a close friend) was upstairs with my wife. He had arrived back from America. I wanted him to meet Su. I wanted to hug him, but I also wanted Su to see me do this. So although I hug him with love, there was also something of the purposely done thing about it.

Here Su is actually with me, in my house, so this is an entirely different context than with the previous dream. This shows a fuller integration with unconditional love. But the part at the end where I hope Su will see me ‘loving’ Mike points out that I am still moved by desires for acclaim and public attention.

So to summarise, consider each character and discover what qualities, faults, weaknesses or strength they depict for you. Give them a name, as this helps you remember their quality. But look to the context of the dream to find the detailed and changing expression of what the character depicts. See Autonomous Complex; Sub Personalities

Example: Then I slowly became aware of a deeper sense of the discomfort. It was a feeling of being stuck in one place and not being able to move. It wasn’t anything to do with moving physically but was as an awareness. It felt awful and I tried to move but couldn’t. The only way of describing it was as if we are all made out of the same stuff – as an example concrete – and as such we filled all space. So the little space I filled could not move because all around was filled by others. I felt really stuck and wondered what I could do, but there seemed no way out of it. Yet I could not believe this was really how things were.

Most of this was spontaneous thoughts and movement through the experience, so that was how I was led to thinking about my cousin Sid again, and his situation of being constantly linked with his mother even after he died. Then I realised that I was linked with Rita in a similar way, and in feeling that I realised that I could move in at least two positions – me and Rita – because of the loving connection I felt.

Then came a flood of realisation, every person I had loved or experienced was another position I could be in; and then I knew all the animals I had loved and even people I had a casual relationship with. But there was even more because in dreams and sessions I had become or encountered amazing things, people, creatures, the alien beings and others. I knew then that I was FREE to go anywhere and be almost anything, because their life pattern was now part of me. Then with a rush of wonder, I realised that the more people and creatures I loved or had experience of, the bigger I became.

 Couple: Depending on the context of the couple in the dream, they can represent the dreamers parents and the family situation and environment at the age of the couple portrayed; if the dreamer has been married, can depict the dreamer’s marriage situation at the age of the couple; hopes for a relationship; possible outcomes of a relationship; friendship; partnership; some sort of relationship.

Dead people: The influence those people still have in your life – i.e. you are still influenced by them, or your relationship with them, even though they are dead. Feelings about death. Many people are often unaware of the massive experience they take in during a relationship and how it interacts with them when we love someone. In other words the memories and experience we gather unconsciously change us and are not lost. It is part of you and is symbolised in dreams as a person or event. So this needs to be recognised in understanding Dreams about Dead People and also Dreaming about a person I have left

Group of people: A group of people, as in Ivor’s dream below, can depict how one meets the pressure of social norms; public opinion. See: crowd.

Large crowds: Enormous involvement of self in an issue; ones relationship or feelings about the social environment one lives in; in groups we have a feeling of being looked at or on view – how we relate to that may be depicted by what we are doing in the dream group. See: party; roles.

People from our past: Considering that the major part of our learning and experience occur in relationship to other people, such learning and experience can be represented by characters from the past. For instance a first boyfriend in a dream would depict all the emotions and struggles we met in that relationship, and what we learned from it or took away from it in terms of fears. Therefore dreaming often of people we knew in the past would suggest the past experiences or lessons are very active at the moment, or we are reviewing those areas of our life. A woman who had emigrated to Britain from a very different cultural background frequently dreamt, even twenty years afterwards, of people she knew in her native country. This shows her still very much in contact with her own cultural values and experiences.

Because you have taken in millions of bit of memory, lessons learnt, life experiences along with all the feelings or problems met by loving and living with someone and they are what makes you the person you are. The memories and experience we gather unconsciously change us and are not lost. It is part of you and is symbolised in dreams as a person or event.

Several people in a dream suggest: Not feeling lonely; involvement of many aspects of oneself in what is being dreamt about; social ability.

As social relationship is one of the most important factors outside of personal survival – and survival depends upon it – such dreams help us to clarify our individual contact with society. Human beings have an unconscious but highly developed sense of the psychological social environment. Ivor’s dream shows something we are all involved in – how we are relating to humans collectively. Are we in conflict with group behaviour and direction; do we conform, but perhaps have conflict with our individual drives; do we find a way between the opposites? Much of our response is laid down in childhood and remains unconscious unless we review it.

 Example: ‘Walking alone through a small town. I was heading for a place that a group of people, in a street parallel to mine, were also heading for. A person from the group tried to persuade me that the RIGHT way to get to the place was along the street the group was walking. I knew the street did not matter, only the general direction. The person was quite disturbed by my independence. It made him or her feel uncertain to have their leader apparently questioned. I felt uncertain too for a moment.’ Ivor S.

In some dreams, a group of people represent what is meant by the word God. This may sound unlikely, but the unconscious, because it is highly capable of synthesis, often looks at humanity as a whole. Collectively humanity has vast creative and destructive powers that intimately affect us as individuals. Collectively it has performed miracles that looked at as an individual, appear impossible. How could a little human being build the great pyramid, or a space shuttle? The Bible echoes this concept in such phrases as ‘Whatever you do to the least of one of these, you do to me.’

 Example: ‘I was outdoors with a group of people acting as leader. We were in the middle of a war situation with bullets playing around us. Maybe aeroplanes were also attacking. I was leading the group from cover to cover, avoiding the bullets. Paul W.

Despite feeling attacked, either by external events, or from inner conflicts, Paul is using leadership skills to deal with his own fears and tendencies. If a friend told us he had just had an argument with his wife and was going to leave her, we might sit down and counsel them by listening and helping them to sort out the hurt feelings from their long term wishes. We might point out they had felt this way before but it passed – in other words give feedback they had missed. In a similar way, our various emotions and drives often need this sort of skill employed by ourselves. This unifies us, leading to coping skills as in Paul’s dream.

 

Useful Questions and Hints:

If they are people I know do I understand what I associate with them?

Do I recognise what I feel about society?

What have my parents left in me?

See – Being the Person or Thing –  The Conjuring Trick – Working with associations – Releasing Your Inner Genius

Categories of Dreams

Calvin Hall and Robert van de Castle did a lot of work on dream categories. (See Content Analysis.) These studies have been used a great deal as a definitive way of understanding dream content and the difference between male and female dreamers. Unfortunately most of the data used was from college students and so does not give a proper spectrum of information. For instance there is seen to be greater aggression in the male dreams, and more negative feelings generally throughout the dreams than there is positive feelings.

However, the categories Hall and Castle defined are interesting and useful. They have defined some basic categories such as Characters – Social Interactions – Activities – Successes and Failures – Misfortunes and Good Fortunes – Emotions – Settings – Objects – Descriptive Modifiers – Elements from the Past – Food and Eating.

Taking these in turn –

Character is defined a separate and distinguishable person, animal or mythical figure. For instance your dream description might say, ‘I went to see my mother in hospital’ – or – ‘My friend Alice and I were walking through a wood.’

There can also be a group of characters made up of two or more people. Hall and Castle therefore called a crowd a ‘character’. The character is heard or seen in the dream and communicated with even if they are not physically present, as when talking on the telephone, or appearing as a ghostly but unseen presence.

Characters have ‘number’ – ‘gender’ – ‘identity’ – and ‘age’.

Social Interactions are listed as including ‘friendly interactions’ – ‘aggressive interactions’ – ‘sexual interactions’. Although Hall and Castle do not list it in this section, one of the possible social interactions is to do with communication of ideas in the giving of instructions, information or insights. Such a dream might say, ‘The hare spoke to me and said, “Go back, and carry on with your accustomed tasks. Do not wildly seek the Kingdom of Heaven, for you already have what you seek within you. Your seeking only hides it.”

Activities include all manner of actions such as walking, building, swimming, talking, smiling, changing position, watching, thinking, falling, flying, crying, laughing, speaking, going to the toilet, giving birth, and so on.

Successes and Failure include expending energy or effort to perform a task or complete something undertaken, and so arriving at feelings of satisfaction or completion. The success might be in getting away from a pursuer or attacker, or finishing an exam.

Failure is also linked with the expenditure of energy or effort in pursuing a goal, but not succeeding at it. Personal limitations or inability to overcome difficulties or emotions such as fear or pain constitute failure. But failure can be overcome by a change such as good fortune.

Misfortune and Good Fortune are illness, misfortune, accident or harm that occurs to a character while engaging in the events of the dream, over which the character has no apparent control. Misfortune is such an event that appears to occur through no fault of the character.

Good fortune is the opposite and is when something positive, healing, helpful or of advantage that does not arise because of the character’s efforts or striving, but from unwilled circumstances. This is generally called ‘good luck’. Emotions are described as having the general fields of Anger – Apprehension – Sadness – Confusion – Happiness.

The thousands of terms describing the various feeling states are fitted into these categories.

Anger includes feelings such as irritation, mad, furious and other similar emotions.

Apprehension includes such conditions such as terrified, anxious, fearful and frightened.

Disappointment, distress, hurt, depressed, lonely, lost, misery, hopelessness, crushed, and heartbroken would be listed under Sadness.

Confusion would include inability to decide, conflict, mystified, puzzled, perplexed, strange, bewildered, and doubtful.

Happiness would mean feelings such as contented, pleased, relieved, amused, cheerful, glad, relaxed, gratified, gay, wonderful, elated, joyful, and exhilarated.

Settings are the surrounding and environments in which the dream characters interact and meet experiences. Hall and Castle realised there were so many factors in this category they collapsed them all into two grouping – indoors and outdoors.

Indoors includes buildings such as a hospital, church, house, workplace, large ship or school. Then the many parts of such buildings are included, such as stairs, kitchen, hall, cellar, attic, office, assembly line, etc. Under this indoors grouping they also included such things as fire escape, balcony, roof, and any part of the building, even if outside.

Outdoors includes places such as a forest, a beach, natural surroundings, the sea, city street, the garden of a house, a park, mountain or space. They considered being in a plane, boat, car or train as being outdoors. Being in a cave or tunnel is also seen as being outdoors.

Objects include sub categories because the subject is so inclusive. These are Architecture – Household – Food – Implements – Travel – Streets – Regions – Nature – Body Parts – Clothing – Communication – Money – Miscellaneous.

There is some doubling between environments and objects because already named things such as streets and buildings are included in objects, along with escalators or rooms.

The communication sub-category refers to objects by which we communicate such as telephone, books, letters, magazines, adverts, artwork, and objects used to produce communication such as pens, cameras, microphone, computer, etc.

Descriptive Modifiers refers to the way we describe and relate to the physical surroundings and characters of dreams. So something might be hot, high, wide, enormous, etc. This category is broken down into several sub-categories. These are Color – Size Age – Density – Thermal (i.e. hot, warm, cold) – Velocity – Linearity (i.e. straight, curly, bent, warped, etc) – Intensity (i.e. strong, weak, loud, quiet, hard, soft, light, dark, etc) – Evaluation (i.e. good, bad, beautiful, ugly, dirty, clean, helpful, right, wrong, etc). There is also a temporal scale referring to what time of day, or to do with past, present or future; and a negative scale referring to ‘it was not’ statements and including words such as unsure, never, none, unaware, improper, nonessential, illegal, etc.

Hall and Castle give a coding to each of these categories, enabling dreams to be evaluated easily by a computer. Examples of this can be seen at http://www.dreambank.net/ where a huge collection of coded dreams is available.

Such coding enabled a scientific evaluation of a massive database of dreams. What this means is that such things as what subjects to males or females dream about, and how often could easily be defined.

However, despite clear indications that dreams express particular functions as seen in spontaneous dream insight during in-depth psychotherapy or LSD psychotherapy, those working with the Hall-Castle approach tend to arrive at a rather intellectual view of dreams. Van de Castle himself moved far beyond this approach, as can be seen in his book Our Dreaming Mind.

For the lay dreamer it is more useful to put dreams into much broader categories such as: Psychological – ESP – Body – Sexual – Spiritual and Problem Solving. But one of the easiest approaches to gaining insight into your dream is to use the key-word approach or using Acting on your dream.

See: healing and therapeutic action of dreams; individuation; the dream as meeting place; sex in dreams; spiritual life in dreams; themes in dreams.