Posts Tagged ‘Do You Dream’
Do You Dream
Tony Crisp
Do You Dream was my first published book on dreams. I had been working with individuals on their dreams for some years, and had read and sold – through a bookshop I ran – quite a lot of books about dreams. So I wanted to write a modern rendering of the old Victorian books on dream symbols which were almost total nonsense. Unfortunately there are books still printed that reproduce such nonsense.
But the book was more than this, it gave practical tools to lay people enabling them to gain insight into their own dreams. It was certainly one of the very first to have a non-Freudian dictionary of dreams. Now there are countless dream dictionaries.
Do You Dream is still available at Amazon UK and Amazon USA.
A review of Do You Dream by Touchheart from Bay Area, CA USA
I found this gem almost 20 years ago and my copy is worn to almost uselessness from loaning it out and my own use. Excellent for good solid guidance on dream interpretation. Rather than narrowly offering one method, Mr. Crisp educates the reader about the influences at work in the dream environment and the many angles dream interpretation can be approached from. It is then up to the reader to use their own intelligence and instincts to come to a conclusion. Mr. Crisp doesn’t claim to “have all the answers” and he is generous with the knowledge he does possess. Now…where am I going to find a copy for my friend who very much wants to own a copy herself? (Mine no longer leaves the house!)
Chapters
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1. What did you dream last night 2. What is a dream 3. Getting to grips with the dream 4. Seeking to understand 5. The dream mystery explored 6. The creative dreamer 7. Active imagination 8. LSD-hypnosis-meditation-the dream 9. Tests of analysis 10. After understanding-what? 11. Using your dreams 12. A dream sampler and sleep experience THE DICTIONARY |
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This was the original cover and was published in the UK in 1971.
What is a Dream?
Do You Dream
Tony Crisp
Chapter Two
From the earliest ages in mankind’s shrouded history, dreams have been a source of wonder and speculation, inspiration and fear. This chapter deals with some of the explanations men have given for why and how one dreams. It must be understood, however, that these various accounts are put here, not because they are necessarily correct accounts of dreaming, but simply to give a ‘background’ of information on the dream.
The most ancient peoples, whether separated by seas, geographical barriers, or culture, usually had in common an enormous respect for dreams. Many early societies had a very dualistic philosophy regarding life. That is, they believed that their life was divided into two distinct aspects. One aspect was their everyday physical world, the world of the body. The other was the world of sleep, dreams, visions and death. In sleep, early man believed that one’s soul, or consciousness left one’s body, and travelled the sleep world, the world of dreams. This dream world was very real to them, so real in fact that many felt that the dream world was more real than the physical world. For instance, if a man dreamt that his wife had slept with another man, it was not simply shrugged off as ‘only a dream’ but was taken very seriously.
J. A. Hadfield, in his book Dreams and Nightmares humorously says the ‘modern instance is that of a young wife who dreamt that her husband was making love to a blonde and was furious. Being reminded that it was only a dream, she replied, “Yes! But if he does that sort of thing in my dream, what will he do in his own?”‘
In the dream world of early man, it was stated that one’s soul could travel to distant places in the real world, could experience or know one’s innermost feelings, could contact and converse with the dead, or meet the gods and spirits, or see God. We cannot simply dismiss these beliefs as valueless, because modern research and investigation is now concerning itself with a serious inquiry into all these possibilities.
In these early societies, where such beliefs were a part of life itself, youths of both sexes were helped to establish their maturity by initiations which often used or sought dreams. At such times, the young girl or boy would go to some lonely spot where they would fast and await a sign, by dream or vision (i.e. waking dream) that gave them a clue to their direction in life. To give an actual case, written down by Father Lalemant, a Jesuit:
At the age of about sixteen, a youth went alone to a place where he fasted for sixteen days. At the end of this time he suddenly heard a voice in the sky saying, ‘Take care of this man, and let him end his fast.’ Then he saw an old man of great beauty come down from the sky. The old man came to him, looking at him kindly, and said, ‘Have courage, I will take care of thy life. It is a fortunate thing for thee to have taken me for thy master. None of the demons who haunt these countries will have any power to harm thee. One day thou wilt see thine hair as white as mine. Thou wilt have four children, the first two and last will be males, and the third will be a girl, after that thy wife will hold the relation of a sister to thee.’ As he finished speaking the old man offered him a raw piece of human flesh to eat. When the boy turned his head away in horror, the old man then offered him a piece of bear’s fat, saying, ‘Eat this then.’ After eating it, the old man disappeared, but came again at crucial periods in the person’s life. At manhood he did have four children, as described. After the fourth, ‘a certain infirmity compelled him to continence. He also lived to an old age, thus having white hair, and as the eating of bear fat symbolised, became a gifted hunter with a second sight for finding game.
The man himself felt that had he eaten the human flesh in the vision, he would have been a warrior instead.
So we see that such initiatory dreams fulfilled many functions. Not only did they affirm the dreamer of a ‘spirit’ protector, giving him confidence to leave the physical protection of his mother and father, but also gave his most fitting employment as hunter, and the main events of his life. With such knowledge, he could approach life more confidently.
An even more complete idea of how early societies related to their dreams is given by M. L. von Franz in her article The Process of Individuation in the book Man and His Symbols, by Carl G. . Writing about the ‘self’ as the inner centre to all our experience, she says:
‘This inner centre is realised in exceptionally pure unspoiled form by the Naskapi Indians, who still exist in the forests of the Labrador peninsula. These simple people are hunters who live in isolated family groups, so far from one another that they have not been able to evolve tribal customs or collective religious beliefs and ceremonies. In his lifelong solitude the Naskapi hunter has to rely on his own inner voices and unconscious revelations; he has no religious teachers who tell him what he should believe, no rituals, festivals or customs to help him along. In his basic view of life, the soul of man is simply an ‘Inner companion’, whom he calls ‘My friend’ or ‘Mista peo’, meaning ‘Great Man’. Mista peo dwells in the heart and is immortal; in the moment of death, or just before, he leaves the individual, and later reincarnates himself in another being.
‘Those Naskapi who pay attention to their dreams and who try to find their meaning and test their truth can enter into a greater connection with the Great Man. He favours such people and sends them more and better dreams. Thus the major obligation of an individual Naskapi is to follow the instructions given by his dreams, and then to give permanent form to their contents in art. Lies and dishonesty drive the Great Man away from one’s inner realm, whereas generosity and love of one’s neighbours and of animals attract him and give him life. Dreams give the Naskapi complete ability to find his way in life, not only in the inner world but also in the outer world of nature. They help him to foretell the weather and give him invaluable guidance in his hunting, upon which his life depends…. Just as the Naskapi have noticed that a person who is receptive to the Great Man gets better and more helpful dreams, we could add that the inborn Great Man becomes more real within the receptive person than in those who neglect him. Such a person also becomes a more complete human being.”
Although possibly not as unspoilt as the Naskapi beliefs, those of the Seneca Indians are worthy of note. The Jesuits began preaching to these Indians in 1668. Father Fremin wrote much about their ideas, although in a slightly critical vein, saying, ‘The Iroquois have, properly speaking, only a single Divinity – the dream. … The Tsonnontonens (Seneca) are more attached to this superstition than to any other.’
Father Ragueneau, in 1649, described the beliefs behind their so called superstition as follows. ‘In addition to the desires which we generally have that are free, or at least voluntary in us, and which arise from a previous knowledge of some goodness that we imagine to exist in the thing desired, the Hurons believe that our souls have other desires, which are, as it were, inborn and concealed. These, they say, come from the depths of the soul, not through any knowledge.
‘Now they believe that our soul makes these desires known by means of dreams, which are its language. Accordingly, when these desires are accomplished, it is satisfied; but, on the contrary, if it be not granted what it desires, it becomes angry … often it revolts against the body, causing various diseases, and even death….’
The Indian tribes mentioned often had a sort of social psychiatry in which dreamers were allowed to live out their hidden (unconscious) desires that were threatening health and well being. Thus a dreamer would be allowed sexual freedoms with others; unlawful actions; objects desired; or feasts, etc.; although these peoples as a society were usually modest and shy, and chastity and marital fidelity were public ideals.
Thus we see in the beliefs of the ‘backward’ Indians, ideas that took our civilised societies three hundred years longer to arrive at. Admittedly, our psychiatrist’s couch and enormous mental institutions take the place of the more public ‘acting out’ of hidden desires. Nevertheless, mentally or emotionally induced illnesses were recognised and treated. So we see that early man recognised conscious and unconscious parts of self. They realised that dreams expressed these ‘hidden’ desires, often in a symbolic form, enabling us to deal with them before they produced sickness.
Turning to more recent sources of dream beliefs, it is distressing to see how less, instead of more, understanding is expressed. Most of the ancient world, including the Far East, believed that dreams were sent by gods or spirits, but do not seem to have worked out such a clear conception as the North American Indians, and later became very intellectually speculative. Aristotle, for instance, writes on the idea that dreams arise from movements in the body, saying, ‘The conclusion to be drawn from all these facts is that the dream is a sort of image and that it is produced during sleep, for the appearances manifest themselves when our senses are free. But not every image that manifests itself in sleep is a dream. For, sometimes, certain persons perceive in a certain manner in their sleep both sounds and light, both savours and contacts, but faintly and as if from afar. In fact, people who have seen in their sleep what was, according to them, the light of a lamp, realised immediately after waking that it was the light of a lamp; and people who have heard cocks crowing, or dogs barking, have recognised them clearly on waking. … But the images that come from the movement of sensible impressions, when one is sound asleep, that is a dream.’
In the Aesculapius dream temples, the dreams were said to be invoked by the god, whose symbol was also a serpent. Thus a childless woman, going to the temple to secure fertility, dreamt that the god approached her followed by a snake. The snake then entered her sexually. After the dream, and within the year, she had two sons. Sometimes the person would dream that they had been made well and would awake to find the dream accomplished. The rooms in which patients slept were occupied by snakes of a harmless variety also. This, along with the necessary rites and purifications, set the patient in the right frame of mind and emotion, to receive a healing dream.
Such dream induction by a particular setting and rites is very similar to the more ancient practices of fasting and waiting for the initiating dream, Similar, that is, in the sense of seeking a particular type of dream at a particular time and place.
Islamic traditions also have a rite called Istiqara, where the participant repeats a particular prayer, said to have been given by Mohammed, enabling one to dream the answer to a problem. This was used in recent years by Dr. Mossadegh. The resulting dream was of a being who told Dr Mossadegh to make all haste in efforts to nationalise Iranian Oil. As Dr Mossadegh was convalescing from illness, this was difficult. Also the political climate at that time regarding the nationalisation of oil seemed hopeless. Some months later, however, due to Dr Mossadegh’s continued efforts, Iranian Oil was in fact nationalised.
In the Bible, there are many references to dreams. The history changing dreams of Pharaoh about the fat and thin kine, along with New Testament dreams, are taken to be given by God, or angels. In the dream of Peter, where the unclean animals are let down in a sheet, and Pharaoh’s dream, we see clearly symbolic dreams, the meaning of which is arrived at through interpretation.
At other places, we find mention of God’s intervention in our dream life. Thus in Genesis 20:3, we read, ‘But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife.’ Later, in Job 33: IS, it says, ‘In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed, then he (God) openeth the ears of men, and sealeth their instruction, that he may withdraw a man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.
In the Indian Yoga teachings, they mention four states of consciousness, that is, waking – dreaming – dreamless sleep – superconsciousness. Although, as in Patanjali’s Aphorism’s mention is made of dreams as a subject for meditation, Yoga practitioners seek to become aware at the dreamless and superconscious levels. That is, they seek to get behind the images of dreams to that which is conscious of them, i.e. the Self, the basic part of our being. In the Tibetan Book of the Dead one sees a detailed commentary on how to become liberated from inner images analogous to dreams. This too, we must consider as one of the aims of a modern dream investigator.
Turning to more modern concepts of dreams and dreaming, one finds, largely, a slide into a materialistic attitude. For instance there was for long the opinion that dreams were caused by a late, heavy meal, or eating highly stimulating foods. One could call this the ‘indigestion’ theory.
Some experimentation was also undertaken in the realm of dreams produced by outside influences. Thus, a number of people have slept and been exposed to drops of water, ticking, sounds, scents, bells, electrical brain stimuli and even hypnotic suggestion. All of these produced dreams in some way explain the stimulus. For instance, Alexandre Arnoux writes how, when in a rest camp, he dreamt that the Germans had sent over a poisonous gas smelling of quinces. He awoke gasping for breath, only to see that his friend had just entered the room eating a quince. Another writer, Massey, on having water dropped on his face, dreamt he was in Italy, drinking wine and perspiring heavily. In the case of the electrical probe to the brain, particular memories were evoked, clear and distinct.
Another popular theory is that dreams are the uncontrolled wanderings of the sleeping mind. This theory sees the images of dreams as occurring due to the natural psychological law of association of ideas. Thus, as we drift into sleep, we may be entertaining the idea of a bicycle. The idea bicycle associates with journey, journey with someone we wish to see, this with fear of their not being there to welcome us, which links with our walking alone, etc.
J. A. Hadfield, in his excellent book Dreams and Nightmares, lists all these ideas and more. He points out that each of these ideas is true as far as it goes, but none of them explain all factors about dreams. Recent experiments have shown that even outside stimulus does not produce the dream, it merely enters into its images. Nor is a dream merely past memories, as a dream often uses images in unique formation, and we have to ask ourselves what has reshaped the images of our memory. In the dream of Arnoux, for instance, the smell of quince definitely enters into the dream, but if we are honest, we have to admit that an interior fear and terror is also expressive in the dream, and can thus be used as a means of self analysis.
The internally produced dream theory of Aristotle has proved itself, however, at least partially true. Observations of dreams has shown a number of times how a person may dream of a particular part of his body due to sickness in that area. Armaud de Villeneuve, for instance, dreamt that a dog bit his leg. A few days later a cancerous growth became visible on the same spot. A Swiss poet, Gessner, dreamt that a snake bit him in the left side, and shortly afterwards developed a malignant tumour there, The great many experiences of this nature are explained on the grounds that during sleep we are more sensitive to inner disturbances than in waking. As with dreams woven around outside stimuli, the inner irritations of developing sickness can announce themselves in the images of our dreams. However, due to the claims of mystics, and the present tentative findings of parapsychology concerning the possibility that human consciousness exists outside of the body, or for one person to know or receive the thoughts and feelings of another, it seems likely that it is not only subtle sensations in the body that may stimulate dream images. We can therefore say that some of the causes may be physical sensations from within or outside the body-moods, fears, desires or pressures, etc., existing in the personality of the sleeper, such as unconscious realisation of ideas, levels of being and new states of mind, and stimuli from other minds.
Before we progress to the great dream authorities of the twentieth century it will be illuminating to quickly look at the ideas expressed by an American of the nineteenth century. I use the word illuminating, as here is a man who expressed the idea of evolution to the world some years before Darwin published his works. This man was Dr Andrew Jackson Davis, born in 1826. In 1850 (nine years before Darwin’s work) he wrote and published The Great Harmonia, in which we read:
The progressive development of the animal kingdom up to man may be traced from its very beginnings, when – as the result of a marriage between the highest forms and essences in the vegetable kingdom – there arose the first form of animal life – the inferior order of radiata. At a later era the pisces was followed by that of the birds. The marsupial was next, and then the mammalian. The primary change from this last into inferior types of human organism is so easy that the anatomical and physiological transformation is scarcely perceptible. (Not that evolution is unique to our culture. Jalaludin Rumi, a thirteenth century mystic, clearly wrote of it.)
Excuse my enthusiasm in quoting something that seemingly has nothing to do with dreams. I feel, however, that ‘dream historians’ have overlooked a great mind in A. J. Davis, and the quote is a reference to his qualifications, this being felt necessary as his source of information is psychic rather than scientific. That is, through his unique ability, he was able to explore the interior of his own being consciously. So his remarks on evolution arose from information he obtained from what might be called a dream state. Davis called it ‘The Superior Condition’. However, here are his remarks and theory on sleep and dreams.
“Sleep is that mode by which the fatigued soul withdraws partially from the physical organism and gathers inwardly for purposes of recuperation. At the same time it remains sufficiently within them to inspire the involuntary systems with constant motion, that they may fulfil their respective functions. The place into which it (soul-consciousness) retires is the most interior portions of the viscera and the deepest recesses of the sensorium. The superior brain or cerebrum yields up its powers to the cerebellum and this resigns in turn to the medulla spinalis. During the period of natural rest the cerebellum never sleeps, and in the waking hours the cerebrum is in constant activity, guiding and controlling the organisation.
“The spirit (energising principle), when (we are) asleep, moves with the greatest precision through the whole organic domain, but especially the inner chambers the sensorium and the ganglionic and lymphatic batteries of the visceral system.
“The phenomena of dreams are controlled by established laws which may be applied to education and the development of mind. Properly speaking there is no such condition as absolute suspension of consciousness, only of external powers of memory. When the mind passes into a coma, the spirit * takes up the thread of previous interior experiences. The mind has two memories, one of the body and the world without, the other a more inward scroll, on the deepest folds of which are registered those experiences which the soul has obtained from the world within. The significance of dreams depends upon their nature and derivation…. Even in prophetic warnings, the soul does its own work almost invariably, by extending its sensiferous faculties towards the future, and thus perceiving those events which laws of cause and effect are certain to develop.
” … Owing to wrong living and intemperance (in amount and quality of food), no one enjoys perfect slumber except for exceedingly brief periods; but when experienced in its fullness, and when the soul is resigned to the will of God through recognition of Nature’s laws, the individual is then on the confines of the other life. True sleep is a temporary death of the body and a rest of the soul. It is distinguished from imperfect slumber by the absence of all ordinary dreaming.”
Davis also gives very practical hints, although general, in understanding dreams.
“It follows that dreaming deserves investigation as a precursor and accompaniment of disease. Lively dreams are in general a sign of attenuated excitement of the nervous system. Soft or vapourish dreams denote slight cerebral irritation, or alternatively, a favourable crisis in nervous fevers. Frightful dreams betoken a determination of arterial blood to the head. Dreams about blood and red objects, houses and ships on fire, imps, demons, etc., indicate an inflammatory condition of the semi-intellectual and perceptive faculties of the cerebrum. Dreams about water, rain, floods, deluges often characterise diseased mucous membranes and dropsy. Dreams in which a person sees any portion of his own body, especially in a suffering state, point to disturbances in that area. So also dreams of food, feasts and so forth are usually traceable to impaired digestive functions. This explanation of a certain class of dream does not pose as a solution of all such mental phenomena.”
He goes on to say that such interpretation is only dealing with physical relationships. His main theme, however, is how to obtain ‘great’ or ‘spiritual’ dreams.
“In those (dreams) which emanate from the world of spirits, it is a fact that spiritual dreams only occur in a state of perfect slumber. The will and faculties of thought must be in a state of complete quiescence. … Such influences cannot enter when the front brain (intellect, will) is at all positive. Perfect slumber is nigh unto death. The higher departments of mind are not occupied by thought, the holy elements of feeling are stilled; the front brain or cerebrum is a tranquil domain; there is no sentinel at the gate of the brain but the vigilant cerebellum. The mind is then ready for a high order of dream.”
Leaving the Poughkeepsie Seer, as Davis was called, we turn to another more recent seer, Edgar Cayce of Virginia Beach. As early as 1925 Edgar Cayce was already interpreting dreams from a viewpoint free of fixed sexual or intellectually psychological attitudes. He must rate, along with leaders of this more open attitude such as J. A. Hadfield, and Leslie Weatherhead, as one of those who brought the dream ‘home’ to the public. Some of his pupils would like to claim him as the beginner of such attitudes, but J. A. Hadfield, from the point of psychology, and Weatherhead from a Christian viewpoint, had already given long years of public service before 1925. Nevertheless, the work of Cayce has directed the attention of thousands to their dream life. The groups organised to work on their dreams, in their collective numbers, probably outweigh the work of the others.
Possibly Cayce’s attitude to dreams may be summed up by this statement he made from a deep sleep state:
“These (dreams), as we see, may be used to the edification of the entity into that of how spiritual laws are manifested in the physical world.”
All such statements about dreams, and the countless other subjects he mentioned, were spoken from a trance or sleep state similar to that of Davis. This is rather like listening in to what the unconscious mind says about itself. In another such statement, he says that through a study of dreams, a person, may gain the more perfect understanding and knowledge of those forces that go to make up the real existence – the underlying meaning of life – and what it’s good for – if the entity would but comprehend the conditions being manifested.
Cayce taught, like others, that dreams reflect activities in the body, in the emotions, mind and general attitudes of a person. But his main point was that the dream helps the individual understand his relationship with the whole, with Life or God. He said, in 1923:
“Forget not that it has been said correctly that the Creator, the Gods and the God of the Universe, speak to man through his individual self. Man approaches the more intimate conditions of that field of the inner self when the conscious self is at rest in sleep or slumber, at which time more of the inner forces are taken into consideration and studied by the individual, not someone else. It is each individual’s job, if he will study to show himself approved by God, to understand his individual condition, his individual position in relation to others, his individual manifestation, through his individual receiving of messages from the higher forces themselves, through dreams.”
Shane Miller in his article ‘Working With Dreams as Recommended by the Cayce Readings’, says:
“The Cayce premise states in effect that anyone, whether psychically gifted or not, who will record his dreams in an attitude of prayerful persistence can, in time, bring about a complete restoration of the dream faculty. (The dream faculty at present seems to be the remains of a long disused and discredited function of the higher mind.) … any dream which has a certain story content or mood, particularly if it is in colour, should be studied; and that is the complete premise which, if faithfully followed can bring about a new dimension into the experience of anyone who will keep everlastingly at it!”
In this sense a dream can be a message from the Highest, expressed in the symbolic language of the unconscious. So in looking at a dream, we may be reading a letter from God. That is, a correspondence between the universal forces that have formed us, and the individual that in being formed calls itself ‘I’. A conversation then, between God and I.
Obviously, the word ‘God’ for many has repugnant religious undertones from which they shy away. They may therefore miss some of the important ideas Cayce has presented. Possibly this other theory, which is a synthesis of several liberal ideas on dreams will be more attractive.
“Consciousness is the result of various energies combining as our being. Yet consciousness, if studied carefully does not, in a peculiar way, rely upon the factors that give it expression. For instance, we are shown in modern brain operations, that only when the small area of the brain, the thalamus, is removed, does one lose consciousness. The other large areas can be cut off or damaged without the person ‘losing’ consciousness. This seems to suggest that consciousness is due to the thalamus, allied to the body. But from the information in other experiments, this seems to give a false idea. It would be better to say that the thalamus enables consciousness to express. In the same way, an electric fire allows electricity to express some of its potential. If one removes the thalamus, or the fire from the circuit, it has not removed consciousness or electricity, merely takes away their vehicle of expression.”
From this viewpoint we can think of consciousness as always existing, but not necessarily expressing all of its potential. This would give us an entirely new concept of sleep. For sleep would be the partial withdrawing of consciousness from the organs of its expression, and a sinking into its most basic levels of existence. Thus the individual, in sleep, would sink into the primordial level of being that existed even prior to his or her birth. For if consciousness is what I think it is, it, like the electricity, is a principle of nature, and pre-exists the apparatus through which it realises itself in the physical world. Thus, a dream may well be the reaction expressed in images, of the conscious aspect of self meeting its primordial and eternal aspect in nature. The dream would then remind us of the spark between two electrical charges of different potential as they touch and become balanced. A dream would express the ‘difference’ between the individual and his source. From it one may understand how he relates to the whole.
The words of Nietzsche add yet another dimension to this attitude. In Human, all too Human, he wrote:
“I hold that as man now still reasons in dreams, so men reasoned also when awake through thousands of years. … This ancient element in human nature still manifests itself in our dreams, for it is the foundation upon which the higher reason has developed and still develops in every individual; the dream carries us back into remote conditions of human culture, and provides a ready means of understanding them.”
As already mentioned, J. A. Hadfield has done much through his life work and books, to bring understanding of inner experience to the ordinary person. His own view on dreams is summed up as follows:
“According to what we shall call the Biological Theory of dreams, the function of dreams is that by means of reproducing the unsolved experiences of life, they work towards a solution of these problems.”
Firstly – Dreams stand in the place of experience. Thus by making us relive the experiences and difficulties of the day in imagination they relieve us of the necessity of going through the actual experience by trial and error and thus save us many a disaster. … It is obvious, therefore, that dreams serve the same purpose as ideational processes, much as we exercise in normal thought in waking life.
Also – Every individual has potentialities in his nature, all of which are not merely seeking their own individual ends, but each and all of which subserve the functions of the personality as a whole. But in the course of life many of these potentialities become repressed. In analytic treatment we attempt to release these repressed emotions, and direct them to the uses of life for which they were intended, and so make the personality whole. But dreams were attempting the same thing long before analytic treatment was thought of, and therefore dreams also, by releasing repressed experiences and emotions, are striving to solve these problems and to restore the personality to efficient functioning as a whole.
Turning at last to Freud and Jung, an attempt will be made to synthesise their particular standpoint regarding dreams. Starting with Freud, we cannot properly understand his statements without an understanding of Libido. To take an image from an earlier statement, we can think of libido as the energy behind our living process. If we think of the body as an efficient machine, then perhaps libido could be thought of as the electricity or power that works the machine. Not only does this energy emerge as motion and function, but it also lies behind our instincts, emotions, sexual drive, desire for social standing and recognition, our intellectual curiosity, and all the other aspects of life. Thinking of libido as a stream of energy, flowing out via our sexual, intellectual, emotional and other activities, we see, in the full expression of this energy, psychological health. However, if some of this energy, on entering our sexual activity is not released, it causes inner pressures we call neuroses, or a complex. (For the energy may be expressed morbidly or in an unacceptable manner as in homosexuality.)
For Freud, the dream is a wish fulfillment of these hidden desires which he maintained were usually of a sexual nature. The dream in this sense, is a method of making conscious unacceptable desires. Thus, if one wished to be rid of one’s father, or to sleep with one’s mother, but could not express either of these even in speech, because of the forbiddeness of such, one could do so in a dream. However, due to the fact that such desires arouse deep guilt feelings, we may not wish to openly express them even in a dream. Thus the dream both expresses and disguises the desires all at once. For instance, Freud considered that to dream of having sexual intercourse with an old woman, was a disguised dream concerning one’s mother. Or putting a key in a lock symbolises sexual intercourse.
So far we see that the Seneca Indians held much the same views. Similarly they believed dreams had a latent and manifest content; that is, a hidden, or difficult to understand meaning behind the obvious events in the dream. Also, Freud maintained that all dreams are potentially understandable. They all arise from some cause, and if understood this cause becomes revealed. That is not to say, of course, that all dreams are understood.
Originally, Freud maintained that dreams were all wish fulfilments of hidden urges relating to our sexual nature. Later this was widened to include wish fulfilments of repressed aggressiveness.
Jung, following upon Freud and Adler’s work, maintained that the ‘dream shows in what direction the unconscious is leading’ the dreamer. Also, he says, ‘In dream interpretation we ask what conscious attitude does the dream compensate.’ Thus, dreams for Jung, point to the fact that the processes in man’s consciousness that he is unaware of, attempt to fulfil or realise themselves in a particular direction. A plant for instance, has hidden within it the possibility of stem, leaves, flower and seeds. These it attempts to produce. Similarly, a man has the possibility of further extensions of consciousness, of realisation, of abilities and desires which may be held back by conscious attitudes. For instance, a man may have latent artistic abilities which are held back from ‘flowering’ due to his conscious insistence on purely logical and money-making activities.
In this case, the dream may portray the man doing irrational things, because it compensates for his ‘Oh so logical’ conscious attitude. Also Jung began the direction of looking to dreams as a search for one’s wholeness – not only sexually, but in all functions. Our sexual drives, our urge for power and social position, our intellectual curiosity, our innate desire to understand ourselves, and relate harmoniously to others and life around us, are all dealt with in dreams.
In Man and His Symbols, Jung talks of God in a way not found in other branches of psychiatry.
“Christians often ask why God does not speak to them, as he is believed to have done in former days. When I hear such questions I always think of the rabbi who was asked how it could be that God often showed himself to people in the olden days while nowadays nobody ever sees him. The rabbi replied: ‘Nowadays there is no longer anybody who can bow low enough.'”
This answer hits the nail on the head. We are so captivated by and entangled in our subjective consciousness that we have forgotten the age-old fact that God speaks chiefly through dreams and visions. The Buddhist discards the world of the unconscious fantasies as useless illusions; the Christian puts his Church and his Bible between himself and his unconscious; and the rational intellectual does not yet know that his consciousness is not yet his total psyche (self).
Perhaps in the end, we can see that none of these views need be discarded. As one writer has remarked, several men all looking at the same landscape may all describe, and even ‘sense’ it differently. A geologist would see it differently to an artist, who in turn would feel about it differently to a farmer, and so on. In sleep, we may approach some inner landscape that represents our wholeness – the latent qualities of our own being. The wonderful thing is that our dream is our own. It uses our own symbols, our own emotions, our own understanding, our own possibilities. With these it paints a truly personal wonder we call a dream. Surely this is worth understanding?
Link To Chapters – Link to Chapter Three
Getting to Grips with a Dream
Do You Dream
Tony Crisp
Chapter Three
Remembering The Dream
I can imagine a reader, having read this far, saying, ‘Possibly dreams do have something in them that we can learn. The only thing is, I never dream!’
Of course, before one can start dealing with a dream, one has to remember it. So many people cannot recall having dreamt, that the act of remembering becomes a necessary prelude in our technique. Fortunately, one can be assured that the attempt to remember is not a waste of time. In other words, there is something to remember. In laboratory experiments up to the present time, no person has been found who does not dream. These experiments have been conducted in many countries, with various aims in view. Groups consisting of people who claim they have never dreamt, all have been found to dream. This has been done by fixing electrodes just above the eyelids. These are sensitive to eye movements, which always occur during dreaming. Thus, when these ‘non-dreamers’ exhibited the eye movements they were woken, and realised they had been dreaming. Such tests were also carried out on those who claimed total insomnia. It was found that although these people slept less than normal, they did sleep and dream; which was proved by their eye movements, and the recorded patterns of brain activity that change during sleep. However, these people would exclaim the next morning, ‘There, you see, I never slept a wink.’ Their recorded responses, and the watch kept upon them, proved otherwise.
It was found by Shapiro and Goodenough, that particular psychological mechanisms may underlie such dream forgetfulness. Testing groups of those who did and did not remember their dreams, they found that the non-rememberers took much longer to awaken when roused. In each bedroom was an electric bell and microphone. When a sleeper began the rapid eye movements typical of dreaming, the bell was sounded, and the person asked if they had dreamt. The non-dreamers, to recall their dreams had to be woken suddenly by a greater bell volume, otherwise the dream was lost to recall. Many years previous to such experiments, Freud had said that, ‘The forgetting of dreams depends far more on the resistance (to the dream elements) than on the mutually alien character of the waking and sleeping states.’ Shapiro also felt, from the experiments, that the person who does not remember dreams, may be one who deals with his problems by denying (forgetting) them. For during the delay in waking experienced by the ‘non-dreamers’, the mechanism of their forgetfulness erased remembrance of dream portrayed emotions and desires they may not wish to be conscious of.
Due to the information such research has uncovered, it would be reasonably easy for a ‘non-dreamer’ to prove that in fact, he or she dreamt. For instance, apart from showing that everyone dreams, it was also discovered that one’s dreams occur in regular cycles. During a period of seven hours sleep, it was found that every person tested, went through the same cycle of five periods of dreaming. As Edwin Diamond has said in his book The Science of Dreams, ‘This nightly pattern is as universal as sleep and as regular as the motions of the heavenly bodies.’
The dream periods run as follows: sixty to seventy minutes after falling asleep, we dream for approximately nine minutes. After a further ninety minutes or so, one dreams for about nineteen minutes. Then after another ninety minutes one dreams for about twenty-four minutes. After the next ninety minutes the dreaming period increases to twenty-eight minutes, and the last stage, after a further ninety minutes, one dreams more or less until waking.
So to ‘catch a dream’, the ‘non-dreamer’ could set an alarm to go off after about six hours of sleep. This should catch them well into the fourth dream of the night. Realising that such cycles begin only from the time one went to sleep, this would have to be accounted for. Also, the alarm would have to rouse the person suddenly, due to their mechanism of forgetfulness. If this did not work first time, then the alarm could be set below or above the six hours. One would naturally have to make some record of the dream, as a further period of sleep could easily obliterate the hard won memory.
Fortunately, this ambush type technique to catch a dream may not be necessary. It has been noticed time and time again by those working on dreams, that once a sincere interest in dreams has been aroused, one usually begins to remember them. While you are reading this book for instance, you are undoubtedly unaware of your big toe. However, now that your big toe is mentioned, you begin to become aware of the sensations of its form, clothing upon it, position in relationship to the rest of your body, etc. Similarly, when one’s interest is aroused regarding dreams, one begins to become far more aware of them. If one subsequently writes them down and tries to understand them, then such remembrance becomes even easier. Therefore, allowing one’s interest and enthusiasm full rein, will in itself usually pierce the veil of forgetfulness. In fact, you will probably remember a dream tonight!
There are also a number of ways in which we can further and extend such remembering. Realising what was said concerning the mechanism of forgetting, we can use these same principles for remembering. It was said, for instance, that one may forget because there is an unconscious wish not to face the symbolised emotions, desires and fears of the dream. Therefore, if we change our attitude, release it, so to speak, we may find dream memory more forthcoming. To do this we have to realise that the main aspects of our being can be summed up as instinct and sex drives – feelings and emotions – thoughts, principles, philosophy and the unknown parts of ourselves. Do we, for example, hold rigidly on to particular ideas, unwilling to explore new thoughts, other religious codes, extensions of learning? Do we limit ourselves to only a particular set of emotions and sensations, preferring not to explore the ranges of our feelings? Do we deal with our instincts by denying any such part of our being? And what of the unknown? Is it disclaimed; denied? Or are we willing to tread carefully into it?
Asking oneself such questions, as sincerely as possible, may help one to discover whether or not there is a strong unconscious desire to ‘forget’ anything outside of one’s present experience. These parts of ourselves might be summed up by the words, Sensuality – Sexuality – Sympathy – Empathy – Insight – Understanding – Transcendence. If we are shutting any of these forces or factors out of our experience, we may be missing some element of ourselves necessary for completeness. Admitting the possibility of such incompleteness, is an important step in remembering dreams.
Obviously, the putting aside of emotional or mental attitudes is important in any type of remembering. This includes memory of real events just as much as dreams. Therefore, to understand the workings of our everyday ability to remember might also be helpful. This is because we can use it as a technique to ‘call up’ dreams.
If we take the trouble to analyse carefully any act of memory, we see that a very special state of mind is necessary. This becomes more obvious when we remember the times of not being able to recall ordinary memories that usually are so available. Supposing there has been an accident for instance, and I am telephoning for an ambulance. If I know the injured person well, and am asked to give their name and address, because of the emotion of the moment it might easily happen that I am flustered by the question and find it difficult to answer. Or else, if in a situation such as an exam, where questions need a speedy reply, and a great deal rests upon being able to answer, one might very well find known information beyond recall due to one’s fear of forgetting, or overactive attempt to remember. One other typical situation is the attempt to remember somebody’s name, which somehow seems ‘on the tip of one’s tongue’, yet never emerges. When analysed, this is often due to feeding into our memory system a wrong re-call stimuli. Or, put more simply, we may feel sure the name begins with ‘B’ and are searching through the ‘Bs’; while in fact the name is Miller, and thus should have been called up under ‘M’. So holding the ‘B’ in mind has actually blocked the memory. Then, as soon as we drop the search. and thus drop the blockage, up pops the right name.
From this very quick summary of memory tactics, we can build a method of recalling dreams that will work if used correctly. It is obvious from the examples used that strong desires to remember are as blocking as the fear of failure. Particular emotional or mental biases are also causes for blocking. So also is the search conditioned by information that is thought to be right, such as our search through the ‘Bs’.
As for the actual method, it is this. As soon after waking as possible, ask the question ‘What has been dreamt?’ Having formed the question, one now has to realise that as one has never been conscious of the answer, one is looking for information one has never known. Therefore, all attempts to search for the answer must be avoided, as one does not know where or how this information is filed, The question must be held steadily without even a hope of response, or fear of failure.
Also, as we have no idea of the subjects or images of the dream, we have to leave ourselves wide open to all images and ideas. I can only describe this as standing in a stream of images and ideas, letting them all drift past without interference until the right one comes. When the actual memory comes, there will be an immediate realisation that this was a dream, despite all the other images. Why this is so I cannot explain. But just as, when the right name is remembered, there is a feeling of sureness, fitting the name to the face; so there is immediate sureness fitting the memory to the question. Such a technique has many other uses, but is excellent for bringing dreams to consciousness, and with practice, one begins to feel one’s way around in the technique. If all this seems rather technical, then the simple expedient of trying to recall dreams as soon as one awakes, will work wonders.
Recording The Dream
If remembering the dream is the first step, recording the dream is definitely the second step in dream interpretation. The importance of this lies not simply in having a record of the dream. Having already mentioned the tricks memory can play with dreams, we can see that the recording of the dream is also to guard against such vagaries. One should therefore attempt to write down the dream as soon as possible. All relevant details should also be included. The following example of a dream record shows two possibilities of recording the same dream.
‘I dreamt that a short slightly glowing bolt had entered into my side, and I knew in that moment I had become pregnant with my child. I turned and told my husband, but as he did not seem to hear I did not repeat it. It seemed only to matter to myself.’
If we analyse the feelings in the dream closely, however, the description of the dream might enlarge as follows:
‘I dreamt that a short, slightly glowing bolt had entered my side. I felt great excitement at this, as if I had long awaited it, and was now fulfilled in my waiting. In the dream I knew that the bolt was something divine that had now entered my being. I also knew in that moment that I had become pregnant with my child, and it would change my life. I told my husband about this, but it was as if he couldn’t hear because I was speaking on a different wavelength or something. Then I realised that this should be kept to myself. That I was to give myself over to the child within, that it would grow strong.’
These little additions are so important in correct dream analysis. If they are lost much relevant information arising from them in interpretation is lost also. If we are earnestly working with our dreams, such a record should be made of every dream. Even those that seem inconsequential should be noted down. Why this is so will be explained in later chapters. Therefore, even such a small scrap of a dream as this next one is important: ‘Dreamt that the vision in my left eye was distorted at times, making me see things out of focus or as one would see the reflections in water after a stone is flung in.’
To anyone who has worked on dream interpretation the meaning is very obvious, and also reveals helpful advice to the dreamer. If you cannot yet see its meaning. come hack to it after reading the next few chapters. In this way you will see that an apparently unimportant fragment should be recorded.
A large, stout notebook is best for recording, as in this way all one’s dreams are kept together for easy reference. Possibly a loose-leaf notebook is most adequate, as interpretations and further comments can then be added. But if one cannot find time to write one’s interpretations, at least write down the dreams and date them.
There are also other methods of recording the dream, such as drawing or painting it. Writing it in story or poetry form also is excellent. These methods are more fully dealt with under the chapters on ‘Interpretation’. Although it is not necessary to use these other forms, they do have a very real place in dream analysis; and where the dreamer feels an inclination towards them, should be indulged in. I have only mentioned writing, painting and drawing, but any art form can be used to express and give concrete form to the dream content. Always record it as a straight description first, and then express it in art form, if inclined, later.
Such methods of recording the dream are by no means new. In our mention of the Naskapi Indians, it was said that the individual Naskapi tried to follow the instructions of his dreams. ‘and then to give permanent form to their contents in art’.
Many dreams have thus been the basis of plays and religious rituals. In this way, whole groups could take part in the dramatisation and experiencing of the emotional, instructive and transforming influence of a dream. If it is wondered what point there is in this, we have to remember that as individuals and as a society, we face certain difficulties. We may have terrible depressions that block our normal activity in life, or it might be eruptions of anger, aggressiveness, or sexual drives, that we find difficult to deal with. In other people or races, lethargy, intellectual inertia or fear may prevent a balanced life. Dreams sometimes portray to us an antidote to such states of being. This is usually done in the dream by the release or expression of a new realisation, a new emotion, a new symbol, or a new energy. But the dream happens in the subconscious. So the task is to bring this ‘antidote’ to our everyday life. To ‘bring it home’ to oneself and others, a permanent record of the dream’s content in art form or drama is tremendously effective.
In recording our dream, our temperament can be given free rein. Basically, however, it is sufficient to write it down in full.
Link To Chapters – Link to Chapter Four
Seeking to Understand
Do You Dream
Tony Crisp
Chapter Four
The Dream Is A Code
We have already 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.
The Dream Mystery Explained
Do You Dream
Tony Crisp
Chapter Five
The method of interpretation dealt with in the last chapter is basic to all dream analysis as currently known. It can be summed up as remembering the dream; recording of dream; listing of symbols; and association of ideas. It was also seen that symbols must be interpreted in their right context, or can even be understood because of that context; which is rather like arriving at the meaning of an unknown word because of the way it is used in a sentence. Several other things were mentioned or hinted at while the dreams were being analysed. Some of these are so important or helpful, that they will now be further explained.
Main Phases Of The Dream
If we look at the structure of the last dream analysed, we see that it can be split into four main phases. These are (1) episode with the dwarf, (2) being saved by the couple and directed to London, (3) wandering, (4) the search for refreshment. In any long and difficult dream, especially where little or no associations or information have been forthcoming, it is worth breaking the dream into its phases. When this has been done, instead of associating ideas with the symbols, see whether the phases have any meaning. In the case of the last dream, we would have something like this:
(1) Episode with Dwarf I am captured and stripped. Do I feel imprisoned or restrained by anything? What has frightened me or uncovered phases of my life I wasn’t aware of or had kept covered or hidden before?
(2) Being saved by the couple and directed to London If I can find any sense of being imprisoned or captured, how did I deal with it? How did I ‘save’ myself from it? Having dealt with my restraint, what did the ideas or emotions I had used indicate I should do?
(3) Wandering Presumably, I could not accept this direction, and was left in a quandary, fearful of a possible blackness – depression. Is there any indication of this? Has there been a wandering or dithering over some decision?
(4) Search for Refreshment This suggests a need for some refreshing experience. A thirst for something – a hunger – but a doubt about the cost in effort. Has there been a desire for a ‘refreshing’ change – a hunger for something to satisfy my feelings? Is there a doubt about what we will have to sacrifice or give up in exchange?
It can be seen that dealing with the dream in this way is an enormous help in asking oneself the right questions. As previously suggested, when dealing with our own dreams, we have to be both patient and analyst. But not all dreams are as easily broken into the different parts. Some dreams cannot be segmented in this way, while others have far less phases. The next dream is an example of the latter.
‘I had gone to Sheila’s and Uncle Frank’s house at Spearing Road. They had promised I could have a room there, but I found all the rooms occupied and people were sleeping on the floor instead of in beds. Seeing there was no room I turned away and the next thing I knew I was in a train; it had rather luxurious blue leather seats but again was almost full. It contained, as far as I could see, all ladies, and I explained to them that I had been promised sleeping accommodation. Even while I was explaining this and expecting to occupy a length of three seats, I could see they had as much right there as I, and I took the single seat offered still protesting that we were promised sleeping room.
This dream can only be broken into two, or at the most, three parts. That is, the house, the train and possibly, accepting the seat. If this is set out as was the previous dream, we have a clearer idea what the dream is about.
The House – Searching for living space in a childhood setting. Found ‘no room’ – What have I been looking for in childhood attitudes? Was the ‘promise’ of childhood unfulfilled?
The Train – Exorbitant expectations, annoyance at the fact that these high expectations cannot be fulfilled. This in a setting of getting somewhere-train. Have my expectations in getting somewhere not been as great as hoped for?
The Single Seat – Grudging acceptance of practical offer. Can I see anything of this in real life?
The whole idea of using this method is to take the general events, implications and settings of a dream, and use these as a reference for asking oneself questions.
THE DREAM SEQUENCE
One of the things that is often overlooked in dreams is what we might call the ‘because’ factor. This factor is fairly noticeable when once pointed out, but difficult to see until much dream interpretation has been done. The because factor also applies in our everyday life, and can be seen when we say, ‘I was waiting for a bus and began to talk to a stranger who was also waiting. Our conversation became so interesting, that after a few minutes we went and sat in a restaurant, letting the bus go, because we had so much in common. Before he went he gave me his card because he wanted me to contact him again. I could see from what we had spoken about, that he was thinking of offering me a job in his firm. But I never followed it up because I didn’t think I could fill the post.’
If we look into this, we see that important events occur, directions followed, decisions taken, all because. The word ‘because’ in fact hides all our background, our feelings, our predisposing urges and thoughts. The word ‘disposition’ can in fact be used to sum up what lurks behind the because factor. A little thought will show that history is made up of this ‘disposition’, acting through the because factor.
I hope this doesn’t sound mysterious or complicated. This is such an important thing to understand. Our whole life, the events and outcome of it, rest upon it. Our life is what it is because of what we are – our disposition. We take an offer or reject it because of this. We succeed or fail in life because of the same factor – ourselves. ‘The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in the stars/But in ourselves, that we be underlings.’ When understood, we can see that every move we make in life is conditioned by subtle feelings of fear or pleasure, pride or love. At every decision we are directed by intangible hopes, despairs, conflicts and ideals. So, dreams also, arise out of the because factor.
Two dreams illustrate this. ‘I was waiting for a visitor. Suddenly the man I had been expecting came round to the back window and peeped in. I didn’t see him clearly, but took an immediate aversion to him and refused to let him in.’
Here we see that something ‘waited’ for by the dreamer, when it actually arrives, is not admitted due to feelings of aversion. It is not admitted because of aversion.
A clearer example is this. ‘I was surrounded by a thick wall of briars, beyond which were wild animals. I was trapped and couldn’t get out. I wondered what to do. Suddenly I noticed a hole in the ground. I looked in and saw it was a tunnel. I was just about to explore it as a way of escape, when I saw a dirty animal-like man looking up at me. I drew back from the tunnel in disgust and woke up.
Here we see that the dreamer is trapped by his own tangle of problems, and destructive instinctive urges. A possible way out is shown in the tunnel of unconscious exploration (i.e. discovering one’s hidden contents), but the dreamer, on looking within, sees an undeveloped and repulsive part of himself which disgusts him. It is because of this disgust that he cannot get out through the tunnel. The whole dream revolves around that point. It is also because of this inability to explore further due to disgust, that the dream ends. The dream is showing that it is the feelings of disgust that are keeping him trapped in his unpromising situation. In real life, he is stuck in the middle of painful experiences because of his own feelings of disgust about a part of his nature. Thus, the because factor in dreams is very important, and is the central point in numerous dreams.
DREAM SERIES
If we fail to understand an individual dream, light can often be thrown upon its meaning by looking at the dreams that precede and follow it. In this way one sees that the symbols are used in a gradually evolving manner. A dream series of evolving symbols is also one of the most striking proofs that dreams are not mere nonsense. The dreams that follow were all dreamt within about a month.
(1) ‘Visit to M. Very nice house, high on the cliffs overlooking the sea. M. and others their usual welcoming selves. Met other pleasant friendly people, but we had to go down the hill to meet them and then some of them pointed out another way up the hill to another beautiful view, and came along to show us the way, which M. actually knew, but didn’t want to spoil their pleasure in showing me. A few of those in M.’s house were not quite as nice as I had believed from M.’s description, but I liked them anyway.
Here we start off with a house overlooking the sea – a state of looking over one’s hidden contents, one’s unconscious. Or we might – say the dreamer is ‘overlooking’ certain things about herself. These things she has overlooked begin to become known in the people, -parts of herself, that were not quite as nice as she had believed.
(2) ‘Met uncle George. Then he and I and a few relatives and friends went on to a small boat and began a journey. I didn’t know where we were going but others did, and it was such a new and pleasant experience for me that I didn’t bother to ask. As it grew dusk a strange but pleasant and friendly woman, who was obviously familiar with the boat, came and closed the curtains and put the light on, so that we could be comfortable during the night.’
Just previous to dream number one, the dreamer had begun, with the help of a friend who knew a little about interpretation, to analyse her own dreams. So we see that from ‘overlooking’ the sea she has quickly gone on a sea voyage. The dream sums up her situation wonderfully, ‘I didn’t know where we were going, but – others did.’ She didn’t at the time realise where the interpretations and dreams would lead her. Also, the sea is now much closer, and night is coming. That is, darkness and the unconscious are already making themselves felt, for the night sea journey is a classical dream of the exploration of one’s unconscious contents, as with Jonah and the whale.
(3) ‘Found myself in a place where I could go swimming every morning.’
Already she is beginning to enter the water, or her inner life.
(4) ‘Went into a church with someone who pointed out that I was facing the wrong way. I turned round and saw a bigger and lighter altar at the other end.’
Having begun to contact her inner life via swimming, immersing in it, she sees that her attitude to religion or her own innermost feelings had been wrong. This she corrects.
(5) ‘I was involved in a revolution. Everything around was collapsing, but I don’t remember being frightened.’
All her old ideas are being either revolutionised, or are collapsing.
(6) ‘I found myself being led in a particular direction by friendly pleasant people, who yet knew that on arrival I was to be executed. I had an immature woman of about twenty-five with me, and the same fate awaited her. I took her hand and tried to convey love and courage and to protect her from all her fears by behaving in a light-hearted manner.
As her old ideas collapse, her old self is to die. Also the immature twenty-five year-old part that still lives on in her is to die.
(7) ‘I found myself entering a tunnel where I encountered a rather frightening little animal, but we passed each other as he went out and I went in. Then I met a larger animal with the same results. Later I met a third, a real monster, rather like a 60ft caterpillar with a lion’s head and fore feet. I did not like the encounter as I continued to walk on the left side of the tunnel, into ever deepening darkness, and he passed me on the way out. Somehow I felt that Doctor (a friend and adviser) would not have been in the least afraid, and I borrowed his courage, and woke about half-way along this monster.’
Having been ready to die to her old way of life, she can begin the descent into her unconscious contents in earnest. The two frightening animals are two fears that come up and out. The third one is too big a fear to completely pass by at this time; and its shape shows its possible sexual nature.
Here, in just seven dreams, with very inadequate comments, can be seen how the symbols evolve as the dreamer discovers her real inner nature. The ‘overlooked’ sea becomes travelled upon. The coming darkness on the boat develops into the ‘deepening darkness’ of the tunnel; while each dream shows a development on the inward journey the dreamer was undertaking. Such a series need not be about the inward journey, however, but about commercial undertakings, health, ambitions, or even answers to intellectual queries.
These seven dreams were taken from about twice that many, dreamed during the period. The selection being based on how one can understand past dreams by seeing them in context with others occurring. The important point being that one might dream of looking at the sea for years, but never enter it. Then, with a change of ‘disposition’, a series of swimming and diving dreams take place. In interpreting our dreams in this way, we have to watch for similar symbols in changed conditions. The sea and darkness are obvious in the series. Also the crowd of people leading her, representative of her own desires to understand herself. The interpretation is arrived at by analysing the situations the dreamer finds herself in, and how the symbols change. Thus a seed seen in one dream, and a plant just growing in another suggest growth and development. A person scorned in one dream, and loved in another, would be a change of attitude and relationship.
These three methods, the Main Phase – the Because Factor, and the Series method, all help us to see the underlying meaning of the dream through looking at the dream as a whole. Particular symbols are not worked on in the same way as in the associated ideas method. It is the relationships the dream suggests that arouse questions. In turn, these questions themselves clarify the dream for us, and help us analyse our experience to see if the dream explains or explores it. As we advance in ability to deal with our dreams, these various methods are called upon and used as required.
Link To Chapters – Link to Chapter Six
The Creative Dreamer
Do You Dream
Tony Crisp
Chapter Six
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.
Link To Chapters – Link to Chapter Seven
Active Imagination
Do You Dream
Tony Crisp
Chapter Seven
Also see Active Imagination and Dreams
The most necessary personal quality to interpret dreams is imagination. By imagination is meant the ability to find or group associated ideas and images round a given subject. If I write the word HORSE, what ideas or associated images can we link with it? It can be big, small, brown, black, stallion or mare. It can be weak, strong, old, young, tame or wild, friendly or aggressive. A horse links with images of saddles, reins, bridle, cart, whip, jockey, race-course. It can run, jump, pull, trample, bite, kick, plunge, buck. We can ride it, be thrown from it, mount or dismount, sit easy or with difficulty. It can carry us or a load, and so on. This all links with what has already been said about association of ideas. But there is another aspect of imagination which can be used as a sort of ‘diver’s suit’. By this I mean that its use often enables us to dive deeply into ourselves, and contact parts of us difficult to reach by any other means. It cannot be used for all dreams, but where indicated, its results are sometimes in the light of revelations to the person using it.
This method is called active imagination; and although often mentioned in various technical or popular dream books, a detailed description of how to do it is seldom given. Yet once it is grasped it is one of the simplest types of dream interpretation or methods of self discovery possible. But before we deal directly with the method, it is necessary to take a further look at imagination.
Earlier we looked at some aspects of memory, and which attitudes of mind inhibit or release it. These attitudes of mind also are largely responsible for the fullness or poverty of imagination. Not that what was said covered the issue very well, or that it can be covered adequately in this book, for many other factors act upon memory and imagination. These range from diet to atmospheric conditions, glandular balance to social influences. All affect our memory and imagination. In the consideration of active imagination, however, for a working knowledge of the technique that follows, a few further remarks on memory are necessary. Earlier it was said that by correctly conditioning our state of mind, we can often remember dreams that had never before been conscious. Possibly re-member is the wrong word, because the dream had never been consciously known, to be forgotten. But at least we are recalling an experience had by us at a different level of consciousness. It was also said that some dreams are difficult to recall because they portray parts of our nature we are ashamed of, guilty about, or frightened of. These factors also control our imagination.
It is therefore fairly obvious that our code of morals also has an enormous influence on what we allow ourselves to remember or imagine. The reader may have grave doubts about this, believing that they are free agents as to what they think or imagine; but this is wishful thinking and its falsity will be demonstrated as we proceed.
Memory and imagination are almost one and the same thing, for we cannot imagine without memory. But imagination is the forming of images and ideas into new arrangements or previously unthought of relationships. Sometimes imagination simply appears as what one generally calls ‘fantasy’. That is, we may see ourselves meeting the Queen or President, and giving them vital information about the country, for which they reward us and honour us. Or else we see ourselves facing up to some bully or superior in work or life, and ‘wiping the floor’ with them, or really telling them a few home truths about themselves. If we are honest we call this wishful thinking. It is, however, a form of imagination. It is also a safe means of letting off steam, releasing emotions or aggressiveness, or hopes and longings, if we afterwards have the honesty to smile at ourselves.
On the other hand, imagination can be creative. We may be faced by the problem, as my small son was, of keeping two tall canes upright to support a badminton net, yet not be able to push them into the hard ground. He remembered, however, that nearby were bricks with holes in them. In his imagination he saw that the canes could be held upright through pushing them into the bricks. This he did, and created a new relationship he had not seen before. Most creative imagination is an extension of this ability to place the ‘known’ into new and useful relationships.
Active imagination is not quite like either of these two. It is not simply memory; it is not wishful thinking, nor is it only creation of new and useful relationships from known facts. It seems to be a combination of them all with another factor thrown in the intuitive discovery of the unknown. Its activity is conditioned by our ability to be receptive as already described, and, as far as possible, in temporarily putting aside our morals, preconceived ideas, fears and desires for self. Because of this, and despite its simplicity, many people find they cannot do it until much of themselves has already been realised and in some degree dealt with. If used correctly though, some dreams will release their meaning to almost anybody. Having said that, let us look at the technique itself. Let us slowly delve into the strange inner realm disclosed to us.
If the reader conscientiously tried to do the exercise of expressing thoughts in images instead of words; or if the idea that prior to speech mankind probably thought in images, was well understood; then this was the first step in understanding active imagination. Also, when our conscious self expresses dreams in story form, poems, drama, paintings or modelling, this also can be a type of active imagination. But, and this must be clearly understood, it is only active imagination when, during the creative procedure of writing, painting, or modelling, one feels as if the dream images have somehow come alive and are directing the course of events. At such a time there is a feeling of being moved by something other than conscious decisions or will. Not that one is powerless to stop the course of events. It could be interfered with, and that is why active imagination cannot be experienced in any great depth by those who have not learnt to sit back and watch. While a person persists in controlling and interfering with this spontaneous expression of their inner self; while they constantly block its expressions through their moral principles or preconceived ideas, then this work cannot take place. Yet with the right attitude, one is not possessed by this unconscious direction, but works with it as a partner to create new understandings, new forms, new life in oneself.
The contacting of this spontaneous outflow of the innermost being, has always been the highest aim of the world’s great religions. It was possibly the driving energy behind all the new forms of art at their inception. In our own social scene we see that the use of LSD and similar drugs have also been undertaken by many because of their ability to release in some this same contact. Sometimes the contact is expressed in body movement, such as the dance; sometimes vocally as in drama, oration and singing; sometimes through the hand, as in art, sculpture, love; sometimes in realisation, such as religious experience of bliss.
When we think of the early Quakers, we see their ‘Quaking’ as an expression. The first Wesleyans often knew similar effects. While today we have the Latihan experience of Subud; the spontaneous movements of Reichian therapy; and LSD. All of them, to be effective, require the attitude of mind already mentioned. All of them also are a co-partnership between the deep self and conscious self.
As for how we may contact this influence through our dreams, we must begin with simple experiments to obtain correct understanding. Let us start by building up an image of driving a car. To understand what is being explained, one must sit without distraction and with closed eyes and imaginatively enter into driving a car. As you imagine this, see yourself driving down a very steep hill, with a steep drop on the left. As the car goes down and down, the bends in the road swing this way and that, and suddenly a bend comes up and the car is going too fast to make it. There is a terrible slope, and the car goes right over the edge.
Before you read any further, please go through this whole sequence in imagination, noting carefully what happens. Then read on.
One of several things may have occurred.
(a) You may not have been able to imagine it.
(b) You saw it but it went before the car crashed off the road.
(c) You went right along and the car crashed down the hillside.
Without making any comments yet, I now want you to do the whole thing again. But this time, as the car goes off the edge of the road to smash down the hill, you must try to make it simply fly up into the air gracefully and land safely lower down the road. Try this before reading on.
Once more, several things may have happened. Basically, you will probably not have been able to control the car once it went over the edge of the road. It either crashed, or you could only slow it down. If you could control it then it shows a high degree of direction of your images. But why have we done all this?
Really, to show how difficult it is to produce the image, and then to control it once we have got it moving. Also, most people’s car will have crashed, even when they try to stop it. Yet these are simple images of which we are supposed to be in control. We see in this the conscious working of the because factor. Are we then, captains of our own mind?
With a little thought, the reason we cannot make the car do as we wish is obvious. The image of the car is moved by our desires and wishes. Therefore, because our fear of crashing is involved, it takes hold of the image and crashes it! In other words, because we cannot master our fear of crashing, it controls the image we have produced. Having realised this, we can then learn to face fear and move the image where we wish, until another fear or desire is involved. I do not have to spell out the tremendous meaning and possibilities of that. It is enough to say that through the manipulation or observance of our own images, we can discover, trace, change and live in our own innermost processes. This is not done by simply following the line of least resistance, as in day-dreaming, fantasy or wishful thinking. It is done by attempting to manipulate, trying to face, what is revealed by spontaneous fantasy or dreams. That is the therapeutic side of active imagination. The creative side lies in the sphere of discovery and expression of our own latent possibilities, wisdom and emotions. The fact that we may discover a ‘fear of crashing’ through indulging in the above experiment is important enough, but, even greater significance lies in the experience of not being able to stop the car from crashing even if we wish to. This shows that our fears or apprehensions, those subtle often unknown parts of our nature, are constantly influencing our behaviour. This may seem exaggerated until we realise that such fears control our thoughts. They control our memories and our imaginations. It is our thoughts, memories and imagination that are the basic causes of our actions or inactions in life. When not interfering in our actions, they are certainly modifying in many ways the manner in which we respond to outer circumstance.
It is difficult, by means of the written word, to hit on an image that will definitely show us how we are controlled in the way we think, do and respond. Many people may easily deal with the car situation in their imagination, or else not be able to see the point of it. But if we could experiment, we would probably find certain images which are terrifying or loathsome to attempt to deal with. Some we may not even wish to think about. Yet they are only mental images; nothing is being asked in the actual physical realm. All they involve are our own emotions, fears, prejudices and morals. Therefore, if the car fantasy has not provoked any feeling, try imagining sexual intercourse with one of your parents. Being such a taboo thought, it is almost bound to negatively involve much of our inner life. It is sufficient, however, if it is clearly understood that these images have a life of their own because our feelings, morals and fears are involved. To condense things we can call these parts of us our ‘psychic’ life, or soul. Therefore, if we realise that our soul is involved in the fantasy, we can take the next step in understanding active imagination. It is also hoped that through what has been done with the experiment of imagination, the forces that produce dreams are also more clearly seen. For if we cannot imagine something while conscious and bending our will to do so; the images that arise while this will is sleeping, come as direct results of the interrelationship of our different fears, hopes and psychic life. Just as the car crashing is a direct expression of our fear, and inability to control it, so in a dream, a car crashing would be just the same.
Although this subject is of enormous interest and application in many realms, such as child education, creative art and personal relationships, we have to explain it here, only in its connection with dreams. What is most important to understand, is what type of dream we can use it with effectively, and how to use it with such dreams. Very generally, it is the dream that faces us with problems we cannot get beyond; or figures in the dream we do not understand. While the way to use it is to put ourselves back into the dream situation and consciously move along with it, or manipulate the symbols.
Earlier in the book, while dealing with dream series, a dream was mentioned where the woman saw herself entering a tunnel. She then met and passed a ‘rather frightening little animal’, then a larger animal, and finally a ‘real monster, rather like a 60ft caterpillar with a lion’s head and fore feet’. This last was not passed, but she only got half way along, and woke. Literally, she woke in the middle of it. This was explained as of ‘possibly sexual nature’ due to the shape of the symbol. The fact that it was too big to get by, or cope with in the dream, makes it an excellent subject for active imagination. The size of the creature represents its emotional impact on the dreamer. Such ‘big’ emotions often need our conscious co-operation to deal with. The dream, by itself, might not find a way out of the difficulty. The speculation about the meaning of the symbol also invites us to try to realise its implications in active imagination.
The woman in question did use active imagination on this dream. She waited for a time when she would be undisturbed, made herself comfortable, and then tried to get back into the dream using her imagination. Her description is as follows:
‘Several things surprised me, To begin with I could not re-create the feeling of fear. I stood where the dream had left off and waited. Occasionally I saw the end of the tunnel and it opened out into light. Occasionally I saw a small white light just above and beyond the caterpillar’s back. Then I decided to climb on to its back to see if that produced any results. None. So I decided to crawl towards its tail. As I went along I found that its fur was full of an unpleasant slime; but I couldn’t decide exactly what it represented (apart from filth). I tried to decide what it meant and what I should do, but all the while now the far end of the tunnel was becoming lighter, and so I concluded that I had failed to discover anything useful in this experiment. The only bit that had come alive was the slime on the caterpillar’s back, and my revulsion at having to put my hands in it.’
At first sight this appears to be almost a failure. However, it shows that the tunnel’s end is in sight, and anyone trained in interpreting dreams would see that the discovery of slime on the caterpillar’s back is very important. But we do not have to speculate over this, as the very next day the whole thing ‘comes to light’. In fact, the caterpillar episode was very near to the ‘light of day’, or consciousness. The woman says, ‘I suddenly saw the meaning of the slime on the caterpillar: it was semen. It brought partial memory of the four year old’s sexual shock. I was somehow trapped, probably in the rather crude open-air toilets in the recreation ground, by a man who exhibited himself and almost certainly made me touch the phallus with my hands during ejaculation. Being small I had to reach up. My hands were ‘soiled’, and my face could have been. I am pretty sure I must have been sick. When I remembered the above I shuddered again and again and at last broke into tears. I’ve surely released a lot.’
Yes, she had released, and realised a lot; because her conscious self had sufficient courage and receptiveness to go along with, and investigate what her unconscious self was pushing up for her notice.
A similar experience of active imagination is shown in the following dream, by a young woman. In the dream she walked across the Rye, which is a large park, in a new ‘Maxi’ coat. The ground was like a bog, but she did not sink in, although she knew she had come to commit suicide. She lay on top of the bog, quite happy and ready. Then she saw a man walking towards her, only his legs visible. She knew she must now die, and thrust herself through the bog.
The first part of the dream was fairly easy to interpret. She had recently had an emotional shock through seeing her husband kissing another woman at a party. This was terrible because although such an action was not uncommon to her, she always felt very insecure emotionally, and her husband’s action was a blow to her security. The Rye was a place where her early courting took place, and represents her own sexual feelings, and the bog that underlies them. The ‘Maxi’ was a thing that she did not own, but hoped for. She was taking her outer hopes and life, on to the thin surface that covered the threat of her sexual feelings of insecurity. She was willing to face these feelings, though her old self might die in doing it. This much was understandable. It was the man’s legs that could not be fitted into the interpretation. They could have been interpreted as a threat of sex. but this did not provide a satisfying picture of the dream. Therefore the woman sat quietly, imagined herself back in the dream, and saw the man’s legs approaching. She was then asked to look up at the man’s face, and see who it was. She did so, and with great surprise said, ‘It’s my father!’ The realisation of which helped to show the part her father had played in shaping her emotional background.
Another example of how active imagination can help us to understand a symbol is again shown in the following dream and the active imagination.
‘I had, or was, a deformed baby, having four eyes, and a somewhat “not normal” face. The eyes were operated on, two being removed. But the baby grew up to be a dwarf, very lonely and shy.
‘The dwarf and normal I, were one, yet somehow separated. He lived downstairs and would often climb the stairs and stand outside my door, hoping I would see him and befriend him. I, inside, vaguely felt his presence, but whenever I got near the door, his shyness made him retreat downstairs.
‘Then I met him on a footpath between steep meadows. I asked him why his other two eyes had been removed, and he said, “Because I could see too many (confusing) things with all my eyes.” That is, too many images were presented at once, and could not be interpreted clearly.
‘He said, “Now I can see differently.” Pointing at the meadow he said, “Really there are no cows there at all.”
‘I looked and saw a lot of cows, and struggled to understand what he meant. While I was pondering he walked along a bit and said, “No, I was wrong; there is one cow there.” I looked and saw a very beautiful cow among the herd.
‘The next thing was that a large male dwarf, and two female dwarfs came along the footpath. The two men (whom I now was) recognised they were deeply related to each other, and ran into each other’s arms with great love. As they held each other they (1) felt that two incomplete parts had now found each other.’
Trying to interpret this rather long and involved dream without outside help, the dreamer found it difficult. He therefore held a picture of the dwarf in his imagination, and talked to it. Here is the record of his conversation.
Q. Why were you born deformed?
A. I am the part of you born deformed. Your sins from the past. The sins of the parents.
Q. Why did you have four eyes?
A. Because I looked for too many things. Through trying to look in too many directions there was confusion.
Q. What does it mean that you stood outside my door?
A. It means that we were so close all the time, but did not meet.
Q. Why was there only one cow?
A. There is only one cow because all the others are reflections, false images of the one. The others have no soul. You see the cows, because you have not lost the eyes as I have done. I can only see things with a soul, real things.
Q When you met the large dwarf, what is that?
A. Now we have met. You are but a larger, not complete dwarf. Together we make one person. The large dwarf is two thirds grown; I am only one third. Together we are complete.
When reading this one may feel that some of the answers are as confusing as the dream. It has to be realised that the conversation takes place within a particular person, between two parts of himself. This is something we do all the time, but not as consciously as in active imagination. If one wished to emigrate, for instance, but had aged parents who needed help, the desire to emigrate, and the desire to stay, could be represented as two people in a dream. These could talk and discuss their different desires, trying to find an agreement. But this conversation uses the education and background of the person. Therefore, a history professor might easily use terms foreign to a bricklayer, when talking to himself. The answers are therefore meaningful to ourselves, or become meaningful with a little thought. The man in question was helped to realise certain things about himself. As a child he had been extremely shy and lonely. At thirteen this had become such a problem that he took up various interests and activities to alter himself. In this way he developed the ability to meet people even more confidently and successfully than most; he spoke in public, and so on. So he felt, before the dream, that he had developed beyond his shyness, but the answers the dwarf gave him made him realise that in fact he had learnt to shut his shyness out of his life, ‘downstairs’ in the unconscious. For years he had not met this part of him due to the very differences in these two parts of him. But he could now see that his frequent blushing when certain topics were mentioned, that his conscious self had no ‘feelings’ about, suggested this other part.
This shy part of him had looked in so many directions for ‘real’ relationships with people, only to find confusion and dissatisfaction. So much so that he had had to ‘cut out’ his looking, to stop being hurt. While the cow is explained by the dreamer in these words. ‘I didn’t properly understand the bit about the cows, even after the dwarf had spoken to me. I knew that in India it is regarded as a sacred animal, and I thought of it as a sort of mother figure. Then I realised that it is a source of sustenance and motherhood. Milk is our first food, our first contact with mother. To see so many false cows was to see false sources of security and sustenance that a mother provides. I had made false ‘cows’ out of my desire for love and affection. But my shy, sensitive part, because only the real thing could satisfy it, could see through these shams.’
The same man had another interesting experience of active-imagination that demonstrates several of the other principles involved. As can be gathered from the above, he had been dealing with the relationship between himself and his mother. That is, not his present relationship, but the effects of his relationship as a baby and child. In this instance he did not use a dream as the focal point of the active imagination. It is important to understand this, as when we start working on dreams, some feelings, emotions, or memories, are unlocked by what we are doing, and may attempt to come up outside of our dream life. Unless we know how to deal with these ‘risings’ the development of our work will be much delayed. Here is the man’s account of the experience.
‘I was quite alone in the church; just sitting trying to allow my thoughts to become quiet. Usually, this was fairly easy for me, but on this particular day I could not keep my thoughts from turning to a woman I knew. Eventually, realising that some inner unrest must lie behind this constant desire, I gave myself over to it. I suppose it is meaningful that I had previously been contemplating a banner with the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus on it – the mother and child. In any case, as soon as I let my thoughts go where they wished, I saw myself at the woman’s breast. For several reasons I immediately drew my thoughts away from this. Firstly, I came to church not to fantasy sexual feelings, but to find something that helped one through the mire of personal relationships. One could go on and on fantasising sex. I had nothing against it, but such imagined scenes gave neither satisfaction, nor did they ever end. No satisfaction = no end. Also, I was married, and sexual fantasies with other women involve the very feelings that are needful to make one’s own married life complete. They divert the very emotions that are necessary in making a good home for wife and children.
‘Due to my past experiences in this realm, however, I felt I ought not to push these things aside out of hand. It was better for peace of mind to let such fantasies come up and out, rather than be bottled up inside. Therefore I put my reasons and morals on one side, sat back and watched. Immediately I went to the woman’s breast, as a baby might to its mother. There was a tremendous feeling of satisfaction and fulfilment, and gradually without trying to push it away, the whole scene lost its potency and faded; the emotions and desires having found release through the fantasy.
‘For a moment all was quiet. Then a thought came to me of its own accord. It was.’ ‘But that was only a substitute!” I naturally asked myself, “A substitute for what?” immediately the reply came, “Your mother’s breast.”
‘It is impossible to describe the flood of realisation or revelation this brought with it. The many women I had longed for outside of marriage, now took on the form of substitutes for the love and affection, fulfilment and satisfaction I desired at my mother’s breast. Realising this, I thought, “Well, I will imagine myself at my mother’s breast. Again, the shock of revelation is difficult to describe; because, the simple fact was, I found I could not do it.’
On this revelation of not being able to imagine himself at his mother’s breast, despite all his efforts, this period of active imagination ended. Later sessions, carrying on where the last left off, gradually revealed that it was feelings of uncleanness and rejection that prevented the image forming. This, in turn, led to the man reliving, during active imagination, a babyhood memory. In his own words, ‘I could not understand why I should have such strong feelings of uncleanness and rejection about an imagined picture of my mother’s breast. In fact I couldn’t get the picture. But by simply allowing these feelings to develop fully, as I had done with the original “substitute” experience, it began to move. Suddenly I was at my mother’s breast. I was a baby, I was re-living it. There I was in her arms, and I loved her so much, so enthusiastically, that I was sucking and expressing my pleasure by my body movements. I realised that a baby experiences infantile sexual feelings while at the mother’s breast. They come as a sort of blissful oneness with the mother.* But then my mother smacked me, or scolded me, (it must be understood that a baby does not separate the different parts of its being. Its emotions are not distinct from its thoughts, or its thoughts from its sexual feelings. When it does something, even as simple as shaking a rattle, it does so with all of itself, emotions, sexual feelings, hungers, etc.) because she felt that such feelings were unclean. I can understand this, as she still cannot accept my father’s feelings in this direction. And that, in a nutshell, is where my own sexual conflicts began, which now try to find substitutes outside of marriage for my sexual feelings. For I saw that a man replaces his mother with a wife, with whom he now shares and gives his deepest feelings. But his wife is his new mother. If he could not give himself to his mother because she made him feel unclean, then the same feelings of uncleanness pervade his attempts to give himself to his wife. It must be a problem that many men and women face, all begun at the mother’s breast, because the mother feels that sex is filth.’
The important thing to note in this description is the need to ‘go along’ with the images and feelings being released, without passing judgement on them. This allows them to rise, and reveal their source, which may be an event in early life, or a relationship between parts of oneself. The willingness to plunge again and again into unsavoury emotions and images, can also be seen as a necessity. The beautiful is often hidden in the dirt, or grows out of it. It is only when we see that beauty grows out of dirt that we realise dirt is not ‘filth’, but earth. It is the basic stuff of life, the material all growth emerges from; the stuff that our life forces transform in the process of growing. But if we are out of touch with the earth of our nature, our energy has nothing to transform into the flower of our manhood or womanhood. In the East, the lotus growing out of the mud has always been a symbol of this.
No attempt has been made in this description of active imagination to show its use in art, poetry and dance. This is because the chapters on dreams and poetry, painting and stories, cover this. It is also hoped the reader will, by grasping the general principles, be able to express what arises in his own way.
Link To Chapters – Link to Chapter Eight
LSD Hypnosis Meditation the Dream
Do You Dream
Tony Crisp
Chapter Eight
There has always been a great deal of criticism aimed at dream interpretation. It has been called many things. Those who have not investigated it have denied any truth in it. Others have said that most dream interpretation was in the head of the analyst, and dreams were meaningless. This has been due to the various interpretations one can give to a dream, and the difficulty of arriving at any interpretation in the case of some dreams. Like an ink blot one can see all sorts of faces in it. But the ink blot is really just a blot, and depicts no face at all, or if it does it is pure coincidence.
When one begins to attempt an interpretation of one’s dreams, especially if doing it alone, these criticisms become important. To start with, dreams present a shifting phantasmogoric world in which one is a stranger, and cannot find the way. It is a world of changing shapes and shadows; a land of hinted meanings, where nothing holds still long enough to determine its real character, and a snake can slip into the form of a frog as easily as a man can become a stone, or learn to fly. It would be unusual then, in this land for which there can never be a fixed map, due to its changing contours, if one did not suffer serious doubts about finding one’s way, or arriving at meaning. This is because different values apply in this world than those of the outer world. To get somewhere in the dream world, we cannot simply follow a road as in the outer world, for the road may quickly become a trackless bog or change into a seashore covered with ferocious lettuce leaves which threaten to eat all the hair off one’s body. It is the world of Alice in Wonderland, of Hercules and the Heroes, it is Fairyland, where one gets somewhere ‘because’, and not by walking at all. Therefore, if we judge this land with our old ideas based on outer, conscious life, we shall certainly be dismayed. If we persist in the face of such difficulties, however, then gradually we shall develop new senses, new values, and the ability to move around in this strange world. We will then be able to converse with the natives of this land, and understand what they are saying. For the natives are symbols and allegory, and their language is not usually in words.
It is fortunate, therefore, that to help our doubting mind in its persistence to understand, evidence does point to the feasibility of dream interpretation. What has already been said about symbols and imagery being an early type of thinking is a part of this evidence. We can test it for ourselves. In the same way, our experiments in active imagination also demonstrate to us personally, that dream images do arise from our psychic values. They can, therefore, through analysis, be traced to these underlying emotions, and thus be understood. When we arrive at an interpretation of our own dreams that thoroughly explains us to ourselves, this too constitutes personal evidence. There are other sources of evidence, however, and because these throw light on another method of interpretation, they will be mentioned.
During the early part of this century, investigators set out to test some of Freud’s conclusions regarding dream symbols. Three men, Gaston Roffenstein, Karl Schroetter, and M. Nachmansohn, used hypnosis for this aim. They hoped in this way to throw light on three dream factors; the dream censor, the symbol making process, and whether dreams help us to stay asleep.
For one experiment, Schroetter used a 24 year old female pharmacist he calls ‘Miss E’. Having put the subject into a ‘deep hypnotic sleep’, he then told her she would dream of having homosexual intercourse with her female friend L. Schroetter comments that Miss E is Aryan, while L is Jewish. The dream that followed during the night was of Miss E sitting in a small dingy cafe’ holding a huge French newspaper. Talking with a strong Yiddish accent, a woman twice asks her, ‘Don’t you need anything?’ Miss E doesn’t answer, but the woman comes a third time, and is recognised as her friend L. She is holding a worn suitcase with a label that reads, ‘For ladies only!’ Miss E goes out of the cafe? with her, and walks along an unfamiliar street, while L hangs on to her. She doesn’t like this, but does not like to be rude by telling her to stop. They arrive at L’s house, where she pulls out a huge bunch of keys from a rag. She chooses a key and gives it to Miss E, saying, ‘I trust only you with it, it is the key to this case. You might like to use it. Just watch that my husband doesn’t get hold of it.’ L then leaves her with the key.
As, according to Freud’s symbology, a case is a woman, a key the male organ, and walking up a strange street, new sexual conquest, this dream is very interesting. It can be seen how a forbidden idea is hidden within the symbols, and how the symbols express the hidden idea. As Miss E had no knowledge of Freudian concepts these symbols are spontaneous products of her own dream state.
Roffenstein, because he wished to be quite certain of the subject’s ignorance of formulated dream symbols, chose a 28 year old nursemaid. She is described as of sub-average intelligence, totally uneducated, and quite innocent of his proposed experiment. She was likewise hypnotised and told to dream, amongst other things, of having sexual intercourse with her father. The dream was of her father. He gave her a large bag, and with it a big key. It was a very big key, like the key to a house. She felt sad, but opened the bag. Then a snake jumped out of it against her mouth, when she screamed and awoke.
Once more, the bag and the key, and one other classic sex symbol, the snake as male penis. If there were not other evidence but this, we still have to admit that they do not suggest dreams being meaningless. Unfortunately, because Freud’s ideas were being tested, which reduce most symbols to male or female, we cannot see how the dream expresses religious feelings, concepts of life, or ambitious drives, but we can see this for ourselves in our own dreams.
Although the two dreams mentioned are full of information and evidence they were nevertheless induced. Another source of evidence helps us to see dreams from a different direction. In the hypnotically induced dreams, the dreamer does not interpret them. But there are cases where dreams are interpreted spontaneously without conscious attempts; or intervention by an analyst to inject their opinions. The most evidential of the ways in which this spontaneous interpretation or understanding takes place, is during the dream itself. While one may not have a lot of dreams where the understanding takes place during the dream, it is by no means uncommon. Most people have such a dream at one time or another, and some people have a whole batch of dreams that are understood while they are taking place. Below is a description of a dream, and the spontaneous interpretation that arose with it.
‘A young girl kept coming up to me and placing my hand on her breasts. She was just developing her breasts, and they felt so very beautiful. Then, while still dreaming, I asked myself what it meant, and an answer came without any effort. The girl represented my desire for sexual satisfaction. That is, not just physical, but also the mating of emotions, mind and soul. I caress her breasts due to the fact that my sexuality is still developing. This means that the other levels of union, such as mental and spiritual, develop out of the physical. So I have to allow this stage to go on being experienced so that the other levels can unfold from it. The girl also represents the Divine Mother, or the female, unconscious counterpart of my outer, male nature. She herself develops as my feelings mature, and this suddenly threw a new light on all my sexual dreams in the past.’
Not only can we see how the interpretation beautifully fits each aspect of the dream, but it is also interesting to see how much longer the interpretation is than the dream. This shows just how much information a small dream can contain. The example gives us the ideal of interpretation as well. It should arise out of the dreamer as understanding, and fit each part of the dream.
Another way in which dreams can be interpreted spontaneously is during hypnosis. The hypnotic state is similar to sleep in some respects, the most obvious being that critical sense, full reasoning powers and conscious judgement are to some extent less active. This is possibly why one can solve the riddle of dreams more easily, and also why they are so fully understood. As we have seen with memory, or active imagination, preconceived ideas, or moral judgements, prevent ideas or inner contents from surfacing. We can see exactly the same process at work in our conversations with others. Certain events in our life we may easily be able to talk about to one friend, but find it impossible even to mention to another. This is very often because one friend is sympathetic, interested, broad minded, does not ridicule, judge or criticise; while the one we cannot tell misunderstands such things, thinks less of us for them, ridicules or criticises. We do exactly the same to ourselves. Because of our attitude to parts of ourself, they can never ‘talk’ to us or tell us about themselves. In sleep or hypnosis, many of these attitudes are put aside, and a more direct contact made with these parts of us. Also, because, with an ultra conscious attempt to understand dreams we may hold the wrong idea in mind, the right one cannot come through. Or else our doubt may press back what we need to know. In fact, what was said earlier about memory is worth reviewing in the light of spontaneous interpretation. In hypnosis, the association of ideas to symbols and dream structure, are also easier and more certain. This is because there is less interference from our reasoning faculties. Even a light hypnotic state, or deeply relaxed condition aids this process.
In the book Three Faces of Eve by Thigpen and Cleckley an example is given of this. The patient, Eve White, has told of a dream which she cannot relate to any of the events or details of her life. The dream is of being in a huge room, in the middle of which is a pool of stagnant green water. Eve is in the pool with her baby, Bonnie. Her husband and uncle stand on the edge of the pool. She tries to get the baby out, because they both seem to be drowning, but tries to avoid putting the baby girl near her husband. Despite this she eventually puts her in her husband’s hands. Then her uncle, whom she loves, pushes Eve’s head under the water. The psychiatrist treating her suggested trying hypnosis as a means of interpreting the dream. During the hypnotic condition it was suggested she Would be able to explain the dream on being wakened and this in fact she did. The room was her existence, the pool was the religious associations of her husband, who was Roman Catholic. She was trying to escape from being drowned in this Church, and to prevent her baby from being educated as a RC. As in life, her husband refused to help her in this struggle. Her uncle had in life suggested she fulfil her promise and have the child brought up as a Catholic, and this is seen as a pushing under.
Further proof of this type of interpretation is shown in recent use of LSD for therapeutic purposes. C. Newland, in her book Myself and I which describes in detail the course of her analysis under LSD, experienced spontaneous interpretation under the drug several times. The LSD analysis was not concerning itself with her dreams. It simply occurred that she knew her dream meanings several times while using LSD. This happened despite the fact that during normal consciousness she had not the vaguest idea what the dreams meant. One of the dreams she mentions is as follows:
In this dream a primitive, powerful country had invaded the United States and I had found refuge, together with friends and relatives, in an underground shelter so well provisioned and camouflaged that we could survive the duration of the war there comfortably. Unexpectedly, enemy shock troops attacked the shelter. My friends and relatives scattered but I was captured and forced above ground, where I was ordered to round up those who had escaped. As soon as I did, I realized, these barbarian shock troops would destroy us all.
Her spontaneous understanding of this is as follows:
About fifteen minutes after having taken the drug, this dream which had been incomprehensible spontaneously revealed its meaning – The underground shelter was obviously meant to be a symbol for my unconscious mind which existed below the surface and had been so well camouflaged that it could survive indefinitely without being discovered. My friends and relatives in the shelter were symbols too – of my symptoms and neuroses which could have survived the duration comfortably had not those barbarian shock troops discovered the underground hiding place. Those barbarian shock troops, I quickly realized, were symbols again – and very apt symbols – for Doctors E and M who were using the barbarian (experimental) shock therapy of LSD. They had already forced my unconscious above ground, and were now asking me to round up those friends and relatives (symptoms and neuroses) that had escaped. As soon as I did round them up, we were to be destroyed. As this interpretation unfolded, the nightmare lost its terror and became instead an encouragement: unconsciously I might be frightened at losing my neuroses but consciously I was delighted.
The more we consider these dreams, and how understanding of them was arrived at, the more it is seen how necessary it is to have the right state of mind. This method of interpretation (the open state of mind) may not be possible for many people, but some people on trying it, will find it comes naturally to them. It will be as if they have a ‘gift’ for it. Others will be able to develop it with some practice. For what can be induced by sleep, hypnosis or drug, can also be arrived at through discipline. Which brings us to the other method capable of giving spontaneous understanding. This is the intuitive method, or meditation. With this method, one consciously tries to take up exactly the same state of mind described in the chapter on remembering dreams.
But LSD and other consciousness altering drugs can open you to your unconscious content,which many people are not prepared for. Many people as their awareness reaches beyond what they feel is their normal self feel scared. Such resistances cause us to create awful dreams and fears as a means of avoiding our own inner world and its wonders. We feel that we will be swallowed up and we will die. It is important to say that when we meet the experience of powerlessness through becoming aware of the hugeness of your Life, which we are usually unaware if, it feels like something alien or attacking, and it is a shock.
When we begin to meet the Hugeness that we are, we often react to it in our dreams or in waking with fear or panic. So we dream of being attacked by aliens or frightening creatures; or being swallowed by a whale or something huge, a tsunami, or even possessed by evil entities.
Example: I took some LSD in 1980 which caused a dissociation from my feelings because it opened up so much from my unconscious and terrified me. The energy got held in my gut causing pain, spasms and shaking which I have to this day. I have tried many kinds of healing and therapy over the years but not much has helped, mainly because I am stuck in my head and terrified to let go. I hope you can suggest someone or something to help me. When the trip wore off I had this huge energy blockage in my gut and a sense of being dazed and disconnected from everything – my body and feelings, life and others, and I just functioned from my head. I have been trying to get myself back into my body ever since but still have a lot I need to release.
Another approach
If one analyses carefully the state of mind necessary for one to fall asleep, then this is it. There is no effort to go to sleep. One waits without worrying when sleep will overtake you, without trying to control the thoughts. It is an open, relaxed state of being. If we introduce the dream into this; ask ourselves what it means, and simply wait without trying to dig out the answer, ideas may begin to naturally collect around the question. It can be likened to fishing. The conscious mind is rod and line. The dream is the bait, the question the hook. These are lowered into the waters of the unconscious by becoming quiet and passive, letting the question and dream sink into lower levels of consciousness by stilling the upper levels. Then, like the fisherman, one has to be patient. One waits for the line to pull. It is no use thinking.
The following dream and interpretation is an example of this. ‘I dreamt I was courting an Indian girl. We were on a beach, and I was making love to her. All her family knew this. Then we wanted to get married, but now tremendous formalities began, and a banquet was prepared, and my question of worthiness brought up.
In trying to find an answer to this dream I sat and just wondered about it. I didn’t try to find answers for it. Then suddenly it all fell into place. The day before, I had gone for a walk, and had thought about an experience I had the year before. I had seen deeply into myself at that time, and found it very beautiful, often wishing I could reach the same level again. Now I saw that the dream showed me on the beach, representing the borderline of consciousness between unconscious and conscious. It was because I had found a way to this borderline state that the previous experience had happened. As the dream shows, I merged, or made love to, this dark part of myself at the time, but now I wished to reach that level of experience frequently. I wanted to own it, marry it, but this requires the formalities of enquiring into my worthiness. Can I “maintain” the girl by my life. Can I deliberately produce the state of mind that made our former liaison possible?’
While this type of interpretation may be difficult for us, it is at least worth trying when other methods fail. One may even find one has an aptitude for it.
Link To Chapters – Link to Chapter Nine
Tests of Analysis
Do You Dream
Tony Crisp
Chapter Nine
From all that has been said, a whole collection of methods present themselves suggesting how we can understand a dream. I suppose one could use all these methods on a single dream, and arrive at a whole spectrum of information. But the question now arises as to whether the interpretation is correct. After all the effort, is it right? It is not just a question of whether the answer satisfies us; it must also enlighten us. It must do even more than that. What we arrive at must fit the events and symbols of the dream, and unveil the characters of our inner life that have clothed themselves in the forms and events of the dream. The interpretation should make sense to other people also, so that if explained, they too can easily see the connection between dream and interpretation. The interpretation should be able to stand the test of time as well.
One of the biggest temptations in analysing our dreams, the thing that most often leads to a false interpretation, is to attempt a purely arbitrary translation of the symbols. By this is meant that because one dreams of a bag, a large key and a snake, one should not therefore immediately denominate these as ‘sexual symbols’. They may be; and we have to keep this possibility in mind. But the dreamer may be a locksmith who is having difficulty opening an important bag. In which case the symbols represent a problem and not sexual intercourse. And he may have a friend who keeps snakes, by one of which he was nearly bitten. So the snake might mean fear of death. This is why one has to be careful to find one’s own associations with the symbols. Only when we cannot find a personal association; or the dream setting does not point to the possible meaning, should we try a general interpretation. Jung has said that if the dreamer finds difficulty in arriving at an association, he would ask him to describe the symbol in his own words, as if Jung knew nothing about it. Therefore, if one dreamt of a table, one would say, ‘It is a thing usually made of wood and having four supports. Upon these a flat surface is fixed, so that one can place objects, food, books, etc., on it at a level nearer one’s hands or mouth.’ Or at least, one would describe it as one saw it.
As for how we can test the interpretation, dissatisfaction is the biggest clue to our inadequate understanding of the dream. If there are factors in the dream which we have not explained, or if the interpretation does not bring to light the inner feelings that shaped the dream, then one will always have a feeling of dissatisfaction. It is as if two parts of a puzzle have not been properly fitted together, or, although the pieces fit, the colours do not quite match. Thus arises the feeling of not having found the right solution.
On the other hand, when the right understanding is arrived at, a very profound thing happens. There is usually a feeling of thrill, a sudden pleasure of exaltation, a feeling of being on the track. This is usually accompanied by a sense of seeing deeply into yourself, sometimes into parts of your being never bared to view before. In all, there is a feeling of pleasure and achievement, of certainty. One is usually somewhat amazed at the wisdom of dreams, despite having felt the same many times before.
Another test of the interpretation’s accuracy, and a guard against arbitrariness, is to see whether it fits everyday experience. A dream nearly always deals with things one has experienced in one way or another. Therefore, if an interpretation does not fit or explain our actual experience, then it should be placed to one side. We must beware of using words we do not understand. For instance, we may read that Jung has said a dark-haired woman can represent a man’s anima, or female nature, while a dominant man in a woman’s dreams represents her animus. Or that Freud suggests that some cutting or scissors dreams might symbolise a fear of castration. But do we really, in our own experience, know what these mean? Can we see them in our own life? It is certainly not sufficient to label our dream symbols this, that or the other. If these ideas are true, then we shall see them in our own experience. We may not give them the same name even; but one that describes them to us! This is not to say that a knowledge of these ideas is not extremely helpful. It may even help us to see these things in our own experience. But we must beware of using such ideas without seeing them in ourselves. Therefore we have to look at ourselves and ask, ‘What part of me does this dream symbol represent? What experience is it dealing with?’ And when the word experience is used this does not simply mean events in the outer world. It means emotions, attitudes, ideas, response to people and events, relationships with others, with self, and with Life.
Sometimes, however, the dream deals with things that have not yet happened, but are about to happen. I am not here dealing with prophetic dreams. When a woman has a tummy ache and says, ‘Ah, my period is beginning’, she is not prophesying. She is speaking from past experience. In a similar way, the dream often sees that things are about to begin that are not outwardly obvious to us. For instance, a man dreamt that a bull broke loose and rushed into a field of cows. Shortly afterwards he was almost carried away by a release of sexual desires he had kept ‘chained up’. His inward feelings had warned of this in the dream. Yet outwardly he could see no sign of it. So with some dreams we have to see if ‘time’ reveals their meaning. Or to put it another way, we may interpret the dream satisfactorily but find no signs of it in our experience. Then it is for time to bring it into the realm of the real.
An example of arbitrary interpretation can be seen in this dream. ‘An unconventional looking postman delivered a registered package. But I didn’t open it.’ This was taken to mean that due to an Unconventional experience, the dreamer had realised something. Something had ‘registered’ on his consciousness, but he had not explored the possibilities of it. Although this seemed to fit the symbols, and no other ideas were forthcoming yet the dreamer could not, despite a lot of searching within, discover an experience of something registering that he had not explored. The registered package is a double symbol, because it also suggests something valuable contained in it. Therefore, despite a seemingly good interpretation, when it came down to testing it, no satisfaction was forthcoming. Which makes us realise that proper interpretation lies not only in reading the symbols, but in seeing the understanding applied to our life.
We can sum up the tests for interpretation then, as: Does it satisfy us? Does it explain us? Does it enlighten us? Can we see it as a part of our experience in the past, present or future? Above all, does it help us carry on with the business of living?
Link To Chapters – Link to Chapter Ten
After Understanding What?
Do You Dream
Tony Crisp
Chapter Ten
We may have discovered in a dream greater self understanding, a knowledge of mankind’s origins, new attitudes to outer competitive living, or even suggestions as to what lies ahead. Like the schoolchild, a great many facts and understandings may have been given to us, but the same question must concern us that concerns the child. What am I going to do with them in life?
Remembering the analogy of the instrument panel, we realise that it depends upon us what we do with the information displayed. Dreams, of and by themselves, do not, will not, solve all our problems. Who has ever removed all problems anyway? Those who have found peace and fulfilment in life did not do so through an escape from difficulties. They did it by relating to their problems in a new way. Likewise, we too can use what is revealed in dreams to relate to the old world in a new way, but this can only be done if we bring certain things to the study of our dreams. For there are many who have most profound and amazing revelations, but whose lives remain unchanged. While there are others who glimpse only a passing fragrance of wisdom, but who take it and transform their lives. So one can truly say that it is not the extent of the wisdom revealed which changes a man, but the extent to which a man or woman can use that wisdom in their daily dealings with life, that produces the change.
Through a dream one may see the folly of acting upon desires arising from possessiveness and jealousy, yet one may go on acting from these same parts of oneself. While the same realisation by another person leads them to think twice before expressing them, which changes their life. That is, not repressing these feelings, but simply recognising where they lead to if acted upon. For if we act upon jealousy, it often leads us to imprison another person in our desires, not allowing them their rightful freedom. Thus a child might be prevented from making deep contacts with new friends, or a wife or husband chained to the limitations of one person’s affection and friendship; or we imprison other parts of our own nature.
Obviously, difficulties beset our path, but life has found a way around difficulties since its inception on Earth millions of years ago. If life had not consistently found ways to deal with problems, we should not be here now. Therefore, a problem solving apparatus is built into us, and expresses itself in dreams. But again, if we do not act upon our innate wisdom, how can it be of value? Nor must we believe that there is only one set way to deal with a situation. One person might easily be able to act upon what is revealed, while another may not have the energy or ability to do so. This does not mean that the latter should therefore give in. They are in a different situation, and have to deal with their problems differently. For everybody starts from a different point, and encounters a different stretch of terrain. Instead of feeling inferior because he does not have the same powers as the man who can immediately act upon his knowledge, he should ask himself, his dreams, ‘Well, how do I cope with this? I have seen it is not for my own good to act out of jealousy, but I don’t seem to have the strength to do otherwise. Is there an alternative? Or can I find strength somehow?’ It is such questions, unconscious though they may have been, that have enabled species to survive ice ages, floods, earthquakes, climatic and environmental changes, and famines. The outwardly strongest, the quickest to act, have not always been the survivors; but those who could adapt even their weaknesses to face the new situation, the new challenge, have continued in the face of problems. Men did not say, ‘Ah, the ice age is too cold, we have not fur enough to face it’ – they put on clothes. So we, too, can find an alternative, even for our weaknesses.
One of the first things to be remembered in dealing with dreams is the persistence in searching for a way to use what we have discovered. It lies in applying our new ‘tool’ to deal with life. But it is no good either, being lazy when, with a little effort, we could use what has already been seen, without alternatives. There is always the temptation to forget, and to let oneself slide back into old attitudes, old habits. Certainly nobody can be condemned for doing so. Life is often difficult enough, without the additional strenuous burden of changing our ways; but one has to admit frankly to oneself, that although change is thus avoided, one still has to suffer the limitations of the old way of life, and we must accept the latter if we choose the former. In the end, it is usually a pressing and painful problem, the desire for something ‘more’ or better, that gives us the necessary energy to meet ourselves and face change.
Even if we have accepted this, we still need help, and this is where the ‘art’ forms of interpretation are invaluable. Unless we have given concrete form in an easily understood manner to the understanding we have gained, it may slip away back into unconsciousness despite our interest in it. Therefore, wherever possible, a record should be kept of interpretations. It is adequate even if only in writing, but if one can catch the essence of it and put it into story form, a new symbol, song, poetry or painting, it becomes a much more powerful aid in conscious life. Especially so if it is then easily seen. In this way, a Christian who carries or wears a cross has a constant reminder of religious resolves through the symbol of the cross.
It is not necessary to do this to all dreams. One usually has a series of ‘small’ dreams, culminating in one or several ‘big’ dreams. Here, the size does not refer to length of dream, but to the amount of understanding and help we discover in it. Therefore, it is only necessary to express the big dreams, as they usually collect all the information in the previous ones, and bring it to highlighted meaning.
To illustrate this, let me use a dream which a friend recently sent to me. He teaches art, and says of the dream, ‘My art class gets a little out of hand, the students rebel. I try to discipline them but am confused, though not unduly worried, except that I feel I may have failed in the task of teaching them as they should be taught.’ We will interpret this purely arbitrarily for the purpose of explanation. We can say that it shows that the controlling factor(s) in his conscious life have become ‘confused’. Any crisis makes all our being act together as a unit.
When we are struggling to stop from drowning, the questions of whether we like the scenery, should we marry the person we are engaged to, or is premarital intercourse right, do not bother us. They are all ‘sub-merged’ (unconsciously united) in the problem of survival. Once the problem has been overcome, however, these other issues may ‘rebel’ and become unsettling influences. Similarly, when we are very sure of our direction, doubts, problems are all ‘submerged’. But if we become uncertain, or wonder whether we should not have chosen another direction, all the voices of our other opinions and doubts can rise Up. We then find it difficult to discipline them, lacking certainty ourselves.
All of which suggests that the dream points to loss of certainty in a previously ruling attitude or direction in life. Let us imagine now that he dreams the class is out on the beach. One of the class looks in a dustbin and finds a beautiful and glowing shell. All the class gather round and wish to paint the shell. If this is now interpreted, we see that the shell is something from deep within that one has discarded. In the light of the first dream, the class has left the restrictions of the old attitude represented by the classroom. The discarded feeling or idea is re-discovered and it draws the whole class to a common end again, uniting them in purpose. If the dreamer associates the shell with intuitive feelings he has had for some time, but discarded due to doubt as to their value, the dream falls into place. The intuitive ideas, the dream suggests, are powerful enough, carrying inner light or energy, to unite once more the conflicting aspects of self. If the dreamer now paints this interpretation, he has a constant reminder of the understanding arrived at. This could be depicted as a group of people sitting around a shell painting it If he frequently sees or thinks about the painting, he is thereby often reminded of what he has learnt about himself. This helps him to allow his intuitive feelings to centre or guide his actions, instead of allowing only his conscious fixed attitudes. These last remarks, and the second dream, of course, are purely speculation to illustrate the use of a painting or symbol.
THE MANDALA OR YANTRA
In many books on dreams, where symbols are being mentioned in regard to expressing the essence of a dream, or series of dreams, one finds comment on Mandalas. The word usually refers to a simple or complex diagram or pattern within a circle or square. The pattern of a maze can be considered as a mandala or yantra. Or the interlaced triangles of the Star of David, if within a circle or square, can also be thought of as yantra or mandala. We do not have a word, or words, in the English language that mean quite the same thing. Therefore, to define their meaning, one could say that they are a symmetrical or meaningful diagram, usually held within a circle or square. If looked at, thought over, or contemplated for any length of time, especially under guidance, the mandala or yantra is seen to symbolise or synthesise knowledge we were previously unaware or unconscious of. In other words, the Star of David could symbolise the interlacing of the visible and invisible forces in the universe. If we carried on thinking about it, we could gradually collect, or realise, more and more about the relationship of seen and unseen. The symbol continuously unites in our mind all this information. It also represents all that remains consciously unknown to us.
Therefore mandalas or yantras are powerful symbols in uniting, making conscious, yet reminding us of the still unknown contents of our own conscious and unconscious being. As symbols they remind us of what we have discovered of ourselves, and of what remains to be discovered. They help us to apply what we have learnt, while remaining receptive to further growth. They can also summarise a whole series of inner events which have already happened, while pointing to the unknown but possible direction these events are leading us to.
Having defined the mandala and yantra, perhaps it can already be seen how the idea can be used to synthesise the understanding of dreams. In the dream already discussed, where a painting showing a circle of people painting a shell was suggested, we could make this into a mandala. The purpose being that in a very simple design, the elements are easier to remember, and can often suggest more powerfully than a more complex symbol. Thus, when looking at an ink blot, we can imagine more faces than if a proper face were drawn. This is because it allows the creative function of our imagination more scope. It also gives our unconscious contents a more plastic form to project upon. Therefore, the simpler the symbol, the more of our inner unconscious contents we can continue to bring up and incorporate into it. The cross, for instance, can symbolise Christianity as a whole. When Jesus is added, its meaning becomes more restricted, and so on. Thus, to make a mandala out of the dream example used, we have to look for the most basic elements. In this particular dream, we have the shell, representing the known, the becoming known, and the still unknown of the depth; and the circle of people representing outer creative expression of what has emerged. We can say the basic elements are the shell and a circle. A mandala could therefore be drawn of a shell in the middle of a circle. Or if we wish to cut it down even more, simply a dot in a circle. Despite its simplicity, this would still remind us of all our interpretation, and be capable of integrating further information.
A STEP FURTHER – MEDITATION
Yantras and mandalas are not absolutely necessary. Nothing is absolutely necessary, but each thing is helpful when used in its appropriate place. Nevertheless, some things revealed through interpretation of dreams, call for frequent application. using the arbitrary interpretation of my artistic friend’s dream once more, we see that the need to drop a more conscious attitude in order to be guided by intuition, which sometimes speaks with the essence of our total self in its present situation, rather than parts of our self such as ambition, and desire for creature comforts, then it becomes wise to listen. After all, intuition is probably one of the few means of expression which our complete memory and experience have. We cannot recall much of what we have read, studied, felt, done, seen or heard; we know next to nothing consciously of the biological processes that formed us, and intuition, waking or in dreams, is an expression of them. When the part of us we call our conscious self gets a helpful message from this other self, it is important that we consider it. We have to remember, however, that not all things that emerge from within are good, helpful or true. The dream, as instrument panel, merely tells us what is going on. It is for us to decide whether that knowledge is applicable, and in what way. In the above dream and interpretation, however, where it seems an association with the intuitive factors will be unifying, action is called for. The only problem is, intuition can be so easily drowned out by daily events. What can be done? In answering this question, we have to realise it is about a specific dream. This is done to make the method clear. But it is hoped the general effectiveness can nevertheless be seen in what is said.
It must be reasonably obvious that any idea or emotion we dwell on or experience for long periods of time, begins to channel a great deal of our energy. It also influences our behaviour. When we think of Henry Ford, whose central thought and desire for many years was to produce an inexpensive motor car, we can see how this aim and desire influenced his behaviour, and even his fate. Almost any great name in history, when studied, reveals a similar story. They have held to particular ideas and desires, sometimes of a negative character, and this has channelled their energies and shaped their destinies. When working with dreams, our aims are not so much to become an historical figure, as to become a happier and whole person. Nevertheless, we can still learn from the example of the famous or infamous. For our own ends we can apply the method of keeping our attention fixed upon ideas and emotions that are important. Naturally, the demands of each day bring forgetfulness, but if we set aside a few minutes before starting work, or at midday, or before sleeping, then we can make a habit of remembering.
Returning once more to our hypothetical dream, we have reached the point of capturing the dream’s essence as a mandala, or if not this, then we have at least reduced it to the idea of the outer conscious self, directing its attention in a receptive manner to the centre, or intuition. As far as the dream is concerned, this is important, and will lead to uniting conflicting emotions and tendencies. If the dreamer, having got this far, now simply forgets the whole thing, little or nothing will have changed for him. His outer life may continue to be ‘confusing’ and rebellious; but if he spends some time each day practising what has been revealed, then his life cannot help but change in some degree. Even if nothing stupendous occurs the very fact that he practises in itself shows he has changed his attitude towards himself. In and by itself, this makes him a more unified person, for he is attempting to listen to his whole spectrum of desires and ideas, directions and needs, rather than just a portion of self. If he practises this new attitude of mind regularly for a long period, then his energies will gradually be diverted from their old course, and begin to express in this more fulfilling direction.
It is repeated that here we are dealing with a particular dream, and one’s own dreams may suggest an entirely different course; but the rules remain the same, the direction of one’s energies can be slowly changed by practising the new attitude of mind as a meditation. As to how this can be done, and what its results will be, I will now try to explain. All that is necessary is to take the mandala or synthesised interpretation, and consider it for a period of fifteen minutes to an hour, depending on temperament. This should be done once or twice each day. By ‘consider’ is meant to think about its meaning; to wonder whether we have applied it; to try to see its implications and results. But more important than thinking about it, one should practise the attitudes of mind and emotion suggested by it. In this case it means that the dreamer should become outwardly still, quieten his thoughts and conscious desires, and then direct his attention to those feelings or ideas suggested by the shell. For the period of the meditation this should be maintained. Each time the attention wanders or attitude changes, it should be gently but firmly brought back. Very little of interest may occur at all during these periods. In fact they must not be thought of as reaching for the spectacular or phenomenal; but as practice sessions, just as one might exercise the body so that it remains strong and supple. This will require a great deal of discipline, but will be seen, after some months, to be worth while.
It is necessary then, to understand the dream, grasp its essence, and practise this; but such dreams only come very seldom, and so we shall not be constantly practising new attitudes. What usually happens is that eventually, after having dealt with one’s dreams for some time, a dream of great importance occurs, summarising all that has gone before. If the message of this dream is applied and practised as suggested then another dream appears much later adding to our understanding and slightly modifying the practice. In this way one slowly progresses through a very personal and intimate course of instructions in self development.
The man who dreamt of the white mouse, and wrote The Shining Mouse, used the story as a starting point for meditation. The white mouse he associated with contact and experience of his deepest life-giving self. If this was to be gained, certain attitudes had to be changed. As the story shows, the mouse cannot be caught by searching for it, grasping it, longing for it or thinking about it. The dreamer realised that he had to give up trying to ‘grab this inner experience to make me more important or wonderful. I saw that I didn’t even know the dwelling place, or source of this part of me. So I had to give up looking. Because, after all, I did not know where to look. I simply had to be quiet and let the Shining Mouse come to me in its own time and way. When I first tried to assume these feelings, everything in me rebelled, and I often gave up the practice, or thought some other type would be better. But I came back to it and kept on, until gradually it began to be easier and natural, and slowly it began to change certain parts of my life.’
GROUP WORK
Wherever possible, it is of enormous help to work on dreams as a group. This is difficult because many people cannot find others as interested in dreams as themselves. But even two people working together can be of great help to each other; but it is safer, where the two are of opposite sexes, to be part of a larger group, unless man and wife. This is said not out of prudishness, but because a great deal of sexual energy is often released in the process, and can cause difficulties unless understood.
One of the main things about working with others is that their questions make us talk, or allow us to talk. Time and time again, a difficult dream has been suddenly understood through talking to somebody else who is interested in dreams. This is not necessarily because they help us to understand through their greater insight. It is as if the meaning pops up as we speak. As if speaking draws it out. This has to be experienced to be believed, but one can be quite hopelessly clueless one moment, and the next moment the answer is there. Possibly this has something to do with the act of speaking, and thus expressing ideas. The fact that one talks about the non-understanding, and unsatisfactory ideas about the dream, seems to clear them out, and make way for the real answer by making one receptive.
Another group benefit is that several different viewpoints and types of questioning about the symbolism of the dream, are often more helpful than simply one narrower viewpoint. Seeing how other people’s dreams are dealt with, and the difficulties they face, also aids us in gaining insight into our own. At first, any such group are almost certainly shy of each other. This is because dreams deal with such intimate and personal aspects of our lives, that to reveal them to others in dream interpretation is not easy. But gradually, as each person realises that everybody else has similar inner contents, these barriers fall, and a great depth of contact, encouragement and love can spring up. The contact comes because we see each other without our social masks and reserves; naked so to speak. The encouragement lies in the fact that because others have similar problems, and are dealing or have dealt with them, this gives us the courage to face them also. While the love arises through sympathy, and knowing the deep spirit that lies beyond the outer tangle or ‘show’ of each person.
Because another person can stand aside from our own situation, they can often see our dreams better than we can ourselves. We may unconsciously not wish to know or understand, and a group helps us to be honest with ourselves. Sometimes, a small advertisement in the local newspaper is all that is necessary to put us in touch with others thus interested.
PROBLEMS AND DANGERS
It is difficult in this book to give anything more than a hint of the difficulties one faces on the ‘dream journey’. It requires a book itself to map out the various experiences one is likely to meet. But fortunately others have already written adequately on the subject, as in P. W. Martin’s Experiment in Depth. Perhaps we can sum up what he has said as follows:
One of the big perils is releasing more emotion or inner contents than we can easily cope with. We see this in the dream of the bull rushing among the cows, and the dreamer being nearly carried away by sexual desires. It is the old problem of biting off more than we can chew. usually, however, dreams will have given us a method of dealing with this before it happens. This may take the form it did with the dreamer of the shining mouse, where he practises the attitude of quietness and not being moved by doubts, fears or desire. Thus, although not repressing the inner contents, one is learning a technique of calm amidst the storm – of finding a rock to cling to amidst the sea’s turmoil. But unless such methods are practised, they cannot be effective. Martin calls this danger being ‘Swallowed up by the unconscious’. Those who retreat completely from everyday life, to live in their inner world can be classified under the same heading. The balance being a unity between inner and outer life.
Another problem occurs if we start the journey of seriously delving into self, and after a long period, suddenly give it up. For things have been glimpsed, possibilities seen that will not let us rest, but cause us a sense of frustration and loss. Or else problems have been released but not dealt with, and haunt us. Obviously, such events do not occur to those of us who are only mildly interested, and merely try to unravel one or two dreams every so often.
The danger of what psychologists call inflation, or hubris, is also met along the way. Contact with the inner wisdom makes one feel ‘special’, ‘different’ or ‘superior’, and here is the danger. For if we feel superior or different, we may act in the same way. This not only alienates us from all except those who seek a new messiah or leader to follow, but it gives us the false impression of being above normal care and events. Thus it can easily happen that one crashes violently with ‘the bars of experience’ the world provides in the outer life. In other words, physical reality – the facts of life. The person may then either be tempted to retreat from the outer life because it questions or attacks their sense of importance – or else the other extreme is to drop into depths of depression, due to feelings of worthlessness, of having failed because life questioned their ideals.
Martin says that experience is usually the lesson that helps us learn how to keep our balance between the extremes, and walk safely. When we have veered to inflation and depression a few times, we can look back and see that this is not the way. It is not what we seek. To feel ‘on top of the world’ and superior may seem like an advancement for a while. Only its results tell us its real value. Nor does morbid criticism of ourselves and the world satisfy us.
A further danger lies in taking dreams or intuition as oracular, godly, or supernatural truths, instead of pointers on our instrument panel. This makes them as much a threat to our wholeness as acting only out of ambition, or sexual desires. These too must be only a ‘part’ of our life, not the controlling factor. After all, not only truths or wisdom are shown in dreams, but also represented are our murderous impulses, homosexual desires, feelings of power and grandeur, etc. All dreams are truths of the inner life, because they represent what is actually going on inside. But we do not therefore have to act upon them all, or believe that the future is ordained by them. This is all a form of irresponsibility.
A danger to women lies in their ability to enter more fully into their inner world of dreams and intuitions, but not being able to construct meaning and purpose so easily as men. They thus may find a man who sympathises with their inner feelings and dreams; who sees great meaning in them, and helps the woman see how they may be applied. This leads to the danger of making the man into a godlike figure who is the soul mate, or spiritual counterpart. This weakens the woman’s own powers of determination, or construction. But, to quote Martin, ‘This is in no way to condemn the true master/ student relationship, where those less gifted or experienced learn from those having special knowledge or insight.’
While the danger for men is to make of the inner journey only an intellectual experience. The man may read and understand, but refuse to free his emotions from the rein of his intellect so that he can experience it. Thereby the man may never know, he will only think he knows.
These are a sort of basic ‘highway code’ for those who wish to make the journey into self discovery. If we learn them by heart, and attempt to understand them, they may remain rather dry at present, but on the journey they could easily be living realities.
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