Most people consider dreams unimportant, though they are sometimes intrigued or terrified by them. Many regard them as little more than an accumulation of mental flotsam and jetsam, broken shards of memory, threaded onto fears, anxieties, and ambitions. Nevertheless, we can be startled by images from the distant past and alarmed by anticipations of disaster. We are also aware that fruitcake, coffee and red wine can energise and intensify dreams.

      Dreams are also affected by factors that have stimulated us before we have gone to sleep. In one study, it was discovered that subjects who reacted anxiously to stressful films experienced greater anxiety in their dreams.¹ Stress triggers an increase in adaptive mechanisms that help us maintain psychological equilibrium. These mechanisms are amplified in our dreams.²

      Dreams are also influenced by pressures to which we are subjected, such as the need to perform at work and the pressure of personal relationships. In addition, they reflect the effects of gender, society, stress and ageing. As the German psychologist, P Jessen, indicated, 150 years ago, personality, social circumstances and life history powerfully impact our dreams.³

      It has also been argued that dreams can sometimes reveal physiological malfunctions and can give us some indication of the state of our physical health.⁴

History

      Interest in the interpretation of dreams is as old as human civilisation. The earliest written record of this interest is to be discovered in Mesopotamian dream lore. But we can go back even further.

      There is evidence from comparative studies of animal dreams to suggest that proto-humans were familiar with the process of dreaming. Lewis Mumford went so far as to argue that [107] the dreams of proto-humans, by tantalising them, triggered interpretations that alerted them to new possibilities in their waking lives.⁵

      One of the earliest accounts we have of an attempt at dream interpretation is in the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh. King of Uruk. The narration indicates that Gilgamesh, at the time the story begins, was disturbed by bad dreams. He asked his mother what the dreams meant. She suggested that someone no less powerful than Gilgamesh was about to enter his life. A struggle would ensue between the two men. Gilgamesh would fail to overcome the intruder. Nevertheless, in time, the two would become close companions and achieve great things.⁶

      The Ancients considered dreams prophetic. We are less likely to interpret them this way. Anthony Stevens, a Jungian analyst, offering a contemporary interpretation of Gilgamesh's dream, argued that the dream was a psychological attempt, on the part of his unconscious, to counter his manic grandiosity.⁷

      According to A. Leo Oppenheim, who based his analysis on a comparison of Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Old Testament sources, there are three different types of dreams in the literature of the ancient Near East. There are message dreams, in which the deity delivers a message to the ruler. There are mantic dreams, which were consulted to gain knowledge of the future. The third category is concerned with complex, symbolic dreams that highlight elements of the dreamer's personality.⁸

      Dreams are generated in the unconscious and are one of the ways it attempts to dialogue with the ego. As Jung suggested, dreams are a type of fantasy that compensates for exaggerated elements in the conscious mind.⁹

      According to Stevens, three suggestions have been made regarding the origin of dreams. Some have argued that they are caused by supernatural agencies, like gods or demons, and are therefore to be understood as messages. Others have conjectured that dreams are actual experiences of the external wanderings of the soul during sleep. Others again have contended that dreams are the result of mental activity that takes place during sleep. [108] Those subscribing to the third view disagree about how they should be interpreted.¹⁰

Interpretation

      The two most significant pioneers of dream interpretation this century have been Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. While both considered dreams important, they approached them differently.

      Freud regarded the unconscious as a repository of repressed energies that needed to be released. Dreams were a means of escape for this obnoxious effluent. Negative energy, by disguising itself in bizarre symbolism, was able to slip past the censor guarding the check-point between the unconscious and the conscious.¹¹

      Jung regarded the self as a self-regulating system that was constantly striving for equilibrium.¹² He argued that the unconscious assumes the initiative in compensating for our one-sided conscious attitudes. He further suggested that dreams, which were sources of information and means of control, were the most effective tool at our disposal for building up the personality.¹³ They played a critical role in the homeostatic process.

      Jung also contended that dreams help facilitate the process of individuation by encouraging the conscious ego to participate with the unconscious in this process.¹⁴

      Others, influenced by the pioneering work of Freud and Jung, have developed their own interpretive models. The most significant of these have been Alfred Adler, Wilhelm Stekel, Samuel Lowy, Calvin Hall, Thomas French, Erich Fromm, Montague Ullman, Fritz Pens, Medard Boss, Charles Rycroft, Eugene Gendlin, and James Hillman.¹⁵

      Critics of Freud, Jung, and their successors, have remarked that Freudians have Freudian dreams and Jungians have Jungian dreams. There is an element of truth in their criticism. However, this phenomenon is hardly surprising. If dreams are the means by which the unconscious communicates with the conscious, the communication will be deliberately couched in a framework the ego will recognise. [109]

Science

      Scientists have been concerned to discover when dreams are most likely to occur.

      Hindu tradition identified three states of mind--wakefulness, dreaming sleep, and dreamless sleep. Research indicates that the dreaming state of REM sleep is different from any other psychophysical state.¹⁶ It is characterised by rapid eye movement, sporadic muscular activity in the legs, back and neck, irregularity in pulse and respiration, a rise in blood pressure, brain temperature and metabolic rate, and, in males, an erection of the penis. When subjects are awakened from REM sleep they indicate that there were dreaming during this period in 70-90 per cent of cases.¹⁷

      Periods of REM sleep occur with regularity every 90 minutes throughout the night. Each episode persists for a longer period than those preceding it, ranging from approx 5 minutes to 40 minutes.¹⁸

I don't dream?

      Some protest that they don't dream. Two explanations have been offered to explain the inability to remember dreams.

      Some argue that we do not remember dreams because remembering is counter-productive. Dreams are designed to help us forget. This view has attracted little support. If it were correct, people who work on their dreams would be psychologically impaired. The opposite appears to be the case.

      The second theory suggests that we so easily forget our dreams because this forgetfulness protects those who cannot distinguish between waking and dreaming states. Stevens, commenting on this view, contended that, since dreaming is an ancient adaptive mechanism that has evolved over a long period of time, the likelihood is that amnesia is built into the system.¹⁹

      Many would contend that the reason we do not remember our dreams is not that it is counter-productive or dangerous to do so, but because of a blocking mechanism, either physiological or [110] psychological.

An exception

      A possible exception to the rule that all people dream, whether or not they are aware of their dreaming, is provided by the testimony of Adi Da. Arguing that he did not, like others, possess an isolated personal psyche, Adi Da explained that he had an immense unconscious, that is, a deep sense of interconnectedness with others. Therefore, when he had anything like a dream, it was concerned with someone else's content.²⁰

      Adi Da is an exceptional individual. It is not easy to know what to make of his confession.

Lucid dreams

      Some people are aware that they are dreaming while they're dreaming. In 1913, the Dutch psychiatrist, Frederik Willelms van Eeden described this phenomenon as "lucid dreaming". It is a skill that can be learned.²¹

Remembering

      If you have difficulty remembering your dreams, program yourself to remember them. To remember our dreams we generally need to wake during, or immediately after the dream finishes.

      When you go to sleep you need to tell yourself to wake at the appropriate time. The extent to which we can programme ourselves to obey such prompting is astonishing. During a stint in the army I put myself to sleep for various periods of time. I have continued the exercise. If I need a quarter of an hour's sleep, I will lie on the floor and tell myself to go immediately to sleep and wake in 15 minutes.

Recording

      I have used various methods to record my dreams.

      I have had a notebook by my bed and have scribbled out a rough description of the dream on awakening immediately after [111] the dream finished. On other occasions I have mulled over the dream after awakening from it and before returning to sleep. I have waited until morning before writing it down. I have also set up my computer before retiring. During the evening, and in the early morning, I have typed in the details of dreams. The last method has been the most productive. I have often been unable to decipher hastily scribbled notes. I have also found that, if I wait until the morning, certain important details are lost.

Sitting with our dreams

      Having recorded a dream, we need to sit with it, to play with it.

      In analysing dreams it is important to recognise that they are distinctive in their use language, symbols and narrative. The dream world is non-local and non-temporal. Transitions, from one location or activity to another, are often rapid. These transitions, as Jung argued, are highly significant. Characters and story lines are symbolic, metaphorical. The unconscious selects from a vast treasure house of stored memory and experience, characters and situations that will alert us to dynamic elements in the unconscious.

Help

      A competent therapist can help us interpret our dreams. However, therapy is expensive and involves a considerable time commitment. As there is a vast literature on the subject of dream interpretation, self-analysis can be guided through advice and insights we discover in books. In either case, whether guided by a therapist or through literature, we begin as apprentice dream interpreters.

      I have been working on my dreams now for over 20 years. During this time I have found Jung a helpful guide. I relate to his framework of understanding and have been enlightened by his insightful and skilled way of dealing with dreams. [112]

To what do our dreams refer?

      Some are alarmed by what dreams appear to be indicating, particularly if they focus on current circumstances or relatives and friends.

      It is important to appreciate that our dreams relate, not to the external world, but to the inner world of the dreamer, to the drama that is being enacted within the psyche. This rough rule of thumb will help allay anxiety generated by the notion that dreams are pre-cognitive, prophetic, or that they offer direct guidance for everyday life.

      There are exceptions to this rule. On rare occasions, dreams are pre-cognitive, or prophetic.²² There are also psychic or paranormal dreams.²³

      It is also possible to pick up material from others, subliminally. I can remember, on one occasion, being so closely identified with someone, through the practice of tonglen yoga, that I dreamed their dreams, resolved their issues in my dreams.

      We can also be deeply influenced by community attitudes, energies and mythologies. Working with a dream seminar group in 1929, Jung pointed out that the five-year old daughter of one of the participants had, in a drawing, clearly identified the issue with which the group had been struggling. The mother had not discussed what the group had been processing with the child. Jung argued that this demonstrated how material could leak out into families.²⁴ The powerful influence of communal energies and mythologies, was evident in Jung's observation, in the mid-1930's, that the ancient Germanic God, Wotan, was beginning to manifest extensively in his dreams²⁵ and in those of many of his German patients.²⁶ This occurrence may have been partially the result of the contrived mythological rhetoric of the Third Reich.

Medical conditions

      Stevens has drawn attention to diagnostic and prognostic dreams. He explained that dreams can hint at organic illness. He further argued that dreams can actually trigger medical conditions.¹⁷ [113]

Our internal world

      While paranormal and diagnostic dreams occasionally occur, we should, in interpreting our dreams, begin with the assumption that the dramas played out in our dreams have to do with a cast of characters in the unconscious. The people we encounter in our dreams are parts of us.

      If the unconscious wishes to alert you to a hidden aspect of yourself, it will select an image, or series of images, from your memory bank, which best represent this element. Dream symbolism is specific to each individual. Books that purport to offer universal interpretations of dream symbols are unhelpful.

Archetypes

      This does not mean, however, that there are no common images. These images Jung described as archetypes.

      An archetype represents form, or structure, rather than the content. It was Jung's view that the archetype itself is empty. We do not inherit the content with which the archetype may later be filled. He went on to argue that the archetypes are living dispositions, ideas in the Platonic sense, which influence our thoughts, feelings and behaviour.²⁸

      Elaborating further, he insisted that his usage of the word "archetype" is not intended to suggest inherited ideas, but inherited modes of functioning, like the way the chicken emerges from the egg or the bird builds its nest. This biological aspect of the archetype has to do with patterns of behaviour.²⁹

      Stevens has argued that current research into brain physiology supports Jung's view of the archetype.³⁰

      While Jung's description of archetypes, as Ken Wilber argues,³¹ is not always consistent and often confusing, it is still useful as a rough description of evolved forms, receptacles for the sort of psychic content one discovers in ancient mythologies. Occasionally, the larger than

      Archetypal elements in our dreams may even presage an emergence into a new level of consciousness. The two processes are not necessarily connected, which is one of the reasons for [114] Wilber's suggestion that Jung's notion of archetypes is ambiguous and unhelpful.

      According to Jung, some of the more common archetypes are the shadow, the anima/animus, the wise old woman/man, and the hero. The shadow is a manifestation of elements that have been repressed into the personal unconscious. The anima is the undeveloped feminine aspect of the male and the animus is the immature masculine element of the female. The wise old woman and the wise old man are healing archetypes made up of the accumulated wisdom of humankind. The hero, a symbol of the unconscious self, is a manifestation of all the archetypes.³² Stevens contends that hero myths reflect elements of our common developmental task.³³

      Other symbols that enjoy a degree of universality are water, animals, insects, snakes, reptiles and buildings. Water frequently refers to the unconscious. Animals can symbolise restrained emotions. Insects often highlight instincts. Snakes and reptiles, which may be associated with the older reptilian section of the human brain, symbolise basic libidinal life-energies. In some cultures snakes symbolise healing. Buildings, houses, and other structures can represent the capacious self.

Big dreams

      Conspicuous archetypal images are more likely to surface in "big" dreams, significant, transitional, emotionally-charged dreams. For example, images of new life being born highlight significant transformation. Where the new life is immaculately conceived it could be being indicated that it has been generated by the inspirited self.

      Big dreams are usually full of energy. According to Jung, who drew a distinction between the personal unconscious and the deeper collective unconscious, these big dreams, in which there is considerable energy, often occur at critical stages in our development and are not easily interpreted. This is due to the fact that significant developmental transitions are tigered, less by personal circumstances, and more by inbuilt evolutionary [115] potential.³⁴

Ease of interpretation

      Some symbols reveal their meaning more readily than others.

      I have had dreams in which I was scheduled to preach and found myself without trousers. It would be difficult to avoid concluding that the dream was pointing to a lack of preparation. On another occasion, I was going on a journey but could not find the money for the fare. It was obvious that I did not yet have the where-with-all to make an intended developmental journey. In another dream I found myself in a Church, which had a large basement. As I went to descend into the basement, I discovered that it was filled with water. The church, symbolising the self, reflected my interest in spiritualty and my ministerial vocation. The dream suggested that I was deliberately descending into the unconscious.

Caution

      We should be careful not to rush in and a grasp the first, or the most obvious explanation that presents itself. The obvious interpretation is not always the most relevant, or insightful. Furthermore, there is no one correct interpretation.

The context of the dreamer

      In interpreting dreams we should pay close attention to the context of the dreamer. Jung argued that we should begin with the assumption that we know nothing about the dream. This will cause us to play close attention to the context.³⁵ This needs to be done with great care and attention to detail.³⁶ This context will include a range of cultural factors. For example, in the dreams of most Americans, animals generally appear as frightening and usually represent repressed emotions or instincts. Among indigenous populations, on the other hand, the animal represents a potential meal.³⁷ [116]

Re-presentation

      Having explored the unique context of each dreamer, we need to play with the dream, to lower ourselves into it, and to explore the symbols it has thrown up. Where we fail to attend to the dream, or to understand what the unconscious is signifying through the dream, the dream may be repeated, or the material re-presented in a different way.

Levels of interpretation

      In interpreting dreams it is helpful to consider three levels of interpretation.

      First, the dream will have some reference to what is happening in our lives. We should be able to discern connections between the dream and our feeling states and relationships.

      At a second, and more significant level, the dream will indicate what is going on inside us--interactions between a cast of characters representing repressed elements of the self, facets of the personality that have not differentiated themselves out of the unconscious and significant elements of the self that have been moulded by long-term engagements with others.

      At a deeper level again, it is important for us to identify the presence of archetypal elements. Knowledge of mythology can be helpful. In a process Jung called amplification, we compare dream images with personalities and narratives associated with myth, religion, ethnography, cultural history, and art.³⁸ This third level of interpretation involves the comparison of our personal myths with the megamyths of a diverse range of civilisations.

      It is important to emphasise that the process of interpretation is not easy. It rarely proceeds along a sheerly rational route. We need to sit with our dreams, to ruminate on then, and to be open enough to allow the unconscious to do its own interpreting. There will be occasions when we will need to return to some dreams again and again. Jung contended that interpretation is an exacting task requiring the exercise of our empathy, knowledge and canniness.³⁹ [117]

Intuition

      Intuition, which is also deeply involved in creativity, is an important tool in dream interpretation. Jung was an intuitive genius.

Patterns

      When we consistently interpret our dreams over time, we can discern patterns that will inform the interpretation.⁴⁰

Active imagination

      Active imagination can also assist with interpretation. In active imagination, we dialogue intuitively with the dream, or with characters in the dream.

      The way I approach active imagination is to sit in front of my computer and type in the question I want to ask of one of the characters that has surfaced in my dreams. I wait for an answer, which, when it comes, prompts another question. It is thus that the dialogue proceeds.

      In one of my early dreams I noticed a cat on the edge of the roadway, its legs encased in boots. It was pointing in the direction from which I had just come. Shades of Dick Whittington! When I want to dialogue with my unconscious about a dream, I make contact with Puss.

Ritual

      It is also important to ritualise significant insights that arise in our dreams, to devise rituals to celebrate the insight, to symbolically act-out the advice.

      In working with a young woman on her dreams, it became obvious that she needed to establish personal boundaries. This theme kept recurring. To embody the insight, we placed four markers on the floor, at the four corners of a square. We claimed the space within the markers as her inviolate territory by ceremoniously parading around the square a number of times.

Self talk

      It is also beneficial to use self-talk to reinforce insights. I [118] have a list of significant insights that have surfaced in my dreams. While driving to work I address myself, working my way through the list.

The role of the ego

      While it is important for us to pay careful attention to the characters that we encounter in dreams, to those aspects of ourselves that surface during our REM dreaming, we should be careful not to submit to their authority. There is an element of amorality about the unconscious. It is important for us to ensure that the discriminating, conscious ego is involved in the process of interpretation. It is possible for us to become trapped in the unconscious, as happened to Nietzsche.⁴¹

The wisdom of the bodyself

      Nevertheless, allowing for this caution, it is important for us to follow our internal guidance, the guidance offered by the wisdom of the bodyself. The egolessness, to which the Buddhist tradition calls us, is not the surrender of the ego to the unconscious, but the merging of the personal self, comprising conscious and unconscious, into what Emerson called the Overself, or the Self in which all reality inheres.

The mandala

      One symbol of the self, which occasionally surfaces in dreams, is the mandala. Mandalas are usually circular, or are made up of a circle and a square. They are symbols of wholeness.

      If a mandala occurs in one of your dreams, this does not necessarily mean that you are reaching a state of wholeness or perfection. It may indicate that you are being called to wholeness, or that you are approaching the realisation of a dimension of wholeness.⁴² The significance of the mandala will depend upon the circumstances of the dreamer. Each instance will need to be interpreted individually. [119]

A final word

      We do not need to interpret a dream for the dream to influence us positively. However, the more we are able to intentionally dialogue with the unconscious, through interpreting our dreams, the more rapidly will the process of individuation proceed. [120]

[LS 107-120]