This is An Introduction to Dreams. For some time in our highly technical and scientific culture many people have failed to take their dream life seriously. Many people believe that they rarely if ever dream. Others chalk up their dreams to the side effects of indigestion. However, dreaming and dreams have always been a part of the human experience. If you are reading now, something (perhaps a dream) has prompted you to take a closer look at dreams in general and your own dreams more closely.
Morton Kelsey and Carl Jung
Morton Kelsey calls dreams, “God’s forgotten language”. Indeed our dreams are striving to communicate with our conscious self. Carl Jung taught that dreams are a way our true selves are striving to bring us to “individuation” or wholeness. He also demonstrated that some dream symbols come from “the collective unconscious.” It may also be true that our unconscious has noted something in our outer world we may need to address. Perhaps a tire on our car is going flat. Maybe we left the door unlocked.
Dreams can help. Sometimes our dreams help us work on problems and find solutions that we cannot find while awake. Indeed, Renee Descartes wrote the he discovered the scientific method itself in a dream.
We all dream
Those who say they do not dream have been proven wrong by scientific sleep studies. When sleepers are awakened during rem (rapid eye movement) sleep they report they have been dreaming. It is true that many people have difficulty remembering their dreams. Often even the most vivid dreams will fade from memory if they are not recorded immediately upon waking.
How to Remember Dreams
Many have found honoring the process by using a dream journal will help recall. Sometimes when we want to be specially aware of our dreams it can be helpful to set an alarm for the middle of the night and see what we are dreaming at that moment. There are many good reasons to keep such a journal. Dreams have a language of their own. There are many common dream symbols that can be found in various dream books or website. However, one should not take such information as gospel truth or each and every dreamer. We each have our own inner set of symbolic messages. Keeping a journal will help to recognize repeated words, symbols and themes.
An Example from my Dreams
For example, in my earlier days I was quite the workaholic. I had repeated dreams of being in very large vehicles that were in accidents or running off the road. As I’ve paid attention to the these dreams understanding the message had to do with my workaholic tendencies I found that the vehicles got smaller. Instead of a semi truck or a big buss there might be a pick up and later on even just a bicycle. The point is these are part of my dream language and might mean something entirely different to you. My dream language is often humorous. I once dreamed I was hanging upside down from the branch of a tree stretching out a T-shirt while others were at a picnic table below me. After meditating and journaling about the story in the dream I had to laugh. It was saying that there was no use hanging around. I had been there, done that and got the T-shirt. It was no longer my picnic and time to move on.
Dream Symbols
There are a few important things to remember about Dream symbols. There most likely will often be what is called the day residue in our dreams. However, there are millions of things that come to our awareness in the course of any day. Our subconscious, our dream language, carefully chooses the ones that it needs to say something important to us. It is also true that everyone and every thing in the dream is some part of us. Thus it is helpful to ask how am I like that person in the dream? How, am I like that (pizza, baseball, rocket, etc,) in my dream?