Dreams and Their Significance

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1. Sleep and Dreams
Are not the same.

2. Sleep and Dreams
“Dreams are real to us while they last.
Produce definite, physical changes in our body's reaction.

3. Sleep and Dreams
98% of what the brain does is outside of conscious awareness (vision, visuospatial relationships and navigating through the world, fine and gross motor movements, etc…).

4. States of Consciousness
Wake
Non-REM sleep
REM sleep
Brain activity during each state of consciousness is unique and helps to understand the accompanying mental activity.

5. What is Dreaming?
Mental activity while we are asleep that can be described during waking consciousness.
Prior to the discovery of the various stages of sleep in the 1950’s, the prevailing scientific attitude was that the brain essentially shut down and remained in a passive state during sleep.
Rather, while there is a slowing of brain activity during sleep there is also a regular activation akin to waking consciousness where most vivid dreaming occurs.

6. Overview of Sleep
Sleep is a progressive slowing of brain wave activity until REM sleep occurs. A sleep cycle is defined as progression through the various stages of sleep through the end of a cycle of REM sleep. Normally, this occurs about 5 time a night.
Stage 1 (3-5%)
Stage 2 (45-50%)
Stages 3 & 4 (Slow Wave or “Deep Sleep”) (25%)
REM sleep (25%) (REM sleep paralysis)

7. When do we Dream?
In a normal brain, everyone dreams, every night.
All mammals dream (or at least experience REM).
Can occur at any stage of sleep and has been found to occur throughout the night.
Dreams during different stages of sleep tend to have different characteristics with dreams.

8. Dream Characteristics
Sleep-onset dreams tend to be more thought-like and simple, without characters or a plot-line, perhaps about an activity or interaction that had occurred that day, with little emotional content.
NREM dreams tend to have emotion without extensive plot development (non-progressive)
REM dreams are usually vivid, bizarre, hallucinatory and delusional, with extensive plot lines and characters.
-REM sleep has been repeatedly found to be the stage of sleep most highly correlated with dreaming (>70- 80%).
A caveat to this is that bizarre REM-like dreams can and do happen outside of REM. Hobson. Dreaming. Pg 8.

9. Theories of Dreaming
Why we dream, what we dream, and from where dreams originate, is and has historically been, a contentious topic of debate.
To date, there is no consensus as to the exact origins of dreams and the purpose it serves…..

10. Theories of Dreaming
Typically have addressed three questions:
How are dreams produced?
The function or purpose of dreams?
Meaning of dreams?

11. How dreams are produced
As sleep ensues, activity in nearly all parts of the brain slow, but the area that slows the greatest is the prefrontal cortex region (responsible for logical thinking, problem solving, planning).
Also, norepinephrine and serotonin levels (help us focus attention and solve problems when we are awake) taper off .
Acetylcholine turns on and REM sleep occurs.
Dopamine may be what is directly responsible for dreaming. Mark Solms

12. How dreams are produced
When REM sleep begins, all the areas that were turned off in NREM sleep gear up except one; the logical, reasoning portion of the prefrontal cortex.
So, effectively, your brain is activated save the portion that controls logic and reason.

13. How dreams are produced
This is why our dreams seem so real but appear to be a hallucinatory world, much like that of a waking schizophrenic.
In fact, brain imaging studies have shown that the functional anatomy of dreaming is almost identical to that of a schizophrenic psychosis, except that for dreamers, the visuospatial system is highly charged while the audioverbal system is highly charged in schizophrenics (i.e. hearing voices).
Solms and Turnbull’s The Brain and the Inner World, pg 213

14. How dreams are produced
While dreaming, most importantly, the limbic system, responsible for the brain’s long term emotional center is highly active during REM sleep…effectively driving the boat of your dream (stimulated 15% above waking levels).
The amygdala, a structure in the brain responsible for the “fight or flight” response, is part of the limbic system that is highly active during sleep.
The amygdala is also an important structure in memory, particularly long term emotional memory.

15. How dreams are produced
With the emotional memory center of your brain driving the boat and the logic and reason part of your brain not even a passenger, it is no wonder dreams will frequently have an emotionally charged, hallucinatory, even psychotic nature to them.
While dreaming, thoughts are linked through emotion, not logic.

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16. How dreams are produced
The visual cortex is shut down but the visual association area is active above waking levels, which is the area of the brain that is involved in creating mental images and recognizing faces.
This is why dreams are so richly visual, but if someone pries open your eyelids and shines a light in your eyes, you won’t see it.

17. How dreams are produced
Development of visual imagination are a prerequisite for vivid dreaming.
Studies looking at children’s dreams showed that children younger than age 5 typically consist of brief, bland static images (animals, eating, sleeping, or daytime activities).
Between 5 and 8 years of age, dreams become more complex but it is not to around age 11 where dreams take on the characteristic complex plot lines like that of adults.
David Folkes. Taken from The Mind at Night. Rock, A. pp 31-38.

18. How dreams are produced
Not until the age of 7 can children form visual imagery in waking consciousness, which means they don’t have the capacity to do the same while dreaming.
As children develop greater visuospatial cognitive capacity and imagination and a clearer understanding of “self,” their capacity to dream develops as well.

19. How dreams are produced
“With the emergence of active self-representation, of autobiographical memory, and of a sensed self that lends continuity to experience, the human person emerges. We dream because we have achieved consciousness.” David Folkes. Taken from The Mind at Night. Rock, A. pp 31-38.

20. How dreams are produced
Throughout sleep, the area of the brain that is responsible for putting memories in sequential order and to temporarily store on-going events (short term memory) is turned off.
Also, the chemicals involved in memory formation (NE and Serotonin) are lacking and therefore we typically don’t remember our dreams unless we wake up during or right after a dream. J. Allan Hobson (taken from The Mind at Night. Rock, A. pg 20.)

21. How dreams are produced
Dr. Allen Braun has theorized that dreams are imprinted in our brain which is why we sometimes will see something in our waking day which reminds us of a fragment of a dream from the previous night that we have no true recollection of.
Taken from The Mind at Night. Rock, A. pg 52.

22. How dreams are produced
Brain structures involved in long-term memory formation and retrieval are more active than when we are awake (i.e. your kindergarten teacher riding next to you on the way to the football game).


23. How dreams are produced
So, the structures that we rely on in our brain for our waking construct of reality are only partially turned on during dreaming sleep, with the rational, logical part of our brain turned off.
The chemicals which help us to focus attention and stay on track are in short supply.
Additionally, we rely upon internal input (i.e. our brain), rather than external input (i.e. our senses…sight, smell, etc) for our mental construct during dreaming.

24. How dreams are produced
It is important to remember though that dreams are like thoughts; from whence they originate, no one knows….

25. Why we dream
No one knows for sure:
Evolutionary Theories
Memory and Learning Consolidation Theories
Brain development & neural networking
Mood regulation theories
Maintaining and redefining self

26. Why we dream
One theory suggests that dreaming has evolved as a time to rehearse out behaviors that are essential to survival during waking hours.
Most frequent drama reported during dreaming, across all cultures (including small tribal societies) is being pursued by someone or something. Tore Nielson; Taken from The Mind at Night. Rock, A. pg 68.

27. Why we dream
That dreams, at least in part, are actually genetically encoded survival-related data inherited from lower species.
A “virtual reality” testing ground to simulate threatening scenarios in a safe place.
Hence, REM-sleep paralysis evolved.
-Antii Revonsuo; Taken from The Mind at Night. Rock, A. pg 71.

28. Why we dream
Infants are in REM sleep about 50% of the time.
What is likely happening is that REM sleep is actually help development of neural circuitry that will help pass along this genetically encoded information.

29. Why we dream
Memories are formed by activating specific, interconnected brain cells (neurons) that tie together a memory. When a memory is replayed, it reactivates the firing pattern of those same neurons and causes an anatomical change in which the connections grow stronger the more they are replayed….transforming short term memories to long-term ones.

30. Why we dream
Memory consolidation during dreaming evolved as the brains of mammals evolved to higher cognitive functioning with increased ability to plan and decision-make.
Allowed integration of lessons learned while awake without requiring larger brain matter to facilitate the processing of the information (i.e. enormous prefrontal cortex)
Jonathan Winson; Taken from The Mind at Night. Rock, A. pg 68.

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31. Why we dream
Crick and Mitcheson propose the idea of “reverse learning”, a memory reorganizing, where extraneous information makes its way into dream material on its way out of the memory stores….
Francis Crick and Graeme Mitchison. The Function of Dream Sleep.

32. Why we dream
As we sleep, our brains are working hard to save the experiences that we will carry around with us for the remainder of our lives by replaying variations of the event…while less important events receive little attention, thus paving the way for forgetting. Daniel Schacter

33. Why we dream
Rosalind Cartwright theorizes that dreaming plays a part in mood regulation, helping us process negative emotions so that we wake up in a better mood than when we went to sleep.
Studies have showed that 2/3 of emotions in dreams are negative.
By playing out negative emotions during dreaming, we are working through, resolving, and integrating these emotions so that we are better equipped to deal with the source of our conflict in our waking lives.

34. Why we dream
Support for this theory was found in the difference of dreams in a study of people going through marital breakups. Those who were able to recover and get on with their lives had significantly different dreams than those who remained mired in depression.
Rosalind Cartwright. Taken from The Mind at Night. Rock, A. pg 102.

35. Why we dream
Is dreaming a mechanism for us to tap into our creative mind? Problem solve? Break down barriers created by the conscious construct of our waking lives?
Paul McCartney woke up humming the entire song “Yesterday” before it had ever been written (the original lyrics in fact were “Scrambled eggs, oh my baby, how I love your legs…”)
Jack Nicklaus corrected his swing in the 1960’s by having a dream which showed he was holding his club incorrectly.
Donald J. Newman, a mathmatician at MIT, was stuck on a problem and had a dream he was having lunch with John Nash who showed him the answer (Nash was given partial credit for the theory).

36. Why we dream
Perhaps because various aspects of our waking brain are inactive during sleep, so too are various constructs which limit our capacity to “think outside the box”.

37. What do dreams mean?
Civilizations have been hypothesizing the meaning of dreams since the dawn of humankind….but we’ll jump to the 20th century for brevity’s sake.

38. What do dreams mean?
Sigmund Freud wrote The Interpretation of Dreams in 1900 which proposed that dreams spring from subconscious wishes (primarily sexual or aggressive) that the conscious mind (the ego) suppresses during the day.
He described dream interpretation as “the royal road to understanding the unconscious activities of the mind.”
Effectively, the majority of characters and symbols in a dream could be interpreted as an expression of erotic wishes.

39. What do dreams mean?
Carl Jung, Freud’s protégé, split from Freud as he felt that dreams were not just a storehouse of repressed wishes, but rather more importantly, acted as a guide, friend, and advisor.
Jung saw dreams as means of communication, to bring unconscious information to the conscious awareness.
That the content of the dream was most important
Not that symbolism did not exist; if fact, he felt that the dream could touch on the “collective unconscious”, the elements in everyone’s unconscious that derive from the experiences of all mankind, frequently represented by archetypal characters (wise old man….the earth mother).

40. What do dreams mean?
J. Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley theorized in 1977 that dream content arose from the brainstem (which controls turning on and off REM and NREM sleep) and that dream content had “no primary ideational, volitional, or emotional content.”
The resulting dream was the product of the higher cortical structures making the best of the erratic signals it was receiving.

41. What do dreams mean?
This theory was later disproved when it was found that people could still dream despite having damage to their brainstem.

42. What do dreams mean?
So then, what do dreams mean?

43. What do dreams mean?
Dreams likely help us to “contextualize” emotion in visual form which can act as a form of “automatic internal therapy”…
Psychotherapy and dreaming offer the same therapeutic benefit: allowing connections to be made in a safe place
Ernest Hartmann. Taken from The Mind at Night. Rock, A. pp 113-115.

44. What do dreams mean?
“When there is no therapy involved and researchers are just tracing what happens after trauma, people who get better are most likely to be the ones that are having dreams which work through the issue and also tend to be the ones who have good social support.”
Diedra Barrett. Taken from The Mind at Night. Rock, A pg 116.

45. What do dreams mean?
What is likely is that while some dream content may reflect content that correlates to the dreamer’s current waking concerns, represented by thought-like mental activity, other portions may be metaphoric expressions of those concerns, while others may be confabulated…a sort of wing-it, filler content, made up by the left brain, which has been shown to fill in missing data in split-brain experiments in waking people.Summarized by the work of Michael Gazzaniga; Taken from The Mind at Night. Rock, A. pp124-128.

46. What do dreams mean?
So, then, how much stake can we put into the meaning of our dreams?
Depends on the dream!
-To assume that every dream is worthy of interpretation would be to assume that every thought or every word uttered was meaningful.
-most dreams are boring and mundane…
-vivid, emotionally charged dreams are likely worthy of interpretation.
-keep in mind though that some aspects of dream content may just be “freewheeling improvisation” that the brain undergoes when all input from the external world is shut-out and the brain is left to its own devices for input.

47. What do dreams mean?
Universal dream symbols:
To rely on these to derive meaning from dreams is underestimating the brain’s creativity in conjuring up scenes that reflect our daily concerns.

48. What do dreams mean?
There are some consistent symbols though that have been reported:
Water=emotions
Snakes=enemies
Ocean=state of the ocean implies state of your life
Lion=greatness and honor
Death=change

49. What do dreams mean?
From a scientific standpoint, it’s unlikely we will ever be able to conclude definitively what a dream means…but perhaps we can use dreams as an insight into our emotional preoccupations…..Meaning is in the eye of the beholder.

50. Lucid Dreaming
Pioneered by Stephen LaBerge, but practiced by Tibetan Buddhist Monks (called “Dream Yoga”) for more than 1,000 years.
A technique of conscious dreaming…while asleep and dreaming, becoming aware consciously that you are in fact dreaming and potentially controlling the outcome of the dream
Possible therapeutic applications?

51. Sleep Disorders and Dreaming
REM Behavioral Disorder
Nightmares &/or PTSD
Partial Arousal Disorders (sleep walking/sleep eating/night terrors/confusional arousals, Enuresis)
Narcolepsy
OSA/PLMD

52. Conclusion
“Dreaming is, above all, a time when the unheard parts of ourselves are allowed to speak.”
-Diedra Barrett

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All analysis of dreams rests upon concepts of what a dream is, what the events or images in the dream represent, and what we feel about them. Analysing dreams has a very long history, and this history shows the various concepts different cultures had about dreams and dreaming. See: Greece (ancient) dream beliefs; history of dream beliefs; religion and dreams; spiritual life in dreams.

Most societies, ancient and modern, have had professional dream interpreters. India had its Brahmin oneirocritics; in Japan the om myoshi; the Hasidic rabbis in Europe fulfilled this role; in ancient Egypt the pa-hery-tep; ancient Greece had the priesthood within the Asclepian temples given to dreams; among the Aztecs, dream interpretation and divination were the prerogative of the priestly class teopexqui, the Masters Of Secret Things; in today’s world the Freudian and Jungian psychoanalysts fulfil this role - the author has worked as resident analyst for television’s channel four Teletext in the UK, New Zealand Teletext, London Broadcasting Company, as well as a major national newspaper.

Some of the most ancient written documents are about dream interpretation and are direct expressions of the attempt to understand or interpret dreams. The Chester Beatty papyrus for instance, dates from 1250 BC, from Egypt. This contains records of 200 dreams and their interpretations according to the priests of Horus.

Most social roles that survive for such long periods of time fulfil some useful purpose. The most fundamental purpose of dream analysis is probably that of reducing tension and anxiety in the dreamer. In skilful use of dream interpretation there may also be a powerful shift in the dreamer towards greater understanding of their life situation, or their internal process. With such understanding they find themselves in greater accord with themselves and their social and general environment. As with any role however, there is also the aspect of manipulation and control of ideas and behaviour that can occur when a lay person seeks the advice of priest or professional. Some such analysis of dreams, in the past and today, have most likely been ways of influencing the individual to fit present social or political norms or expectations.

Different approaches to interpretation
Different cultures and ages approached dream interpretation in different ways. But one of the fundamental early ideas concerning what a dream meant has become folk philosophy. It has influenced thinking in regard to the mind and spirit to this day. Perhaps the most obvious example of this is that because many dreams place the dreamer in surroundings different to those in which they slept, early thinkers were convinced this meant the human awareness or spirit left the body during sleep and travelled to far regions, or perhaps even other worlds of the spirit. The idea of the spirit being able to leave the body gave rise to much speculation about the nature of human life. It became a fundamental belief that the spirit and the body were quite separate, but during life joined together in some way, perhaps like a letter in an envelope, or water within a tree. This view dominated the way personal awareness or consciousness was thought about for millennia, and was undoubtedly influenced by observation of such phenomena as out of body or near death experiences. In many people’s mind this duality is still a prime way of thinking about such phenomena of the mind as out of OBE’s and NDE’s. In fact, even with a much wider base of cultural viewpoints and philosophical and scientific debate and experiment with which to approach such phenomena, they are still not easily explained. There are however, completely different standpoints to approach the phenomena from.
See: out of body experience.

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Ancient views on dreams
The mental and spiritual world the ancients lived in can fairly easily be understood by our own present day dreams. This is because some of our dreams emerge from the primordial in us, such as ancient psychological and cultural patterns laid down over millennia. Therefore in our dreams we may meet with a rock, a tree or an animal which can speak to us. We face and have to deal with evil or benign spirits. We talk with our dead parents. We have warning or problem solving dreams. We are told by wise beings what will be the outcome of a situation. We experience landscapes or events that are awful or wonderful. All that has changed over the ages is the explanations given to such dreams, and the personal feelings involved.

We learn from this that we have an innate tendency in our dreams to portray the world around as, even if it is a rock, as having consciousness and intention. Other ways of putting it are that we project meaning onto the world around us, or that we have powerful emotional and thought associations with all that we experience. Of immense importance also is that we create an image of things we sense ‘out of the corner of our eye’ but cannot or do not have a clear conception of. In our dreams these obscure perceptions appear as definite images or beings with which or with whom we have a relationship. Therefore such things as social pressure, the collective or cultural character, are given form, as we find in cartoon characters such as John Bull representing the British, and Uncle Sam representing the Americans collectively.

A great preoccupation of humans has always been ‘What intention does the world have in regard to ME?’ And also, ‘What do I want in regard to the world?’ If we understand that the sense of ‘me’ or ‘I’ includes all one holds dear, such as family, ‘tribe’, reproduction, hunting or business and general survival, then we have in a nutshell the essence of many dreams. We seek to deal in our dreams with the things that threaten these interests, whether they emerge from within us as urges or emotions, or from an external source. Dreams allow us to explore these difficulties of meeting our inner and outer worlds, and perhaps to find courage, resources or wisdom in facing them. The fact that the dreams of many ancient peoples included confronting gods or demons need not seem strange to us considering our present day dreams - see examples below. Whether the wisdom comes out of the mouth of a god or computer in our dream, the result is much the same. Whether fear arises out of the image of a ghost or an alien, it is still our own emotion we are meeting.

Examples of dreams
Example: My toddler was on the landing and he had red silk shorts on with plastic pants half pulled up over the shorts. I ask him how he got like that as he is too small to do it himself. Then behind him my husband just appeared and said he had dressed him, but I knew my husband was out and this must be an apparition or something really evil. I was extremely frightened and ran into our bedroom and saw my husband floating over the bed head. Then I woke. Mrs. H. C.

Example: There were a few strangers in a chemistry laboratory, with myself - one at each table all waiting for something. Suddenly we all looked at a large house spider on the wall. At the same time one of us, it seemed to be me, turned into some sort of evil monster-man. We all ran away terrified, while he rampaged round the building. Mrs. K.L.S.

Example: I was in an ancient room. It had the feeling of it being an old church. Then my wife and I were in bed in the room. A middle aged woman was in the room. She was a ghost. I felt afraid of her, but to confront the fear I reached out my hand to her. I was crying out in my sleep from fear. As she took my hand I was amazed and shocked to feel it as physically real. I cried out “I can feel you - I can feel you!” She was also surprised. I had the impression the level or dimension was recognised by ‘them’. She says, to companions I do not see, “He is from the fourth level.” I then said I wanted to understand. A.T.

Example: I was with a young boy and went to his house. I believe his mother was there and a cat. The vivid part was that the cat spoke to me. It spoke in a rather female voice, very clearly. As it spoke I felt great amazement. I had lots of thoughts about how it had learnt language - that it could speak because of human language - what did language do to its psyche - and so on. I didn’t reach any conclusions. I noticed as it spoke that it had tiny lips, but they were perfectly formed like a woman’s. They had lipstick on - or at least were red and attractive. I cannot remember what the cat said, but this didn’t seem to be important. It was the fact it spoke that was so wonderful. I left the house and was asking people whether they had ever heard a cat talking - still full of wonder. A.T.

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The major difference between the way ancient people interpreted their dreams and the way we generally approach them today is that ancient people were certain the dream was real, whereas we have a certainty of its illusionary quality. This enormous difference meant that ancient peoples generally approached their dreams with a conviction they could find help, healing or information from them.

Prophetic Dreams
In many cases in the past, dreams were looked to for signs of prophecy about important issues such as ones health, long life, fertility, wealth or victory in a battle. For instance an ancient Babylonian prayer reads: ‘Either let me see it in a dream, or let it be discovered by divination, or let a divinely inspired man declare it, or let all the priests find out by incubation whatever I demand of them.’

In the oldest known book, the story of Gilgamesh, it is told how Enkidu, the king’s great friend, dreamt an awful prediction of his own death. ‘There is the house whose people sit in darkness; dust is their food and clay their meat. They are clothed like birds with wings for covering, they see no light, they sit in darkness. I entered the house of dust and I saw the kings of the earth, their crowns put away forever; rulers and princes, all those who once wore kingly crowns and ruled the world in the days of old. And there was Ereshkigal the Queen of the Under-world; and Belit-Sheri squatted in front of her, she who is recorder of the gods and keeps the book of death. She held a tablet from which she read. She raised her head, she saw me and spoke: “Who has brought this one here?” Then I awoke like a man drained of blood who wanders alone in a waste of rushes; like one whom the bailiff has seized and his heart pounds with terror.’

Enkidu goes on to say - ‘The dream was marvellous but the terror was great; we must treasure the dream whatever the terror; for the dream has shown that misery comes at last to the healthy man, the end of life is sorrow.’ Following the dream Enkidu became increasingly ill and died twelve days later.

The dreams that have come down to us in such written form are of course greatly memorable. The following is another example of this - The night before (the parents of Alexander the Great) lay in wedded bed, the bride dreamed that lightning fell into her belly, and that withal, there was a great light fire that dispersed itself all about into divers flames. King Philip her husband also, shortly after he was married, dreamed that he did seal his wife’s belly, and that the seal wherewith he sealed, left behind the print of a lion. Certain wizards and soothsayers, told Philip that this dream gave him warning to look straightly to his wife. But Aristander Telmesian answered again, that it signified his wife was conceived with child, for that they do not seal a vessel that hath nothing in it: and that she was with child with a boy, which should have a lion’s heart. From Plutarch’s ‘The Life of Alexander the Great’, AD 100.

A dream such as this is also reported by the mother of Buddha prior to his birth. (See Buddhism and dreams.) It is also much the same as Mary’s vision prior to her conception of Jesus. In fact in the Jewish and Moslem traditions regarding dreams, an encounter with God in a dream was regarded of very great importance, and was not seen as different to a vision or waking encounter with God or an angel. For more everyday dreams however, we must read those collected by anthropologists from present day tribal people. See: American Indian dream beliefs; Babylonian dream beliefs; Hebrew dream beliefs; Iroquoian dream cult; Moslem dream beliefs.

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Is it a good or bad dream?
We can generalise and say that Babylonian dream interpreters tended to see dreams as being either good or bad. The good were sent by supportive gods, and the bad by demons. The Babylonians had a goddess of dreams named Mamu. The function of the priests of Mamu was to prevent bad dreams.

The Assyrians believed dreams to be mostly omens of good or ill luck. Like the Babylonians they tried to deal with the possible fate following from bad dreams. In fact this sense of an ill fate being presaged by bad dreams was common to most ancient cultures. But this was gradually extended in Egyptian, Greek and Roman culture. This development of what people expected to find in their dreams probably arose from folk wisdom arising from observation of actual events. Diodorus for instance said that “in Egypt, dreams are regarded with religious reverence, especially as means of indicating remedies in illnesses’; and that ‘the prayers of worshipers are often rewarded by the indication of a remedy in a dream.” An Egyptian prayer to this effect reads “Turn thy face to-wards me. Tis thou who dost accomplish miracles and art benevolent in all thy doings; ‘tis thou who givest children to him that hath none. Tis thou who hast created magic, and established the heavens and the earth an the lower world; ‘tis thou who canst - grant me the means of saving all.”

This idea of dreams being a source of information that can help heal a physical illness, or as a source of inspiration in making difficult decisions is widespread in ancient cultures. The story of Satni tells of Mahituukhit going to the temple of Imuthes in ancient Memphis, praying to the god, then falling asleep in the temple. She then received a dream from the god showing a cure for her sterility. The god said to her ‘When tomorrow morning breaks, go thou to the fountain of Satni, thy husband; there thou shalt find growing a plant of colocasia; pull it up, leaves and all, and with it make a potion which thou shalt give to thy husband: then shalt thou sleep with him, and that very night shalt thou conceive.’ It was common in seeking such dreams as the above to prepare by ritual fasting and bathing as a means of purification and then to sleep in the temple.

These early forms of dream analysis arose then out of a quite limited set of values. A dream was either good or bad. A dream either prognosticated good or ill fortune. It illuminated the way to death or to regained health. Lastly the dream may be a message from a god showing a wise decision in life, battle or politics. Therefore early analysis was limited to such views, as is show in the account of Pharaoh’s dream of the seven fat kine and the seven thin kine who ate the fat cattle. The dream and its interpretation, showing the future of the nation’s fortune, was both a dream about a dire fate, and about a political or state decision.

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Foreshadowing Freud
The Huron and Seneca Indians of America had a view of the dreams which stands in the balance between the ancient world and the modern psychological concept of dreams. They saw dreams as expressing psychological tension and unexpressed desires. This was a definite forerunner of modern understanding. Nevertheless the main sources of modern dream interpretation lie in the ancient dream interpreters such as Artemidorus who wrote the Oneirocriticus - Interpretation Of Dreams - in AD 200; in the commentaries on dreams of Aristotle which so influenced Western thinking; and in the early criticisms such as we find in Cicero, in which he says - ‘Even if true interpretations of dreams could exist, it is certainly not in the possession of those who profess it, for these people are the lowest and most ignorant of the people.’ He reached this view by observing that dreams were infinitely variable, and one could observe that different people having the same dream did not experience the same results. One could not therefore base any conclusive conclusion upon them. He ended by saying ‘Let us reject, therefore, this divination of dreams, as well as all other kinds. For, to speak truly, that superstition has extended itself through all nations, and has oppressed the intellectual energies of all men, and has betrayed them into endless imbecilities.’ However it is apparent in what Cicero says that he is talking about the interpretation of dreams which sees them all as divinatory.

Aristotle moved beyond this viewpoint and was perhaps the first to leave a record of careful and analytical thought about dreams and sleep that link with today’s approach in which information is gathered and sifted. His suggestions in regard to how one might analyse dreams are summed up in three short essays: On Sleep and Dreams, On Sleep, and On Divination Through Sleep. See: Aristotle on dreams.

Strangely, European history appears to be a slide into the deeps of superstitious imaginations regarding dreams and dreaming. It was a state of mind which appears to have had no links with the clarity of past cultures, or observations of collective experience. During this period all manner of fantastic explanations of dreams arose. The ancient dream dictionaries, the first of which was written by Antiphon, and was published in the fifth century BC - were degraded into statements of good luck or bad luck unconnected with cultural symbolism such as was found in Artemidorus. The influence of these European dream dictionaries are still found on sale in book shops today. Raphael’s Dream Book, and the like are still purchased and read, and are modern expressions of this dark period of European psychological learning regarding dreams.

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The dark ages of dream interpretation
During this time dreams were also linked with numerology. In 1654 The Palace of the Curious was published in France. It explained how algebra and the laws of chance are means by which we can interpret the most puzzling of dreams. This became a tradition and many dream dictionaries published today still explain dreams in this way. Alongside these there were many claiming to explain dreams according to ancient Egyptian wisdom. As Norman Mackenzie says in his excellent review of these books in his Dreams And Dreaming, these ‘modern dream books represent the most degenerate form of what was once regarded as a divine art; they lack any real religious or magical sanction, and are simply an expression of popular superstition, like the belief in lucky numbers, lucky colours or birthstones. Whatever meaning may once have lain behind the symbols and the interpretation has long been lost.’

There were however lights within this gloom. Amidst the darkness created by a repression of any attempt to explore fresh understanding, there were still groups and individuals who attempted to discover and protect what was good of ancient thought, and what might be uncovered by personal observation. An illustration is this quote of Paracelsus rediscovered by Jung. “That which the dream shows is the shadow of such wisdom as exists in the man, even if during his waking state he may know nothing about it; for we ought to know that God has given us our own wisdom and knowledge, reason, and the power to perceive the past and the future; but we do not know it, because we are fooling away our time with outward and perishing things, and are asleep in regard to that which is real within ourself.”

Freud Jung and Perls
Although Sigmund Freud is popularly thought of as the founder of modern therapeutic analysis of dreams, many other people set the scene for him by careful observation and experiment. Freud encouraged clients to relax on a couch and allow free association of ideas arise in connection with aspects of their dream. In this way he helped the person move from the surface images - manifest content - of the dream, to the underlying emotions, fantasies and wishes - latent content - often connected with early childhood. Because dreams use condensation - a mass of different ideas or experiences all represented by one dream image or event - Freud stated that the manifest content was ‘meagre’ compared with the ‘richness and variety’ of latent content. If one succeeds in touching the feelings and memories usually connected with a dream image, this becomes apparent because of the depth of insight and experience which arise. Although ideally the Freudian analyst helps the client discover their own experience of their dream, it can occur that the analyst puts to the client ready made views of the dream. Out of this has occurred the idea of someone else ‘analysing’ or telling us about our dream. See: Freud, Sigmund; latent content; manifest content.

Carl Jung used a different approach. He applied amplification, helped the client explore their associations, used active imagination, and stuck to the structure of the dream. Because amplification also presents to the client the information and experience of the therapist, again the dream work might still be largely verbal and intellectual, rather than experiential. See: amplification; active imagination; association of ideas with dream; Jung, Carl.

In the approach of Fritz Perls Gestalt Therapy and Moreno’s Psychodrama the approach to dream analysis is almost entirely experiential. The person exploring the dream acts out or verbalises each role or aspect of the dream. If one dreamt of a house, in using the Gestalt approach, one might start by saying, “I am a house” and then go on to describe oneself just as one is as the particular house in the dream. It is important, even if the house were one existing externally, not to attempt a description of the external house, but to stay with the house as it was in the dream. This is like amplification, except the client gives all the information. This can be a very dramatic and emotional because we begin to consciously reveal the immense realms of experience usually hidden behind the image. When successful this leads to personal insights into behaviour and creativity. See: gestalt dream work.

Modern dream analysis, if not limited to the approach of one clinical school such as Freudian or Jungian, is a very rich technique. It spans the best of the ancient cultures such as the use of dreams for help in decision making or healing of physical health. It incorporates techniques which enable dreams to be accessed by any intelligent person in order to be enriched by them. Many tools are available in this modern eclectic approach, tools which enable one to mine the various treasures from ones inner life of dreams. But foremost among the additions to the jewels of understanding garnered in the past, is that of insight into ones personal psychological history and personal traumas. This is believe is unique to our times, and not fully appreciated generally. From this new skill a way is being developed to integrate the many aspects of ones own multifaceted being. See: amplification; analysis of dreams; gestalt dream work; processing dreams; psychodrama and dreams.

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