Dream Interpretation: Class Four

[cydira]

Overview

We've been discussing alot over the process of this course. The first part of class four will be devoted to refreshing everyone's memory of what we have done so far. Any new or curious individuals are more then welcome to look at the earlier dream interpreation postings for more detailed information. If that doesn't help, please email me.

Here is a rough sketch of what is going to be looked at in class four:

Part 1: Review classes one thru three :)
Part 2: How to build your own techniques for dream recall.
Part 3: The use of dream symbols
Part 3 has a few parts of it's own. So it will be like a class inside a class. We'll discuss that when we get that far.

I hope everyone has a lot in mind to talk about. Because, I'm excited by the idea of continuing on with the course. :)

[cydira]

Review: Class One

In class one, we covered quite a few major points about the workings of the brain and it's role in dreaming. We discussed the sleep cycle, the parts of the brain involved in dreaming, and the effects that the chemicals of the brain (called neuro-transmitters) have on dreaming.

The brain has many parts. The parts of the brain that are responcible for dreaming are not exactly known but it is believed (currently) that the frontal lobe of the brain and the regions surrounding the amygdala and the pituitary gland are important in dreaming. These two parts of the brain are responcible for the body's release of hormones and play a role in the circardian rhythm process as well.

The circardian rhythm, which is intimately tied to another part of the brain called the suprachiamatic neucleus, is the body's internal clock that determines when we need to sleep amoung many other things. The circardian rhythm is believed to influence the sleep cycle. Disrupting the circardian rhythm can have obvious effects on the sleep cycle, causing problems such as insomnia or jet-lag.

The sleep cycle has four stages. These stages are called hypnogogic sleep, stage two sleep, stage three sleep, stage four sleep. The hypnogogic sleep stage is where the brain exhibits alpha waves and most people describe it as the point of "drowsiness." Stage two and stage three sleep are characterized by deeper levels of relaxation and slower brainwave patterns. These slower brain wave patterns are known as beta waves. The fourth stage is characterized by the slowest brain wave pattern known as delta waves. The brain moves through these stages many times. In stage four sleep, one may dream, but the dreams are fragmented and may consist of vauge images.

The brain will return to the stage one level, but instead of waking at this point it will enter what is alternately known as R.E.M. sleep or paradoxial sleep. At this stage, the mind will be exhibiting a brainwave pattern that is very active but the body will be at rest and in a very deep state of relaxation. This is where the bulk of dreaming takes place. R.E.M. sleep is also called rapid eye movement sleep. This is because it is characterized by the rapid movements of the eyes of the dreamer during this stage of sleep.

When one dreams, the brain is awash with various neuro-transmitters. Imbalances in these neuro-transmitters can cause problems for dreaming as well as in other areas. A lack of sufficant seratonin, for example, can cause one to be prone to bouts of insomnia, chronic nightmares, and suffer with some form of anxiety or depression. A depletion in the meletonin levels of the brain, if experienced for an extended period of time, can drive a person into a state of madness as seen in schizophrenics or other psychotics. These imbalances are often seen in individuals who have chronic problems with insomnia or go for extended periods of time without sleep.

For more information, please see Dream Interpretation: Lesson 1. If this does not help, feel free to post any questions in the thread that I had started for questions.

Next: Review of Lesson Two :)

[cydira]

Review: Class Two

In class two, we discussed psychology and the psychology of dreaming. In the overview and the first section of the class, there was a discussion of what the various schools of psychology are and their respective positions on dreams. Also, there was some discussion of the theories and analysis practices of Sigmund Freud and of C.G. Jung.

There are three major schools to psychology. Two of these schools are very much alike in their approach to dreaming and it's role. The behaviorist and the biological schools of psychology both tend to argue that dreaming is primarily functional in nature. The behaviorist school argues that it is one of two things:

1. Dreaming is the brain's way of interpreting outside stimuli or events while one is sleeping.

2. Dreaming is the brain's method of cognitive "file management" or processing information from short term memory to long term memory. Often, this is used to explain why the dreams involve events from during the waking moments.

The biological school of psychology tends to argue that dreams are mearly the byproduct of the neurochemical and biological processes that the body undergoes during the state of sleep. Both schools will state the dreams have no meaning to them.

The cognitive school of psychology, which is where both Freud's and Jung's theories fit, argues that dreams have a meaning. In the cognitive school, dreams are argued to have a range of meanings. Freud's theories tended to state that dreams are an expression of repressed sexual tension or desires, or that they are the expression of an excess of sexual energy. Jung's theories argued that dreams were a method of communicating between the conscious and subconscious mind.

It is reasonable to say that both theories will tend to argue that a dream is some mode of the brain attempting to express a state to the conscious mind through the use of symbolic imagery. All theories from the congitive school of psychology that discuss dreams will have some statement or basic assumption that will move along the above mentioned lines.

At the end of class two, there was an additional focus placed on Jungian anlysis techniques. Jung argued that the brain used a series of images in something of a symbolic language that was accessible through the form of archetypes. There was a discussion of a few possible archetypes and their meanings. For additional information, see Dream Interpretation: Class Two.

Next: Review of Class Three

[cydira]

Review: Class Three

In many respects, class three was very freeform and covered many of the areas that we will be discussing in class four. Class three did have several major themes. These themes were:

1. Methods and techniques of dream recall.

2. Dream tools, such as the use of dream pillows. **

3. Controlling your dreams and effectively working with nightmares.

We will be beginning class four with these three items. The methods and techniques of dream recall will be presented briefly in an overview fashion. The science explaining why these methods work can be found in the earlier classes that discuss the psychological reasons and the physical/chemical reasons.

There have been exercizes suggested through out these classes. I will be gathering them together and reposting them in the thread for questions and comments about the course in general. If you wish to work on them and post your results, I'll be happy to look them over and discuss them with you. Also, I will be posting a few additional exercizes, like a brief quiz and a few little projects that may help you in learning. There is no grade, but some of you may find these helpful.

For those of you just joining us, please take a look at the earlier classes. I think that you will find them quite helpful. Also, getting a good notebook and a pen, possibly even a flashlight ;) , will be a good idea for your dream journal. If writing things down doesn't work for you, then get a tape recorder. We've been doing some journaling, and with the exercizes and projects, I will be posting some basic questions that may be helpful in your dream interpretations and in your journaling. :)

With this noted, we're now ready to move on to the rest of class four.

** The use of dream tools wil be discussed only very briefly, because I will be focusing more on this in the next class.

Next: Building your own dream recall techniques

[cydira]

Class Four: Section II - Building Dream Recall Methods

Dream recall is a difficult thing to learn, but once you understand why it works, it becomes possible to develop an effective and easy method of recall. We've already discussed the science of teaching yourself how to do something and we have discussed a bit about the science of dreams. Now, we're going to take a different perspective and move a bit away from this left-brain oriented work.

A dream can be looked at like a story. As any story goes, there are basic things that one must know about the story to beable to get a feel for what the author means. I'm sure that several of you have been writing in your journals and you're starting to find that your dreams seem to have some of the following elements:

1. Setting: The setting is where the story takes place. It can have symbolic importance in dreams and it can often indicate many different things. A cluttered environment, for example, could indicate a stressful situation or feeling overwhelmed.

2. Characters: The individuals (of any shape, size or form) in your dreams are players of the story. Their apperance, behavior, mannerisms, and personality can indicate individuals in your daily life, issues of importance, or even spiritual beings.

3. Time: Time and setting are often described as the same things. I separate them because time can have a different meaning, even though a place can always have the same meaning. Time is what changes the situation. A garden during it's blossoming in spring can be much more welcoming and plesant during this season then when it's covered with snow and fallow during winter.

The element of plot is the literal events of your dream. This is what most people think of when they think of interpreting their dreams. And often, it is this that people focus on, failing to conciter other factors, like setting. We'll be having a separate look at this, but some times if you give a rough sketch of these events you will find important themes in them.

At times, the events of your dream, or the plot, will give you a clear indication of what it means. But these four elements are the basis of building a dream interpretation method.

[I]Next: Three basic questions about your dreams you should always ask yourself.

[cydira]

Class Four: Section II (cont.)

There are three major questions that one must ask themself when they are interpreting their dreams. The other questions that would develop are a series of outgrowths from these basic questions. With this said, I must give a little background information.

In my experience in Dream Interpretation and Analysis, I have found that a very large portion of it is based in emotions or instinctual responces. Quite often a symbol or an image will evoke a powerful responce in a dreamer that is difficult to articulate analyticly and makes no logical sense. As a result of this and other situations that have arised in the process of my study of dreams and working with many people, I've come to the conclusion that our dreams are dependant to a very large degree of our psychological and emotional state during the time period that we have them.

Dreams must be analysed within their larger context of our minds and our lives. These three basic questions deal with how we emotionally respond to our lives and dreams.

1. What is the feeling that the object/person/place in the dream evoked for you in the dream ?

It is important to look at the emotions and feelings that we have in responce to the parts of the dreams as well as the symbols and images in the dreams. Quite often they color the meanings of the symbols or will even lead to a meaning that is dramaticly different from what is popularly accepted as the meaning. For example, many dream dictionaries say that dreaming of an egg will mean that there is a pregnancy involved. If you have a deathly allergy to eggs and as a result abhorr them, it could mean that the egg represents some one or something that you hate.

2. What is the feeling that the object/person/place in the dream evokes for you now ?

Our current feelings and emotions are important in dream analysis. As we look back and reflect on the dream, we find that there are certian emotional associations that we'll make with the symbols that are different from what they are in the dream. In analysing the two different feelings, it becomes possible to trace a link between them, with the object or symbol being part of that link.

3. What in the past evoked the same feeling that the object/person/place in the dream evoked for you in the dream & now ?

When we trace our dreams, we will find that there is some where a connection to the past. It doesn't have to be the distant past. Often, our dreams relate to current issues and the past is usually within the last 48 hours before the dream occurred. Some experts in psychology tend to argue that our dreams deal with the events of the past day, but it is my experience that the past two days are usually more frequently invovled in the average dream.

By working through these three basic questions for each aspect of the dream as mentioned earlier, it becomes possible to not only fully recall the dream but to also begin the analysis process.

[cydira]

Dream Interpretation Class 4: Section 3 - Dream Symbols

This section has three major parts. The first part discuss what I am referring to when I mention dream symbols and how this relates to Jungian Archetypes. I will be making references back to the earlier classes in this part, but I'll add notes for the new comers as to which classes I am referencing. ;)

The second major part will be discussing dream dictionaries and building a personal dream dictionary. Not all of us think that our personal spin on meanings of images and concepts has too much of an impact on the meaning, but in truth it has an amazing degree of influence. I will also explain a little bit about dreams from the cultural context, because dream dictionaries are written from specific cultural contexts.

The third major part is discussing the relationship between dream symbols, actions in dreams, and our waking mind. This will serve as a transition between this class and our fifth class. In the third part, we'll be building a basis as to why dream tools like pillows and the use of sachets filled with certian herbs help in dreaming. This will, in some respects, be a beginning of the fifth class... but now I'm starting to get ahead of myself.

:)

[cydira]

Dream Interpretation Class 4: Section 3- Dream Symbols
Part I: What is a dream symbol?

Dream symbols come in two major varities. There is image symbols and action symbols. When I refer to an image symbol, it is an object or a person that has some form of symbolic meaning to the dreamer. When I mention an action symbol, I am discussing an action in the dream that would have a wider meaning. By combining both types, one can usually interpret their dreams successfully. Especially when they view the impact that their reactions to the symbols has on their meaning.

Some may ask, how do the Jungian Archetypes and the meanings given in dream dictionaries play into this very personal method of interpretation? I wish I could say that the answer was very simple, but there is a little bit of explination required here. As we mentioned in class one, the brain operates by neurochemicals and biology tends to play a very large factor in the functioning of the brain. There is a theory that argues that the Jungian Archetypes are something like "cell memory" and coded into our thought patterns to express various basic concepts.

Personally, I tend to argue that it's more of a cultural phenomena, but I digress.

Dream dictionaries and Jungian analysis draw off of the idea that certian symbols have general meanings which can be applied to all people and all dreams. The association of a horse, for example, with freedom from a situation has been expressed for a signifigant length of time. What we fail to realize is that in the process of our childhood and through out our lives, we're continually exposed to a concept, like the one surrounding the horse. And, if you recall from class two, the repitition of a concept assists in helping one to internalize and remember it.

Between both the continual exposure to a concept and this "cell memory", dream dictionaries and Jungian analysis techniques can help to present a great deal of light on a dream, but it is limited to the general meanings of the symbols. It doesn't help one to interpret the dream, because now you need to see how it all fits together. This is where building a personal list of dream symbols, or a dream dictionary as some may call it, comes into play. In the next post, we'll be looking at what we use to build our dream dictionaries.