| Robert L Van de Castle, PhD |
| OUR DREAMING MIND |
| Website designed by Bobbie Ann Pimm. (c) 2010 RL Van de Castle |
| "The images and ideas that dreams contain cannot be explained solely in terms of memory. They express new thoughts that have never reached the threshold of consciousness." Carl Jung "In dreams we catch glimpses of a life larger than our own . . . Thoughts are imparted to us far above our ordinary thinking." Helen Keller |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
Your dreaming mind is probably your most neglected, yet powerful
natural resource available to you. The incredible treasures that are
yours to uncover through personal exploration are truly priceless in
value, yet paradoxically, they are absolutely free! You don't have to
buy any expensive equipment or special clothing, and you don't
even have to leave the comfort of your own bed. The entire physical
effort that you'll have to expend to encounter these instructional
nocturnal odysseys involves simply putting your head on your
pillow and closing your eyes. On the basis of extensive laboratory
research, scientists have now confirmed that everyone dreams,
everyone dreams every night, everyone dreams for about 100
minutes and has several separate dreams during a normal sleep
cycle.
During the night, you turn into an imaginative playwright who
creates a series of unique plays, decides which stage props to use,
hires the cast of characters, crafts their lines for them and
determines whether the play will have a happy or sad ending. Each
playwright, like Shakespeare, will have his/her own signature style,
just as every individual will have his/her own distinctive and unique
fingerprint. It might be said that in order to establish the meaning of
any dream, it is first necessary to become familiar with the individual
dreamer's dreamprint. Each of us develops our own associations to
experiences that have had an emotional impact upon us. That is
why dream dictionaries are of minimal, or no, use when trying to
understand the often puzzling symbols that appear in our dreams.
Consider, for example, the symbol of a snake. Freud claimed that
such an image represented the penis. A snake could also be
associated with healing, because the two entwined snakes
appearing on the staff of a caduceus represent the healing
profession of medicine. Temptation might also be associated, since
it was a snake that tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in the
Garden of Eden. As snakes grow in size, they shed their skins, and
could therefore be considered a symbol of growth and
transformation. A person who cannot be trusted because he/she
behaves in secretive, sabotaging ways is known as a "snake in the
grass." Someone who engages in venomous, verbal behavior
toward others might be characterized as a rattlesnake, while some
partner who clings to you so tightly that you feel you are
smothering might be represented as a python. This list could easily
be extended. The purpose of these examples is to demonstrate that
the meaning of a snake must first be determined for each individual
before it becomes possible to work with that individual's dreams
when a snake appears in the content.
In order to assist you better if you decide to utilize my dream
consultation services, it is very important for me to know some
background information about you and to have you answer some
"projective" questions that I have found to be helpful in attempting
to determine your dreamprint. Go to the "Consultation" page for
more information, if you want to explore the possibility of having me
work with you and some of your dreams.
natural resource available to you. The incredible treasures that are
yours to uncover through personal exploration are truly priceless in
value, yet paradoxically, they are absolutely free! You don't have to
buy any expensive equipment or special clothing, and you don't
even have to leave the comfort of your own bed. The entire physical
effort that you'll have to expend to encounter these instructional
nocturnal odysseys involves simply putting your head on your
pillow and closing your eyes. On the basis of extensive laboratory
research, scientists have now confirmed that everyone dreams,
everyone dreams every night, everyone dreams for about 100
minutes and has several separate dreams during a normal sleep
cycle.
During the night, you turn into an imaginative playwright who
creates a series of unique plays, decides which stage props to use,
hires the cast of characters, crafts their lines for them and
determines whether the play will have a happy or sad ending. Each
playwright, like Shakespeare, will have his/her own signature style,
just as every individual will have his/her own distinctive and unique
fingerprint. It might be said that in order to establish the meaning of
any dream, it is first necessary to become familiar with the individual
dreamer's dreamprint. Each of us develops our own associations to
experiences that have had an emotional impact upon us. That is
why dream dictionaries are of minimal, or no, use when trying to
understand the often puzzling symbols that appear in our dreams.
Consider, for example, the symbol of a snake. Freud claimed that
such an image represented the penis. A snake could also be
associated with healing, because the two entwined snakes
appearing on the staff of a caduceus represent the healing
profession of medicine. Temptation might also be associated, since
it was a snake that tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in the
Garden of Eden. As snakes grow in size, they shed their skins, and
could therefore be considered a symbol of growth and
transformation. A person who cannot be trusted because he/she
behaves in secretive, sabotaging ways is known as a "snake in the
grass." Someone who engages in venomous, verbal behavior
toward others might be characterized as a rattlesnake, while some
partner who clings to you so tightly that you feel you are
smothering might be represented as a python. This list could easily
be extended. The purpose of these examples is to demonstrate that
the meaning of a snake must first be determined for each individual
before it becomes possible to work with that individual's dreams
when a snake appears in the content.
In order to assist you better if you decide to utilize my dream
consultation services, it is very important for me to know some
background information about you and to have you answer some
"projective" questions that I have found to be helpful in attempting
to determine your dreamprint. Go to the "Consultation" page for
more information, if you want to explore the possibility of having me
work with you and some of your dreams.
Join Us!
| for the Study of Dreams 30th Annual Conference |
