Introduction to Dreamwork
...lly don’t want to remember. But it is all there. There is nothing that has ever happened to us, no thought that we have ever had that is not present in our unconscious. So, each night our unconscious sends us messages. These messages are usually related to current events in our lives. A decision with which we are struggling, an emotional situation that is causing us stress, or maybe something that we are not even aware of yet. Whatever the reason for the message, the unconscious is trying to give us answers that will help us be happy and whole. It is important to understand that dreams come from within. They are about us. Even though other characters may appear in our dreams, some we recognize, some we don’t, it is all about us. We are the writer, director, producer and star of our dreams. Every character in our dreams is a part of us, even if they look like Aunt Betty or our ex-husband. One of the problems we face in Dream Work is understanding the message. The language of dreams is symbolic, and the symbols in dreams vary from person to person. It is not recommended that people purchase and use dream dictionaries to try to decode their dreams, because the definitions in the dictionaries belong to the person who wrote it, not to other people. Some objects are universal in nature, but all must be interpreted in light of the individual dreamer. The only interpretation that matters is the interpretation that rings true to the dreamer. On the surface, dreams seem to make little or no sense. They are sometimes fantasies, and are often filled with nonsensical activities and actions that seem impossible. What we have to remember is that the unconscious mind is not bound by time and space constraints. The unconscious mind does not live in a physical environment that is governed by laws of logic and physics. It is the revelation of our imagination in its purest form. What is important in Dream Work is to look past the impossibilities, and search for the meaning. Dreams can be pleasant and funny, or they can be sinister and scary. When they are the latter, a night mare, it is generally because the unconscious is really trying to make an important point. You are more likely to recall and try to understand a scary dream, so maybe you will get the message. We must always remember that it is never the intent of our unconscious mind to hurt us, after all it is us. Every message must be a...