Let's talk about it
Opinions and questions will be included here after, as and
when they come in. They will be numbered based on relevant subject and writer, for cross
reference ease.
My answers won't be numbered.
(1,1,1) - Hi Romano,
I navigated through the pages of
"Interpreted dreams" with great pleasure. I would like to express you my best
compliments for the simple and professional way you were able to deal subjects that are
rather difficult to outsiders.
In my opinion, anybody who happens to navigate
through the pages of "Interpreted dreams" following his personal interest or a
mere curiosity has a single wish, namely to keep reading one page after the other, in
perfect calm, searching a "dream" where he can identify himself and look into
himself.
Obviously, no claim of exhaustiveness can be made, as I know by personal experience, but
no doubt outsiders have clearly understood that this has nothing to do with the way how to
put one’s money on the super-lottery.
HI !
I received this message and I was very doubtful as to whether to publish it or not. The reason is quite obvious but in the end I thought to myself: "Why not? ." Send me your messages with adverse criticism and I will publish them as well... I promise! This time I had a bit of luck.... :-)(2,1,1) - I found it very interesting to navigate through the dream interpretations suggested by you, as I am strongly attracted by the oneiric dimension.
My name is..... and I am enrolled at the second year of the psychology course at the university of Urbino.
My curiosity originates from a series of books having an ethnographical background that I have been constantly reading in the last years and that, in my opinion, played the role of promoving a change in myself that I think would have anyhow occurred.
I refer to the books by Carlos Castaneda. Well, I wanted to ask you a question concerning the part where the Yaqui wizard, after stressing the difficulty in reaching the scope, proposes his disciple the possibility of attaining a partial conscious dream control (the first step of this long process being represented, for instance, by deliberately finding one’s hands while dreaming). This would change ordinary dreaming into the typical wizard’s DREAMING and would lead to become aware of one’s "astral body" or dream body. I am interested to know if, in psychology, dreams have always been considered just as the uncontested domain of Es, with not even the least participation of EGO; if there are studies on the possibility of conscious dream control and your opinion in this regard.
I do hope you can give me a satisfactory answer, and send you my best regards.
First of all, if it is OK with you, let’s thou each other. I am very glad to answer your message because it touches a topic that has always fascinated me in a special way: the possibility of "consciously" entering into dream.The prevailing attitude to dreams - and not only in psychology – is undoubtedly to identify them with the manifestation of something which is out of consciousness boundaries, going from "a divinity message" of ancient times to "Es-Unconscious-Archetypes " of modern times. In the academic field little has been written on the possibility of allowing EGO to participate in dream events. I might suggest that you read "Sogni lucidi", Astrolabio, Celia Green (Ita) (*) but I think this book is being reprinted, you might perhaps find an unsold copy.
(*) "Lucid dreams", Celia Green, Institute of Psychophysical Research, Oxford.
May I this opportunity to ask my readers to kindly bring to my attention any possible academic book on this specific topic. On the contrary, leaving the academic field apart and accepting to enter the "esoteric" field in general, there is too much to choose from! In this case, however, there is the risk of being submerged by the day-dream flooding stream of hot-heads that haven't the faintest idea of what scientific mentality is. As for myself I don't refuse esoterism "a priori" but in my opinion it should be faced with a mental attitude that unfortunately is very hard to find in people: I mean, refuse nothing "a priori" and, at the same time, accept nothing without criticism. In other words, the principle of authority, according to which a thing is considered true only because the "teacher" told so, ought to be rejected. In other words, the desire of checking things should be regarded as a positive stirring element, not an offence addressed to the teacher, to his credibility. Modern sciences owe their tremendous development to the desire of checking any statement, regardless of whom worded it out.
Fans of esoterism, instead, have built up a peculiar reasoning, claiming that a "critical" attitude prevents the production of the phenomena to be studied. Far too easy!!! W.R. Bion has well described the psychology of groups that need to believe rather than understand. In this regard, E. Zolla has spoken of two kinds of civilization: the one where it is allowed only to COMMENT texts that are considered infallible and the one where, instead, CRITICISM of texts, whoever the author, is allowed and sought. Coming back to Castaneda, I have purchased his first four books but I could read only two of them. The reason? Too much fiction, there is too much ballast to read before something valid can be found, provided one is able to distinguish what is valid. I am more and more persuaded that, in this field, who knows keeps silent and who doesn't know overtalks! In America Castaneda’s personality is much-discussed, especially after his death, but this is not what we are talking about. Anyway, what Yaqui wizard says to his disciple with regard to consciously sailing in the dream sea is fascinating and is worth submitting it to a personal check. How? It’s a billion dollar question.
I have used the expression "conscious SAILING in the dream sea" rather than "conscious dream CONTROL" because CONTROL is a typical need of consciousness that would like to SUBDUE the unconscious. This need is systematically frustrated because the unconscious rejects it. The concept of SAILING, instead, expresses the idea of moving in a determined direction consciously, having regard to sea and wind, exploiting their strength. The skipper and boat, with the sail-rudder-compass unit, symbolize CONSCIOUSNESS. Wind, sea and currents symbolize UNCONSCIOUSNESS.
It is essential to clarify the difference between CONTROLLING the unconscious and SAILING in it because control is certainly impossible while navigation can be experimented, at least in theory. In any case, we can always get a INDIRECT knowledge of the unconscious thanks to dreams.
The Yaqui wizard, after all, says nothing new. It is sufficient to recall that Indian Upanishad, in the VIII century before Christ, said the same thing.Try to read, for example, the "Brhad-aranyaka-upanishad", fourth reading, 9 and following (transliteration is approximate).
Mysteriosophical traditions in ancient west said the same thing too. See Alchemy, amongst the others. The idea of entering into dreams consciously is equal to accomplishing the famous "going down to nether world", that is travelling consciously in the unconscious and then return back. Just a trifle, isn’t it? :-) To get to this point a whole ascetic-training lifetime is needed. At least, that’s what they say. And the journey, provided one manages to make it, is not exempt from major risks (madness, serious deseases), especially if one travels with no experienced guide. Does this guide exist? If so, where can it be found? Another two billion dollar question! I hope you are not disappointed with my above answer but I hate people posing as a "guide" only because they have read a few books or were members of one of the so-called "esoteric" groups. To understand each other, people that, without having a knowledge, pretend to know and "allude" in a mysterious and winking way. Because, they say, they cannot speak openly! Even more I detest people that use these groups only to satisfy their desire of power over other people.From the length of my answer you can certainly infer that I was very glad to answer to you....
Hi, Romano.
(2,1,2) - Hi Romano,
Thanks a lot for answering me so quickly. This topic is surely one of those we could spend a whole lifetime talking about, although I think this would not help to get to a definite conclusion. I was very pleased to exchange views with you and, since you have read the first two books by Castaneda, I do suggest that you at least start reading "Journey to Ixtlan". You will see that its formula is quite different from the other two books. Much less fiction and above all.... you come immediately to the point! Bye....I will certainly do. The fact is that, due to the paramount number of books I have to read, I would need a 48-hour day and also another pair.... of eyes! :-)
Hi, Romano.________________________
Following your advice I have gone back to
that book to read it carefully.
(At least, I hope these are the exact words of the original text). Don Juan was quite a happy fellow... :-) Castaneda has a special ability in creating suspense situations that usually end up in nothing, so much as to raise the suspicion that he didn't have too much to reveal. Even the last words of the book express the nth postponement to no one knows when: "I knew that my time had not come yet"...!!!
(At least, I hope these are the exact words of the original text). At the best, his books share the same characteristic as alchemy books: they can be understood only by those who already know, that is those who have no need of reading them... :-) It might be possible, however, that there are things in the book that I am unable to detect. It might even be that, due to my age, I start to be tired of reading and rereading the same old stuff served in thousand different sauces. You are young and enthousiastic.... for you everything is new.... how beautiful! It might even be that, due to my age, I start to be tired of reading and rereading the same old stuff served in thousand different sauces. You are young and enthousiastic.... for you everything is new.... how beautiful! At this point, however, I would like to know which are the valid elements you found in that book and for which you suggested that I should read it. Do you mind doing so?
Anyway I thank you for inciting me to read that book.
Bye, Romano.
(3,1,1) - Hi, my name is..... and for some years now I have spent a great lot of my leisure time in trying to go deeper into the meaning of dreams. I have no specific backgroud on this subject, neverthess I try to satisfy my irresistible attraction by reading books like "Interpretation of dreams" by Freud, Jung’s books and anything related to the unconscious. That, as I repeat, is attracting me very strongly, although I cannot get to have a clear idea of it. I feel like having something important to discover or to understand through these readings. Also my recent connection to Internet was mainly motivated by this interest, that is to look for someone dealing with dreams and relevant interpretation. For this reason it was a pleasant discovery for me to trace a site like yours dealing with dreams in such a wise and enlightening manner. I have the habit of transcribing many of my dreams to make a brief personal analysis of them based on connections and considerations, therefore I anticipate that, having found you, I won't miss the chance of sending you those dreams of mine that in my opinion are more meaningful, even if I am aware of the fact that, as you say, the lack of details on the dreamer’s life can make their interpretation more difficult. I am sure however that it was good for me to find you and being able to accede to your dream interpretation work through the extensive archive made available.
My kind regards,......, see you next !!!!!!!!!
It is not easy to have a clear idea of the unconscious, perhaps it is even impossible. Just to mention, C. G. Jung has given tens different definitions thereof, some being even in conflict with the others, without withdrawing any of them because, he said, the unconscious has a contradictory nature. So.... On the other hand, we cannot drink an hectoliter of water all at once but this does not prevent us from drinking what is enough to quench our thirst! Interpreting one’s own dreams is not impossible, in principle. S. Freud succeeded in doing so, for example, but it is necessary to have at least three things: 1). A natural inclination to understand the language of images. 2). A long practice in translating symbolic images into their "open" meaning. 3). An ability not to allow one’s own "resistances" to lock oneself (in the technical sense of the term) and the latter is perhaps the most difficult thing.This having been said, I look forward to receiving your more meaningful dreams hoping to manage to get something profitable to you out of them.
Bye for now, Romano.
Before answering to the different individual parts of the message herebelow, I want to say
that by now I had accepted the idea that nobody would have tried to guess the meanings I
had tried to embody in the two colored images of my HP. As a matter of fact, a whole year
has elapsed before someone felt incited to try.
______________________________
(4,1,1) – My compliments for your site. I very much like your simple and natural way of communicating. I was quite impressed by the photo symbolizing the "equilibrium", it makes me think of the equilibrium amongst Nature and Technique, Mind and Body.
The elements to be kept in equilibrium are no doubt these and many others too. It is a dynamic equilibrium, connected to movement, which is not gained once for all. And the result is superb: the boat spins on the water and in the wind...! You could find no more appropriate image to depict consciousness. The rectangular icon seems the scintigraphic image of consciousness in a determined state (the more I stare at it, the more it seems to me that green, my best preferred color, extends up to lightening the black color).The rectangular icon was square, originally, and colors were distributed in a geometric and meaningless way. I have transformed it to convey the idea of a progressive passage from the area of consciousness (golden yellow) to area of the unconscious (blue) and viceversa. Red and black show the two possible ways of acceding to the unconscious: the unaware, automatic and easy one occurring each night and the lucid way which is to be thoroughly checked and, anyway, to be built up through constant efforts.
It is important to keep in mind that this flow flows in both directions.
The two horizontal bars express a continuous passage from a state to the other and the merging of states to create new ones. By "state" I mean: consciousness, unconsciousness, emotions, feelings, thoughts. Perfect: a continuous flow of information-feeling-emotions flowing from consciousness to unconsciousness and from unconsciousness to consciousness. We can say that the two bars channel the idea of a continuous movement that, on the contrary, is missing in the colored rectangle (static). It is to be said, however, that in dreams the dimension where we imagine the two poles is the vertical one, not the horizontal one: unconsciousness is almost always BELOW, being represented by a well, a cellar, a tunnel, a mine, the bottom of a ladder, the bottom of the sea, a subway, etc. I wondered if the bars are horizontal and parallel only following a graphic choice. I instinctively thought of a circle. But, as a matter of fact, a circle is closed, limited, flow would be repetitive. They are horizontal due to graphic reasons. If vertical, they would have occupied too much space. They are parallel for semantic reasons. Consciousness and unconsciousness flow over two adjoining and separate plans. Moreover, parallel bars give the idea of a perfect parity of value to be attributed to the two poles of our psyche if we want to live in EQUILIBRIUM. The only discrepancy preventing the two parallel bars from being a perfect symbol is represented by the fact that they do not touch one another while consciousness and unconsciousness do meet! Repetitive flows and constantly new flows coexist in our psyche. The first ones increase enormously as the sclerosis induced by neurotic components grows. The second ones, on the other hand, cannot cover the whole psychic area because, in this case, the conditions required for the EGO to form would be missing. In fact, the EGO is made up by the slow sedimentation and preservation of memories. I like to think that this is the reason why, in our body, the only cells that do not renovate are neuronis (besides women’s ovules). Also with regard to these two flows (the repetive and the continuously renovating one), and maybe particularly in this case, we can say that it is always a matter of EQUILIBRIUM, equilibrium between BEING and BECOMING. After all, isn’t life just this? Two parallel lines extending endlessly can better express the continuous evolution of the states of consciousness. Flowing of colors does not allow to fix the beginning and the end of lines, same as it is difficult (impossible?) to determine when consciousness is born or stops to exist in an individual, and in which state (color) this happens. If I go further on I trespass to metaphysics! … :-) Also metaphysics is fascinating.... provided land (physics) is not forgotten. They brought an electric circuit and an alternate current back to my mind inasmuch as colors flow in opposite directions. And immediately after I thought that a determined input (on one line) is matched by an output (on the other line) as if one line represented consciousness and the other one unconsciousness, alternating each another, and a syncronized cause-effect relationship of consciousness versus unconsciousness and viceversa. In an alternate current there is a single flow changing direction alternatively. In the case of consciousness and unconsciousness, instead, there are two, simultaneous flows. Anyway, analogy between psyche and electric current is very close, just think of the concept of ENERGY and the TWO WIRES bringing electric current. Also in this dream collection electric wires are mentioned in many dreams. I am having quite a good time while doing this brainstorming. Today I don't fancy the idea of going back to the document I was working at. I hope you won't consider reading what I have written boring or useless (even so, I am still amusing myself!).Absolutely not, on the contrary.... I am having a good time too and... unexpectedly, as I have already stated above.
Lines recalled me Vico’s historical courses and recourses too.Well... I had not thought of this, quite frankly, but why not? Horizontal lines give a clearer idea of time flowing (perhaps because I am accustomed to see the temporal axis horizontally). Were lines vertical I would have thought of an objective to be achieved. If oblique, I would have liked them to bend to the right, nevertheless they would have given me the idea of a partition in the space on the right and on the left. Being horizontal I can see them placed in the space and I perceive no separation.
Apart from this, we instinctively associate what is oblique to what is not "direct". And this is not a tautology. Try to think of expressions like "an oblique look", "an oblique manoeuvre."
Oblique = disloyal, deceitful, scurvy.
In the rectangular icon there is also an oblique direction but I don't perceive it immediately and it doesn't bother me. I couldn’t tell you why. Going through my writing, I understand that the dynamic aspect of the two lines has got the upper hand over the static aspect of the icon. I don’t like stillness too much, in fact after watching the icon for a little while, I am soon at my saturation point and I start seeing the green moving.Perfect. The images to which I am associating the icon are the rainbow and the orchard in flower appearing in the picture "Dreams" by Akira Kurosawa (I can't remember how his name is spelt), and the dog mentioned in the book "An endless story" that when flying over the thousand-color desert, produced by the dust of dried petals coming from a million different flowers, takes over the color of the dune it is overflying. I can no longer follow you because I know neither the film nor the book. And after all we are now in full POETRY... a different site from this would be needed!
I will now go back to my job. Have a good job and above all have a "Good Wind". Thanks. Considering that you go back to your job, which wish can I make? Have a good job?
The same as I said: "A sailboat to me, a job to you" .
I feel like a worm... :-) P.S. - Have you some time to interpret a dream of mine? Thanks a million.
(5,1,1) - Hi Romano, I came across your site that I found very interesting indeed. After scanning every single part of it I felt that trust was springing in me towards you. The overall presentation is bright, neat, well balanced and as I appreciate these things, I started to be eager to start a dialogue with you. My name is C...., I am 31 year old. For nearly one year I have been married to A…, a boy that I met only two years and half ago. I am very interested in dream interpretation because I wish to know my unconscious. I am fully aware of the fact that there is a part of myself that keeps always secret and is rather silenced by the other part that, more stubborn and rational, makes the important choices of life. I am willing to know that part of myself that I keep somewhat strangled! In the past I have experienced bioenergetic therapies, that led me to make major and sometimes subverting choices in my life. Today I wish to go on looking into myself, but I no longer wish to make major changes in myself and my life. I want smooth and balanced improvements. After saying this, I will start by writing my most meaningful dreams to you. I will try to focus some important points that should help you in interpreting them:
- Ever since I met my husband, I have been dreaming of him every night. Even when he is not the main character, he is however present.
I am trying to become pregnant but, unfortunately, this doesn't come true!
In our house there are six birds and a black cat living with us.
I will keep visiting your site hoping to find an answer for me or perhaps a help on how to better describe my dreams.
Hi and thanks! C....
Thanks to you also for your words of appreciation.I will answer you here, publicly, and not by an e-mail because your desire to start a dialogue with me is shared also by other visitors of my site, therefore I am taking the opportunity of your request to answer to the others too.
I perfectly understand your desire but unfortunately I cannot satisfy it because the purpose of my site is to offer a simple overview of the world of dreams and their possible interpretation. Development of a continuous work with the same person, almost a substitute of a real psychotherapy via Internet, is not foreseen. It is not possible to make this substitutive therapy. I have also stated it on the page "BEFORE STARTING OFF".You write, among other things:
"I am very interested in dream interpretation because I wish to know my unconscious. I am fully aware of the fact that there is a part of myself that keeps always secret and is rather silenced by the other part that, more stubborn and rational, makes the important choices of life. I willing to know that part of myself that I keep somewhat strangled!… I wish to go on looking into myself…. I want smooth and balanced improvements". These words show that you would be a perfect-ideal candidate for a psychotherapy based on dream interpretation but probably you have no desire to move in that direction.It is a real shame inasmuch as you have the right ideas and motivations to begin such a process. It doesn't happen often, believe me! People usually start a psychotherapy to get rid of an annoying symptom and not "to look inside themselves" or "to know the secret and silenced part of themselves". Usually we are persuaded that our "rational" part makes the important choices of our life and you too express this belief but when one starts knowing also one’s secret dimension then one understands that often the contrary is true. The rational part keeps the illusion that indeed it "mastered the quadrille"... :-) The dreams you sent to me are important, that is filled with important meanings but unfortunately I am not able to interpret them in an appropriate manner as Internet doesn't represent the most appropriate way for working at this kind of dreams, that is dreams relating to strictly personal problems. Try to send me other dreams, if they are of common interest and I can manage to get an interpretation out of them, I won't miss to publish them. My answer will surely disappoint you but, conscientiously, I cannot give you any different answer. Instructions to tell a dream are very simple, it is sufficient to describe the scene, characters, what happens, feelings experienced and possible associations.
A dream must be told exactly as one remembers it, giving up the desire of making it more logical, more coherent and more comprehensible.
My best wishes for the coming of a baby....
Hi, Romano.
______________________
This exchange of messages had a follow-up. Here it is:
.... You don’t say so! What do you mean by "My answer will surely disappoint you " ?! Usually one expects that every dream has its interpretation and that all interpretable dreams can be dealt with via Internet. Consequently one can be disappointed when he finds out that it is not so. I am glad this is not your case. What makes you think that definitely I don't wish to go on along this route? Could you infer this from what I wrote or is this meant to be a provocation? Of course, I cannot be sure of it. I said only that it is PROBABLY so as my experience suggests to me. People feeling curious about their own psyche and that, therefore, are willing to know themselves more deeply are quite a lot but only a least percentage of them decides to actually start a psychotherapy. I am listing here below other reasons that induce me to be rather skeptical about your intentions and these reasons are indeed inferred from what you wrote. At this point it is perhaps appropriate to specify that your good faith is not being questioned, I only say that our conscious beliefs are not always in agreement with our feelings at unconscious level.
There might have been a provocation but it was on the background, it didn't represent the key reason for my answer. I believe I wish to explore this need of mine deeper, even if I understand that I am frightened at the idea of such a major change as to miss the comfort I am experiencing in the present situation of my life where I am enjoying plenty of serenity. I am also afraid that my change, if any, might cause my husband to suffer.
What do you think? Shall I try?
Here again my experience suggests me that, in the far too great majority of cases, suffering produced by neurotic symptoms is the only spring leading to analysis. The serenity you are enjoying is an adverse premise and such is, moreover, also your fear of causing your husband to suffer. There is still the curiosity of knowing yourself better but this is too little and, alone, usually it is not enough, however there might always be exceptions....It is also to be considered, at last, that you used the expression "I BELIEVE I wish..." that doesn't seem to reveal an unshakable determination....
Well,
can you suggest where I could address myself in Milan or do you have your own consulting room? Unfortunately not, I work in Rome and I am at a loss to recommend somebody to you in Milan, however it should not be difficult to get the name of a serious professional. Try to ask your physician or the persons you know. Please let me know how I could go ahead and what I should expect. No forecasts can be made. I can only say that an analysis represents a remarkable job both in terms of expenses and duration. That's why almost always curiosity alone is not sufficient to let the decision of starting off grow ripe. It is also to be said, however, that results largely compensate all the work and sacrifices faced. This, however, is discovered only afterwards.Now you are largely excused if you think that what I said was meant to draw water to my own mill or at least to the category’s mill, for I don't work in Milan. With regard to my dreams I have an important detail, that might be connected to the above cited fear. Since I wrote you the first time, I can't remember my dreams anymore! UNBELIEVABLE!!! I understand that this might seem unbelievable to you. It is not to me, I am accustomed to these reactions of a psyche. In your case failure to remember your dreams was produced by the mere fact of writing to me. This defense-closing would have been much stronger if, after writing to me, you had also received an interpretation of your dreams.
That's why working at dreams is not a pleasant society game as people often believe. .... what do you think, will there be a monster hiding inside me, since it is so afraid of coming out openly?!.... will see! (ah! ah!).
Hi and thanks a thousand for your answer. I will answer you inviting you to read the interpretation of the numerous dreams containing the word MONSTER or DEVIL, BEAST and the like. I can only repeat here what I have already written on those occasions.
Your question, more or less with the same words, is formulated by almost all patients, as an evidence of the fact that this worry is always present, which explains why analysis lasts so long. When one realizes that the MONSTER is not a monster.... analysis is over!
I would just add, in the end, that it is not the monster that is afraid, as you say, rather that part of ourselves threatening the possibility that the alleged monster might come up despite the several defenses that were built to prevent it from doing so.This time my wish is that you can take the most convenient decision for you.
Hi, Romano.
(6,1,1) - Hi, my name is M...
I incidentally bumped into your site that excited my curiosity a lot. I find dream interpretation fascinating, I always try to interpret my dreams.
I wanted to ask you a question: I sometimes happen not to remember if I lived a certain situation in my real life or only in my dreams. Could you give an answer to my question? The way we file our memories, and the way we use to recall them mainly depend on a neurophysiologic mechanism. Like all mechanisms, this one too can either work in a perfect way or fail sometimes. When this happens, a place, a person or a situation are "labeled" by our mind in wrong or uncertain way, as in your case. We tend to forget this basic fact and give explanations of mere imagination, such as astral journeys, previous lifes, etc. to feelings like yours. After saying this, sometimes the uncertainty you are talking about may be caused by an unclear separation between the oneiric world and the material world with a consequent difficulty in establishing if a certain event belongs to the former or to the latter.
The reasons why the above border line may be fluctuating may vary and I cannot be more specific in this regard, a deeper research would be necessary.
By the way, someone remarked that in my answers I sometimes give the impression that I want to make some sort of advertising for my psychotherapy consulting room, I would like to clarify that my frequent use of expressions like "a deeper research would be necessary" or "a real psychotherapy would be needed" it is due to the fact that often, when a dream is sent to me for interpretation, it is expected that, just on this basis, I can explain the whole personality of the dreamer. Something like what happens with a sorceress: one shows her his hand and expects that she tells him everything about himself. If only it could be so simple.... :-) P.S. - I would apologize if your question remained unanswered for a long time. It was due to a wrong delivery to my mail boxes.(7,1,1) - Hallo Romano, My name is.... and I am.... year old. I am studying for a competitive examination to become a magistrate and am working part-time with the Chamber of Commerce. I too am very fond of sailboat and the special contact it allows to have with sea beauty and strength. I have much appreciated your site and I consider your suggested dream interpretation simple, balanced and at the same time acute. I have met dreams that, for some aspects, are similar to some of my own dreams and to the reading I gave of them. The fact of being still a student has delayed my entering into the stressing world of courts and solicitor’s offices and has allowed me to satisfy my curiosity and desire to know myself, even through a more careful attention to my dreams. Since I started to write them down, together with some considerations on my daily experiences as I am accustomed to do, I can remember them much better and more frequently. In most cases it is not difficult for me to self-interpret them, especially when I go back to them after a while. With regard to the interpretation of one’s own dreams, read intervention (3,1,1) here above as well as dream No 243. In short I seem to have established a good dialogue between two different viewpoints of myself.
You are lucky as well as clever, this is the only way to live reasonably well.
Lately, however, I believe I have exaggerated a little bit. I have accompanied a friend of mine to a lecture on dreams that, to my disappointment, had a scarcely scientific style. Being very skeptical about the esoteric meaning of dreams and about some claimed explanations thereof, I was somewhat laughing up my sleeve while listening to the lecture. And you did the right thing! If we leave loose bridle to imagination, everything can be true and false at the same time. As I always say: "Exclude nothing, however accept nothing uncritically". I was impressed, however, by an exercise that according to the lecturerer allows the watchful Ego to ask questions to the sleeping Ego (that he called "divine"). In the page "BEFORE STARTING OFF" I have written: ".... I am not in favour of the so much irrational mythicizing made about the unconscious which is in great fashion nowadays as in other times. In this field too, EQUILIBRIUM is the polar star that can safely lead our steps" The exercise the lecturer spoke about has a sound base but it should be understood that it is not sufficient to make it once to immediately get the desired answer. Training is necessary and, above all, it is necessary to have a correct attitude to the unconscious, which rarely occurs. Nearly always we imagine it as a black hole from which alarming or even dangerous presences can emerge. It is evident that until there is such an attitude one can ask as many times as he wants, there will be no answer!Of course, I do not believe to the pseudo theological aspect of the exercise,
however using the same (very simple) exercise and asking me a specific question before falling asleep, when sleep doesn't arrive too soon, the dream that I remember the day after is at least connected to my question. Sometimes it seems an answer, to be always screened through the sieve of reason, yet indeed an answer.On one hand I am enthusiastic for discoverying that I am able
to pilot my dreams, and on the other hand I wonder if, and I would turn the question to you, by doing so I don't run the risk of taking spontaneity off my dreams and, above all, rest off my mind, that would thus be under some rational control also during the night. I would appreciate your answer because on one side I like all this and on the other hand I am a little bit scared, as with every thing that is not known well.On the contrary, this is perhaps a common thing for anyone that, like you, deals with dreams as his daily bread. Your fear would be founded only in case you succeeded in PILOTING ALL your dreams but this is impossible, obviously, therefore you shouldn’t worry.
Another consideration can also be added: what you call PILOTING MY DREAMS is in actual facts a matter of piloting the QUESTIONS only, the unconscious being always free of giving you ITS OWN answers!!! Whenever we try to muzzle the unconscious, the guaranteed result is neurosis or worse.... I thank you beforehand and I wish to convey my regards to you alongwith my compliments for your site and your fantastic catamaran. My catamaran was fantastic indeed. I say it "was" as I sold it quite some time ago because, due to my year of birth, I was making only a limited use of it.... :-(
Luckily enough, now it is owned by one of my relatives who allows me to take it whenever I want but this happens more and more rarely, unfortunately. In return, I become more and more wise.... :-)
I thank you for your words of appreciation and reciprocate best regards.
P.S. – You might perhaps find some interesting hints for consideration in message (2,1,1)
(8,1,1) - Hallo, My name is A.... I have always had a doubt in respect to dreams and I think you are the most appropriate person to give me an answer. I want to know if dreams have always a relationship with real life, even if slightly, or if they are only "dreams". Are there dreams that can somehow foresee the future?
I understand that the more I go on the more doubts grow inside me anyhow I decide to stop here.
I hope you will answer me soon.
Thanks, A...
You will find my answer to your second question in the interpretation of dream No. 40.
As to your first question, here is what S. Freud writes: "A dream has always some relationship with the events of the day before". This sentence, however, should not be understood in the sense that the events of the day before are the CAUSE bringing about that dream. They only supply a part of the material that the unconscious needs to build up ITS OWN speech. A statement frequently made is, for example: "I have dreamed that a woman killed her daughter. I have dreamed this because the evening before I saw a picture on TV where a woman killed her daughter."This is a superficial explanation that explains nothing. In fact, it is sufficient to ask oneself: "There were also many other happenings in that picture. Why, amongst all of them, have I chosen just that one?".
One can answer, of course, that the choice was
absolutely casual. If one is persuaded of this, that puts an end at it, nothing else can
be added. If instead we are crossed by some sort of doubt, we are ready to accept at least
the hypothesis that dreams might contain important messages for us and that it is worth
while investigating their meaning.