Dream Book

El siguiente texto es un extracto del libro Dream Book (ISBN: 9781639195619) Conocerlo, entenderlo, interpretarlo y ayudarlo, escrito por Brenda Mallon, publicado por de Vecchi /DVE ediciones.

Introduction

‘Once upon a time, I, Chuang Tse,

dreamt I was a butterfly fluttering hither and thither,

to all intents and purposes a butterfly.

I was aware only of following my fancy as a butterfly,

and unconscious of my human individuality.

Suddenly, I awoke, and there I lay, myself again.

Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming

I was a butterfly,

or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.‘

MEDARD BOSS, ‘THE ANALYSIS OF DREAMS’

By way of an introduction, I would like to emphasize that when it comes to understanding your dreams it is you, the dreamer, who holds the vital key to their meanings.

For the past twenty years I have been researching dreams, running workshops and using dreams in my psychotherapy practice, and in this book I will offer lots of ideas, provide many clues and give you a guiding hand but ultimately my suggestions must resonate with you. Remember, only you can accurately interpret your dreams.

This book will show you a number of techniques. You will learn how to keep a dream diary, which will encourage you to focus on the dream in detail and analyse its meanings. You will develop a highly skilled approach to personal dream interpretation, and on that journey of discovery you will learn more about yourself, your creativity and your hidden resources than you ever dreamt possible.

We all dream. A foetus in the womb dreams from about five months.

Adults spend about 20 per cent of their sleeping time per night in dream sleep, and the more interested you are in your dreams the more likely you are to remember them. So, the fact that you are reading this book indicates that your recall will improve.

Dreams are those series of images, sensations and thoughts that come to us as we sleep. Sometimes they have a coherent narrative, a story we can follow, which may run on night after night, like watching a television series where the plot develops as it goes along. Other dreams are tantalizingly vague, with snippets and fragments that we only glimpse.

To enter the dream world is to enter another culture where different rules apply, where your waking values, morals and beliefs may be put aside. Over time you begin to deepen your awareness of this dreaming culture and learn to understand the language and ways of this other world you inhabit every night. Most dreams are to do with waking events that have occurred within the last few days, which supports the ‘hypothesis of continuity’; our dreams continue to deal with our waking preoccupations and experiences, which is why they play such an important role in the process of problem solving.

They help us resolve difficulties, they play a part in sorting out and sifting information that we are constantly bombarded with in our daily lives and they give expression to fears and emotions that we may repress when we’re awake. What is important to grasp is that dreams come to us to bring greater wholeness and well-being – even nightmares are important ‘wake-up’ calls to aler t us to areas in our lives to which we need to pay attention.

Dreams are connected to the fundamental need of the human mind to make up stories, to construct narratives that bring order out of the chaos of experience. The memory store of our minds, which is totally inclusive of all our experiences, tries to make a meaningful whole. It connects seemingly bizarre events in an attempt to thread all the disparate parts together. The dreams we have are the result of this sifting process. But why do we dream? What is the function of dreams?

Dreams are a way for our minds to make sense of information and emotions. They are our personal repository of all our experiences, thoughts and actions that reveal what is happening to our psyche. As the dreamer you create the dream from your subjective experiences and you are responsible for its content. Dreams are influenced by your physical condition, too.

Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, used his patients’ dreams as diagnostic tools. Throughout history, dreams have been recorded and used to help us understand the world we live in. In the Bible there are many dreams. One of the most famous is where the Pharaoh dreams of seven fat and seven lean cattle.

When Joseph interprets the dreams he says they represent seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. As a result, grain is stored throughout the seven years of plenty to last for the seven lean years. In doing so they avoid starvation.

In ancient times, prophetic and clairvoyant dreams were highly important. People believed that the gods sent them as a form of guidance or a way of warning of possible dangers. Some would still share this view, whereas others believe that our own higher self or spiritual side is responsible for the dreams.

Dreams transcend space and time; they visit the past and the future as readily as they visit the present. In these altered states of consciousness we may hear wise voices in oracular dreams, or have precognitive dreams that reveal the future. Your dreams can teach you rich lessons that will help you reach your highest potential, and you can explore this world every time you sleep. I hope you enjoy this wonderful journey.

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