THOUGHTS

November 22, 2011


Dear Dreamers:


I haven't been able to remember enough significant parts of my dreams for the past few days, so I thought I'd write instead about dreams...


According to A Dictionary of Dream Symbols, with introduction by Eric Ackroyd,   a dream not only appears within the context of an ever-continuing series of dreams; it also occurs within the context of your life as a whole -- your family life, your work, your love - (and hate) life.  Your dreams reflect your deepest emotional responses to your waking life experiences.  It follows, therefore, that a correct interpretation of your dreams will only be possible if they are viewed in the context of your outward life.


This obviously includes what is happening to you now, the situation you are in now, your present problems, ambitions, fears and so on.  It may also include, however, the whole or any part of your past life. Your most deeply seated attitudes, hatreds, prejudices, habits, fears, guilt-feelings and pains of all kinds may stem from experiences in your early life.  Wordsworth's "The child is father of the man" is full of truth:  the adult personality is largely conditioned by childhood experiences or, more precisely, by the emotional impact of those experiences on the child.  And what doesn't come from childhood comes from traumatic experiences in our later life:  the present state of our psyche is the result of our emotional self's reactions to the experiences and situations that life has thrown at us.


What this means is that a correct and useful interpretation of your dreams requires a full awareness and understanding of what is happening to you now and what has happened to you in the past.


It may be true that the present condition of your psyche, and consequently the present circumstances of your life, have been shaped more by emotional reactions to events than by intelligent and objective decision-making on your part.  What is equally true, however, is that you can at any time take control of your life and begin to determine your own future.  Your dreams will help here.  They can tell you what has been going on inside you so far, and they can also tell you what you need to do or stop doing in order to achieve greater happiness in the future.  Through your dreams, your unconscious will tell you what you need.  The rest is up to you, your conscious self.


To be continued...


Til next time...
Happy dreaming!


Bev