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The Oddity of Dreams / Study with amnesiacs suggests how brain uses various types of memories

October 23, 2000 By Bryn Nelson. STAFF WRITER  

IF PEOPLE CAN’T recall a recent event, will they still

dream about it? According to a new study, the answer-a surprising yes-is

raising a slew of questions about where dreams come from, what they mean and

what role they play in learning and memory…. Read the full article here

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In addition, as a dream analyst you are just that, a DREAM analyst. You are not a psychoanalyst, and therefore are not interested in the circumstances surrounding the dream. You are helping to interpret the dream itself; and your focus should remain on that. If you take a person’s circumstances with you into the dream interpretation, you will have preconceived ideas of what the dream means. This is never a good way to start.

Images: Mental representations of objects or persons not physically present. We create them in our unconscious so that we have an inner mental picture of those things that evoke an emotional response. Our images are internalized in infancy, when we experience the world through our five senses, and attach meaning to things that satisfy our senses.

Symbols:               An object that stands for something else. Not only dreams, but everyday life is rife with symbols (traffic signs, wedding rings, etc.)

Universal Symbols:  Symbols that are rooted to the experiences of all humankind, and therefore are common to everyone, regardless of sex, age, nationality, etc. Listed below of some of the most common universal symbols:

House:                   Self

Weather:              Condition of one’s life.

Water:                   The emotions/unconscious

Time of Day:       The time of one’s life or one’s frame of mind (morning = youth = optimism)

What if none of the universal meanings seem to click for a symbol, and it has you stumped on a personal level as well? There is an easy and enlightening way to discover a dream symbol’s meaning. Have a conversation with it, in your dream journal. The symbol may hold meaning not only for that particular dream, but for your whole life as well. Allow yourself to feel the personality of the symbol. Write in an uninhibited fashion. Let the symbol communicate with you as you imagine it would. Do not let yourself form opinions about what you are saying as you are writing it.

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Incubation Instructions

·                     While lying in bed relaxed, think about the problem you wish to have answered. Even work on it a little in your mind. Try to figure out what it is you really want. What obstacles are stopping you? What has worked and what hasn’t worked?

·                     Formulate a single, precise, clear question.

·                     Write the question on a piece of paper and place it under your pillow.

·                     As you are falling asleep, repeat the question to yourself and ask that it be answered in your dreams

·                     Record all your dreams that night in your dream journal immediately after each dream.

Aside from the above instructions, you may want to keep the following in mind.

·         Are you really ready to receive the answer?

·         Choose the right night. Make sure you’re not too tired, have had no alcoholic beverages, and you will have time in the morning to take notes.

·         Make sure you fill in your dream journal completely before bed including daynotes, feelings, dream question.

You can use the above method for just about any purpose.

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Freudian and Iroquois dream beliefs run surprisingly parallel – both were convinced that forbidden wishes were expressed in disguised form in dreams, and if those wishes weren’t satisfied, the mind would punish the body through physical ailments (a.k.a., psychosomatic illness).

That is where Freudian and Iroquois beliefs diverge, however. The Iroquois were not satisfied with just dream interpretation – they advocated actually acting out your dream during your waking hours, no matter how bizarre or otherwise socially unacceptable that would be. For instance, if one lived in Iroquois Society, it would have been perfectly acceptable for a person to parade around nude with a pig tied to his back if he had a dream about it the night before. In our culture, such an enthusiast would reach Bellevue before a higher plane of self understanding.

Make Dreams Come True (Less the Strapped Swine)

Obviously, acting out a good portion of our dreams would land us in jail, or, at the very least, in hot water with our parents or spouses. However, when chosen selectively, certain dreams lend themselves very well to acting out.

A dream that offers an answer to a confounding predicament, or one in which you find your way around a blockage will bear constructive results when acted out. If you find acting out a dream is not as simple as it sounds, working with a group will often yield exceptional results.

Acting Out Dreams with a Group

When acting out dreams with a group, you must be even more cautious about which dreams to use. Good sense dictates that a dream should not be chosen if it could be harmful to another group member. While using other dreamwork therapies, it is often preferable to study dreams that feature great details and a good number of scenes. In this case, you will want to avoid dreams that have an innumerable number of characters.

1.                   The dreamer recounts the entire dream.

2.                   The group members take turns asking clarifying questions.

3.                   The dreamer assigns each group member a role as a character or element.

4.                   The dream is enacted with the dreamer as himself.

5.                   The dreamer has dialogue with the characters as he chooses, even changing the ending. After the dream has been acted out, everyone should discuss their feelings about the performance. In this way, the dreamer can glean new insights into his own dream.

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Night Terrors afflict primarily children. Unlike most other dreams, they occur during the non-REM sleep stages, and are very brief; usually consisting of a single scene. The child awakes screaming, but does not remember what scared him. Naturally, night terrors can be very traumatic to a child. Thankfully, most children outgrow them.

Nightmares cause anxiety severe enough to awaken the dreamer in distress. The dreamer has clear, detailed recollection of the scary dream, which is usually of some length (15 – 20 minutes is the average). Common nightmare themes include falling, drowning, being chased, and getting lost.

Bad Dreams are the most common type of frightening dreams.  Not scary enough to leave you crying or shaking, but certainly quite disturbing. Examples would include being nude in public, having to take a test for which you are unprepared, or hurting someone else. It is worth mentioning here that often physical illness that is not yet apparent to you or your doctors will show up in a bad dream. Be on the look out for, say, dreams of a house with a broken furnace (gastrointestinal problems) or a car with busted headlights (glaucoma or cataracts). Anything that seems somehow to represent a physical problem may be worth checking out, particularly if it is recurring. Of course, any blatant, anxiety-causing dreams of your being ill warrants a check-up.

The best way to deal with a nightmare is to turn it into a lucid dream, or to re-enter the dream. In those ways, you can not only change the ending to a better one, you can confront your fears head on and banish them. Sometimes just making the decision to “kick some nocturnal butt” is enough to narrow the point spread in your favor. Another way to go from underdog to top dog is to turn a dream foe into a friend through conversation. That dream act can bolster your self-worth in your waking life. The  Senoi actively fought their demons in their dreams.

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It has been proven that all of us dream.   Many people mistakenly insist that they do not because they have no recollection of dreaming.  There are several common reasons why dreams are not remembered:

• Especially traumatic dreams from childhood may block adult recollection of dreams.
• We don’t want to acknowledge unpleasant aspects of ourselves or experience painful dream feelings.
• Very deep sleepers often have problems remembering dreams. This is because it takes these people a long time to become fully awake, and our most productive dreaming is done just before waking up. By the time they are awake enough to remember a dream, they can’t.

The Recall Checklist

• Keep a dream journal by your bed
• Record the daily information before going to bed (date, daily occurrences, etc.)
• Upon awakening, write whatever is on your mind
• Write even brief segments of dreams, This may trigger more recall
• Concentrate on your feelings upon awakening
• Move slowly into the dream position to re-trigger the dream
• If you must use an alarm, use the alarm, not the radio
• Set the alarm for the middle of the night. It may wake you during or after a dream
• Drink a lot of water before bed. This may wake you in the night during a dream
• Stay relaxed, patient, and persistent
• Take a midday nap. You may dream during it.
• Use your dream journal every day to let your mind know you want to remember

The Incubation Method for Better Recall

During the hypnogogic state, that suggestible time between wakefulness and sleep, tell yourself repeatedly “I will remember my dreams when I wake up.”

Also try:

• Setting your alarm 30 – 60 minutes early to catch those important dreams during that productive early-morning dreaming period.
• If you awake sensing you just had a dream, but can’t remember what it is, go back to the position you were in when you had the dream, relax and drift back into a dream-like state. Try to immerse yourself in the feelings and images you had when you first awoke.
• Call up images of the important people in your life one by one. One of them might have been in your dream and will, hence, trigger a memory.
• If you are drowsy and relaxed, but still can’t remember that dream, invent one while in this close-to-the-unconscious state. The dream exercises will also work with the made-up dream.

 If all of the above suggestions fail, stop trying for a while. Once you take the pressure to remember off yourself; you may be more successful. After a few weeks, try the incubation method again.

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REM Sleep - In 1953, REM (Rapid Eye Movements) were observed, and it was finally proven that everyone dreams, even if they don’t remember it. During periods of REM sleep, dreamer’s eyes move back and forth, as if watching a movie. That is not surprising, since dreams are mostly a visual experience. It is interesting to note that in blind persons, even those who were not blind from birth, dreams are made up of other sensory experiences. During an average night, a person’s mind cycles through a 90-minute pattern of REM and non-REM sleep five or six times. Toward morning, the amount of REM sleep increases.

Paralysis and Light Sleep - During certain phases of sleep, muscular reflexes in the limbs disappear. Occasionally, this unconscious knowledge makes itself known in a dream where the dreamer is paralyzed. Often the dreamer awakens to find they, indeed, are unable to move. This is, of course, only temporary. Reflexes return almost immediately.

The Curb Jerk - A myoclonic jerk is a sudden leg contraction that occurs during light sleep. This muscle spasm is exactly what happens when we step off a curb. We wake up suddenly with the feeling we’ve done just that – tripped off a curb and almost fallen.

The Falling Syndrome - The terms “falling asleep” and “dropping off to sleep” have their roots in very real sensations. When first going to sleep, we sometimes we feel as though we are falling through space (not to be confused with flying, which is associated with excitement). This is due to the conscious mind sensing an altered state of awareness.

False Awakenings - This is dreaming that you are awake. This is very common. In the morning, the false awakening often seems quite real, and you can not tell for certain whether you actually woke up during the night or not.

Sleep Walking and Talking - Sleepwalking is also known as somnambulism.  It occurs when the action in a dream is actually carried out. This occurs much more often in children, only because they are less self-conscious and more nimble. Adults usually sleepwalk only when they are worried about something or are ill. Sleep-talking is when the conversation in a dream is carried out aloud. It is possible for a person to talk with a sleep-talking person, but the responses received may not make sense.

Recurrent Dreams and Serial Dreams - are similar, but not quite the same. A recurring dream is having the same dream continually, while a serial dream is a series of different dreams that are based upon a common story line or possibly a continuation.

Telepathy and Teleportation - Telepathic dreams are those in which “news” (happy or sad) is transported to you in a dream before you are informed through more conventional means. Teleportation is when the dreamer is actually seen (either in a dream or as a ghostly vision) by the person they are dreaming of.

Flying Dreams - Seventy percent of persons have experienced this, but experts are at a loss to explain the mechanism supporting it. Some say this reflects ancestral memory when, according to Darwin, our ancestors were birds. Physics maintain that dreams of flying are astral-projection, a state in which our spirits leave our bodies and fly free.

Prophetic Dreams and Premonitions - The difference between a prophecy and premonition is that a prophecy is made about something the prophet had some degree of knowledge about, no matter how little or far removed. In a premonition, the person could not have had any knowledge whatsoever about the subject of the premonition. Premonitions are only called premonitions when they have actually come true.

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