Wednesday Writing Essential, 6/20/12, dreams

 [ Instructions for the Wednesday Writing Essential (WWE) Challenge ]

 Write about dreams

 

Ten remarks about dreams:

10. Defined as images in the state of sleep occasioned by rapid eye movement (REM).

       A. I wake up maybe once a week and remember something that went on.

       B. I have the impression that the remembrance of dreams is incomplete,  that is

            to say that not all of the actual dream was recovered.

 

 9. There is a word in French that suggests the dream is a reverie, but mostly it's

      about day dreams, but hints at what goes on in a dream state in which the 

     dreamer is aware of dreaming. Therefore, the dreamer is consciously interacting 

    with the dream and shaping its direction.

 

 8. Dreams are like visions. They can be prophetic, but mostly they are reactions

     to unresolved recent conflicts from the day before. Dream visions in biblical

     literature often are presented as models of precognition, i.e. an awareness of

     some power of interpretation of events that are unfolding. In such cases, the

    dream is presented as a message. Often the message is depicted as a revelation

    of some new understanding of what was once hidden, but now is revealed.*

 

7. If a dream is a message, who or what is the messenger? The ancients suggested

    a divine or an angelic messenger. Modern dream psychology suggests otherwise.

 

6. Sigmund Freud analyzed the dreams of patients and argued that the content of

    dreams used symbols that had a universal meaning. Carl Gustav Jung disagreed, 

   saying the symbols of dreams were more fluid, not so much fixed. What mattered

   was the dreamer's experience and its interpretation. 

 

5. Sometimes dreamers report having reoccuring dreams, deja vu. What causes the

    encore? Is it a basic theme in one's life or is it the sign of an enduring 

   unresolved conflict?

 

4. Sometimes I dream in vivid color, but mostly it's in black and white with

     shades of gray or some highlighted tints.

 

3. I dream more often when the seasons change, i.e. from winter to spring, or

     when storms happen.

 

2. I think that as I've come adept at interpreting the hidden meaning of my

     own dreams,  the less remarkable my dreams have become.

 

1. Yet, I'm anxiously awaiting my next dream. It's like finding a treasure.

    The physicist Paul Davies has written that dreams are not just illusions,

    but may be just as real as the lives we lead in a state of awakened con-

   sciousness. He suggests that dreams and reality are not so different. Both

   are forms of consciousness. Life in the universe, he suggests, has emerged

   as evidence that the universe is becoming aware of itself.**

________________________

*Genesis 20:3; 31:10, 24; Numbers 12:6, 1 Kings 3:5. Some interpretation of dreams--Genesis 41:15-16; Daniel 2:1-3, 28. This is a partial listing. For more, consult a biblical concordance or Bible dictionary.

**See the entry on Paul Davies, the University of Arizona astrophysicist, at www.wikipedia.com or refer to his book, The Mind of God.