The Unconscious Mind Takes Over

        What purpose do dreams serve? Do they play an “adaptive role" in the maintenance of our bodily or psychological health? Do they truly express our secret desires? After decades of research and recent develop, the question now is, do dreams serve any purpose at all, and if so, what do they mean? Sigmund Freud believed that dreams were full of hidden meanings. He theorized that dreams were insights into one’s unconscious mind; they were the revelation of past traumatic experiences and the exposure of one’s secret desires. Carl Jung, an early follower of Freud who broke away to develop a very different theory, claimed that the function of dreams is to compensate for those parts of the psyche (total personality) that are underdeveloped in waking life. However a study done by Calvin Hall's two-week dream series from students and longer dream journals from adults of all ages, strongly suggest that dream content is continuous with our waking thought and behavior. Some clinical psychologists interpret dreams to signal a repressed memory of abuse; For example, a dream consisting of water may mean that one was sexually abused in a bathing suit.

      Since the beginning of time people have been trying to “decode” their dreams. To do so, they seek advice and information from the findings and experiments of researchers and dream theorists, as wells as the information in “dream meaning” books and online websites. From research of my own and taking many psychology classes, I have learned that when REM sleep was first discovered, many theorists and scientists believed that dreams only occurred during that stage. However, we now know that dreams can occurs during any of the four stages of sleep, but the most vivid dreams occur in the last stage (REM). I have also learned that a person can have multiple dreams a night; the average sleep cycle consists of four stages and lasts about 90-120 minutes. Therefore, it is very common for a person to have several different dreams in one night.

      My point of view on dreams agrees with that of Freud’s. I believe that dreams are full of hidden meanings and that they are insights into a person’s unconscious mind. I think the meaning of each dream varies and that it is not fair to say that a dream about water represents a suppressed memory of being sexually abused in a bathing suit.  After reading about dreams, I would like to do some research on why people have reoccurring dreams and how is it possible to do so. Dreaming is fascinating; it’s a unique and creative side to every individual and is not the same in any two persons. I wonder if future research will continue to hypothesize and prove that dreams potentially have no meaning.

      

-Meghan Jirkovsky

DREAM ON.......

Since I was a small child  my mother would comment on her dreams or on  our dreams and give her opinion on certain ones.  She was not necessarily a believer in dreams, or zodiac or  any superstition.  However, if I or anyone else ever said they had a dream about someone that had already died, my mother would say they need prayers.  The dream about  someone dying signified that there would be a birth and likewise if you had a dream that someone was going to have a baby that meant  someone would die.  The information was relayed as simply that the possibility  of this meaning was there.  My mother now 80 years old lives with me and she had a dream about her aunt that passed over 30 years ago.  Her response was " why is she coming to me in my sleep now?  I hope that she is alright and that she is with God."
According to the dream dictionary on the website http://meaningofdreams.org/dream_dictionary/dead_people.htm  

"To dream of dead people shows that they still have a strong influence on your life, that they are part of your psychology. Sometimes dreaming of people that have passed away can also be caused by thoughts or feelings you are having about death in waking life."  This gives a very general explanation and certainly explains that this person has been in your mind.  Well if you know them,  then surely they are a memory.  This generalization however does not really mean a thing.  Anyone can use this interpretation to fit the dream.  Most of the sites give a general idea and then also include another general idea that the reader will most likely make more specific to fit their own life.  There are numerous sites that will take your money and interpret your dream for a fee.  Have your credit card ready and you can find out in three easy steps what the experts will interpret your dream to mean.  Lucid dreams  will tell you all you need to know and the science behind them.  I looked and did not find anything scientific about dreams or how their experts could be or have been tested.  The video and reference to Brian in chapter 7 who claims to dream all the time and that 84% percent of them are accurate also gives reasons as to why we believe or want to believe.  The ambiguous meaning and the lack of comparison that Brian and others fail to supply or the "seek and you shall find" problem which is when certain words lead us to find what we are looking for but do not  truly give specific results to our search, only helps these sites to make money from the desire of people to find answers even if they must over look common sense.  Look at the advertisements on these sites and as you scroll over CNN you may think it is a link to take you to a reliable source,  if you trust CNN,  when in reality it will take you to another website that will gladly take that credit card number again and tell you exactly what you want to hear!

The meaning of Dreams

For as long as time can tell humanity has always tried to interpret dreams. In the bible there are scriptures that speak of dreams and visions. The story of Joseph the dreamer is an example of people who interpret dreams. There were men in charge of interpreting dreams they were know as wise men.

My grand mother believes that her dreams have a meaning and a way of telling her certain things. If she saw someone in her dreams: that could possibly mean that good fortune will soon come or some unfortunate event will happen to them.

Psychologists say that dreams signal-repressed memories. Florence false interpretation study shows that psychologists can make people recall events that never happened due to false dream interpretation. (Dream Lecture)

There are many websites and books that are designed to provide glossaries for meaning of certain things. Dreammoods.com