Dr Essay, Research Paper

Dreams The powers of dreams have always been underestimated. There is a whole new world in the sub conscious mind that helps us in a subtle way. In this project you will see how a baby was born because of a dream, how nightmares can be partially good for you, be given a background on dreams in general and details on interpreting your own dreams amongst other things.

Background

Everybody dreams but not everybody can remember them. We usually don’t remember dreams when we suddenly wake up and move about. This happens when you are usually in a rush, when your alarm clock goes off or you are pressured to get up quickly. You remember dreams on such occasions as you lie in on the weekends when you wake up slowly and gradually change from the sub-conscious mind to the conscious mind. This is called lucid dreaming. With this you can take partial control of what happens during a dream. Since you can do this you don’t have to be restricted to do all the things you do in real life but you could do whatever you like because it’s your mind that’s controlling you not your body and gravity. For example, you could fly or walk through walls. The powers of dreams The dreaming world could be a very powerful thing so much so that it causes a baby to be born because of lucid dreaming. In a true story taken from the book called Living with Dreams a woman dreamt that she just had a period in her dreams. This was so realistic that she actually thought she had a real period not one dreamt up in a dream. A few days later she had sex thinking that it was the best time to have sex without becoming pregnant. Two or three weeks she felt something strange was happening and so consulted a doctor who said that she had become pregnant. All this happened just because of a dream. Another dream that caused panic was when a student from university had just completed a project and all he had to do was hand it in the morning. Because he was thinking about this project so much the project became a part of his dreams. In his dreams he had dreamt of handing it in. So the next morning he got up thinking that he had handed in his project and went to university with the project back home. The previous two examples tell us what dreams can make us think and that they can have such an effect on our lives. Interpreting dreams Many people haven’t got the skills of understanding what exactly their dreams mean. For somebody to interpret other people’s dreams they need to know a lot about the person they’re interpreting for as well as the dream itself. To explain this, for example, seeing a elephant might mean totally different things to different people such as a zoo keeper who’ll probably see it as a harmless and a beautiful mammal whilst another person might see the elephant as a ugly, dangerous animal. With this example it tells us that everybody is different and the same dream with a elephant could be differently interpreted to everybody. Because everybody is different, and the same dreams mean different things to different people, books which contain the guide to interpreting dreams cannot be always correct but they could still remain useful to provide a stepping stone to interpreting your own dreams. Examples of interpreted dreams The type of dreams you have relates to the way you are feeling. For example, if you have confusing dreams you will probably feel confused in real life. To show this, here’s a example of a true dream when somebody dreamt of a watermelon eating a pig. Here, the opposite occurs to what would happen in real life. This indicates some confusion from the dreamer. Without this dream being analysed by a professional the dreamer would have thought of it as a funny and useless dream but since it was analysed the expert on dreams knew that the dreamer had a lot of confusion in his life. This was to be later proved because the dreamer admitted that he was having a affair with another woman and didn’t know whether to get a divorce , end the affair or just to continue as it was. A second example that was interpreted was when there was giant talking spider who has gradually taking over a man’s house. This dream was from a man who was having a affair with a woman rather than staying with his wife. The purpose of this dream was to show that the affair had started small and then the relationship had become worse (remember the spider took time to make the web that had covered all the house). A reason he had this dream was to tell him to stop the affair now or the relationship would get too out of hand in the future. This example was bizarre but when it was analysed there was a obvious reason for it. Nightmares Nightmares are the dreams that everyone feels they could do much better without but as with other dreams they have a reason. This will be explained later. When somebody has a nightmare you might have the feelings of being paralysed, being suffocated and/or having another horrible thing. Unlike lucid dreaming you have no choice but to remember the dream. Originally in the Medieval times nightmares were known as a supernatural spirit that came to haunt you in the night. These spirits that haunted you were usually female and this was shown by the word “mare”. They came to suffocate you during your sleep, or so it was thought. Nightmares occur when somebody is under stress or is having problems. In nightmares the victim is usually on his own against the supernatural spirit that’s attacking them. When the person eventually wakes up from the nightmare the person still thinks that they are being attacked. This leaves the person crying for help, trying to get the creature off themselves and gasping for air after suffocation. The person who’s just had the nightmare needs reassurance that everything is okay because they still feel that there’s a unnatural creature ready to get them. In a reoccurring dream a young girl had she found herself in a dark street near her home. When she was there she felt that there are some “things” that were chasing her, this made her panic and run away. The problem for the girl was that the further she ran away and the faster she ran she always had the sense that some “things” were chasing her. Whatever the girl did she felt that the “things” were chasing her no matter what happened. She woke up at the point of the nightmare when she had run as far as she could and it was physically impossible for her to run further. When she woke up she cried for help, was soaking wet from her own sweat and was exhausted. The girl had tried to forget all about the nightmares but this was impossible because it had kept the girl awake most nights. The same nightmare had continued to occur with the girl because she did think about the reason the dream had happened. In the end the girl told somebody about these dreams and admitted that the “things” that had chased her were her feelings towards her mother. She had these horrible feelings towards her mother because her mother never congratulated her and gave her praise. Even from this example of a nightmare it showed us that the purpose of the nightmare being repeated night after night was to force the girl to get all her feeling out into the open about her mother. After the girl had shared her experiences she no longer had nightmares. I feel that dreams are a part of our life that should take more notice of. The powers of dreams have been expressed by the two examples of dreams you have read, showing how a woman got pregnant because of dreams and how somebody forgot to hand in a vital project. Dreams can give us clues about how we are feeling and what the future will be like. It should be known that even the most feared kind of dream, nightmares, cure problems and not cause them. It takes the job of a trained dream interpreter to find out the true meanings of life. To conclude I feel that the sub-conscious is too powerful to be ignored.

Bibliography Edgar Cayce On Dreams by Dr. Harmon H Bro and edited by Hugh Lynn Cayce. Published in 1989 by The Aquarian Press Living with Dreams by Dr. Roderick Peters. Published in 1990 by Andre Deutsh Limited

Dreaming: Function And Meaning

Why do we have dreams and what do they mean? These questions have

for centuries been the subject of a debate that has recently become the

center of a heated controversy. In one camp we have a number of prominent

scientists who argue that we dream for physiological reasons alone and that

dreams are essentially mental nonsense devoid of psychological meaning: A

tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” The

idea that dreams are nothing more than “meaningless biology” sounds absurd

and rather blasphemous to the opposing camp, a coalition of Freudians and

other dream workers committed to the view that we dream for psychological

reasons and that dreams always contain important information about the self

or some aspects of one’s life which can be extracted hy various methods of

interpretation. This camp takes its credo from the Talmudic aphorism that

“and uninterpreted dream is like an unopened letter.” There is also a third

camp occupying tltL middle ground, that believes both

of the extreme positions on the function and meaning of dreams to be

partly right and partly wrong. Its proponents argue that dreams may have

both physiological and psychological determinants, and therefore can be

either meaningful or meaningless, varying greatly in terms of psychological

significance.

What is a nightmare?

A nightmare is a very distressing dream which usually forces at leastpartial awakening. The dreamer may feel any number of disturbing emotions in a nightmare, such as anger, guilt, sadness or depression, but the most common feelings are fear and anxiety. Nightmare themes may vary widely from person to person and from time to time for any one person. Probably the most common theme is being chased. Adults are commonly chased by an unknown male figure whereas children are commonly chased by an animal or some fantasy figure.

Who has nightmares?

Just about everyone has them at one time or another. The majority of

children have nightmares between the ages of three or four and seven or

eight. These nightmares appear to be a part of normal development, and do

not generally signal unusual problems. Nightmares are less common in adults,

though studies have shown that they too may have nightmares from time to

time. About 5-10% have nightmares once a month or more frequently.

What causes nightmares?

There are a number of possibilities. Some nightmares can be caused

by certain drugs or medications, or by rapid withdrawal from them, or by

physical conditions such as illness and fever. The nightmares of early

childhood likely reflect the struggle to learn to deal with normal

childhood fears and problems. Many people experience nightmares after they

have suffered a traumatic event, such as surgery, the loss of a loved one,

an assault or a severe accident. The nightmares of combat veterans fall

into this category. The content of these nightmares is typically directly

related to the traumatic event and the nightmares often occur over and over.

Other people experience nightmares when they are undergoing stress in their

waking lives, such as difficulty or change on the job or with a loved one,

moving, pregnancy, financial concerns, etc. Finally, some people experience

frequent nightmares that seem unrelated to their waking lives. These people

tend to be more creative, sensitive, trusting and emotional than average.

What can be done about nightmares?

It really depends on the source of the nightmare. To rule out drugs,

medications or illness as a cause, discussion with a physician is

recommended. It is useful to encourage young children to discuss their

nightmares with their parents or other adults, but they generally do not

need treatment. If a child is suffering from recurrent or very disturbing

nightmares, the aid of a therapist may be required. The therapist may have

the child draw the nightmare, talk with the frightening characters, or

fantasize changes in the nightmare, in order help the child feel safer and

less frightened.

The nightmares which repeat a traumatic event reflect a normal

psychic healing process, and will diminish in frequency and intensity if

recovery is progressing. If after several weeks no change is noted,

consultation with a therapist is advisable.

Night terrors

Night terrors are something quite different. Nightmares tend to

occur after several hours of sleep, screaming or moving about is very

uncommon, the dream is usually elaborate and intense, and the dreamer

realizes soon after wakening that he or she has had a dream. Night terrors,

on the other hand, occur during the first hour or two of sleep, loud

screaming and thrashing about are common, the sleeper is hard to awaken and

usually remembers no more than an overwhelming feeling or a single scene,

if anything. Nightmares and night terrors arise from different

physiological stages of sleep. Children who have night terrors also may

have a tendency to sleepwalk and/or urinate in bed. The causes of night

terrors are not well understood. Children usually stop having them by

puberty. They may be associated with stress in adults. A consultation with

a physician may be useful if the night terrors are frequent or especially

disturbing.

How To Remember Your Dreams

Getting plenty of sleep is the first step to good dream recall. Ifyou are rested it will be easier to focus on your goal of recalling dreams,and you won’t mind so much taking the time during the night torecord yourdreams. Another benefit of getting plenty of sleep is that dream periodsget longer and closer together as the night proceeds. The first dream ofthe night is the shortest, perhaps 10 minutes in length, while after 8hours of sleep, dream periods can be 45 minutes to an hour long. We alldream every night, about one dream period every 90 minutes. People who saythey never dream simply never remember their dreams. You may have more thanone dream during a REM (dream) period, separated by short arousals that are

most often forgotten. It is generally accepted among sleep researchers that

dreams are not recalled unless the sleeper awakens directly from the dream,

rather than after going on to other stages of sleep.

It can be useful while you are developing your dream recall to keep

a complete dream journal. Keep the journal handy by your bed and record

every dream you remember, no matter how fragmentary. Start by writing down

all your dreams, not just the complete, coherent, or interesting ones–even

if all you remember is a face or a room, write it down.

When you awaken in the night and recall what you were dreaming,

record the dream right away. If you don’t, in the morning you may find you

remember nothing about the dream, and you will certainly have forgotten

many interesting details. We seem to have built-in dream erasers in our

minds, which make dream expenences more difficult to recall than waking

ones. So, whenever you remember a dream, write it down. If you don’t feel

like writing out a long dream story at 3 AM, note down key points of the

plot. Also write down the precise content of any dialogue from the dream,

because words will almost inevitably be forgotten in a very short time.