riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (07/05/84)
I missed the first part of this discussion, but I thought I would add
one side comment: if you're interested in your dreams but have trouble
remembering them, you might try keeping a dream journal for a while.
The procedure is simple: put a pen and a notepad by your bed, and when
you wake up in the morning, i m m e d i a t e l y jot down what you
remember about your dreams. If you are like me, you will find that
this has two benefits. First of all, you would be surprised how much
your dream recall fades in the first few minutes after waking, or, to
put it the other way, how much more you remember from your dreams when
you are first awake than you think you remembered on later reflection.
Secondly, the very act of thinking about your dream life on a daily
basis will make much more of it come to the surface. I am very bad at
sticking to any program of journal-writing, so my experiments with this
have never lasted more than a couple of weeks at a stretch, but I have
been amazed at the increase of my recollection of dreams even in that
short period of time. Not only do I remember more dreams, but they are
more vivid, more detailed, and retain more of their emotional character
when I am keeping a journal.
The next question is what remembering your dreams will buy you. Some
people wax mystical on this point, but I don't think any mysticism is
necessary for dream work to be a fascinating activity. For one thing,
dreams can simply be beautiful and entertaining -- at times going over
a dream can be like reading a good book or seeing a movie, with the
difference that the dream originates inside y o u . Another point is
that our conscious thoughts represent only the tip of the iceberg of
what goes on in our minds, and dreams are sometimes a way of getting a
peek at the mental activity below the surface. Often in periods of
stress or emotional turmoil, our dreams tell us things about our lives
that we are having trouble consciously admitting. (This can be true
whether or not you want to subscribe to a particular theory of dream
interpretation a la Jung or Freud -- common sense alone can lead you to
an interpretation of many of your own dreams, if not those of other
people.) Finally, dreams are an often untapped source of creativity in
many people -- I first learned of dream work from a cousin of mine, a
poet who constantly mines her dreams for the images that go into her
work.
If you are interested in knowing more about dream work, I'm told that
there are good books and even informal classes on the subject. In
fact, though, you don't have to go to such trouble to enjoy your dream
life more -- simply paying more attention to it (and perhaps keeping a
dream journal) will go a long way.
--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle
--- riddle@ut-sally.{ARPA,UUCP,UTEXAS}