Seminar: Dreams

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Dreams

An Adult Education Seminar

By Rev. Tom Reiber

April 22, 2001

[ basic skills | mandala | further study ]

Psychology literally means “the study of psyche.” Psyche originally meant “soul.” Depth psychology, then, is in essence the study of the soul. Broadly conceived, depth psychology is that branch of psychology that places a special emphasis on the unconscious dimension of human experience. Depth psychologists argue that our modern emphasis on reason has cut us off from the soul and its wisdom, resulting in a collective loss of meaning. Through emphasizing the irrational, unconscious dimension of the psyche, depth psychologists invite us to journey down to those places where we can still hear the voice of God.

One distinctive aspect of an educational session on dreams is that, unlike most other topics, when we're done with this one the subject matter—your dreams—will keep appearing of their own volition. That has influenced the way I've organized today's presentation. My goal is to enhance you're overall relationship to your dreams so that instead of throwing up your hands in bewilderment, you'll be able to begin a dialogue that will take you deeper into your spiritual and psychological depths.

To get a taste of The Forgotten Language of dreams, I'd like to suggest an analogy. The consciousness is to the unconscious like Summit is to New York City. Compare the two cities in your mind for a minute. Think of the number of people here in Summit, the number of cars, the overall energy level of the city. Now compare that to New York City. That's very much like the relationship between our conscious minds and the unconscious. The latter is far more vast and multi-layered; there is more going on; it's less censured, less restrained, more diverse, more exaggerated, and yes, more dangerous. Can you imagine living in Summit and not knowing that New York City is just forty-five minutes away by train. Imagine not even knowing about the train. That's what life is like for people who have yet to discover the power of dreams. Dreams are your very own midnight express, destined to take you to new and exciting regions within.

Some Basic Skills
For Working With Dreams

DON'T GET DISCOURAGED BY BIZARRE IMAGES: Dreams often contain bizarre combinations of images that make no sense whatsoever to our rational (i.e., conscious) minds. That's why more often than not we dismiss our dreams as nonsense. “That was weird.” End of story. So the first pitfall to avoid is right at the outset. To avoid getting discouraged, give yourself ample distance to step back from the literal images in order to see the broader, symbolic meaning. Say, for example, a friend says, “I had the strangest dream last night. I was juggling Oreos on a Ferris wheel.” The natural response would be to laugh and say something like, “Wow, weird.” But by taking the symbolism seriously, you might think to ask: “Do you feel like you're juggling too much these days?” You're not getting all bogged down in the meaning of oreos or Ferris wheels; you're taking the broad symbolic meaning and relating it to life.

TRY TAKING EVERY CHARACTER AS PART OF YOU: Though this won't work for every dream, it's one of the most helpful suggestions you'll come across. Your dreams are, after all, your dreams, so it only makes sense that most of them are going to be commenting on your life situation. Let's say, for example, that you dream you're running a race and you come upon a water station. You see someone holding out a cup. You grab it and try to drink, only to find it's empty. Upon awakening you might want to ask yourself what kind of job you're doing with basic self-care. Are you pushing yourself at work? Are you getting enough sleep? In other words, the part of you that normally gets you motivated to take care of yourself isn't doing his/her job.

A COMMON THEME: Though I tend to be fairly skeptical of most dream dictionaries, there are general themes that come up again and again. Most of us get chased or threatened in our dreams. The monster or boogie man in our dreams often represents a part of ourselves we are afraid to face. That tiger trying to claw its way inside the door we're holding shut just might be our own repressed anger.

A USEFUL CONCEPT: A similar idea relates to what Jungian analysts call the Shadow. The term “Shadow” represents many things, including those aspects of ourselves we'd rather not accept. Some of you might remember the sermon in which I talked about a dream that helped me in uncover my racism (“My White Friend Sue”). In the dream:

I'm running down a sidewalk at night and see an African American man with his back to me. As I approach I realize the sound of my footsteps might startle him, so I raise my hands to show I'm harmless. But then the dream cuts to me returning home. I've just killed a man. I have a gun in my hand and realize I need to hide it.

TIMES OF TRANSITION: Times of major transition often elicit significant dreams. I had the following dream not long after starting here at Christ Church.

Dreamed I was to be shot out of a cannon at a carnival. The people in charge had me audition by running and leaping up against a padded wall, falling to the ground. I did fine in practice, but it was now time for the real thing.

Someone remarked that the cannon shot you so forcefully you folded over involuntarily, causing me to worry that I might injure my back. My sense was the cannon shot you with great force, so that you were pretty much helpless in mid-air up until you hit the padded wall. At that point you had to be careful not to fall on your head (breaking your neck). I took a look at the cannon close up, walking over to where the small crowd was seated in makeshift bleachers. Seeing the apparatus didn't impress me one way or the other, though the reality of it heightened my anxiety of the imminent explosion.

SPIRITUAL DREAMS: I would be remiss in my remarks here today if I failed to say a word or two about the spiritual dimension of dreams. For me it almost goes without saying that dreams are fundamentally spiritual in nature. Of course some dreams are more “spiritual” than others. The other day I lost my car keys. My wife and I turned the house upside down and still couldn't find them. During that time I had a dream in which I found them in my jeans. Sure enough, that's where they turned out to be (on a shelf in a closet, in my jeans). Now, is that deeply spiritual? No, nor are the dreams that tell you you need to get up to go to the bathroom. Dreams are intimately bound up with our bodies and hence speak to and about various levels of our existence. Sometimes it's the biological level; sometimes, though, they are the breath of the Spirit.

The German writer Hermann Hesse took his dreams very seriously. One of the first literary masters to incorporate the insights of psychoanalysis, Hesse's body of work and his life story is indelibly stamped with Spirit. Hesse is probably best known for Siddhartha, which tells the story of a young disciple of the Buddha's on a quest for enlightenment. Brought up in India by Pietist parents whose own parents had been missionaries, Hesse visited India as an adult. Though his outer experience of India—i.e., the trip itself—proved disappointing, a dream he had on the voyage gave him the revelation he was searching for. At the dream's staggering climax:

“…I rose [still in the dream] and opened my eyes. They were all around me, …all human faces I had ever seen in my life. They looked straight ahead, with moved, beautiful glances, and I too looked and before us a thousand-year-old grove opened up, eternity rustled from the heights of treetops that reached to the heavens and deep in the night of holy shadows gleamed, golden, an ancient gate of the temple. Thereupon we all fell on our knees; our longing was satisfied and our journey was at an end. We closed our eyes and bowed down deep, and touched the earth with our foreheads, … again and again in rhythmic devotion… (as found in Ralph Freedman's Hesse: Pilgrim of Crisis).

I'll add to that a spiritual dream of my own, saying by way of preface only that it's dreams such as this one that have restored my faith in the transcendent dimensions of reality.

I'm looking at a candelabra with seven or eight votive candles in two rows, one above the other. They aren't burning at the moment. I'm hearing words describing the candelabra as if I'm reading a book. I think to myself that the author is Hesse, because the words are deep and beautiful. The text is about listening to the burning of candles as a meditative act. The text said something about listening so carefully so as to hear the lighting of other candles above the burning of the ones already lit. I get the impression it's talking about a very intense watchfulness, a disciplined focusing of all one's spiritual energies.

Then the image of the candle transforms into a breathtakingly beautiful coastal scene. I am overjoyed and thankful to be seeing the sheer beauty of it. It's the sea, yet up close it's like a river. In the distance the water is a deep, sparkling blue; up close it's an opaque green. Looks cold. I'm wishing I had a jet-ski so I could take off over the surface of the water and enter the beautiful scenery that's extending out in front of me. But I sense jet-skis wouldn't be allowed in this area, ‘cause it's so pristine, like a national park.

Then someone is talking to me about the fishermen who come out at night when the fish are sleeping. She tells me this in disapproving voice, implying the fish shouldn't be disturbed. As the person tells me this I look into a cave-like area the river flows into, seeing a huge gold fish beneath the surface of the water. There's also what appears to be a large snowflake or crystal on the surface of the water, giving the impression it's near freezing.

Well, that's all the time we've got left. I'd like to close by quoting from a Buddhist text the spirit of which is apropos to the subject at hand. I stumbled across it in a journal of Thomas Merton's:

“The disciple, blindfolded, is led to the east gate of the prepared mandala. Blindfolded, he casts a flower on the mandala. The flower will find his way for him into the palace. Follow your flower.”

And to that I would add only:

…follow your dreams, the flowering images

rising up from the mandala of the unconscious.

Resources for Further Study on Dreams

Books mentioned in the seminar on Dreams (links below take you to Amazon.com or BarnesAndNoble.com)

Johnson, Robert. Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth (San Francisco: Harpers, 1989). A user-friendly introductory text with lots of practical suggestions written by a seasoned Jungian Analyst.

Johnson, Robert. Balancing Heaven and Earth: a Memoir of Dreams, Visions and Realizations (San Francisco: Harper, 1998). Among a host of other fascinating material contained in Johnson's spiritual autobiography, is his dream about the death of the Buddha, one of the most beautiful dreams ever recorded. It was this dream that prompted Jung to tell Johnson the unconscious was claiming him, and he'd either have to devote himself to it or be destroyed. This book tells the story of Johnson's ensuing lifelong devotion.

Erich Fromm. The Forgotten Language: an Introduction to the Understanding of Dreams, Fairy Tales and Myths. A dusty but trusty gem. A very good overview of the major schools of depth psychology in relation to dreams.

Freedman, Ralph. Hesse: Pilgrim of Crisis (New York: Fromm International Publishing Corp., 1997). A superb Hesse biography containing his dream of the ancient grove (which he had while traveling in India).

Hesse, Hermann. Siddhartha (New York: Doubleday, 1971). Hesse's classic tale of a young monk's quest for enlightenment. A beautiful and profound story guaranteed to stir the depths of the psyche.

Kelsey, Morton T. God Dreams and Revelation: A Christian Interpretation of Dreams (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1968, 1974). This was mentioned in the question and answer session as a good resource with which to study the dreams mentioned in the Bible. Originally titled Dreams: the Dark Speech of the Spirit.

Merton, Thomas. The Other Side of the Mountain: The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume Seven, The End of the Journey (San Francisco, HarperSanFrancisco, 1998). The session's closing image of the flower thrown onto the mandala is found here (p. 241).

For Further Reading:

Jung, C. G. Memories, Dreams, Reflections (New York: Vintage Books, 1961). Jung's autobiography, hailed as a classic for good reason.

Stevens, Anthony. Archetypes: A Natural History of the Self (New York: Quill, 1983). This is a good book for those curious about Jung's concept of the archetype. Scientific types will appreciate the research/empirical approach.

Ulanov, Ann & Barry. Religion and the Unconscious (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1975). An excellent—nearly exhaustive—survey of psychology's relevance for religion (and history, ethics, etc.).

Clift, Wallace B. Jung and Christianity: The Challenge of Reconciliation (New York: Crossroad, 1982). Less ambitious in scope than the Ulanov book mentioned above, Clift does a very good job integrating depth psychology and Christianity. The Ulanovs tend to be more scholarly. Though bright and well versed, Clift is more practical and to the point. If you find you like him, you'll probably also like John Sanford's books (The Kingdom Within, etc.). Sanford, like Clift, is an Episcopal Priest and trained Jungian Analyst.

Ulanov, Ann & Barry. Primary Speech: A Psychology of Prayer (Atlanta: John KnoxPress, 1982). Applies the insights of depth psychology to the practice of prayer.

Campbell, Joseph. The Hero With a Thousand Faces (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1949). Excellent primer for working with myths and religious symbolism.

Hesse, Hermann. Journey to the East (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1956). Translated from the German by Hildna Rosner. One of Hesse's shorter novels. Agood read.

Aziz, Robert. C. G. Jung's Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity (Albany: State University of New York, 1991). Takes Jung's scattered and at timescontradictory insights regarding synchronicity and lays them out in a graspable, systemic manner. One of the best books—if not the best—on synchronicityyou will find.

Progoff, Ira. Jung, Synchronicity and Human Destiny: C. G. Jung's Theory of Meaningful Coincidence (New York: Julian Press, 1973). Another good overview of synchronicity—or, how to view life as a waking dream.

Neumann, Erich. Depth Psychology and the New Ethic (G. P. Putnam's Sons, Inc., 1969). Translated from the German by Eugene Rolfe. A much neglected classic, this text (by Jung's close collaborator and Jewish colleague) attempts to apply the insights of depth psychology to the Holocaust and the problem of evil.