Disclosure: Revealing the Unconscious

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Revealing the Unconscious

DISCLOSURE

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DISCLOSURE

Revealing the Unconscious


Disclosure: Revealing the Unconscious Published by Phaidon Mailing Address: 79 New Montgomery St. San Francisco, CA 94105 USA Website: www.phaidon.com Copyright Š 2015 Phaidon

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the author, except for purposed of review where brief passages of text may be quoted. Edition 1 of 1 Printed in San Francisco, CA


Dedicated to the Ones I Miss



›› CONTENTS 01—

INTERCONNECTED 1.1 1.2 1.3

Cerebral Cortex Cycles of Consciousness Conscious Analysis

02—

03—

TRANSLATION 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5

INTERPRETATION 3.1 3.2 3.3

Retrospective Common Dreams Introspective

Pyscho Science Metaphorical Imagination Collective Language Case Study: X Case Study: Y


›› INTRODUCTION “I feel there’s a power in theatre, but it’s an indirect power. It’s like the relationship of the sleeper to the unconscious. You discover things you can’t afford to countenance in waking life. You can forget them, remember them a day later or not have any idea what they are about.” — Tony Kushner Each day we go on a journey through physical time and space. As well as each night we travel through time, space and questionable reality. We experience an entire world in the matter of a few hours, however the majority of those night we awake to never remember the experience. Throughout the day we may see something that triggers our dream memories in the strangest of deja vu. That being said, we sometimes we wake up being able to recount an entire story. We can pin point our exact emotions and the setting of the dream and are instantly taken back to this places created by our minds. The weirdest thing about these dreams is the random themes or symbols. Have you ever had a dream where you just think, what was that supposed to mean? Well what if I told you those symbols were actually the language of your unconscious. A rather jumbled up photo language that is yet to be decifered. The mind works in mysterious, symbolic ways, the less clear the better, or at least that is what it seems. Some people say dreams are just a catalyst of sleeping, no need to worry what those dreams are doing. But what if by starting to understand dreams and the way they communicate we could change the way our physical and emotional bodies reacted to everyday life. Could we be happier? Even healthier? It has been shown, through countless studies by the top psychoanalytic therapists that dreams have influence on our creativity, social interactions and overall mental capacity.


Introduction •

For hundreds of years scientists and psychiatrists like Signmund Freud, have been studying the brain. But not just the brain, the entire inner working functions of the mind. They have delved into the deep deep mind, otherwise known as the unconscious. What some people may not realize is hat the brain is made up of three particular sections: conscious, subconscious, and unconscious. All of which work together to create the memory, as well as your personality. The brain is a highly important part of the body because it controls everything. Hands, feet, nerves, stomach; every part of the body communicates with the mind. Without the brain the human body would not function, it would be lifeless. It seems that if the brain is so complicated that every once in a while it would let out a rather confusing message or two. Thats were the dreams come in, while we are sleeping we are free to think with no filter. That is probably the best way to describe the unconscious, is unfiltered. When the mind is sleeping it is still constantly moving and processing information. So much information coming in at such a fast rate, just leads to the confusing messages.

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01

INTERCONNECTED 1.1 1.2 1.3

Cerebral Cortex Cycles of Consciousness Conscious Analysis


1.1

CEREBRAL CORTEX ›› Stem of Knowledge The human brain is a mysterious little ball of gray matter. After all these years, researchers are still baffled by many aspects of how and why it operates like it does. Scientists have been performing sleep and dream studies for decades now, and we still aren’t 100 percent sure about the function of sleep, or exactly how and why we dream. We do know that our dream cycle is typically most abundant and best remembered during the REM stage of sleep. It’s also pretty commonly accepted among the scientific community that we all dream, though the frequency in which dreams are remembered varies from person to person. The question of whether dreams actually have a physiological, biological or psychological function has yet to be answered. But that hasn’t stopped scientists from researching and speculating. There are several theories as to why we dream. One is that dreams work hand in hand with sleep to help the brain sort through everything it collects during the waking hours. Your brain is met with hundreds of thousands, if not millions of inputs each day. Some are minor sensory details like the color of a passing car, while others are far more complex, like the big presentation you’re putting together for your job. During sleep, the brain works to plow through all of this information to decide what to hang on to and what to forget. Some researchers feel like dreams play a role in this process. It’s not just a stab in the dark though -- there is some research to back up the ideas that dreams are tied to how we form memories. Studies indicate that as we’re learning new things in our waking hours, dreams increase while we sleep. Participants in a dream study who were taking a language course showed more dream activity than those who were not. In light of such studies, the idea that we use our dreams to sort through and convert short-term memories into long-term memories has gained some momentum in recent years. Another theory is that dreams typically reflect our emotions. During the day, our brains are working hard to make connections to achieve certain functions. When posed with a tough math problem, your brain is incredibly focused on that one thing. And the brain doesn’t only serve mental functions. If you’re building a bench, your brain is focused on making the right connections to allow your hands to work in concert with a saw and some wood to make an exact cut. The same goes for simple tasks like hitting a nail with a hammer. Have you ever lost focus and smashed your finger because your mind was elsewhere? Some have proposed that at night everything slows down. We aren’t required to focus on anything during sleep, so our brains make very loose connections. It’s during sleep that the emotions of the day battle it out in our dream cycle.

1.1.1 No one part of the brain “generates”

dreams. Dreams are best viewed as a whole

brain phenomenon or at least a “whole cerebral cortex” phenomenon. The stages of sleep are

controlled by an interconnected group of tiny nuclei (clusters of neurons) in the base of the brain and brain stem.


Interconnected •

• —01 Hypothalamus

—02 [VLPO] - Ventrolateral Preoptic Nucleus —03 [TMN HIST] - Tuberomammillary Nucleus —04 [Raphe 5-HT] - Median Raphe Nuclei —05 [LC NA] - Locus Coeruleus

—06 [PPT] - Pedunculopontine Tegmental Nucleus —07 [LDT] - Laterodorsal Tegmental Nucleus

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sleep, including REM.

the brain, creating the different phases of

Showing the flow and cycle of movement in

1.1.2

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9:00 PM 10:00 AM 3:00 AM


10:00 PM


1.2

CYCLES OF CONSCIOUSNESS ›› One to R.E.M. Our brains undergo a lot during sleep, our brains become significantly more active when we sleep. Nerve-signaling chemicals called neurotransmitters control whether we are asleep or awake by acting on different groups of nerve cells, or neurons, in the brain. Neurons in the brain stem, which connects the brain with the spinal cord, produce neurotransmitters such as serotonin and nor-epinephrine that keep some parts of the brain active while we are awake. Other neurons at the base of the brain begin signaling when we fall asleep. These neurons appear to “switch off” the signals that keep us awake. Research also suggests that a chemical called adenosine builds up in our blood while we are awake and causes drowsiness. This chemical gradually breaks down while we sleep. During sleep, we usually pass through five phases of sleep: stages 1, 2, 3, 4, and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. These stages progress in a cycle from stage 1 to REM sleep, then the cycle starts over again with stage 1. We spend almost 50 percent of our total sleep time in stage 2 sleep, about 20 percent in REM sleep, and the remaining 30 percent in the other stages. Infants, by contrast, spend about half of their sleep time in REM sleep. During stage 1, which is light sleep, we drift in and out of sleep and can be awakened easily. Our eyes move very slowly and muscle activity slows. People awakened from stage 1 sleep often remember fragmented visual images. Many also experience sudden muscle contractions called hypnotic myoclonia, often preceded by a sensation of starting to fall. These sudden movements are similar to the “jump” we make when startled. When we enter stage 2 sleep, our eye movements stop and our brain waves (fluctuations of electrical activity that can be measured by electrodes) become slower, with occasional bursts of rapid waves called sleep spindles. In stage 3, extremely slow brain waves called delta waves begin to appear, interspersed with smaller, faster waves. By stage 4, the brain produces delta waves almost exclusively. It is very difficult to wake someone during stages 3 and 4, which together are called deep sleep. There is no eye movement or muscle activity. People awakened during deep sleep do not adjust immediately and often feel groggy and disoriented for several minutes after they wake up. Some children experience bed wetting, night terrors, or sleepwalking during deep sleep. When we switch into REM sleep, our breathing becomes more rapid, irregular, and shallow, our eyes jerk rapidly in various directions, and our limb muscles become temporarily paralyzed. Our heart rate increases, our blood pressure rises, and males develop penile erections. When people awaken during REM sleep, they often describe bizarre and illogical tales – dreams. The first REM sleep period usually occurs about 70 to 90 minutes after we fall asleep. A complete sleep cycle takes 90 to 110 minutes on average. The first sleep cycles each night contain relatively short REM periods and long periods of deep sleep. As the night progresses, REM sleep periods increase in length while deep sleep decreases.


Interconnected •

By morning, people spend nearly all their sleep time in stages 1, 2, and REM. The REM state is the mechanism that connects us with reality; it is constantly running in the background, searching out at lightning speed the codes needed to match metaphorically to whatever is meaningful in the environment, and thus creating our perception of reality. It is a reality generator, accessing the templates that are the basis of meaning. (This is easily seen when people access memories that evoke strong emotions: rapid eye movements occur even when their eyes are open. We have much evidence of this on film.) It is active when we dream but also when we daydream. It is seen when people go into focused states of attention and when strong instincts are aroused. It is associated with hallucinations and hearing voices. In the dream state, when REM is at its most obviously active and sensory information from the outside world is ‘shut off’, the templates searching for their completion scan the brain and make metaphorical images from whatever they call up from memory. The dream contains these images and, while we are in it, becomes the reality we are conscious of. This is why the reality in dreams so often feels profoundly richer than waking reality – each particular metaphorical dream image can contain multiple levels of meaning, because the job of the dream is to deactivate emotional arousals and it can do that with several streams of arousals through the same image at the same time. Our waking reality is quite different – it is dramatically toned down. It has to be because, if we always saw multiple levels of meaning in everything, we wouldn’t be able to make sense of, or operate within, our environment. We would end up totally confused and in a psychotic state. To deal with this problem, the neocortex of the brain, the rational part of our awake mind, inhibits multi-meaning.

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1.3

in relation of size to the other.

consciousness in the brain and each

Diagram showing the levels of

In Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality, the conscious mind consists of everything inside of our awareness. This is the aspect of our mental processing that we can think and talk about in a rational way. The conscious mind includes such things as the sensations, perceptions, memories, feeling and fantasies inside of our current awareness. Closely allied with the conscious mind is the preconscious, which includes the things that we are not thinking of at the moment but which we can easily draw into conscious awareness. Freud often used the metaphor of an iceberg to describe the two major aspects of human personality. The tip of the iceberg that extends above the water represents the conscious mind. The conscious mind is just the “tip of the iceberg.” Beneath the water is the much larger bulk of the iceberg, which represents the unconscious. While the conscious and preconscious are important, Freud believed that they were far less vital than the unconscious. The things that are hidden from awareness, he believed, exerted the greatest influence over our personalities and behaviors. Things that the conscious mind wants to keep hidden from awareness are repressed into the unconscious mind. While we are unaware of these feelings, thoughts, urges and emotions, Freud believed that the unconscious mind could still have an influence on our behavior. Things that are in the unconscious are only available to the conscious mind in disguised form. For example, the contents of the unconscious might spill into awareness in the form of dreams. Freud believed that by analyzing the content of dreams, people could discover the unconscious influences on their conscious actions.

1.3.1

CONSCIOUS ANALYSIS ›› The Consciousness

{ THE SUBCONSCIOUS } Freud’s psychoanalytic theory of personality, the preconscious mind or the subconscious, is a part of the mind that corresponds to ordinary memory. These memories are not conscious, but we can retrieve them to conscious awareness at any time. While these memories are not part of your immediate awareness, they can be quickly brought into awareness through conscious effort. For example, if you were asked what television show you watched last night or what you had for breakfast this morning, you would be pulling that information out of your preconscious. A helpful way to think of the preconscious is that it acts as a sort of gatekeeper between the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind. It allows only certain pieces of information to pass through and enter conscious awareness.


Interconnected •

{ THE UNCONSCIOUS }

10% Conscious 50% Unconscious 40% Subconscious

The unconscious mind is still viewed by many psychological scientists as the shadow of a ‘‘real’’ conscious mind, though there now exists substantial evidence that the unconscious is not identifiably less flexible, complex, controlling, deliberative, or action-oriented than is its counterpart. This ‘‘conscious-centric’’ bias is due in part to the operational definition within cognitive psychology that equates unconscious with subliminal. Consciousness, in Sigmund Freud’s topographical view (which was his first of several psychological models of the mind) was a relatively thin perceptual aspect of the mind, whereas the subconscious was that merely autonomic function of the brain. The unconscious was considered by Freud throughout the evolution of his psychoanalytic theory a sentient force of will influenced by human drive and yet operating well below the perceptual conscious mind. For Freud, the unconscious is the storehouse of instinctual desires, needs, and psychic actions. While past thoughts and memories may be deleted from immediate consciousness, they direct the thoughts and feelings of the individual from the realm of the unconscious. Freud proposed a vertical and hierarchical architecture of human consciousness: the conscious mind, the preconscious, and the unconscious mind – each lying beneath the other. He believed that significant psychic events take place “below the surface” in the unconscious mind, like hidden messages from the unconscious – a form of intrapersonal communication out of awareness. He interpreted these events as having both symbolic and actual significance. For psychoanalysis, the unconscious does not include all that is not conscious, rather only what is actively repressed from conscious thought or what the person is averse to knowing consciously. Messages arising from a conflict between conscious and unconscious are likely to be cryptic. For Freud, the unconscious was a repository for socially unacceptable ideas, wishes or desires, traumatic memories, and painful emotions put out of mind by the mechanism of psychological repression. However, the contents did not necessarily have to be solely negative. In the psychoanalytic view, the unconscious is a force that can only be recognized by its effects — it expresses itself in the symptom. Unconscious thoughts are not directly accessible to ordinary introspection, but are supposed to be capable of being “tapped” and “interpreted” by special methods and techniques such as random association, dream analysis, and verbal slips (commonly known as a Freudian slip), examined and conducted during psychoanalysis.

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02

TRANSLATION 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5

Pyscho Science Metaphorical Imagination Collective Language Case Study: X Case Study: Y


Freud and Carl Jung.

interpretors were psychologists like Sigmund

are closely related because the original dream

The relationship of dreams and psychoanalysis

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• 2.1

PSYCHO SCIENCE ›› Freud, Jung & Domhoff For many years dream interpretation has been a very intriguing study. Psychologists like Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and G. William Domhoff spent years of their lives studying and analyzing the brain trying find the importance and the functions of dreams. In his book The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud suggested that the content of dreams is related to wish fulfillment. Freud believed that the manifest content of a dream, or the actually imagery and events of the dream, served to disguise the latent content, or the unconscious wishes of the dreamer. Freud also described four elements of this process that he referred to as ‘dream work.' Condensation – Many different ideas and concepts are represented within the span of a single dream. Information is condensed into a single thought or image. Displacement – This element of dream work disguises the emotional meaning of the latent content by confusing the important and insignificant parts of the dream. Symbolization – This operation also censors the repressed ideas contained in the dream by including objects that are meant to symbolize the latent content of the dream. Secondary Revision – During this final stage of the dreaming process, Freud suggested that the bizarre elements of the dream are reorganized in order to make the dream comprehensible, thus generating the manifest content of the dream. While Carl Jung shared some commonalities with Freud, he felt that dreams were more than an expression of repressed wishes. Jung suggested that dreams revealed both the personal and collective unconscious and believed that dreams serve to compensate for parts of the psyche that are underdeveloped in waking life. In contradiction to Jung’s assertions however, later research by Hall revealed that the traits people exhibit while they awake are the same as those expressed in dreams. Jung also suggested that archetypes such as the anima, the shadow and the animus are often represented symbolic objects or figures in dreams. These symbols, he believed, represented attitudes that are repressed by the conscious mind. Unlike Freud, who often suggested that specific symbols represent specific unconscious thoughts, Jung believed that dreams can be highly personal and that interpreting these dreams involved knowing a great deal about the individual dreamer.

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2.2

METAPHORICAL IMAGINATION ›› Dream Speaking While dreaming, the unconscious is telling the conscious mind what it wants the conscious mind to know. But it seems that the unconscious, not knowing the world of the conscious, is limited to metaphor. Added to this, is the fact that the unconscious could be telling us what we don’t really want to know because we may have repressed it, thus creating the need for the unconscious to inform us of something we didn’t want to know in the first place. Dreams change their nature, as a person matures. The unconscious, although not knowing our world as we know it, is certainly influenced by what happens to us, and has a distorted but still meaningful idea of our environment. Although our conscious mind can use metaphor through words, the unconscious mind rarely uses anything else, for reason that it lacks knowledge of our reality. It speaks through dreams, in which archetypal images appear which in one sense are metaphors of absolute reality, although one could also say that the archetypes themselves, although not in themselves visible, are metaphorical. But we are getting too complicated. Visions which occur in altered states are certainly metaphorical although they appear at least as real as what we call reality itself. If they occur frequently enough, one can lose sense of what is actually reality and what is not. The dream, being an experience of the Self, unites the collective unconscious, which is the eternal order, with the personal unconscious and personal conscious which is of the time-bound order, through this flow of energy from one realm to the other, thus freeing us for a time from the limitations of our conscious life. It is not pulling the blinds on reality, but on the contrary, it opens us to the reality of our true Self. Very frequently, conscious contents drop into the unconscious for lack of energy necessary to sustain them in consciousness. They are ‘forgotten.’ Conversely, unconscious contents may acquire energy enough to achieve consciousness — it reaches its ‘bursting point’. It may not have enough energy to enter the realm of consciousness directly, but may enter through the process of a dream. Perhaps the ego cannot understand it and so it remains subliminal although from the energy point of view it is quite capable of becoming conscious. Metaphors also allow us to move beyond the concept of fixed duality and into the possibility of transmutation. David Miller describes this capability by saying that, “metaphors...are the juxtapositions of dissimilar things so as to show their similarity. They are the means whereby polarities touch and transform each other.” Metaphors allow us to give expression to what otherwise defies direct explanation or knowing. Weller Embler highlights this dynamic using the example of art and its ability to convert one’s inner experience into metaphor. Metaphor allows one to express what cannot otherwise be spoken. Like symbols and metaphors, images also have the unique capacity to offer themselves as guides which are able to escort us to the realm of fluid meaning. “It is our imaginal capacity (our ability to form


TRANSLATION •

images which carry energy) that constructs the requisite bridges to those infinite worlds which otherwise lie beyond our rational and emotional capacities,” wrote James Hollis. Image holds the possibility of all things without ever advancing an absolute truth. Symbol, image, and metaphor are the language of our source self. They speak in the tongue of possibilities and prospective forms that are impervious to attempts at literalization. However, if we suspend our need for stasis and tangible understanding we can use the language of dreams and myth to open to the possibility of a fuller emergence of our selves. Carry a deeper psychological and emotional significance for us than what may be first apparent on the surface. 2.3

COLLECTIVE LANGUAGE ›› Stem of Knowledge The subconscious is recognized as the source of creativity, intuition, inspiration, inner knowing, interconnectedness, and spiritual enlightenment. Within this realm reality shifts and expands, creating a matrix that is far more elastic and multi-dimensional than is perceived by the conscious mind. When we access and spend time within the subconscious we are released from the confines of our logical, practical mind. The messages we receive from our dreams and the primordial symbols, or archetypes handed down to us from our ancestors, inform us about what is unique, authentic, and sacred to each of us. When we heed these messages we are following the path of our soul’s evolution. These symbols and archetypes are essential elements of the collective unconscious, the universal intra-psychic structuring device innate to humans. It is as if the necessary acquired information learned by generations past is provided to us as a shortcut to our own evolution. Once something is learned in the evolution of human consciousness it is not necessary to learn it again. It is inherent, forever after, with what it means to be human. The “eternal vocabulary” of the collective unconscious lives within us, always ready to offer hints and clues, suggestions and solutions. Learning to access the subconscious and to fully utilize its gifts can help us to “see” in a new way. Beyond our conscious mind and usual senses the veil is lifted, revealing a world of unlimited possibilities. What is so poignant here is that words are unnecessary to communicate or convey a message. The symbol, the representational picture or image, conveys the complete thought, concept, or ideal without the use of words to describe it; the proverbial, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” This idea is tremendously powerful, for the way we “talk” to ourselves, our inner language, the way we know who we are, does not come from words, but rather from the timeless source within that knows who we are.

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2.4

CASE STUDY: X ›› Transporting Emotions Patient X is an art student, who grew up in a small family and had a very decent up bringing. In the past 6 months, patient X experienced a significant amount of death or loss within family and friendships. Patient X has always put an extreme amount of pressure on themselves to do well at most things, which has led them into an anxiety disorder, beginning at a young age. { THE DREAM } I was in a city walking around, it was a dark city, rather gloomy and rainy. I ended up on a passenger train, however I could see the connection lines from inside the train. The cable lines started sparking excessively to the point were all the passengers knew something was wrong. The train started moving faster and faster, which is when I saw a familiar face and then the train crashed. Immediately the dream switched except, this time I was on an open top ferry, people were everywhere. It was extremely cold, it felt like the arctic and the water beneath me looked icy. The same gloomy weather was apparent. I looked down into the water below me only to see a giant white whale. Being above the whale I felt fear, a fear like I had never experienced, I was terrified. Randomly my father then appeared next to me, only to push me into the water, all the while his hand pushing on my chest downward into the water. I kept going deeper and deeper, until my back laid flat onto the whale. I felt like I should have been screaming, but for some reason I felt comforted by the white whale. It didn’t seem to matter that I was underwater because I could still breathe, however I felt the pressure in my chest. There are many symbols that can be pulled from this dream, for example: cold weather, train, a train crash, father, being pushed into water, white and white whale. While these all seem like very different and almost random symbols, they offer insight to what the dreamer is thinking and feeling. Typically seeing a train in a dream symbolizes a journey, it is a path on a fixed route. A train can also signify conformity and going along with what everyone else is doing. However to be in a train wreck can mean more that things are not going along your plan and you could be lacking self confidence, having doubt in your ability to reach your goals. Different types of weather can be symbolic of a spiritual response. Sunshine suggests good feeling and happiness, whereas rain might suggest tears or sadness. To have a dream about being pushed into cold water, is fear of someone controlling your and pushing you around in real life. To dream of water, is the fear of being totally submerged or emerged by something more powerful than you are. For it to be cold, may suggest something in your wakened life is cruel to you. Lastly, to dream of a whale is commonly associated with emotion, inner truth, and creativity.


TRANSLATION •

{ ANALYSIS } After looking through all these common symbols, we piece together some of the connections. Patient X always wants to please those around them, especially their father. Dreaming that they were on train being the path in life and it derailing, goes back to the struggle Patient X was seeing in their life with relationships. Patient X having been feeling like they were being overpowered by everything around them, resonates back to the water and by having the whale acted as a calming factor in the battle against their emotions. The main theme seemed to be that even through all the turmoil and uncertainty, everything will eventually be returned to peace and calm.

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TRANSLATION •

• 2.5

CASE STUDY: Y ›› Slow Motion Mind Background: Patient Y is an college student, who grew up with a loving father, mother and a brother. That being said she lived in many places, the majority not being with the three. Patient Y, has been in a relationship for4 years and is on the brink of an engagement. Most importantly Patient X recently experienced a loss in the family. Patient Y is in her last year of college. { THE DREAM } I am at home, well, I know it isn’t home but it feels like home. Someone appears in front of me, I try yelling to them, but I don’t have a voice. No one else is around, its quiet. The person starts moving and I start running, but I instantly can’t move and my legs lock up. I start running again but it is in slow motion and everything around me is moving very quickly. I keep trying to get to this person, but no matter what I try I can’t get to them. Typically to dream that you are running in slow motion – or that you are trying to run but cannot make your feet move as fast as you want them to – signifies a lack of self-esteem and self-confidence on your part. Chasing after someone in a dream can indicate that you are trying to catch up with something you believe is bigger/faster then yourself. It can be part of the ego of wanting to win as well. It can be towards a specific person that you feel is going faster then you or is leaving you behind. This can be connected to the fear of loss. Fear of loss comes from accepting yourself to not accept yourself unconditionally - but basing your self-experience on what another makes you feel. Where you require the other to “fulfill” you , and when the other is going, you experience fear or depression for example. { ANALYSIS } We can see fairly obviously that Patient Y is having a lot of self questioning ideas running through their head. Fear or uncertainty is at the fore front of her mind. The lack of self esteem most likely stems from the imminent graduation and movement from youth into adulthood. The fear of failure and feeling of this large weight also can be seen in that space. The fear of being left behind can be seen in the recent loss, the fear that you will never see them again is heavy and seems to be effecting the dreamer.

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03

INTERPRETATION 3.1 3.2 3.3

Retrospective Common Dreams Introspective


3.1

RETROSPECTIVE ›› Expressed Emotion The question then becomes why is it important to even try communicating with the unconscious mind, if it speaks in terms we may not understand. However by understanding the unconscious we can begin to open all the layers of our mind. Unconscious awareness can help us with many aspects of life, from creativity to health and far beyond. The traditional method is that when we are sick we go to the doctor. The doctor then tries to tell us what is happening biologically, or the opposite they have no idea what is going on. For many doctors the focus of their attention is on the physical, when majority of our ailments stem from our mental process. That is where the need for unconscious analysis comes in. Our mind communicates our feelings and emotions in many ways, dreams are just a step that most people most often do not consider. Our physical and mental processes work in tandem with each other, for example, when we feel stressed our neck or back tend to hurt. Or if we are angry, the emotion expresses itself in headaches. Dreams are valuable for many aspects of the body. As said before there is a huge importance put on the unconscious when we are talking about dreams. Ancient Greeks had a very positive notion of the unconscious mind. Artists and players were said to have a muse, which would guide them in their art. (The muses were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, and were protectors of the arts and sciences). Like their view of the source of negative influences, the Greeks appeared to view the source of artistic or scientific inspiration and intuition as coming from somewhere outside the conscious mind -- in the invisible world. They referred to these sources as goddesses. While Pandora’s box, as the unconscious mind, can be thought of as the source of woe, we can expand our view of it to include within it an incredible source of artistic and scientific knowledge and inspiration. An artist who is temporarily short of ideas might say, “My muse has deserted me,” indicating that the process of creation is an unconscious process. Sometimes we can clearly show that the mind is affected by unconscious processes, and that these effects are both novel and verifiable. A creative idea in art could be viewed as a random variation in a pattern. But when these ‘muses’ provide guidance that improves our understanding of science or mathematics, we may detect clear intelligence in these unconscious processes. Saying that the unconscious hold the key to the answers and contemplations of the brain is the main idea. By using the dream analysis key we open the gate to repressed emotion, feelings, answers and even in some cases events. The majority of dream analysis is conducted by psychoanalysts, that being said it does not mean you cannot learn the same techniques, for yourself. A good place to start is in basic semiotics which is the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation.


INTERPRETATION •

• 39 •

DISCLOSURE •


3.2

COMMON DREAMS ›› Symbols we Have Being Chased this is one of the most commonly reported dreams. Mostly because the anxiety we feel in the dream is so vivid, that it makes it easier for us to remember them. Often, the reason for these dreams comes not from the fear of actually being chased, but rather what we’re running from. Chase dreams help us to understand that we may not be addressing something in our waking lives that requires our attention. Water frequently represents our emotions or our unconscious minds. The quality of the water (clear vs. cloudy; calm vs. turbulent) often provides insight into how effectively we are managing our emotions. Vehicles whether a car, airplane, train or ship, the vehicles in our dream can reflect what direction we feel our life is taking, and how much control we think we have over the path ahead of us. Vehicles can give us the power to make a transition and envision ourselves getting to our destination -- or highlight the obstacles we think we are facing and need to work through. People seeing other people in your dream often is a reflection of the different aspects of the self. The people in dreams can relate to characteristics that need to be developed. Specific people directly relate to existing relationships or interpersonal issues we need to work through. Dreaming of a lover, in particular, is frequently symbolic of an aspect of ourselves, from which we feel detached. School it’s a very common situation for people in dreams to find themselves in a school or classroom, often confronted with a test that they aren’t prepared to take. This is a great example of a “dream pun” -- the mind using a word or concept and giving it a different definition. The “lesson” or “test” we face inside the school or classroom is frequently one we need to learn from our past -- which is one reason these dreams are often reported by people who have long since finished school. Paralysis unknown to most people, the body is actually encountering a form of paralysis during dreaming, which prevents it from physically performing the actions occurring in their dreams, therefore dreaming about paralysis frequently represents the overlap between the REM stage and waking stage of sleep. Dreaming about paralysis can also indicate that the dreamer feels he or she lacks control in their waking life.Death although death is often perceived as negative, it’s often more directly related to dramatic change happening for the dreamer -- the end of one thing, in order to make room for something new. Flying in a dream, and how effectively or poorly it’s done, relates to how much control we feel we have in our lives, and whether we are confident and able to achieve our goals. High flying is one of the most euphoric dreams imaginable, while flying or “skimming” low to the ground or being caught in obstacles like power lines can be immensely frustrating. Falling not all falling dreams are scary and negative. Some dreamers report a type of slow falling that indicates serenity and the act of letting go. Often, falling uncontrollably from a great height indicates something in waking our life that feels very much out of control.


INTERPRETATION •

that are usually most emotive for us.

dreams that we tend to remember are the ones

encounter in our day-to-day lives. The

resolving all the emotional tensions that we

Creating a dream is a natural response to

3.2.1

Nudity emotional or psychological exposure or vulnerability is very often expressed in dreams through nudity. The body part that’s exposed can give more insight into the emotion that our dreams are helping us to understand. Baby dreaming of a baby often represents something new: It might be a new idea, new project at work, new development or the potential for growth in a specific area of our waking life. Food symbolizes energy, knowledge or nourishment and is directly related to our intellect, emotions and spirituality. Food can also be a manifestation of idioms like, “food for thought,” and reveal that we may be “hungry” for new information and insights. House frequently represent the dreamer’s mind. Different levels or rooms may relate to difference aspects of the individual dreamer and different degrees of consciousness. The basement often represents what has been neglected, or what the dreamer is not aware of in his or her waking life, while bedrooms relate to intimate thoughts and feelings -- those closest to the dreamer’s core self. Sex in dreams can simply be an outlet for sexual expression. But dreams about sex can also symbolize intimate connections with one’s self and others, and the figurative integration of new information.

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• •


creativity.

interesting. They are also “recharging� our

artworks and are generally just incredibly

dreams are responsible for inventions, great

3.3.1


INTERPRETATION •

• 3.3

INTROSPECTIVE ›› Translated to You What has been said about the deep meaning of dreams needs to be balanced against other considerations. Not all dreams have profound psychological significance. Some are mere repetitions of the day’s events. Some dreams, may have straight forward physical explanations. A full bladder may cause you to have frighteningly embarrassing dream about wetting your pants, for example. So do not assume that every dream has a deep meaning. Not every dream will contain a life-transforming revelation - but any dream might! Even the most trifling dream story may be trying to tell you something about your life. If, for example, you told me you had dreamed of an earthquake, I would generally suppose that it was indication either that your personal world was in danger of falling apart or at least you were deeply - perhaps unconsciously - fearful that it might fall apart. I would therefore want to ask you about your marriage or other domestic relationships and about your work situation. However, I would also ask if you had recently been reading something or watching something on television that might have prompted that sort of dream. If you had just been reading a vivid account of an actual earthquake, your dream might have been a simply going over the story. On the other hand, it is likely that even dreams which take their symbols from very recent experience are using those symbols to represent something that is going on inside you. On the whole, the truth would seem to be that if you are only trifling with your dreams, their content will tend to be trivial; if you take your dreams seriously, their content will tend to be serious and significant. If what, you want from your dreams is a fuller understanding of yourself and, eventually, fuller control over your life and the attainment of your proper ‘destiny’, your dreams will not let you down. They will give all you need.

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3.2.2 Creating a dream is a natural response to resolving all the emotional tensions that we encounter in our day-to-day lives. The dreams that we tend to remember are the ones that are usually most emotive for us.


INTERPRETATION •

• 47 •

DISCLOSURE •


›› CONCLUSION That all the material composing the content of a dream is somehow derived from experience, that it is reproduced or remembered in the dream -this at least may be accepted as an incontestable fact. Yet it would be wrong to assume that such a connection between the dream-content and reality will be easily obvious from a comparison between the two. On the contrary, the connection must be carefully sought, and in quite a number of cases it may for a long while elude discovery. The reason for this is to be found in a number of peculiarities evinced by the faculty of memory in dreams; which peculiarities, though generally observed, have hitherto defied explanation. It will be worth our while to examine these characteristics exhaustively. To begin with, it happens that certain material appears in the dreamcontent which cannot be subsequently recognized, in the waking state, as being part of one’s knowledge and experience. One remembers clearly enough having dreamed of the thing in question, but one cannot recall the actual experience or the time of its occurrence. The dreamer is therefore in the dark as to the source which the dream has tapped, and is even tempted to believe in an independent productive activity on the part of the dream, until, often long afterwards, a fresh episode restores the memory of that former experience, which had been given up for lost, and so reveals the source of the dream. One is therefore forced to admit that in the dream something was known and remembered that cannot be remembered in the waking state. Delboeuf relates from his own experience an especially impressive example of this kind. He saw in his dream the courtyard of his house covered with snow, and found there two little lizards, half-frozen and buried in the snow. Being a lover of animals he picked them up, warmed them, and put them back into the hole in the wall which was reserved especially for them. He also gave them a few fronds of a little fern which was growing on the wall, and of which he knew they were very fond. In the dream he knew the name of the plant; Asplenium ruta muralis. The dream continued returning after a digression to the lizards, and to his astonishment Delboeuf saw two other little lizards falling upon what was left of the ferns. On turning his eyes to the open fields he saw a fifth and a sixth lizard making for the hole in the wall, and finally the whole road was covered by a procession of lizards, all wandering in the same direction. In his waking state Delboeuf knew only a few Latin names of plants, and nothing of any Asplenium. To his great surprise he discovered that a fern of this name did actually exist, and that the correct name was Asplenium ruta muraria, which the dream had slightly distorted. An accidental coincidence was of course inconceivable; yet where he got his knowledge of the name Asplenium in the dream remained a mystery to him.


CONCLUSION •

The dream occurred in 1862. Sixteen years later, while at the house of one of his friends, the philosopher noticed a small album containing dried plants, such as are sold as souvenirs to visitors in many parts of Switzerland. A sudden recollection came to him: he opened the herbarium, discovered therein the Asplenium of his dream, and recognized his own handwriting in the accompanying Latin name. The connection could now be traced. In 1860, two years before the date of the lizard dream, one of his friend’s sisters, while on her wedding-journey, had paid a visit to Delboeuf. She had with her at the time this very album, which was intended for her brother, and Delboeuf had taken the trouble to write, at the dictation of a botanist, the Latin name under each of the dried plants. The same good fortune which gave this example its unusual value enabled Delboeuf to trace yet another portion of this dream to its forgotten source. One day in 1877 he came upon an old volume of an illustrated periodical, in which he found the whole procession of lizards pictured, just as he had dreamt of it in 1862. The volume bore the date 1861, and Delboeuf remembered that he had subscribed to the journal since its first appearance. That dreams have at their disposal recollections which are inaccessible to the waking state is such a remarkable and theoretically important fact that I should like to draw attention to the point by recording yet other hypermnesic dreams. Maury relates that for some time the word Mussidan used to occur to him during the day. He knew it to be the name of a French city, but that was all. One night he dreamed of a conversation with a certain person, who told him that she came from Mussidan, and, in answer to his question as to where the city was, she replied: “Mussidan is the principal town of a district in the department of Dordogne.” On waking, Maury gave no credence to the information received in his dream; but the gazetteer showed it to be perfectly correct. In this case the superior knowledge of the dreamer was confirmed, but it was not possible to trace the forgotten source of this knowledge refers to a very similar incident, the period of which is more remote. “Among others we may here mention the dream of the elder Scaliger who wrote a poem in praise of the famous men of Verona, and to whom a man named Brugnolus appeared in a dream, complaining that he had been neglected. Though Scaliger could not remember that he had heard of the man, he wrote some verses in his honor, and his son learned subsequently that a certain Brugnolus had at one time been famed in Verona as a critic.”

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DESIGNER BRANDI STEELE

PRINCIPAL TYPE EIDETIC NEO

SECONDARY TYPE CENTURY SCHOOLBOOK GRAPHIC ELEMENT TYPE COURIER NEW

SCHOOL ACADEMY OF ART UNIVERSITY INSTRUCTOR ARIEL GRAY


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• 55 •

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Disclosure: Revealing the Unconscious: looks into the condition of the unconscious and the unique path of the dreamer during sleep. Travel through the sleep stages and discover the importance of dream symbolism. Deciphering the pathways of each consciousness through the mind of two very distinct patient cases. Dreams are the pathway to the mind and ultimate creativity.


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