Dreams

Elizabeth Fenwick

Everyone dreams, though not everyone remembers their dreams, and countless theories have been put forward to explain why we dream, and whether dreams have a purpose. Dreams have been thought to be concerned with memory and learning; to represent unfulfilled desires; to be a way of expressing and resolving emotional crisis, or to be a method of synthesis, of integrating separate concepts so that they make a new whole. Dream analysts claim that dreams reveal aspects of the dreamer's personality and throw light on their emotional conflicts. Dreams also seem to facilitate psi phenomena such as telepathy and precognition. It has also been suggested that dreams may be simply 'froth', entirely devoid of meaning.

The daytime world is usually regarded as the 'real' world, sleep and dreams merely as an interruption of daytime brain activity. But it is as logical to regard dreaming as the basic model which, when we are awake, is continually modified and updated by a flow of information to the brain from the outside world. During sleep the brain remains active, but it has to base its models on the more limited data available to it from memory.

In adults, dreaming, or 'rapid eye movement' (REM) sleep accounts for about a quarter of all sleep and is more frequent towards the end of the night; a natural awakening is usually from a period of dreaming sleep. During REM sleep muscle tone disappears almost completely so that we are virtually paralysed, which explains why we cannot act out our dreams. Dreams also occur during other phases of sleep, but these are seldom remembered and are non visual and of a very different quality from the ordinary dreams of REM sleep.

It is often claimed that dreams can provide information or insights that waking consciousness is unable to do. Many creative artists acknowledge a debt to their dreams, but although a dream may provide the germ of an idea, the final product is more likely to be due to a combination of dream inspiration and hard work. Most of the often quoted 'dream inspirations' of scientists - Kekulé's discovery of the structure of the benzene ring, for example, occurred not in a true dreaming state, but in the 'hypnagogic' state between sleeping and waking.

Lucid dreams are the closest we can get to virtual reality. In a lucid dream you are aware that you are dreaming and can to some extent direct the course of your dreams. Lucid dreaming seems to be a skill that can be learned and is improved with motivation and practice. They are sometimes triggered by emotional arousal, especially anxiety, and are most likely to occur in the lighter stages of dreaming, as consciousness starts to return. Falling asleep at your normal waking time is particularly likely to produce a lucid dream. The ability to maintain waking consciousness while falling asleep has been long been regarded as a gateway to mystical states, cultivated by Tibetan yogis, who drew from the experience the knowledge that what was perceived by the senses in the waking state and in the dream-state was equally unreal.

Key texts

Van de Castle, Robert (1994) Our Dreaming Mind. Aquarian. ISBN 1 85538 070 6. An excellent introduction for anyone interested in dreams and dream research. Robert van de Castle has researched dreams for more than thirty years. His book explores the role of dreams in politics, art, religion and psychology from ancient civilizations to the present day, and surveys the major areas of dream research, particularly experiments on dream-related psi activity.

Fenwick, Peter and Elizabeth, (1998) The Hidden Door. Headline, ISBN 0 7472 5547 4 A good overview of all aspects of sleep and dreaming, including the most recent research on psi phenomena associated with dreams, and sleep-related phenomena which may give rise to claims of astral travel or alien abduction.

Griffin, Joseph. (1997) The Origin of Dreams. Redwood Books. ISBN 1 899398. Written by a research psychologist and psychotherapist, this book shows how both biological and psychological factors need to be considered when we are looking at the origin, function and meaning of dreams. A valuable book for anyone who is interested in dream interpretation.

De Saint Denys, Hervey (1982). Dreams and How to Guide Them. Duckworth. ISBN 0 7156 1584 X (cased) Hervey de Saint Denys (1822-1892) was a French Oriental scholar who at an early age became interested in his dreams. His book was the first ever written about the control of dreams and still offers one of the best accounts of the process. English translation first published 1982, edited with an introduction by Morton Schatzman.

LaBerge, Stephen and Rheingold, Howard (1990) . Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming. Ballantyne Books. The essential guide for anyone who wants to learn how to dream lucidly.

Freud, Sigmund (1899) The Interpretation of Dreams Basic Books. Freud's emphasis on the sexual, infantile and neurotic aspects of dreams is now of only historical interest. His real contribution was to focus attention on dreams and thus stimulate interest in the scientific study of dreams.

Hall, J. (1983) Jungian Dream Interpretation: A Handbook of Theory and Practice (Toronto: Inner City Books.

Jung, C.G., (1974) Dreams, trans. R.F.C. Hull Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. Jung himself never published a systematic book on dreams. This book is an anthology of selections of Jung's writings on dreams compiled from his other works.

Green C and McCreery C. (1994) Lucid Dreaming. Routledge. Celia Green is a parapsychologist who was the person to suggest that lucid dreamers might be able to communicate observations made in their dreams. A good book for anyone who wants to try and train themselves to dream lucidly.

Mavromatis, Andreas, (1987). Hypnagogia Routledge and Kegan Paul.ISBN 0 7102 0282 2. An account of the unique state of consciousness between wakefulness and sleep, its relationship to other states and experiences such as meditation, psi, dreams and hypnosis, and the part it plays in creativity.

Ullman, M.. Krippner, S and Vaughan, A. (1989) Dream Telepathy: Explorations in Nocturnal ESP 2nd ed. Jefferson, N.C McFarland. A summary of the findings of the most systematic laboratory investigation of paranormal dreams in the Maimonides hospital in Brooklyn, where Montagu Ullman and Stanley Krippner worked together for nearly ten years.findings of the Maimonides project on paranormal dreams.

Elizabeth Fenwick is co-author, with Peter Fenwick, of The Truth in the Light, Past Lives and The Hidden Door.