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Why Interpret Your Dreams?
Dreams have a salutary effect (they promote good health) even when they are not interpreted.
Dreams provide information about the dreamer that often is not available by other means. They
provide the dreamer with information about one's current physical, psychological and spiritual
condition and can be used as a diagnostic tool to discover the cause of a neurosis (mental disorders).
We all suffer from some type of imbalance, a split of the unconscious and conscious mind (complexes)
that causes one to live too much in one side of the personality. The widening of the consciousness resulting
from the integration of the unconscious contents (contents of the dream) through dream interpretation
enhances the development of one's personality.
Simple Meanings
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 straightforward physical explainations. 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 apparently 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 trival; 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.
The Unconscious
There can be no reseaonable doubt that there is an unconscious dimension in the human psyche (Greek meaning soul) or mind/ ego personality. We frequently find ourselves doing things that we did not consciously intend and that may even contradict our conscious intentions. The reasons for these actions may not be immediately apparent, but everything has a cause. If, therefore, the causes of these actions - their motives - are not conscious, they can only be unconscious.
Whatever other functions dreams may have, their most important function is to reveal what is going on in your unconscious mind, the unconscious depths of your self. To ignore your dreams is, therefore, to refuse the self-acknowldge that is key to true happeniness, the key to inner peace and joy, the removal of the tension that is a sympton of inner conflict, the solving of your personal problems and the establishing of a more richly satisfying mode of life.
The major and most accessible source of information about your unconscious self is undoubtedly your dreams, of which you have a constant supply. 'To sleep, perchance to dream'?
No, there is no 'perchance' about it. You dream every time you sleep. You may deny this, but you can easily discover the truth of it for yourself: just go to bed each night with pen and paper ready to record your dream, and you will very soon find that you have many more dreams than you ever 'dreamed' of.
Remember that everyone - or very nearly everyone - is to some degree or another neurotic: inner conflicts, phobias, guilt-complexes are not confined to the inmates of mental hospitals. This being so, it makes sense to use any available means for getting to know about these things so as to do something about them. If a neurosis is severe you may need to consult a psychotherapist; but in most cases looking at your dreams will be enough to guide you towards fuller self- knowledge and fuller psychic health.
If you get acquainted with what is going on in your unconscious, you will begin to take better control of your life. You will also feel better, your life will be richer, more effectual and more satisfying, because you are now using creatively the psychic energy that was previously going to waste.
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