I took her advice and started a dream journal. I found the meanderings of my nightly dream escapades entertaining. But beyond that, I didn’t discover too many insights. While working as a substance abuse counsellor intern in 2009, my attention was drawn to people in treatment suffering from PTSD nightmares. The psychiatrist at the centre talked about how gaming consoles were being developed to assist people with these nightmares. This was in 2009 and those gaming consoles are starting to become more known about now; therapists are in the early stages of being trained to assist people with these devices, and I’m pretty sure we will see more of these immersive, virtual reality treatments. The point is I became aware that clinicians were working with people’s dreams; perhaps this could be an area of potential interest for me as I progressed with my studies.

            Fast forward to my time in therapy with my Jungian Analyst. She was stoic and very well educated. This analyst was licensed as a Marriage & Family therapist in addition to being an analyst. I met with her once a week and we started sessions in the same way each week. I would have written down a dream and presented it to her in present tense. She wrote down the dream and then interpreted it. Sometimes I gave her associations to parts of the dream, and other times she launched in with an interpretation. Whether or not the interpretations fitted my life at the time did not seem to matter. Despite the fact she didn’t specify, I knew it was up to me to decide if there was a fit between my dream and her interpretation or not. The interpretation would lead to a discussion of relatively recent events that were relative to our process. At some point the work began to get into past stuff, and I think I would have needed to be in analysis longer than a year to have reaped the full benefits.

            What impressed me the most though was that our discussions were never planned (by me). The work I did with dreamwork allowed for my unconscious mind to lead the therapy process. Consequently, the work went deeper and allowed me to get to material I wouldn’t have volunteered to process.  As a therapist myself now almost a decade later, I appreciate the benefit of this approach. I recognise the potential healing that can come about for my clients if we work with their dreams and are able to access subjects or patterns they are not consciously aware enough of to bring up during the course of their sessions. These benefits do not begin to tap into another potential more controversial aspect of dreams, which is that they can reveal material that has been repressed or simply forgotten.

            I did not continue my studies at Pacifica. I was drawn to the depth psychology, but the programme was not a match at the time. I continued in analysis despite the fact I withdrew from the programme. Four years later, I joined the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (now known as Sofia University) to start all over again with doctoral studies. My introduction to the programme was a one week seminar in northern California. My first seminar (that I remember) was with Rev Jeremy Taylor, who later became my mentor. I hadn’t heard of him before and I wasn’t familiar with any type of group dreamwork and yet here we were, all 60 of us in the biggest group process I’d ever participated in. There was no pomp and parade, no great introduction, no theory, no warning and it was one of the best group experiences I ever had.

            Looking back over my education, which spanned from 2008 to 2021, my best experiences (meaning the ones in which I learned the most) were experiential. We just jumped in and did it. I may have had moments where I thought “what is the point of this, not much is happening?” But it’s a little bit like the space between breaths…that space matters. Space for process, space for insight, space for integration. The group dreamwork process is a sneaky method to get at all kinds of latent material both in the dreamer and in the dream workers.

Group Dreamwork

            I fell in love with group dreamwork and was fascinated by all these things I knew nothing about like Lucid dreaming, shared dreams, pre-cognisant dreams and I could go on. When it came time to do my research, which I conducted in 2021, I was excited to see if the group participants would report on positive aspects of group dreamwork – and they did.  The potential for healing in those participating in group dreamwork was fantastic. I could not and still cannot understand why dreamwork had not been a part of my mainstream graduate or undergraduate programmes. I think dreamwork is an overlooked treatment protocol and I look forward to promoting it as a wonderful way for therapists to work with clients. It’s another tool for the clinical toolbox. Contact me with any questions, or join me for a dream group either as a participant or as a clinician wanting to learn how to run dreamwork groups.

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The first tip was about dreams we remember. Firstly, we can trust that what we remember is useful. You know when you’re having those really long dreams that seem to go on forever, you wake up – it’s only been 30 minutes and then you wake up the next morning and you can’t remember any of it? That’s ok. Some people might remember a fragment of that epic dream and think it’s not worth looking at because it was “only a fragment.” Fragments of dreams matter as much as epic all-nighters! 

There are many theories about what dreams are and what they are not. I am not here to debate those theories. I am also not here to tell you how to work with your dreams. I do not believe that any system of working with dreams is more useful/beneficial/better than another; I think they all have their merits. What I will tell you is that I believe dreams emerge from our unconscious and I believe the fragments of dreams we remember are remembered because they support our psychological health and overall well-being. All dreams. Yes. Even the nightmares. Especially the nightmares: more on that in another blog.

Tip number 2! OMG at this rate, this is going to be a book, not a blog.  You know when someone talks about their dream and then immediately they follow it up with “well of course it means this thing, this thing I already knew.” Well, it might. And the dreamer is “always right.” BUT it is kind of fun to keep in mind that dreams also come along to tell us something we do NOT know. If it’s somewhat true that dreams come from the UNCONSCIOUS, then that material is latent, hidden, not known!!!  So have fun. Explore. What could your psyche be inferring that is just out of sight, just out of conscious awareness?

Tip number 3 brings up the “A-Ha” moment. This has nothing to do with the 80’s band (Yes, I’m dating myself) and it is for me at least a preferable term to the idea of a “breakthrough” moment. It is a moment I personally love when running a group. That look in the dreamer’s eyes when someone has projected onto the dream, and a tidbit from the dreamer’s unconscious seeps into broad daylight as it drips into conscious awareness.

Tip number 4 is all about onions. Not any old onions. But this idea that dreams have many, and I mean many layers just like an onion. This leaves room for the dreamer to broadcast they know exactly what the dream means: they had the dream about Cornflakes because they had Cornflakes for breakfast. So that’s one layer. And then there are all the other layers which can be peeled away one by one as the dreamer explores and appreciates the dream either with a group or a clinician.

The language of dreams is broached in tip number 5. I don’t know about you but I love what is not immediately obvious. I love to solve a puzzle or a riddle. I love to see the hidden meaning behind a word or even a gesture. As therapists, and maybe this is just my projection, but we love to over analyse, we read into sighs, and body language and yes, gestures; we even read into what is not talked about. And we LONG to discover the hidden meanings in EVERYTHING. Well, if that description fits you, then you will love dream work, because there are hidden meanings all. over. the. place.

Dreams are not literal. And sometimes they are – we come back to onions and all the layers. Sometimes a dream about Cornflakes is just that: I ate Cornflakes for breakfast, I’m hungry before bed and I dream about Cornflakes. However, the language of dreams is more likely to express itself in metaphor, pun, parable, double entendre and a myriad of other forms of wordplay. 

Another really fun aspect wrapped up in the language of dreams is that those of us interested in all the woo woo type systems like astrology, numerology, archetypes, mythical symbolism, mythology etc will find elements from those systems in dreams. I pay special attention to what could be perceived as symbols from those systems when they re-occur in clients’ dreams.

Ok, I feel myself having gone off on a bit of a tangent with that last tip. So let’s get back on track with tip number 6! Dreams as “secret weapons.” There are wonderful stories of great discoveries coming from dreams: think Einstein’s theory of relativity, the sewing machine, symphonies and many others from some of the greatest brains of all time. During my research study, participants were asked to solve a question or current problem. All of the participants did except for one (who also said they didn’t want to work on that) and many of the participants answered more than one question or solved more than one problem. The unconscious part of our brain contains a mostly untapped resource of inspiration that can be so helpful if you know where to find it (that’s where I come in to help you find it!!!)

Tip number 7 addresses the idea that dream work can improve relationships. Yes. It. Can.  Not only do group members feel connection and a sense of cohesion between group members, but this attitude seeps into their relationships outside the dream group. Participants find themselves really listening to other people and they also find themselves paying more attention to nuance (as we do in the dream group process). Additionally, the dream group process lends itself to being a type of experiential training on “how to empathise” without ever stating that as a goal. As soon as someone imagines someone’s dream being their own, they automatically step into someone else’s shoes and imagine what that dream would be like if it were their own!

And last but not least: Tip number 8. This one was really hard to find a succinct way to describe it for the toolkit, and so I’m grateful I have more space to explain what I meant. I ran dream groups in inpatient treatment centres for addiction, (and actually there will be an article coming out on my work during that time in an academic journal in 2022,) but one of the benefits to doing dream work in any kind of community setting is that relations in the community setting improve. The reason for this is perhaps obvious: problems within the community or system emerge in people’s dreams. Then the community has an opportunity to work on the “problem” as symbolised in the dream. As the community works on the dream, they are indirectly working on the problem; as they own their projections onto the dream aka the problem, the problem starts to melt away and the community comes to a consensus. It can be a very healing and powerful experience. 

So that’s it. There are many more tips and tricks but this is a great beginning. Stay tuned for an opportunity to work with me individually as you begin your journey towards the facilitation of dream work. Healing through dreaming!

1. Set an intention before going to sleep to remember your dreams. 

This may sound obvious or simplistic or not even necessary, but intention is powerful. If you have ever set an intention to wake up before your alarm, and you woke up before your alarm woke you up, then you will appreciate this tip!

2. If you wake up in the night for any reason, try to remember what you were dreaming about.

Give your dream memory a name. It doesn’t matter if it’s a recollection of a short dream, just name it. You will be likely to remember the name in the morning, and it will trigger a memory of the dream.

3. When you wake up in the morning, don’t talk to anyone and write or voice record your dreams. As soon as we place our attention elsewhere, our dreams can dissipate back into the ether. 

4. If you have trouble remembering your dreams when you wake, put yourself into your typical sleeping position: you know the one! This will ignite what is known as state associated memory, and there is a good chance a flicker of a dream will return. 

5. If you are remembering fragments of dreams, that’s a good start. If you know your dreams are longer, don’t let the memory of mere fragments dissuade you from writing them down. Trust that your psyche remembers what it needs to remember.

Regular meditation has been on my list of things to do for a long time. Well known benefits of meditation include providing a sense of peace, relaxation and a greater level of self-awareness to those engaging in the discipline. I decided to make it the basis for my self-management project or an attempt to make behavioral change. This blog entry provides a review of the project and includes a description of the reinforcers used, results of the intervention, and a discussion about the outcome. The blog examines the role of meditation as a treatment for substance abuse, in addition to explaining why the behaviour was chosen.

The Chosen Behaviour

In the year 2000, I met a Swami from India at a local yoga studio. During hot summer days in Santa Monica, we would meet for tea and attempt to solve the problems of the world. Mostly we would discuss my problems! It was not long before I realized the Swami had one answer for my problems, and it was always the same answer: meditation. He insisted I meditate for ten minutes in the morning, and ten minutes in the evening. He assured me my problems would resolve themselves. I did not listen to him. Maybe I preferred a life of problems. However, I participated in meditation retreats, and loved the experience of several days in silence with the occasional hours spent listening to my “drunken monkey mind”: a phrase donated by a previous therapist. I enjoyed the sense of peace which pervaded my soul and put regular meditation on my list of things to do. 

In my work as a drug and alcohol counsellor, I encouraged meditation as a routine practice that helps support relapse prevention. Since much of relapse happens unconsciously, the act of placing the attention with intention can seep into one’s everyday life. Automatic thoughts or unconscious behaviours might be more apparent if one makes it a regular practice to focus one’s attention with intention. Personally, I had not been diligent enough to add meditation to my own routine. Consequently, it was still on the list when we were given this project. I was excited to begin my meditation practice.

Baseline

I began my diary with two meditation sessions a day: one at 7am for ten minutes, and the other at 10pm for ten minutes. Meditation was operationalized as the sitting down in a room with eyes closed. I focused on my breath going in and out, while paying attention to my thoughts. I refocused my attention on my breath whenever I felt my attention drift. During the first three weeks I meditated five times out of a possible 42. The result was disappointing, but exciting because I hoped with the use of interventions, my performance could only improve.

The Interventions

According to and in response to the provided instructions for the project, I chose five interventions. The interventions were mini Snickers, Milky Way both dark and milk, mini Twix and mini Baby Ruths. I decided I would start with the chocolates I liked least and work my way up to Twix if I needed a boost. Unfortunately, the mini Twix did not even work, so I changed the intervention and ate the chocolate before meditating instead of afterwards. This did not improve results. One Sunday, I was fed up and ate the remainder of the giant bag of mini chocolates. The following Monday, interventions were clarified and I realized I needed five totally different interventions.

I started to set an alarm especially for meditation. I set the alarm ten minutes early in the morning and I set it to ring in the evenings. Most of the time, I switched off the alarm. In the morning, I snoozed the alarm and mostly went back to sleep. 

My next intervention involved setting reminders on my iPad. They are very loud and impossible to ignore. I set a visual alert in addition to a sound alert. Unfortunately, I found out there was an on/off button for the auditory alert, and I “learned” to shut down my ipad before 10pm, so as not to be reminded visually.

As I glanced over my data, I noticed that I made a habit of walking the pups at meditation time. I tried changing their walk times to accommodate meditation. This was unsuccessful, as the pups would invariably want to walk on their schedule not mine. My meditation schedule was consequently not enforced.

As time went by and my morale started to disintegrate, I wondered about the way in which I help my clients to change their behaviour. I encourage them to balance all areas of life, and change multiple areas to support their primary behavioural change. I began to wonder if that would help. Unfortunately, this wonderment began after the five weeks were finished. 

I did improve my percentage of sessions in meditation during the intervention stage versus the baseline stage. I meditated 12% of the time during the baseline phase and 18% of the time with the interventions. The results were disappointing and made me think about my job as a counsellor.

The Hypocrisy

There is a suggestion that one can only take their clients where one has been themselves. I felt like a fraud. How could I show my face at work? The thought irked me. After the experiment was over, and the pressure to perform was relieved, I decided to change other areas of my life.

I changed my diet and lowered my intake of carbohydrates, especially the empty calories and especially the chocolate. I tried to get myself into a regular exercise routine beyond walking the pups. I went to bed at the same time each night and got up slightly earlier. I began to feel better. And then I began to meditate. Since the experiment has been over, I meditate once or twice a day with few exceptions. I learned the importance of balance, and the importance of changing areas of life that will support an overall healthier lifestyle.

Meditation as a Treatment for Substance Abuse

Interestingly enough, there were not as many studies done on the subject of mindfulness or meditation in the last five years as I expected. Jon Kabat-Zinn (2005) defines mindfulness as ‘‘moment to moment nonjudgmental awareness cultivated by paying attention in a specific way, that is, in the present moment, and as non-judgmentally and as openheartedly as possible’’ (p. 108).  O’Connell, an Australian psychiatrist wrote of his experiences in an acute dual-diagnosis unit for substance abuse. He defined addiction as “the absence of mindfulness” (2009, p.150) and made strong recommendations for a mindfulness centered treatment for chemical dependency.

Brewer conducted studies on the benefits of mindfulness training particularly for people struggling with Major Depressive Disorders (MDD) or Substance Abuse Disorders (SUD). Brewer (2012) cites one of the major benefits of mindfulness training as “the placement of attention on the immediate experience” (p. 130). The study also showed that the benefits of mindfulness training emerged due to the subject engaging the experience in an open, curious way (Brewer, 2012).

The Challenges in Changing Behaviour

Changing any kind of behaviour is no minor task. Human beings are creatures of habit making daily decisions based on what they know and have always done. If one thinks that behaviour is mostly learned, this theory makes sense. Presumably all one needs to do is retrain the brain; this is easier said than done. Flora (2012) conducted a study in Greece in 2012 with 46 adults in treatment for substance abuse. She tried to help people become better agents of change by working on changing their underlying schemas. She had little success either with changing people’s schemas or their narratives (Flora, 2012).

Flora (2012) did not explore the idea of self-efficacy in her study. Others have looked at self-efficacy, amongst them Ilgen. In 2007, Ilgen conducted a study with 2350 people who were attempting sobriety. Ilgen (2007) discovered that certain traits made some people more likely to stay sober than others. “ Because of the close relationship between self-efficacy and treatment outcomes, providers may want to target patients with low self-efficacy for interventions” (p.126). This study was also impressive because he was actually able to find such a big sample of people claiming a year’s sobriety.

Conclusion

Although the experiment for me to add a twice daily meditation session was difficult, I learned a great deal through the process. I learned to have more empathy and compassion for my clients addicted to substance or process. I found it difficult to add a behaviour without the neurochemical complications inherent in addiction. It made me realize what an uphill struggle change can be, and also gave me insight into why few people want to work in a field with few success stories.

My research on the subject validated that meditation helps people become more self-aware and consequently better equipped to deal with potential relapse scenarios. The experiment and research also validated that a multi-modal plan of treatment is likely to have a better outcome. As Aristotle said, “moderation in all things;” maybe he would have had more success at adding meditation to his daily routine than I had.

And why did I add this story to my blog on this website? Mainly because of the importance of a consistent meditation practice alongside a tending to the dream world. Meditation assists in the attention paid to dreams at night. As I pay attention to my thoughts during the day, I pay attention to my dreams at night. The more self-aware I am, the more likely I am to have a lucid dream.

Let the behavioural change begin…

References

Brewer, J. A., Elwafi, H. M., & Davis, J. H. (2012). Craving to quit: Psychological models and neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness training as treatment for addictions. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, doi: 10.1037/a0028490

Flora, K. (2012). Recovery from substance abuse: A narrative approach to understanding the motivation and ambivalence about change. Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions, 12(3), 302-315. doi: 10.1080/1533256X.2012.702630

Ilgen, M. (20070101). Personal and treatment-related predictors of abstinence self-efficacy. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 68(1)

Kabat-Zinn, J. (2005). Coming to our senses. (1^st ed.). New York: Hyperion.

O’Connell, O. (2009). Introducing mindfulness as an adjunct treatment in an established residential drug and alcohol facility. The Humanistic Psychologist, 37(2), 178-191. doi: 10.1080/08873260902892162

         Empathy is defined in the Oxford dictionary as “the ability to understand another person’s feelings, experience, etc..” Healing comes not just from an understanding of feelings, but from an ability to communicate such an understanding. We would call this communication “an empathic response.” In the moment of receiving an empathic response, one feels seen and heard. The experience of feeling seen and heard is validating and experienced as therapeutic. For those unaccustomed to feeling seen and heard, it also provides a corrective emotional experience: yet another facet of healing.

         When people engage in psychotherapy, empathy is a primary tool used by therapists. The therapist attunes to their client and empathic responses provide balm to an aching heart. The client feels seen and heard and benefits psychologically from such an interaction. At the heart of humanistic psychology is the tenet of empathy. Clients are met where they are at and they are held by the therapist in a container filled with unconditional positive regard. This container also has ample empathy along with other tools like validation and the therapist uses all these tools in generous measure. Carl Rogers founded humanistic psychology, and in On Becoming a Person (1961) he writes, “And with clients in therapy, I am often impressed with the fact that even a minimal amount of empathic understanding – a bumbling and faulty attempt to catch the confused complexity of the client’s meaning – is helpful” (p. 53). As a therapist, I can relate to the “bumbling and faulty” attempts at empathising with another human. What I have found is that most often it does not matter if I’m totally on point or off by a little; ultimately it was the fact I cared enough to try to understand that is experienced as healing.

         From the research I conducted at the beginning of the year, I was also impressed by the role empathy played in the healing experienced by dream group participants. It’s rare that we find people willing to listen to our dreams, and I find in general, it is a realm not often shared. Our dream worlds remain a private often unexplored territory. Even during therapy, clients rarely volunteer their dream unless it was something very unpleasant. As part of my research, I facilitated four dream groups and during each session one participant would share a dream. The rest of the group members wrote down the dream, asked follow-up questions about the dream and then told the group what this dream would mean to them if it were their dream. The dreamer would inevitably be able to relate to some of these projections by group members. After sharing feedback the group members asked the dreamer questions about waking context, and very often stories would emerge from the dreamer’s waking life. Sometimes the dreamer anticipated the connection, and sometimes they did not. What struck me though was the degree to which the majority of dream group participants felt seen and heard. They felt seen and heard so intensely because what was revealed during the process was not always obvious. In psychotherapy, I empathise mostly with what is revealed in a narrative from the conscious mind; in dream work, empathy or deep understanding is applied to unconscious material, or to that which is not yet known. Now that’s powerful!

So what is group dream work? Well, it’s a space where people from all walks of life come together and appreciate one dream at a time. Appreciations of the dream content are unpacked one layer at a time. Each group participant accepts the dream as if it were their own, and appreciates it, or projects onto it. It doesn’t matter if a projection is “right” or “wrong.” It’s a little bit like yoga or meditation: you can’t do it wrong!

The dreamer absorbs all the projections. The co-dreamers own parts of their own experience, which can include conscious or shadow material. The experience is rich, revealing and enhances a sense of connection between group members. There is an excitement brought to the night-time world of dreams and dreaming. Anticipation is in turn brought to the dream group, and group participants feel free to exert their experience and imagination.

Following the projections from co-dreamers onto the dream of the session, questions are asked to establish any links between the dream and waking life of the dreamer. The process goes deeper, or as the facilitator (yours truly) would encourage the co-dreamers to “get nosey.” Deep connections were made not only between the dreamers, but also between the dreamer and their dream.

In subsequent weeks, dreamers would find themselves in each other’s dreams. In the moment the dreamer owned the dream as their own, they seemed to open a possibility for re-entering that dream space. This experience served to reinforce connection and increase empathy between dream members. It was also experienced as “mystical” or “trippy” by those who found themselves immersed in another’s dream space.

Group participants found they felt more empowered to deal with nightmares. This emerged in part because group members realised dreams come in “the spirit of health and wholeness” a term coined by Jeremy Taylor. Nightmares wake us up to the possibility we have an important matter at hand, something which requires our attention. Group participants also experienced other ways in which they could work with their dream content to make any challenging aspects easier to look at…

All in all, it’s been an incredible journey. I found myself humbled by 25 humans willing to share the workings of their inner night-time world; a place that is rarely experienced by other humans. A time of deep introspection that many shrug of as “it’s just a dream.” I speak for the group of 25 dreamers when I say it may have been “just a dream” but the unpacking of multiple layers of dream space led to many insights, realisations and a deeper appreciation for the dream world.

There are two different types of sleep: REM sleep and non-REM sleep.  In REM sleep, the body in terms of breathing rate, blood pressure and heart rate match those of an awake person, but the muscles are frozen and there is rapid eye movement.  Another name for REM sleep is “paradoxical sleep” for obvious reasons (Berstein, p. 178, 2006).

There are four different stages of sleep characterized by progressively slowing brain waves.  If one is woken up while in the deepest stage of sleep, or stage four, then one would be very dazed and bewildered.  People pass through the four stages of sleep between four and six times.  In the beginning of the night, there is less REM sleep, and then as the night progresses there is more REM sleep and mostly stage two sleep.  This continues until the sleeper wakes up (Bernstein, 2006).

Nightmares are also classified by the Berstein (2006) as a “sleep disorder” (p. 199).  They affect REM sleep and occur often as a symptom of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  People returning from war may be plagued by nightmares for years.  A more intense kind of nightmare called a “night terror” occurs during stage four of sleep.  These night terrors are differentiated from nightmares not only because of the different stage of sleep affected, but also by the way in which people awake from them: people may scream and be frightened for a period of time afterwards.  Sleepwalking can occur in non-REM sleep and affects children who mostly grow out of it (Bernstein, 2006).

While humans are in REM sleep, surprisingly perhaps a lot of energy is used, and more oxygen is used when in REM than when awake.  This might then go against the argument that a major function of sleep and dreaming is to replenish and renew.  A theory that neuroscientists struggle with is that there is value for humans in processing events of the day.  “REM sleep is a fundamental cognitive activity.  It is the place where people can engage in imaginary play, trying out different scenarios, learning new possibilities” (Varela, 1997, p. 35).  The author (1997) notes this belief mirrors an understanding of dreams held by psychoanalysts; “dreaming provides a space where you don’t just cope with immediacy, but instead can reimagine, reconceive, reconceptualize” (Varela, p. 35).

More recent studies on dreams and dreaming have been focused on the memory aspect of dreaming.  Llewellyn (2013) argues that “the stuff of dreams is the stuff of memory” (p. 1).   The author examines the function of sleep and dreaming as primarily one of organizing memory. “Sleep promotes primarily the consolidation of memory, whereas memory encoding and retrieval take place most effectively during waking” (Llewellyn, 2013, p. 16).  Dreaming allows for the consolidation of memory to take place.

Although everybody dreams, not everybody remembers his or her dreams.  In dreams which are recalled, very often there is an intense level of emotion running through the dream.  It is as if the heightened emotion serves to help one remember the dream.  “Neuroimaging has confirmed the importance of the amygdala in heightened emotional response and, subsequent, improved retention (Llewellyn, 2013, p. 21).  Neuroimaging also suggests that the involvement of the amygdala, limbic and paralimbic regions, and anterior cingulate cortex “during REM dreaming may support emotionally intelligent elaborative encoding” (Llewellyn, 2013, p. 21).

In the book Dialogues of Plato, Socrates is talking to Theaetetus. Socrates opens a discussion about how can one tell the difference between being awake and dreaming. Theaetetus answers Socrates’ question by saying “I do not know how to prove the one any more than the other, for in both cases the facts precisely correspond; and there is no difficulty in supposing that during all this discussion we have been talking to one another in a dream” (Plato, 1952, p. 521). Socrates validates Theaetetus’ logic, and adds that perception is not reliable, and so perhaps in their attempt to define “knowledge,” the correct answer is not “perception.” Socrates attributes the function of discernment to the soul, and says that the experiences of dreaming or of being awake are equally valid: “in either sphere of existence the soul contends that the thoughts which are present to our minds at the time are true; and during one half of our lives we affirm the truth of the one, and, during the other half, of the other, and are equally confident of both” (Plato, 1952, p.521). Socrates adds that it is the same in mental disorders, only the length of time is different! 

Aristotle had no interest in Plato’s question about perception as it related to dreams or knowledge. Aristotle was the first philosopher to attempt to classify and understand dreams and their function. Aristotle acknowledged that if the act of sleep is observed in humans as well as animals, then it must be necessary to survival. “If waking is the contrary of sleeping, and one of these two must be present to every animal: it must follow that the state of sleeping is necessary” (Aristotle, 1952, p. 697). 

On the subject of dreams, Aristotle questioned where they came from. He questioned how humans could have the experience of seeing things with their eyes closed. “If all creatures, when the eyes are closed in sleep, are unable to see; we may conclude that it is not by sense- perception we perceive a dream” (Aristotle, 1952, p. 702). Aristotle attributed an ability to dream as part of experiencing an illusion. He attempts to address the idea of illusion by suggesting one place two crossed fingers on one object (like the nose). In that moment, it feels like one has two noses. Aristotle suggested that if the brain can be tricked into thinking that it has two noses, then it can perceive dreams as reality: “when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is a dream. If however, he is not aware of being asleep, there is nothing which will contradict the testimony of the bare presentation” (Aristotle, 1952, p. 706). In other words, Aristotle believed that when we were perceiving nothing externally via the senses, we would dream internally. 

Rene Descartes was the next major philosopher to be curious about how humans could know with certainty that in the present moment, he or she was not dreaming. “I have in sleep been deceived by similar illusions, and in dwelling carefully on this reflection I see so manifestly that there are no certain indications by which we may clearly distinguish wakefulness from sleep that I am lost in astonishment” (Descartes, 1952, p. 76). Descartes is so astonished that he realizes he could believe he was dreaming while awake. He is painfully aware of the fine line between a dream state and an awake state. He is also aware that this questioning or at least belief in the illusion is at the heart of madness, something both Plato and Aristotle allude to in their intellectual meanderings. Later philosophers will challenge Descartes on whether dreams are a figment of the imagination or as Descartes experienced them: an experience difficult to tease out from real life. 

Neuroscience brings us to new awareness regarding dreams and sleep. Currently, there is greater understanding about sleep states as they affect brain structures and mood than dream states affecting either one. However, developments in neuroscience bring us closer to understanding why Freud was onto something when he developed his theory of the unconscious and dream interpretation. Discoveries in neuroscience help validate what Freud could only imagine, and what experience from working with humans taught him. 

Aristotle might have been wrong about dreams providing little to interpret, but he was right with his understanding about how they helped sort out events of the day. The early philosophers spent much time questioning what is real; they wondered if dream states might put our so called reality states into question. They mused on the difference between dream states and hallucinations in the madman and asked if there were differences? 

Today is accepted that dream states are just that, and waking states are just that, and mad men live more in a dream state than a waking state. How do we know? We ask if the dream state is persecutory. If it is, then it is likely content of a hallucinatory nature. Today, we are interested in the neuroscience behind sleep states and mood states; we query brain processes like memory, perception and imagination. In the journey to better understand dream states through neuroscience, we come across an attempt to define consciousness from a neurobiological perspective. We are getting closer to understanding dreaming from a neuro- scientific perspective, but still have some distance to cover. 

So why am I writing about dreams; what is their purpose? There are different ideas floating around about the function of dreams. The idea that dreams help sort through the information of the day and categorize  events into long-term memory seems to be a popular idea. Additionally, dreams allow us to work out conflicts from the unconscious mind which positively affects our conscious mind. Dreams are one step ahead of the game, and can often help us in decision making, or problem solving.

I personally am interested in dream work, because of the inner work that can be accomplished. If dream-work helps to integrate the unconscious mind, bringing an active participation with our dream world will help us on the outside with the workings and functionality of the conscious mind. Dreams often bring aspects of our repressed personality out, and give us an opportunity to re-integrate them into our being. If one believes that psychological conflict breeds symptoms, then surely resolution of inner conflict will lessen the symptoms. 

I have been keeping a dream journal consistently for about the last five years. I give the dream a name that will differentiate it from other dreams. I keep the narrative in the present tense. I write the dream on the left-hand side page, and use the page on the right-hand side for working with the dream. I will provide exercises on how to “work with the dream” in upcoming blogs.

Feel free to post questions about dreams on this blog, and I will also address those in upcoming blogs. I am preparing to start an online dream group. It will be held on Zoom and we will work with one dream per session. Feel free to contact me, or to subscribe to my blog if you are interested in participating in future groups.

Happy Dreaming!