Personal message and experience
I have been preparing for this article since the first year I discovered dreams as a means of communication in 2017. At that time, I did not plan to publish anything. I was only collecting notes from studies, which were mainly conducted by the teachers listed at the end of this article. I asked about dreams of anyone – friends, colleagues from work, people who showed at least some interest in personal development – but especially my clients who underwent “my” psychological analysis. I always collected material and ran after Master Pjér and sometimes Emil Páleš. Dreams thus began to be a central theme of our and my sessions, so the theme especially showed itself in my studies! I gathered experience and answers to my questions. As the notes were gathered and the experiences deepened, I felt frustrated that I did not seem to understand dreams at all. But through all of this journey were also deep feelings of gratitude that made me cry when I saw my progress. However, I didn’t feel worthy to publish anything about dreams until I collected over 2,000 of my own dreams and several hundred from other people. Only now do I attempt to complete this study.
I honestly don’t know if I can say anything new other than what has already been mentioned by masters in this field. This hesitancy was actually another obstacle that was preventing me from writing. I didn’t want to just rewrite something someone had written before me. In the end, I am satisfied that this work is a brief, modernized summary of textbooks (see below), plus my additional knowledge. If it helps to make information accessible to today’s modern man, so that he or she gains more insight about this topic, my efforts will not be in vain. I accept that my main task is to point out the importance of dreams in our time, and that this article will probably not be something terribly new for experts in the field. However, maybe even they can draw something new, both from this article and from three others, which I have titled Deep dreams and their message to the current time, Dream analysis, and Dreams as a way to the unconscious & symbolic speech.
If you have opened this article, the title of which bears mention of a dream, then this phenomenon must be of interest to you. It’s not a topic that I’d consider to be worthy of most people’s attention, but maybe I’m wrong. Who knows. Maybe more people than I realize also believe that dreams as ideals are the engine of civilization. I would venture to say that the ideals of our lives that attract us help us to get out of bed each day, and help keep us alive. Now when I say dreams in this sense, I mean dreams that are conscious to us – wishes, desires, goals. For the most part, these are dreams similar to the “American” one, which I propose, concerns more material ascension. Basically this value is about one’s own self-focused well-being and cunning over others; it’s not about the whole – it’s about my ego. On the contrary, for example, the Buddhist perspective of dream tends to value all beings in the universe to be happy. It is a completely spiritual ascension. These differences in perspective can be seen in various lifestyle values and concepts of wealth and attention in general.
In this article, the main focuses are on Buddhist wealth, and on immediate activity – a phenomenon that happens by itself when we dream during sleep. Dreams undoubtedly have a huge impact on us, just like narcotics. At the beginning of my discovery of this phenomenon, I had no idea how hugely impactful dreams are on us. We may notice that sometimes after waking up we are annoyed or perhaps feeling satisfied. There doesn’t even have to be comprehension of what happened in the dream; the feelings from those dreams have a general impact on us in ways that change a state of consciousness! Given the fact that dreams have a huge effect upon us, if attention is given to the dream message, and if at least a little understanding comes along with it, it can be greatly encouraging to the observer. That’s the moment when one feels connected with all. I do not know of a more uplifting feeling than the one that comes after understanding a dream! Not only my experience confirms that a dream has a stronger impact than narcotics. Narcotics are able to awaken a man and initiate a person into the whole universe; but when they pass, they bring a user back to his or her normal state or to even a lower state of being. Contrastly, dreams seem to be a much more natural way to the unconscious, and addiction to them does not return us to the start. On the contrary, they move us and help us realize some connections, the significance of events. They point the way out of one’s sorrows and pain in such precision that one cannot independently invent. They even show where the path does not lead, so one has a choice for one’s experience and can influence it. They allow us to see specific unconscious contents, something that was not known to us until then. Therefore through listening to and understanding them, we can live a fuller life.
Where the dream comes from
I have to share synchronicity here. When I first started to finalize this work, people with dreams started to come to me. I sometimes work with people without analyzing their dreams. But other times a lot of my work involves exploring dreams with people. And in the time of writing this article, I have to say, I’m analyzing dreams with people now more than ever before. Dreams are all around me now. To make matters more indicational, as I am writing this article, our family cat is lying on my desk. I have been watching her while writing, and over this time she seems to be sleeping quite deeply, because she is obviously dreaming. She moves with her paws as if she were scurrying somewhere. Sometimes she shakes her head and mumbles something feline. Her body makes processes relevant to her movements that happen during a normal awake state, but she is not here mentally! So where is she?
The necessary step to answer this question is to put aside any prejudice! So I invite you to postpone them! Let’s try to move away from what we think. This discipline will support this reading and, if we are brave, it will help us to keep in mind that we as individuals are relatively small in light of the infinite universe. For once, let’s start with what we really know, or rather, how dreaming seems to us. Let’s start with something basic. What really is, what seems to be, can only be something that is not constant and linear. No one really knows where we came from and where we will go again, so we can assume for at least five minutes that we know nothing about ourselves and everything around us. This basic attitude will help us uncover other worlds of the universe. I am slow and reluctant to write the universe into this context because it might seem that we can somehow appropriate that it is ours; but what if we are his – His creation? What if it’s both at the same time – that we are also the creators of the universe? What if the inner is the outer, and the outer is the inner, and we are the center of both? I would say that this is a relatively distant notion of the modern man’s conception of life. Although it seems complicated, the real often moves to the diametrically opposite end of the conscious position.
What does all this have to do with a dream or dreams?
These things can be said by a dream, but cannot be understood by a biased mind – prejudices. To understand it, we cannot bring our rational views into it! We have to have an open mind for new information. This is doubly true of a dream message, because a dream comes from a space that has completely different parameters than our physical one! It comes from an unknown space where there are no physical laws, let alone human ones. To understand a dream, we must first listen. Our consciousness exists and moves in a three-dimensional world. We call it 3 dimensional because we have height, width and length. It is a material world that is perceived by time – past, present and future. We have three possibilities of view. In this trinity always lies symbolism of movement, because a minimum of two poles are needed to move. This is why it is said that we live in a dual world, the basis of the trinity. This perception is the starting point for consciousness.
But when we dream, we move in a space that is at least four-dimensional! There is everything in the three-dimensional world, plus the fourth view, which combines all this into one. In a dream, we can be anyone and anything from the past, future and present in one person. In one moment we are a small child, and in an instant we are a grandfather or whoever, whatever. We can also move in a similar landscape, which can also be thus changeable. We can travel through time. We simply turn around and we’re somewhere else. In the dream we are simply in unity, and that forms eternity. We experience everything at least in the 4th dimensional world, and this is an impractical and often frustrating idea for the mind, because eternity is not completely normal in our conscious world. Jung, as well as the author of the ancient writings of I Ching, note that quaternity is the archetype of wholeness. For example – 4 cardinal directions, 4 psychological functions; a mandala, a wheel, a globe, and a ball all have a natural distribution in quaternity. And this is just the starting point of the dream world! Apparently dreams have no limit!
According to Buddhist teachings, dreams are the gateway to the sacred temple. The temple is a sacred place and symbolically associated with an essential element – the self. A teacher of Buddhism, Tenzin Wangyal of Rinpoche, says that there is no better way to understand ourselves and the life situation in which we find ourselves than in a dream. Understanding dreams helps spiritual development, as well as physical and mental resilience. No wonder why not only Jung has dedicated a huge part of his work to dreams.
According to Greek mythology, Morpheus is the god of dreaming. (An imaginative name for a movie character). His twin Thanatos is the god of death. Their father is Hypnos, who is the god of sleep. In other words, sleep is ignorance, so as Andrew Holecek says: It is ignorance that gives birth to dreaming and death. That’s when I understood what he was saying! When we transcend our ignorance, we surpass both of Hypnosis’ sons – dream and death. The symbol of Jesus could be this image – the one who woke up enough to be able to resurrect. (I refer to the symbol of the Self – the image of Jesus, not to the historical person himself, see article – Dreams as a way to the unconscious & symbolic speech.
Here is a suitable dream that illustrates the exact relationship of the trio of Hypnos, Morpheus and Thanatos. I have briefly shortened Jung’s dream here. You can find the full version in Aniela Jaffé – Memories, Dreams, Reflections C.G. Jung, {page 195. Czech version, possible to find in Eng. version at the beginning of the chapter – III Student Years} – Aniela Jaffé – Memories, Dreams, Reflections C.G.Jung.
“It was night in some unknown place, and I was making slow and painful headway against a mighty wind. Dense fog was flying along everywhere. I had my hands cupped around a tiny light which threatened to go out at any moment. Everything depended on my keeping this little light alive. Suddenly I had the feeling that something was coming up behind me. I looked back, and saw a gigantic black figure following me. But at the same moment I was conscious, in spite of my terror, that I must keep my little light going through night and wind, regardless of all dangers.”
“I knew, too, that this little light was my consciousness, the only light I have. My own understanding is the sole treasure I possess, and the greatest. Though infinitely small and fragile in comparison with the powers of darkness, it is still alight, my only light. This dream was a great illumination for me. Now I knew that No. 1 was the bearer of the light, and that No. 2 followed him like a shadow.”
I don’t want to go into details here because it would impinge on the article itself. Instead, here I’ll touch briefly on the archetypal dreams – deep dreams and their message to the current time. Jung in fact perceived himself as both personality No. 1, who represents consciousness, and as Personality No. 2, which represents the soul. This dream strikes me as describing the god Hypnos, since this energy is ubiquitous. I would compare it on this occasion to the powers of darkness (but not to anything negative!, not to Shadow). As Jung writes in his dream – taking care of one’s only light (the process of awareness) is his only possible liberation.
The message of dreams
Dreams are the most intimate and authentic message we can ever receive. They are sent to us by our personality No. 2, the inner master, the deity. These are always messages that the conscious mind is not aware of. It oxidizes our ego, which has no place in the dream. The ego can’t go that deep. Dreams are by no means just our unconscious desires, as Freud writes; they are objectively natural mental events. We cannot control dreams without reaching spiritually deep. In that case, we are able to use the information given us to understand the whole, which can take us to a much higher dimension than in our material one. Matías De Stefano says that in the eight-dimensional world, we can get any answer to our question. We can get any information we enter, because every dream is a message. If we specifically have dreams in which we receive answers to our questions, the old alchemists would say we are talking to the deity. At this stage, one must dream consciously, so-called lucid dreaming. {Lucid dreams are dreams in which we are aware that we are dreaming. So we have free will, as in the conscious state, and we are in a dream where we can do so-called anything, or such is the mantra – I can do anything, it’s just a dream}. Such dreams are called initiation dreams in deep psychology, and not all of them must be lucid. These initiation dreams are simply dreams in which we have the opportunity to talk to the spirit. He often manifests in dreams as a sage, fairy, or shaman, but also as water, or another natural element, or another mythical being who initiates into the mystery of life. The following is an example of a young lady who did not dream lucidly, but was strongly influenced by this dream after waking up.
“I was in a large living room that sailed across the ocean. An old man with white hair in an older cap was there with me. He had huge, fat hands. He was saying something wise. He narrated and I was listening to him. When I woke up, I felt filled and revived. ”
We thoroughly analyzed this dream and thanks to Pjér, I learned a lot from it. The analysis helped the client to realize her temperament in communication, which is represented by giant hands, which are a communication symbol. She saw the compensatory image of herself in the way she only listens in a dream and her counterpart only speaks. This is the classic scenario of compensation, whose task is to be united, the desire of the soul. The dream thus balances conscious one-sidedness and thus heals. Another visible element is in the initiation of how nature affects us, and this is symbolized by the old man who brings the message.
The old man or sage is usually a helper in fairy tales. He helps in trouble, gives advice and guidance. This symbol represents the concentration of spiritual strength and determination to reflect. However, most importantly, it introduces truly objective thinking. It represents the archetype of wisdom and our unconscious desire to be whole and conscious. In such cases, it is important how the dreamer is open to an unconscious content. I want to point out that even here the old man introduces the client to some issue, but she does not remember the content of the message after waking up. This is a classic example of how dilapidated our transcendent function is, our bridge to unconscious content. Another example is a series of dreams that I recently analyzed with another of my clients. This series of her dreams was telling her about her real situation and where her real cause comes from. Only on the basis of these dreams was she able to abandon her view and conscious opinion that had previously prevented her from admitting these facts.
I hear dreams and get emails from people with similar attachment – “I dream about this and that”, “Such a stupid dream!” Or so “Meaningless! Dumb! Foolish!” Ego immediately breaks down the bridge that would connect us with our soul. Ego does not like to listen to dreams, because dreams are narrators of the truth, and they say what we do not often want to see and hear. The ego does not want to be awakened because Ego represents ignorance (the mentioned god Hypnos). So being aware of dreams, let alone working with them, appeals to our natural passion for ignorance. The old sage/man’s counterpart in this case is the ego, which is dumb, stupid and ignorant. So in the beginning, it’s a lot about taking any dream seriously. Approach dreams as they are, and do not take away their importance, even though we may not understand them. Because if we admit that our inner master sends dreams it’s unfortunate we don’t treat such messages with more respect.
Why we dream
Certain facts are too strong for us to deal with on a conscious level, so we must process them in an unconscious state, in dreams, in deep sleep. For example, when Jesus led his twelve apostles into the Garden of Gethsemane and asked them to stay awake and watch with him, they could not. They fell into unconsciousness. In this example it is visible that the strong consciousness is one that has a steadily developed transcendent function – it is firmly rooted in the unconscious.
So the dream moves at such depths that could be considered our psychic home. Dreaming is the source of our being, it is a dimension that transcends consciousness far beyond. This can also be seen in the story that Pjér himself told me, and perhaps he mentioned the story somewhere in one of his lectures on dreams.
“The researchers conducted research with people who were connected to an EEG and woke them up at the time of REM sleep, the time a person begins to dream. Then they let them sleep again. Although people had all their needs met, after about 4 days, they all showed signs of disorientation, disintegration, and loss of overall ability to perform any physical and mental activity. After 4 days, the experiment had to be terminated. This was different for the primate research, which ran in parallel and continued despite the observation of the same symptoms as in humans. After about 7 days, the animals started to die.”
The experiment shows that everyone must dream. It’s like going to our source where we connect to it. That’s how the story appealed to me for the first time and still does. So the dream is an essential part of our existence. Even if we do not pay attention to it, even if we do nothing about it, it happens. This also explains that there is another type of consciousness that is not bound to consciousness. There must be some relationship here, but it is a question of whether it is ignored or if attention is paid to it. Dreaming is a space like any other in that, if we pay attention to it, it opens up to us, and introduces us to what it is. Obviously, there are parallels with a conscious existence, as the sleeping cat shows us. Neither the brain nor the body distinguishes between the dream and the conscious state. If we run in a dream, the body performs the same movement as in real running. Any movement in the dream causes tightening and relaxation of the inner muscles.
What is a dream
Buddhism perceives life as a preparation for death, and only when we die does the journey begin. It assumes that dreaming is the primary state, and therefore pays more attention to dreams than to what happens during the day. For them, the waking state is the state where we are asleep the most because we move through a three-dimensional world. On the contrary, the space that happens at night while we dream opens gates to a certain reality. Similarly, Native Americans perceive a dream as a small death. You don’t know if you will wake up again in the morning from a space where the soul is free again without physical restraint, like after death.
Dreams are the voice of nature. And as this nature has prepared us to experience physically and mentally to live this life to the fullest, so It also informs us that we can live according to our destiny. Nature was and is preparing us best for this present moment. A dream always says what it is. You can’t invent it! The dream speaks the symbolic language of the soul. This speech contains the history of humanity and probably the history of the whole universe.
At the end of this chapter, I dare to summarize what I have come up with and why dreaming is the basic state of a person. Our consciousness must rest. But dreaming does not come only in the form of a dream, and it exists whether we are aware of it or not (lucid or unconscious dreaming). When we look at the sky during the day, the stars are not visible there, but they are there – they just can’t be seen. They are eclipsed by sunlight and so it is with dreaming. As our sun rises in the sky, so too we live only in consciousness. But that does not mean that there is no unconscious behind it – the same as with those stars. Synchronicity, coincidences, floods of emotions, any uncontrollability, fatigue are all clear signs of the unconscious, which has tremendous power over consciousness. So this unconscious, which produces dreaming, is active permanently! Dreaming is clearly a permanent state of man. We just don’t realize it, just as we can’t see those stars! The fact that I can reflect on this during the so-called dreaming at night, when the element of consciousness is not active, is a gift and a way to wake up to a true dream called reality. Consciousness is asleep, it is inactive, so we can see the real dream. The whole reality is a dream from which an island of consciousness sometimes emerges. We already know all this. The soul is the real home, and this home knows all the answers. Our essence knows everything. It shows us when consciousness is asleep, when it is not active while so-called dreaming, and when it is not speaking into it. In the Czech language we translate a word cognition as “poznání”. It means understanding through uncovering something, something I’ve already known but of which I was not aware. Through consciousness, I only expose what I have known for a long time. Therefore, all sages, Native Americans, Indigenous people do not take this material world so seriously. To them it is an illusion, a game through which we have to learn and gain higher knowledge.
It may be an unimaginable and dubious idea for many people, but my effort is not to convince anyone, because I know how difficult it could sound for someone who hears something like this for the first time. On the contrary, part of my job is to clarify my experience, which may not sound so crazy in the end. This absolutely changes the view of life. That is, it is not just a concept for a person, but a real experience.
Unfortunately, the standard approach to dreams is to not see these deeper connections that happen when we close our eyes at night. As I wrote at the beginning, dreams are rarely the subject of serious debate and interest. And yet they say much more than our minds, which is why they are an irreplaceable means of solving any internal problem.
Summary
The dream is the foundation of consciousness. These are messages from the inner world that are not subject to the laws of space and time.
A dream is a state of being, just like a conscious state, and they are one and the same.
Dreams are natural phenomena. They do not lie, but rather they naively announce what they are and what they mean.
They point to internal and external events, but always with a look that points to something we are not aware of.
They always express a new perspective on these events.
Everyone dreams and must dream.
Dreams consecrate life and prepare for death. A dream shows connections to the deepest depths of the human soul.
Dreams speak through symbolic language.
Read on
Deep dreams and their message to the current time
Dreams as a way to the unconscious & symbolic speech
Dream analysis
Inspirational textbooks of dreams
J.C. Cooper – An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols
Stephen LaBerge – Exploring the world of Lucid dreaming
Ernst Aeppli – Psychology of Dream {probably not published in eng. language; czech version – Psychologie snu}
Hans Dieckmann – Dreams as a speech of soul – { probably not published in eng. language; czech version – Sny jako řeč duše}
Marie-Louise von Franz – Animus and Anima in Fairy Tales
Marie-Louise von Franz – On Dreams & Death
Marie-Louise von Franz – The Interpretation of Fairy Tales
Marie-Louise von Franz – Individuation in Fairy Tales
Marie-Louise von Franz – Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales
C. G. Jung – Dreams From Volumes 4, 8, 12, and 16 of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung
C.G.Jung – Memories, Dreams, Reflections
C.G. Jung – Dream Symbols of the Individuation Process
C.G. Jung – Dream interpretation Ancient and Modern
C.G. Jung – Collected works I.- IV.