My purpose in writing this article is two-fold; to encourage the development of a universally accepted model of dreams -including purpose, meaning and language- and; to encourage the cooperation and sharing of information on a wider, freer platform that isn't restricted to peer-reviewed publications or primarily published works.
Over the years it's been suggested, by a number of individuals, from various disciplines, who work with dreams, that it would be beneficial and useful to sort dreams into some kind of system. This idea evolved into the classification or organization of dreams into types, or themes. Based on the work of a few prominent dream researchers, we now have twelve basic types, classifications or dream themes, with each type having both a positive and negative meaning (resulting in 24 rather than 12 types of dreams). It's been strongly suggested that we can develop a clearer, more specific form of dream analysis and interpretation through these classifications and do so without adhering to any one theory.
From the beginning, science has expanded, progressed and proliferated primarily by the observation, collection and naming of data whether in the form of specimens or information. Whether observing the thousands of species of beetles on the planet, the trillions of stars in the sky, or the hundreds of fragments of bone in the earth, researchers collect the data or specimen then proceed to organize them into some logical system. They usually sorts them into groups of similarities and differences. The data is then named, numbered and analyzed. This process allows for other researchers to work with the same set of data and reproduce or continue working in the same area with the expectation of gaining understanding and cohesion in studies and experiments. Once all this work has begun and patterns or anomalies observed, a theory or theories are developed to help explain the findings.
Through the past century or so, we've actually learned quite a bit about the mechanics or dreams. We've discovered that:
• REM (rapid eye movement) is associated with dreaming (though not solely);
• We've learned that dreams progress through different stages throughout the sleep cycle;
• We now know that different states cycle throughout the night
• We can now observe the different brainwave patterns during different states of sleep and wakefulness;
• And we think we understand at least some of the physiology of dreaming.
However, in all this flurry of activity and discovery, we're no closer to understanding the purpose or meaning of our dreams. As a science, or even as an art, dream analysis or interpretation is still stuck in the stone ages. Many dream experts argue that this is because we, as dream workers, haven't organized and shared our combined knowledge about dreams and their vast array of subjects, images and symbols.
Sadly, though, we, as a discipline, are stuck at the stage or level of specimen/data collection. We've amassed a mind-boggling amount of information on the images, emotions, symbols and subjects of dreams, but we haven't been able to organize this information into any agreed upon theory or system from which to work from. Because of this, we're unable to corroborate each others' findings or observations and settle on a definitive answer as to what purpose dreams hold or even what they mean.
This work has been attempted by other prominent dream workers, such as Hall, Van de Castle, Garfield, Ross and others. For example, a universal classification system was developed by Patricia Garfield, Ph.D., but unfortunately this or other similar systems haven't been widely accepted or used. The nearest we have to a generally accepted classification (or coding) system is that developed by Calvin Hall and Robert Van de Castle way back in 1966. Like most research-based scoring systems including personality, psychology and other systems, it's helpful for the quantitative collection of data but excludes the individual dream and dreamer. You can code a dream down to its last period, but it's not going to help a dreamer understand what the dreams message is.
With both the Hall and Van de Castle Content Analysis System and Patricia Garfield's Universal Classification System (and other lesser known systems), the suggestion is that dreams can be broken down to their parts and understood this way. This is similar to the physics paradigm; by smashing particles into ever smaller units, the belief is that they'll be able to understand the whole of the universe and thus reality. Modern scientists always tend to follow this reductionistic approach. In personality psychology, researchers have continued to whittle down the number of personality traits we humans have from the original 116 characteristics observed in the last century all the way down to two. However, the early personality researchers realised that this was too simplistic, so the majority of them settled on five. Do you think 5 personality traits are enough to define who you are? The point I'm trying to make here is that the same is happening with dream research. Dream workers try to reduce what they're studying to its most basic structure or function and expect to understand the whole.
The paramount question I have is this: Can dreams even be classified? Granted, dreamers around the world have similar dreams (universal dreams). And why shouldn't they? We're all human beings; we're all concerned with the same things -food, clothing, shelter, family, security and society. However, we also have concerns that are more personal, more egocentric and more subjective. There has to be a comfortable middle where not every single word of a written dream has to be analyzed, but has more points of analysis than just the general, overall theme. This is where my research has lead me. I'm trying to find the middle: where analysis isn't so detailed that every single sigh in a dream is analyzed, but detailed enough that more than just the examination of general actions or activities are taken into account.
The biggest oversight I've observed in dream work is that the majority of dream researchers fail to account for or even consider the dreamer behind the dream; the interaction between the imagery in the dream and the dreamer herself; or the response elicited or evoked from and throughout the dream experience. We have to consider the source before we can hope to understand the purpose or the meaning.
As research continues, eventually, I or another dream researcher, will get there. The question, however, is whether others will get on board.
Ms. Terry L. Gillis, dream analyst and investigator, invites you to visit http://www.terrygillisdreamanalyst.ca for more dream articles like this one. You may also participate in her ongoing research and become a part of the growing dream community by posting your dreams on her blog. Providing quality counselling articles, hynotherapy writings and other mind help resources online, counselling hypnotherapist and life coach in London.
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