The Dream Sourcebook: A Guide to the Theory and Interpretation of Dreams (2 page)

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Authors: Phyllis R. Koch-Sheras

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BOOK: The Dream Sourcebook: A Guide to the Theory and Interpretation of Dreams
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Published by Lowell House, a division of NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group, Inc. 4255 West Touhy Avenue, Lincolnwood, Illinois 60646-1975 U.S.A.
Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998 by NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior permission of NTC/Contemporary Publishing Group, Inc.
Design by Laurie Young.
Printed and bound in the United States of America
International Standard Book Number: 0-7373-0010-8
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
 
Page V
To my parents, who always had a dream for me
Phyllis Koch-Sheras
To my sister, whose dreams I'll always share
Amy Lemley
 
Page VII
Acknowledgments
Writing a book, like dreamwork, is a collaborative process. Not only between us as co-authors, but also among the friends, family, clients, colleagues, and members of our community with whom we have talked about this project. To all of you who shared our questions and suggested answers, thank you for your contributions to this project. We especially want to acknowledge Richard Abidin, Ian Clark, Sharon Davie, E. Ann Hollier, Maggie McIlwaine, Karla Scappini, and Susan Sedgley. We also want to thank the reference librarians of the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library in Charlottesville, Mark Dahlby, Dennis Carpenter, Ph.D., editor of
Circle Network News
, Susan Sedgley, and Maggie McIlwaine for helping us to gather reference materials. Special thanks goes to Stanley Krippner for his assistance with the second edition. His dedication to the world of dreams is an inspiration.
Phyllis Koch-Sheras wishes to thank her dream guides and teachers John and Joyce Weir, John and Anna Koehne, Leonard Tuchyner, Henry Reed, and Helen Ammons. Last but not least, she thanks her husband Peter Sheras and their children Daniel and Sarah for their patience and support during the hard times and always.
Amy Lemley wishes to thank: Jane Lemley Rasmussen, Isabel Heblich, Elizabeth and Gigi Mead, Logan Coleman (and her father, Jonathan), Hagan Rushton, and Macy McCabedream girls all. And to her husband Vic Morris, she offers endless gratitude for making her dreams come true.
 
Page IX
Contents
Introduction
Daring to Dream An Invitation to Enter a New World
XI
Chapter One
What's in a Dream? What We Think and What We Know
1
Chapter Two
Dreams Through Time A History of Dreams in Various Cultures
25
Chapter Three
Modern Dream Theorists Who Says What About Dreams
51
Chapter Four
A Symbol is Worth a Thousand Words What Your Dreams May Be Telling You
79
Chapter Five
What's It All Mean? A Guide to Recalling and Interpreting Your Dreams
117
Chapter Six
Making Your Dreams Your Friends Exercises in Dream Exploration
145
Chapter Seven
Sleeping on It Using Dreams to Enhance Your Creativity, Productivity, Healing, and Spirituality
185
Chapter Eight
Coincidence? Maybe Psychic Phenomena and Dreams
217
Chapter Nine
Dreamwork Teamwork Sharing Your Dreams
237
Bibliography
261
Index
271
 
Page XI
Introduction
Daring to Dream an Invitation to Enter a New World
Imagine sitting down with an expert who could help you to discover all you want to know about your dreams: where they might come from, why you might have them, what they might mean, and how you could use them to enrich your lifepersonally, professionally, and spiritually. This expert would place this knowledge right at your fingertips, allowing you access every time you had a question or desire to learn more about a dream.
Imagine that
you
are that expert.
This idea is not as unusual as it sounds. After all, who knows you more than you know yourself?
The Dream Sourcebook: A Guide to the Theory and Interpretation of Dreams
features
you
as the source of your own dream world. Throughout this book, as we explore the myths and facts about dreams, dream physiology, the place of dreams in different cultures, the interpretation of dream symbols, and the relation of dreams to psychic
 
Page XII
phenomena, we present a broad perspective that enables you to apply these many theories and ideas to your own dream experiences. In the final chapters, we offer opportunities to use your dreams: to interpret and adapt them in ways that enhance your creative mind, increase your waking productivity, ease your troubled psyche, improve your physical well-being, and build a connection with the world community through shared dreamwork. Your dreams, then, become your teachers, educating you on the subject of yourself and training you to become the expert authority on your own desires, fears, conflicts, and joys.
Too many times we underestimate ourselves as experts and specialists, ignore our instincts and abilities, and instead look to other authorities who appear to know more, seem to be better educated, or are just more vocal with their opinions. But now, with
The Dream Sourcebook
as a personal consultant, you can acquire the tools you need to become your own expert, to trust your knowledge and interpretation of your own dreams. After all, an expert is not someone who fails to consult outside resources, but rather someone who knows what resources are available and how to use them. Experts are not afraid to ask questions or request assistance. They admit what they don't know and are committed to discovering the answers.
Dreamers who come to trust themselves as experts on their own dreams have an easier time interpreting their dreams and trusting the clues they get while dreaming. One woman who knows Dr. Koch-Sheras personally has asked her to interpret her dreams for her. The explanations Dr. Koch-Sheras gives her as a character in her dreams check out perfectly with what the woman finds out later in waking life. Now that she knows to listen to this "expert part of herself," she says, it's like "interpreting a dream while dreaming."
So many people share a love of dreamwork, the process of
 
Page XIII
recalling and exploring dreams. They know that the world of dreams is both fun and inspiring: Not only does it provide topics for some engaging conversation, but it also offers a chance for increased self-knowledge and enhanced creativity. Novice dreamworkers will find here all they need to enter the world of dreams. And because
The Dream Sourcebook
is intended to serve as a comprehensive reference book for all dreamers, we have designed it so that experienced dreamworkers, too, will find much to work with. Think of this book as a map for finding your way to yourself as your own source of truth. If you are new to the world of dreaming, you might use this map to view the general lay of the land, venturing down various streets and avenues simply to see where they lead. If you have spent years learning from your dreams, you might refer to this map when you wish to return to a particular destination, to discover fellow dream travelers from various times and places, or perhaps to learn more about specific methods of transportationsuch as translating a dream narrative into dream language, establishing and working with dream groups, and dream incubationto get you there.
Why become an expert on your dreams? There are several reasons. First, your dreaming mind has access to information about yourself that is not readily available to your waking mind. As adults, and even as children and adolescents, we rely on a complex combination of skills to experience our worlds; as a result, we may become distracted or burdened by the many aspects of life we have to factor in at any one time. Our dreams can help us sort through the debris of our lives and clean house psychologically, whether we consciously pay attention to their content or not. Of course, knowing where the ''dirt'' is points the way for psychic housecleaning where you need it most. And that's what dreams often do: highlight issues in need of attention, resolution, or closure.
 
Page XIV
Researchers have identified what are called "peak experiences," those occurrences in which you are totally focused on what you are doing and feeling at the moment: watching a breathtaking sunset, listening to a beautiful piece of music. Peak experiences have demonstrably positive effects on the body, mind, and spirit. This level of intensity, enrichment, and joy is rare, and peak experiences are very few. In our dreams, we are not judging, we are not thinking, we are not figuring out, we are just creating and experiencing. Every night, our dreams offer the opportunity for a peak experience, and all of the positive effects that kind of experience can bring.
So it is the dreaming mind that can probe the deeper level of ourselves, of our souls, to explore what psychologist and dream expert Ann Faraday calls the "thoughts of the heart." The dreaming mind can see beyond the conscious mind, revealing to us, without prejudice, our underlying motivations, our desires and fears. Indeed, some studies show that your mind functions more fully when it is dreaming than when it is awake: "Brain wave records indicate that the dreaming brain is even more active than the waking brain," Faraday writes in
Dream Power
, "which may mean that it is capable of more work in a given amount of time. Computer experts would say that more information per unit time is being 'processed' by the brain.''
Is there a way to harness this brain power? We think so. Your dreaming mind is able to sort out the day's events, to categorize them and interpret them in ways your waking mind may not. Perhaps this function explains why most dreams are related to events from the previous day or two. How necessary is this function? Although dreams may seem frivolous to the untrained dreamer, they are anything but. In fact, your thinking and memory skills and your physical and emotional well-being all depend on dreaming. Studies on dream deprivation show that people
 
Page XV
who are denied their dream time may suffer impaired functioning in a matter of days, possibly becoming disoriented and even depressed. You could go without food and water for several days longer than you could go without dreaming.
Have you ever awakened from a dream with a clear solution to something that had puzzled you before? Many of us have, and these experiences are further evidence that our brains keep working even as we rest our bodies. The symbols that appear in our dreams contain messages to us, messages we have created ourselves. The dreaming mind is like a movie director, who uses images of sight and sound (and, in the case of dreams, smell, touch, and taste) to convey meaning. No, dreams do not always tell cohesive storiesand some of them do seem strange or nonsensical. But we can often find a way to make some sense of them, and in doing so, learn more about ourselves.
"A Dream Is Like A Personal Document, A Letter To Oneself."
Calvin Hall, dream research pioneer
In giving us this unique picture of ourselves, our dreams provide healing power. A dream unifies body, mind, and spiritthe doing, thinking, and feeling parts of usin one free-flowing experience that is our essential truth. Dreams can bring up information from our unconscious to offer our waking minds a kind of prompt for action, pointing out physical conditions or deficiencies we can then correct in our waking lives: marking the anniversary of a death or other important event, or urging us to confront our fears by allowing us a metaphorical "practice session" during sleep, to cite some examples. For example, one woman reported the following experience: "About five weeks after I swallowed a small chicken bone, my throat was still sore. I had the sensation that the bone was still there. In a dream I had during that time, I have cancer and am refusing treatment. The

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