When we pursue happiness, it eludes you. However, when you recognise that happiness is the natural state of the soul, all you need is to eliminate all that comes between your happiness and you.
Dreams provide us peeks into our subconscious,
revealing our deepest, darkest fantasies. Freud described dreaming as
wish-fulfillment. But Jung says they help correct imbalances in the
psyche. And often in dreams, we can find codified solutions to problems
we are up against in life, says the author, a dream analyst
As a dream-counselor
I am often asked about dreams and their significance. In my explanation,
I cite a metaphor used by Carl Gustav Jung: "Whenever our body is infected
by a virus or a bacteria, the rising level of fever is a natural process.
No conscious decision is needed to re-establish the body's balance.
The same system works in our psyche. In times when we are out of balance
with our natural pattern of life, our subconscious sends us dreams and
visions that are created by our inner self."
That means, during phases when you feel too great, too important, wise
and invincible, you tend to dream about falling down, being small, feeling
the ground giving away beneath your feet or of plane crashes. 'Down
to earth' is the message here. On the contrary, when you underestimate
or belittle yourself, you get a boost in the form of dreams about huge
houses, great quantities of food, going up a mountain or taking off
in a plane.
At times, you even see a form of a mandala, the archetype of your spiritual
self. Thus most dreams have a regulating function, to help you maintain
a balance. Dreams fall into four categories. In the first category of
dreams, the message that is revealed to the dreamer simply mirrors his
or her present circumstances and situation.
Stefanie, a 24-year-old student of law, dreamt she was running to reach
the metro station. But no matter how hard she tried to move, her body
refused to respond and she remained stuck on the ground. In actuality,
she desperately wanted to complete her education quickly and get on
with her career.
Totally
focused on her future plans, she ignored the fact that she still had to
sit down and study hard for her next exam. The message her dream conveyed
was: You cannot move on right now, even if you wish to speed up your journey
(the metro, as any transportation device, is symbolic of the journey of
life).
Alexander, an Austrian engineer landed a new assignment with a company
in Norway. As he was required to move to the north for three years, he
needed someone to look after his apartment. Being familiar with the creative
power of dreams, he contacted me for the interpretation of his dreams
two months before he left for Norway.
At that time, he had planned to ask his elder brother and sister-in-law
to look after his property, but hadn't discussed it with them yet. In
one of his dreams he saw himself walking down a hill in deep snow, accompanied
by his brother and sister-in-law. Suddenly, he fell into a dark hole.
His brother and the sister-in-law continued on their descent unconcerned.
Getting out of the dark hole, Alexander turned away from the snowy hill
to a new landscape where he stepped into a boat and peacefully
floated down a river. The message of the dream was: Don't expect anything
from your relations but proceed on your path of life, taking it as it
comes. In this second category of dreams, the subconscious again produces
a picture of the present situation.
But the dream also reveals another direction or possibility: avoid planning
too much, everything will resolve itself. In this compensatory part of
the dream we see exactly what we tend to ignore in our waking self. In
the third category of dreams, we meet our shadow and other symbols of
the collective unconscious.
The life force within us begins to create a tension between the conscious
and the unconscious levels by flashing symbols that represent the so-called
shadow or 'the other person in us', the one we tend to ignore and forget.
Mary, a 44-year-old photographer, presented herself as a decisive, strong
and independent woman.
Although she seemed capable of connecting with people easily, inside,
a part of her was vulnerable and shy. In her waking life she ignored this
side of her personality, but in her dreams she was often followed by an
unknown young girl, begging for help. She first tried to get rid of the
girl in her dreams. By working with Mary on her dreams, the theme slowly
changed.
As she gradually realized, her being shy and vulnerable was a function
of her soul, protecting her from dealing with the wrong people. This girl
in Mary's dream was her shadow, the part of her personality that needed
to be included and accepted. The shadow is an archetype and is mostly
expressed in your dreams as a person from the same gender.
Last year, Serita came to me describing a dream in which she was sitting
in a huge car. Her driver drove straight into a jungle where they got
stuck in mud. All of a sudden, snakes, most of them with a colorful skin,
surrounded the car. Despite the doors being closed, the snakes managed
to get into the car and surround Serita. Overwhelmed by fear,
she awoke.
Snakes are common symbols in dreams, being ancient representatives of
the collective unconscious. They are also a female symbol of creative
skills and forces. Being a student of art earlier, Serita had given up
her passion for painting to be with her family.
When this dream occurred, Serita could spare enough time to nurture her
own interests.
It was then that her inner self had chosen to remind her to give vent
to her creative skills and include her love for painting in her life.
When I planned to get married to an Indian and leave my home country,
Austria, it naturally took me some time to prepare myself.
Six months before I shifted to India, I had a series of intense dreams.
Apart from the usual dreams about missing trains or wandering around at
airports and train stations, losing luggage and searching for tickets,
some of the dreams clearly indicated that my decision was right.
There was
one dream in which I was standing on the banks of a river in Varanasi.
I first felt the chill in the air and saw pilgrims sitting, shivering
in the river. Then the picture turned into a warm and comfortable image
with me enjoying the sun on a bench. A sadhu slowly came up to me and
silently sat next to me and other people followed him and the dream
ended in a peaceful and divine atmosphere.
It is always important how dreams end. The theme of my dream had changed
from cold to warm which is a clear indication of a positive development.
The feeling of cold at the beginning reflected my fear of the imminent
change, but the prospect of a peaceful transition gave me a lot of confidence
to go ahead with my preparations.
Dr Josef Dapra, my teacher, an expert in Jungian dream-interpretation,
carefully collected all dreams of his son since the age of four. "Children
are better connected to the subconscious mind and therefore are able
to produce fantastic images of our ancient psychic heritage." The young
soul perceives good and evil as having a common origin and instinctively
carries forward this knowledge of wholeness that is often lost later
in life.
Today, Dr Dapra's son is a scientist specializing in theoretical physics,
still interested in his father's interpretation of his childhood dreams.
Sometime back, I received a call from my friend Virginia who was in
great distress over a dream she had. I knew Virginia was trying hard
to lose weight, although her family and friends felt she looked fine.
In her dream she went to a diet-center with her husband.
The centre was next to the seashore and Virginia and her husband went
for a swim. In real life her husband does not know how to swim. The
waves kept getting higher and dragged him away from her. Virginia desperately
tried to find him in vain. She realized she had lost him. She was then
called to a tribunal in which she was accused of having murdered her
beloved.
She awoke in horror, terrified that it signaled danger in their lives.
In most dreams, death
is a symbol for change and does not imply the real death of a person.
Also, Virginia wondered about the connection between her husband and
the diet-center? When questioned, she responded: "Oh, he thinks my diets
are useless and stupid. He constantly keeps nagging me about it."
What her husband was trying to tell her in reality was revealed in the
dream. The sea is an ancient symbol of the subconscious. Virginia had
to dive into the water of her unknown self to understand that she might
lose her husband's attention if she did not heed his advice. And it
might result in Virginia blaming herself (the tribunal) for the loss
of her husband.
Virginia was stunned at this revelation and finally learned how to accept
herself as she was. In the rare fourth category of dreams, our subconscious
reveals its message as a 'Great Dream'. Usually starting with simple
images of the dreamer's personal life, the subconscious proceeds to
completely take over and project selected symbols of the collective
unconscious.
Interpretation of these requires sound knowledge of our ancient collective
heritage. The well-known psychologist Ernst Aeppli, born in 1892 in
Switzerland and a follower of Carl Jung, gave an example of such a 'Great
Dream' that occurred to one of his patients. Being entangled in his
scientific study and caught in an unhappy relationship,
he had fallen into deep depression.
Aeppli helped him recover through a process of analysis.
Shortly after, he dreamt of a huge ball rising from black earth. The
ball turned into a marvelous blue sun, which opened up and turned into
a crystal vessel. In the vessel, four snakes ascended, holding a glorious
cup and out of the cup a crystal pillar rose which in turn was held
by four lions. Another pillar rose and on top of it lay a shining diamond.
It was clear then that the dreamer's dark period of depression was at
an end and that his life was opening into a new vista. To discover the
actual theme of a dream, the symbols should be contemplated either from
the subjective or the objective point of view. On the subjective level,
dreaming about a particular friend actually means the friend himself.
For example, if that friend is helping you in some way in your dream,
you probably will receive something from him in reality. On the other
hand, dream interpretation on the objective level would consider the
same helping friend as a part of the dreamer, telling him that he should
become more helpful.
The method of finding out which level has to be used is called 'amplification',
wherein the dreamer participates in a dialogue with the interpreter,
reflecting on all aspects of the dream's uncovered message. How are
dreams actually born or created? If dreaming is a creative art, who
is creative? It is our 'self', the center and the wholeness of our psyche,
as Jung describes it.
As it is the regulating, developing and controlling factor of our life
pattern, it is different from our small ego, which has developed after
our psyche. In order to maintain an inner equilibrium, the self provides
us with a network of dreams and visions throughout our life, to guide
us, to enable us to grow and develop our skills as best as we can.
Dream-interpretation accelerates the process of understanding this network
that guides us through life. In order to learn how to interpret your
dreams, it is necessary to recall and write them down in the morning.
You might require guidance in the beginning, to help you unlock the
potential of your dreams. However, you will gradually begin integrating
the message from your inner self into your daily life.
An Austrian living in India, the author is an expert in dream interpretation.
Her interests range from western astrology
to meditation.
