The Hidden Messages- The Dream.

THE HIDDEN MESSAGES.

The dream.

Sounds magical right?

The magic mostly happens in the night. But let us not forget the dreams we see with our eyes open. Daydreams. Imagining that if school was attacked how would we save others from the attackers right? 

Daydreams are pretty simple. It is a product of our boredom. Imagining stuff that might never occur in real life. Just zoning out as some people would say. Physically present mentally absent as our teachers used to say.  

The fun is in the dreams that occur in the night. There are certain people who believe that the dreams that are seen in early morning tend to come true. Well let me clear that out that, it sometimes might be true but only partly. 

Let us get started on what dreams really are.

Dreams are a series of thoughts , images and sensations occurring in a person’s mind. There are three stages of dreams-

  1. Wishful thinking stage- these dreams are based on rational evidence and reality. It is the brains way of processing what happened during the day. So it’s like a recap of the whole day. 
  2. Venting stage- these dreams usually have deeper emotional meaning. It’s the brain’s way of focusing on the topics that one has locked and kept in their unconscious.  These dreams are like catharsis. (the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions.)
  3. Pre –cognitive dreams- these are the most interesting dreams. These dreams are known as future predictive dreams. They are the most insightful dreams.  

There are certain situations in which individuals report dreaming about losing a loved one. The shocking news here is that it really happens. No, it is not psychic; it is the dreams. These are categorized as pre- cognitive dreams. It is like a heads up or a warning. 

Now I know what certain people might be thinking, what does dreams have to do with therapy. 

The basic definition of therapy is treatment of mental or psychological disorders by psychological means. Therapies are a way of changing the self- destructive behavior, resolving painful behaviours,   improve relations, battling addictions and many more.  In therapy setting and achieving small tasks and goals is the key ingredient. The integrity of the therapy depends on the confidentialism maintained by the therapist. Every part of the therapy matters. How one speaks, how one is seating, the gestures etc.  matters just as much as the issue.  Just as such even dreams play an important role in therapy. 

Dreams  are a gate away for the unconscious thoughts and feelings to surface up. According to Sigmend Freud, these unconscious motives and feelings are the real problems and issues that will lead to the solution.  Dream therapy is based on picking up the subconscious indicators of the problems. Dream therapy is the process of unraveling what dreams mean into the relation with our awaken lives. It is a collaborative process that draws from Freudian interpretation, Carl Jungian symbols, transpersonal theory and object relations theory. The aim of dream therapy is not necessarily to have an interpretation of the dreams but to find meaning, usability and emotional substance of the client via the dreams. 

Dream therapist takes help from the content of the dream to pinpoint the meaning. The content of the dreams fall in two categories; 1) latent content and 2) manifest content. 

According to Sigmend Freud,

Manifest content- manifest content of the dreams include the actual images, thoughts and content contained in the dreams. The elements that one remember on waking up is the part of the manifest content. 

Latent content- the latent content of the dreams are the hidden messages of the dreams. This content often appears in disguise and contains symbols and hidden messages of the unconscious.

One of the common dreams is being chased. The city, the roads, lights, chased by whom and so on will be a part of manifest content. However, the latent content of this particular dream can mean that the individual is running from something, or escaping from making a big decision.

There are many individuals who have difficulty in dreaming or remembering dreams. However, the problem here is not remembering the dream, since everyone dreams but not everyone can remember it.  There are certain measures that an individual can take to increase their memory of dreams; 1) getting good night’s sleep 2) avoiding using social media before sleep 3) meditation before going to sleep or after waking up 4) maintaining a dream journal 5) avoiding caffeine before sleeping.  These basic 5 steps can increase the frequency of dreams and can be helpful for an individual to know the messages the unconscious sends him. 

Dream is a magical place. Let us not forget it is also a creative platform for our mind to shoot out its creativity. Let us all not get more theoretical and close our eyes and enjoy the freedom and creativity of our mind. 

1 comment

  • Nice and very simplistic peice of writing

    Tanishqa Sharma on

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