The Art of Dreaming Part 1
My dream self meets friends, strangers, the dead, the living … and holds both rational and irrational conversations with them upon subjects which often have not been in my waking mind and which, in some cases could never have been in it.
— Mark Twain
In my 2 part series, The Art of Dreaming, I want to share information with you about the function and use of dreams, and how to consciously work with your dreams. I hope this series will open you to the amazing possibilities your dreams offer, and help you to value them in a whole new way.
I love the world of dreams. In fact I count on my dreams as a valuable source of knowledge, wisdom and healing.
When I discovered that I could participate in my dreams and consciously open the doors to those places beyond my everyday world, I was filled with joy, curiosity and enthusiasm. My life is richer because I dream.
— J.R.
THE PURPOSE OF sleep is not only to rest and renew the physical body and mind: it is to dream. Your subconscious mind is responsible for dreaming. As your conscious mind and body sleep, your subconscious takes over.
The Art of Dreaming is about stepping through the looking glass of your dream life and participating in your dreams in a whole new way. When you bring them to life, your dreams, in turn, provide you with information, problem solving, healing and creative ideas to enhance your daily life.
Dreams have been fascinating us human beings since the beginning of time. There have been cultures, such as the Masai of Africa, that have venerated dreams and integrated them into the fabric of their daily lives. There are also cultures, like ours here in North America, that tell their children their dreams are unimportant and to forget about them: “After all – it’s only a dream.”
We don’t teach our children how to dream.
— Stephen LaBerge
Even animals dream. As they lie beside you, asleep, their legs may move, muscles twitching as if they are running, even a little growl escaping from time to time.
Function and use of dreams
You may already have sensed a hint of the possibilities that exist in dreaming. Some dreams are a release from the day. They finish the unfinished emotions, creating a safety valve for our unprocessed emotions. By finishing off experiences from our waking life, dreams free us.
Some dreams are a trying out of probabilities. We “try on” different scenarios in our dreams first, before we manifest them. Some dreams reflect the function of our body renewing and recharging itself through sleep. Many dreams are coded messages from our soul.
Marion Woodman, noted psychotherapist and dream analyst, states:
Dreams are the language of the soul and our soul’s gift to us that we can learn to decode.
As we begin to look at our dreams this way and value them, they will respond in the most powerful, magical and beautiful ways.
Altered state of sleep and the language of dreams
Sleep is an altered state in and of itself. Your conscious mind and body go to sleep: your subconscious mind never sleeps – in fact it becomes the control centre. During sleep, your problems, fears and hopes are viewed from an entirely different standpoint.
The sleeping mind communicates in scenes, actions, stories, symbols and metaphors. This is the language of dreams.
Problems can be solved when you are awake through logical reasoning – but also during sleep when they are passed on to the deeper mind. Dreams are the vehicle the subconscious mind uses to work on our problems and issues. We awaken in the morning with new ideas, a new perspective we did not have the day before. Hence the saying “Let me sleep on it.”