The dreaming mind

"O how I dreamt of things impossible." William Blake

If dreams are important messages from the psyche, why do they come with symbolic language and sometimes puzzling scenarios that we need to decipher? Dream science gives us some clues. Recent research shows that there is quite a bit of similarity between right brain processing and the dream state. You may know that the right brain processes non-verbal information & visual imagery, recognizes patterns, forms associations, is intuitive, and sees metaphors and analogies. The right brain takes us into the realm of the imagination, creativity, mystery and paradox.

A few years ago the Globe and Mail ran an article about capturing snapshots of the creative process through taking brain scans of jazz players while they were improvising. What they discovered is that being creative uses the same circuitry that has been measured during dreaming. With EEG, MRI and PET scans, scientists are able to see sections of the brain that activate or deactivate in the dream state. Some parts of the brain are on-line, others off-line. The fact that the logic center is inactive in the dream state helps to make dreams insightful rather than rational. The limbic center is highly active during dreaming. Among other things, this system recalls emotional memories and processes their unresolved impact. This would explain why there is often a central image in a dream imbued with the emotions of the dreamer. Some say that dreams and the arts come from the same source. The dream, like art is an emotionally filled communication given through the use of images and symbols.My feeling is, that working with dreams can not only provide vital information for living one's life more fully, it can also enhance one's capacity for experiencing and expressing that astonishing world of the imagination and creativity.

These are just a few tidbits of information from the tremendous amount of research that has been done on the brain and the dreaming mind. Thank you to Robert Hoss, a scientist and former researcher in the field of light energy, and on the faculty of the Haden Institute for Dream Training. He provides in-depth reading on the science of dreaming at his website www.dreamscience.org 

Yesterday I was asked by a reader if this blog was a venue for sharing dreams. That wasn't my original idea, but might be exciting. Dreams are very personal and tend to readily get at the core of one's issues. There would have to be an awareness of some of the principles of Jungian dreamwork and these I can share over the next few weeks. If you have a dream to share, let's start by brainstorming about the metaphors.