The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul, opening into that cosmic night which was psyche long before there was any ego-consciousness, and which will remain psyche no matter how far our ego-consciousness extends.” Carl Jung What is a dream? Humans have speculated on this question for thousands of years, and still there is no definitive answer. We all have dreams, even if we don’t remember them. Life on this plane demands that we dream. It is through dreaming that we sculpt and make valid our experience in this dimension. Our mind uses symbols as building blocks of consciousness and awareness. A group of symbols form a thought; a group of thoughts form an idea; a group of ideas coalesce into an image; a group of images form an opinion; a group of opinions form a belief; a group of beliefs form our philosophies. Symbols may be closed or open depending on how we interpret them through our life experiences. Shocks or traumas create our closed symbols. Those symbols and experiences that we fear are pushed out of our consciousness and we close the door on them. Closed symbols prevent us from perceiving reality in its truth, causing us to form a skewed, unbalanced, pretense reality. A fearful monster that threatens our survival in some way resides behind each closed symbol. It takes a great deal of energy to keep the symbols of that monster locked out. We can release this energy and ultimately transform our belief systems and philosophies by opening the door to the symbols, but to do so results in a major death/change experience. Are we ready for this? Know that whenever we are confronted by a closed symbol, we are being given the opportunity to learn, grow and change. NIGHTMARESAlmost everyone has had a nightmare at some time or other that scared them to death, and awoke wondering what that was about and hoping it would not reoccur. What does such a dream really tell us? The frightening nightmare reveals one of those monsters that we locked out of our consciousness. The dream is telling us to wake up, to acknowledge and confront that fear. A nightmare almost always has an important message to convey to us. If we can look at our nightmare as a teacher rather than just a horrible experience that we push as far away as possible from our consciousness, it can be a major positive force in helping us open up our closed symbols and clear up the conflicts in our life.
