You will create a body of research that explores the relationship between content, context and product in relation to an individually chosen subject or theme. In this exercise, you will begin to research a range of information and responses that clearly and effectively communicate and utilises your concepts in relation to:
A brief history of...
A brief history of...
A collection of...
An introduction to...
Things you need to know about...
An exhibition of…
Dreams/ Dreaming
Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep.The content and purpose of dreams are not definitively understood, though they have been a topic of scientific speculation and a subject of philosophical and religious interest throughout recorded history. The scientific study of dreams is called oneirology. Scientists think that all mammals dream, but whether this is true of other animals, such as birds or reptiles, is uncertain.
Dreams mainly occur in the rapid-eye movement (REM) stage of sleep—when brain activity is high and resembles that of being awake. REM sleep is revealed by continuous movements of the eyes during sleep. At times, dreams may occur during other stages of sleep. However, these dreams tend to be much less vivid or memorable.
Dreams can last for a few seconds, or as long as 20 minutes. People are more likely to remember the dream if they are awakened during the REM phase. The average person has three to five dreams per night, but some may have up to seven dreams in one night. The dreams tend to last longer as the night progresses. During a full eight-hour night sleep, most dreams occur in the typical two hours of REM.
In modern times, dreams have been seen as a connection to the unconscious mind. They range from normal and ordinary to overly surreal and bizarre. Dreams can have varying natures, such as frightening, exciting, magical, melancholic, adventurous, or sexual. The events in dreams are generally outside the control of the dreamer, with the exception of lucid dreaming, where the dreamer is self-aware. Dreams can at times make a creative thought occur to the person or give a sense of inspiration.
Dream interpretations date back to 5000–4000 BC. The earliest recorded dreams were acquired from materials dating back approximately 5,000 years, in Mesopotamia, where they were documented on clay tablets. In the Greek and Roman periods, the people believed that dreams were direct messages from one and/or multiple deities, from deceased persons, and that they predicted the future. Some cultures practiced dream incubation with the intention of cultivating dreams that are of prophecy.
Sigmund Freud, who developed the discipline of psychoanalysis wrote extensively about dream theories and their interpretations. He explained dreams as manifestations of our deepest desires and anxieties, often relating to repressed childhood memories or obsessions. In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud developed a psychological technique to interpret dreams and devised a series of guidelines to understand the symbols and motifs that appear in our dreams.
Cultural Meaning
- The Dreaming is a common term within the animist creation narrative of indigenous Australians for a personal, or group, creation and for what may be understood as the "timeless time" of formative creation and perpetual creating.
- The Sumerians in Mesopotamia left evidence of dreams dating back to 3100 BC. According to these early recorded stories, gods and kings, like the 7th century BC scholar-king Assurbanipal, paid close attention to dreams. In his archive of clay tablets, some amounts of the story of the legendary king Gilgamesh were found.
- The Mesopotamians believed that the soul, or some part of it, moves out from the body of the sleeping person and actually visits the places and persons the dreamer sees in their sleep. Sometimes the god of dreams is said to carry the dreamer. Babylonians and Assyrians divided dreams into "good," which were sent by the gods, and "bad," sent by demons - They also believed that their dreams were omens and prophecies.
- In ancient Egypt, as far back as 2000 BC, the Egyptians wrote down their dreams on papyrus. People with vivid and significant dreams were thought blessed and were considered special. Ancient Egyptians believed that dreams were like oracles, bringing messages from the gods. They thought that the best way to receive divine revelation was through dreaming and thus they would induce (or "incubate") dreams. Egyptians would go to sanctuaries and sleep on special "dream beds" in hope of receiving advice, comfort, or healing from the gods.
- In Chinese history, people wrote of two vital aspects of the soul of which one is freed from the body during slumber to journey a dream realm, while the other remained in the body, although this belief and dream interpretation had been questioned since early times, such as by the philosopher Wang Chong (27-97).The Indian text Upanishads, written between 900 and 500 BC, emphasize two meanings on dreams. The first says that dreams are merely expressions of inner desires. The second is the belief of the soul leaving the body and being guided until awakened.
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| Dreaming of the Tiger Spring (虎跑夢泉) |
- The Greeks shared their beliefs with the Egyptians on how to interpret good and bad dreams, and the idea of incubating dreams. Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams also sent warnings and prophecies to those who slept at shrines and temples. The earliest Greek beliefs of dreams were that their gods physically visited the dreamers, where they entered through a keyhole, and exiting the same way after the divine message was given.
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| Morpheus and Iris, by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, 1811 |
- Antiphon wrote the first known Greek book on dreams in the 5th century BC. In that century, other cultures influenced Greeks to develop the belief that souls left the sleeping body. Hippocrates (469-399 BC) had a simple dream theory: during the day, the soul receives images; during the night, it produces images. Greek philosopher, Aristotle (384-322 BC) believed dreams caused physiological activity. He thought dreams could analyze illness and predict diseases. Marcus Tullius Cicero, for his part, believed that all dreams are produced by thoughts and conversations a dreamer had during the preceding days.
- In Judaism, dreams are considered part of the experience of the world that can be interpreted and from which lessons can be garnered. It is discussed in the Talmud, Tractate Berachot 55-60.
- The ancient Hebrews connected their dreams heavily with their religion, though the Hebrews were monotheisticand believed that dreams were the voice of one god alone. Hebrews also differentiated between good dreams (from God) and bad dreams (from evil spirits). The Hebrews, like many other ancient cultures, incubated dreams in order to receive divine revelation. For example, the Hebrew prophet Samuel, would "lie down and sleep in the temple at Shiloh before the Ark and receive the word of the Lord." Most of the dreams in the Bible are in the Book of Genesis.
- Christians mostly shared their beliefs with the Hebrews and thought that dreams were of the supernatural element because the Old Testament had frequent stories of dreams with divine inspiration. The most famous of these dream stories was Jacob's dream of a ladder that stretched from Earth to Heaven. Many Christians preach that God can speak to his people through their dreams.
- Iain R. Edgar has researched the role of dreams in Islam. He has argued that dreams play an important role in the history of Islam and the lives of Muslims. Dream interpretation, is the only way that Muslims can receive revelations from God after the death of the last Prophet Mohammed.
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| Jacob's dream of a ladder of angels,1690, by Michael Willmann |
- Some Indigenous American tribes and Mexican civilizations believe that dreams are a way of visiting and having contact with their ancestors. Some Native Americantribes used vision quests as a rite of passage, fasting and praying until an anticipated guiding dream was received, to be shared with the rest of the tribe upon their return.
- The Middle Ages brought a harsh interpretation of dreams. They were seen as evil, and the images as temptations from the devil. Many believed that during sleep, the devil could fill the human mind with corrupting and harmful thoughts. Martin Luther, founder of Protestantism, believed dreams were the work of the Devil. However,Catholics such as St. Augustine and St. Jerome claimed that the direction of their life were heavily influenced by their dreams.
Popular Culture
Modern popular culture often conceives of dreams, like Freud, as expressions of the dreamer's deepest fears and desires. In films such as Spellbound (1945), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Field of Dreams (1989), and Inception (2010), the protagonists must extract vital clues from surreal dreams.
They have also featured in fantasy and speculative fiction since the 19th century. One of the best-known dream worlds isWonderland from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, as well as Looking-Glass Land from its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. Unlike many dream worlds, Carroll's logic is like that of actual dreams, with transitions and flexible causality.
Dream Content
From the 1940s to 1985, Calvin S. Hall collected more than 50,000 dream reports at Western Reserve University. In 1966 Hall and Van De Castle published The Content Analysis of Dreams, in which they outlined a coding system to study 1,000 dream reports from college students. It was found that people all over the world dream of mostly the same things. Hall's complete dream reports became publicly available in the mid-1990s by Hall's protégé William Domhoff, allowing further different analysis. Personal experiences from the last day or week are frequently incorporated into dreams.
Visuals
The visual nature of dreams is generally highly phantasmagoric; that is, different locations and objects continuously blend into each other. The visuals (including locations, characters/people, objects/artifacts) are generally reflective of a person's memories and experiences, but often take on highly exaggerated and bizarre forms.
People who are blind from birth do not have visual dreams. Their dream contents are related to other senses like auditory, touch, smell and taste, whichever are present since birth.
EmotionsThe most common emotion experienced in dreams is anxiety. Other emotions include abandonment, anger, fear, joy, and happiness. Negative emotions are much more common than positive ones.
Sexual themes
The Hall data analysis shows that sexual dreams occur no more than 10% of the time and are more prevalent in young to mid-teens. Another study showed that 8% of men's and women's dreams have sexual content. In some cases, sexual dreams may result in orgasms or nocturnal emissions. These are colloquially known as wet dreams.
Sigmund Freud argued that even dreams which may seem innocuous on the surface ultimately have underlying sexual meanings. He would interpret dreams in hyper-sexualized ways. From Dream PsychologyFreud states, “We have already asserted elsewhere that dreams which are conspicuously innocent invariably embody coarse erotic wishes, and we might confirm this by means of numerous fresh examples. But many dreams which appear indifferent, and which would never be suspected of any particular significance, can be traced back, after analysis, to unmistakably sexual wish-feelings, which are often of an unexpected nature".
Color vs. black and whiteA small minority of people say that they dream only in black and white. A 2008 study by a researcher at the University of Dundee found that people who were only exposed to black and white television and film in childhood reported dreaming in black and white about 25% of the time.
Other phenomena
Incorporation of reality
During the night, many external stimuli may bombard the senses, but the brain often interprets the stimulus and makes it a part of a dream to ensure continued sleep.Dream incorporation is a phenomenon whereby an actual sensation, such as environmental sounds, is incorporated into dreams, such as hearing a phone ringing in a dream while it is ringing in reality or dreaming of urination while wetting the bed. The mind can, however, awaken an individual if they are in danger or if trained to respond to certain sounds, such as a baby crying.
The term "dream incorporation" is also used in research examining the degree to which preceding daytime events become elements of dreams. Recent studies suggest that events in the day immediately preceding, and those about a week before, have the most influence.
Precognition
Apparent precognition of real events:
According to surveys, it is common for people to feel their dreams are predicting subsequent life events. Psychologists have explained these experiences in terms of memory biases, namely a selective memory for accurate predictions and distorted memory so that dreams are retrospectively fitted onto life experiences. The multi-faceted nature of dreams makes it easy to find connections between dream content and real events.
In one experiment, subjects were asked to write down their dreams in a diary. This prevented the selective memory effect, and the dreams no longer seemed accurate about the future. Another experiment gave subjects a fake diary of a student with apparently precognitive dreams. This diary described events from the person's life, as well as some predictive dreams and some non-predictive dreams. When subjects were asked to recall the dreams they had read, they remembered more of the successful predictions than unsuccessful ones.
Lucid dreaming
Lucid dreaming is the conscious perception of one's state while dreaming. In this state the dreamer may often (but not always) have some degree of control over their own actions within the dream or even the characters and the environment of the dream. Dream control has been reported to improve with practiced deliberate lucid dreaming, but the ability to control aspects of the dream is not necessary for a dream to qualify as "lucid" — a lucid dream is any dream during which the dreamer knows they are dreaming. The occurrence of lucid dreaming has been scientifically verified.
Oneironaut is a term sometimes used for those who lucidly dream.
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False awakening
In a false awakening, one dreams of having awoken. The room the dreamer falsely awakens in is often similar to the room he/she fell asleep in. If the person was lucid, they often believe that they are no longer dreaming and begin their morning routine. The dreamer remains naive to the dream either until they realize they haven't actually woken up or until they really do wake up.
Sleep paralysis
During sleep the body paralyzes itself as a protection mechanism to prevent the movements that occur in the dream from causing the physical body to move. However, this mechanism can be triggered before, during, or after normal sleep while the brain awakens. This can lead to a state where the awakened sleeper feels paralyzed.Hypnagogic hallucination may occur in this state, especially auditory ones. Effects of sleep paralysis include heaviness or inability to move the muscles, rushing or pulsating noises, and brief hypnogogic or hypnopompic imagery.
Out-of-body experience
An out-of-body experience (OBE or sometimes OOBE) is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one's body and, in some cases, perceiving one's physical body from a place outside one's body (autoscopy). About one in ten people claim to have had an out-of-body experience at some time in their lives.Scientists are learning about the phenomenon. Some work by neurologists suggests that such experiences are generated by the same brain mechanisms that cause lucid dreams.
Despite some similarities in their phenomenology and induction methods, EEG studies do not suggest an equivalence between OBEs and lucid dreams. Lucidity is strongly associated with stage 1 REM sleep but OBEs are far less consistent, producing EEG traces that can variously resemble stage 3 sleep, a waking, eyes-closed state or other uncategorized states. However, while this may suggest that perceived OBEs are a type of lucid dream which takes place in a dream environment that mimics the actual environment of the dreamer, this falls short of supporting the idea that some conscious form of the dreamer actually leaves the body and perceives their external environment while still in a sleeping state.
Dreams of absent-minded transgression (DAMT) are dreams wherein the dreamer absentmindedly performs an action that he or she has been trying to stop (one classic example is of a quitting smoker having dreams of lighting a cigarette). Subjects who have had DAMT have reported waking with intense feelings of guilt. One study found a positive association between having these dreams and successfully stopping the behavior.
The recall of dreams is extremely unreliable, though it is a skill that can be trained. Dreams can usually be recalled if a person is awakened while dreaming. Women tend to have more frequent dream recall than men. Dreams that are difficult to recall may be characterized by relatively little affect, and factors such as salience,arousal, and interference play a role in dream recall. Often, a dream may be recalled upon viewing or hearing a random trigger or stimulus. The salience hypothesisproposes that dream content that is salient, that is, novel, intense, or unusual, is more easily remembered. There is considerable evidence that vivid, intense, or unusual dream content is more frequently recalled. A dream journal can be used to assist dream recall, for personal interest or psychotherapy purposes.
For some people, sensations from the previous night's dreams are sometimes spontaneously experienced in falling asleep. However they are usually too slight and fleeting to allow dream recall. At least 95% of all dreams are not remembered. Certain brain chemicals necessary for converting short-term memories into long-term ones are suppressed during REM sleep. Unless a dream is particularly vivid and if one wakes during or immediately after it, the content of the dream is not remembered.
In line with the salience hypothesis, there is considerable evidence that people who have more vivid, intense or unusual dreams show better recall. There is evidence that continuity of consciousness is related to recall. Specifically, people who have vivid and unusual experiences during the day tend to have more memorable dream content and hence better dream recall. People who score high on measures of personality traits associated with creativity, imagination, and fantasy, such as openness to experience, daydreaming, fantasy proneness, absorption, and hypnotic susceptibility, tend to show more frequent dream recall. There is also evidence for continuity between the bizarre aspects of dreaming and waking experience. That is, people who report more bizarre experiences during the day, such as people high in schizotypy(psychosis proneness) have more frequent dream recall and also report more frequent nightmares.
One theory of déjà vu attributes the feeling of having previously seen or experienced something to having dreamt about a similar situation or place, and forgetting about it until one seems to be mysteriously reminded of the situation or the place while awake.
Sleepwalking was once thought of as "acting out a dream", but that theory has fallen out of favor.
A daydream is a visionary fantasy, especially one of happy, pleasant thoughts, hopes or ambitions, imagined as coming to pass, and experienced while awake. There are many different types of daydreams, and there is no consistent definition amongst psychologists. The general public also uses the term for a broad variety of experiences. Research by Harvard psychologist Deirdre Barrett has found that people who experience vivid dream-like mental images reserve the word for these, whereas many other people refer to milder imagery, realistic future planning, review of past memories or just "spacing out"—i.e. one's mind going relatively blank—when they talk about "daydreaming."
While daydreaming has long been derided as a lazy, non-productive pastime, it is now commonly acknowledged that daydreaming can be constructive in some contexts.There are numerous examples of people in creative or artistic careers, such as composers, novelists and filmmakers, developing new ideas through daydreaming. Similarly, research scientists, mathematicians and physicists have developed new ideas by daydreaming about their subject areas.
A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are perceptions in a conscious and awake state, in the absence of external stimuli, and have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid, substantial, and located in external objective space. The latter definition distinguishes hallucinations from the related phenomena of dreaming, which does not involve wakefulness.
A nightmare is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong negative emotional response from the mind, typically fear and/or horror, but also despair, anxiety and greatsadness. The dream may contain situations of danger, discomfort, psychological or physical terror. Sufferers usually awaken in a state of distress and may be unable to return to sleep for a prolonged period of time.
A night terror, also known as a sleep terror or pavor nocturnus, is a parasomnia disorder that predominantly affects children, causing feelings of terror or dread. Night terrors should not be confused with nightmares, which are bad dreams that cause the feeling of horror or fear.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream
http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary/
(Dream meanings)
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Animals often represent the part of your psyche that feels connected to nature and survival. Being chased by a predator suggests you're holding back repressed emotions like fear or aggression.
Babies can symbolize a literal desire to produce offspring, or your own vulnerability or need to feel loved. They can also signify a new start.
Being chased is one of the most common dream symbols in all cultures. It means you are feeling threatened, so reflect on who is chasing you (they may also be symbolic) and why they are a possible threat in real life.
Clothes make a statement about how we want other people to perceive us. If you dream symbol is shabby clothing, you may feel unattractive or worn out. Changing what you wear may reflect a lifestyle change.
Crosses are interpreted subjectively depending on your religious beliefs. Some see it as symbolizing balance, death, or an end to a particular phase of life. The specific circumstances will help define these dream symbols.
Exams can signify self-evaluation, with the content of the exam reflecting the part of your personality or life under inspection.
Death of a friend or loved one represents change (endings and new beginnings) and is not a paranormal prediction of any kind. If you are recently bereaved, it may be an attempt to come to terms with the event.
Falling is a common dream symbol that relates to our anxieties about letting go, losing control over a situation, or somehow failing after a success.
Faulty machinery in dreams is often caused by your language centers being shut down while asleep, making it difficult to dial a phone, read the time, or search the internet. It can also represent performance anxiety in life.
Food is said to symbolize knowledge, because it nourishes the body just as information nourishes the brain. Food for thought?
Demons are sneaky evil entities which signify repressed emotions. You may secretly feel the need to change your own behaviors for the better.
Hair has significant ties with sexuality, according to Freud. Abundant hair may symbolize virility, while cutting hair off in a dream shows a loss of libido. Hair loss may also express a literal fear of going bald or becoming unattractive.
Hands are always present in dreams but when they are tied up it may represent feelings of futility. Washing your hands may express guilt. Looking closely at your hands in a dream is a good way to become lucid.
Houses can host many common dream symbols, but the building as a whole represents your inner psyche. Each room or floor can symbolize different emotions, memories and interpretations of meaningful events.
Killing in your dreams does not make you a closet murderer; it represents your desire to "kill" part of your own personality. It can also symbolize hostility towards a particular person and the desire to see them suffer.
Marriage may be a literal desire to wed or a merging of the feminine and masculine parts of your psyche.
Missing a flight or any other kind of transport is another popular dream, showing your frustration over possibly missing out on important opportunities in life. It's most common when you're struggling to make a big decision.
Money can symbolize self worth. If you dream of exchanging money, it may show that you're anticipating some changes in your life.
Mountains are obstacles, so to dream of successfully climbing a mountain can reveal a true feeling of achievement. Viewing a landscape from atop a mountain can symbolize a life under review without conscious prejudice.
Nudity is one of the most common dream symbols, revealing your true self to others. You may feel vulnerable and exposed to others. Showing off your nudity may suggest sexual urges or a desire for recognition.
People (other dream characters) are reflections of your own psyche, and may demonstrate specific aspects of your own personality.
Radios and TVs can symbolize communication channels between the conscious and subconscious minds. When lucid, ask them a question...
Roads, aside from being literal manifestations, convey your direction in life. This may be time to question your current "life path".
Schools are common dream symbols in children and teenagers but what about dreaming of school in adulthood? It may display a need to know and understand yourself, fueled by life's own lessons.
Sex dreams can symbolize intimacy and a literal desire for sex. Or they may demonstrate the unification of unconscious emotions with conscious recognition, showing a new awareness and personal growth.
Teachers, aside from being literal manifestations of people, can represent authority figures with the power to enlighten you.
Teeth are common dream symbols. Dreaming of losing your teeth may show a hidden fear of getting old and being unattractive to the opposite sex.
Being trapped (physically) is a common nightmare theme, reflecting your real life inability to escape or make the right choice.
Vehicles may reflect how much control you feel you have over your life - for instance is the car out of control, or is someone else driving you?
Water comes in many forms and can symbolize the subconscious mind. Calm pools of water reflect inner peace while a choppy ocean can suggest unease.
Sleep Cycle
Stage 1: You are entering into light sleep. This stage is characterized by Non-rapid eye movements (NREM), muscle relaxation, lowered body temperature and slowed heart rate. The body is preparing to enter into deep sleep.
Stage 2: Also characterized by NREM, this stage is characterized by a further drop in body temperature and relaxation of the muscles. The body's immune system goes to work on repairing the day's damage. The endocrine glands secrete growth hormones, while blood is sent to the muscles to be reconditioned. In this stage, you are completely asleep.
Stage 3: Still in the NREM stage, this is an even deeper sleep. Your metabolic levels are extremely slow.
Stage 4: In this stage of sleep, your eyes move back and forth erratically as if watching something from underneath your eyelids. Referred to as REM sleep or delta sleep, this stage occurs at about 90-100 minutes after the onset of sleep. Your blood pressure rises, heart rate speeds up, respiration becomes erratic and brain activity increases. Your involuntary muscles also become paralyzed or immobilized. This stage is the most restorative part of sleep. Your mind is being revitalized and emotions is being fine tuned. The majority of your dreaming occurs in this stage. If you are awakened during this stage of sleep, you are more likely to remember your dreams.
These stages repeat themselves throughout the night as you sleep. As the cycle repeats, you will spend less time in stages 1 to 3 and more time dreaming in stage 4. In other words, it will be quicker and quicker for you to get to stage 4 each time the cycle repeats.
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Dream Theorists
Alfred Adler (1870 -1937)
believes that dreams are an important tool to mastering control over your waking lives. They are problem-solving devices. Dreams need to be brought to the conscious and interpreted so that better understanding can be shed on your problems. It is important to learn from your dreams and incorporate them into your waking life. Adler believes that there is a correlation between your dreams and the problems in your daily life. The more dreams you have, the more problems you are likely to have. Conversely, the less dreams you have, the less problems you have and the more psychologically healthy you are.
Considered the father of psychoanalysis,
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
revolutionizes the study of dreams with his work The Interpretation Of Dreams.Freud begins to analyze dreams in order to understand aspects of personality as they relate to pathology. He believes that nothing you do occurs by chance; every action and thought is motivated by your unconscious at some level. In order to live in a civilized society, you have a tendency to hold back our urges and repress our impulses. However, these urges and impulses must be released in some way; they have a way of coming to the surface in disguised forms.
One way these urges and impulses are released is through your dreams. Because the
content of the unconscious may be extremely disturbing or harmful, Freud believes that the unconscious expresses itself in a symbolic language.
Through dreams, you are able to get a glimpse into your unconscious or the id. Because your guards are down during the dream state, your unconscious has the opportunity to act out and express the hidden desires of the id.
Calvin S. Hall, Jr. (1909-1985)
focuses his study of dreams on the content, aptly referred to as content analysis. Because dreams are in essence thoughts, it is a cognitive process. Dreams provide a map or route to the inaccessible regions in your mind, otherwise known as the unconscious. Hall believes dreams are the best way to discovering personal thoughts and to explain your behavior. Dreams reveal things about yourself, not hide them. Hall categorizes dreams into one of five principle areas of life.
1. Concepts of Self refer to the types or number of roles you play in your dreams.
2. Concepts of other people are the roles other people play in your dreams. Consider your feelings toward them and how you interact with them.
3. Concepts of the world represent the dream surrounding and landscape. The adjectives you use to describe your dreamscape is how you view the world.
4. Concepts of impulses, prohibitions and penalties indicate your behavior and how it is ruled by impulses and punishment.
5. Concepts of problems and conflicts symbolize your struggles, issues and problems you are facing in your waking life. These dream try to offer insight and resolution to your conflicts.
By utilizing these five concepts, Hall believes that you will be able to analyze the dream content and trace your way toward the inner workings of your unconscious.
Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1960)
Like his mentor Sigmund Freud, also believes in the existence of the unconscious. However, he does not see the unconscious as animalistic, instinctual, or sexual; he sees it as more spiritual. Eventually, Jung split with Freud due to their differing views on dreams.
According to Jung, dreams are a way of communicating and acquainting yourself with the unconscious. Dreams are not attempts to conceal your true feelings from the waking mind, but rather they are a window to your unconscious. They serve to guide the waking self to achieve wholeness and offer a solution to a problem you are facing in your waking life.
Jung views the ego as your sense of self and how you portray yourself to the world. Part of Jung's theory is that all things can be viewed as paired opposites: good/evil, male/female, or love/hate. So working in opposition to the ego, is the "counterego" or what he refers to as the shadow. The shadow represents the rejected aspects of yourself that you do not wish to acknowledge. The shadow is more primitive, somewhat uncultured, and a little awkward.
Frederick Perls (1893-1970)
Is the founder of Gestalt therapy. Gestalt therapy seeks to fill your emotional voids so that you can then become a unified whole. Perls believes that dreams contain the rejected, disowned parts of the Self. Every character and every object in a dream represents an aspect of the Self. You are the hurricane, you are the attacker, you are the broken down car, you are the bridge, and you are the dusty book. Perls rejects the notion that dreams are part of a universal symbolic language. He believes that each dream is unique to the individual who dreams it.
In order to discover what aspect of yourself is being disowned, Perls believes that it is important to retell your dream in the present tense and act it out accordingly. It is important to verbalize how each and every component in your dream felt, even inanimate objects. Reenact the dream and take on the role of the different characters and objects. Start a dialogue with the dream object and express how you felt toward each other. By taking on a different role within your dream and reenact it, you may then be able to acknowledge and realize feelings that you may have overlooked or buried. Your dream literally comes alive.
Facts about Dreams…
1. One-third of your life is spent sleeping.
2. In an average lifetime, you would have spent a total of about six years of it dreaming. That is more than 2,100 days spent in a different realm!
3. Dreams have been here as long as mankind. Back in the Roman Era, profound and significant dreams were submitted to the Senate for analysis and interpretation.
4. Everybody dreams. EVERYBODY! Simply because you do not remember your dream does not mean that you do not dream. In fact, you have several dreams during a normal night of sleep.
5. Dreams are indispensable. A lack of dream activity may imply some protein deficiency or a personality disorder.
6. On average, you can dream anywhere from one to two hours every night. Moreover, you can have four to seven dreams in one night.
7. Blind people do dream. Whether visual images appear in their dreams depend on whether they were blind at birth or became blind later in life. But vision is not the only sense that constitutes a dream. Sound, tactility, and smell become hypersensitive for the blind and their dreams are based on these senses.
8. Five minutes after the end of the dream, half the content is forgotten. After ten minutes, 90% is lost.
9. The word dream stems from the Middle English word, dreme which means "joy" and "music".
10. Men tend to dream more about other men, while women dream equally about men and women.
11. Studies have shown that your brain waves are more active when you are dreaming than when we are awake.
12. Dreamers who are awakened right after REM sleep, are able to recall their dreams more vividly than those who slept through the night until morning.
13. Physiologically speaking, researchers found that during dreaming REM sleep, males experience erections and females experience increased vaginal blood flow, regardless the content of the dream. In fact, "wet dreams" may not necessarily coincide with overtly sexual dream content.
14. People who are in the process of giving up smoking tend to have longer and more intense dreams.
15. Toddlers do not dream about themselves. They do not appear in their own dreams until the age of 3 or 4.
16. If you are snoring, then you cannot be dreaming.
17. Nightmares are common in children, typically beginning at around age 3 and occurring up to age 7-8.
18. In a poll, 67% of Americans have experienced Deja Vu in their dreams, occurring more often in females than males.
19. Around 3% of adults suffer from sleep apnea. This treatable condition leads to unexplained tiredness and inefficiency.
20 According to a research study, the most common setting for dreams is your own house.
21. It is very normal for males to experience an erection during the REM stage of sleep, even when they are not dreaming anything of a sexual nature.
22. The original meaning of the word "nightmare" was a female spirit who besets people at night while they sleep.
23. In dreams, negative emotions tend to occur twice as often as pleasant feelings. Fear and anxiety are the most commonly expressed emotions in dreams, followed by anger and sadness.
Dream Catcher
In some Native American cultures, a dreamcatcher (or dream catcher; Lakota: iháŋbla gmunka, Ojibwe:asabikeshiinh, the inanimate form of the word for "spider" or Ojibwe: bawaajige nagwaagan meaning "dream snare") is a handmade object based on a willow hoop, on which is woven a loose net or web. The dreamcatcher is then decorated with sacred items such as feathers and beads.
When dreamcatchers were originally made, the Ojibwe people used willow hoops and sinew or cordage made from plants. The shape of the dreamcatcher is a circle because it represents how giizis- the sun, moon, month- travel each day across the sky. There is meaning to every part of the dreamcatcher from the hoop to the beads embedded in the webbing. The strings, or sinews are tied at several points on the circle, with the number of points on the dreamcatcher having different meanings: -13 points- the 13 phases of the moon -8 points-the number of legs on the spider woman of the dreamcatcher legend -7 points- the seven prophecies of the grandfathers -6 points- an eagle or courage -5 points-the star. The feathers placed at the bottom of the dreamcatcher also had meaning. It meant breath, or air, it is essential for life. If an owl feather was used, it means wisdom, which was a woman's feather.
Design related to dreams and interpretation of dreams
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| http://www.behance.net/gallery/Lucidity/6518869 |
Materials
- Sleeping Mask
- Pen
- Pencil
- Scent
- Journal/ Diary
- Notebook
I think that the pack has a strong visual identity, however I think that it is a little plain and the logo isn't clear, and the name doesn't seem to be very present. I also think from what I can see there is no explantation of dreams, it is all down to the user.
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| http://www.behance.net/gallery/DREAMERY/12940475 |
However I do think that the logo still isn't very clear as to what the purpose of the app is and you couldn't apply the logo to anything physical as the animation wouldn't work, but onscreen it is inviting.
I think that the app is a really good idea for recording dreams, especially as it is quick and easy to use and record things, as well as this an app would be able to track your dreams/moods etc by the click of a button unlike if you recorded them on paper where you would have to calculate/ formulate your own results, which takes time and not a lot of people would want to do this.
An app can contain so much information and different levels, the user can look whenever they need to or want to.
An app/ online application can also be more sociable, for instance you could have a network with your friends, or anyone, share your dreams/ dream profile, and discuss what others thought of your dreams, or how they would interpret them, as from earlier research many different cultures used to have different opinions on what dreams meant and this may still be apparent, not to such a large extent, but still there now, and this is really interesting to explore.
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| http://www.behance.net/gallery/-FORBIDDEN-FRUIT-/10786783 |
This next project is slightly different to the topic of dreaming but it still appeared in the search results. Although I can see why it had appeared as dreaming can also be known as fantasy etc. However I found that I quite liked the logo and the very decorative style of it, against very bold/ minimal colours.
The books and pack I found to be innovative and I like the way it opens, e.g. belly band, and bi-fold. Again I also like the colour scheme. I also like the soft/ additional touch of the ribbon it almost makes the pack more interactive, and special almost like a gift.
I also thought that bedding maybe appropriate to dreaming as to dream you have to be asleep and most people sleep in a bed.
http://www.behance.net/gallery/Paralucidity/7002069
This book is based upon sleep states, I think that this book doesn't go into enough explanation. I do like the font used for the word but I do not think that in its appearance it is very captivating and it doesn't make me want to read it. However I do like the graph on one of the pages and I think elements like this help to explain visually, instead of reams of texts.
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| http://www.behance.net/gallery/Lucid-Dreaming-APP/7885721 |
Again I found another app which does a similar thing to the previous its also similar in it appearance e.g. the colours and font.
However I do not think it is a successful as the first app I looked at, I feel that the illustrations are quite simple and almost traditional. I also think that the layout is quite content heavy and this could be effect the users experience in a negative way.
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| http://www.behance.net/gallery/A-Guide-to-Lucid-Dreaming/10239255 |
I was then told about this app that is being developed now, it is different in its appearance to the previous two apps I have looked at. I do think that its maybe too dark but I think that it has an interesting name and a clever concept, as shown in this video...
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hunterleesoik/shadow-community-of-dreamers
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