Now, on to the meat and potatoes of Inner Vision and Synchronicity – dreams!  It’s take some time to get here, but now that we’re here, we’ll be glad we invested the time in learning the background information.  This is a longer post than most, but well worth the time…

DREAMS

Any field of endeavor is known by the tools it uses to reach its goal.  The building trades are know for hammers and screwdrivers, the medical profession by stethoscopes and medicines, and landscaping is known for mowers and edge trimmers.  The primary tool used by the roughly 2,500 Jungian analysts worldwide is the dream material of the analysand, without which an exploration of his or her unconscious would be nearly impossible.  As Jungian analyst Michael Adams says, “The purpose of Jungian analysis is to establish an effective relation between the ego and the unconscious in order ultimately to facilitate a transformation of the psyche.  Dream interpretation is vitally important to that process” (Adams, 2006).  The concepts about dream work taught by Jung are being taught and developed further by the Jungian community today; within the Unity Movement, relatively few know that dream work was a focus of Fillmore’s work.  The following sections will highlight the main theories about dreams taught by Jung and Fillmore with a spotlight on the growth and apparent cessation of dream work taught within Unity.

Jung and Dreams

Speaking on the practical use of dream analysis in 1931, Jung said, “…the avowed aim of dream-analysis is not only to exercise our wits, but to uncover and realize those hitherto unconscious contents which are considered to be of importance in the elucidation or treatment of a neurosis” (CW 16:294).  Neuroses are common emotional disorders experienced by most people at various times of their lives.  Not nearly as severe as a psychosis, a neurosis indicates an imbalance in the psyche of an individual that may be characterized by anxiety, obsessive thinking about a subject, compulsive behavior, etc. without evidence of a physical ailment.  Generally, but not always, individuals experiencing a neurosis – such as an inferiority complex – are still able to function in the world; but what the neurosis does is limit the individual’s ability to experience peace and their own sense of wholeness.  In the same lecture given in Dresden, he said, “the dream describes the inner situation of the dreamer, but the conscious mind denies its truth and reality, or admits it only grudgingly.”  Additionally he said, “…the dream comes in as the expression of an involuntary, unconscious psychic process beyond the control of the conscious mind.  It shows the inner truth and reality of the patient as it really is: not as I conjecture it to be, and not as he would like it to be, but as it is” (CW 16:304).  Based on his observance of thousands of patients, Jung was certain that the dream served as a bridge between the unconscious and conscious minds.

This discussion begs the question, “What sort of things are in the unconscious that the dreamer should know?”  He said:

Dreams may contain ineluctable truths, philosophical

pronouncements, illusions, wild fantasies, memories,

plans, anticipations, irrational experiences, even

telepathic visions, and heavens knows what besides.

one thing we ought never to forget: almost half our

life is passed in a more or less unconscious state.

the dream is specifically the utterance of the

unconscious (CW 16:317).

The healing aspect of dream work comes into play when the patient is able to assimilate into his or her conscious mind the contents of the unconscious.  Rather than subjugating the unconscious mind and its contents, Jung’s depth psychology provides the patient with a safe venue for learning what is contained in the unconscious.  As noted in the quotation above, much of the information could be extremely helpful for individual to know as he or she goes about daily life as well as engaging in the life work of individuation.  The major danger in the process of encountering the unconscious, Jung said, is when it “is excluded from life by being repressed, falsely interpreted, and depreciated” (CW 16:329).

Another, and possibly the most important, function of dreams is that of compensation.  Like the physical body, Jung described the psyche as being self-regulating.  He said, “When we set out to interpret a dream, it is always helpful to ask: What conscious attitude does it compensate?” (CW 16:330).  In dreams, thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, inclinations and tendencies that are too little valued in waking life will be brought to life so that the dreamer may realize alternatives to consciously held attitudes.  Jung put it this way:

The unconscious is the unknown at any given moment, so it

is not surprising that dreams add to the conscious psychological

situation of the moment all those aspects which are essential

for a totally different point of view.  It is evident that this

function of dreams amounts to a psychological adjustment,

a compensation absolutely necessary for balanced action.  In

a conscious process of reflection it is essential that, so far as

possible, we should realize all the aspects and consequences

of a problem in order to find the right solution.  This process

is continued automatically in the more or less unconscious

state of sleep, where, as experience seems to show, all those

aspects occur to the dreamer (at least by way of allusion)

that during the day were insufficiently appreciated or even

totally ignored – in other words, were comparatively

unconscious (CW 16:469).

Just as some dreams are compensatory, offering other points of view that the conscious mind may not have considered, other dreams have what Jung called a “prospective function,” that is, they outline possible future outcomes.  Some dreams of this nature are clearly prophetic, offering any number of specific future events (CW 16:493).  Other prospective dreams offer the attentive dreamer possible outcomes that play out in the outer world, but maybe not exactly as dreamed.  However, Jung did warn against giving prospective dreams too much authority.  When an individual’s conscious and unconscious minds are adequately functioning, dreams generally hold to a more compensatory rather than prospective function. (CW 8:494).

In Jungian analysis, the analyst must be apprised of the conscious situation of the dreamer.  Just what is happening in his or her waking life?  If the dream serves as a bridge between the dreamer’s inner and outer life, then the analyst and analysand must have some understanding of the dreamer’s day to day life, otherwise it will be difficult, if not impossible to link the dream symbols to the conscious life of the analysand.  Jung put it this way:

If we want to interpret a dream correctly, we need a

thorough knowledge of the conscious situation at

that moment, because the dream contains its

unconscious complement, that is, the material which the

conscious situation has constellated in the in the

unconscious.  Without this knowledge, it is impossible

to interpret a dream correctly, except by a lucky

fluke (CW 8:477).

Pivotal to Jungian dream analysis is an understanding of symbols.  Since dreams are primarily experienced as pictures, it is vital that these pictures that emerge from the unconscious be given meaning.  Jung recognized that although some symbols are universal to mankind, such as the circle, the meaning the patient gave to the symbol was the most important from a therapeutic point of view (CW 16:342).  If the therapist were to assume that all symbols had fixed meaning there was a danger of “his falling into mere routine and pernicious dogmatism, and thus failing his patient” (CW 16:342).  This is not to say that symbols with relative fixed meanings are useless in dream interpretation, they are useful; however, each individual will have his own “take” on the symbol, with his or her own shade of meaning (CW 16:351).  This process of determining the meaning of symbols is often called explication (Adams, 2006).

A process related to explication, is amplification.  In the process of amplification, comparisons of dream images or symbols are made to similar images found in literature, religion, mythology, culture, etc. in order to recognize and/or identify archetypical elements of a dream or dream series (Adams, 2006).  The appreciation of archetypical energy or imagery in dreams can be both a therapeutic tool towards the healing of a neurosis as well as an important milestone in the path to individuation.

Jung also took into account the dramatic structure of dreams.  With this perspective, every part of the dream could be considered a part of the dreamer.

The whole dream-work is essentially subjective, and a

dream is a theatre in which dreamer is himself the scene,

the players, the prompter, the producer, the author, the

public, and the critic.  This simple truth forms the basis

for a conception of the dream’s meaning which I have

called interpretation on the subjective level.  Such

interpretation, as the term implies, conceives all the

figures in the dream as personified features of the

dreamer’s own personality (CW 8:509).

Thus the dreamer seeks to discover what is happening in his inner world by asking, “What, in me, does this dream part represent?”  In this way he or she could come to greater understanding of him or herself.

Just talking about dreams was not enough for Jung.  One had to engage them actively in a process he called active imagination.  In a nutshell, the process of active imagination is when form is given to a dream image for the purpose of further analysis.  For example, the dreamer may paint or draw a dream image, or with the help of others, act out the scene as if it were a drama.  Jung himself painted many of his dream images.  There’s no limit to the forms that active imagination can take.  The key in this process is for the dreamer not to judge the quality of the creation, but simple to express it (CW 8:168-171).  The active imagination process is an example of the transcendent function, the bringing together of conscious and unconscious contents by transcending the apparent gulf between them (CW 8:131).