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Recommended: The role of dreams
This paper is about dreams. It is on three different topics of dreams. One is about the history of dreams. The other is about the types of dreams. The last topic is about the interpretations of dreams.
Plato was a Greek philosopher who studied dreams. He thought dreams had some kind of symbolic action. Plato said “Dreams were merely messages received from gods”. In one of his dialogues, Plato stated that dreams were used as a method to achieve a particular kind of knowledge. Plato also stated that dreams originate from the organs in your belly. (Lewis 191)
He said “When the belly organs are frustrated while sleeping, it censors the dreams”. Plato said that the kinds of dreams you have are based on your character and education. He said that if someone had been angry or happy then that also strikes the actions in the dreams. Even if someone was a decent person, they were still able to have offensive dreams. He said that nightmares were caused by bad behavior while being awake. (Lewis 191)
Aristotle had a different yet similar thesis of dreams. He said that “Dreams were caused by the afterimages of our memory”. Aristotle also said that our imagination in our sleep is the product of senses that we had while we were awake. He said that dreams are probably just disturbances of bodily functions. Dreams had different meanings to different tribes. (Lewis 191)
The Navaho Indians translated dreams as the opposite of what the dream was. The Yuma Indians considered dreams the basis of religion, tradition, and power. They
Dreams 4 believed that anything that happens in a dream will happen in real life if it has not happened already. (Lewis 191)
The Mohave Indians said that good dreams mean good luck and bad dreams mean bad luck. They thought that their “medicine men” could heal people in their dreams.
The Mohave also believed also believed that the destiny of the human soul came from dreams. The Navaho considered dreams kind of like interpreters that reveal problems and cures. They also believed that spirits and gods put dreams in people’s heads. The Navaho believed that bad dreams come true. Crow Indians believed that success in life was the result of a good vision. (Lewis 191)
The Dakota used dreams as prophetic visions. The state where the most dreams and nightmares happen is the REM cycle. The mind can create any sort of nightmare du...
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...healing and prosperity. Water: to some researchers, water was considered a sexual
Dreams 6 symbol because sexual intercourse involves fluids. Snakes: they have different have different meanings. They could mean fertility, evil, or healing. (Guiley 145)
Falling: it could mean failure or being unprepared in life. Doors: open doors mean a new opportunity and closed doors mean that you are hiding a secret. Death: it means having anxiety about death, unhappiness or struggle of letting someone go. Marriage: it symbolizes commitment. Hell: suffering and torment, incapable of solving problems in reality. Ghost: the essence of what no longer is obtainable. Bridge: represents life transitions and emotions. (Guiley 145)
This paper was about dreams. It consisted of three topics all relating to dreams and how they affect people’s lives. One of the topics was about the history of dreams. The other was about types of dreams. The other was about interpretations of dreams.
References
Abnormal Psychology. Drake M., Raleigh. Littlefield, Adams & Co., 1954
Encyclopedia of Dreams. Guiley, Rosemary. Mass Market Paperback, 1995
The Dream Encyclopedia. Lewis R., James. Visible Ink Press, 2002
Stephen King’s perception in “The Symbolic Language of Dreams” gave me a new, profound insight on dreams. On the other hand, his interpretations also made me realize how little is known about them and their significance to our lives.
Dreams occur every night. While they are not always remembered, it has been proven they transpire. So what is the importance of dreams? What do they say about the person? Antonio Marez, from Rudolfo Anaya's debut novel Bless Me, Ultima, has asked himself the same questions plenty of times.
A common definition of dreams according to “Patterns for College Writing” is “the symbolic representation of mental states”, but this sparse definition does not begin to encompass the complex mechanisms behind dreams and its effects on human culture around the globe. Dreams have long been the topics of folklore and urban legends. Since human beginnings, people have sought to uncover the origin of dreams. The ancient Greeks believed dreams came from the God Oneiroi. The Chinese believes that dreams happened when the hun or spirit leaves the body for the land of the dead. The Ishi Indians believed that dreams were sacred messages from the Gods. Yet even now, with the current technological and intellectual advancements, scientists and psychoanalysts have still to find the true reasons and meanings of these dreams. Some argue that dreams are the products of overactive subconscious minds while others argue that dreams are solely randomized emotions from the limbic system during sleep. Despite these contrasting theories, the truth of the matter is that the topic of dreams and the reasons behind them remain a mystery.
The history of dreaming began in the early centuries. “Dreams were often considered prophetic” (Comptons by Britannica). That means that dreams were seen as a message from the gods. Thousands of years ago, “Greek sick people slept in temples in order to receive dreams that would heal them” (Kantrowitz, Babara; Springen Karen). Current dream science started at the end of the 19th century. Dreams were seen as a kind of “desires” (Kantrowitz; Springen) stemming from childhood. Scientists still don’t know for sure why we are dreaming and what are dreams made of; howe...
The average person spends over one-third of their life sleeping, and over this period of time he or she can have over 1,825 dreams (Wicklinski). By definition, dreams are mental images, thoughts, or emotions that are experienced while sleeping. In the beginning, dreams were thought to be messages sent from the gods or spirit world. Researchers now have many theories explaining why people dream. Many of these theories explain that dreams can resemble an individual’s sensory experiences or even secret wishes. All people dream, but only 42% of people can recall their dreams from the night before (“Dreams”). The study of dreams is a topic that is constantly being debated by researchers for many reasons. Dreaming is important because it can impact people’s health, provide insight into what they are feeling, and reveal information about their behavior.
It is universally known that dreams are full of meanings and emotions. In Freud’s theory, all dreams are wish fulfillments or at least attempts at wish fulfillment. The dreams are usually presented in an unrecognizable form because the wishes are repressed. Freud proposes there are two levels in the structure of dreams, the manifest contents and the latent dream-thoughts. The manifest dream, a dream with understandable contents, is a substitute-formation that hides latent dream-thoughts, which are the abstract ideas in dreams. This translation of latent dream-thoughts to the manifest dream-content is defined by Freud as “dream-work”. Dream-work consists of certain types of transformation.
...n and development throughout history. After the research, I learned that while most dreams are fairly coherent, patterned, which include everyday settings, people, activities, and events, they may involve relatively unusual and perhaps bizarre aspects. Altogether, these images would allow people to have the most revealing and distinctive view of who they are and what they know in daily life by telling stories in the brain. However, while I still feel that no theory can exactly interpret what dreams’ meanings really are, it is interesting to know more how human brain’s activity (dreaming) function when people sleep. Moreover, I have decided to see my dreams as a television show with different episodes at night. That way, I will be able to enjoy the dream without ruining the fun that my brain offers because I would love to see what and how my brain wants me to see.
Dreams are series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person’s mind during sleep. Dreams occur during a certain stage of sleep known as REM. Several different psychologists, including Freud and Hobson, have studied dreams. Psychologists have provided many theories as to what dreams are and the meanings behind them.
When humans wake up from sleeping, we do not always recollect our dreams, yet the brain is still dreaming of what has actually happened. Dreams are formed through various processes, with the past being transformed into content that is thought to be not creative. Freud mentions in the On Dreams that dreams do not make things up that the psyche has not already experienced. As Freud states our dreams are not creative works, “…dream-work is not creative, that it develops no phantasies of its own, that is makes no judgements and draws no conclusions…” (Freud 162). In his terms, dream-work is known as the transformation process that dream-thought shifts to dream-content; consisting of both latent content and manifest
Along with tradition, there are also many theories about dreams. Sigmund Freud, the first psychologist to study dreams in-depth, hypothesized that dreams were just subconscious thoughts. He believed that dreams show wants and thoughts in symbolic form that aren’t acceptable on a conscious level. He used the term manifest content to describe the contents of dreams, and the term latent content as the concealed meanings behind symbolic dreams.
Freud also discusses the beliefs of early man, as dreams were connected to demons, gods and mythical deities. Dreams were perceived to be of a supernatural nature in primitive times and dreams were believed to portend the future.
II. (Introduce Topic) Since the beginning of time, people have been trying to understand the different functions of the human body, how we move, talk, and even act. Many of these physiological behaviors have been explained to some extent. However, one area of the human body that has baffled researchers, is that of the mind. Many things that go on inside the mind that don’t make sense, and serves no real explanation as to why or how things happen. One of the most fascinating and mysterious sections of psychology is that of dreaming. Even though there are numerous theories about dreams; whomever you are, wherever you live, you will dream. Whether it's a good dream or a nightmare is up to your mind, but there must be some reasoning behind dreams, right?
Dreams are an integral part of our lives, and are often neglected since , they are not paid much heed to. Dreams are not stories we knit in our minds, but a lot more. They are actually a reflection of our inner thoughts and play a huge role in shaping our personality, i.e. transforming us into who we actually are. If it weren’t for a dream of queen Maya, the mother of Siddhartha Gautam of a white elephant , she would have never known of her son becoming the Buddha.
Dreams appear in global religions, from Judaism to Hinduism. Most of the philosophy surrounding dreams in religion stems from ancient times, showing
Despite the large amount of time we spend asleep, surprisingly little is actually known about sleeping and dreaming. Much has been imagined, however. Over history, sleep has been conceived as the space of the soul, as a state of absence akin to death, as a virtual or alternate reality, and more recently, as a form of (sub)consciousness in which memories are built and erased. The significance attributed to dreams has varied widely as well. The Ancient Greeks had surprise dream encounters with their gods. Native Americans turned to their dreams for guidance in life. Shamans dreamed in order to gather information from the spirits.