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Native american culture and spirituality
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Native american culture and spirituality
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Dreamcatcher Long ago, in a Native American village, the old and young living there earned their own living and were regarded by people as the ancestors of today’s culture and life in America. In the night when the storm bursted with a tremendous peal of thunder and a rush of rain, the strange and frightening dreams sneaked into the the window and stay by the pillows on the children’s bed. Children started having bad dreams every night. In the morning, people talked about the awful dreams which spread everywhere around the town in a few days as if a plague. In an evening surrounded by candlelight, a spiritual spider in the corner of the room heard the parents’ concerns. The spider decided to help them settle their worries and began weaving a web on a willow hoop in front of the window. His actions sent a message to the winds which asked them to catch the bad dreams when natural forces go through the willow hoop. Ever since, children in that Native American village never had frightening dreams againl. The “spider hoop” gradually developed to “dreamcatcher” as time went on. A dreamc...
this story to describe what a truly wild and unmediated experience is. The ideas of the aura,
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.
Dreams are incredible events that occur to each of us every single night. From lucid dreaming to nightmares, they’ve had a huge impact on life as we know it today, yet we’ve barely scratched the surface on knowing how they work and what they mean. Maybe it’s our brain trying to solve our life’s problems, or maybe it’s just a mess of thoughts and experiences from the past few days. No one really knows, and that’s why they’re so compelling.
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.
Matalon, Nadav. "The Riddle Of Dreams." Philosophical Psychology 24.4 (2011): 517-536. Academic Search Complete. Web. 30 Apr. 2014.
There are many facts that are unknown about dreams and their meanings. For centuries, philosophers and scientists have tried to understand the meaning of dreams. They have all been fascinated by the fact that the content of dreams may have meanings relating to one's life. Are dreams just thoughts in people's minds, or are dreams in fact representations of different areas in people's lives? Dreams represent many different areas of one's life in physical, emotional, and mental ways. Dreams can relay to people facts about their lives that they are not even aware of. There are also many ways that dreams can help cure different physical, emotional, and mental problems in one's life. This paper will discuss dreams and their meanings, and ways of interpreting a dream using such methods as hypnotherapy and psychoanalysis therapy that can help a person in physical, mental, and emotional ways. The first fact that will be discussed is what dreams are and how they work for people in allowing the person to discover more about himself. Dreams can be defined as "a conscious series of images that occur during sleep" (Collier's, vol. 8). Dreams are usually very vivid in color and imagery. They reveal to the dreamer different wishes, concerns, and worries that he or she has. Dreams usually reflect every part of who the dreamer is. The content of the person's dream is usually made up according to how old the dreamer is and how educated the he or she is (Collier's, vol. 8). Dreams are not planned out or thought up. The unconscious part of the mind brings out bits and pieces of information in the dreamer's mind and places them together. According to Encarta, dreams are almost always visual. Forty to fifty percent of dreams have some form of communication present in them and a very small percentage of dreams give the dreamer the ability to use his or her five senses (Encarta). Dreams allow one to take a closer look into his mind and himself in a quest for self-discovery. Dreams can be used to solve all different types of problems. In Sigmund Freud's book, The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud states: "As regards the dream, all the troubles of waking life are transferred by it to the sleeping state […]" (Freud 113). They relay things about a person that the person may not be able to see.
Many different cultures around the world and through out time feel that dreams are bigger; more important than our brains just continuing the thought process while we sleep. One example of cultural differences on why people dream, and what they mean; “The ancient Egyptians used dreams to make predictions about the future. They thought dreams were messages from the gods, which contained vital wisdom and prophecies,” (Turner). This allows researchers to think there may be deeper purposes for the brain to create these mini movies in peoples minds, while at rest. This paper will take a further look into two theories of why we dream, and what people dream about; emotions/trauma, and problem solving. Then taking a look at what lucid dreaming is, and controlling dreams and how they coincide with emotions and trauma, and with dreams being problem solving actions of the brain.
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?
Oprah Winfrey once said, “The best thing about dreams is that fleeting moment, when you are between asleep and awake, when you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy, when for just that one moment you feel with your entire soul that the dream is reality, and it really happened.” But, what actually is a dream and what do dreams really have to do with one’s everyday life? In essence, a dream is a series of mental images and emotions occurring during slumber. Dreams can also deal with one’s personal aspirations, goals, ambitions, and even one’s emotions, such as love and hardship. However, dreams can also give rise to uneasy and terrible emotions; these dreams are essentially known as nightmares. In today’s society, the concept of dreaming and dreams, in general, has been featured in a variety of different mediums, such as literature, film and even music. While the mediums of film and music are both prime examples of this concept, the medium of literature, on the other hand, contains a much more diverse set of examples pertaining to dreams and dreaming. One key example is William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. While the portrayal of dreams, in general, plays a prominent role in Shakespeare’s play, the exploration of many aspects of nature, allows readers to believe that dreams are merely connected to somewhat unconventional occurrences.
I chose this book to explore whether our dreams do mean anything, and whether it does symbolise and influence our past and future. The points that I will be talking about The Interpretation of Dreams in my review is the theories of manifest and latent dream content, dreams as wish fulfilments, and the significance of childhood experiences.
Each night, visions inhabit our minds during sleep and vanish with the morning light. These visions, these dreams, are without substance. Often, the waking mind recalls dreams only vaguely, if at all. A complete, separate world seems to exist within each of us; a world that can only be found through sleep, through dreams. What are dreams? Why do some people find nightly reverie in the comfort of their beds, while others dread sleep, terrified of the content of their dreams, and yet others recall no dreams to fear or fancy? Speculations on dreams are common and vastly variant. Some people imagine that their dreams are prophetic, while others insist that dreams are merely random firings of neurons. Perhaps a more encompassing view of dreams is appropriate. Neural firing causes dreams, but the randomness of dreams is questionable, since dreams are often correlated with the immediate emotional state of the dreamer. The theories that are presented here do not completely explain dreams. There are many missing pieces to the puzzle of the mind, and our theories on dreaming still have rather large holes.
Valli, K., Revonsuo, A., Pälkäs, O., Ismail, K. H., Ali, K. J., & Punamäki, R. (2005). The threat simulation theory of the evolutionary function of dreaming: Evidence from dreams of traumatized children. Consciousness and Cognition, 14(1), 188-218.
For thousands of years humans have experienced a phenomenon which we describe today as dreaming. It has puzzled and sparked interest to all whom experience it. For as long as people have been dreaming, there have been people trying to understand and interpret them. This research paper examines the causation and deeper meaning of dreams. It will compare and contrast the differentiating ideas on the subject by famous psychologists and also examine first-hand accounts from real individuals. The objective of paper is to shed some light on this complex and bizarre behavior.
Over the two weeks in which we logged our dreams and sleep schedules, I made some very interesting discoveries and self-revelations. Many of these ideas come from related symbols each dream share. Before we can start to dismantle these dreams, their relations to one another and myself, allow me to tell you about each one.
What are dreams? Are they simply random brain activity, or are they our mind trying to tell us something? Dreams represent many different areas of one’s life in physical, emotional, and mental ways. “When we sleep we do much more than just rest our weary bones; we tap into our subconscious mind (Ullman and Zimmerman 1979). The subconscious has much to offer about oneself. “The average human being spends one third of their life in sleep and during each sleep approximately two hours is spent dreaming“(Ullman and Zimmerman 1979). These dreams are important because they are the voice of our subconscious. Dreams can relay to people facts about their lives that they are not even aware of. There are also many ways that dreams can help cure different physical, emotional, and mental problems in one’s life. I will look at dreams, their meanings, and possible ways of interpreting them using such methods as hypnotherapy and psychoanalysis.