Recap

Dream Analysis

Tuesday's guest, expert dream analyzer, Dr. Greg Cynaumon (drgreg.org) shared his insight into the meanings and symbols that surface from our subconscious while we sleep. The brain stays awake while the body sleeps, and while each person's brain is different, there are symbols such as water which tend to have a universal meaning (it signifies rebirth) he noted.

Most dreams only last 3-4 minutes "but seem much longer because they take place in the theater of the mind," Dr. Greg said. Left brain types such as mathematicians tend to dream somewhat logically, while creative people's dreams are often more bizarre, he explained.

Recurring dreams or nightmares indicate a person is not properly analyzing the meaning that is being continually presented to them, Dr. Greg said. One particularly frightening experience he said he had, when he was in private practice, was with a client who had returned from South America and was relating his troubling dreams. But the man was also interjecting personal information about Dr. Greg that would have been impossible for him know. It was "clearly something demonic going on with him," he commented.

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Dream Rewards

Originally published in 1974 and since updated, Patricia Garfield's book Creative Dreaming is considered a classic in the field. Her central thesis is that people can plan and control their dreams to reap a variety of benefits, including solving dilemmas, tapping into creativity, and engaging in adventures.

One chapter of the book looks at the traditions of the American Indians, and how almost all tribes, in spite of their differences, placed a high degree of significance on their dreams. One principle Garfield derived from her study of the Indians is that "dreamers who regard dreams as important and even vital to success in life will receive and remember helpful dreams."

To Indians, a visit from a spirit guardian (manido) in a dream state, could provide particular value, she noted. These guardians may offer a special kind of relationship such as a grandparent to a child. "You should accept and appreciate all friendly gestures in your dreams," Garfield writes. "Dream friends can be as real as the friends you can touch while awake…as in waking life, the more friends you have, the better, and the better friends they are to you, the better it is for you."

--L.L.