Dreams and meaning

Question: What do our dreams mean and why do we have them?

Over the course of our existence, we’ve been asking ourselves this very question, “What do our dreams mean and why do we have them?” Time and time again, we are left with different theories regarding the meaning of our dreams. With advancements in science coupled with the help of dream experts, we can be able to outline these different theories whilst also covering why we dream, dream interpretation and the like.

It can be deduced that dreams derive from real life and the connections are constrained by unconscious desires hence “a dream is the fulfilment of a wish.” It is believed that dreams reveal unconsciously repressed conflicts or wishes. According to Freud himself, dreams are the imagery of a wish or impulse that has since been repressed. Who is to say Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness isn’t right all along when it’s perceived that our dreams are us in different multiple realities. Ridiculous right? Yeah, I know but like I said earlier, there are different theories as to dreams and meaning.

Before I delve more into dreams and meaning, I would like to share my motivation for writing about this. You see, everyone has their theories or perception of dreams but in most households, or the Gen X especially in my side of West Africa, dreams are perceived to be something of a mystic or superstition. I don’t know if it’s just me or maybe it’s popular opinion or whatever but whenever my parents have bad dreams most importantly, about their kids, it’s like they’ve seen our fate or our future or their privy to some mystical knowledge about our lives, I kid you not.

I’m not trying to dismiss their beliefs nor am I trying to belittle or minimise their concerns, it’s just that when they let that fear they experience in their dreams about us rule their reality is what I find quite problematic. Anyway, that’s my motive for writing about this, to shed more light on what different theories could explain this burning question about dreams and meaning.

Throughout centuries, humans have questioned the very meaning of dreams. Early civilisation believed that dreams were a medium between humans and the gods. The Greeks and Romans were positive that dreams could predict the future. However, times have definitely changed. As aforementioned, there are many various theories when it comes to dream interpretation and whether our dreams really mean something. While we often enjoy remembering our dreams the next day, it’s important to clarify if there’s any importance in dream meanings.

The truth of the matter is, I really don’t wanna explore the science-y aspects to these theories cause I wouldn’t wanna bore you with all those details about “metabolic clearance” the “hippocampus or the amygdala etc. I really don’t wanna get into all that. I just wanted to bring to attention that different theories exist on our perception of dreams and we shouldn’t claim that our perception is our realities you know, cause it isn’t. Now don’t even get me started on dream psychology where apparently, there are 3 main types of dreams. The first type is “Dreaming is a passive imagination.” Next, there is the “Dream Illusions" and finally you have the “Dream hallucinations.”

Daydreaming like in reverie or trance is passive imagination in the waking condition. Dreaming is passive imagination during really light sleep. It is more exempt from control and critique than daydreaming. Images come of themselves owing to suggestive forces and are combined in numerous aspects.

They are the work of our subconscious psyche. They are understood as fundamental perceptions during dreams. But they are not percept generated by external objects and do not agree with them. Dream illusions are motivated by external stimuli. A woman sleeping in a well-lighted room sometimes dreams of a blaze. A woman sleeping with insufficient clothes in winter may dream of swimming in a stream when uncovered in a drizzle of rain. These are examples of dream-illusions. Lastly, dream hallucinations are motivated by prominent stimuli or a train of thoughts and images. A young man entranced by a girl dreams of his beloved. Some dreams are put in motion by the un-gratified sex desire. Some are actuated by other intentions also, e.g., poetic impulse, musical impulse, artistic impulse, etc.

On that note, I’ll like to end this article. If you find this fascinating and/or intriguing, I’ll advise to explore it and as always, keep an open mind. Shalom!

Written by: Ada

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