Sleep Dreams can be understood as a Language. That is, they are a system of signs, symbols and sounds used to communicate. Over the centuries there have been various explanations as to who or what is generating this language, doing the communicating. Sleep Dreams have been explained as the language of gods, of spirits, of totems, of God, of the land, of the cosmos, and, more recently, of the unconscious or subconscious. While there are those who would disagree with this, believing that sleep dreams are nothing more than static or the detritus of our waking hours devoid of meaning, it seems that this is ultimately not a very useful approach to dealing with this phenomenon. Such an attitude seems much akin to the stance of the ancient Greeks, who viewed non-speakers of Greek simply as Barbarians, those whose speech consists of nothing more than meaningless “ba-ba-ba” sounds, which could not possibly have meaning. Any language not understood is, indeed, foreign and holds no meaning. But, once learned and understood, any language becomes meaningful and enriching.
As with any language, there are steps that may be employed in order to gain understanding of the tongue of sleep dreams. Understanding sleep dreams, while it involves interpretation, is a process that involves various other steps in order to achieve comprehension.
First, one must apprehend the signs, symbols and sounds that have been generated in a dream. This means to take hold of what has been produced in the dream. On a literal level, apprehension means to take the contents of the dream into one’s conscious custody. The utterances, images and sounds produced by a dream must not be allowed to slip away. On a more abstract level, it means to become conscious of dream content, to engage in perceiving sleep dream, rather than blithely forgetting them. To some degree, dreams are always apprehensive, they expect and hope to be remembered.
Next, one must translate the apprehended dream. Translation is the process of restating expressions from one language into another language. Often this involves translating ephemeral and rich visual communication of sleep dreams into words. This may involve focusing on meaning, but dream translation primarily strives to find the appropriate words to get across the intangible experiences of a highly personal and internal experience that is a sleep dream.
Then we interpret the sleep dream. This is where we take the signs and symbols of the dream and engage in the process of making sense of them, of assigning a meaning to them. In the realm of sleep dreams, their interpretation has been a goal since the dawn of spoken language. We look at possibilities and options. It could be this, and it could be that, and then again the third thing. The often extremely puzzling language of sleep dreams, with its high emotional charge, has had people searching out what they mean, what their implications are for the dreamer. All too frequently, sleep dream interpretation has involved the aspect of one-answer-fits-all: this image means such and such a thing. It has involved turning to Experts to relay to the dreamer What It Means. Interpretation explores the various possibilities of what each dream utterance and sign might mean, what it has meant to others.
The goal of working with the language of sleep dreams is, ultimately, to comprehend them. Each sleep dream asks the dreamer to form a mindful, heartful, bodyful and soulful relationship with it. From the various options and possibilities uncovered in the process of interpretation, the ones that resonate most for the dreamer are found. Even if “everyone” has a certain take on a dream image, for the dreamer of a particular sleep dream, it could mean something completely different. It is not about being handed a computer-generated explanation that someone or something outside of us has generated. The goal is for us to fully take the dream in, to really listen to it, to really look at it, to really smell it, to feel it in our body. Dreams speak to us on all the various levels of our sensation, comprehension and being. They demand our full participation in interacting with them. They want us to be ready to be surprised. We must grasp onto each dream intentionally and passionately, reaching out and taking hold of the meaning it intends for us. We must fully own our dreams and the message they bear for us.
In their whisperings and shriekings, their singings and croakings, their dancings and sculptings, their colors and their shadows, sleep dreams are like compelling and mysterious lovers from a strange land whose language we don’t speak. If we let then, they capture our attention, they elicit our curiosity and our passion in spite of the seeming barrier of language. There is something there that intrigues us, something unknown, tempting, frightening and mysterious. Enriching. They ask that we engage in the struggle to learn their language so that we may more fully interact with them. Like any great lover, sleep dreams entice us to change and grow. As we learn the language of sleep dreams, we learn Dreamfulness, a language of Love, in all its intensity.
