The Language of Dreams

Basic Vocabulary 

The vocabulary of dreams is symbolic, but the language of dreams is more than a series of dream dictionary definitions.

This is one of the key lessons I learned in my recent Rhine Research and Education Center course, Dreams and Altered States. It probably wasn't the primary, or intended lesson, but I found it anyway, layered in between the pages of Professor Loyd Auerbach book Psychic Dreams—which was our text for the course.

Language is always a form of translation. We take thoughts and experiences and objects we have seen or possessed and pair them up with words. In this sense, language is a simple substitution game devised by our ancient ancestors, rediscovered over and over again by toddlers and still utilized by the most articulate of adults today. 

By substitution, we communicate basic needs. Common words for common things. Coffee. Ink pen. Quiet. 

Then there is the bigger game where spoken, and most especially written, language takes flight and finds itself capable of poetry and metaphor and almost limitless symbolism. To my mind, this is the way that dreams and ordinary language overlap. 

Unlike word-based communication, however, the vocabulary of dreams is made out of images.

Dreaming in Symbols

As an autistic, aphantasic (mind-blind) person I find the idea of concepts as images fascinating. 

If I thought in pictures as I'm told the ordinary person does—I would be so distracted by symbolism I would be veering off course all of the time. For me, the thousand words inherent in every picture can be a very literal thing and I think this is true for everyone to a degree.

In everyday thought and conversation, of course, there is one primary meaning or label or name for any one given thing. This is why language exists and how it developed. But it is the inherent complexity of symbolism that makes it possible for free-association, particularly in writing, to take us places we could never predict. 

And this is especially true of dreams.

Not all dreams are meaningful, of course. Some can be sourced in the stress of the day or worries buried deep in our subconscious or in the existent light or sound that bleeds into our sleeping awareness. The best dreams, however, come from somewhere else and this is where Professor Auerbach's book and what it has to say about how dreams are constructed comes in. 

Psychic Dreams explains that dreams are a narrative built from sensory, psychological or psychic input. Specific examples of each input type are included along with various theories that attempt to explain them. The theory I found most interesting was that of neuroscientist J. Allan Hobson, who believes that our dream narratives are drawn from our own neurobiology.

According to this perspective, the firing of neurons are translated into images and images are then made into story. 

This idea stopped me cold—even though it is something I suspect most people have already thought about). To me, the idea that we are translating from firing neurons, to pictures, to narrative seemed very important. Especially because, in the cases of psychic dreams, I believe that these neurons are influenced by something not us.

Received Information

In one of his books or talks, biophysicist Rupert Sheldrake shares an analogy. 

Imagine that you know nothing of radios and that you assume that the sound is generated by the radio itself. To test your theory, you open the radio and remove some of the parts. When you see that the radio no longer functions, you may assume that you have understood how a radio works. But you would be wrong.

This, according to Sheldrake, is how many scientists approach the brain. And it is how a lot of them approach dreams as well. The parts do matter, obviously, but they are not the fundamental truth of minds or radios.

Dreams and Altered States was a comprehensive course. I learned about altered states and parapsychology, out of body experience, near death experience, the specific science of dreams and more. I was reminded that Rupert Sheldrake is right in saying that the mind is the receiver. 

I was convinced that the research into psychic dreams is valid and that the information communicated through dreams matters—and I was fascinated by the idea that we are the subconscious translators of all we receive.

Now I have more questions. Some have answers. Others might not. But I think they are all worth asking. Here are the ones on my mind this morning.

Who or what is transmitting?

How can we be better receivers?

How can we best understand our own translation?

What is discernment and how does it apply to dream interpretation?

Why are we so compelled by the mystery of dreams?

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I may be writing something about the parallels between dream construction and meaning and the way autistic people process life in AutisticWriters.com at some future point.

Psychic Dreams (affiliate link) is available through Amazon and elsewhere. Please note, that if you buy Psychic Dreams though my Amazon affiliate link, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you.

For more on about the Rhine Research Center and their wonderful online classes, please visit RhineOnline.org