The Language of Dreams:
A Psychotherapeutic Transpersonal Approach
This paper was given at the World Psychiatric Association Symposium on the Psychopathology of Dream and Sleeping, and first published in Psychiatria Fennica Supplementum 1985, 159 – 165
Léo Matos
Is a dream real or can we just call real our everyday ordinary perception of reality?
Dreams have fascinated and baffled humans since time immemorial, most probably because dreams raise a question about reality, and man’s interest in the awesome mysteries of the dream world is probably an attempt to discover what is “real” and what is “not real”. This is exemplified by the story of the Chinese emperor who had dreamed he was a blue butterfly and, when awakened, was not sure if he was an emperor who had dreamed he was a blue butterfly or if he was a blue butterfly now dreaming that he was an emperor.
Freud (1965) understood the function of dreams as twofold: to preserve sleep depicting supposedly potential disturbing wishes as fulfilled, and as an expression of a primary-process release of tension.
Aserinsky and Kleitman (1953, 1955) and Dement and Kleitman (1957a, 1957b) were pioneers in the relations between electroencephalograph (EEG) and electrooculogram records and dreaming. They found that the stage 1, low-voltage, fast EEG activity and REM (rapid eye movement) periods, were reliable indicators of dream activity. A number of other investigators (Foulkes, 1962; Goodenough, Shapiro, Holden & Steinschriber, 1959; Orlinsky, 1962) have reported similar findings.
Kamiya (1961) and Kleitman (1961, 1963) found that 20 – 25% of sleep time is REM time, which in a usual night’s sleep equals four or five periods of 20 minutes each. In this way it was possible to deprive subjects of their dream periods (by awakening them as soon as they started to dream). Dement (1960) experimented in this direction, and found that his subjects deprived of dream made increasing attempts to dream (more REM periods per night’s sleep). After five nights without dreaming these subjects were allowed again to sleep undisturbed, when the dream periods increased significantly up to the point where they obtained a sort of quantitative compensation for the amount of dream time lost.
Lerner (1967) attempted to show the inadequacy of Freud’s (1965) formulation in the light of new evidence and suggested a possible alternative explanation in terms of the relations between kinaesthetic fantasy, body image, and ego integrity. Based on the above mentioned findings Lerner (ibid.) concluded that dreaming is not simply a mere device to maintain the sleeping state and in this context she says (idem, ibid.):
“Dreaming appears to be neither an accidental nor even a subservient function and indeed, instead of dreaming in order to sleep, one may sleep, at least partially, in order to dream.”
It has been observed that the psychological effects of dream deprivation (Dement, 1960; Dement & Fisher, 1960; Fisher & Dement, 1963) comprise heightened levels of tension, anxiety and irritability; difficulty in concentrating: marked increase in appetite with consequent weight gain; lack of motor coordination; disturbance in time sense and memory; intrusion of primary-process thought into waking consciousness; feelings of emptiness and depersonalization; and hallucinatory tendencies.
Dreams have been considered as serving to express a unique psychological function, namely the release of tensions by providing an opportunity for primary process expression. However, many psychotics experience primary process all day long without any deviation from the normal in the amount or percentage of their nightly dream time (Dement, 1960).
The mentioned experiments, theories and conclusions of Western scientists in exploring the dream world bring light into uncovering this awesome expression of our unconscious existence. However it seems to me to be of utmost importance to examine dream psychology and practice with a cross-cultural, historic and transpersonal approach.
As transpersonal psychology is yet little known here in Europe I found it my obligation to briefly define in this paper the model and approaches of this “new” school of thought and practice.
Transpersonal psychology is a science which approaches and studies man in his wholeness. Here the human being is not only seen as an individual per se or an individual in society, but the ecological and cosmic relationships are of utmost importance. In this way transpersonal psychology encompasses other scientific approaches such as medicine, anthropology, sociology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy and metaphysics. This “new” science is basically intercultural, and in this way other cultures from all times, with their various approaches to life (psychological, religious, medical, philosophical, social, etc.) are studied.
Transpersonal psychology uses elements of other schools of psychology such as behaviorism, psychoanalysis, Jungian analytical psychology, humanistic psychology, and especially studies human consciousness which transcends the persons and ego concept (Ego here means the individual’s conception of himself, the way he imagines he is.). Therefore transpersonal psychology can be defined as the scientific study of states of consciousness.
The model of transpersonal psychology is very close to the quanta-relativistic model presented by the modern sub-atomic physics (see: Matos, 1979). In studying states of consciousness, one of the major areas of interest in transpersonal psychology is the state of consciousness we call dream. Dream here may be understood in its narrow concept of dream being only night dream, but also can be understood in a broader frame of reference where we may include day dreams, imagination, and various fantasies which are projections of the unconscious experienced by “normal” persons as well as by persons suffering from different mental diseases.
When we think logically about what is a dream we may first and simply define dream as a specific state of consciousness. But, what is a dream? Who dreams the dream? As it is you who dream a dream (a night dream, a fantasy or a hallucination) then we can start by stating that the dream is a product of yourself and, as being a product of yourself, it is a part of yourself. Being a part of yourself then the dream is yourself. This is the approach for interpreting and working with dream of gestalt therapy (Matos, 1975). And in this way as in most Occidental psychotherapeutic methods dream here is seen as a message from you to yourself.
Observing the language and messages of dream we may observe that there are two basic types of dreams: the finished and the unfinished dreams. A dream is like a story with a beginning, a middle and possible end. There are those dreams without ending (like for example dreams where you are going to some place and suddenly you awake, or nightmares where you may awake in the middle of the night with feelings of fear, anxiety, etc.) and dreams where you can observe the unfolding of a whole story. Usually this second type of dream will offer to you in your awakening to an ordinary state of consciousness a feeling of satisfaction and completeness. In this way working with dream and dreaming in the last decennium I came to the conclusion that dream is not only a message from the unconscious but much more than that: when you dream you are trying to do psychotherapy to yourself. You are using the mysterious language of dream to accomplish the task of completing a psychological gestalt, which otherwise you have not been able (or even aware of a need) to accomplish in the ordinary waking state of consciousness.
Working with dream in a transpersonal psychotherapeutic context we must extend our psychodynamic horizons (the Freudian frame of reference) to pre-natal, perinatal and transpersonal memories. Here various techniques may be used to facilitate the person opening the gates of the unconscious and allow more dream material to emerge into consciousness.
In order to attain this purpose I have developed a techniques I named “day dream catharsis” (Matos, 1977). I mostly use this technique in working with unfinished dreams, and in order to facilitate the dreamer to getting in touch with his dream, I ask him to lay down in a couch, close his eyes, relax and then get the feeling (not only thinking) of his dream. Then I ask the dreamer to retell to me the dream now in present tense, as he would be dreaming again. In this way the dreamer will not feel that the dream is like an event which has happened in the past and is separated from himself, but soon he starts to realize that he is dreaming the dream here again in a relaxed awake state of consciousness. When he gets to the point where he awakened from that dream I ask him then to allow his imagination freedom and just continue the dream any way his imagination will bring it to. Most persons will be able, in an environment of safety, to, then, get in touch with the continuation of the lost dream material and will be capable of completing and finalizing the dream. With such an approach the presence and being of the therapist is of utmost importance, for he must function here like a facilitator or guide, and not interfere at all with any interpretation or interruption but only guidance through the intricacies of the person’s own unconscious until the dream is completed. Then, if necessary (in case the person requires it) I will give an interpretation of the dream. Basically all persons going through this process will state at the end of the dream session a feeling of well being, where the symptomatic residues provoked by the unfinished dream (as feelings of fear, anxiety, phobias, etc.) will have disappeared. In this inner psychotherapeutic dream journey the person may move from psychodynamic to perinatal and transpersonal levels of consciousness. And here the psychotherapist must be well qualified and prepared to guide the person in these various realms of his or her own unconscious.
DREAM IN OTHER CULTURES
In the thirties the American psychologist Kilton Steward (see Tart, 1972) heard of a cultural group of people called Senoi living in the jungle of Malaya. What astonished Steward was the information that among that people there were no armed conflicts, serious crimes or mental illnesses. He travelled to Malaya and spent one year living with the Senoi and studying their customs and psychology of life. In the end of that year (1935) Steward concluded that the reason why the Senoi did not have the problems most common to other groups of human beings inhabiting this planet (as for example serious crimes and mental dis-eases) was due to the way the Senoi experienced, comprehended and worked with their dreams. They used to live in large houses inhabited by three families and the first thing they did in the morning when awakening was to gather together and spend sometime telling to each other their dreams. They had a specific way of dealing with the dream material of the previous night and then integrating this material into their own individual and social life. If, for example, a child had dreamed that he was falling from a precipice and got scared and awoke, the grown up leading the dream morning session would advise the child “next time you have a dream in which you are falling then you may do either of two things: you allow yourself to fall because down there you are going to meet something which is important for you; or if you are too afraid of falling, then you shall transform the fall in flying and then go to some place where you will find something or someone which will be important for you”. And very soon the child would learn the technique of being aware in a dream that a dream was a dream (lucid dream) and able to control the events taking place in the dream world. If an individual would tell that he dreamed with someone who taught him a song, now in the group meeting he could sing the song, then everybody would sing the song with him and this song would now be integrated in the folklore of the tribe.
It is not difficult to understand from a socio-psychological point of view how in a society where this so important material springing from the unconscious was widely accepted and emphasized, that the various ways of working with dream by the Senoi would work like an effective preventive psychotherapy to each individual and to the whole tribe. What the Senoi were doing by using dream was the accomplishment of the goal of most therapies (v.g. psychoanalysis, Jungian analytic psychology, Adlerian psychotherapy, gestalt therapy, transpersonal psychotherapy, etc.), which is to make the unconscious conscious.
In the works of the anthropologist Carlos Castaneda (1970, 1972, 1972a, 1976, 1981) we can appreciate how the wise shaman Don Juan led Carlos from a mechanistic Cartesian-Newtonian ordinary reality into the transpersonal intricacies of the dream world, which have been explored and studied by pre-Columbian civilizations during millennia. These pre-Columbian civilizations and its remnants (the Red Indians of North America, and the Indians of Central and South America) have been using dream not only as a psychotherapeutic and social integrative device but even as prophecies (Bruce, 1979) to relate their past and present to the future.
Among the living human cultures, probably, the people who know most about dream psychology are the Tibetans. They have a scientific, intricate, and extensive mode of working with dreams which permit the person not only the integration of the unconscious material into the conscious but, with well-architectured techniques, the Tibetan psychological dream methods permit the person to tread an effective path to personal and spiritual growth (Guenther, 1963). An important part of the dream methods are various preparations (e.g. techniques of body relaxation and breathing before sleeping) previous to the S’s night’s sleep; as well as methods for analyzing the dreams (Tson-ka-pa, 1981).
When I was giving a dream seminar in the Esalen Institute (Big Sur, California, USA) in 1976 I met there a young man who had been living for six years with the Huichol Indians of Mexico. I asked him how the Huichol related themselves to their dreams. Prem Das, the young man, who was a student of Don José (a famous medicine-man of the Huichol tribe, aged one hundred and two years), told me that his teacher, who, in spite of his advanced age presented an unbelievable physical prowess and mental clarity, was able to perform unconceivable feats by using dream, like for example traveling to places (out of body experience), predict the weather, harvest and other future events by interpreting his dream omens. Prem Das told me further that they had recently held elections among the Huichol to elect the new chief. Curiously, I asked him how they elect their new chief – and the way they do it is by dreaming.
In transpersonal psychology we study, research and integrate into an Occidental psychotherapeutic context psychological techniques developed by other cultures. I have developed a form of dream seminar, where a group of people live together, usually in a tranquil environment in the countryside, surrounded by green nature, for 3 to 7 days. Here in this seminar the participants have the opportunity to work psychotherapeutically with their own dreams, and to learn techniques of East and West for exploring their own dream world. In this context of quietness and safety the person becomes able to integrate the dream world in a meaningful way into the world of everyday ordinary reality in order to enrich one’s own existence.
SUMMARY
Throughout time humans have tried to understand the meaning of dreams and dreaming and various theories and methods have been developed both in East and West. Here in this paper the author examines the language of dreams from a cross-cultural and transpersonal perspective. The emphasis on this paper is on cross-cultural comparison of the use of dreams; typical Occidental approaches such as Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis and Frederick Perls’ gestalt practice are complemented and discussed in relation to the dream techniques used by the Senoi in Malaya, the Indians of the North and South American continents and by the psychological dream tradition in Tibetan Buddhism.
The author has originated the theory and techniques of “day dream catharsis” which is based on the concept and practice that humans have an innate capacity of delving into various realms of their unconscious, solving, duly guided by this technique, traumas and problems related to the psychodynamic, perinatal and transpersonal levels of existence. This technique is here presented and, discussed and compared with further techniques for working with dream material and for integrating the dream content into everyday life to enrich one’s existence.
REFERENCES
ASERINSK, E. and KLEITMAN, N.: Regularly occurring periods of eye motility and concomitant phenomena during sleep. Science, 1953, 118-273.
ASERINSK, E. and KLEITMAN, N.: Two types of ocular motility occurring in sleep. Journal of Applied Physiology, 1955, 8, 1-10.
CASTANEDA, C.: The teachings of Don Juan. Middlesex: Penguin, 1970.
CASTANEDA, C.: A separate reality. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1972.
CASTANEDA, C.: Journey to Ixtlan. NY: Simon & Schuster, 1972 (a).
CASTANEDA, C.: Tales of Power. Middlesex: Penguin, 1976.
CASTANEDA, C.: The eagle’s gift. NY: Pocket Books, 1981.
DEMENT, W.: The effects of dream deprivation. Science, 1960.
DEMENT, W. and FISCHER, C.: The effect of dream deprivation and excess: an experimental demonstration of the necessity for dreaming. Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 1960, 29, 607-608.
DEMENT,W. and KLEITMAN, N.: Cyclic variations in the EEG during sleep and their relation to eye movements, body motility and dreaming. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 1957, 9, 673-690(a).
DEMENT, W. and KLEITMAN, N.: The relation of eye movements during sleep to dream activity: an objective method for the study of dreaming. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1957, 53, 339-346 (b).
FISCHER, C. and DEMENT, W.: Studies on the psychopathology of sleep and dreams. American Journal of Psychiatry, 1963, 119, 1160-1168.
FOULKES, W.D.: Dream reports from different stages of sleep. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1962, 65, 14-25.
FREUD, S.: The Interpretation of Dreams. USA: Avon Books, 1965.
GOODENOUGH, D.R., SHAPIRO, A., HOLDEN, M. and STEINSCHRIBER, L.A.: A comparison of “dreamers” and “non-dreamers”: Eye movements, electroencephalograms and the recall of dream. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1959, 59, 295-302.
GUENTHER, H. V.: The life and teaching of Naropa. NY: Oxford University, Press, 1963.
KAMIYA, J.: Behavioral, subjective and physiological aspects of drowsiness and sleep. In D.W. Fiske & S.R. Maddi (eds.) Functions of varied experience. Homewood, III: Dorsey Press, 1961 (pp. 145-174).
KLEITMAN, N.: The nature of dreaming. In G.E.W. Wostenholme & M. O’Connor (eds.) The nature of sleep. Boston: Little Brown, 1961 (pp. 349-374).
KLEITMAN, N.: Sleep and wakefulness. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963.
LERNER, B.: Dream function reconsidered. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, vol. 72, no. 2, 1967, 85-100.
MATOS, L.: Transpersonal psychology: explorations in consciousness. Paper presented at the Fifth International Conference of Transpersonal Psychology, Boston, USA, November 9-14, 1979.
MATOS, L.: Gestaltterapi – en form av humanistisk närhet. Psykolog Nytt, 2/75, 1975, 22-23.
MATOS, L.: The Language of Suicide: a psychotherapeutic approach. Paper presented at the IX International Congress of Suicide Prevention and Crisis Intervention – Helsinki, June 20-23, 1977.
ORLINSKY, D.E.: Psychodynamic and cognitive correlates of dream recall. Doctoral dissertation. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1962.
TART, C.T. (ed.): Altered States of Consciousness. NY: Doubleday, 1972.
TSONG-KA-PA: The Yoga of Tibet. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1981.
