The dream of
the aggressive giant. The translation of
this dream is a very reliable one because:
·
There is an eloquent link between dreamt-feelings
– I experienced terror and despair as I was at death’s door – and real-life
feelings as I experienced a flash of terror and despair too. So, we can be sure
of the real-life moment which is reproduced through this dream.
·
The evaluation procedure of the quality of
the relationship between the real-life and the dream concluded that this
relationship was excellent.
§
All of the 20 main feelings of the dream
tally with the real-life feelings of a single moment, including from the timing
point of view. That means that the framework of the dream undoubtedly fits with
the framework of the real-life moment.
§
The scenes per scenes analysis – which
allows a much more deep level on the understanding of the relationships between
dreams and real-life – shows irrefutable links for 11 of the 12 scenes. That
means that in more than 90% of the cases, the framework and the form of the
scenes tally with sequences of the real-life moment.
So,
we can reach opinions thanks to this next dream and its translation.
I
dreamt about an aggressive giant who entered my room and who tried to kill me.
I was armed with a gun. At first, I unsuccessfully shot his head. Then, he told
me that if I shot his genitals, he would become my slave. That was what I did.
The
day before, as I was reading that hallucinations were believed as very actual
things by schizophrenics, I was caught by a terrible doubt: if hallucinations
exist, and if they are undetectable by the subject, how then can we be sure of
the truth of our representations? The idea that it was impossible to be sure to
be true – and so to be sure of any knowledge – was felt as the end of every
thing. Here stood the flash of despair and terror.
So,
there was an epistemological debate between my Scientific Alter Ego who argued
in favour of this doubt, and I, who was terrified by this idea.
At
first I tried a philosophical defence (I shot his head), but it didn’t work.
Then
the giant – my Scientific Alter Ego – told me that he would become my slave if I
shot his genitals. This dreamt cause-to-effect proposition echoed a real-life
“under-exposed” consideration which appeared when I got the idea to deal the
problem according to the self-made disappointment process. I reminded the
process according to which more a whished thing is impossible to reach higher
is the probability of disappointment and more attractive is a wish harder the
disappointment will be and so will be the morbid devaluation of the person, of
the world, of the past and of the future. This rule was felt as coming from my
scientific knowledge. That’s why it appeared in the mouth of the Scientific
Alter Ego (who is a part of I who knows things and who is driven by the
inclination to know and to be true). So, I whispered to myself that if I could
lower the wish of True – if I could define more realistic aims and if I could
moderate its attractiveness – I would decrease the disappointment and so its
morbid productions i.e. I would sterilise the Scientific Inclination from the
disturbing productions which are generated by its exaltation. Even more, I felt
that if I managed to dominate the wish of truth, I would so well dominate my
Alter Ego that he would become my slave.
It’s
worth noticing that:
-
There is nothing of sexual with the
genitals. This image has been used because it symbolizes a production centre
which was felt lower than the head (which is also a production centre). This
reproduced a real-life under-exposed movement in which I felt that the resort
to empirical productions (the self-made disappointment rule) was doubly lower
than philosophical productions. Indeed, when I found the idea to deal the
problem according to the self-made disappointment process I actually felt
myself as if I looked down. This feeling was reoccurred in the dream when I
changed my aim from up (the head) to down (the genitals). In addition to that,
I felt it less respectable to deal with empirical productions than to deal with
philosophical productions. This discomfort was reproduced in the dream when I
had to deal with genitals. So, there was something felt as doubly low in the
real-life situation and this was reoccurred in the dream through genitals.
-
It would have been better that the giant
became an ally instead of a slave. That shows that dreams perform recorded considerations
and not ideal views. Indeed, dreams don’t appear as messages which would tell
us about what is good, what is bad or what will happen. Dreams only have the
parrots’ sagacity.
An example of a lucid and a creative dream (a lucid dream is a dream
in which we know we are dreaming and in which we manage the dream, a creative
dream is a dream which brings a new point of view, an answer…).
In
this dream, I imagined diagrams which described a fundamental psychological
process. Then, I told to myself: “here are night thoughts again. They look
interesting. It’s worth being able to remind them”. So, in order to learn them,
I instructed me to dream them again. I felt as if I dreamt them as many times
as I wanted. Then, I controlled my awakening and I tried to remind the ideas of
the dream at each stage of the awakening. But as I was advancing in it, I saw
me loosing ideas or recognising how uninteresting they were. So, I decided to
remember only one point: “doubt”. That was amazing because I felt that the dream
didn’t deal with this idea before. At the final moment of the wake up, I told
me: “doubt creates reflection”.
This
dream was linked to a day before moment when I was meditating on a possible
structure of the psychological field. In addition to the feeling that things
were structured – this feeling was present in the dream and in the real-life
moment – I felt that:
·
The real-life thoughts were not criticised
enough, like “night thoughts”.
·
The real-life thoughts were promising like
in the dream in which the thoughts “look interesting”.
·
In the real-life moment, I instructed me
to review my thoughts in order to memorise them. Just like in the dream.
·
In the real-life moment, the reviews were
disappointing. I felt as if I missed ideas and as if the remembered ideas were
poor ones. Just like in the dream.
As
it is a unique observation, we have to be careful with its generalisation.
Nevertheless, we can hypothesise that the dreamt-feeling of being lucid is a
reproduction of the real-life feeling of conducting an understanding process.
Indeed,
this dream was a very interesting one because there has been a radical change.
Before that dream, I used to believe that a doubt was a consequence of a badly
concluded reflection. In that case, the doubt was seen as a negative symptom.
After this dream, I started to believe that doubt was the necessary impulse for
reflection. Here, doubt appeared as luck. But this radical change was not a
creation of the dream: a similar consideration quickly and slightly crossed my
mind the day before the dream. One more time, the good word is “reoccurrence”.
Indeed,
dreams have the parrots’
sagacity. In the present case, there has been neither creation, neither
self-management of the dream, but reproduction of a real-life psychological
process which has recently occurred.
In
addition to that, it appears that the selection of the dream (there are so many
preconscious processes and so little dreams that we are to suppose a selection)
this selection, so, seems to be related to environmental conditions of the
sleeping (just like the case of the dreamt noise which coincides with a real
one) and not to a mechanism which would select the dream according to the
importance of what is supposed to be “said” through the dream. That’s why we
can really say and believe that dreams have the parrots’ sagacity.