Dreams are not
only thoughts and mental images experienced during the sleep. Each dream is full
of more or less notable psychological feelings (such as anxiety, enthusiasm,
disappointment, satisfaction…) and physical sensations (such as pains,
pleasures…). Even when someone dreams he stops, for instance, he is actually
experiencing a background sensation of turning a feeling of movement into a
feeling of immobility.
Such as in the
next example, the important thing is in paying attention to the feelings which
are experienced in the dream rather than to the story.
"I am in
a small inflatable boat with someone else. (Concentration feeling). I feel a
strange and enjoying sensation due to huge and distant waves. It goes up and
down. When down, I am aware of the next coming of a huge wave and I feel
stressed and confident. Stressed because of facing a huge thing and being
confident because the course of the boat is setting such as the wave should be
passed. Moreover, waves are distant enough to have the time to place the boat
in a good position” Feelings of the scene: pleasure, shock (when waves are coming),
excitation (when manoeuvring), getting secured (when up in the wave). This kind
of feelings will be called “foreground feelings” as they answer the question:
“what are the notable feelings of the scene?”
Indeed, in real
life, still today, when I remind my first career troubles, I remember – and
even I re-experience – the same foreground feelings as in this part of dream:
the same shock when career troubles were seen about to burst, the same
confidence and excitation when the situation had to be managed, the same
getting secured when I found and achieved a job opportunity, the same pleasure
due to expected success.
Identical were the
feelings of difficulties and danger, the feeling that career troubles were
distant enough to get my breath back and so being able to attack the next wave
(the next trouble).
The dream
continued like this: "The huge distant waves were replaced with small
sharp and close waves. The boat was much more difficult to control". I
felt in danger of being thrown. This sequel strictly recurred the mental
turbulences I experienced when I was reminding job failures which happened
during the 10 months before the dream.
This dream
appeared the night after a discussion about careers. During this discussion I
experienced the feelings which have been exposed here. In the real-life, these
feelings were not noticed as my attention was kept by the talk. They were
under-exposed, like floating about. Nevertheless, such under-revealed feelings
have existed and were recurred through the dream.
(Let’s note, in this case, that some of the feelings experienced during
the talk were reoccurrences of more or less under-exposed feelings experienced
12 years ahead. That shows that preconscious feelings even reoccur in day life (since
recurring dreams: same preconscious feelings – which are open to reappear in
dreams – are experienced from days to days)).
We’ll see now how
general is the idea that dreams strictly reflect day before feelings. Let’s note that reminding day-before
real-life preconscious (“under-exposed”) feelings is not so easy. They are
moments which lasted a few seconds, indeed they sometimes are speed flashes.
So, it’s like searching a lost key – it’s not so easy to review the whole day
in order to remind where the key has been put – and that’s why it sometimes
takes a long time to remind the involved "under-exposed feelings".
Moreover, the
notion of "under-exposed feeling" is not easy to get. It is an
observational thing to which we are not used to paying attention. So one can be
embarrassed with that notion until he has experienced what this notion stands
for. (An "under-exposed feeling" can be felt, for instance, when we
are confronted with an artistic work).
Our sample contains
all the written dreams which have appeared once the approach was clear enough.
All of them have a more or less suitable translation, and that is not due to a
selection of dreams as there was no selection. Each dream has its translation
either because this approach is generalizable or because a translation is
artificially built as it is too much expected. So, the fundamental question is
to be sure that this translating approach is not the result of a more or less
complete accommodation.
Let’s have a look
at a short example. In the "being stoned in flight" dream, I was flying
powerfully. During the flight, I was hurt by a stone a little group of bad boys
threw at me. There is no doubt that this dream recurs under-exposed feelings I
experienced the day before. That day was seen as an especially difficult one
and I succeeded in all my actions. I really felt as "being floating on
air". But, one moment, I was told that I was considered as a liar. This
accusation touched me and I was surprised with a notable shake, shake to which
I didn’t pay attention at the moment (that’s why it was “under-exposed”). This
shake was so particular in its sensation, surprise and intensity that it makes
no doubts that the dreamt shake – which was unexpected and notable as well –
was the real shake due to the accusation. Indeed, there was something of so
identical in the sensations experienced in the dream and in real-life that
there is no doubt concerning the echo. In this case the link between the
dreamt-feeling and the under-exposed feeling of the real-life is an irrefutable
one.
That doesn’t mean
that all of the questions were resolved. When I translated this short dream, I
was in front of a question: does this dream recur the fact that I was told I
was a liar (in that case the bad boys are the people who are supposed to say I
am a liar), or does it recur the fact that, in the very same moment, I charged
me with having made a situation such as I could be regarded as a liar (in that
case, the bad boys are a part of I who accused an other part of me)?
Never mind, the
present purpose is not to validate a translation (see how we translate) but to
validate the existence of a link based on feelings reoccurring. As this validation
is based on an individual sensing method, we’ll first focus attention to
irrefutable cases.
Although the
borderline is questionable, it is possible to talk about exceptional feelings.
In this case, the feelings are so particular (original, intense…) that they are
not supposed to happen twice in a short time unless the second appearance is a
natural repetition of the first one.
In the “being stoned in flight” dream, for instance, the
dreamt-shake and the real-life shake were so characteristic and identical in
their heart that there was no way except considering an echo phenomena.
Among the 42
dreams of the sample, 15 of them present such an irrefutable link. Indeed, in
the next cases, the echoes are so clear, so obvious that they convince us about
the reality of the feelings reoccurring principle. As we are in an observant
position, we won’t try to explain the reasons of the feelings. We will only
emphasis their particularities as their reoccurrences make us believe to the
existence of the echo phenomena.
So, in addition to "the inflatable little
boat" dream and the "being stoned in flight" dream, one can
find:
·
3 dreamt-scenes in
which I was at death's door. In each dream I felt terror and despair. The day before
each dream, I experienced flashes with the same terror and despair as I was in
front of a huge deception (see one of them).
(In real-life, intensive morbid feelings usually don’t last. That’s why it may
take a long time to remind them).
·
A dreamt-scene in
which I was in space. I marvelled with a special mystic fear and I felt being
sucked in. All of these exceptional feelings were felt together in a day before
moment when I (wrongly) believed I had fabulous means for methodical
investigations of the psychological field.
·
A dreamt-scene in
which I was in danger of being devoured by a lion. The sensation was an amazing
one: stomach contraction, sensation of being near to be absorbed. The same
amazing sensation was experienced the day before when I considered a task to
achieve.
·
A dreamt-scene in
which I was fighting. I felt an unusual and very notable letting off steam
during the whole dream such as the day before when I was taking it out on
somebody.
·
A dreamt-scene in
which a dog bites me. I felt a serious pinch such as the day before when a
torment, due to reminiscence, increased up to a heavy-hearted flash feeling.
·
A dreamt-scene in
which I took a shower. I experienced a special pleasure of taking the rough edges
off me such as the day before when I experienced a sort of mental wash
sensation.
·
A dreamt-scene in
a car where I felt a serious adrenalin outbreak as the car was about to miss a
bend such as the day before when I felt an unusual and identical adrenalin
outbreak after a blunder.
·
A sex-scene with a
married mistress. In that dream, I felt a notable and exceptional mix of
excitation, triumph, enjoyment and guilty conscience absolutely like the day
before when I reminded how I had dominated a hostile group of people (see the dream).
·
A dreamt-scene in
which I was eating chocolate while a bombing was expected. An original feeling
of respite and enjoyment interrupted a typical anxiety. So was it the day
before, when I had very pessimistic prospects (expectation of the shakes of a
bombing). I made rid of this anxiety by seeing me in the pleasure I planed for
the weekend. That was the respite and the enjoyment.
·
A dreamt-scene in
which I felt a curious excitation and concentration when I was taming snakes.
They sometimes bite me but I didn’t feel any danger such as the day before when
I was in front of gossips who were criticizing my way of doing things.
·
A dreamt-scene in
which I was very afraid of an animal (an iguana) that was not felt as supposed
to scare me such as the day before when a reminiscence of a little failure
(that was supposed to be neutral) brought disproportionate effects which cause
an intense scare of the reminiscence.
Thanks to these
exceptional echoes of so particular feelings, it becomes possible to believe
that dreams can recur real life feelings.
Likewise, there is
no talk of accommodation with some other dreamt-feelings which are intense or
originally mixed.
As well, it is possible
to be sure that common dreamt-feelings echo real-life feelings without any
accommodations when, in a long dream, the succession of those common
dreamt-feelings perfectly fits with the succession of the linked real-life
feelings. That’s the compatibility of the framework.
When I write
dreams, I distinguish the scenes and, once the story is written, I answer the
question of the experienced feelings concerning each scene. These are the
“foreground feelings”.
1.
Scene
1: I’m skiing with somebody. In this scene, I felt pleasure and I was a little
afraid of falling. So, here, the foreground feelings are pleasure and little
fear of falling.
2.
Scene
2: I stop and a skier nearly crashes into me. Foreground feelings: instability,
fear.
3.
Scene
3: my colleague says I did wrong. The skier’s face shows he thinks so.
Foreground feeling: guilty.
The foreground
feelings involved in this example are common ones. But we can talk about a
“framework-link” when the succession of the dreamt-feelings fits with the
succession of the real-life feelings.
It is the case
with our example. This dream reoccurs a day before moment when I was meditating
on psychology.
1.
At
first, the ideas were coming easily. In addition to that pleasure, I was
feeling a tiny fear that could be expressed by "what would happen if some
difficulties appeared?" (That is the pleasure and the little fear of scene
1).
2.
Then,
some critical ideas began to make me feel uncertain (feeling of instability of scene
2) and finished to block. That was accompanied with a fear: the fear of being
discouraged (fear of scene 2).
3.
After
that, I felt guilty (scene 3) for not being able to deal with the situation.
This particular
dream contains 22 foreground feelings running for 12 scenes. None of them
depart from the rule of the parallelism in the foreground feelings (identity in
the feelings, identity in the orders of succession). That’s why this kind of
link is a compatible one. Through this "compatible framework-link",
the feelings reoccurring principle is not supported, but it is not
contradicted.
Scene-links. In fact, it is possible to go further. In our
example, for instance:
1.
I’m
first skiing with somebody. In the real life, at first, while I was meditating,
the development of the ideas seemed obvious, easy. The result was a feeling of
slide without any convulsions and with the sensation of absorbing criticisms
such as the ski sensation of slide and bumps absorbing. In addition to this, I
felt as if I were accompanied by a self-sufficient strength: the part of I who
generates intuitions.
2.
Then,
I stop and a skier nearly crashes into me. When the easy development of ideas
ceased, I felt a stop and I felt a part of I whispering something like
"you’re not likely to clarify anything". That made me feel near a
crash, a collapse of strength.
3.
After
that, my colleague says I did wrong and the skier’s face shows he thinks so. In
this guilty moment, I didn’t deal with a tormenting culpability. It was just
like being confronted with a verbal observation.
So,
the reading of the story may revive background feelings – such as the
sensations of skiing, of being with someone else, of stopping – which are
connected to real-life sensations. When it works like that all along a dream,
then, the framework link becomes irrefutable. (Here, we can’t help thinking
about the “grand-ma’s neurons” i.e. the neurons which are implicated when a
sensation – for instance the particular odour of coffee which makes remind
grand-ma’s coffee – recalls under-exposed feelings experienced at coffee time
with grand-ma. We know that these neurons are very stimulated during dreams).
In
our example, 10 scenes out of 12 suit like that. How can an honest translator
worry on an accommodation in such a case, especially when it is far from being
the only case?
So, scenes and
real-life moments are also connected through background feelings. This is the
“scene-link” and that makes it possible to reach a much more deep level.
Our sample
contains all the written dreams which have appeared once the approach was clear
enough. There has been no selection. As a first translation of a dream usually
takes me one day, I write a dream only when I know I have the whole day
absolutely free. That’s why I have got 42 typical dreams and a lucid dream in 5 years. All of them
have a more or less suitable translation.
Regarding the 42
typical memorable dreams there are:
-
516 foreground dreamt-feelings from which
470 (91 %) provide a compatible or an irrefutable link with a day before
real-life under-exposed feeling.
-
344 scenes from which 242 (70 %) provide a
correct scene-link.
-
31 dreams (74 % of the dreams) refer to a
single incitement moment.
-
28 dreams (67 % of the dreams) refer to
real-life moments through exceptional or irrefutable foreground links. (That
means that there is no doubt concerning the incitement to dream moment).
Of course, we have
to be careful due to the quality of the measurement. Some borderline questions
have happened and the answers were certainly not always exact. We can’t exclude
that eyes have sometimes judged as they wanted to see. Nevertheless the trends
are eloquent:
-
67 % of the dreams
are linked to an incitement moment through an exceptional or irrefutable
foreground link. There is a very little doubt concerning the type of links.
That means that there is a connection between dreams and day before real-life
moments.
-
18 dreams (43%)
advocate, through all of the details, the feelings reoccurring principle and 12
dreams (28%) were compatible with this principle (in this case, a real life
story tallies, within all of the details, with the dream but it is not eloquent
enough to make sure of the uniqueness of the translation). The rest was
questionable due to partial misunderstanding or lack of memories. All the more
that regarding the 12 questionable cases, it’s worth noting that:
i.
5
of them are questionable because of lack of memories. In that case, we can’t
conclude in a way or in the opposite one. In fact, these dreams could have been
withdrawn from the sample.
ii.
2
of them were near to be correct.
iii.
5
of them are questionable due to partial miscomprehension in the dream-links.
That can be explained by a lack of knowledge.
A single
incitement moment has been identified in 74 % of the dreams. The 26 % missing
could be a consequence of the feelings reoccurring principle itself. According
to this principle, under-exposed feelings may re-appear. Typically,
under-exposed feelings occurred during the action and reoccurred later in the
real-life when reminding the action (such as with the dream of the inflatable
little boat). So it may happen – and, in fact, it has happened in at least half
of the so-called non-single incitement moments – that under-exposed feelings
reoccur in the real-life, hence combinations.
Reoccurrence of preconscious assessments -
Symbolism.
As an assessment
is linked to a feeling – I feel, for instance, that my career troubles are huge
and distant – then, if the feelings reoccurring principle is right, we have to
expect repetition of the assessments through dreams.
It is the case with the “inflatable little boat”
dream.
It’s easy to understand
that waves are linked to difficulties. That fundamental presents a look that
repeats an assessment (the troubles are seen huge and distant or small sharp
and close).
So does it with the boat.
The nowadays habit
of dreams makes us think that boats are transportation means which look like …
boats. The transportation means are the manifestation; the boat is the look.
In all my dreams
until today, the stories have taken a meaning when the transportation means
have stood for “ontical vectors” (personal
skills, abilities, strength, knowledge…).
Depending on how
one feels himself in front of a project – a project is linked to a travel as
both suggest reaching a point, elaborating a way to follow, appearances of feelings
like optimism, anxiety, excitation… – this one will consider himself as well or
badly equipped for success, as being able to use a suitable or an unsuitable
transportation means. The look taken by the transportation means actually
displays the assessment the dreamer had on his own abilities.
In our example,
the career field appeared as an ocean (the career progression was actually
felt, in the real life, as an adventurous field) and my abilities to succeed in
the career field were regarded as frail, hence a small inflatable boat.
(Let’s
note that the difficulty in understanding the symbolism is in knowing what
resorts to the “fundamental” and what resorts to the “look”).