Dreams

Dream, when you're feeling lonely

Dream, when you're feeling blue
Just watch the smoke rings rise in the air
You'll find your share of memories there

So dream when the day is through
Dream, and they might come true
Things never are as bad as they seem
So dream, dream, dream

Dream – Ella Fitzgerald

Freud called dreams the “royal road to the unconscious”. Carl Jung, another great psychiatrist believed that dreams related to the dreamer's unconscious wishes. He believed that recurring dreams showed neglect of these dreams. Dr. Eugen Tarnow suggested that dreams are ever-present excitations of long-term memory, and that the strangeness of dreams is due to the format of long-term memory.

I have found that most individuals will not discuss their dreams, and have actually met some individuals who say they do not dream. I think that when you get right down to it, there is nothing more important in the human psyche than dreams. I remember the beginning stages of psychology very well, when it was not even considered a profession. In psychiatry, with its quack potion of witches brew (psychiatrists use Big Pharma's drugs), there is a variety of titration from results. As one of my psychiatrist friends at Dorothy Dix Mental Hospital told me, “psychiatry is a pseudoscience, but it pays well.” Scientifically, if I were involved in such, I believe dreams would be a large part of my diagnosis and prognosis.

There is no better place to establish the validity of dreams than in the holy Scriptures of the Bible. Joseph's entire life (son of Jacob (a type of Christ), one of the more fascinating characters of human history), and indeed the entire life of the Jewish people, was marked by dreams, his ability to interpret dreams, and so it was with another Joseph, the step-father of Jesus, answering the call of dreams.

Think of the Old Testament dream interpreters attached to the royal court of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel and his ability to interpret dreams. Put flesh and blood on Bible characters and the Bible means much more to you. These men were real, their experiences, historical.

Are there any dreamers left in the world? Are their dreams valid enough to offer any guidance? I can offer a personal experience that I know is true, because it happened to me, involving dreams. Most of my life has been involved in investing, much investing in real estate, which I restored. For years, I had an estranged relationship with my only child, my son. Over and over, I had dreams of apartments, houses which I was restoring, but one would always appear which I had NEGLECTED. The thought kept recurring, even when I was awake, “do I own a property which I have forgotten?” This is very personal, and I would choose not to talk about it, except that it proves my convictions about dreams. Since my son returned from the mission field and there had been some stability in our relationship, I have never had this dream again, that neglected building has never appeared in my mind again!

Our minds are constantly alert with brain activity, thinking about what we are doing, what we need to do, often in one way or another, we daydream. I pity anyone who does not have the ability to daydream, to imagine how things would/could/should be. Dreaming is very important as we mature, there would be few accomplishments if one could not dream. How well I remember following the mules, plowing the fields. I dreamed of better things, my mind was not occupied with the behinds of the mules, the dirt being turned over by the plow. My mind was on a higher level, thinking of what I would be doing in the future.

Think of the artist before a blank canvas, the importance of imagination/dreaming. Think of the writer at the typewriter, blank paper, something he wants to say.

Life would be tragic if the human mind did not have the ability to comprehend the dreams of wealth, making money, homes, vehicles, boats, golf courses. I have traveled the world, 8 'round-the-world trips, visited every continent, passport stamped in 157 countries. I dreamed about the pyramids on the Nile, the pyramids in the Yucatan, and because of my dreams, I read the books about these places, prepared myself to make the money for travel. I never went to any place which was not exactly what I expected, even though I had lost my eyesight (one never dreams of disability, nor warfare). The sounds and smells were exactly what I expected.

In these times of turmoil, when it seems the whole world has gone crazy, please God, put dreams of better days in the minds of our youth. Give dreams of ambition, the ability to heal to future young doctors and nurses. Please give visions of buildings, bridges to future young engineers and architects. Instead of killing the most innocent (abortion, same-sex marriage), give a desire to teach youngsters whose minds are like sponges, ready to learn, ready to dream. Teachers do not know the ability they have to encourage dreams. Everyone ages at the same rate, the fastest growing population: those over 85. The dreams of the younger should be for a better world. The dreams of the old should be of the world to come, palaces of splendor where they are forever free from disease and dirt.