For many years, I had a recurring dream. Of me standing at a bus-stop, by the beach, watching a giant tsunami rising to an enormous height. I just stand there, facing it, frozen, fascinated and terrified, unable to move, knowing that it would definitely sweep me away.
Dreams have meanings, I learnt much later. And went about trying to find what this meant. According to Carl Jung, a tsunami dream is very significant. It is one of those great “archetypal” dreams, meaning symbols which are universal across all cultures. A tsunami is supposed to be a symbol of some great spiritual change, the washing away of the old and the beginnings of new growth.
Jungian therapists recognize three levels of dreams. Level 1 dreams have no deep symbolic meaning, and are just remnants of the recent thoughts and feeling s of the conscious mind. Level 2 dreams use symbols to express material in the personal unconscious — material that relates primarily to our physical and sexual preoccupations, much like Freud. Level 3 dreams, or what Jung called “great dreams”, are qualitatively different. They contain emotionally-charged and powerful symbols that express the innate qualities and behavioural predispositions that make us human — what Jung called archetypes.
Why are dreams so important? Haven’t dreamers always been told it’s an unproductive exercise? Dreams are unique, and are drawn from our individual reality, our life. We spend two hours every night dreaming. And most of us don’t remember a thing when we wake up. Sigmund Freud believed that ‘dreams are expressions of unfulfilled wishes and desires’. A person's dreams can give a sense of direction in life.
Amazon has books on the healing power of dreams, how to improve and remember your dreams. Martin Luther King said ‘I have a dream’ and fought to make it real. Honda, in a world of serious cut-throat competition, stands for The Power of Dreams.
Akira Kurosawa once made a film called ‘Dreams’, on his dreams. The film is filled with strange events, that make no apparent sense to the viewer, yet everyone in the story lives it as real. One dream is about a former military commander who meets the ghosts of all the soldiers who died under his command and explains why they died. There’s one about a young boy that finds a group of living dolls in the fields. The dolls are furious that the boy's family have destroyed all the Peach trees in the Orchard. And another where there’s a nuclear meltdown. Panic spreads and a few survivors contemplate whether or not to end their lives.
What fascinates me about dreams is the elasticity of Time. I can be anywhere, in just a second, defy gravity, sing, dance on Mount Everest, kill myself and be reborn, touch a dead tree and make it come alive. I am not governed by the Earth rotating around the Sun or the laws of the world. Or the restrictions of my mind. A crystal ball into my head, it shows me possibilities of a future I can be. A messiah. A world leader. A peacemaker. A healer. I could be anything I dream, if only I could remember what I dreamt when I woke.
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