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Recurring dreams
reveal subconscious
By Ethan Pell
StajfWriter
We all have recurring dreams.
Sometimes we like them and other times
we loathe them. The question is why
these dreams happen over and over
again.
The recurring dream isn’t just a
dream that occurs over and over again
by coincidence. Whether the dream is
good or bad, it is a distinct message
from the subconscience. It tells about
something that is needed or wanted by
the dreamer. Keep in mind that this
“something” may or may not be any
thing material. A need is symbolized in
a dream for love, affection, or it could
represent an attempt to find a solution
to a deep rooted and unresolved psy
chological problem. Recurring dreams
reflect an external situation or impres
sion that is often resurrected in the
dreamer’s unconscience mind. Each
time the dream occurs, it will serve as a
“report card” and show how far one has
come in resolving the problem.
“My recurring dream is usually a
witch flying over a rainbow because
when I was little and had bad dreams,
my mom told me to think about rain
bows, but witches would always fly
over them,” said Monica Newberry, a
senior.
The recurring nightmare should not
be dismissed. Often time this type of
recurring dream is the most difficult to
face, but the dreamer shouldn’t be
afraid of the nightmare. It is a frighten
ing experience and may mean the
dreamer will
have to face
up to a fact that
is distasteful. It
could also be refer
ring to something
that the dreamer’s
conscience mind _
doesn’t know is happen-
ing. Confronting a dream /
and accepting the fact that a
dream is sending a message is very
important.
“One of my recurring dreams is that
I’m on top of a staircase with great
height and I slip and fall and I
never really know when I’m
going to hit the bottom, but
when I do, I wake up,” said an
anonymous sophomore.
The road to recovery
starts with the dreamer writ
ing about the dream in detail
each time it occurs. In analyzing
a dream, it is important to think
of it in terms of the dreamer’s
Flying- relief; happy feelings
- often after you’ve overcome a problem
Clown- fun-loving aspect of yourself
Animals- suppressed animal instincts; natural vitality
- feelings of repression
Death- important event coming to an end
Test- avoiding a challenge or facing a challenge you are uilF
prepared for
Anxiety- anxious to get on with an event or relationship
Spiders and snakes- something about yourself that scares yoi.
Falling- event in life which is out of control
- fear of rejection
Loss- change in personal values
- not clear on where you stand on issues
Deciphering dreams is age-old practice
By Danielle Alford
Reporter
After awakening Ifomadream ofbdngabut-
terfly, Chwang-Tse said, “Now I do not know
whetherl wasthenamandreaminglwas abut-
terfly, orwiietherl amnow abuttafty dreamingl
amaman” For about4,000 years, people have
fried to grasp the meaning and causes of dreams.
These efforts have developed into many theo
ries answering the “how” and “why” of dreams.
hi early theories of the origin of dreams, the
most widespread belief was that they were rev
elations from the gods. hi an Egyptian dream
book of papyrus (now in the British Museum),
dreams were said to come to the ancients with
their drvinemessages in code form, which had to
be dec^ha-ed by seers. This practice of deci
phering dreams is found in Oirpter 41 of Gen
esis in the story of Hiataoh’s dream Pharaoh
chooses Joseph to mtapret his dream and is
told that there will be seven years ofplenty, fol-
lowedby seven years offamine. His dream de
termined the fate of an entire country.
Still another early belief about dreaming was
that the soul leaves the body to roam abroad
during sleqi and dreams are the ©qiaiences of
the soul during this free fli^t. This behef still
persists in some modemprimitive societies. For
exarrple,inlhe Fuji islandsit is considered taboo
toawakenasleqiingperson. Theybehevethat
if the sleeper is awakened, the wandering soul
may not be able to reenter the body, and will be
tr^ed outside, inakindoflimbo, forever.
hi the Senoi tribe of Indonesia, it is customary
for each family member to describe his dreams
before beginning his day. After analyzing the
dreams, everyone decides what each dreamer
has to do to di^el any evil forces that may be
indicated in their dream, or how they can take
advantage of any good forces.
If there are goodforces found in dreams, then
they mi^itbehe^jfulinanoflier early dreamtheoty