Deanna Varnadoe Wednesday 6pm-9pm

The Death of Caleb and Shane: A Study into the Meaning of Dreams

While my friends Caleb and Shane were sleeping safe and sound in Statesboro, GA, I was dreaming that a mass murderer broke into their apartment and shot them both. The murderer ran into their bedrooms and shot them to death in a matter of seconds for no reason at all. I awoke in a state of terror and proceeded to call them to make sure they were okay. Although dreaming is not fully understood, dreams may offer a degree of personal insight to an individual. Throughout history people have sought to find meanings in their dreams. Societies of the past often attributed dreams to spiritual sources. Ancient societies had very different yet related outlooks on dreams. Jewish people believed that their dreams were prophecies of things to come in the future from God. There is no clear evidence for these ideas but are told in the Holy Bible. The Greeks had similar beliefs as the Jews. They believed that their dreams were important messages from their god, Zeus. Greek people even went as far as having a gathering place with drugs that would put them to sleep so that they could dream! The Chinese believed that a person, while dreaming, could separate their soul from their body. The dreamer, while soul separated from body, could speak to the dead, other souls and gods. Modern dream theory is rooted in the work of Sigmund Freud, an Austrian psychologist who is considered the father of psychoanalysis. Freud published, The

Interpretation of Dreams. In it he talks about how dreamers thoughts are released while unconscious. He says that the dreamers thoughts are suppressed while awake because they are bad thoughts of the dreamer. Freud had an idea that images in peoples dreams stood for something other than what they appeared. He believed that a snake represented a penis and that all complicated machinery and apparatus in dreams stand for the genitals. (Parker and Parker 23) Freuds ideas of symbolism can very well be questioned with the suggestion that he had a sexual obsession. As with Freuds other writings, his work on dreams attracted criticism; but its value was undeniable, and is underlined by the fact that almost every work on dreams since its publication has made use of it, and to some extent been inspired by it. it is safe to say that one aspect of it with which almost every worker in the field now disagrees is Freuds insistence that certain symbols always mean the same thing. For instance, he claims that a snake, in a dream, is always a phallic symbol, standing for the penis. His concentration on sexual symbolism in dreams can easily be criticized: such statements as all complicated machinery and apparatus in dreams for the genitals, or there is no doubt that all weapons and tools are used as symbols for the male organ seem now far too cut and dried. Which is not, of course, to say that a gun or almost anything else cannot represent the penis in a dream? J. Alan Hobson and Robert W. McCarley think that dreams have no meaning. They believe that certain cells in the sleep center of the brain stem are activated during REM sleep (Hoffman 141). They think the brain doesnt know how to handle this stimulation so, the brain searches through its memory and in return dreams occur. However, Calvin Hall believes that a series of dreams could be interpreted as

a letter to the dreamer about his or her personality, but a part of he or she that the dreamer is not consciously familiar with. Dreams occur during REM sleep, a period characterized by rapid eye movements. Eugene Aserinsky examined volunteers while they slept. He used an electroencephalograph by examining one eye at a time. When their eyes began to rapidly move he would wake them up and ask them if they had been dreaming and they were. REM stands for rapid eye movement. The eyelid will stay closed but the eye will be moving. Some scientists believe that during REM sleep the brain is working just the same if not more as when a person is asleep. So during REM sleep there is, High frequency brain waves, and dreaming. (Hoffman 1) Researchers have also found that when subjects are selectively deprived of REM sleep they will show a rebound effect- that is, they will try to catch up on REM sleep on subsequent occasions by spending more time than the usual amount in this state. (Hoffman 1) Although, J. Alan Hobson and Robert W. McCarley believe dreams have no real significance, Calvin Hall believes they do. (Hoffman 141) A dream resembles a motion picture containing setting, character, action and emotion. In most cases the dreamer knows the setting in their dream. For example, it will be a place that the dreamer can identify and be familiar with while awake. Statistically shown, In a few dreams, about five in every hundred, the dreamer is not aware of the setting; in others, there is little else save scenery... (Hall 22) Most characters in peoples dreams are those closest to the dreamer. The dreamer may or may not be in his or her own dream but most often are. For small children and teens their characters are mostly their parents because it is thought that people dream about the most important people in their life. For most adults, they dream about their spouse or children. Friends also play character roles in dreams. About

four out of every ten characters in our dreams are strangers. Strangers represent the unknown, the ambiguous and the uncertain. All kinds of actions occur in dreams. The most common are, ...Riding, walking, running, jumping, climbing or falling. Apparently sleep permits greater freedom of movement to the dreamer. (Hall 34) Dreams can be happy or unhappy. Some dreams show no emotion. Unpleasant dreams are more numerous than pleasant ones, and as one get older the proportion of unpleasant dreams increases. (Hall 40) Not only do dreams show emotion but there are different types of dreams as well. Furthermore, many people are fascinated by three particular types of dreams. Lucid dreaming is where the dreamer knows they are dreaming. In some cases, the dreamer can control what happens in his or her dream. Krakow came up with a three step method to change or fix nightmares. The Method? Write down your dream, change the nightmare any way you wish, and rehearse the changed dream before you fall asleep. In a substantial amount of cases, people have had prophetic dreams. Prophetic dreams are hardly understood and very confusing. Many people dream about crazy situations all the time that never come true. Dreams certainly can give us important practical warnings but these can almost always be traced directly to the hearts subconscious detective work based on small impressions or subtle vibes, picked up by normal means during the day, which the waking mind was too busy to register or perhaps did not want to know. (Faraday 311) Whether a dream comes true in reality or not it still plays a true significance in the dreamers life. I dreamt that two of my closest friends were robbed and shot to death by a mass murderer in their apartment. Their apartment complex is anything but the Taj Mahal of Statesboro, Georgia. I think that I dont feel completely safe and secure

there and that is why I had a dream about someone breaking in and killing them. Faraday said that dreams can be warnings. I think that my dream was a warning to myself to always be careful when I am in their apartment complex.

Works Cited Dolnick, E. What Dreams Are (Really) Made Of. Atlantic Monthly. (July 1990):4161. Faraday, A. The Dream Game. Harper and Row. New York: 1974. Hall, C. The Meaning of Dreams. New York: McGraw-Hill. (1966) Huffman, K., et al. Psychology in Action. New York: Wiley and sons. Parker, D., Parker, J. (1985) Dreaming: Remembering, Interpreting, and Benefiting. New York: Prentice Hall. Susman, C. (1992, December 21). Nightmares: The Good News About Bad Dreams. Knoxville News-Sentinel, pp. B1.