Essay: How To Understand Your Dreams.

I have a certain sense of foreboding about this topic. There is no complete theory of dreams. So humility is the number one rule when dealing with dream interpretations. Even Carl Jung, the great grandaddy of dreams, who has written books on dreams, analysed thousands of dreams, the number one name on the subject, began each dream analysis by whispering to himself,

“I have no idea what this dream means...”.

So, what are dreams? 

Jordan Peterson says, 

“The dream is the birthplace of thought, like the artist is the birthplace of culture.” 

In ancient times people thought the dream was communication directly from the Gods, that history was fixed, and dreams offered a way into the divine plan, though Aristotle rejected this formulation because poor people and animals had dreams, and he didn’t believe God would speak to them (not so PC). Carl Jung does not believe that dreams have prophetic powers anymore ‘than a medical diagnosis or a weather forecast’ is prophetic and that ‘they are merely a…