Dream Fragments

Eighteen essays on dreamwork, the psychology of dreams, and our perception of reality from the author of the praised trilogy: The Path to Sleep; Becoming Lucid; and Dreaming Yourself Into Being.

Humans employ three ways of thinking, and we attempt to integrate them to create a strong understanding of the world: rational thought, emotional thought, and associative thought. We have conscious control over our rational thoughts and from these we find mechanisms for action. Emotions give weight and priority to our decisions. Aside from occasional bursts of insight, associative thought occurs exclusively in our dreams.

Associative thought builds a map of the connections between disparate experiences from memory and environment. To be effective in uncovering a wide range of connections, these thoughts must disrupt our prejudices and assumptions. Many of the associations we come up with lead us nowhere, but we must consider them nonetheless. We don't achieve complete integration as that would create a false certainty.

Through the associative encounters that occur in dreams, we gain a sense how our feelings and ideas related to each other and to reality. Dreams explore boundaries that we imagine but are not imaginary. The images in our dreams create a more complete picture of our feelings than the uncertain events of our waking lives. You remember little of this process, but your attitudes are shaped by them.

Your rational mind is not in control of your thoughts. You use words, but you don’t know what you’re saying until they have context. Your dreams are saying something important using situations from everywhere in your memory. Lean to speak their language.