I am certainly no expert when it comes to explaining dreams; what they are, where they come from, or how to understand or use them. But in contemplating what little I do know, the nature of dreams appear, to me, to have a similar structure to that of the model of existence being put forth everywhere on this site.
To many, the world of dreams is "another world" that we enter upon sleeping. But, there have also been some who have suggested that we are in fact dreaming all the time, and that it is only the demands of our conscious waking life that push aside the dream state of our sleeping life. With one suggestion it is implied that dreams push back as repressed thoughts and emotions that can adversely affect the behavior of our waking life. This idea of consciousness being one continuous state of dream in varying degrees of conscious or unconscious awareness fits perfectly with the ideas being presented on this site concerning existence and consciousness.
-----
Why Do We Dream?
People ask this question as though dreaming is something we do, or something that happens to us, when we sleep. But, if we subscribe to the school of thought that says we dream all the time, then dreaming is not something we do or that happens to us when we sleep, it's something we do, or that happens to us, all the time!
In the book All Things Are Numbers, a model of existence and consciousness is proposed that evolves from a state of paradox, into a state of nothingness... which eventually coagulates into an entity of existence. In this schema, the "something" of existence and the "nothingness" of the continuum of empty space - from which "things" emerge - are of the same "fabric," the only difference between them being that one becomes a swirling vortex or... "manifest entity" that other manifest entities can bump into and acknowledge with their physical senses as a tangible reality outside their own private vortex of existence. From there, we progress to another idea called Diminishing Returns. Diminishing Returns describes how a conscious, waking mind will encounter increasing levels of incomprehensibility the further out, or away, it moves from its core of existence. In the essay The Totality of Reality, and The Way, it is suggested that both ends of this spectrum represent one single "reality" only in different ways - i.e. wrinkled or relaxed (see The Bedsheet Analogy elsewhere on this site). On the manifest side we have the manifold entities of our daily life, on the other side, we have the shared experience of unity through our encounters with the intangible essence of what this study calls an archetypal armature of universal patterns that give every manifest entity its form and character. If we apply this idea to the idea of dreaming, we can propose an explain as to how and why some dreams seem more real and comprehensible, while others - being from a realm of sleep much farther away from our core, seem more unreal and incomprehensible.
 |
| The concept of Diminishing Returns illustrates how and why our minds loose their grip on reality, the further into dreams we go. |
Life emerges from nothing with peristaltic conviction (see the idea of Coagulation within the book All Things Are Numbers elsewhere on this site). Like Pinocchio wanting to be a real boy, Divinity wants to, and in fact has to break its symmetry and become a "real" asymmetrical, imperfect Human! Thus, contrary to what many spiritual philosophies put forth, life is not a fall from grace, or a mistake to be purged, it is something that takes effort to create, achieve and maintain. To live is to be conscious of Life and Self and other entities... pulled from the same nothingness that surrounds all of us... that we bump into as forms of so called tangible reality. In the world of "something" we are all separate and bumping into each other, in the world of "nothing" we are all the same, all one... or nothing (see the Paradox in the Lotus Mandala elsewhere on this site).
But life doesn't end with the creation of manifest things, theory would have it that we maintain a recollection of the entire path of creation that got us here. And... that we regress backward along that path when we die... as well as every night that we sleep. Thus, like a balloon that deflates if we don't keep pumping hot air into it, or a fire that dies out if we don't keep adding fuel to it, we regress toward death during sleep (see The Death of Sleep elsewhere on this site). Some will sleep their way back to nothing, some will meditate their way back to nothing, all of us will eventually die our way back to nothing. But... until we do actually die, dreams remain as much a part of life as anything.
| I think, therefore I dream. |
Humanity desires to be Divine. So, likewise, in reciprocal fashion, Divinity desires to be Human. As it does, it creates order out of chaos. Our minds are always free to travel back and forth along this spectrum of consciousness, whether awake or asleep. It just happens that while awake we tend more toward the ordered side, and while asleep we tend more toward the chaotic side. Thus... there really is no "why" to dreaming, only degree. In other words, the question isn't "why do we dream," the real question is why we think at all! With an acknowledgement that we do think, dreaming is simply another form of thinking - a form that seems distorted at times... depending on degree... at least, from the biased view of a living, conscious, waking mind.
Dreams have been compared to distorted reflections of reality in a rippling pool of water. In the essay The Forest is the Trees, this very metaphor is used to illustrate the realtionship between the theoretical model of existence being put forth everywhere on this site, and its companion non-model. When combined with The Accordionistic Dovetail Joint, a map of consciousness is further illustrated.
-----
The Life Bias
Everywhere on this site I try to be balanced - that's my bias. But... humans who live and breathe are by nature unbalanced... inasmuch as we acknowledge a seemingly hardwired directive within our brains to LIVE and STAY ALIVE. If and when we are able to overcome or overpower this "urge to live" as many spiritual philosophies suggest we should, we encounter an opportunity to become Divine (see Stop Being So Human elsewhere on this site). But... for those who make the crucial mistake of putting value on life, and the even bigger mistake of living life, we have a natural bias.
We remain alive, whether awake or asleep. That is the nature of our living, breathing, human bias. Like alchemistic solve et coagula, we follow a grand cycle of life and death. Also like alchemistic solve et coagula, while alive, we follow another cycle of sleep and wake. It is our waking life where we are most alive, and our sleeping life where we are most dead. Cynical minds, who view meditation to nothingness as a superior form of thought, might argue that it's just the opposite, that we are more alive when meditating or sleeping and that our waking life is a prison of misery that makes us more dead than alive. But while this escapist form of thought might provide a source of refuge, via active denial for those in misery and looking for a way out... a permanent state of meditation or sleep will eventually lead to a rotting corpse. Thus, in that sense, we are more alive when awake and more dead when asleep.
Our bodies and minds flirt with death every night... but something keeps them alive - the need, desire, or requirement for Divinity to become manifest, and eventually Human. The book All Things Are Numbers has a theory for why manifestation - which eventually leads to Humanity - is in fact inevitable (see Model and Birth and Sequence and beyond, elsewhere on this site). Given the apparent truth of such a notion, evidenced by what might very well be our involuntary presence here and now, the question remains as to how we deal with our existence, whether awake or asleep.
-----
Dream Energy
It takes energy to be alive and awake. And just as no one can meditate or sleep forever, no one can stay alive or awake forever. Eventually the effort put forth to stay alive and/or awake must yield to the ever present state of death and/or sleep, just as sure as "something" will eventually pass back into "nothing". This is the alchemistic "solve et coagula" of life. This cycle repeats at various levels: Life and Death reveal this cycle at the grandest level of existence. Likewise, Awake and Sleep reveal this cycle within the Life half of the Life and Death cycle. Being Active or Passive reveals this cycle again... within the Awake half of the Awake or Sleep cycle. Anywhere energy is applied, or where more energy is applied, we tend toward the "Conscious" side of a Dream/Reality spectrum. Anywhere energy is subtracted, withheld... or relaxed, we tend toward the "UnConscious" side (see diagram below).
The model of existence that is put forth everywhere on this site, and being used here to explain the nature of dreaming, emerges from an ineffable notion of paradox. In a hierarchical manner, paradox yields to nothingness, which in turn yields to somethingness, or a manifest entity. At the infinitesimally unknowable center of that manifest entity lies an equally paradoxical notion, thus allowing for creation to loop around and become an endless cycle of becoming that takes place between these two states of ineffable paradox (see Coagulation within the book All Things Are Numbers elsewhere on this site).
 |
Life emerges from paradox, through the infinity of nothingness, across spacetime, coagulating into a tangible reality of converging lines of force. When our conscious minds attempt to regress backward along this path of creation, concepts like reality, spacetime, infinity and paradox challenge our ability to maintain a form of sense that is familiar to us at the "Substance" level of life coagulated into masses of manifest bodies and minds. This is what is meant by Diminishing Returns. |
The outside of the model is negative, or of low energy, leading back to nothingness. The insides are positive, or of high energy, leading to tangible manifestations. The outsides are chaotic and random. The insides are ordered and predictable, like the mechanical workings of our bodies... faithfully pumping blood with predictable beats of a heart, and breathing air with the rhythmic cycles of life. Thus, by traversing this hierarchical path, we encounter varying levels of energy. At one end is death, at the other end is life.
Because of the nature of this model of existence, and the concept of Diminishing Returns mentioned above, the closer to the negative realm of death we come in our sleep cycle, the more chaotic and bizarre our dreams become. The more we relax, the looser our thoughts, and hence the more random and incomprehensible they become. But, because we are not actually ceasing to exist, to a point of actual death, we eventually find our dream state to be unsustainable... in fact, as unsustainable as our waking state, allowing for a daily form of reincarnation. Thus, given enough time, our bodies and minds will become restless, and we will wake up, and rejoin the rest of the waking world... and its relative degrees of comprehensible order and sense. Then... given time, our bodies and minds will loose energy again and we will slip back into the sleep world, with all its relative degrees of incomprehensible chaos and inarticulate nonsense. Thus, we move like a tennis ball, between two extremes, defined to us as points of ineffable paradox that enclose and contain the the entire Life and Death cycle of every manifest entity in the universe (see The Death of Sleep elsewhere on this site).
 |
| Like a tennis ball, we move back and forth between two extremes of consciousness contained as a Life and Death cycle by two points of paradox. Such is the fate of a creature born, from paradox, into a binary universe of opposites. In this diagram, we can see how waking people, utilizing imagination are attempting to move toward the chaotic, amorphous... while awake. And how sleeping people utilizing lucid dreaming techniques are attempting to move toward the ordered, palpable... while asleep. It's all a matter of degree. Call one end Reality and the other end Dreams if that is more comfortable. Ultimately they are all one... a spectrum... fact, fiction, fantasy, foolery. Where are we? |
Above is a diagram suggesting a Map of Consciousness. It says many things about consciousness, but the key concept to remember throughout this essay on dreaming is how this Dream/Reality spectrum of hierarchical manifestation is in fact all one reality - not two different worlds (see The Totality of Reality and The Way, elsewhere on this site). It is all one mind... thinking in various ways with various levels of energy. It is only our life-bias toward comprehensible sense that causes many of us to view our dream thoughts as incomprehensible nonsense from another world. While in fact, after analyzing our dreams, we often find that they are the same thoughts we have while awake, only with the comfort of ordered, waking, articulate sense taken away or distorted... due to the concept of Diminishing Returns. In other words, many of the thoughts we have in dreams are thoughts we might have generated in our waking life, if the survivalistic demands of our waking life didn't dominate our thoughts to such a degree as to push dream thoughts aside. Dreams are all those thoughts that were pushed aside in waking time... having their say in sleeping time. We have a Psychic Buddy, who wants to speak, and for many of us, dreamtime is the only time that that part of us can get a message through. Others of us - like those who are seen walking down the street with moving lips (and no cell phone) - are talking to our Psychic Buddy or Dream Mind all the time. To us, it's just another way of thinking.
-----
Dream Analysis
We have a choice as to whether we analyze a dream or not. We have a choice as to whether to interpret the meaning of a tarot card in a spread or not. To many, it seems pointless to leave a chaotic thought chaotic... especially when we THINK we can make sense of it. So... we analyze dreams and interpret tarot images. Some spiritual philosophies argue that this is exactly the wrong thing to do, and that to have such a bias is to perpetuate the sufferings of life... that we would be more happy if we were able to be more comfortable staying in the chaotic realm of incomprehensibility. That is the choice we all face.
We analyze dreams and interpret tarot images because, in our everyday waking life, most of us prefer sense over nonsense. Whether for fun, or because we are devoted to the philosophy of a particular spirituality, we may entertain moments of nonsense, for personal amusement and the thrill of experiencing something different in different ways. But, for our everyday existence and the functioning of daily survival, most of us prefer sense over nonsense... order over chaos etc. This is all part of "The Life Bias" that helps keep us alive. We prefer to hit our targets with accuracy and eat, rather than to shoot wildly, miss everything and starve to death. Thus, we are compelled to analyze dreams and ask what they mean. Everyone seeks meaning and purpose, even those who become enamored with the ambiguity of chaotic perceptions and imprecise forms of speech, like symbolism and dreams. Even people of that ilk will utilize more logical, literal perceptions and articulate speech when they have a desire to be understood in specific ways that are crucial to their life-biased need to stay alive. Thus it is only our need to make sense of the world, and make sense when relating to each other, that causes us to move toward a bias of Conscious, waking, human born, literal language.
Dreams, on the other hand, are often illogical, irrational, random and chaotic. When analyzing or interpreting a dream, we try to make them less so, so that they might better relate in some way to the logical, rational, ordered thoughts of our waking life. Of course, the amounts of logic and rationality that people demand from life can vary. As just stated, some are happy with interpretations that are not so logical and mostly vague and ambiguous. Either way though, to interpret a dream is to pull something from a land of chaos toward, or into, a land of order, or to pull something from a land of seeming nonsense, into a world of seeming sense. How far we want to pull... that is, how much sense a dream needs to have before we let it go, is up to each individual. Like catching a fish, some will catch and release, some will catch and dissect in an effort to know all its related parts, some will catch and devour, some will catch and mount on a wall! In all cases, we are pulling a dream-state level of reality into an incompatible waking-state level of reality, to satisfy a waking human NEED for sense and purpose in life.
Because what we call dreams and what we call reality are two ends of a single spectrum of consciousness, we are not always able to detect that what is being thought at the chaotic, wordless level is in fact every bit as valid as thoughts at the ordered, language level. Thus, it is usually not until we look seriously at our dreams, that the chaotic, random lack of structure inherent in dreams reveals their incomprehensible nature... to our own minds, and to the minds of other "comprehensible-biased" people who might be listening. On our scale of Diminishing Returns, the incomprehensible is just that. We can choose to leave our dream thoughts in that world of wonder, or we can try and sort out the chaos and make sense of it all. Often, when we do, we realize that a mysterious, chaotic and bizarre dream was nothing more than a chaotic, distorted replication of a previously ordered and obvious thought manufactured sometime during our waking hours - revealing the truth about how dreams are just thoughts, disturbed and distorted by their proximity to the negative, chaotic, random end of a spectrum of consciousness that emerges from the chaos of nothingness to the order of something.
-----
Why Use Metaphor?
Some dreams seem very real. They use recognizable elements in recognizable ways to make clear and obvious statements of thought. They are easy to interpret for our Conscious, comprehensible-biased minds. Other dreams use recognizable elements, but in very unrecognizable ways, to make a less clear statement of thought. Still other dreams use unrecognizable, or extremely mutated or otherwise morphed elements to make an even less clear statement of thought. It would be the theory of this study of dreams and dreaming that these varying levels of comprehensibility are due to the concept of Diminishing Returns mentioned above. As dreams get less and less clear, they tend to get more and more abstract and/or conceptual. As dreams get more and more abstract and/or conceptual, they tend to get more and more metaphorical. Thus we theorize that the mind uses metaphor to illustrate what it thinks is an isomorphic relationship between our former waking reality and an abstract, concptual, archetypal PATTERN toward which it is moving... because... to paraphrase my own book title, our UnConscious minds recognize that: all things are patterns! All things are patterns means that what enters our mind is not the tangible reality of manifest entities bumping into each other, but electrical impulses across nerve fibers. Our brains receive electrical impulses. Our MINDS turn those impulses into patterns that become a map of the reality of things bumping into us that we think are "out there" (see The Totality of Reality elsewhere on this site). We draw this map of reality using literal information from our physical senses, as well as speculative information from our metaphysical senses... i.e. our imagination (see Knowing vs. Psychic Knowing elsewhere on this site).
Metaphor captures the imagination... in other words... like the person catching a fish, mentioned above, it captures (makes conscious) the imagination (the unconscious). Also like catching a fish, interpretation of metaphor pulls both ways; as the fish, it pulls our literal minds out of the literal realm toward the watery depths of our UnConscious, and... like the rod and reel on shore, it pulls the conceptual out of the conceptual realm toward the Conscious light of day. Thus, when things get too abstract or conceptual, our minds utilize metaphor to capture the imagination, and all of its UnConscious attributes. By capturing the imagination we pull the Conscious and UnConscious together as one at the MidConscious realm - thereby achieving therapeutic individuation (see another variation of the Map of Consciousness in the essay Knowing vs. Psychic Knowing elsewhere on this site). Some people live further into the Conscious realm of consciousness than others, and need more pulling, in order to meet the UnConscious realm of consciousness half way (see Stuck in the Mudaphor elsewhere on this site). Interpretation of metaphor pulls fish and fisher together. In another analogy used throughout this site, metaphor is seen as the "paint" we pour over "the invisible man" of abstract, conceptual patterns in order to "see" these ideas better... that is... from the life-biased perspective of a Conscious mind mentioned earlier. Most people use metaphor at some time or another, in their waking speech, to illustrate a conceptual idea that might be hard for a literal mind to visualize or grasp. The idea of pouring "paint" over "the invisible man" is itself a metaphor. The idea of catching a fish is a metaphor. A metaphor makes the invisible visible through analogous isomorphism. In this way, metaphor is a valuable tool to use in the art of communication... with the Self or others. Thus, our thinking minds utilize metaphor when our formerly Conscious minds are exploring the other end of the Dream/Reality Spectrum and all its UnConscious, abstract, conceptual attributes.
The more UnConscious our minds get, the less ability we have to be literal. Thus, dreams that are only partially into the UnConscious realm might still have literal references and seem most like waking reality. Such dreams are the ones that lead many to propose the possibility that a dream might in fact be dreaming the dreamer! and thus confuse our notions of what constitutes true reality. But as the mind goes further into the UnConscious our ability to be literal fades and metaphor takes over, using symbolism to represent the increasingly abstract and/or conceptual nature of its thoughts. Thus, when we shut down our physical senses (or reduce our conscious acknowledgement of them through sleep or meditation) our brains use existing material to create metaphorical imagery in an effort to "see" the increasingly abstract conceptual patterns of our thoughts. And while this may seem voluntary, theory would have it that our minds in fact have no choice in the matter. In other words, our minds can't be literal, once they have been shut out of the literal world of the Conscious. So... they adapt, and use whatever is available to continue thinking, lest we die from lack of brain activity. As stated, it takes energy to exist and be Conscious and awake... and therefore literal, with human born language. When we reduce our energy level through sleep, or meditation, or death, we loose our capability to be literal. So our minds say to us "OK, if I can't show you the actual thing, I'll show you something like it" or "If I can't talk about what's literally going on, I'll make up an isomorphically metaphorical story that says what I want us to think" and gives us an isomorphic metaphor, or an analogy, or allegory, or a symbol, as a substitute for the more literal reality we've left behind.
It should be noted though, that those who advocate a permanent relinquishment of rational thought and logical thinking as a technique for successful interpretation of symbols, dreams and tarot cards would be effectively arguing against the life-biased, or comprehensibility-biased perspective of the Conscious, and instead for its opposite. This is common in the world of tarot. Many try to swing the pendulum of consciousness away from the constraints of the Conscious, toward a permanent residence within the UnConscious - believing this to be a superior form of thought above all (see Stuck in the Mudaphor elsewhere on this site). But, as suggested in other essays, and by other philosophies of the world, such states of unconsciousness are unsustainable by any living, breathing, human entity (see Good and Bad, Right and Wrong, Smile and Frown elsewhere on this site). The only way to make such a state permanent would be to fully and completely abandon the life-bias given to us as mortal human beings... i.e. to die. Like the fish-catching metaphor mentioned above, making our UnConscious state permanent would be analogous to jumping into the watery depths to drown and die. Once dead, we would be able to understand the UnConscious realm without the need for metaphor. Thus, short of death, we use metaphor, and allegory, and symbolism to understand the vagaries of what we think we know about the unreal nature of the dreaming half of our Dream/Reality Spectrum.
I don't know much about Freud or Jung, but it seems as though Freud has argued that our minds use metaphor to sneak otherwise shocking thoughts of repressed sexual desires past an internal censor during interpretation. Jung, on the other hand, seems to embrace the idea put forth by many tarot enthusiasts, that metaphor and symbolism have more transformative power upon the psyche. Personally, I don't really buy the Freudian idea. One can interpret any dream sexually if they choose. But the idea that dreams are ONLY about repressed sexual desires seems like a personal bias at work. Yes, our Psychic Buddy might get suppressed by our ignorance of the UnConscious and our daily survivalistic need to utilize the Conscious in a dominant way. And when given a chance to influence our Conscious behavior, the wild and weird ways of the UnConscous could lead to inappropriate thoughts. But I think there is more to what our Psychic Buddy has to say than sex.
Simplified Dream Interpretation
Everything's either concave or 'vex
so whatever you dream will be something with sex
-Piet Hein |
On the other hand, the Jungian idea of transformative power might make sense... if we are dealing with someone who is extremely locked into their Conscious mind. In such a case, I would agree, that, to someone extremely locked into their Conscious literal mind, things like metaphor, symbolism, and other less literal forms of thought in general, could have a tremendously transformative power in unlocking that Conscious literal mind and showing them another way of looking at reality. And I'm sure that Dr. Jung, and Dr. Freud, encountered a huge number of such people in their years of observation. But I do not agree that symbolic, metaphorical thinking is, by itself... in all cases, intrinsically more transformative. As expressed in the essay Stuck in the Mudaphor, I believe that the Conscious and UnConscious working together as one are the most transformative. It is only the fact that the bulk of humanity has such a strong, Conscious, literal bias (more than likely born out of survivalistic tendancies) that working with symbols and metaphor appears more transformative (see Consider the Source elsewhere on this site). When in fact, I believe, we need both forms of thought working together to cause the greatest transformations of all.
-----
The Eye of Dreams
In my world, dreams and imagination are very similar. To me, dreams and imagination are like peripheral vision. While our literal minds are focused upon the tangible, Conscious reality that is directly in front of us, our dreams and imagination are subliminally taking in what is visible in the intangible, UnConscious periphery. This analogy is yet another example of how our "vision" of Life, Death and The Universe is best - or most complete, when the straightforward and the subtle work TOGETHER! Thus, the purpose of imagination, whether waking or sleeping, is to see beyond the focus of an immediate moment. In other words, waking perceptions are about the "NOW" of a manifest entity in spacetime, or, the small scheme of things, as it is put in another essay elsewhere on this site (see Good and Bad, Right and Wrong, Smile and Frown). Dreams and imagination, being of the realm that extends away from our core of consciousness, are therefore more about the grand scheme of things (see The Grand Scheme of Things Mandala elsewhere on this site). And while something being grand vs. small might once again lead some to claim one form of thought to be intrinsically superior to another, I contend that, like an eye, the two working TOGETHER, see everything better than one working alone, and are thus the most transformative when used together, whether perceiving a dream or reality (see Stuck in the Mudaphor elsewhere on this site).
In the book All Things Are Numbers, found elsewhere on this site, there is an explanation of how our model of existence moves through spacetime. In it, the same notion of "NOW" being an infinitesimal point of focus is developed and put forth (see Time elsewhere on this site). Thus it is that we might theorize the allegedly predictive nature of some dreams as owing to their relative position outside, or beyond that of the Conscious realm of "NOW" and being more from the "past" and "future" - the past and future that the "NOW" uses as fuel in its Cosmic Engine (see The Cosmic Engine elsewhere on this site). The past leaves behind "things" for our dreaming mind to use in metaphor. The future, being (possibly) undetermined (at least by our state of "NOW"), helps make our dreams into stories or fiction yet to be realized. Again, because the majority of humans are indeed locked into their Conscious mind, most dreams are about what has passed, because our literal minds, while groping to compose a metaphor, will most often fall back upon the use of recognizable "things" stored in our past, rather than things not yet experienced. But imagination, and therefore dreams, are speculative by nature. Thus, for some people, dreams may provide visions of things not yet experienced, and thereby lend a more predictive quality to a dream (see Knowing vs. Psychic Knowing elsewhere on this site).
The idealism of the UnConscious, and the empiricism of the Conscious... working together, like the focused and peripheral vision of a Grand Cosmic Eye, leads to the most transformative experience possible.
-----
Frankie Says Relax
When we want to get in touch with our dreams, we relax and fall asleep. When we want to get in touch with our imagination, we relax and daydream, or meditate. When we need a new idea, we put down our tools of Conscious perception, let go, and embrace the chaos of random thoughts and the unity of nothingness from which all thoughts emerge. When we make a connection, or see something we like that looks important or usable, we attempt to bring it back with us into the waking world of Conscious reality - just like that person catching a fish mentioned earlier. Unfortunately, like pulling a fish out of its watery realm, many of our imaginative notions die a quick death, as do many of our dreams upon waking. Others, like a fish, slip through our fingers and just get away, to hopefully be caught another day.
Our waking world of order and sense might be our natural bias, but it is not our only window of perception. People who are excessively logical and rational are said to have no imagination. That's because they never relax enough to get very far into that UnConscious realm. People who are excessively illogical and irrational are often said to lack the communication skills with which to articulate a thought in a way that will get across an intended meaning or sense. In other words, they have a hard time making sense and rely on emotional impulses, or outbursts, to communicate a thought. As just stated, in this essay and elsewhere in other essays on this site, those who straddle the line between logical sense and wild imagination seem to communicate thoughts and ideas the best. They can relax enough to imagine, and then apply enough energy to make their fantasies into reality with more practical methods of communication - i.e. they are able to realize (make conscious) their dreams (the unconscious). They are flexible when flexible is good, and firm when being firm is good. The are irrational when being irrational is good, and rational when being rational is good. And when communicating, they are straightforward when being straightforward is helpful, and subtle when being subtle is helpful (see Stuck in the Mudaphor elsewhere on this site). They don't just swing the pendulum of consciousness permanently away from one extreme over to the other, vilifying the Conscious realm that used to dominate them, in favor of an alternative extreme dominating them just as much... they seek balance (notice the inclusion of the word Qi in the Map of Consciousness shown above).
It takes effort to maintain a manifest form. When we relax we get in touch with the non-manifest essence that dictates the archetypal character of our form - the archetypal armature of universal patterns... illustrated in this study using a model of four circles and a point (see Simplicity Equals Truth elsewhere on this site, as well as What is an Archetype). This spectrum between dream and reality... between sleep and wake, is how we utilize our Conscious and UnConscious mind. Understanding the various ways in which we span our consciousness can help in making translations in thought and in understanding where we are at any given moment of thought. But, understanding where we are on a map of consciousness can be a complex task.
Diminishing Returns
by Guy Palm
My thoughts
I think
are
Fact,
then...
Fiction,
then...
Fantasy,
then...
Fallacy
then...
Futility,
then...
I wake up.
And write it all down!
|
Elsewhere on this site there is a device that has been invented to help us "see" this Map of Consciousness - it's call the Numbers in Space Chart (see Numbers in Space elsewhere on this site). In the Numbers in Space Chart we are shown how a traverse between Conscious and UnConscious can take many forms. The theory in this essay being; that we have more than one method of perception available to us at all times, and that under different circumstances we will utilize these various "windows of perception" in various combinations of Conscious and UnConscious energy, to perceive and articulate to ourselves and others what we think we know about the various experiences of our life.
The Numbers In Space essay describes various levels of Conscious and UnConscious perception with an invention called a Quintagram. Looking much like an I_Ching Hexagram, a Quintagram documents the various combinations of Conscious and UnConscious perception with the use of lines that are either broken or solid (see example below).
 |
Solid or broken lines represent Conscious or UnConscious levels of energy along a spectrum of consciousness. |
A solid line indicates a more Conscious perception, or the presence of energy that causes us to lean more toward a Conscious perception of something. While a broken line indicates a more relaxed state of energy that would cause us to lean more toward an UnConscious perception of something. Thus, like the Eye of Dreams just mentioned, each solid line indicates direct perception, while each broken line indicates peripheral perception. By using both forms of perception TOGETHER! we are able to calculate where we are on a larger map of consciousness... as given to us by the theoretical model of existence being offered on this site, and being illustrated with several decks of tarot cards (see various tarot decks elsewhere on this site).
Each line of a Quintagram represents which way our mind has gone, along five "avenues of perception" or "windows of perception" available to any manifest entity existing in spacetime. Directions of orientation are of course relative to any given reference frame when analyzed in the zero gravity of spacetime. But within the minds of humans on planet earth, directions of orientation suggest "avenues of perception" common to all humans.
 |
Each direction of orientation is either energized or relaxed. Each direction of orientation yields a line in a Quintagram. Use this diagram with The Amazing Name Numerology Calculator and the Personality Questionnaire, to locate your personality type within the Minor Suits of The Numerical Tarot Deck. There are only 5 basic personality types, but when subdivided by the Minor Suits, you get a whole lot more! Each Quintagram is a constellation of consciousness that leads to an archetypal essence. |
Thus, after examining the Numbers in Space Chart (a prerequisite to reading any further) and the Directions of Orientation Chart (above), we can see in the first line of any Quintagram, how it takes energy to build up a manifest entity, and how a relax of that energy allows things to decay or decline back to nothingness (up/down). In the second line we see how it takes energy to be physical and literal in the "now" with logical, human born language, and how a relax of that energy leads to ambiguous, lyrical symbolism and metaphor of the imagination (left/right). In line three we see a more male, masculine form of Conscious energy in the act of penetrating a mass or working through a situation or being the cause of an effect (see A Significant Signature of Nature elsewhere on this site). While on the other side, the reward of effort, or the effect and affect of the cause, is the more female, feminine aspect of relax (front/back). In line four we see how it takes energy to hold a cluster (of anything) together and how a relax of this energy leads to a dissolve back to nothing (in/out). In line five we see energy in the active state of doing, and a relax in the passive state of being (on/off). Like Quarks in an atom - up/down, top/bottom and strange/charmed - these various combinations create manifest perceptions of reality. Add them all up, and we have a unique mixture of forces, or constellation of consciousness, that can tell us exactly where on an overall Map of Consciousness we are.
It's hard to maintain a full force of energy through all these windows, or avenues of perception. One or more will usually be relaxed at any given moment in time. Likewise, as mentioned above and elsewhere on this site, being totally relaxed is also unsustainable. How much energy is being applied, versus how relaxed we might be at any given moment, is always relative. Obviously all of these will tend to be more relaxed when we sleep, and tend to be more energized when we are awake. In both cases it's a matter of relative proportion. Each Quintagram suggests relative proportions in a unique mixture of consciousness. In other words, like a cooking recipe, we can make a lot (awake) or a little (asleep) - with the proportions for each "recipe" being the same in either case. Thus it is that the Numbers In Space Chart, and other tools of perception being offered elsewhere on this site, like the Binary Influence Calculator, and the Dream Analysis Calculator are all useful to analyzing both waking and sleeping thought. While the various tarot decks seen on this site are useful in illustrating these invisible notions of consciousness and archetypal patterns.
-----
Infinite Relax
As the Map of Consciousness chart, presented below, demonstrates, the more we relax, the further we go into the UnConscious. Dreams that are shallow remain somewhat literal in their metaphorical, allegorical nature. Dreams that are deeper become hallucinogenic or psychedelic. While dreams that are even deeper begin to loose all sense of metaphor, as the Conscious mind that makes us human looses all grip on reality and metaphor and begins to encounter the realm of abstract, conceptual, archetypal patterns. At the point where dreams do not contain anything recognizable on any human level - whether distorted or not - we encounter the archetypal armature of universal patterns being sought everywhere on this site - patterns which... because we are still human, come to us as abstract shapes, colors, and quantities etc. At this level a dream is not so much about telling a story, as it is about an encounter with archetypal essence. This is the level of the mandala dream. Beyond this level, even shapes, colors and patterns dissolve and we are left with nothing but the transcendent, illuminative or psychic feelings that come from the pure, unadulterated juxtapositioning of intangible, ineffable, archetypal essence, unfettered by human anthropomorphization.
Most people have dreams that lie somewhere in the metaphorical, allegorical, impressionistic realm. Others have surrealistic, hallucinogenic or psychedelic dreams. Fewer have abstract, conceptual, geometrical mandala dreams. And even fewer have transcendental dreams. Thus, most books on how to interpret a dream will focus on the recognizable, human elements of a dream and what they might mean when seen in a dream, being used symbolically in a metaphor or allegory. Likewise, the same is true with most tarot readings, and their superficial interpretation of anthropomorphized icons. In the world of tarot, most people demand that discussions of meaning maintain a certain level of humanity. They do not like the reductionist approach that would have them look at the conceptual juxtapositioning of abstract ideas, or shapes and patterns, and somehow "see" the archetypal source of an anthropomorphized icon - they want the anthropomorphized icon! Usually, once discussions depart from that of mythology, history and occult mystery, many tarot enthusiasts will loose interest. To me, this is evidence of minds not capable of letting go of their literal senses enough to reach the archetypal level of imagination or dream. To only be able to relate to human icons, and symbols taken from our waking reality and shallow dreaming, however multivalent they my be in their ambiguously distorted usage, is to show a shallow depth of insight into the UnConscious realm.
|
| Here is another Map of Consciousness, this time, designed to map out the various levels of consciousness that cause us to think at varying levels of spedificity, and likewise dream at varying levels of generaltity. Like the other Map of Consciousness charts seen elsewhere around this site, and earlier in this essay, the idea is to balance our dream-state and our reality-state to achieve individuation. However far we go in one directtion, we should go equally far in the other direction... if we really want to "know" what's what. Thus we see how waking people use imagination to reach across to the UnConscious side, while awake... and how sleeping people use lucid dreaming to reach across to the Conscious side, while asleep. The glyph to the right of this diagram is interesting in how it illustrates the incompleteness of BOTH realms of thought. What looks like a triangle emerging, fades away, and becomes the triangle of the other side. This illustrates how our literal mind fades when entering the realm of dreams, and how our conceptual mind fades when entering the realm of reality. The aforementioned reachover happens, but at the extreme ends, one realm hardly has any awareness of the other, thus causing us to believe that these are indeed TWO distinct and separate worlds. In one way they are, in another way they are not. You decide. For a mandala of this idea, go to the Perpetual Collapse of Cosmic Consciousness into Focus Mandala, within the essay The Totality of Reality. |
In the essay Why Abstract Patterns, I describe a very simple pattern. So simple in fact, that to draw it out is almost unnecessary, making it more like an archetypal form, from the transcendental level of imagination or dream rather than the geometrical, conceptual level. When I suggest that such a pattern could be used to understand the archetypal essence behind an anthropomorphized tarot icon, most people furrow their brow, scratch their head, and turn away. They don't want the reductionist approach... they want humanity. They want mythology. They want history. They want metaphorical and allegorical stories that use things from our waking life as multivalent symbols that can mean whatever their shallow depth of insight wants them to mean. Such human-biased techniques are adequate for finding meaning in a somewhat shallow dream or a superficial tarot interpretation. But to really understand the archetypal essence at work in dreams, or imagination, or tarot readings, I believe we need to dig much deeper than most tarot enthusiasts are ever willing to go. This study of tarot goes that deep, or at least tries to! It would be my hope that anyone reading this would also be willing to go that deep.
-----
Divinity
Lots of tarot enthusiasts like to think that their explorations into the SubConscious and the UnConscious are getting them closer to some form of Divinity. Because of the transformative power of symbols and metaphor in unlocking their previously literal minds, they feel as though the magic of their newfound imagination has put them on a path of discovery that will eventually lead to something Divine... hence the enthusiasm that causes so many to never look back at their former ways, and to vilify all literal, rational, logical thinking for the rest of their lives (see Stuck in the Mudaphor elsewhere on this site). But I would suggest, at the conclusion of this essay, that to only go as deep into the UnConscious as a non-reductionist, humanity-depended mind is willing to go, is to miss the full depth of UnConscious exploration and to never come as close to Divinity as would be possible with a more reductionist, less human exploration.
To remain forever connected to Humanity, will logically prevent you from ever reaching Divinity (see Stop Being So Human elsewhere on this site). Thus, I would encourage anyone reading this essay, or anything else from this site, to relax a bit more, let go a bit more, and really stretch that imagination, and keep stretching it, until the abstract concept of "Together, Not Intersecting" can be seen as an archetypal essence that is completely isomorphic to the sensitivity of the anthropomorphized icon of The Empress! (see Why Abstract Patterns elsewhere on this site). One may persist in thinking that there is nothing to be gained from such reductionist thinking. But if the theory being presented in this essay concerning varying levels of energy and relax can be substantiated by practical utilization of the tools being offered, one might want to think again about how deep their exploration of tarot and Divinity really goes, and whether going further might offer them something more.
-----
Dream Dictionaries
A lot of books on dreams, and a lot of books on tarot interpretation, offer pages and pages of "possible meaning" for the various symbolic, allegorical and metaphorical images we encounter - whether asleep or awake. The good ones point out that their suggestions are only possible meanings and that the only one who can really know the true meaning of anything is the one for whom a particular message has been crafted and sent. In other words, we can't interpret a dream without the dreamer. We can't interpret a tarot reading without the quarent. We can make educated guesses, but only the dreamer knows for sure. Pages of possible meanings, and descriptions by an author, devoted to the description of actual intended meanings, can help in determining personal meaning. And, like everyone else, this site has pages and pages of intended meaning and possible meaning to explore and apply to a dream or reading (see Interpretation Pages elsewhere on this site).
This site has a lot of intended meanings, and possible meanings, to make more comprehensible, the incomprehensible nature of our dreams. But, unlike many dream books, which give statistically popular interpretations, listed alphabetically like a dictionary, or thesaurus, or almanac, the technique being offered here actually guides the dreamer to a possible meaning, based upon their own thoughts and feelings regarding the 5 critical points of binary influence mentioned above. There is no alphabetical listing on this site, it's not a dictionary of dreams. The only way to get a possible meaning for a dream, or a part of a dream, is to answer the 5 questions presented in the Numbers In Space Chart, or Binary Influence Calculator, or Dream Analysis Calculator. By answering those 5 questions, and creating a Quintagram, the dreamer decides whether a given symbol means the same thing today as it did yesterday, or whether it means the same thing to them as it did to someone else, or whether it means the same thing to them as it does to a person writing a dream dictionary. These determinations are possible, because each Quintagram points to a specific place on an archetypally inspired Map of Consciousness that is relevant to any manifest entity existing in spacetime.
Dream dictionaries usually give a series of possible meanings, and then suggest that the reader ask a series of questions to be more specific and thereby zero in on which meaning might be the right one. The 5 questions of a Quintagram do the same thing, only on a more abstract, archetypal level, thus leading to a numerical essence that is - in theory - appropriate to the dream in question. From there, a multitude of mundane interpretations can be read that may or may not make sense to the dream in question. If nothing fits, a rethinking of the 5 answers will yield a new Quintagram. Eventually, given the multitude of intended and possible meanings provided in the interpretation pages and the analysis of other isomorphic models found elsewhere around this site, a meaningful connection will be found. Once found, an understanding of "archetypal source" can be theorized and noted. Then, if subsequent dreams, or dream elements, lead back to the same source again and again, an archetypal root cause could be theorized and dealt with by a more complete examination of the essence of that particular number or tarot card.
Possible meanings are infinite. This site has a lot of intended meanings and possible meanings to make more comprehensible, the incomprehensible nature of our dreams. They are organized upon a matrix of archetypal influence. But... they are still only my own personal opinions, based on my personal experience, as to what kinds of things might best illustrate the fundamental, archetypal, and most importantly - transcendental nature of any given portion of the model of existence, and its correlative non-model, upon which each numerical position, or tarot card, is based. Thus, short of mastering the Vulcan Mind-Meld trick and planting an intuitive understanding of the theoretical model of existence, and all of its ramifications upon reality, directly into the mind of an individual, to be as identical as my understanding, all I can do is offer suggested meanings for each numerical position. Some are verbose, some are just keywords. I suggest learning as much as possible about the theoretical model of existence first, after which one might not even need to read any of my suggested meanings, but will be able to begin writing their own, and placing them into appropriate locations, to remind them of what they have learned about each part of the theoretical model of existence and how it might be influencing the content, context and meaning of any given dream. That would be the best way to go. But... an inevitable acknowledgment for instant gratification among those seeking answers forces me to supply suggested meanings of my own. Use then with caution! until you are able to grasp the ungraspable essence of each Quintagram and begin writing your own.
|
