Learning through Dreaming

I find dreams to be quite useful. When I read that dreams have the possible purpose of making you understand events that have taken place, I was not surprised. There are several theories on the purpose of dreams. The ones that resonate with me are the ones that propose that dreams strengthen learning and reinforce memory.

I’m usually disappointed by how mundane my dreams are. I don’t dream of dragons or fantastic places. There was a time when my dreams had a sci-fi bent when I was way younger but age and utility seemed to override whatever precious bits of imagination I had left and my habit of watching too many R-rated movies at an early age. Usually dreams start in my home as if it’s a normal day. In most cases the dreams are an alternative way of experiencing how the day went. Sometimes, it simulates the future. What I find interesting is the slight changes in my personality during my dreams. I might be more emotional than I usually am or I have entirely different interests in example. The purpose of the personality change is most likely a way of compelling me to explore other possibilities of my actions.

The results naturally explain themselves and motivate me to emulate those unused aspects of my personality. A positive reinforcement example would be a better job interview turnout if I had spoken more and appeared more affable. A negative reinforcement incident would be one of the dreams where I knocked out someone I really didn’t like and had to run from obvious retaliation. If my dreams really are supposed to help me then it usually asks, “How could I have done this better?” or “This is what could have happened if you decided to do this.” It must be a mechanism of positive and negative reinforcement on my behavior, given that it allows me to explore alternative solutions or possible routes of failure. It’s sure to be flawed, being a subjective method based on no evidence, but I’m sure my subconscious tries its best. The way I interpret my dreams is that the reason that they don’t really go off the rails of reality is that the dreams are more like very deep meditations on how I could more efficiently suit my self-interests rather than sheer fantasy.

As ordinary as the dreams look from the general surroundings, I still find Jung and his archetypes are useful in describing dreams. I find the shadow is usually very relevant most of the time. I once mentioned to my friends about the time I dreamt I was at a mall and I ate an eight legged lizard in a soup. One of my friends ran it through a psychology plug-in; one using Freud’s interpretation and Jung’s interpretation regarding elements of the dream. There are many elements in a dream and much of it is considered, including the shape of the lizard, the number of its legs, the flavor of the soup, and the familiarity of the surroundings. The Freud plug-in was extremely annoying, not surprisingly relating it to sexual frustration somehow, and the Jung interpretation was more realistic. Actually I have the results here but if someone can help me find how my friend found this thing that would be nice.

Freudian Interpretation:
Eating - Fantasizing about an erotic sexual position that you have yet to try.
Lizard - You believe that you are getting too old to have sex or your partner isn't giving you the same satisfaction anymore.
Restaurant - ...A place of pleasure that you are lacking.
Legs - Personal Fetish that you wish to come in contact with.
Eight - A certain position in sex you are currently not attempting but subconsciously want to attempt.

Freudian Verdict: You are sexually unsatisfied.

Jungian Interpretation:
Eating - If eating alone, you are feeling lonely. If eating with friends, then you are enjoying your free time. If eating with family, then you wish to spend more time with your family.
Lizard - Subconscious recognition of a fear you don't want to recognize.
Restaurant - A Socially relaxing place, often related to friendship and sociability.
Legs - Multiple Legs are significance of how much load you are carrying, including work and stress. The more legs the more stressful it is.
Eight - The number 8 is a symbol of a fresh start, freedom, self validity, and responsibility.

Jungian Verdict: You are comfortable with your life, but a certain fear of responsibility looms over you that you wish to ignore but know you can't.

I thought it was hilarious how different the thing turned out. Personally I don’t feel dreams are always trying to tell you something that your unconscious feels is really important, rather, it feels more like a memory cleanup session, rather than digging up deep thoughts. Most of the time I’m just repeating events that happened during the day, and I learn to refine what I do.