A Manifesto on Dreams and how to Depict them

Sleep consumes a third of our lifetimes, and therefore dreams are worthy of at least 33.3% of our attention. To remember dreams, a dream journal must be kept, to “reinforce the habit of viewing them as something valuable” which will prompt their recall (Morely, 2015: 21). While journals are traditionally kept in the form of a notebook, modern times offer the convenience of the smartphone. I use an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of my dreams, their amount, and keywords, which helps me understand the way my “mind creates symbols” (LaBerge and Rheingold, 1991: 40).

How to remember dreams if you sleep alone:

Step 1: Write the dream down as soon as you awaken in a dream journal. This includes when you wake up multiple times early in the night. It may be useful to have a light source close to write legibly.

How to remember dreams if you do not sleep alone:

Step 1: Recall the dream at least 6 times as soon as you awaken. Do not move, or think of anything else, or the dream will fade.

Step 2: Write the dream down once your partner has awoken and deemed it a “rational” time to turn on the light.

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Every dream is different, and every dreamer dreams differently, so the depiction of dreams is difficult. It is helpful to break down dream imagery into 2 categories:

  1. The object focus of the dream
  2. Everything else

From these methods, the following dream was recorded:

I looked into a man’s eyes and saw them burn like sunlight cast on carnelian stone. As I stared deeper, I felt an immense love come from within him, that was also shy by my gaze.

In this dream, the object focus was the Dream’s eyes. “Everything else” could be the weather, the person dreaming, or where the dream took place. Dreams can have as little or as many details as the dreamer wants.

Dream meaning can come immediately, later in the day, or later in the year. Jung quotes himself, “Learn as much as you can about symbolism; then forget it all when you are analysing the dream”, as “the individual is the only reality” (Jung, 1964: 56, 58). Dream meaning can only come from self-analysis of personal symbolic representation, rather than a cultural agreement on what a symbol means.

Jung, C. G. (1964) Man and His Symbols. London: Aldus Books Limited

LaBerge, S. and Rheingold, H. (1991) Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming. London: The Random House Publishing Group.

Morley, C. (2015) Lucid Dreaming Made Easy: A Beginners Guide to Waking Up in Your Dreams. London: Hay House.