What are dreams? Are they simply random brain activity, or are they our mind trying to tell us something? Dreams represent many different areas of one's life in physical, emotional, and mental ways. "When we sleep we do much more than just rest our weary bones; we tap into our subconscious mind (Ullman and Zimmerman 1979). Th

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Jackson, D. Hypnotism: You Will Feel No Pain. Smithsonian Mar. 1999: 126-140.

Much of what is in our dreams is not straightforward or easy to understand. "Different objects in the dream may serve as a symbol"(Kalb 77). We may have to look much deeper into ourselves if we hope to understand what has come to us by way of dreaming. Dreams represent different areas of one's life that deal with one's physical, mental, and emotional being. The subconscious mind cannot speak directly to the conscious mind, but they do communicate through symbolism. These symbols can relay information about one's life if these symbols are interpreted. Dreams are "a private language, known only to ourselves" (Cartwright 5). "You'll never see an object in dream that you haven't seen in your daily life"(Ullman and Zimmerman 1979) "Within the subconscious lie different types of things such as suppressed emotions, creativity, and basic human instinct"(Ullman and Zimmerman 1979). The conscious part of the mind works when people are awake and is the part of the mind that handles things that people can understand. Dreams can offer an escape to individuals who need relief from their everyday problems. They have a way of setting one free from reality, which includes all of one's problems. Dreams help one to overcome these stresses and help people to get on with their lives. In The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud states "The waking life never repeats itself with its trials and joys, its pleasures and pains, but, on the contrary, the dream aims to relieve us of these". Although an individual can not relive the same moment, dreams allow us to recreate those experiences. Our feelings about the event may manifest in our dreams and allow us to handle a situation the way we wanted to, not necessarily the way it happened. As we have learned, the capacity of long term memory seems to be limitless. Although we may not think about a situation on a regular basis, memories of that moment are within us and therefore become possible subjects of dreams.

Treatment such as hypnotherapy cannot be given during this state of mind because the person is fully aware of what is going on around them. They are fully aware of how he is acting and what he is saying. "People's conscious minds are very much related to the unconscious part of people's minds (Lukeman 61). During dreaming, the mind travels from the conscious to the unconscious. Dreaming allows the unconscious part of the mind to relay all information to the person that sometimes that the person does not even know exists. "One's unconscious mind does not deal with issues such as morality, ethics, or cultural essentials" (Lukeman 62). People are intimidated by the thought of the unconscious; they do not like the thought of having something not completely under their control. Through analyzing a patient's unconscious mind, a therapist may be able to see parts of the patient that they may not recognize. Freudian theory deals with the issue that the unconscious involves memories that stem from the person's childhood. Childhood memories may affect the person today and may even be relayed through the unconscious. Through therapy, a person may become aware of their problems and other things that are bothering them. Dreams also have a way of telling a person about sickness and disease. "Dreams are sometimes trying to tell a person that he need to stop doing something or start doing something for his own well being"(Garfield).

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Approximate Word count = 3039
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)