The Mystery

Have you ever wondered why we evolved to dream? Or what your dreams mean? Or why your dreams can seem so real and meaningful when you experience them but are then mostly forgotten? Or why, when you do manage to remember a dream, it often seems so weird? A talk given by psychologist Joe Griffin explains why we evolved to dream. He discusses the failure of earlier dream theories to come up with satisfactory answers and why the discovery of the REM state in 1953, which left Freudian and Jungian dream theories ‘dead in the water’, led to his own research. For twelve years he explored the connection between the REM state, in which we dream and the genetic programming that takes place in the REM state. We now know that dreaming evolved to maintain the integrity of mammalian instincts. In the talk Joe also covers the autosymbolic process; why all dreams have to be metaphorical to prevent false memories building up; metaphorical pattern-matching; why we evolved to suppress emotions; why dreami

International Association for the Study of Dreams is a non-profit, international, multidisciplinary organization dedicated to the pure and applied investigation of dreams and dreaming. Our purposes are to promote an awareness and appreciation of dreams in both professional and public arenas; to encourage research into the nature, function, and significance of dreaming; to advance the application of the study of dreams; and to provide a forum for the eclectic and interdisciplinary exchange of ideas and information. IASD celebrates the many benefits of dreamwork, yet recognizes that there are potential risks. IASD supports an approach to dreamwork and dream sharing that respects the dreamer’s dignity and integrity, and which recognizes the dreamer as the decision-maker regarding the significance of the dream. Systems of dreamwork that assign authority or knowledge of the dream’s meanings to someone other than the dreamer can be misleading, incorrect, and harmful. Ethical dreamwork helps

Dreams are more than just random images that play in your head at night. They are a source of inspiration and transformation that can have a profound effect on your waking state. While everyone dreams, not everyone makes use of this unique resource. Even negative dreams and nightmares can be a source of positive value and growth when we choose to interact creatively with the dream imagery. This can be accomplished with a modest amount of training and suggestion. Patricia Garfield presents techniques and information, drawn from many dreamers and widely varied cultures and times, that will enable you to plan your dreams ahead of time, influence them while they are occurring, and recall them and their lessons forever afterward. Patricia L. Garfield is an American academic specializing in the study of dreams, specifically the cognitive processes underpinning them. She is the author of 10 books covering a broad range of dream topics. Her best-known work is 'Creative Dreaming'. Origi

The term 'collective unconscious' first appeared in Jung's 1916 essay, 'The Structure of the Unconscious'. This essay distinguishes between the 'personal', Freudian unconscious, filled with sexual fantasies and repressed images, and the 'collective' unconscious encompassing the soul of humanity at large. In 'The Significance of Constitution and Heredity in Psychology' (November 1929), Jung wrote:  And the essential thing, psychologically, is that in dreams, fantasies, and other exceptional states of mind the most far-fetched mythological motifs and symbols can appear autochthonously at any time, often, apparently, as the result of particular influences, traditions, and excitations working on the individual, but more often without any sign of them. These 'primordial images' or 'archetypes', as I have called them, belong to the basic stock of the unconscious psyche and cannot be explained as personal acquisitions. Together they

In this presentation the method of solving the story will be presented and samples of shared patterns of meaning (collective archetypes) unfolding in dreams of a group. These patterns of shared meaning are collective archetypes which organize images in strands (across several dreamers). At this deeper level we find glimpses of a shared story we share with others in our dreams. The task of these groups is very much like a scavenger hunt (quest), having to find these patterns (clues) which are like the episodes of the Tale. Finding them and sharing them/connecting with others in this shared vision or Tale moves each group on their own scavenger hunt which hooks up at similar stops or places with other groups. Once completing the patterns the groups go-through in the dreams. Other key patterns/clues which have bearing on the next 'trip' in the dreams are downloaded. While science (quantum physics) has set out to prove the existence of this deeper reality (for instance in terms of