Dreamworks

An eye is hanging in the sky...

1. But is it really an eye? Is it crying? Is it water dripping from the exhaust system of a spaceship? Can it be raining on a distant planet? Can we be sweating in a dream? Perhaps we should follow the straight lines on the ground converging far on the horizon. Let’s find out where they could be leading to…

2. Officially, dreamwork differs from classical dream interpretation in that the aim is to explore the various images and emotions that a dream presents and evokes, while not attempting to come up with a single unique dream meaning... A belief of dreamwork is that each person has his or her own dream ‘language.’ [1]

3. On the contrary I would say that dreams speak a universal language. Although such a language can be expressed in different ways when we are awake, the symbols of this language are common. A common term for these symbols is the archetypes. Therefore although the interpretation of dreams can be different each time, the origin and purpose of dreams is always the same.

4. While the ‘land of dreams’ could be a completely elusive place, the purpose of dreams is what ultimately drives our desire and thought, thus our everyday world. If dreams can reveal repetitive patterns then there is no point talking about prophetic dreams, since their contents and effects happen again and again. But also there is something more than saying that dreams are pictures of an individual past, because the events that happen repeat themselves for everyone. Therefore dreams belong to an ‘eternal present,’ which spans the whole history of the universe.

What are the dreams? Someone said:

5. Dreams are prophetic; this is the opinion of a dream dictionary. Dreams are the fulfillment of unconscious desires; this is the opinion of psychoanalysis. Dreams are the products of neurological processes; this is the position of neurology. Dreams are a therapeutical tool; this is the position of psychotherapy.

And goes on saying:

6. An opinion. We often have one. Seldom do we remember that an opinion does not exist on its own but comes about as a reply to a question. More seldom do we remember that the question has already determined our point of view. Even more seldom do we dispute the same question. These steps show the way toward a discussion about dreams…

7. The prevailing view about dreams which states: “Dreams are this or that…,” tries to answer the question: “What are the dreams?” But what are the dreams? This time we will not satisfy the demand of a question to be answered. We will not obey. But we will listen.

8. What are the dreams? The obedient answer will accept and carry out the order of the question which supposes that dreams are one ‘thing’ or another. But ‘what’ is the ‘thing?’ Here the answer will take over. It will take care of the dreams, and put them in the context of each implied ‘thing:’

9. The prophecy, which violates the hidden nature of the future or the limit of what is to come. The desire, even the wildest one, which must be fulfilled at any cost, at least virtually in the fantasy of dreams. The claim of science for certainty, because of which dreams are subject to what is measurable and countable, becoming thus shadows of their earlier completeness. The selfishness of a therapeutical process, which treats dreams as residues of awakeness, and makes out of dreams what awakeness has imputed to them.

10. What is the nature of the dreams, which makes them so vulnerable to the human hubris? Perhaps it is that they speak a language of signs. They neither talk nor hide. They will not tolerate exposure, as in a book of dreams or in psychanalysis, and they will not accept the absolute explanation of neurology or behaviorism.

11. Dreams speak the language of symbols. They neither say nor hide anything. One whom you dreamed about, is the same one whom you know when you are awake, and yet one is not. And if you have the character and the heart to respect the one you dreamed about, you have to let one have one’s way. You shouldn’t allow yourself identify the one in your dreams with the one in your everyday life, nor call one an illusion. What one says, but one is also hiding by saying, what one hides, but by hiding one is saying, has the aspect of a symbol- a sign which is not a ‘thing,’ it is ‘one,’ and ‘one’ it isn’t, it is one which never betrays one’s self.

12. What are the dreams? Already, with the same question which challenges their interpretation, the road to overpassing their measure has been opened… [2]

I would simply say:

13. Dreams are like birds. When we watch them fly, they are wearing the plumage of our secret wishes. When we take our eyes away from them, they are vanishing under the eyelids of our absent visions.

And I will add:

14. The lines on the ground are converging to infinity… It is an everlasting free fall in a fathomless blue sky. The air has no resistance. The clouds have no texture. An eye floating in the air is casting a shadow on the ground. This is the only shadow that exists.

15. One must keep an eye open for a dream…

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreamwork]
[2]: Dreamwork in Greece (Link no longer available)

8/12/2018

Painting: The Eye, Salvador Dali