The Simple Truth is We Are Dreaming All the Time
Stages of Self-Reflectiveness in Dreams (Robin Robertson)
"Similarly Dr. Rossi assumes that we assimilate new material into the psyche through a process of increasing self-reflection. He carefully delineates a seven-stage model of psychosynthesis through the growth in the degree of self-reflection, as presented in our dreams. In his experimental work, psychologist Dr. Alan Moffitt further broke down Dr. Rossi’s final stage into three stages, yielding a nine-stage categorization of self-reflectiveness in dreams, which follows:
(1) Dreamer not in dream; objects unfamiliar; no people present
(2) Dreamer not in dream; familiar people or objects present
(3) Dreamer completely involved in dream drama; no other perspective
(4) Dreamer present predominantly as an observer
(5) Dreamer thinks over an idea or has definite communication with someone
(6) Dreamer undergoes a transformation of body, role, age, emotion, etc.
(7) Dreamer has multiple levels of awareness; simultaneously participates and observes; notices oddities while dreaming; experiences dream within a dream
(8) Dreamer has significant control in, or control over, dream story; can wake up deliberately
(9) Dreamer can consciously reflect on the fact that he/she is dreaming; lucid dreaming
"Over the last two decades, Dr. Moffitt has used this scale to categorize the dreams of dream subjects in his dream laboratory at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. He coupled this categorization with a digitized record of the EEG patterns of the subject while they were having the dream. Because the EEG patterns were stored numerically rather than graphically, he could write a program to analyze the stage of sleep in which the dream took place. The results were then stored in a minicomputer (which was cutting edge technology when he first began the project). Moffitt could then readily determine how often dreams occurred at each stage of self-reflectiveness and correlate them with the stages of sleep.
"In chapter one, we mentioned one major result of this research: instead of dreaming only occurring during REM-sleep, as has been traditionally believed, dreaming occurs during all stages of sleep. We dream continuously through the night. Because the characteristics of the various stages of sleep are so markedly different, yet we dream in all of them, Dr. Moffitt thinks it is highly likely that we are also dreaming continuously during our waking hours. Dreaming is the process through which we assimilate new knowledge into our personality. Jung had already speculated that this was true, but Dr. Moffitt’s research comes close to proving it.
"If we actually assimilate knowledge the way Dr. Rossi has suggested, we would expect that all of his stages would occur at one time or another in our dreams. Most of our dreams should be ones where we are present, either silent or communicating with someone else. Much less common should be dreams where we are not even present—one end of the self-reflectiveness scale—or are so self-reflective that we are transforming, twinning, have multiple levels of awareness, etc, at the other end of the scale. In fact, Dr. Moffitt did discover that all of Dr. Rossi’s stages did occur in dreams, with stages 3 and 5 the most common (i.e., where the dreamer is present in the dream) and with frequency trailing off toward the two ends of the scale.
"One of Dr. Moffitt’s then-students, Dr. Janet Mullington, extended this research to study whether similar stages of self-reflection took place during waking hours. They did. So we are dreaming all the time, day and night, and at one time or the other, our dreams fall into all the stages of self-reflection predicted by Dr. Rossi’s theory. This immensely important theoretical and experimental work is still too little known."
--Robin Robertson, The Shadow's Gift, Nicolas-Hays, 2011
"When we take the dream as a corrective of the day's waste before or as education for tomorrow, we put it in the service of the old me. Freud said the dream is the guardian of sleep. In fact, the dream of the dream belongs to the family of the night (NYX), where he regularly carries out his service and takes orders from what he calls his "family", from phenomena, brotherly and sisterly. Perhaps the purpose of dreams, night after night, year after year, is to prepare the I for old age, death and fate soaking deeper and deeper into memory. Dreams, perhaps, have little to do with our daily care, perhaps their purpose is the animation of the I."
Hillman, J., Myth, p. 195-6
Stages of Self-Reflectiveness in Dreams (Robin Robertson)
"Similarly Dr. Rossi assumes that we assimilate new material into the psyche through a process of increasing self-reflection. He carefully delineates a seven-stage model of psychosynthesis through the growth in the degree of self-reflection, as presented in our dreams. In his experimental work, psychologist Dr. Alan Moffitt further broke down Dr. Rossi’s final stage into three stages, yielding a nine-stage categorization of self-reflectiveness in dreams, which follows:
(1) Dreamer not in dream; objects unfamiliar; no people present
(2) Dreamer not in dream; familiar people or objects present
(3) Dreamer completely involved in dream drama; no other perspective
(4) Dreamer present predominantly as an observer
(5) Dreamer thinks over an idea or has definite communication with someone
(6) Dreamer undergoes a transformation of body, role, age, emotion, etc.
(7) Dreamer has multiple levels of awareness; simultaneously participates and observes; notices oddities while dreaming; experiences dream within a dream
(8) Dreamer has significant control in, or control over, dream story; can wake up deliberately
(9) Dreamer can consciously reflect on the fact that he/she is dreaming; lucid dreaming
"Over the last two decades, Dr. Moffitt has used this scale to categorize the dreams of dream subjects in his dream laboratory at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. He coupled this categorization with a digitized record of the EEG patterns of the subject while they were having the dream. Because the EEG patterns were stored numerically rather than graphically, he could write a program to analyze the stage of sleep in which the dream took place. The results were then stored in a minicomputer (which was cutting edge technology when he first began the project). Moffitt could then readily determine how often dreams occurred at each stage of self-reflectiveness and correlate them with the stages of sleep.
"In chapter one, we mentioned one major result of this research: instead of dreaming only occurring during REM-sleep, as has been traditionally believed, dreaming occurs during all stages of sleep. We dream continuously through the night. Because the characteristics of the various stages of sleep are so markedly different, yet we dream in all of them, Dr. Moffitt thinks it is highly likely that we are also dreaming continuously during our waking hours. Dreaming is the process through which we assimilate new knowledge into our personality. Jung had already speculated that this was true, but Dr. Moffitt’s research comes close to proving it.
"If we actually assimilate knowledge the way Dr. Rossi has suggested, we would expect that all of his stages would occur at one time or another in our dreams. Most of our dreams should be ones where we are present, either silent or communicating with someone else. Much less common should be dreams where we are not even present—one end of the self-reflectiveness scale—or are so self-reflective that we are transforming, twinning, have multiple levels of awareness, etc, at the other end of the scale. In fact, Dr. Moffitt did discover that all of Dr. Rossi’s stages did occur in dreams, with stages 3 and 5 the most common (i.e., where the dreamer is present in the dream) and with frequency trailing off toward the two ends of the scale.
"One of Dr. Moffitt’s then-students, Dr. Janet Mullington, extended this research to study whether similar stages of self-reflection took place during waking hours. They did. So we are dreaming all the time, day and night, and at one time or the other, our dreams fall into all the stages of self-reflection predicted by Dr. Rossi’s theory. This immensely important theoretical and experimental work is still too little known."
--Robin Robertson, The Shadow's Gift, Nicolas-Hays, 2011
"When we take the dream as a corrective of the day's waste before or as education for tomorrow, we put it in the service of the old me. Freud said the dream is the guardian of sleep. In fact, the dream of the dream belongs to the family of the night (NYX), where he regularly carries out his service and takes orders from what he calls his "family", from phenomena, brotherly and sisterly. Perhaps the purpose of dreams, night after night, year after year, is to prepare the I for old age, death and fate soaking deeper and deeper into memory. Dreams, perhaps, have little to do with our daily care, perhaps their purpose is the animation of the I."
Hillman, J., Myth, p. 195-6
"My first assumption is that a dream is an image and that an image is complete just as it presents itself. (It can be elaborated and deepened by working on it, but to begin with, it is all there: wholeness right in the image.) Next, we assume that everything there is necessary, which further suggests that everything necessary is there. Hence the rule: “Stick to the image,” in its precise presentation: the cavernous place slopes down and back; I hurry without looking back; the arrows stick out at all angles from the breast; the swan is big (not small) and dead (not sick, or lively, or swimming) and white (not without color, or black).
Something marvelously therapeutic happens when you affirm the image just as it is. You are relieved of guilt for its supposed faults: you don’t have to coach it into shape or edit out its errors. Because the swan, the arrows, the knee are as they are, things are as they are—an affirmation that in turn affirms the psyche. You are standing in your soul as it is. So you see, affirmation of the image also means affirmation by the image. You become more familiar and therefore more comfortable with necessity."
James Hillman, From Types to Images
Something marvelously therapeutic happens when you affirm the image just as it is. You are relieved of guilt for its supposed faults: you don’t have to coach it into shape or edit out its errors. Because the swan, the arrows, the knee are as they are, things are as they are—an affirmation that in turn affirms the psyche. You are standing in your soul as it is. So you see, affirmation of the image also means affirmation by the image. You become more familiar and therefore more comfortable with necessity."
James Hillman, From Types to Images
DReams
Chaos & Consciousness