Hullo everyone!
My current view on the large majority dreams is that the elements from everyday life are mixed with memories, emotions and thought and imagination patterns, and presented to the unfathomable conscious witness of the dream. Although the dream scenes are, to a degree, entirely new, it’s hard to spot a creative process which goes beyond simple “cutting, mixing and pasting together” different pieces of psychic contents. I mean… A world realistic enough for the conscious mind not to recognise it as a dream (with due lucid exceptions) is created out of psychic fragments, and that’s no mean feat. But at times I find that certain features of the dreamworld go beyond a basic elaboration of psychic material and involve a higher-degree creative process of some kind.
I’ll try to be more concrete.
Tonight I dreamt several finely decorated objects (an ivory boat, a lock with its key, a sarcophagus, a deck of tarot-like cards). While I was writing it down, I considered that the presence of beautiful artistic objects, especially architecture, is a recurring theme in my dreams, although this is not a particularly strong dream sign in terms frequency.
This is actually one of the factors that re-kindled my interest in the dreamworld after a many-years gap. My oneiric memories are filled with splendid architecture, especially churches, temples or palaces. I once dreamt of flying over an entire city made of high cathedrals and towers and palaces with spires and golden roofs, far more beautiful than anything I have ever seen IWL.
The memory of these dreams lasts particularly long and they seem to “stand out”, as there are elements which are not just facsimile imitations of what I see around me every day, but seem to involve a high-degree creative process.
Other elements that stand out very strongly are those related to archetypal themes and involve a strong symbolism of some kind. In several occasions, for example, I dreamt of rituals, or of strong archetypal figures (venerable teachers, a saint, the devil).
I wonder if someone else shares the feeling that certain dream elements “stand out” of the simple reorganisation of psychic content from the personal psyche, either because they involve a high degree of creativity, or because they connect to a deeper level than the personal conscious.