The most difficult thing is to know yourself. – Thales
The impact of our perceptual patterns on the way we navigate the “self” has always been a cornerstone in understanding human behavior. Long before neuroscience started thought experiments on the nature of reality, William James (1842-1910), the pioneer American psychologist put forward “ our view of the world is truly shaped by what we decide to perceive ” and that, in effect, shapes the world around us. Carl G. Jung (1875-1961), founder of the analytical school firmly believed that the “ unconscious is our great guide .” He proclaimed that the information stored in the unconscious plays up in decoding the world, and determines the manifestation of the self we bring out there. To understand and assess the subject’s psychic state, analytical psychologists primarily aimed to unravel the unconscious.
As it happens in daily life, we know or feel something not reasoning why or how at the conscious level. It can occur when we enter a place we have never been before, and something stirs up in our perception. A color, a smell, or a sound fires a sensation in brain. This firing is followed by a positive or negative emotion and thought produced by that sensation. We recollect a former experience similar to what we perceived in this place. Then we interpret and give meaning to it. If the emotion contained turns out to be positive, we like the place, and it feels good to be there. The opposite happens as well when we might feel allergic to someone or something without evident reasons.
The unconscious with all its rich images, projections, memories, fantasies and fears, brings us back to S. Freud’s (1856-1939) work on the unconscious. The valves in between separate the conscious terrain of the mind and the unknown reserve of the unconscious. Between the two zones, daytime traffic is controlled by selective perception patterns, biases, fixations, repressions, amnesic conditions and the defenses of the human psyche. But at nighttime, when the gates of unconscious are opened, the defenses are lowered. Then, rich chunks of information, self-knowledge and knowledge of the world stored in the unconscious rise to enter the conscious zone. What we recollect unfolds in a dream. In the parade of the unconscious streaming through the dream we often encounter another aspect of ourself or our relation with another. The other self-image we witness allows to discover the unknown parts of ourself. By deciphering the codes and symbols casted in the dream, we can make better sense of who we are. We gradually get to understand the personal meaning of our dreams. Then we gain access to our unconscious reserves. The invisible becomes more visible. We may even be connected to our higher self.
That is why dreams are meaningful tools to analyze the typical emotion-thought-cognition patterns and different faces of the self. It constituted the fundamental instrument in Freud’s analytical work. As he remarkably said :
Dreams are the royal highway to the unconscious.
Highlighting the connection between dreams and our higher dimension, Ostad Elahi, 20th century thinker, jurist, and master musician, said in his book Words of Truth :
Dreams are one of the strongest arguments, if not definitive proof, for the existence of the soul, for without the soul, there would be no dreams. When we are in a state of sleep, the somatic veil that shrouds the soul is partially lifted and dreaming occurs. At the threshold of Perfection, this veil can also be lifted during wakefulness. Our dreams reflect the same mindset that we have throughout the day: those who are dominated by their imperious self [ego] have carnal dreams, whereas those who are dominated by their celestial soul have dreams of a spiritual nature. (Saying 74)
As much as one is aware of his unconscious, he can gain self-knowledge. Understanding his true “being” becomes more attainable as well as analyzing his thought patterns, emotions, values, and actions. Life then becomes more meaningful. As Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) neatly said it :
“ One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life, and there is nothing better.”
Duygu Bruce
June 3, 2019
References:
Ostad Elahi, Paroles de Vérité, Choisies et réunies par Bahram Elahi, Paris, Éditions Albin Michel, 2014. The English translation of this book is forthcoming.
