Dreams
He had a dream. And it was insulin.
Fredrick Banting, discoverer of insulin, came up with the idea of insulin through a good night’s sleep. This is one example of how dreams can change the world, according to the psychology book “Themes and Variations.”
All humans have them and the importance of dreams, as well as how and why dreams occur, seem to be contingent upon the beholder of dreams, according to the book.
Michaela Goldstein, freshman majoring in psychology, said all of life is one big dream.
“There is the dream of our conscious, while awake, and the dream of our unconscious, while we are sleeping,” Goldstein said.
Goldstein said daily choices determine whether dreams are good or bad.
“In our conscious, we have a choice,” Goldstein said. “Sometimes, I am able to feel out my conscious inner future from what my unconscious dreams bring.”
According to the “The Dream Encyclopedia” by James R. Lewis, members of the Islamic faith place considerable amount of concern to dreams.
“It is difficult to interpret between true and false dreams,” the book states. “Therefore, dream interpretation is necessary in Islam and it is a very sophisticated process.”
Jasem Al-Nouri, freshman majoring in environmental engineering who practices Islamic faith, said dreams are a direct reflection of our actions. Many times, if we do what is “good” in our lives we will have “good” dreams, and if we do what is “bad” we will have “bad” dreams, Al-Nouri said.
“Don’t try to find explanation in a bad dream. Also, share good dreams, for it could be beneficial to those who are listening,” Al-Nouri also said. “Telling the dream truthfully, adding nothing and taking nothing away is important in properly interpreting a dream.”
According to “Themes and Variations,” written by Wayne Weiten, in contrast to Islamic dream characterization modern Western culture dreamers “typically make a distinction between the ‘real’ world experienced while awake and the ‘imaginary’ world experienced while dreaming.” In addition to this, the book states, “Although a small minority of individuals take dreams seriously, in Western cultures dreams are largely written off as insignificant and meaningless.”
An article titled “Waking up to Dreams,” written by Julie Nicholls and published in Parade magazine states, “Dreaming isn’t really about sleeping; it’s about waking up.” The article also suggests “dreams can make us smarter, more creative and better able to cope with problems.” The book states Sigmund Freud argues “dreams are the royal road to unconscious.” Also, he argues dreams as being a way to “satisfy our unconscious needs.”
According to the book, Western cultures see little significance in dreams, while other cultures view dreams as important sources of information about oneself, the future or the spiritual world.
The book states, “Many cultures view events in dreams as another type of reality that may be just as important as, or perhaps even more important than, events experienced while awake.”
In his book, Weiten states consciousness is personal awareness. That consciousness is rarely at a standstill and moves like leaves blowing in the wind. The book states both conscious and unconscious are different levels of awareness and some research suggests people maintain a certain level of awareness while sleeping, like the awareness to an alarm clock.
According to “Themes and Variations,” there are many theories of the purpose of dreams, but the theories are very difficult to test. Consequently, the book states dreams remain a mystery.