Cross-Cultural Dreaming: Native American Dream Beliefs
Celebrity Dreams: Brad Pitt
Reader's Dream Analysis: Cold Shot
Reader Comments:
From The Editor:
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Feature Article
The Usefulness of Content Analysis in the Study of Dreams
The earliest systematic study of dream content in the records dates back to an article cited in an 1838 paper submitted by G. Heermann, who studied the dream imagery of one hundred blind subjects. In 1888 another investigator studied the dreams of two hundred subjects in institutions for the blind in Philadelphia and Baltimore. The investigator hadn't been aware of Heerman's research when he began his own work, but the results were amazingly similar. The developmental stage between the fifth and seventh years was the crucial period that separated non-visual dreamers from those who continued to have visual imagery in their dreams.
The first systematic investigation of sensory images in the dreams of subjects without sensory impairments was reported in 1895 by Mary Calkins, a psychologist from Wellesley College. Based on several hundred dream reports contributed by herself and a male subject, she found that the most frequent type of dream imagery was visual and the second most common was auditory.
In 1953, Glenn Ramsey, a psychologist at the University of Texas carried out an extensive review of dream studies up to that time. Based on his exhaustive work, Ramsey contended that dream researchers needed to follow certain basic scientific practices if the potential of their work was to be realized, and that they should design their experiments in ways that would allow other researchers to repeat the study and check its results.
Ramsey's strongly worded call for dream researchers to develop and apply some system of classifying dream content so that it could be evaluated in an objective and quantitative fashion had already been put into practice by Calvin Hall. Hall is credited to be the individual most responsible for making giant strides in the area of dream content analysis since the middle of the twentieth century.
During his tenure at Western Reserve University, from 1937 to 1957, Hall and his graduate students collected thousands of dream reports. He prepared a seventeen page "Manual for Dream Analysis" in 1949, based on these dreams. His "manual" was used by several of his graduate students in their theses and dissertations on various dream topics.
After Hall founded the Institute for Dream Research in 1961, he began to systematize his efforts for a content analysis approach to dreams. During 1962 he prepared a set of six technical manuals for classifying various dream elements.
Robert Van De Castle joined Calvin Hall at the Institute for Dream Research in 1964. Van De Castle came from a background in clinical research and brought his experience in scoring and validating personality tests to the content analysis system Hall had been developing. The two dream researchers collaborated on amplifying Halls technical manuals for classifying different dream elements and published a book, The Content Analysis of Dreams (1966), presenting an expanded set of scoring rules for various dream scales.
For the first time, a comprehensive system of classifying and scoring the content of reported dreams was detailed and made available to dream investigators. Their work was an important empirical contribution which was provided through the extensive normative (normal) material based upon the thousands of dreams Hall and his students had collected at Western Reserve University, and which were included in their book.
The book contained a chapter explaining the reliability of their scoring system, wherein they demonstrated the possibility for two independent judges to obtain very similar results using the scale they had developed.
The scoring system consists of sixteen "empirical" scales and three "theoretical" scales. To give you an idea of the comprehensiveness of the system I've provided a short explanation of each scale below.
The Settings Scale -
This scale describes the type of location the dream events take place in. The locale is classified as indoors or outdoors, familiar or unfamiliar. Sixteen different scores are possible.
The Objects Scale -
This scale categorizes any tangible object that appears in a dream. Buildings are included under an architectural heading and are further categorized into subtypes; residential, vocational, entertainment, etc. Twenty-four different categories are on this scale.
The Characters Scale -
This scale includes people, mythological figures and animals. Except for animals, characters are classified into four components; a single character, or a group; the gender of the character; the relationship to the dreamer; and age. Hundreds of different combinations can be represented on this scale.
The Social Interactions Scale -
There are three scoring options on this scale; aggression, friendliness and sex. Scoring is similar for all three. Various sub-classifications within each social interaction are also included.
The Activities Scale -
This scale determines which type of activities take place in the dream; physical, verbal, visual, auditory, etc. As well, which character carries out the activity is also scored. Two scales, included under the Achievement/Outcome group, indicate whether a character succeeds or fails at a task or activity. Similarly, there are also Misfortune and Good Fortune groupings.
The Emotional Scale -
This scale scores five different types of emotions. As well, which character experiences them is also scored.
The Modifiers Scale -
The types of descriptive terms used by the dreamer within, or reporting, the dream (big, heavy, fat, old, ugly, cold, etc.) are scored on this scale.
The Temporal Scale -
This scale contains scores for occasions when the dreamer indicates concerns with time.
The Negativity Scale -
This scale includes instances in which the dreamer uses words such as no, not, won't, never, etc.
The three theoretical scales are; The Castration Complex, The Orality Grouping, and the Regression Scale.
After receiving some harsh criticism and a very unjust and poor review of the book, (The Content Analysis of Dreams) Hall, in conjunction with Bill Domhoff of the University of Santa Cruz, came up with an intriguing use of content analysis to demonstrate the accuracy and repeatability of the system. They applied the method to an analysis of twenty-eight of Freud's dreams and thirty-one of Jung's.
They found many similarities between the two famous psychiatrist's dreams and what they dreamed about, but there were also some clear differences. Hall and Domhoff attempted to relate some of the differences to information known about these two prominent men.
An example of the differences in the two men's dreams are as follows:
There were more characters in Freud's dreams than in Jung's, which fit with Jung's interest in spending considerable time alone at his lake retreat. There were more family members in Jung's dreams, which corresponded with his social life, which was centered around his family.
An interesting and informative project Hall was involved in later, had nothing to do with any famous person. His subject, who he only referred to as "Norman," was an unusual (and abnormal) individual. Norman had been a patient of Alan Bell's (a psychologist). While in Bell's care, Norman recounted 1,368 dreams. Bell contacted Hall and asked if he would be willing to create a profile on Norman's personality based solely on the patient's dreams. Hall accepted the proposal.
Knowing only his age (early 30s) and gender, Hall used the Hall-Van De Castle scoring system to analyze the more than 1,300 dreams. It soon became apparent to Hall, based on the examination of his dreams, that Norman had been institutionalized for molesting children.
Hall compared the various elements in Norman's dreams with the norms that had been compiled by Hall (and reported in The Content Analysis of Dreams) for male dreamers. He then read through the dreams to determine if there were any predominant themes that might have been missed by the scoring system.
Operating on the assumption that the frequency of occurrences of a dream element or theme directly represented the dreamer's preoccupation with that topic or subject in waking life, Hall prepared a detailed psychological profile of this individual. One conjecture was that this man preferred to look at the genitals of little girls.
The presence of women with beards and penises led to another conclusion; that the dreamer suffered from gender confusion. Hall also paid attention to the under-representation of certain dream elements that would be expected to be present. Since there were no references to a father, Hall speculated that Norman's father was either absent or that Norman had suffered some a traumatic experience in connection with him.
On the basis of other dream materials (Norman's), Hall postulated that Norman had been sexually abused by his father when he was a child.
Bell later provided biographical information concerning the dreamer. Further information was obtained from records at various institutions where Norman had been confined, and from psychological tests. Norman himself wrote several letters providing additional information in response to questions raised by Hall after the dream analysis was completed.
In their book, The Personality of a Child Molester, Bell and Hall provided many examples of Norman's dreams and a description of his background and test scores. It was discovered, for example, that Norman had been sexually molested by his father for several years, beginning when he was only four.
As I hope has been demonstrated, content analysis can be very illuminating in a number of different ways. By pointing out differences and similarities between the dreamer's scores and the norms Hall and Van De Castle developed, it can help define an individual's uniqueness with considerable precision. It can give an accurate picture of who the dreamer is, and what they are about. And, it can also be used to explore the symbolic or theoretical significance of a selected dream element.
We will take a look at the use of content analysis methodology to discover the symbolic significance of a dream element in next month's issue.
The tools provided by content analysis, particularly the scales developed by Hall and Van De Castle, can enable a dream researcher or dream worker to evaluate and report results in an objective and quantitative fashion which then can be independently assessed by other investigators.
The Hall-Van De Castle system of content analysis isn't the only one available. Well over one hundred separate scales have been developed by others for selected purposes. However, the chief advantages in using the Hall-Van De Castle system are that it covers almost all the elements found in dreams, it's been shown to have high agreement between two raters on their scoring, and it provides extensive normative material.
I personally have used content analysis in my dream research. However, it is a starting point for me, a first step. I have found the information and insights gleaned from this method to be very useful when working with dreams, however, the insights are limited when applying the system to a single dream. The real strength of the system emerges when it is applied to a series of dreams from an individual.
If you would like to experiment or test out the Hall-Van De Castle System, I have provided the complete system in an for you. Just click here to download the zipped file (free). You'll require Winzip (or other zip program) Adobe Acrobat Reader to read the pdf files, and Microsoft Excel, or another spreadsheet program, to use the analysis program included. However you don't have to use the analysis program. Everything you'll need to use the system by hand is provided.
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Cross Cultural Dreaming
Native American Dream Beliefs
In considering the beliefs of the Native American peoples, there is not a single belief system that is shared by all. Each tribe developed their own relationship with their inner life as it connected with and contributed to their external environment and needs. In considering the statements of traditional Native Americans it is rather obvious that dreams were generally considered as a form of reality or information to be highly regarded.
Black Elk became a revered medicine man of his tribe through the initiatory process of his dreams and their revelations. His dreams revealed rituals to be performed by the tribe that aided in healing social tensions. But these deeply perceptive social or psychological insights into his own people that arose in his dreams are only one of many facets the American native peoples found in their dream life. And of course Black Elk is only one of the men and women of the Native American people who were visionaries.
In some tribes, initiates, through prayer, fasting and lonely vigils, sought from their dreams, a vision of their destiny as an individual, and an image to forge a personal link with the Spirit pervading all life. With such a dream the young man or woman could feel themselves to be a real part of their group and their environment. But even this cannot be taken as a generalisation.
R.F. Benedict reported in The Vision In Plains Culture (American Anthropologist Vol. 24 1922) that among the Arapahoe, the Gros Ventre and in all the Western Plains peoples north and south, puberty fasting for a vision did not occur.
Nevertheless, although details varied as to when and how such dreams were sought, the visionary dream was held as sacred. Sometimes the ways of seeking these visions were very quiet, as when retiring to one's sweat lodge, and sometimes very drastic, when braves suspended themselves from poles on hooks. Jung, writing about a meeting with some Pueblo Indians in the USA, explained that their religion rested upon the belief that through their frequent rituals, they helped the sun to rise each day. Without their tribal attention to the sun, they were sure the sun would no longer rise.
"This idea," Jung explained "absurd to us, that a ritual act can magically affect the sun is, upon closer examination, no less irrational but far more familiar to us than might at first be assumed. Our Christian religion - like every other incidentally - is permeated by the idea that special acts or a special kind of action can influence God - for example through certain rites or by prayer, or by a morality pleasing to the divinity.
"The point Jung was making overall was that through their beliefs the Pueblo tribe, as a group of people, have an intense peace and satisfaction with their lives. This deep peace and inner happiness is seldom shared by less "traditional" cultures. This pride and sense of belonging that was often a marked feature of such tribal peoples illustrates one of the main functions of the dreaming process - the psychological compensation or self-regulatory process - and how it acts on the personality if it is deeply accepted.
Dreams were seen by the Native Americans as having certain marked features that could be gained from them. There could be an initiatory dream, dreams telling where to hunt; dreams showing a new ritual giving some sort of power such as warding off illness, or finding a new relationship with everyday life, or attracting a lover; dreams could show the use of an herb for medicine; dreams might be caused by some sort of evil within ones body, or an external evil such as someone wishing you harm or an evil spirit; there could be a shared dream with another person; the dream might be a revelation from someone who was dead and now in the spirit world; or a dream, as in the third example below, could be a map supporting and guiding the dreamer throughout their whole life. Dreams were often considered to be bad or good. If a dream were considered bad something had to be done about it, such as a cleansing or healing ritual.
Example: As an example of a Native American's attitudes to dreams, this statement of White Hair, a medicine man, is interesting. "Every dream that takes place is certain to happen. Whenever the evil spirits influence it, it is certain to happen. Whenever we dream a bad dream we get a medicine man to perform, sing and say prayers which will banish the spirit."
Example: This description by a medicine man explains how he had a dream showing him a new medicine. He says, "I saw a dog that had been shot through the neck and kidneys. I felt sorry for the dog and carried him home and took care of him. I slept with the dog beside me. While there I had a bad dream. The dream changed and the dog became a man. It spoke to me and said, 'Now I will give you some roots for medicine and show you how to use them. Whenever you see someone who is ill and feel sorry for him, use this medicine and he will be well.' One of these medicines is good for sore throat."
Example: This is a fasting dream/vision recorded by Father Lalemont, a Jesuit priest working among the Native American's in the nineteenth century.At the age of about sixteen a youth went alone to a place where he fasted for sixteen days. At the end of this time he suddenly heard a voice in the sky saying, "Take care of this man and let him end his fast." Then he saw an old man of great beauty come down from the sky. The old man came to him, and looking at him kindly said, "Have courage, I will take care of your life. It is a fortunate thing for you to have taken me for your master. None of the demons who haunt these countries will have any power to harm you.
One day you will see your own hair as white as mine. You will have four children, the first two and last will be males, and the third will be a girl. After that your wife will hold the relation of a sister to you." As he finished speaking the old man offered him a raw piece of human flesh to eat. When the boy turned his head away in horror, the old man then offered him a piece of bear's fat, saying, "Eat this then." after eating it, the old man disappeared, but came again at crucial periods in the person's life. At manhood he did have four children as described. After his fourth, "a certain infirmity compelled him to continence" He also lived to old age, thus having white hair, and as the eating of the bear fat symbolised, became a gifted hunter with second sight for finding game. The man himself felt that had he eaten the human flesh in the vision, he would have been a warrior instead of a hunter.
Such dreams as the above, about the use of a herbal root for medicine, show how many herbal treatments, not only among the Native Americans, but from tribal people throughout the world, came about. In fact many tribes attributed the origins of many of their cultural artefacts, their religion, the use of fire, to a specific dream experienced by a past tribal member.
The inner centre, the Self, or the guiding spirit of a person is realised in an exceptionally pure, unspoilt form by the Naskapi Indians, who still exist in the forests of the Labrador Peninsula.
These simple people are hunters who live in isolated family groups, so far from one another that they have not been able to evolve tribal customs or collective religious beliefs and ceremonies. In his lifelong solitude the Naskapi hunter has to rely on his own inner voices and unconscious revelations; he has no religious teachers who tell him what he should believe, no rituals, festivals or customs to help him along. In his basic view of life the soul of man is simply an Inner companion whom he calls My Friend or Mista peo, meaning Great Man. Mista peo dwells in the heart and is immortal. In the moment of death, or just before, he leaves the individual, and later reincarnates himself in another being.
Those Naskapi who pay attention to their dreams and who try to find their meaning and test their truth can enter into a greater connection with the Great Man. He favours such people and sends them more and better dreams. Thus the major obligation of an individual Naskapi is to follow the instructions given by his dreams, and then to give permanent form to their contents in art. Lies and dishonesty drive the Great Man away from one's inner realm, whereas generosity and love of his neighbours and of animals attract him and give him life.
Dreams give the Naskapi complete ability to find his way in life, not only in the inner world but also in the outer world of nature. They help him to foretell the weather and give him invaluable guidance in his hunting, upon which his life depends..... Just as the Naskapi have noticed that a person who is receptive to the Great Man gets better and more helpful dreams, we could add that the inborn Great Man becomes more real within the receptive person than in those who neglect him. Such a person also becomes a more complete human being."
Parts of this article were extracted from The New Dream Dictionary by Tony Crisp, published by Little Brown, UK. It is therefore copyright material.
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Celebrity Dreams
Brad Pitts Dream
Brad once dreamed that he found strangers using his tooth brush!
A tooth brush is a very personal item. Brad must have been feeling an invasion of privacy when he had this dream. Not surprising in light of the incident, at the time of the dream, where a female stalker broke into his home. Tooth brushes also symbolize verbalization. Perhaps he felt someone had mis-quoted him or put words in his mouth.
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A Reader's Dream
Cold Shot
Dreamer is a 23 year old male.
I was in some snowy, open place. I think it was a frozen lake, with a bunch of others sitting (I think) in a circle.In the distance, a figure appeared and started shooting at us. I had no choice but to fire back. My gun was a 9mm style. I pulled the hammer back and dropped it once. I missed. Luckily he hadn't hit anyone yet. I didn't miss with the second shot.The figure slowly collapsed. When I stood up to go investigate, a member of the circle told me to be careful. Half the distance was closed and I pulled out my other gun. I got there, and the man was still alive. I know I asked him "where" did I get you? and he just said "head." But I couldn't see the wound. Then I think I said, "I'm not going to apologize for what I did because it was you or us. But I am sorry we're in this situation in the first place, fighting someone else's war. Do you want me to..." I was asking if he wanted to be put out of his misery. He did not, but he died soon after. I closed his eyes and woke up.
Brief Interpretation
I was in some snowy, open place. I think it was a frozen lake, with a bunch of others sitting (I think) in a circle.
The dream begins by setting the stage. He finds himself in a cold, open place. Here the background is suggesting that there is nothing to protect the dreamer (no enclosures, no walls, nowhere to hide), though he is not alone, we get the impression that he feels, even with the support of others, that he is alone and isolated. Water in a dream usually represent either emotions or spirit. With the lake being frozen, the message is that either the dreamer's emotions are frozen, his heart is cold and hard, or that he is unable to warm up to a spiritual idea or ideal.
The dreamer recognizes that he is a part of a circle, a whole. A circle generally infers unity, wholeness or infinity; the universe. There is no beginning or end. So, being part of the circle suggests that the dream is trying to show him that his is one with the universe, that he not alone, and that he is whole.
In the distance, a figure appeared and started shooting at us. I had no choice but to fire back. My gun was a 9mm style. I pulled the hammer back and dropped it once. I missed. Luckily he hadn't hit anyone yet. I didn't miss with the second shot.
In this section, the dream is warning the dreamer that in the future, he will have no choice but to take action against a threat to his (and perhaps others as well) well being. The threat is undefined but as the antagonist is unclear, distant, this may be indicating that the threat is the dreamer's own shadow; that part of ourselves we would rather not admit to or recognize. The dream does detail the weapon to be used to protect the dreamer from the threat. A gun often represents power to many, as well as anger. Nine, represents completion, and ending (that leads to a new beginning) or termination. The dreamer's first attempt to eliminate the threat is unsuccessful. However, he has the opportunity for a second chance, wherein he will reach his goal, removing the immediate threat.
The figure slowly collapsed. When I stood up to go investigate, a member of the circle told me to be careful.
The dreamer feels victorious in heading off the threat and keeping himself and his circle safe. The dreamer is now ready to look deeper into the situation, the threat. His circle, his support network perhaps, warns him to be careful. Investigation can sometimes turn up answers we may not want to here, or aren't ready to accept.
Half the distance was closed and I pulled out my other gun. I got there, and the man was still alive.
At this point in the dream, the initial cause of the problem, the threat has not been completely removed.
I know I asked him "where" did I get you? and he just said "head." But I couldn't see the wound. Then I think I said, "I'm not going to apologize for what I did because it was you or us. But I am sorry we're in this situation in the first place, fighting someone else's war. Do you want me to..." I was asking if he wanted to be put out of his misery. He did not, but he died soon after. I closed his eyes.
Here, the threat, the problem is defined. The dreamer has been over- analyzing, over-reasoning, or over-thinking things. As was demonstrated at the beginning of the dream, he has been keeping his heart, his emotions, locked up/frozen. He is trying to eliminate the anger or that part of himself he doesn't want to recognize.
To wrap it up, this dreamer is struggling to eliminate what he feels is a negative attribute, his anger. The message of the dream, however, is that the dreamer should not feel bad or guilty for allowing himself to feel, to open up his heart and emotions; to express his anger. The dreamer, however, manages to terminate this aspect of himself and puts it to rest, perhaps he's come to grips with the fact, that anger is healthy, that it is a part of our nature.
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Reader Comments
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From the Editor
If you have any questions, or would like to submit a dream for publication and interpretation, visit our contact page and send us an email. We'll do our very best to address your questions or concerns or analyze your dreams as soon as possible.
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Dream Well !
Terry
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