Myths about Consciousness
Myth: Researchers Have Demonstrated that Dreams Possess Symbolic Meanings
by Sylvia Tsang
According to Dream Central’s dream dictionary, if you eat macaroni in a dream, it means that you could be in for various small losses financially. According to Freud, in his landmark book, The Interpretation of Dreams, he reported that the dream image of a straw hat with the middle piece bent upwards and the side piece hanging downwards symbolized a man’s genitals. Moreover, the loss of teeth and beheading symbolize castration.
For the longest time, mankind has tried to make sense of dreams images, and since then, countless websites, blogs, and books have been created to explain what could possibly be the reason of dreaming of a house with many doors or falling down 50 set of stairs. I know I have been guilty of standing at my neighbourhood Chapters/Indigos in the ‘Self-Help’ sections for hours and hours looking at dream books which costs about $40-100 each.
However, contemporary scientists have rejected the idea that specific dream images carry universal symbolic meanings. They know that in the early stages of sleep, before our eyes begin to dart back and forth in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, most of our dreams actually mirror the everyday activities and concerns that occupy our minds, like studying for a test, shopping for groceries, or doing our taxes (Dorus, Dorus, & Rechtschaffen, 1971). The activation synthesis theory, proposed by Hobson and McCarley states that when we cycle through REM periods every 90 minutes or so during sleep, various neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) are responsible for generating dreams. More specifically, surges of acetylcholine hype the brain’s emotional centers, while a decrease in serotonin and norepinephrine inhibit brain areas that govern reason, memory, and attention. Hence, dreams are actually just our brain’s best way, to gather together a meaningful story based on a jumble of random information transmitted to it. Hence, these images that we spend hours over thinking what they could possibly mean are actually gibberish.
Therefore, rather than relying on a dream dictionary to foretell the future or help you make life decisions, it would probably be wisest to consult good friends and trust yourself in the end. Still, as far as your dreams go, it may still be a good idea to avoid thinking about losing your teeth and guillotines. All this being said, if you are sure you haven’t been thinking of lap dances lately, and hence, want to desperately seek some kind of explanation why such an image would make itself present in your dreams, I would suggest this website to satisfy your curiosity.
Hope you are all having a great week!
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