I need to make a clarification of comments I have made often when addressing the dreams of younger people vs. older people. My statement that an older person's dreams more often are directed at past experiences is true for most of those who post dream{s} at the Dream Forum. Most often these people have already begun an inner search and end up at the Dream Forum looking for answers. Thus the focus is on the past and not so much the current experiences.

But that does not preclude their dreams of current events. We all have continuing dreams of the present that focus on the stresses and emotional conflicts in the current waking life. Constant pressures that have endured can even have emotional energies long after the fact. I use to have dreams about being on time for work when I was employed with the county health department. But years after I had left that job and was self employed I continued to have such dreams although there were not the circumstances in my life that would always fit. Of course all dreams are addressing both aspects of life, the past and the present. Which aspect a particular dream is focusing on depends on the dreamer. Often an older person whose life is still in the present and not intent on personal growth will ignore the past and focus on the present, much like a younger person. Or there dreams are focused on both with the deeper aspects from earlier life being blurred by their focus on ego. Unless there is some type of recognition of the deeper self, a death and resurrection of ego to spirit, an older person will remain stuck in ego progress and not personal progression to a higher self. Of course all of this is my assumption and is not empirical knowledge.

Note: the death and resurrection motif is best associated with Jesus on the cross. The story, or the myth, of Jesus dying on the cross and being resurrected back to life is metaphor for what must happen in the individual life. One must die to the influence of the ego body and be resurrected to the spiritual aspects of the psyche. This is how one gains true spirituality, it is a psychological transition. The formalities of religious indoctrination mean little if not accompanied by this ego death and resurrection.

I hope this clarifies my thinking when it comes to the dreams of older visitors. I always want to simplify the best I can my thoughts so there is an understanding of how dreams function. My philosophy on dreams is based primarily on Jungian dream psyche but a lot of it is also based on my experiences with working with dreams. Practice makes perfect and all the years of interpreting dreams at the Dream Forum {and before that at other forums} have provided concrete criteria of how dreams do function. And they usually still fall within the guidelines of how Jung presented his theories on dreams.

As for a younger person's dreams. When it can be determined the dreamer has a lot of emotional baggage already in life, I see their dreams being much like an older person's. The psyche in its therapeutic mold is attempting to help sort through the emotional conflicts and whether the person is old or young, when there is such emotional baggage the dreams will be focused on that more so than current life experiences. Of course current life experiences are predicated on the past, we all evolve to who we are in the present, and those current situations are usually a continuation of past experiences. The grounds for who we are can be determine by the individual evolution.

Boy, this gets deeper and deeper. Trying to put it into easy to understand language is not always so easy.

Jerry

Age & Gender & Location {Required}: 59 Murfreesboro, Tn

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