First off let me speak about a video that is featured at the Huffington Post that talks about the 'genius of babies' and describes the great bounds science has made in understanding how a baby's brain works. It wasn't too many years ago it was thought an infant had a very limited capacity to learn and understand from the world around them Now we know better, the years of infancy and early childhood is when they are most capable of learning. the video talks about this capacity to learn and 'know' and provides wonderful insights to the mind of a child. I would embed the video in my post so it could be watched but Bravenet hosting doesn't allow embedding any longer. So I will provide the link instead.
The Genius of Babies

Now for my comments
In my analysis of many dreams I have often alluded to the experiences/influences of early childhood, including the infant years, as being most important in personal development. {an example dream that also notes the childhood dream pattern is an interpretation of noted author/speaker Jean Raffa's dream 'Revisiting My Childhood Home'}. My thoughts are a young child's mind is so tuned to its environment {a natural aspect of evolution and survival} that the child's brain picks up and stores these experiences as important to life. And because the brain is in its earliest development stages these experiences/influences have more importance to development that in later years after the brain has reach a level of development. An experiences at the age of one may not be stored as memorable at the age of 12 because the child has gained life experience and the event doesn't have the 'psychic' energy it had at age one. Children are meant to learn and it is from their environment where they actually gain experience that teaches them.

Back to my dream analysis. I have noted many times in my interpretations the occurrence of childhood references in the first part of a dream as 'most always' being a comment about a childhood experience of the dreamer. Even when the child image or action is of an unknown child, and/or when the dreamer does not see any association to the reference as an event in the dreamer's life. The uniform and unvaried response by the dreamer when I point to this as a fact is always, "yes, that is true" {once they give thought and memory to it}. The experience/event has either been forgotten, repressed or never realized until it is brought up as a factual experience in the dreamer's life.

Back to 'what's doing on in a baby's mind' and early childhood development. It is my thinking that the foundations for who and what we become as adults are 'profoundly' formed from childhood experiences/influences with the earliest years being most important. What the child picks up/learns from experiences in their earliest years is what is ingrained as a 'probable truth' in the child's mind. And when those experiences are continually re-enforced it becomes a 'fixed truth', and very often an unconscious motivator for personality and actions in adulthood. And because it is a truth in the child's mind and having positioned itself within the unconscious, even with later contrary evidence the original 'pattern' of learning exerts itself in the decision making of the adult. And because it has positioned itself within the deep unconscious it becomes a part of the dream, the dream being a vendor of personal truth for the dreamer. It is a 'truth' because there was the actual experience and although that experience can be forgotten or repressed by the conscious mind, the unconscious psyche through the dream will not let it die. Because it is a 'primary' experience in early life it is much like an archetype in that it has the power to unconsciously affect the dreamer's personality and actions.

One other comment about childhood images/actions in dreams. In my work with dreams I have noticed and noted a pattern of dream development associated with the inclusion of language related to childhood images and/or actions in the first part of a dream. In every instance in my recent experience with this type of dream the result has been positive in the responses from the dreamers to my referencing of this pattern. I have studied Jungian dream psyche and related 'sciences' for 20+ years and believe my knowledge of his concepts and theories to be more than sufficient to reference Jung when presenting an analysis of dreams. But I have not read all that he has written and I am not a Jungian 'clinician' or scholar whose training would include an in-dept study of Jung's works. I do not know what Jung's position was on the pattern I have noted and even if he could agree that it is appropriate. What I have stated is from my experiences in analyzing dreams and as with becoming aware I do have a 'special' talent in interpreting dreams from the responses from those who posted the dream and follow up responses, this is a pattern of structure I believe to be a norm based on responses. If there was a 70-30% positive response then there would be room to question the possibly the results I have received as at best possible. But with every response being positive that leads me to believe there is at least some 'norm' to this pattern and can not be dismissed as such. There are other patterns in my analysis I am exploring that also could be fit as a norm but more research is needed before I can state any as factual {at least in my mind}.

Jerry

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