Carl Jung, one of the greatest thinkers of all times, said about the dream:
"The dream is the small hidden door in the deepest and most intimate sanctum of the soul, which opens to that primeval cosmic night that was soul long before there was conscious ego and will be soul far beyond what a conscious ego could ever reach."
Here I offer just one example that does not need interpretation. One example for many that demonstrates the beauty and significance of the dream, especially as it pertains to the art of psychotherapy.
Shortly before my father unexpectedly passed away I had a dream with him: He came to me and said that he had a secret to share with me. Then he took me to the mountains. We found ourselves high in the rocky mountains, I think mountains of Slovakia. Weather was rough, strong gusty wind and scattered heavy snow flurries mixed with cold rain made it difficult to hike up the slippery slopes. We moved up slowly, it took a long time. Then we got to the point from which we could see long staircase carved into the rock. It was huge, stretched deep down the mountains until it disappeared out of sight in the valley. I thought to myself: "This is immense, majestic! Who in the world carved those in this mountain?" Me and my dad were standing right where it ended. Then my father turned to me and calmly, but with intense pathos said: "I carved those. I am tired now. I have come to this point. You have to continue where I left off!"
This dream filled me with feelings of awe and joy, sadness and humility. It's been helping me to accept the mystery of life and death better. I could not put it in the words, but it allows me to unite opposites that are seemingly irreconcilable. Because dreams are product of an autonomous instinctive psychic apparatus that possesses wisdom superior to the narrow ego-perspective the dream analysis is one of the most efficient ways of accessing and approaching unconscious. That is understanding client's source of inner conflict, but also diagnosis and prognosis of his or her psychological suffering. Careful analysis of client's dreams not only provides relief of symptoms via freeing of split-off feelings and persuasions, but can also reveal guidance for one's attitude towards life to achieve higher quality of psychological and physical well being. Vlado Solc December 2015
Vlado Šolc