[jamesn.]

Thank you Stephen for setting this up as a separate topic; and actually on thinking about this further could actual contain 2 different ways of approaching it: the way we look at our dreams; and also how we think about emotion itself.

One of the things I keep coming back to is Joseph’s description of the (blind spot) we “all” have without being aware of what that actually is; and by that I mean Joseph used that term to describe that area in our personal consciousness of which we are unaware that affects how we perceive and respond to the people and things around us and informs our thinking in ways that may be very “inaccurate”. The famous comedian; Will Rogers; had a popular saying that might be a way of thinking about how our shadow for instance activates our blind spot when see someone and form an opinion without actually knowing them: “I don’t like that guy over there; I need to get to know him better.” What he is talking about is this blind spot that sets up a pattern of response to an individual that will color the way they think about them which will grow until it is dispelled because it is based on a false impression or assumption that is not accurate Think about how dislike can turn into distrust and then grow into something even worse like despise and then possibly even hatred. The point being that we all have this human tendency to form impressions about things based upon “projection” that may or may not be accurate because of this blind spot; and emotions as a bridge are directly related to the way we interact with people and how we think about them and this is especially evident in what informs our dream life.

Now that’s one example of emotion and it’s affect on dreams. But what if I have deep “feelings” about something in my dreams? Feelings are directly tied to an emotional interpretation of something; and feelings can have all kinds of expressions concerning our emotional life; (especially in dreams as a window into the personal unconscious); which our dreams are showing us all the time; (except we don’t know how to read them or what they may be trying to communicate). Symbols and images and feelings charged with emotion are a language sending us a signal a dialogue is taking place in the unconscious we should be paying attention to because there is something going on that may need addressing we don’t realize or are not looking at. “But”; not all emotions or feelings have negative signals and may be quite the opposite expressing warmth or happiness or any number of other human connections to something that is being expressed in our dreams; (and they may be playing out in a sequence we don’t realize). And then there is the distinct possibility these dreams may not express what we think they do; which may or may not be related to this Blind Spot. Sometimes dreams mean nothing or have some obscure connection to something that has no real message (or) may seem inconsequential but are exposing something without us realizing there is a problem we can’t see without emotion involved in it’s expression. Also a review of recorded dreams from time to time can reveal a pattern that is taking place we don’t realize; “or” we have misinterpreted how we have originally perceived their meaning.

Now I am not an analyst; and Stephen or Shaaheda may have their own thoughts on my interpretations of this subject of which sharing them is the goal of this thread. We are all a “work-in-progress” as the saying goes; and we can all benefit. One other thing worth thinking about is “emotion” as a separate subject might be something to consider as this topic concerning “dreams” evolves and may wind up being a bit confining as we go along; but I don’t feel qualified enough to make that distinction concerning this particular thread; and Stephen as moderator would be a better judge on that. For now it seems fine since we are using emotion as a “bridge” to  inform or illustrate this idea of an inter-connection of emotion to how we interpret our dreams. But that’s the way I see this so I’ll leave it up to everyone else to decide if this rings true for them or not.

Again; thank you very much for setting this up as a separate topic Stephen.