Get Dreams: Gods Forgotten Language Originated By John A. Sanford Formatted As Paperback
was an excellent book for understanding why we should pay attention to our dreams, Here's a line that sums things up pretty well:
"We are not only conscious we are also unconscious.
Unconscious psychic reality is as real and substantial as is our conscious life, It expresses its reality in a hundred ways, one of which is the dream, "
Sanford does a great job laying out a biblical precedent for paying attention to our dreams.
He analyzes dreams in a Jungian manner, which is to say, to discover more about what's going on within ourselves on a subconscious level.
The goal is to become more aware of ourselves and become a more fully integrated person.
We need to move beyond our 'ego', that which we would like to see about ourselves and reveal to others, and discover who we really are, good and bad, that we might foster a healthier 'becoming'.
I didn't care for the psychological basis of his theory, I did agree that dream interpretation must be done based on the dreamer's relationship to the people, places, and things.
Water doesn't ALWAYS represent the same thing to all people, A great introduction into the ideas of Carl Jung along with a review of the biblical characters that described dream experiences.
It could be suggested that modern day Christians have overlooked or forgot the power of dreams This is a good little introduction to dream work if youre new to it and particularly if you are interested in looking at it from a spiritual and particularly Christian perspective.
Psychology meets Religion meeting Spirituality, im pretty sure this is somewhat heretical but goddamn does it scratch my itch of unorthodox orthodoxy Sanford was an Episcopalian priest and a Jungian analyst.
This was the first Jungian book I read way back in the's, I just reread it and it held up very well, If you are a Christian or former Christian and are interested in dreams, I highly recommend this book.
He explains everything very clearly and you don't need a background in Jungian psychology,
A couple of quotes:
"It is high time the churches talked less about conscious commitment to ideals and creeds, and more about what to do with that living reality, our shadow.
And it would be good if we clergy spent less time as ivorytower theologians and more as doctors of the soul.
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"We can say as a general rule that the people who appear in our dreams represent aspects or fragments of our own personality, and the reason that so many people appear in a course of dreams is to be found in the complexity of human nature.
We are not the simple, uncomplicated people we would like to suppose, Each one of us contains the capacity or potential for every emotion or tendency found in the human race.
We are saints and sinners, prophets and criminals, feminine and masculine all rolled into one, " I read this book inand recorded the following in my journal:
Animus: the man in a woman's dreams.
He represent the woman's own neglected masculine qualities, He acts as spokesman for some of her unconscious attitudes and is the woman's lost spirit.
The more a woman wishes to become an individual and not just Eve, the mother of the race, the more she must recognize and develop her animus.
The Shadow in our dreams if our evil or inferior side,
Another primer book for me in considering the nonmaterial world, I had a really hard time getting through this one, I think mostly because I just couldn't buy into the authors theory, My best friend recommended this book, always been fascinated by my surreal dreams, Sanford's theory on dreams is very spiritual and easy to follow in this book, I would suggest reading this book to anyone wanting deeper understanding of dreams, Dreams have always been a mystery to me, This little book makes a valiant effort to explain, examine and expand our/my understanding of this ongoing activity of human life.
While I certainly respect what Father Sanford has provided with DREAMS, I find dreams still a source of mystery.
The linkage of dreams with God activity is a challenge, yet certainly an Avenue of exploration and wonder.
Further fleshed out the ideas of Jung in relation to dreams and the unconscious and achieving a sense of wholeness in the mind.
This is an excellent book for understanding how our dreams may be telling us something with which we are having significant difficulty.
This book is all about learning to understand the dreams of others and thusly, using a great deal of Jungian interpretation, understand how to solve our own issues.
Read this for a dream work group, Dense material to read through, dry in parts, but provided good insight into the interpretation of dreams.
First published twenty years ago, this revised edition of John Sanford's classic exploration of the psychological and spiritual significance of dreams draws on the work of C.
G. Jung to show how dreams can help us find healing and wholeness and reconnect us to a living spiritual world.
Featuring a new preface by the author and using case histories from his own experience as a counselor, Dreams traces the role of dreams in the Bible, analyzing their nature and examining how Christians, through fear and the constraints of dogma, have come to reject the visions through which God speaks to humanity, making dreams in Sanford's words "God's forgotten language.
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