Jennifer Holloway
Last night I had a dream: sitting in a grassy field, I was listening to the radio. All of a sudden I heard the voice of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement – apparently he was speaking to me. After looking around I realized I was not the only one listening to him – my husband and a lot of church members were there too, all amazed and fascinated by Joseph Smith’s preaching the gospel.
It was a beautiful day and I could feel tender warmth of the sunshine. There was also something very nice and pleasant about the atmosphere and spirit – everyone was emotional about that preaching, people were laughing and crying.I could not see Joseph Smith there – I could just hear his voice; however, the message I got from him in the dream was so real and clear to me. Although I do not remember everything he said, but I do remember the phrase that touched me to the fullest: ‘Keep the commandments and your life will be spared’. My heart was filled with the spirit and I just kept listening to him until I woke up. I had the feeling that I was still in my dream, but now all that I could see was my pillow, wet with tears. Apparently, having a dream about God’s prophet made me feel so blessed and so good that I even cried with joy. I tried going back to sleep so that I could finish seeing that wonderful dream, but I could not – the only thing about this dream I could make last was that warm feeling inside.
According to Freud’s dream analysis, my dream can be interpreted as a wishful fulfillment. Its manifest content (listening to the prophet’s voice) was only a small ‘visible’ part of its latent content – me trying to internally struggle with everyday issues with the help of my faith. Freud also characterized dreams in a retrospective aspect, meaning that my dream was a result of some events I encountered before going to bed and actually having this dream.
Taking into consideration Carl Jung’s theory of dream analysis, more attention should be paid to the symbols in this dream as well as its prospective aspect (unlike Freud’s retrospective aspect). Being among people who believe in God not only reflects my aspiration for the future where more people would be religious (prospective aspect of the dream), but also represents humanity’s mythological background that presupposes believing in God/gods. Besides, this dream could be interpreted as a direct manifestation of my unconsciousness and, according to Jung, an attempt to keep the balance in my psyche – unconsciously I realize that there might be some situations in my life where I could potentially lose my faith and this dream had to recover it in my mind. Jung believed that dream can be a window to unconsciousness – thus, its purpose was to offer me a solution to problems I could be facing in my waking life. No wonder there was also my husband in my dream, because I consider him to be the person who would be beside me all my life.
I prefer Carl Jung’s analysis to Freud’s dream analysis – I strongly believe that dreams are not only about the past, but more probably – about the future. Besides, Jung insisted on getting back to the original dream more often so that the analysis could be more objective, unlike Sigmund Freud who believed that the dream analysis had to be based on free associations rather than facts from the dream itself.
