Carl R. Green - The Mysterious Secrets of Dreams

What Do Your Dreams Mean?

Did you ever have a dream about winning the lottery? Have you ever had a nightmare with a giant monster chasing you? Believe it or not, you actually dream every night. Dreams are an essential part of our sleep process. We can learn a lot about our daily lives from them. So why do we dream, and what do they mean? Authors Carl R. Green and William R. Sanford unlock the secrets of dreams and show you how to explore your own dream theater every night.

About the Author

Carl R. Green and William R. Sanford are the authors of more than one hundred books for young people. They bring over sixty years of teaching experience to the many projects they have created.

Thanks to science, many of natures great mysteries have been solved. Do you want to know more about earthquakes or earthworms? Theres probably an expert somewhere who can answer most of your questions. But wouldnt this be a boring world if we knew all there is to know? Perhaps thats why people want to believe that the mind does possess mysterious powers.

In this series, youll learn about these mysteries of the unknown:

• The Mystery of Fortune-Telling
• Astonishing Mind Powers
• The Mysterious Secrets of Dreams
• The Mysterious Secrets of Dreams
• Discovering Past Lives
• Sensing the Unknown

This book will introduce you to the role dreams can play in your life. Do these nightly mini-dramas have something useful to tell you? Do they foretell the future? Are they a channel for ESP? Once you read about the role dreams play in your life, you can make up your own mind. Perhaps you, too, will decide to become an expert at capturing and analyzing your dreamsa dreamcatcher.

Do you admire the authors who write great stories? Believe it or not, you are a great writer, too. Night after night, you make up wonderful tales of mystery and adventure. Sometimes those stories are still fresh and alive when you wake up. Oh, you groan, It was only a dream!

Ten-year-old Perry is the baby of a large family. Now that hes growing up, he wants to play a bigger role in family affairs. In his dreams, if not in real life, he can have his wish. Here is a dream that lets Perry feel important:

Thanks to his dream, Perry feels like a big shot. But many dreams are filled with more puzzling clues. Have you dreamed of soaring high in the sky? Flying dreams often leave you feeling on top of the world. Then comes the night when a sharp-fanged monster pursues you. You wake up with your heart pounding, a scream tearing at your throat. At times like that you might wish you did not dream at all. But research shows that dreams are as much a part of your life as breathing.

Each of us dreamsevery night. That is true even though you wake up and say, I did not dream last night. A more truthful statement would be, I cant remember my dreams from last night. In eight hours of sleep, you may spend up to two hours dreaming. Most dreams are short, but a few screen as feature-length dramas. Dream events take about the same time to happen as they would in real life. Do you dream in color? Most people dobut only about one-third of the time.

Perry is the youngest child in his large family, but he does not want to be treated like a baby. That wish comes true in shooting gallery dreams that make him feel like a big shot.

Dream researchers have collected thousands of dreams. They find that like films, dreams can cut quickly from scene to scene. Many focus on daily events, like walking to the store. Fears and worries take up more dreamtime than do happy feelings. If you remember a dream, it most likely occurred toward morning. That is when your dreams become more exciting. Best of all, dreams do not come to waste your time.

Dream researchers believe that like films, dreams cut quickly from scene to scene. Dreams also make for popular topics in movies. The 2010 movie Inception, starring Leonardo DiCaprio (left), is based on a story about technology that lets the user invade another persons dreams.

Beth Zimmermans dream helped her resolve some bitter feelings. Several years after her father died, she dreamed about him. In the dream, her father turned his back on her. He seemed amused that she was trying to talk to him. At that point, Beth lost all control. The rage she had bottled up since his death poured out. Then she felt frozen with fear. What would he do or say? To her great relief, he looked at her and smiled. The smile warmed her heart and told her that he forgave her.

When she awoke, Beth thought about her dream. In life, she had not been able to tell her father how she felt. Now, thanks to the dream, she sensed that he truly had loved her. For the first time since his death, she felt at peace.

Like Perry and Beth, your private dream theater is open. And the shows change nightly!

Researchers who study the mind have defined a number of key terms that refer to the role dreams play in our lives.

dreamA series of thoughts, feelings, and images created by the mind during sleep. Many dream scenes are taken from data stored in the unconscious mind.

dream analysisThe process of finding meaning in your dreams. No matter how weird a dream may seem, analysis may help you find its hidden meaning.

dream symbolA dream image that often hides its true meaning. For example, the black-and-white monster that chases someone in a dream is a symbol. It might stand for the fear that a student musician feels as the yearly piano recital draws near.

latent contentThe hidden meaning of a dream. For example, someone may dream that his bike is falling apartbut he does not own a bike! As he studies the dream, he senses that it may relate to a friendship that has been going through some rocky times.

manifest contentDream messages that can be taken at face value. For example, someone may dream that she turned in a blank test paper to her math teacher. The dream is warning her that she has not studied for Fridays test.

rapid eye movement (REM) sleepAlso known as Stage 1 sleep, this is the time when a sleepers eyes move beneath closed lids. Brainwave tracings confirm that the sleeper is dreaming at this time.

unconscious mindThe storehouse of feelings, thoughts, and memories that the mind keeps hidden. Dreams provide us with one of our few routes into the secret world of the unconscious.