Dreams (As I See Them)

By Olga Alicia Rippo

Dreaming, according to my personal and convincing analysis, is the reviewing of the previous days activities and committing them to memory.

Each dream episode is symbolized by what we already have stored in our memory banks. Emotions or events will evoke a symbol that will appear in the dream along with other symbols already encoded to create a story line that seems strange, funny, or even slightly confused. The massive numbers of memories we have would be impossible to categorize separately. It is much more efficient to draw out these encoded symbols from our memory and store yesterdays memorable happenings in the same code. If we do not have a symbolic representation for something or someone, then that person, item, or activity will represent itself and create a new code. What compounds the mystery of symbolism is that each individual has established his own very personal ones throughout his own life experiences. Thus, no one is truly able to decipher anothers dream.

A dream can even be the result of a radio or TV story heard during sleep and absorbed into the dream. The dialogue may be repeated quite accurately but the dreamer creates his own picture images. I have experienced this quite often, waking to ask, Why did she or he say this or that? and compare the reality to my dream scenes. (Perhaps we should give credence to the possibility that we might learn during sleep while a recorded voice recites the lesson repeatedly.) On the other hand, watching a TV program that impresses or evokes certain emotions can trigger a dream later with our own symbols to create our own episode.

A sound can produce a quick little dream. Instantaneously - between a click before an alarm rings and the ring itself can cause a flash of a dream according to what that sound conjured up from our memory bank. If a sound does not wake us, we will weave it into our dream story in marvelous ways. Just a touch that probably would be unexplainable unless one woke up to the ongoing sound and recognize it as having been in our dream.

Recurring dreams, I am convinced, represent a certain emotion or feeling that we experienced somewhere back in time and that scene is brought forward whenever it is needed to depict that emotion. The scene is representative of a prior emotional experience and comes forth as the same scene in our dream each time that same emotion is reflected from the previous day. Thus the recurrence.

Our life experiences being different, so would our storage areas be comprised of different methods of remembering. The swimming scenes that recur occasionally in my dreams are always very pleasing to me. Even though I do not swim, simply watching swimmers evokes a relaxing, soothing sensation within me. Im sure the previous day had pleasurable times that were being reflected. On the other hand, when I dream of flooding or turbulent water, a negative experience in the previous day is revived in that same nights dream as an unpleasant water scene. Actually, the last swimming episode in my life was a near disaster for me and perhaps that particular occasion was the one that influences the negative evocation of water. Yet, strangely enough, watching people swim is a pleasure to me, hence the positive sensation. Other emotions anxiety, sadness, fear, anger, joy, etc., are represented in a symbolic manner that is unique to us alone, as is the original encoded episode.

We require codes or symbols as mental shorthand to store in a compact unit the massive number of thoughts, activities and emotions we experience during a lifetime. The recurrence of certain episodes or metaphors eliminates the necessity to store another code. I believe it is erroneous to infer mystical or psychological interpretations. Dreams are a natural function of the marvelous composition of the human body such as blinking, swallowing, smiling, etc. There has not been a single dream that I have been unable to reconcile with the activities

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 31, 2008
• ISBN: 9781465326515

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Copyright © 2001, 2008 by Olga Alicia Rippo.

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Contents

FOREWORD

DREAMS (As I see them)

FOREWORD

This journal is written neither as a scientific nor literary treatise. My aim in sharing my personal theory on dreams is to enable others to understand and enjoy their own complex revelations.

DREAMS (As I see them)

Dreaming, according to my personal and convincing analysis, is the reviewing of the previous day’s activities and committing them to memory.

Each dream episode is symbolized by what we already have stored in our memory banks. Emotions or events will evoke a symbol that will appear in the dream along with other symbols already encoded to create a story line that seems strange, funny, or even slightly confused. The massive numbers of memories we have would be impossible to catagorize separately. It is much more efficient to draw out these encoded symbols from our memory and store yesterday’s memorable happenings in the same code. If we do not have a symbolic representation for something or someone, then that person, item, or activity will represent itself and create a new code. What compounds the mystery of symbolism is that each individual has established his own very personal ones throughout his own life experiences. Thus, no one is truly able to decipher another’s dream.

A dream can even be the result of a radio or TV story heard during sleep and absorbed into the dream. The dialogue may be repeated quite accurately but the dreamer creates his own picture images. I have experienced this quite often, waking to ask, Why did she or he say this or that? and compare the reality to my dream scenes. (Perhaps we should give credence to the possibility that we might learn during sleep while a recorded voice recites the lesson repeatedly.) On the other hand, watching a TV program that impresses or evokes certain emotions can trigger a dream later with our own symbols to create our own episode.

A sound can produce a quick little dream. Instantaneously—between a click before an alarm rings and the ring itself can cause a flash of a dream according to what that sound conjured up from our memory bank. If a sound does not wake us, we will weave it into our dream story in marvelous ways. Just a touch that probably would be unexplainable unless one woke up to the ongoing sound and recognize it as having been in our dream.

Recurring dreams, I am convinced, represent a certain emotion or feeling that we experienced somewhere back in time and that scene is brought forward whenever it is needed to depict that emotion. The scene is representative of a prior emotional experience and comes forth as the same scene in our dream each time that same emotion is reflected from the previous day. Thus the recurrence. For instance, whenever I’ve been asked what the most embarrassing moment of my life has been, I never hesitate to relate the following episode that has always been most traumatic to me.

One day, when I was in my late teens, my sister’s new boyfriend dropped by at our house. Never having met him, and since I had my hair curled in rags, I would have presented a ridiculous sight, so when he arrived I discreetly ducked into our mother’s bedroom and just sat patiently in a chair, waiting for him to leave. The door of our mother’s room was directly beside the exit door, and as he was leaving, he mistook one door for the other. He opened the door to the bedroom where I sat, rags and all, to my great horror. There he stood, stared at me for a moment that seemed like an eternity, apologized and quickly closed the door. I just froze, wanting to die, knowing I could never face him again, though realizing he was my sister’s friend and would be calling on her. It was inevitable that I would have to see him again and the embarrassment and humiliation I felt was indescribable.

Perhaps it is because it happened at a time that I was most sensitive to such an occasion and it is possible that I’ve been equally embarrassed at other times, but it was of enormous proportions to me then, so I seem to recall it as the most embarrassing moment of my life. Therefore it was embedded in my memory as such. Which follows that it would be conjured up in a dream to depict the same emotion it engendered originally. During my lifetime I have occasionally had a quick dream of being surprised while sitting on a comode by someone opening the door or of people walking by and being exposed to their glances. It is, without exception, always a quick scene in my dream, having no outcome or much reference to the story line. This was the same scenario I presented when I sat with those rags in my hair. I had been humiliated by the rags and sitting where I thought I had privacy. The invasion was the same, hence the representation in my dreams. Embarrassment = bathroom scene. The helpless vulnerability in both cases. I firmly believe that it is simply a reference to having been embarrassed to any degree the previous day in some manner. The memory of the emotion had been triggered and worked into the dream in a very efficient way. Another person’s most embarrassing moment would be different from mine, so very likely his representation would be different, also. One quick scene from the past and the previous day’s embarrassment was stored with the original code in my memory bank.

Our life experiences being different, so would our storage areas be comprised of different methods of remembering. The swimming scenes that recur occasionally in my dreams are always very pleasing to me. Even though I do not swim, simply watching swimmers evokes a relaxing, soothing sensation within me. I’m sure the previous day had pleasurable times that were being reflected. On the other hand, when I dream of flooding or turbulent water, a negative experience in the previous day is revived in that same night’s dream as an unpleasant water scene. Actually, the last swimming episode in my life was a near disaster for me and perhaps that particular occasion was the one that influences the negative evocation of water. Yet, strangely enough, watching people swim is a pleasure to me, hence the positive sensation. Other emotions—anxiety, sadness, fear, anger, joy, etc., are represented in a symbolic manner that is unique to us alone, as is the original encoded episode.

Dreams are not meant for entertainment. Dreams are a function of our bodies that is as essential to us as walking, seeing, speaking, etc., and the means of recording in code to commit to memory the events of the previous day.

The following dreams which I relate from my personal experience, and my analysis of them, may provide insight to my conviction that only we can interpret our own dreams.

My first realization that the previous day’s activities unfold in that same night’s dream base occurred in the 1970’s.

DREAM… . D.C. apprehended a burglar in our garden. I felt a strong sense of