DREAMS..... . Please make a comment.

For the benefit of mental stability and even physiological health, the unconscious and the conscious must be integrally connected and thus move on parallel lines. If they are split apart or "dissociated," psychological disturbance follows. In this respect, DREAM symbols are the essential message carriers from the instinctive to the rational parts of the human mind, and their interpretation enriches the poverty of consciousness so that it learns to understand again the forgotten language of the instincts.

We observed that the tribesmen in a location inside East Africa denied that they had any DREAMS. But indirect talks with them we soon found out that they had dreams just like everyone else, but that they did not observe them since in their collective conscious minds they convinced themselves that their dreams had no purpose and then no meaning. "Dreams of ordinary men mean nothing when thereis no purpose," they said to us. They thought that the only DREAMS that mattered to the tribesmen were those of chiefs and medicine men, which concerned to the welfare of the tribe. They claimed that the DREAMS  of those important men of the tribe had ceased to bring meaningful messages from the time that the British came to their country. The district commissioner, that is the British official in charge of them, had taken over the position and function of the "GREAT DREAMS" that had guided the tribe's behavior.

The book of ECCLESIASTES contains thoughts of the "Philosopher." A man, like those in this African tribe, who reflected deeply on how short and contradictory human life is, with its mysterious injustices and frustrations, and concluded that  "the short and contradictory human life is useless." He couldn't understand the WAYS of GOD, who controls human destiny. He advised people to work hard in the understanding, knowledge and wisdom of this short and contradictory period of time, and to enjoy the gifts of GOD as much and as long as they could.

When these tribesmen did have dreams, the meaningless that they attributed to them were like the modern man who thinks that a DREAM has no significance for him simply because he does not understand it in the parameters of the conscious mind. But even a city man can sometimes observe that a DREAM (which he may not even remember) can alter his mood for better or worse. The dream has been "comprehended," but only on the occasion when a dream is particularly impressive or repeats itself.

It is plain foolishness to believe in ready-made systematic guides to dream interpretation,  as if one could simply buy a reference book and look up a particular symbol. No DREAM symbol can be separated from the individual who DREAMS it, and there is no definite or straightforward interpretation of any DREAM.