RHET 201 Portfolio

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Portfolio RHET 201

Dream Research Paper

Dr. Michael Gibson

Fall ‘11

Sherine Wassef - 900100195

Portfolio RHET 201 Fall ‘11

ContentsAmerican University In Cairo, Residents December 17, 2011 Professor Michael Gibson Department of English Rhetoric 201 American University in Cairo.........................................3

Freewriting: Hopes and Fears.........................................................................................................4

Research Topics..............................................................................................................................5

Critical Analysis Outline..................................................................................................................7

My Dream Interpreter – Tony Crisp............................................................................................7

Information.............................................................................................................................7

Interpretation.........................................................................................................................7

Evaluation...............................................................................................................................7

The Purpose of Dreams – G. William Domhoff...........................................................................7

Correlation with “Dream Interpreter” underline one another...........................................7

The controversy from the “Dream Interpreter”......................................................................7

Why do we dream – Kenda Cherry.............................................................................................8

Theories of Dreams.................................................................................................................8

Dreams Characteristics - Kenda Cherry.......................................................................................8

All the stages of Dreams the typical traits and characteristics they have...............................8

Critical Analysis Ideas......................................................................................................................8

Your Dream Interpreter:.............................................................................................................8

Introduction....................................................................................................................................9

Critical Analysis.............................................................................................................................10

Questionnaire about Dreams.......................................................................................................15

First Draft: Results of Research Paper...........................................................................................18

Final Draft: Results of Research Paper..........................................................................................32

Conclusion....................................................................................................................................46

Annotated Bibliography................................................................................................................47

2


American University In Cairo, ResidentsDecember 17, 2011Professor Michael GibsonDepartment of English Rhetoric 201American University in Cairo.Dear Dr. Michael Gibson,

I’m writing this cover letter to inform you about how I spent my time throughout the semester preparing for my essay, and the issues I encountered during this process.

During the first week, I started the selection process by reviewing many different topics I was interested in. I, then, narrowed my options and finally picked up the subject of my essay. Consequently, I wrote bullet points of the ideas I had for what I’d like my analysis, objectiveness, research question, research process and conclusion to include.

In the second week, I began to start the Critical Analysis; gathering ideas about the concept and both the positives and negatives of my selected subject. With time the Critical Analysis began to take shape. In the beginning I had different shattered Ideas, and I had to connect them together. After writing all the ideas I had in mind, I began restructuring the ideas in the right order with a logical sequence. After the conference I had with you, it helped me edit the Critical Analysis, and thus enhance it. I completed it and started to have it more clearly structured and thus more linked together; a concrete shape of how I wanted it to be.

By the end of the second week, I revised the essay, concerning structure, Grammar, language etc. I left the paper to simmer for a day, and afterwards reread it all carefully again. After I detected new faults, I adjusted them and finally handed over my final draft.

Afterwards, I began starting my primary research, in which I surveyed 50 people from different sexes and ages. Through my primary research I was able to either confirm or decline the hypothesis based in my secondary research.

Hence, I constructed a video personally, in which I put all the interesting results I had gathered through an infotainment (entertainment + information). I also included an excerpt from a movie to make it more attractive.

I hope this letter gave you an impression about the writing process regarding my Research Paper.

Thank you.

3


Sincerely, Sherine Wassef

Freewriting: Hopes and Fears

Hopes and fears, two words contrasting each other. People seize to achieve one

and avoid the other. I think we both know which is which, I guess...

I have many hopes, I always had hopes. Hope is something I tend not to lose throughout

life. Let's start from small to bigger:

My hope for this semester for instance, is to maintain a GPA of 3.5 of higher. I managed

to achieve it last year with a total of 3.9, yet it did take a lot of effort, hard work and

sleepless nights. My hope is to achieve all I ever wanted to achieve, to keep crossing out

goals out of the endless bucket list of mine.

Yet somewhere along the way sometimes the other term used here, comes along: Fear.

Fear was never a dear friend of mine, fear and I never came to be understanding, yet still

it always crossed my way every now and then, wiping away the little hope I would have

left.

I love writing; as a matter of fact I am enjoying writing this at this very moment. I

have written approximately 100 poems, also containing the subjects Hopes and Fears.

4


I hope one day when I finish College, I run my own business, have my own career and

also be actually good at it. If I come to think about goals and dreams, my mind and

imagination never seize to stop creating and creating on and on. This creation actually

makes me have a reason to live, makes me want to always be better at whatever it is I am

doing.

I never want to lose track, but I also know that losing track is part of the track itself.

And I am not talking merely about goals of career or jobs, or just education wise or

academically, but also amongst family, friends, loved ones, how I'd wish my life to be, or

at least the closest to the reality I always wished for :)

Research TopicsUpon Assignment I am supposed list three research topics I am interested in, which I will

work on throughout this semester.

I have chosen the following topics:

1- Dreams

Dreams have always been an interesting topic for me, and there are many studies

that have been conducted about it and its ramification. I would greatly enjoy

researching about it while focusing on different aspects within this topic.

2- Writing

Writing has always been a part of my life, as I always loved writing. This subject

can be broadened within many contexts, such as personal experiences, insights, its

effects on me, writing samples and much more.

5


3- Buddhism

The focus in the Middle East has always been mostly about Abrahamic religion

(Christianity/ Islam / Judaism). This led me on wanting to research about a

different religion, namely Buddhism, which I find highly appealing. Through my

research I wish to gain more perspectives about it and expand my views regarding

the Asiatic beliefs.

6


Critical Analysis Outline

My Dream Interpreter – Tony Crisp

Information

Introducing principles of dreams and explains it thoroughly

Where do Dreams come from

Mapping your dream world

Dream healing / resolving conflicts and wounds

Sleeping on a problem

Dealing with nightmares

Understanding and controlling recurring dreams

Understand dreams of family/love, romance/school dreams/work dreams

Looking into the future

Interpretation

Controversy no

Explain their correlations and interrelations with one another

Evaluation

Overall value and state why

Strengths and weaknesses

Including quotes and examination of text

Evaluate the text (truth/validity/ excellence/ goodness)

Gained extra information? Non-bias / be open for new perspectives

The Purpose of Dreams – G. William Domhoff

Correlation with “Dream Interpreter” underline one another

Meaning of Dreams/ Uses

The controversy from the “Dream Interpreter”

7


Forgetting Dreams

Why do we dream – Kenda Cherry

Theories of Dreams

Its emphasis on presenting all the theories mentioned and combining the similarities between them and these of Tony Crisp

Dreams Characteristics - Kenda Cherry

All the stages of Dreams the typical traits and characteristics they have

How they reflect upon Tony Crisp’s characteristics and maybe add-on new ones or edit different ones

Critical Analysis Ideas

Your Dream Interpreter: Where do Dreams come from? intro for CA

o All Species dream beyond language and age (babies in womb)o Action in dream? Climbing running away? Etc.o Feelings main element of a dream (all the rest is evolved around feelings)o Active -> the driving force / passive -> not being main character, people

dominating you can reflect your behavior in daily lifeo Fear in dreams

To imagine is to create Conclusiono Wake imagines creating a satisfactory conclusion of a nightmare.

Mapping your Dream Worldo Many dream objects/ themes/emotions are universal and common – unique ->

how you relate to your dream Dream Healing: Resolving conflicts and wounds

o Physiological resolving of conflicts -> shivers when cold, sweats when hot balance

o Likewise, psychologically -> o Conscious & unconscious complementaryo Understanding the different actions of dreaming and waking -> make the most

of our problem-solving and healing functions. Sleeping on a Problem

8


o Have a problem, cannot solve – sleep – dream of a solution – works creative impulse suppressed in real life, break free in dreams

Dealing with nightmares o Healing your fears and traumas

Understanding and controlling recurring dreamso Don’t happen unless something not dealt with focuses on it for you to give it

attention -> take care bring to mind things we need to be aware of

IntroductionMarsha Normal once said that “Dreams are illustrations…from the book your soul

is writing about you”. Like Marsha Normal, many scientists and scholars have found

purpose in dreams. To verify this stance, I have decided to conduct my research about

dreams to every person, who might wonder one day about the ramifications of his/her

nocturnal journey every night. Tony Crisp, Sigmund Freud, Kenda Cherry and Bruce

Lipton have all made scientific discoveries which will enlighten you into the world of

unconsciousness in this paper. Conversely, I have moreover represented a scholar that

does not suppose that dreams have a meaning. Do dreams have a purpose? Fifty-three

percent of the people in this society believe there are. I have not offered a direct answer

to that question, however, I did impart the reports I researched, both primary and

secondary. The remedy to that question is up to you in the end.

9


Critical Analysis

28th October 2011

Critical Analysis: Dreams

“Dreams probably have no purpose!”

This quote comes from an article by G. William Domhoff entitled “The “Purpose” of

Dreams”. It defies the famous psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, from his book “The

Interpretation Of Dreams”, by stating that we regularly dream and dreams do not occur

because of desires as Freud suggests, but are explained by the discovery of REM (Rapid

Eye Movement) in 1953 (Domhoff).

Domhoff also declines the idea of dreams being a solving-tool as he finds little

evidence that supports this premise. A lot of dreams occur in the NREM (Non Rapid Eye

Movement) sleep, which yet again challenge theories that assert that dreams occur only

during REM sleep. Another interesting insight he imposes is how come we barely

remember most of our dreams? A study by Calvin Hall attests that the personality of

10


people who remember their dreams is not influenced by whether or not they remember

their dreams.

Kenda Cherry, the author of the article “Why Do We Dream” affirms that dreams,

like computers, serve as a form of “clean-up” for the mind to start a new and refreshing

day when one awakes. Through processing of information while asleep, the unconscious

mind sometimes attains resolution that are at times unreachable in the consciousness of

daily life. However, Domhoff, differs strongly with this point of view, as he argues that a

very small amount of our daily dreams affect our daily lives. Since dreams do not “clean-

up” our lives, according to Domhoff, they do not tackle daily preoccupations in our lives.

Tony Crisp on the other hand, the author of the book “The Dream Interpreter” deems that

nightmares occur in order for us to face our fears. Moreover, Crisp verbalizes the concept

of recurring dreams by saying “We may know in the back of our mind that there is a

danger we are not attending to-say, a loose floorboard- and recurring dreams are

sometimes the voice urging us to take care” (25)

Domhoff is a voice in the minority and is opposed by many different scholars who

believe that dreams do have meaning, purpose and function. Kenda Cherry, being an

example, provides empirical and other evidence regarding dreams. The empirical

evidence suggests that dreams are a “subjective interpretation of signals” of the limbic

system created through the brain. Nowhere in the article does Kenda Cherry, however,

consider the reverse, namely that dreams may or could trigger signals in the brain that

would activate the limbic system. Another theory introduced by her suggests that external

stimuli trigger and/or shape dreams, such as the sound of the radio merging into the

11


substance of the dream. Here again, Kenda Cherry does not mention internal bodily

stimuli being incorporated in a dream. For instance, the urge to go to the bathroom ends

up being acted out through a dream in vivid detail, sometimes much to the

embarrassment of the dreamer!

Referring to biological or physiological happening occurring during a dream state,

Tony Crisp, the author of the book “The Dream Interpreter” also avers that dreams have

connotation and vital significance and introduces the concept of dream paralysis through

which our brain sends signals, commanding our muscles to ‘freeze’ and no longer

respond to our attempts to move. The dream paralysis occurs so that dreamers do not act

out their dreams and for instance run around or talk while in a dream state. Nevertheless,

on rare occasions, when the body is exhausted, the mind does not have time to send out

signals and that is when so called dream-walking takes place.

Besides physical or biological stimuli, Kenda Cherry and Tony Crisp also suggest

psychological factors shaping dreams. Cherry explains that dreams can serve as

psychotherapy for the dreamer, as he/she can build correlations between different ideas

and thoughts in a safe setting. This idea was not fully developed nor elaborated on in her

article, and personally I cannot find examples to justify this statement. Furthermore, a

dreamer can feel unsafe while sleeping and unsettling images or situations or words can

recur causing stress rather than ‘psychotherapy’. No solution is presented through such as

dream, leaving the dreamer quite distressed in the face of repeated such dreams.

12


In the article “Dream Characteristics” Cherry also mentions that dreams can be a

hodge-podge of unrelated events that at times cannot be interpreted by the dreamer. In the

same article she argues that 95% of the content of dream is forgotten by the time the

dreamer awakes. Surprisingly, this percentage is quite interesting, as it is the exact

number mentioned in Bruce Lipton’s book “Spontaneous Evolution”, where he explains

that human beings only utilize 5% of the brain, and 95% are subconscious happenings.

The figure ‘95%’ mentioned by both authors (Cherry and Lipton), increases the

possibility of a correlation between the fact that we forget our dreams because we are

unconscious of them. An interesting thought indeed!

Do dreams have a purpose?! A proof from my own perspective is that while

writing this Critical Analysis I literally ‘slept on it’ one night and woke up the next day

with the essay much clearer in my head, and making it much easier to write and present

it in its current format. Probably Einstein and Richard Bach would concur. Bach, the

author of “Jonathan Livingstone Seagull” had a similar experience, as he woke up one

day and completed this book after having a dream that inspired him to finish the

neglected manuscript he had started eight years prior.

As for Einstein’s dream about what has since become the theory of relativity, it has

changed our conception of reality. Dreams changing our reality is a topic worthy for an

essay on its own!

===================================================

13


As the secondary research I have conducted, while working on this paper showed

cosmopolitan views regarding dream interpretation, I have decided to take my research

further by conducting a primary research by investigating people in the realm of my

society about their dream-world, its purpose and ramification.

Work Cited

Crisp, Tony. Your Dream Interpreter: over 1,200 Symbols and Themes Revealed to

Bring Clarity and Insight to Your Life. Pleasantville, NY: Reader's Digest, 2004.

Print.

Domhoff, G. William. "DreamResearch.net: The Purpose of Dreams." UC Santa

Cruz - Information Technology Services - ITS Template. Web. 02 Oct.2011.

<http://www2.ucsc.edu/dreams/Library/purpose.html>.

Cherry, Kendra. "Why Do We Dream - Theories of Why We

Dream." Psychology – Complete Guide to Psychology for Students,

Educators&Enthusiasts.Web.01Oct.2011.<http://psychology.about.com/od/

statesofconsciousness/p/dream-theories.htm>.

Cherry, Kendra. "Dream Characteristics - Characteristics of

Dreams." Psychology - Complete Guide to Psychology for Students, Educators &

Enthusiasts. Web. 01 Oct. 2011.

14


<http://psychology.about.com/od/statesofconsciousness/tp/characteristics-of-

dreams.htm>.

Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. Oxford; New York: Oxford UP, 1999.

Print.

Lipton, Bruce. Spontaneous Evolution. Abridged Edition ed. Sounds True, Incorporated,

2008. Print.

Questionnaire about DreamsName: _____________

Age: ________

Sex: F M

How frequently do you dream? Every night

Every other night

Once a week

Once every two weeks

Never

Do you remember your dreams when you wake up?

Always Frequently Sometimes Never

15


IF YES:

How many dreams do you recall?

Several daily

One daily Weekly monthly

What types of dreams do you mostly dream in general?

Nightmares Joyful dreams

Adventurous Stressful dreams

Other

Do you see a connection between your dreams and real life? Always ` Seldom

Frequently Never

IF Always/Frequently/Seldom Can you give an example? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ IF NeverWhy do you think we dream? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

16


In what color do you dream?

Colors Black & White

Are you sometimes confused between real life and dreams?

Always Frequently Sometimes Very Seldom

Never

Has it ever occurred to you that you slept on a problem, and woke up with its solution after dreaming about it?

Always A lot of times Sometimes Never

Has it ever occurred to you that when you dream and wake up and then get back to sleep, you continue the same dream?

17


YES NO

Has it ever occurred that you dreamt the same dream on different nights?

YES NO

Did you ever keep note of your dreams?

YES NO

Can you link your personality with your type of dreams?

YES NO

Has it ever occurred that you had a nightmare and slept to improve your dream?

YES NO

First Draft: Results of Research Paper

Primary Research

23rd November 2011

Secondary researches have enlightened me with a lot of information to enrich

people about dreams, which I have provided through the Critical Analysis. However,

there were many aspects regarding dreams that were not covered through the secondary

18


research, leading me into wanting to discover them personally through my primary

research.

After conducting a questionnaire and distributing it among 50 people, from

different sexes and ages, I have come to remarkable results regarding dreams.

First of all I would like to show the Questionnaire that I dispersed to 50 random people:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Questionnaire about Dreams

Name: _____________

Age: ________

Sex: F M


Every other night

Once a week


Never



IF YES:


Several daily


19





Other


Frequently Never




20




Never




YES NO


YES NO


YES NO

21



YES NO


YES NO

As studies have shown that we indeed do dream every night approximately 4-7

dreams, people however, don’t necessarily recall their dreams, as Kenda Cherry claimed

that they in fact, most people only recall 5% of their dreams. To try to confirm this piece

of information I have asked people the following question: How frequently do you

dream? Even though scientifically, it is as a matter of fact that we dream every night;

however, people only picked the answer according to the dreams they only recall and

stated the following results:

22


The question that was inquired after, basically asks the test takers if they

remember their dreams upon awakening, which now basically underlines Kenda Cherry’s

statement that 95% of the dream content is forgotten upon waking up, and certainly the

majority of people seldom remember they have dreamed at all as soon as they woke up.

According to the primary research I have conducted the subsequent percentages resulted:

23


After that, for those who either answered Always, Frequently or Seldom, I posted

a follow-up question questioning them about when they do remember their dreams when

they wake up, how many they actually recall which as well illustrates Cherry’s studies, as

it turned out according to my research that the dreamers mainly recall their dreams

weekly mostly, others recalled one every day and the least recalled monthly or several

daily:

A fact that had not been specified in my secondary research is covering what

types of dreams people mostly dream of. Hence, I determined to include it in my primary

research by asking the person taking the Survey what kind of dream they mostly dream

of. I set five different selections for them to decide from, including, Nightmares, Stressful

dreams, Joyful dreams, Adventurous, and Other. Most people chose ‘Other’, a total of

32%, indicating that they mostly dreamt of social happenings (Example: going to

school/University/Work etc.) Captivatingly, the second most common type of dreams is

24


Stressful dreams, reaching 28% of the total Surveyed, resulting in only 4% interval.

Sadly, in the current era we live in, among the respondents to my Survey the least people

dream Joyful dreams; A cumulative of 10%.

The main point in my Critical Analysis is portraying the two major themes of the

paper, which consists of whether scientists and researches believed if dreams have a

purpose or not. Subsequently, I wanted to ask pose the same question to the people in the

realm of my society, that don’t necessarily have vast significant background information

about the topic, but rather would respond from personal experience. To my surprise, 53%

(the majority) of them did believe in a connection between real life and dreams, and thus

that dreams have a purpose:

A follow up question to the results of the previous one, which resulted into

remarkable findings, is why people see a connection between real life and dreams or why

they do not. This question was an essay question for people to wander about the reasons

25


why, in order not to be restricted to a limited choice of answer. Consequently, very

interesting outcomes appeared; most people who believe in a relation between real life

and dreams justified it giving examples of dreams, in which they dream about friends,

events, experiences, problems related to their lives, something they wish would happen in

real life and even solutions for problems. All these examples illustrate the relevance

between dreams and real life and that their nocturne journey is not pointless, nor is it

totally irrelevant to their lives, but on the contrary, has everything to do with their lives.

Nevertheless, those who did not see a correlation between real life and dreams

validated their opinion by clarifying that people only see a connection because they’re

too fragile to see reality as is. They additionally believe that thinking that dreams can be

associated with our everyday life is unrealistic and impractical. However, those were the

voice of the minority, overall a sum of 6%.

26


The Surveyed were astounded to know that there were people who dream in

colors and others in black and white. I realized that there was a big correlation with our

current media, as most of the people above 40 years dream in black and white, while

youth from my generation (between 17-25) dream in colors, as we do not have black and

white television anymore. All Surveyed from all ages and both sexes resulted in the

following results:

27


The line between real life and the dream world can sometimes be blurry, to the

extent that some people could not differ anymore which is which. In order for me to

confirm this fact, I set a question in the Questionnaire asking exactly that. To my

surprise, there were around 6% who couldn’t tell reality from dreams and only 20% never

experienced it. The rest either did often-wise or seldom, but fact is they did:

28


It happens that sometimes when someone sleeps on a problem they wake up,

having dreamt about the solution. It happened to me various times, and I had also read

that it occurred to Einstein and other prominent figures. Thus I wanted to see if it is

common amongst people to find solutions in dreams or not. Obviously, it does not always

happen, otherwise, none of us would have had struggled with anything and problems

would have been nonexistent. Yet, it can happen every now and then and I have also

encountered people who have never experienced it before and needed clarification to that

question in order for them to understand it, as they could not relate to it at all.

29


The questions following this one were more simplified, giving the Surveyed the

option of either choosing ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. The questions consequently were broader and

general.

The first question was asking whether if in a dream one has a dream and wakes up and

then when one sleeps again, one continues the same dream. Startlingly, most of the

people who were asked answered ‘Yes’, confirming that it did occur to them (74%) ,

while fewer denied it entirely (26%).

Another question asked was whether any dreamer ever experienced recurring dreams on

different nights. Most people did not discern that recurring dreams according to Tony

Crisp is the voice urging us to take care about a specific issue. The results of the

Surveyed were as follows:

Crisp also advised dreamers to always keep note of their dreams as soon as they

wake up in order for them be aware with their subconscious and also observe the

30


evolution of their dream world in time. Crisp, though, would have been disappointed if he

had collected these Surveys himself, as most of the people do not take note of their

dreams at all. In fact only 20% do, while the rest, 80%, never keep a diary of their

dreams.

Most people trust that there is a linkage between their personality and the types of

dreams they dream. In truth it is their subconscious displaying these images, hence a

correlation is most probably indeed present. Other people do not see the link between

both and preferred to choose ‘No’ instead. The overall results came as the following:

Finally the last question in the Questionnaire is about whether dreamers have slept

and dreamed about a nightmare and consequently tried to improve it while sleeping

afterwards. Nightmares occur, according to Crisp, in order for us to face our fears. It

presents the fears and problems we have through a dream in order to deal with them and

31


not suppress of hide them away. People however sometimes dream about nightmares that

are in excess of what they can endure and thus sleep again trying to change the facts in

those particular dreams, hoping for a happy end. However, these are a minority (46%),

while the greater part (54%) does not manipulate a dream for a happy end, but just accept

the dream as is. These are more likely to face their fears and cope with their problems

better.

Final Draft: Results of Research PaperPrimary Research

30th November 2011

Secondary researches have enlightened me with a lot of information to enrich

people about dreams, which I have provided through the Critical Analysis. However,

there were many aspects regarding dreams that were not covered through the secondary

research, leading me into wanting to discover them personally through my primary

research.

After conducting a questionnaire and distributing it among 50 people, from

different sexes and ages, I have come to remarkable results regarding dreams.

First of all I would like to show the Questionnaire that I dispersed to 50 random people:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

32


Questionnaire about Dreams

Name: _____________

Age: ________

Sex: F M


Every other night

Once a week


Never



IF YES:


Several daily





Other

33



Frequently Never






Never

34





YES NO


YES NO


YES NO


YES NO


YES NO

35


Studies have shown that we indeed do dream every night approximately 4-7

dreams, however, people don’t necessarily recall their dreams: Kenda Cherry claimed

that people in fact, only recall 5% of their dreams. To try to confirm this piece of

information I have asked people the following question: How frequently do you dream?

Even though scientifically, it is as a matter of fact that we dream every night; however,

people only picked the answer according to the dreams they only recall and stated the

following results:

The question that was inquired after, basically asks the test takers if they

remember their dreams upon awakening, which now basically underlines Kenda Cherry’s

statement that 95% of the dream content is forgotten upon waking up, and certainly the

majority of people seldom remember they have dreamed at all as soon as they woke up.

According to the primary research I have conducted, the subsequent percentages resulted:

36


After that, for those who either answered Always, Frequently or Seldom, I posted

a follow-up question questioning them about when they do remember their dreams when

they wake up, how many they actually recall which as well illustrates Cherry’s studies.

As it turned out according to my research that the dreamers mainly recall their dreams

weekly, others recalled one every day and the least recalled monthly or several daily:

37


A fact that had not been specified in my secondary research is covering what

types of dreams people mostly dream of. Hence, I determined to include it in my primary

research by asking the person taking the Survey what kind of dream they mostly dream

of. I set five different selections for them to decide from, including, Nightmares, Stressful

dreams, Joyful dreams, Adventurous, and Other. Most people chose ‘Other’, a total of

32%, indicating that they mostly dreamt of social happenings (Example: going to

school/University/Work etc.) Captivatingly, the second most common type of dreams is

Stressful dreams, reaching 28% of the total surveyed, resulting in only a 4% interval.

Sadly, in the current era we live in, among the respondents to my Survey the least people

dream Joyful dreams: A cumulative of 10%.

The main point in my Critical Analysis is portraying the two major themes of the

paper, which consists of whether scientists and researches believed if dreams have a

purpose or not. Subsequently, I wanted to pose the same question to the people in the

38


realm of my society, that don’t necessarily have vast significant background information

about the topic, but rather would respond from personal experience. To my surprise, 53%

(the majority) of them did believe in a connection between real life and dreams, and thus

that dreams have a purpose:

A follow up question to the results of the previous one, which resulted in

remarkable findings, is why people see a connection between real life and dreams or why

they do not. This question was an essay question for people to wonder about the reasons

why, in order not to be restricted to a limited choice of answer. Consequently, very

interesting outcomes appeared; most people who believe in a relation between real life

and dreams justified by giving examples of dreams, in which they dream about friends,

events, experiences, problems related to their lives, something they wish would happen in

real life and even solutions for problems. All these examples illustrate the relevance

39


between dreams and real life and that their nocturne journey is not pointless, nor is it

totally irrelevant to their lives, but on the contrary, has everything to do with their lives.

Nevertheless, those who did not see a correlation between real life and dreams

validated their opinion by clarifying that people only see a connection because they’re

too fragile to see reality as is. They additionally believe that thinking that dreams can be

associated with our everyday life is unrealistic and impractical. However, those were the

voice of the minority, overall a sum of 6%.

The surveyed were astounded to know that there were people who dream in colors

and others in black and white. I realized that there was a big correlation with our current

40


media, as most of the people above 40 years dream in black and white, while youth from

my generation (between 17-25) dream in colors, as we do not have black and white

television anymore. All Surveyed from all ages and both sexes resulted in the following

results:

41


The line between real life and the dream world can sometimes be blurry, to the

extent that some people could not differ anymore which is which. In order for me to

confirm this fact, I set a question in the Questionnaire asking exactly that. To my

surprise, there were around 6% who couldn’t tell reality from dreams and only 20% never

experienced it. The rest either did often-wise or seldom, but the fact is they did:

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It happens that sometimes when someone sleeps on a problem they wake up,

having dreamt about the solution. It happened to me various times, and I had also read

that it occurred to Einstein and other prominent figures. Thus I wanted to see if it is

common amongst people to find solutions in dreams or not. Obviously, it does not always

happen, otherwise, none of us would have had struggled with anything and problems

would have been nonexistent. Yet, it can happen every now and then and I have also

encountered people who have never experienced it before and needed clarification on that

question in order for them to understand it, as they could not relate to it at all.

The questions following this one were more simplified, giving the surveyed the

option of either choosing ‘Yes’ or ‘No’. The questions consequently were broader and

general.

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The first question was asking whether if in a dream one has a dream and wakes up and

then when one sleeps again, one continues the same dream. Startlingly, most of the

people who were asked answered ‘Yes’, confirming that it did occur to them (74%) ,

while fewer denied it entirely (26%).

Another question asked was whether any dreamer ever experienced recurring dreams on

different nights. Most people did not discern that recurring dreams according to Tony

Crisp are the voice urging us to take care about a specific issue. An additional possible

analysis explaining why most people do have recurring dreams, can be because people

experience similar events every day, such as going to work, college or school etc. Their

lives subsequently become a routine that is consequently projected onto recurring dreams.

The results of the surveyed were as follows:

Crisp also advised dreamers to always keep note of their dreams as soon as they

wake up in order for them be aware with their subconscious and also observe the

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evolution of their dream world in time. Crisp, though, would have been disappointed if he

had collected these Surveys himself, as most of the people do not take note of their

dreams at all. In fact only 20% do, while the rest, 80%, never keep a diary of their

dreams.

Most people trust that there is a linkage between their personality and the types of

dreams they dream. In truth it is their subconscious displaying these images, hence a

correlation is most probably indeed present. Other people do not see the link between

both and preferred to choose ‘No’ instead. The overall results came as the following:

Finally the last question in the Questionnaire is about whether dreamers have slept

and dreamed about a nightmare and consequently tried to improve it while sleeping

afterwards. Nightmares occur, according to Crisp, in order for us to face our fears. It

presents the fears and problems we have through a dream in order to deal with them and

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not suppress of hide them away. People however sometimes have nightmares that are in

excess of what they can endure and thus sleep again trying to change the facts in that

particular dream, hoping for a happy end. However, these are a minority (46%), while the

greater part (54%) does not manipulate a dream for a happy end, but just accepts the

dream as is. These are more likely to face their fears and cope with their problems better.

ConclusionAfter weighing what scholars, such as Freud, Kenda Cherry and had researched

and conducting my own primary research wanting to somewhat either confirm or decline

the information I had stated according to them, results came as follows: Regarding Kenda

Cherry, who stated that 5% of the dream content is forgotten upon waking, did not

resemble my primary research greatly, more than 39% of the surveyed recalled their

dreams every day, 8% of which recalling even several daily. As we read, most of the

scholars I extracted my information from believed that dreams do have a meaning, while

in the realm of my society, most of the people I asked also believed in a correlation

between real life and dreams, which underlines most of the scholar’s stance. In what

colors people dream was a subject not touched upon from scholars, which however,

interested me; the majority of the surveyed that turned out to dream in colors (86%)

added a new data I had not come across during my secondary research. All in all, the

results of the Questionnaire were very appealing, some emphasizing similar concepts to

my secondary research, others went a little astray. In general most of the people I

encountered did believe in purposeful dreams, as well discovered and thought about

aspects of their nocturnal adventures they had never thought about beforehand. Finally, I

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am presenting you with not alone the society’s position towards this topic, but also the

points of view of the experts, leaving you to decide whatever dreams mean to you. After

all, as Tony Crisp pointed out “Dreams are one of the most extraordinary experiences any

of us can have” Wouldn’t you agree?

Annotated Bibliography

2nd October 2011

Annotated Bibliography

Upon Assignment I am supposed to choose a research topic I am interested in,

which I will work on throughout this semester. Consequently, I have chosen the

following topic: Dreams.

Dreams have always been an interesting topic for me, and there are many studies

that have been conducted about it and its ramification. I would greatly enjoy researching

about it while focusing on different aspects within this topic.

Crisp, Tony. Your Dream Interpreter: over 1,200 Symbols and Themes Revealed to

Bring Clarity and Insight to Your Life. Pleasantville, NY: Reader's

Digest,2004. Print.

My first source for the research is a book called “Your Dream Interpreter”

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By Tony Crisp, a dream therapist and writer for 30 years. This book mainly

contains an introduction about what dreams are, understanding dreams and their

implications, and also contains 1200 Symbols presented through a ‘Dream

Directory’ which is alphabetically ordered. The author strictly believes that

dreams are a powerful tool for understanding our own behavior and even the

people around us. As Crisp verbalizes it by saying “…dreams are the way that our

unconscious, instinctive self process our experiences, revitalizes us and sends us

powerful messages about our lives.”

I personally admire this book and use it as a personal reference to many dreams I

dream. I often use the Dream Directory to know what symbolism the dream I

dreamed has. It’s a very useful source and will help me through my research

greatly, as it contains many facts about dreams we might not be aware of.

Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. Oxford; New York: Oxford UP,

1999. Print.

The second resource I will use in this research is titled with “The Interpretation of

Dreams” by Sigmund Freud. This Article is about a neuroscientific study of how

during sleeping and dreaming our memory is affected, as well as the dream’s

purpose. In this article we learn how dreams are affected during REM-Sleep.

This article seems very interesting, as we also had an in-class discussion about

this topic, so I believe it would be an interesting topic to tackle and scrutinize. I

am looking forward on sharing it with my classmates, as there were many

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questions that arose concerning this topic, and hope their questions would be

answered through this article.

Lipton, Bruce. Spontaneous Evolution. Abridged Edition ed. Sounds True,

Incorporated, 2008. Print

Thirdly, the next source I would like to utilize is from a book called “Spontaneous

Evolution”: The integrative process in dreams by Bruce Lipton. This book mainly

focuses on the logical structure of dreams and the interrelations between different

dreams.

Taking a closer look on this book will definitely help my paper in gaining factual

and logical aspects of this topic, as this book talks about structures and logic. I

personally feel that it will give the paper a solid base.

Domhoff, G. William. "DreamResearch.net: The Purpose of Dreams." UC Santa

Cruz - Information Technology Services - ITS Template. Web. 02 Oct.2011.

<http://www2.ucsc.edu/dreams/Library/purpose.html>.

A fourth source would be an article called “The “Purpose” of Dreams” by G.

William Domhoff. It discusses the purposes of dreams and how he believes

dreams affect our lives, their meaning and uses.

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I personally like the idea of this article, as it uses empirical evidence and theories

about dreams based on research and studies. And I believe it will give us all a new

insight to dreams and how they investigated all the effects of dreams on people of

different surroundings and cultures.

Cherry, Kendra. "Why Do We Dream - Theories of Why We

Dream." Psychology – Complete Guide to Psychology for Students,

Educators&Enthusiasts.Web.01Oct.2011.<http://psychology.about.com/od/

statesofconsciousness/p/dream-theories.htm>.

A fifth, very interesting source, is an article called “Why Do We Dream?” by

Kendra Cherry. This article discusses thoroughly various dream theories and their

meaning within context.

I find this article very appealing as it illustrates a different maneuver regarding the

topic and explains different dream theories and their ramifications.

Cherry, Kendra. "Dream Characteristics - Characteristics of

Dreams." Psychology - Complete Guide to Psychology for Students, Educators

& Enthusiasts. Web. 01 Oct. 2011.

<http://psychology.about.com/od/statesofconsciousness/tp/characteristics-of-

dreams.htm>.

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A sixth and last source I will use for my research is also an article, called

“Characteristic of Dreams” by Kendra Cherry. It contains dream’s different

features and traits that are typical and explains them meticulously. They are all in

all five characteristics that are emblematic for dreams. Knowing these

characteristics will help us understand our dreams better a knowing how the

system of our subconscious works.

This whole world of dreams is a world I am ready to swim in and explore

fastidiously in order for me to be more aware of my body, my mind, my

subconscious and the message it is trying to deliver to me through this fascinating

and enchanting world.

I hope my research can contribute with something new for my classmates and I

and additionally gain knowledge of an aspect of our lives we had never

deciphered before.

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Documents

RHET 201 Portfolio