Research shows that dreams provide a running commentary on everyday life. Dreams anticipate, sometimes warn, and most often help in resolving everyday problems. You relate to the "rest of you," the part that operates out of awareness, sometimes to your deep dismay.

As early as 3000 B.C., a statue of what has been named, Dreamer of Malta, gave ancient testimony to the great importance of dreams. While our modern civilized culture is perhaps the only culture that has not recognized the creative advice of dreams and how dreams often anticipate the future, there are notable exceptions. For example, Dr. Benjamin Rush, the United State's first Physician General, and John Adams, our second president, both recognized that paying attention to dreams was healing.

In fact, during the Revolutionary War, Dr. Rush asked the soldiers in the field to write their dreams! Dreams also aid in deepening our understanding of the big questions in life, i.e., "Who are we?" "What are we here for?" "Where is my life going?" Naturally, dream analysis is central for most individuals.

Of course, there are numerous methods besides dream analysis for accessing your unconscious, such as imaginative art, active imagination or sand play, a method Dr. Faron has used with adults since 1981.

Nevertheless, here is what Dr. Jung has to say about how dreams help:

"In...treatment...the task before us is to re-establish an approximate harmony between conscious and unconscious. This, as we know, can be achieved in a variety of ways: from 'living a natural life,' persuasive reasoning, strengthening the will, to analysis of the unconscious.

"Because the simpler methods so often fail and the doctor does not know how to go on treating the patient, the compensatory function of dreams offers welcome assistance. I do not mean that the dreams of modern people indicate the appropriate method of healing, as was reported of the incubation-dreams dreamt in the temples of Aesculapius.

"They do, however, illuminate the patient's situation in a way that can be exceedingly beneficial to health. They bring him [her] memories, insights, experiences, awaken dormant qualities in the personality, and reveal the unconscious element in his [her] relationships.

"So it seldom happens that anyone who has taken the trouble to work over his [her] dreams with qualified assistance for a longer period of time remains without enrichment and a broadening of his [her] mental horizon. Just because of their compensatory behaviour, a methodical analysis of dreams discloses new points of view and new ways of getting over the dreaded impasse."

-- C.G. JUNG, VOLUME 8 OF THE COLLECTED WORKS, pp. #549