TIME-LAPSE FACTOR

IN UNDERSTANDING DREAMS

Nancy M. Seher

Austin, Texas

Many factors impede the clear understanding of our dreams. Such incomprehension often results from our own expectations or preconceptions. Frequently, we view our dreams as though we were looking for specific answers, while, in actuality, our dreams may be pointing to general directions. Also, dreams do not always give us the answer; instead they sometimes produce for us a choice between two answers, or simply point toward an area wherein we may work out the solution for ourselves. Then again, sometimes we fail to understand our dreams because we refuse to see that they are depicting completely new possibilities for us. And sometimes we unwisely expect our dreams to make our decisions for us. Even though our dreams can and do provide both information unknown to the conscious mind and evaluations seen only by the subconscious, decision making is, ultimately, a function of our conscious minds. Yet another difficulty in understanding dreams arises when they are staged in the spectacular arena of humanity’s long progression of myth and legend and enacted by the venerable cast of the "Archetypal Ancestral Players." Most of us are totally unschooled in the panorama of mythical themes and actors. But among all the problems involved with the comprehension of dreams, there exists another that is probably the least recognized of all. Time, or the passage of time, also affects our understanding of dreams.

In one instance, for example, time brought for me the literal fulfillment of a dream. In September 1974, I dreamed, I stand pleasantly, but idly, visiting with a group of people, as if at a party. A friend takes me by the hand and says, "I want to show you two jobs on the bulletin board." Although I was not actively seeking employment, a part-time job in a newspaper office simply fell into my  lap  two weeks after  this dream. And  18 months later I noticed a