Assignment # 2 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY Submitted to: MISS MISBAH ARSHAD Submitted by: KHATEEB JAMIL Roll # 09040920-058 Topic:

The Source of dream and how their relevance to psychology and religion
Dreams:
Dreams are a succession of images, thoughts, sounds, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not fully understood, though they have been a topic of speculation and interest throughout recorded history.

Source of dreams; Somatic Theory of Stimulation

Role in the formation of dreams the scientific literature credits to the account of somatic exciting sources, so that we need here only recall the results of this investigation. We have

seen that three kinds of somatic exciting sources are distinguished, objective sensory stimuli which proceed from external objects, the inner states of excitation of the sensory organs having only a subjective basis, and the bodily stimuli which originate internally. "Nerve stimulus" and "bodily stimulus," then, would be the somatic sources of the dream - that is, the only sources whatever of the dream, according to several authors.

Sigmund Freud;
For Freud dreams are internal wish fulfillment. Somewhat similar to Aristotles imagination Freud believes that the mind can be divided into conscious and unconscious parts. The unconscious part of our brains is where a lot of our thoughts actually happen but a lot of these thoughts would be unacceptable to our conscious mind because they are crass, sexual, and violent. It is when we sleep that our unconscious mind takes control; Freud uses the analogy of an invading army. Our mind is taken over by the unconscious and things do not work the same as they do when we are asleep. The unconscious, again like Aristotles imagination, makes wild and free associations between things observed in waking life. Because of these wild associations often what we see in our dream does not really mean what it seems to mean, a theme that is echoed in all the traditions mentioned so far.

Dreams and Psychology;

Sigmund Freud had proposed that dreams are the means of one's expressions of his/her unconscious wishes. He had said that bad dreams allow the brain to gain control over the feelings that are a result of distressful experiences. Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist suggested that dreams compensate for one-sided feelings borne in consciousness. According to Ferenczi, a Hungarian psychoanalyst, a dream bears something that cannot be expressed outright. Some theories say that dreams involve one's repressed emotions that are fantasized during the sleep while other theories suggest dreams to be an outcome of the cleaning-up operations of the brain. Hartmann believes that dreams give a person an opportunity to organize his/her thoughts. Blechner's theory of Oneiric Darwinism, which attributes the generation of new ideas to dreams, is quite supportive of Hartmann's analysis. Griffin, through his recent research has proposed the expectation fulfillment theory of dreaming, according to which dreaming completes patterns of emotional expectations. According to the theory of emotional selection by Richard Coutts, dreaming is a way to modify one's mental schema. The theory of emotional selection is about a process of executing a set of dreams during the non-REM sleep. A second set of dreams is executed during the following REM sleep in the form of test scenarios. It defines an accommodation as the process of reframing one's mental representation of the external world to fit new experiences. If the accommodations performed during the preceding non-REM dreams reduce one's negative emotions, they are selected for retention, else they are abandoned. Thus emotional selection says that the psychology of dreams is usually about the enhancement of mental schemas, its about increasing one's social abilities.

Dreams and religion; Islam;

Dreams are broken into three parts according to the Sunnah:

Ru'yaa - good visions (dreams) Hulum - bad dreams Dreams from one's self
Abu Hurayrah narrated Muhammad (S) said, "There are three types of dreams: a righteous dream which is glad tidings from Allah, the dream which causes sadness is from Shaitan, and a dream from the ramblings of the mind. (Sahih Muslim)

True/GoodDreams
We can see true dreams are from Allah Ta'aala as Muhammad (S) said, "True dreams are from Allah, and bad dreams are from Shaitan." (Sahih Al-Bukhari) True believers are more likely to happen to those who are truthful in their lives as Muhammad (S) said, "Those of you with the truest dreams will be those who are most truthful in speech" (Sahih Muslim) Good dreams are also from Allah Ta'aala. Prophet Muhammad (S) said, "If anyone of you has a dream that he likes then it is from Allah. He should thank Allah for it and narrate it to others." (Sahih Al-Bukhari) Good deeds consist of people doing Halaal (lawful) acts. One should share their dreams with those they like as Muhammad (S) said, "If one sees a good dream, let him expect good, and not tell it except to those he likes." (Muslim) An example of this is Yaqoob (AS) telling his son, Yusuf (AS) concerning his dream about eleven stars and the sun and the moon prostrating to him (scholars have said the eleven stars were his brothers, and the sun and the moon represented his mother and father): "He said, "O my son! Relate not your vision to your brothers lest they arrange a plot against you. Verily! Satan is to man an open enemy." (Surah Yusuf 12:5) We know the half-brothers of Yusuf were jealous of him to begin with so telling them the dream would probably only serve to increase the jealousy. Muhammad (S) also told us, "Nothing is left of prophethood except glad tidings." Those with him asked, "What are glad tidings?" He (S) replied, "Good dreams." (Sahih Al-Bukhari)

Bad

Dreams

As stated above bad dreams are from Shaitan. Muhammad (S) told us what to do upon seeing a bad dream. "So when one of you sees a dream which he does not like, he should spit on his left side three times, seek refuge with Allah from Shaitan thrice, and change the side which he was lying (Sahih Muslim) and in another narration in Muslim, Muhammad (S) told us if we spit three times and seek refuge from Allah then it (the dream) will not harm them." (Sahih Muslim) Muhammad (S) also told us that if we saw a bad dream to "stand up and offer prayer." (Sahih Muslim)

Bad Dreams Should Not Be Disclosed

Muhammad (S) said, ...If he has a dream that he dislikes, then it is from Shaitan. He should seek refuge with Allah from its evil, and he SHOULD NOT MENTION IT TO ANYBODY,

then it will not harm him." (Sahih Al-Bukhari) If one does tell somebody about the bad dream then there could be the chance that some harm will come out of it.

Christianity
Like other religions of the world, Christianity gives significant importance to biblical dreams. There are mainly two types of dreams - Prophetic dreams and Warning dreams. Prophetic Dreams: The prophetic dreams concern with the things of direct relevance to the dreamer. The Bible says anyone could have a prophetic dream from God. The meanings of a prophetic dream are not clear and would require an interpretation. The Bible calls the prophetic dreams "dark sayings" and these dreams belong to God (Genesis 40:8). In the Old Testament, for instance, "My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him I will speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches". Christians around the world believe God helps people to interpret their dreams and this is most evident in one of the biblical stories. King Nebuchadnezzar, has a dream concerning the future of his country and he forgets about it. Later, he asks his wise men to tell him about the dream and its meaning. Remember, the only other person who knew about the dream is the God. Later, it is the God who reveals it to one of the wise men - Daniel. Warning Dreams: Christianity interprets warning dreams as the ones which warns the dreamer. It is believed these dreams are God-send and implies what would happen in the near future. For instance, the Angel of the Lord appeared in the dream of Joseph (father of Jesus Christ) and said: "Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him". Christianity interprets the dreams concerning the will of God as the warning dreams. Later, when Herod is dead, an angel reappears unto Joseph and says "Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life".

Dream Symbols Interpreted by Christianity

Symbols are nothing but icons or images that have sacred significance in religious interpretation of dreams. These symbols are known as dream symbols. The origin and the ancient traditions of these symbols date back to pre-historic era when majority of people were not able to read or write. They used symbols and pictures to convey the meaning. Some of the dream symbols interpreted by Christianity are "Angel", "Ant", "Apple", "Halo", "Harp" and so on. Each and every symbol has its own interpretation and relevance in Christianity.

Dream interpretation:
Dreams were historically used for healing (as in the asclepieions found in the ancient Greek temples of Asclepius) as well as for guidance or divine inspiration. Some Native American tribes used vision quests as a rite of passage, fasting and praying until an anticipated guiding dream was received, to be shared with the rest of the tribe upon their return.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, both Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung identified dreams as an interaction between the unconscious and the conscious. They also assert together that the unconscious is the dominant force of the dream, and in dreams it conveys its own mental activity to the perceptive faculty. While Freud felt that there was an active censorship against the unconscious even during sleep, Jung argued that the dream's bizarre quality is an efficient language, comparable to poetry and uniquely capable of revealing the underlying meaning. Fritz Perls presented his theory of dreams as part of the holistic nature of Gestalt therapy. Dreams are seen as projections of parts of the self that have been ignored, rejected, or suppressed. Jung argued that one could consider every person in the dream to represent an aspect of the dreamer, which he called the subjective approach to dreams. Perls expanded this point of view to say that even inanimate objects in the dream may represent aspects of the dreamer. The dreamer may therefore be asked to imagine being an object in the dream and to describe it, in order to bring into awareness the characteristics of the object that correspond with the dreamer's personality.
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