Gary Wright's 'Popular Song Dream Weaver'

INTRODUCTION
In the 1970’s, the popular song Dream Weaver by Gary Wright was released. The song depicts the singer requesting a “Dream Weaver” to grant him a dream that will fulfill his fantasies, help him forget his worries, and get him through the night. However, unlike the popular song, there is no supernatural force, or “weaver,” that grants dreams. Dreams are not arbitrary, enigmatic forces that are only obtained by being alongside the high status of gods or granted from some power. In actuality, dreams are psychological structures that are natural responses to external stimuli, conflicts, and moods. Their content can be explained and interpreted through an understanding that sensory stimulus, experience, wish fulfillment, and one’s emotional
state are all sources of dream content and when that dream is believed to have meaning, it inadvertently becomes meaningful.

EXTERNAL STIMULUS
The contents of one’s dream are affected when he or she becomes aware of the external sensory stimulus during sleep. Once recognized, those small sensations play a magnified role in that dream.
Concurring with analytical psychologist, Carl Jung’s “By-Product” theory that the brain attempts to turn those recognized impulses into sensory input; producing vivid hallucinations, know as dreams, it is understandable that the brain then tries to make sense of those stimuli and their origins as well as causes. However, research using PET scans has shown that the part of the brain that makes sense of these stimulations is fairly inactive during sleep (Wade, 1998). This, in turn, can end up being the result of the strange scenarios that can occur in REM sleep and the reason that dreams are more emotionally afflicting rather than structurally coherent. “The fact that a fairly powerful stimulus will awaken us at anytime is evidence that even in sleep the soul is in constant contact with whatever is situated or occurring in the world outside the body. The sensory stimuli that reach us during sleep may very well become sources of dreams (Freud, 1953).” Many seemingly confusing parts of dreams can very well be attributed to stimulus that occurs extracorporeally. Ergo, individuals are capable of interpreting the meaning behind certain parts of his or her dream as simply reactions to disturbances that were recognized by the sleeping mind. A study by research psychologists, Carey K.
Morewedge and Micahael I. Norton in 2009, examined the extent to which dreams were considered meaningful from their participants. “Our account suggests that whenever people are less able to attribute some thought to an external source, that thought will be seen as more meaningful. We suggest that dreams are likely to be considered more meaningful than conscious thoughts containing similar information, and are therefore more likely to influence attitudes and behavior (Morewedge & Norton, 2009).” Accordingly, when individuals are confused about certain scenarios from their dreams that are only caused by external sensory stimulus, then they will undoubtedly find that dream to be more meaningful. With that, they will unintentionally allow that dream to influence their behavior, reversely causing that originally reasonable, and probably meaningless dream to then become very meaningful in his or her life.

EXPERIENCE Activities and experiences individuals go through while awake are clearly reflected in dreams, affecting the contents that make up that dream. “All material making up the content of a dream is in some way derived from experience, that is to say, has been reproduced or remembered in the dream—so much at least we may regard it as undisputed fact (Freud, 1955).” Everyone needs sleep to survive and function properly in society. The restorative theory states that the body and mind need sleep to rejuvenate and take account, as well as shift through, any important information needed from the day; unifying memories to learn. In some way, all the content that makes up a dream is from an experience during the waking mind. While the brain is shifting through important information, and neurotransmitters and pons are firing-stimulating responses, much of these experiences that dreams are reflecting become distorted. Whether one dreams they spill their coffee on themselves at work and then again in their dream, or they see strangers that they don’t recall passing or seeing on the TV, it is understandable that all content can be attributed to reality. As well, Freud (1955) posed his wish-fulfillment theory that dreams reflect unconscious wishes and urges that individuals keep censored while awake. With that, dreams can be interpreted as the minds attempt to resolve an experienced conflict of some sort, whether recent or from past, frivolous or stressful, through fulfilling desires or wishes required to solve those conflicts.

EMOTION
“[For many], remembering the concrete details of a dream or labeling the feelings from a dream [is difficult].
They may recall an image or various images from the dream; however, they cannot describe how the images connected to encompass the dream (i.e., as one would tell a story). Alternately, they may describe vivid images, with powerful feelings associated with the image and experienced both in the dream and upon awakening (Marszalek, J., & Myers, J.,2006).” From the waking mind to what is left of the dream, a lot of extra information that makes it easier to interpret that dream through plausible explanations has been forgotten. However, the information that the brain has retained since waking can still be explained. Whether or not a dream fills a desire or highlights and magnifies certain stresses or worries from the day, all dreams can be interpreted to have a connection to one’s emotional state and experiences from past or present. If an individual is preoccupied with some emotion, over some dilemma or desire, his or her dream is likely to be focused on those emotions and distort experiences, while the brain compiles the imagery, emotion, and any stimulus into a gripping plot that reflects
these.

CONCLUSION
All dreams are psychological structures that can be given meaning, and can be explained and interpreted through an understanding of how sensory stimulus, experience, wish fulfillment, and one’s emotional state all contribute to the content of one’s dreams. All dreams have plausible explanations that are consistent with reality, however this does not mean that the dream will “come true.” The extent of a dream’s meaning is then left up to the interpreter. All content that makes up dreams have some connection to reality and therefore make way to be reasonably explained and interpreted as to why it was dreamt. Dreams have meaning in the sense that they can be coherently explained. Correlations with other variables and connections with waking thoughts can easily be determined through interpretation. There is no need to fret over the meaning of a dream or how it is going to affect the future because that is ultimately left to the interpreters beliefs and decisions as to whether it is going to influence their behavior and inadvertently become very meaningful. Though dreams can help one get through the night and forget the day’s pain, a magical “weaver” does not grant them. And in a sense, through understandable interpretations, dreams can actually be “un-weaved.”

REFERENCES

Freud, Sigmund. (2013). pp. 22-3. The Standard: Edition of the Complete Psychological Works (Vol. 4). London: Forgotten Books. (Original work published 1953)

Frued, S. (1955). The Interpretation of Dreams. Retrieved October 18, 2015.

Marszalek, J., & Myers, J. (2006). Dream Interpretation: A Developmental Counseling and Therapy Approach. Retrieved October 19, 2015.

Wade, N. (1998, January 6). Was Freud Wrong? Are dreams the brain’s start up test? The New York Times online.