Mission Statement: The Right to Dream
"And so the elements - fire, water, air and earth - which for so long served philosophers for thinking grandly of the universe, still remain principles of artistic creation. Their action upon the imagination may seem remote and it may seem metaphorical. And yet as soon as we find a work of art's proper appurtenance to an elemental cosmic force, we have the feeling of having discovered a ground of unity that strengthens the unity of even the best composed works. The fact is that in accepting the solicitation of the imagination of the elements, the partner (dreamer) receives the natural germ of an act of creation."
- Gaston Bachelard, The Right to Dream.
Dreams are direct channels to untapped artistic and creative forces in individual human personalities and in society at large. The International Institute for Dream Research will help you learn to use your dreams to gain insight and creativity in your work, family relations and everyday life.
The human animal's most significant and developed skills are those that facilitate communications. Over time, we have created public media that employ characteristics of personal imagination and the experience of dreaming to distribute information. Early storytelling and physical demonstration recounted and instructed individuals on their roles in collective activities such as the hunt. Cave drawings recorded these stories, preserving them through time. The invention of print technology expanded the dissemination of recorded information to larger audiences over greater distances. Electronic media (broadcast, recording and movies) add and enhance the first-hand experience of sound and visual demonstration from our earliest campfire traditions to the ever-increasing distribution of recorded information.
Whatever the medium, communication is most effective when the recipient is able to suspend disbelief and imaginatively enter into the presentation. In this sense, public media can be thought of as "communal dream screens" similar to and linking with our internal, individual dreaming process. And media still carry similar, though increasingly more complex types of information, implicitly and explicitly providing information and instruction about the roles of individuals in collective societies. But the performing arts and sciences also bring the concerns and issues of individual dreamers to public, communal dream screens. Where public and private dreams intersect, directions and decisions become transparent. Individual and societal issues are revealed. The dreamwork of the International Institute for Dream Research has revealed that many dreams go unfulfilled because they conflict with the dreams of dominant forces in society. Too many life stories are broken dreams.
The International Institute for Dream Research creates a communal dream screen on a new medium, the internet, for the exploration, education and discussion of group and individual social problems as revealed through the interaction of public media and personal dreams. Through dream interpretation, The International Institute for Dream Research will facilitate active change for the self-improvement of individual lives, and eventually, our collective dreams.