Dreams and Healing

The first book I read by John Sanford was DREAMS - GOD'S FORGOTTEN LANGUAGE. This book, written some years later, is an excellent follow up. But it can also stand by itself. It is not necessary to read his other book to read this one. It helps to know that Sanford is an Episcopal priest and a Jungian analyst. This book is divided into three sections: 1. The first deals with the structure, levels, and drama of dreams as well as their use and the healing power they have. He gives and example of King Nebuchadnezzar's dream in the book of Daniel, and also has a section on working with our own dreams. 2. The second section deals with eight dreams by a young man named Martin. It basically gives him insight into his own maturity and in the process of analyzing Martin's dreams, Sanford also gives insights into how this can be applied to our own lives. 3. The third section deals with the dreams of a woman named Marie who also had her path in life. As in the section about Martin, Sanford shows how this can apply to our lives, even though the symbols in Marie's dreams differ from Martin's. Sanford makes a great deal of mention of the "anima" (the woman within the man) and the "animus" (the man within the woman.). You may or may not finish this book being able to interpret your own dreams - but by reading it, you'll gain a lot of insight about dreams and what they do for us.

As a psychotherapist and a minister I enjoy reading material such as this that supports and informs my work and my ministry. This text is well written and thought provoking. It would be better if the reader had a working knowlege of Jungian psychology and Christian mysticism, but any sincere truth seeker would profit from contemplating the ideas and examples presented. I am recommending it to people who are interested in knowing more about themselves and their relationship with God.

This is an exceptional book that not only shares the deeper meaning of dreams, but also the individuation process, the various stages of shedding layers of ego, how the soul and core self hidden within the underlying unconscious become our friends in our dream state when we are asleep. The book has fantastic suggestions that teach you how to navigate and work with your dreams to better assist you into a higher state of awakening in your everyday consciousness. I highly recommend this book not just for learning more about dreams, but for learning more about personal awakening. It is simply fantastic, and extremely well written!

I just picked this book up again after four years of daily dream journaling and was amazed at the accuracy, depth, clarity and intelligence of this little book.John Sanford does as good a job as I've seen as introducing what dreams are (including a nice discussion of the unconcious and its relationship to our waking lives), some history of cultural approaches to dreams, what it's possible to gain from working with your dreams, and some concrete techniques for how to do that.Reading this book could, as it did for me, open up a rich, compelling world of self-understanding, creativity, humor, healing and, well, fun for you. Highly recommended.