top of page

The Dream and its Amplification

The Dream and its Amplification unveils the language of the psyche that speaks to us in our dreams. We all dream at least 4-6 times each night yet remember very few. Those that rise to the surface of our conscious awareness beckon to be understood, like a letter addressed to us that arrives by post. Why would we not open it? The difficulty is in understanding what the dream symbols and images mean.

Through amplification, C. G. Jung formulated a method of unveiling the deeper meaning of symbolic images. This becomes particularly important when the image does not carry a personal meaning or significance and is not part of a person's everyday life. Thirteen Jungian Analysts from around the world and a celebrated Jungian Scholar have contributed chapters to this book on areas of special interest to them in their work with dreams. This offers the seasoned dream worker as well as the novice great insight into the meaning of the dream and its amplification.

Contributors include: Erel Shalit, Nancy Swift Furlotti, Thomas Singer, Michael Conforti, Ken Kimmel, Gotthilf Isler, Nancy Qualls-Corbett, Henry Abramovitch, Kathryn Madden, Ron Schenk, Naomi Ruth Lowinsky, Christian Gaillard, Monika Wikman, and Gilda Frantz. Twelve of the fourteen distinguished contributors to this volume are IAAP (International Association for Analytical Psychology) certified Jungian analysts, one is a licensed psychoanalyst and a celebrated Jungian scholar, and one Jungian analyst was trained by and was a very close associate of Marie-Louise von Franz.

The amplified world of dreams

Erel Shalit & Nancy Swift Furlotti

Pane e' vino: Learning to discern the objective, archetypal nature of dreams

Michael Conforti

Amplification: A personal narrative

Tom Singer

Redeeming the feminine: Eros and the world soul

Nancy Qualls-Corbet

Wild cats and crowned snakes: Archetypal agents of feminine initiation

Nancy Swift Furlotti

A Dream in Arcadia

Christian Gaillard

Muse of the moon: Poetry from the dreamtime

Naomy Lowinsky

Dreaming the 'Face of the Earth': Myth, culture and dreams of the Maya Shaman

Ken Kimmel

Coal or gold?: The symbolic understanding of a few Alpine legends

Gotthilf Isler

Sophia's dreaming body: The alchemical mirror of the night sky

Monika Wikman

"The dream always follows the mouth": Jewish approaches to dreaming

Henry Abramovitch

Bi-polarity, compensation, and the transcendent function in dreams and visionary experience: A Jungian examination of Boehme's mandala

Kathryn Madden

The dream as Gnostic myth

Ronald Schenk

Four hands in the crossroads: Dreams in times of upheaval

Erel Shalit

Dreams and sudden death

Gilda Frantz

Tapping into the treasures of humankind's spiritual heritage

by Grady Harp

Dreams are not as happenstance as we too often label them. This book is a collection of writings by Jungian analysts who by definition adhere to Carl Jung's statement 'The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul, opening into that cosmic night which was psyche long before there was an ego-consciousness, and which will remain psyche no matter how far out ego-consciousness extends.' In this immensely interesting book, edited by Erel Shalit and Nancy Swift Furlotti, the subject of dreams and of dream amplification is presented by some of our finest Jungian analysts writing today: Thomas Singer, Michael Conforti, Ken Kimmel, Gotthilf Isler, Nancy Qualls-Corbett, Henry Abramovitch, Kathryn Madden, Ron Schenk, Naomi Ruth Lowinsky, Christian Gaillard, Monika Wikman, and Gilda Frantz.

The focus is on the amplification method Jung developed to uncover the meaning of the dream. Though we all dream multiple dreams every night (or every sleeping period) few of us seem to have access to the memory of the content of the dreams we own. Amplification is Jung's method of unveiling the deeper meaning of symbolic images. 'With amplification, the focus turns from the dream leading the ego into personal unconscious, to providing the objective psyche a way to manifest in the world of consciousness.'

Thomas Singer writes, 'I have come to believe that amplification is the most valuable when one's attentive to the personal, cultural, and archetypal levels of reality...Equal attention to all three gives the greatest possibility for the 'royal road' of amplification to become a living tapestry of great riches.' Each of the fourteen contributors has the ability to push the boundaries of our current knowledge to open more doors than we could expect from a single tome. For instance, Ronad Schenck writes of 'The Dream as Gnostic Myth', Christian Galliard expresses 'A Dream in Arcadia', Henry Abramovitch discusses 'Jewish Approaches to Dreaming', Gilda Frantz discusses 'Dreams and Sudden Death'.

Toward book's end Erel Shalit states 'In amplification, we reach our beyond the boundaries of ego, beyond the realm of ego consciousness, which by definition is temporary and limited. We humbly admit that our ego-identity is not the one and only, the grand-all and be-all. By amplification we recognize that the images that arise from the unconscious have a life of their own, and that the world of matter and psyche exists in itself, even when out of the beholder's sight.'

With all books that challenge our current notions, this book can be slow to absorb, slow to understand, but the journey is so very worth the time we spend with these fascinating thoughts and words of wisdom.

Links

A look at The Dream and its Amplification - by Nancy Furlotti, ARAS