Dreams: The missing link in evolution

Abstract

Freud and Jung are the pillars of the modern scientific study of the mind. Their ideas are based upon diverse sources, ranging from mythic literature to the case studies of their individual patients. The work of those who came later, even when it veered away from that of these two pioneers, still took into account the theories they forged. Today, modern laboratory techniques and equipment have taken psychological research into new realms, even challenging our assumptions about the relationship between the psychological and the physiological realm. It is fitting at this time of new discoveries to reconsider the basic tenets that have been attributed to one idea in particular to which both Freud and Jung gave only a passing regard--the prognostic nature of dreams.

The Theory of Relativity has undermined our assumptions regarding the nature of time, demolishing its primacy in the consideration of universal concepts, even forcing us to question the relationship between cause and effect. The dream, properly observed, is like the universe as seen by Einstein; it challenges our perception of the sequentiality of apparently determinative events.  

The ancients assumed that dreams foretold the future, but this prognostic aspect of the dream has been all but ignored in modern times. "Dreams: The Missing Link in Evolution" maintains that, along with the need for a deeper consideration of the hegemony of consciousness itself, the dream deserves scientific study and serious conjecture. The predictive nature of dreams is the keystone that crowns and supports the twin columns of conscious and unconscious thought. This study attempts not only to clarify this contention but, perhaps even more importantly, to show that such an idea ought not to surprise us.