Carl Jung: The occurrence of prospective dreams cannot be denied.

The prospective function, on the other hand, is an anticipation in the unconscious of future conscious achievements, something like a preliminary exercise or sketch, or a plan roughed out in advance. . . .

The occurrence of prospective dreams cannot be denied.

It would be wrong to call them prophetic, because at bottom they are no more prophetic than a medical diagnosis or a weather forecast.

They are merely an anticipatory combination of probabilities which may coincide with the actual behaviour of things but need not necessarily agree in every detail.

Only in the latter case can we speak of “prophecy.”

That the prospective function of dreams is sometimes greatly superior to the combinations we can consciously foresee is not surprising, since a dream results from the fusion of subliminal elements and is thus a combination of all the perceptions, thoughts, and feelings which consciousness has not registered because of their feeble accentuation.

In addition, dreams can rely on subliminal memory traces that are no longer able to influence consciousness effectively.

With regard to prognosis, therefore, dreams are often in a much more favourable position than consciousness. ~Carl Jung, CW 8, Page 493

Carl Jung: Physical Illnesses and Dream Symbolism

It is only in exceptional cases that somatic stimuli are the determining factor.

Usually they coalesce completely with the symbolical expression of the unconscious dream content; in other words, they are used as a means of expression.

Not infrequently the dreams show that there is a remarkable inner symbolical connection between an undoubted physical illness and a definite psychic problem, so that the physical disorder appears as a direct mimetic expression of the psychic situation. ~Carl Jung, CW 8, Page 502

Carl Jung: Dreams as another type of reality

As in our waking state, real people and things enter our field of vision, so the dream-images enter like another kind of reality into the field of consciousness of the dream-ego.

We do not feel as if we were producing the dreams, it is rather as if the dreams came to us.

They are not subject to our control but obey their own laws.

They are obviously autonomous psychic complexes which form themselves out of their own material.

We do not know the source of their motives, and we therefore say that dreams come from the unconscious.

In saying this, we assume that there are independent psychic complexes which elude our conscious control and come and go according to their own laws. ~Carl Jung, CW 8, Page 580.

Carl Jung: Dreams bring us closer to the basic facts of human existence

A dream is nothing but a lucky idea that comes to us from the dark, all-unifying world of the psyche.

What would be more natural, when we have lost ourselves amid the endless particulars and isolated details of the world’s surface, than to knock at the door of dreams and inquire of them the bearings which would bring us closer to the basic facts of human existence?

Here we encounter the obstinate prejudice that dreams are so much froth, they are not real, they lie, they are mere wish-fulfillments.

All this is but an excuse not to take dreams seriously, for that would be uncomfortable. Our intellectual hubris of consciousness loves isolation despite all its inconveniences, and for this reason people will do anything rather than admit that dreams are real and speak the truth.

There are some saints who had very rude dreams.

Where would their saintliness be, the very thing that exalts them above the vulgar rabble, if the obscenity of a dream were a real truth?

But it is just the most squalid dreams that emphasize our blood-kinship with the rest of mankind, and most effectively damp down the arrogance born of an atrophy of the instincts.

Even if the whole world were to fall to pieces, the unity of the psyche would never be shattered.

And the wider and more numerous the fissures on the surface, the more this unity is strengthened in the depths.

“The Meaning of Psychology for Modern Man” (1933). In CW 10: Civilization in Transition. pg. 305

Carl Jung on Dream Interpretation

On Dreams I have no theory about dreams, I do not know how dreams arise.

And I am not at all sure that – my way of handling dreams even deserves the name of a “method.”

I share all your prejudices against dream-interpretation as the quintessence of uncertainty and arbitrariness.

On the other hand, I know that if we meditate on a dream sufficiently long and thoroughly, if we carry it around with us and turn it over and over, something almost always comes of it.

This something is not of course a scientific result to be boasted about or rationalized; but it is an important practical hint which shows the patient what the unconscious is aiming at. Indeed, it ought not to matter to me whether the result of my musings on the dream is scientifically verifiable or tenable, otherwise I am pursuing an ulterior-and therefore autoerotic aim.

I must content myself wholly with the fact that the result means something to the patient and sets his life in motion again.

I may allow myself only one criterion for the result of my labours: does it work? As for my scientific hobby – my desire to know why it works – this I must reserve for my spare time.

“The Aims of Psychotherapy” (1931). In CW 16: The Practice of Psychotherapy. P.86