How the brain functions in dreams

Some facts about how our brain works in regards to dreams. Feel free to add more.

• 3 Parts of the brain - the left hemisphere controls the right side of the body, the right hemisphere controls the lefts side. The corpus callosum that links the two.

• By cutting into the corpus callosum to prevent excessive signalling going from one hemisphere to the other, helped to control epilepsy.

• Left side - Analytical and Verbal actions/activities speaks better than the right side.

• Right side - Spartial perception and music.

• When reading a map or giving directions the right hemisphere will be working.

• You use both the right and left brain to understand your dreams.

• Using distant left and right hemisphere brain functioning is a useful dream guidance and dream therapy strategy.

• Although the brain is split into 3 parts they are all linked.

• Your brain is a component of a greater holistic system.

• Although the brain looks like each side is a mirror image of the other side, the brains function different on each side.

• People who learn to process with their right brain tend to be visual thinkers (experience primarily).

• People who learn to process with their left brain tend to be verbal thinkers (learn/process predominately).

• People who learn by experience are called haptic learners, their learning process with their right brain hemisphere or alternate brain processing from side to side.

• 'Dream dictionaries' don't help us to understand the communication of our right brain hemisphere.

• Imagine an artist trying to paint a landscape with verbal words only, could he complete the painting through word descriptions alone.

• Talking and listening are left brain oriented.

• Creativity, Visualisation, Memory, relaxation and feelings are right brain functions.

• You need to communicate with both sides of the brain to dream effeciently.

• If you rely on your right brain hemisphere thinking skills you will be successful.

• Internal functioning is reflected by external body processes and behavioural signals.

• Each person is unique - no one thinks, feels, learns, processes or experiences the same way.

• Right brain questions should be open ended, require visual, auditory and kinaesthetic processing. Include meta questions about how you process info, how you know what you knew and how you remember.

• Meta questions that help gather information, clarify meaning, identity limits, give choices.

• Questions like - Describe the landscape of the dream. Does the dessert/rainforest etc have any significance on the past/present/future. - Where does the dream stop and start. - Of all the symbols which one feels relevant to you?


Observing a clients responses could add details to the dream. Auditory memory (eyes flicker to the left side of the face). Visual recollection (eyes flicker to the upper left of face)