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What seemed to be operating was
a field of shared images, ideas, and feelings in each individual within the family system. This shared family emotional field, which we call the family unconscious (Bynum, 1984)
is a shifting, interconnected field of energy and information that does
not obey the conventional rules of linear causation, but rather appears
to embrace a wider field of space and time association and connectivity
than in the waking state. This field of interconnected energy, influence, and information in many ways parallels some of the developments in quantum physics, which during its own inception had many community psychological barriers to its recognition of the unusual phenomena arising to observation.
While a fuller description of these phenomena would take us far afield, there are a number of summaries and descriptions of these developments
in the literature (Herbert, 1987; Kaku, 1994; Capra,1980). However just as quantum mechanics superseded, but did not replace, the classical physics
of Newton in its description of events under certain circumstances that then threw light on the wider context, we are suggesting something like that here. In particular, in the familial unconscious dreaming context there is recognition that boundary and psychological identity boundary are not absolute; that perceived causality is not linear and can be quite convoluted and enmeshed; the “arrow of time” is not always linear; that space is not merely flat and extended but can also be convoluted and even shifting with profound implications
for identity formation. As we see fleshed out in The Dreamlife of Families (Bynum, 2017) this applies not only
in familial dream dynamics but also, very importantly, in psychological and medical or somatic symptom formation within the family system.
We know that our psychological “boundaries” and identities intermingle in the primary process of the dream state with those of whom we dream.
This seems to take a systematic approach when it comes to the
dreams of people who are deeply and powerfully interconnected with each other over years by shared events, feelings, and patterns of behavior, such as in family life. The powerful emotions and the shared histories of families make this possible. There is a significant rise in these observed unusual experiences among such dreamers. As the years of clinical work and experience go by, we grow more convinced that a vast reservoir of healing is located in the collected dreams and memories of the people who are most dear to us through so many important years of our lives.
Edward Bruce Bynum, PhD, ABPP, is a clinical psychologist and author of several texts, including The Dreamlife of
Families. He is in private practice at the Brain Analysis and Neurodevelopment Center in Hadley Massachusetts. Bynum is an Allied Mental Health Professional Member of AAMFT.
References
Bynum, E. B. (1984). The family unconscious: An invisible bond. Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House.
Bynum, E. B., (2017).The dreamlife of families. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions & Bear Company.
Capra, F. (1980).The tao of physics. New York: Bantam Books. Ehrenwald, J., (1978). The ESP experience: A psychiatric
validation. New York: Basic Books.
Freud, S. (1953). The interpretation of dreams. (J. Strachey,
Trans.). London: Hogarth Press.
Herbert, N. (1987). Quantum reality: Beyond the new physics. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books/Doubleday.
Jung, C. G. (1974). Dreams. Princeton, NJ: Bolligen Series/ Princeton University Press.
Jahn, R. G., & Dunne, B. J. (1987). Margins of reality: The role of consciousness in the physical world. New York: Harcourt Brace Jonavovich.
Kaku, M. (1994). Hyperspace: A scientific odyssey through parallel universes, time warps, and the 10th dimension. New York: Anchor Books Doubleday.
LaBerge, S. (1985). Lucid dreaming: the power of being awake and aware in your dreams. Los Angeles, CA: Jeremy P. Tarcher.
Schwarz, B.R. (1980). Psychic-Nexus: Psychic phenomena in psychiatry and everyday life. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company. New York.
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