Dream Analyst David Rivinus Reveals That Daytime Experiences Are Also Dreams

Dream analyst, David Rivinus, author of the book Always Dreaming, has come to the startling understanding that the experiences we have during our waking hours are also dreams. Following the progress of dozens of case histories, and using a simple five-step technique, he has helped numerous individuals analyze unsettling daytime events as if they were dreams, with the “dreamers” often reaching profound understandings about their own motivations and life directions.

This has led Rivinus to conclude that the structure of existence is far different than we usually imagine. He says, “The disturbing daytime events that I have analyzed throughout my career have all contained messages so specific to the individuals experiencing them, it was hard to imagine these incidents taking place without some sort of subconscious participation on the individual’s part.”

But neither is this the whole picture. These events have often involved circumstances that the individuals could not possibly have engineered on their own: dog attacks, automobile accidents, abrupt and devastating changes in the workplace, to name but a few. When these events were analyzed as if they were made up of metaphoric symbols—like a dream—the “dreamer” came away with a clear understanding of a conflict within himself that, before, he had only been confused about—or not even aware of. What’s more, his whole view of the structure of life was altered.

The implications are astonishing. “You can never again look at life the same way,” explains Rivinus. He has become convinced that our participation in life goes far beyond objective events. “We think life is about participating in or observing a series of incidents that happen around us,” he says. “But it’s also much more than that.” Rivinus feels that there is an overlay of metaphor to these events. “If you’re involved in an automobile accident, then that’s a literal car crash, of course. But metaphorically, it’s also the destruction of some other ‘vehicle’ that is meaningful to the car’s driver.” Rivinus says these events are so consistent that they are not coincidental.

Work as an educational therapist at an outpatient mental health clinic in the 1970s led Rivinus to a decades-long study of dreams. He has lectured and facilitated workshops in multiple countries across Western Europe and the Americas, and he has now documented his findings and methods in the book Always Dreaming. For more information, visit www.teacherofdreams.com.