Evaluation

1. The dreamer must be remembered in the dream as being in the active state, yet without dominating the dream actions of the whole dream.

2. The dreamer in the dream, the dream ego, must be aware of who or what it is in the dreaming of the dream, and realize at some point that the dreamer is receiving a dream of special significance.

3. The dreamer must consciously awake from the dream to realize the dream again in its imagery, feeling level and significance, and do what is possible to record accurately and as soon as possible the full dream. The dreamer must also tell someone else the dream and its significance. Simply telling the dream, without ever recording it, excludes the dream from being classified as a Great Dream because people tend to rework their dreams into positive stories in retelling their dreams from memory and never writing them down.

4. A Great Dream must clearly indicate in its actions and imagery that a process of positive value is being given to the dreamer in the dream. The dreamer must also respond positively and in a congruent fashion to being the recipient of positive, significant value.

5. The dreamer upon awakening must have a clear and fundamental understanding of the dream’s significance for the dreamer and for others upon awakening. The dreamer must feel inspired by the message and value of the Great Dream.

6. The dream itself must have a major challenge to the dreamer in the dream that means that dream ego will change in the dream in a significant and life-affirming way.

7. The dreamer must wake with the realization that a significant change needs to occur in the dreamer and his or her life because of the challenge of the dream. The dreamer must commit to actualize the value and message of the dream in a significant way.

8. A Great Dream that fails to inspire the dreamer in the waking life to change oneself and ones life in a significant way is not a Great Dream. Dreams of positive imagery and action can seem like Great Dreams but are really compensatory dreams in reaction to the dreamer being caught up in oneself and ones problems.

9. A Great Dream must not be compensatory but affirmative. Affirmative dreams are dreams that affirm a dreamer’s waking life choices made to further fulfill oneself in a healing and positive way for oneself and for others. All Great Dreams are affirmative but not all Affirmation Dreams are Great Dreams. We can have Affirmative Dreams that simply replicate outer life choices of a positive nature. We can have Affirmative Dreams of smaller changes or insights about oneself and life, but without the transcendent aspect of Great Dreams.

10. All Great Dream have aspects of the Higher Self, Transcendence, more cosmic or spiritual energy, more of the Primary Archetypes, such as the Journey, Death-Rebirth, The Center, or the Heroic. A Great Dream can also mirror other Primary Archetypes such as the Feminine, the Masculine, or Adversity. However, a Great Dream always has Opposites clearly at work in the dream, just as always the dream ego is in active, congruent and positive relation with the archetypes present in the dream.

11. A Great Dream always has congruence between the dream ego and the other parts, actions and figures in the dream. A Great Dream ends with a resolution based on completion, sacrifice of ego control and ego centricity, and the completion of a wholeness process within the dream itself.

12. A Great Dream always makes clear the completion necessary in terms of the dream’s wholeness and harmony, and also the choice the dreaming and waking ego needs to make to either complete the dream situation or take the next step that emerges in value out of the dream situation’s completion. A Great Dream mirrors completion.

13. A Great Dream may be the concluding dream in a series of dreams on a theme. The dreaming series itself shows the development and resolution of an important theme or issue in the dreamer’s life. Thus characteristics listed here may apply more to the series of dreams all connected by the major theme or issue. Yet the last major dream of the series will show the dream ego’s fundamental shift in perspective and action, as well as the resolution of the dream theme or issue itself.