Review of Understanding Dreams

In Understanding Dreams, Markku Siivola offers a practical, clear, easy-to-follow formula for conducting dream groups according to the Montague Ullman method. The beauty of this method is that it can be applied by anyone prepared to follow it to the letter, and requires no prior knowledge of, or training in, dream theory. Siivola likens a dream to an artwork, a fine sculpture, whose different sides and aspects can be revealed by illuminating it from different angles, until the dreamer receives an emotional connection – an aha – that enlightens his personal understanding of his dream. Siivola is careful to state that the goal is not dream therapy or psychotherapy, but simply that the dreamer reaches an understanding of his dream, though this in itself can be therapeutic for both the dreamer and the dream group participants.

Siivola is at his best in his final chapter where he freely explores and adores the sense of mystery inherent in and beyond dream reality. He draws on physics, quantum physics, biology, brain science, philosophy, metaphysics, spirituality, and art, to entice us toward connecting with the deeper realities of our existence.

-By Jane Teresa Anderson, Dream Therapist, author of Dream Alchemy