DREAMS AS AN ALTERNATIVE REALITY: C. G. JUNG AND MODERN THEORIES OF CONSCIOUSNESS

ABSTRACT

This paper examines dreams as a form of alternative reality through a comparison of C. G. Jung's ideas with modern neuroscientific and philosophical concepts. The Jungian approach, current theories of consciousness and their points of intersection are analyzed.

Keywords: dreams, the collective unconscious, archetypes, consciousness, alternative reality.

1. DREAMS IN THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY AND PSYCHOLOGY

The idea of sleep as a different state of consciousness is still present in ancient philosophy. Plato associated dreams with the realm of the immortal soul, while Aristotle interpreted them as a reflection of sensory perceptions. In the Middle Ages, dreams could be interpreted as messages from God or temptation. In the age of Enlightenment, they began to be considered a psychophysiological by-product [4, p. 174].

Psychoanalysis proposed a new interpretation of sleep. Z. Freud saw in dreams the realization of suppressed desires [8, p. 64]. However, C. G. Jung proposed a different concept: Dreams do not just express personal experiences, but are also connected with the deep structure of the psyche — the collective unconscious [10, p. 83]. Dreams, according to Jung, perform a compensatory function and contain archetypal symbols common to all people.

Modern research confirms that dreams are not a chaotic flow. They reflect emotional processing, memorization of events and restoration of mental balance [3, p. 201]. Thus, the history of dream perception demonstrates the transition from the mystical to the symbolic, and then to cognitive understanding. This creates the basis for interpreting sleep as an alternative reality with its own laws.

2. C. G. JUNG'S CONCEPT OF DREAMS

Carl Gustav Jung proposed an original understanding of dreams, different from the Freudian one. He argued that dreams not only reflect individual conflicts, but also reveal universal, collective aspects of the psyche. At the center of his concept is the idea of the collective unconscious, which stores archetypes — the original images common to all people [10, p. 83].

Jung considered dreams as a symbolic form of communication between the unconscious and consciousness. Archetypes appear in dreams in the form of images of a mother, a shadow, an elder, a hero, and others. These images cannot be interpreted literally and require analysis in the context of the dreamer's personality and life situation [5, p. 58].

The compensatory function of sleep occupies an important place in Jung's theory. Dreams balance the conscious state of a person. If a person suppresses feelings while awake, they can manifest themselves in a symbolic form in a dream, allowing the psyche to restore balance [10, p. 112].

Dreams, according to Jung, are also involved in the process of individuation — the development of a holistic personality. They direct attention to those parts of the Self that are not yet integrated. Thus, dreams become a tool of self-discovery and inner transformation [10, p. 137].

Example: a dream in which a person encounters a snake or a strange creature may symbolize an encounter with a "shadow" — a repressed aspect of the personality. In Jungian therapy, such dreams are considered as a step towards self-awareness and acceptance [10, p. 203].

Jung believed that dreams have a different kind of reality: they express not an external, but an internal truth, and therefore are no less significant than the waking experience. In this sense, the dream appears as an alternative reality with an independent structure, language, and meaning.

3. MODERN APPROACHES TO DREAMS AND CONSCIOUSNESS

Modern science considers dreams as an important phenomenon in the structure of consciousness. From the point of view of neurophysiology, they occur mainly in the phase of REM sleep and are associated with the activity of the limbic system, areas responsible for memory and emotions. At the same time, the activity of the prefrontal cortex, responsible for logic and control, decreases, which explains unusual and illogical sleep patterns [3, p. 207].

According to Hobson and McCarley's activation-synthetic theory, the brain receives internal neural signals during sleep and seeks to synthesize them into a coherent narrative. Although this model was initially considered reductionist, it was later recognized that dreams reflect emotional experiences and personal memories [9, p. 49].

In the philosophy of consciousness, dreams are increasingly interpreted as an alternative state of subjective experience. For example, integrative information theory (IIT) by J. Tononi defines consciousness as the ability of a system to integrate information. In a dream, the brain creates a closed model of reality without relying on sensory input, which indicates the autonomy of dream consciousness [7, p. 106].

Thomas Metzinger describes dreams as a phenomenon of modeling oneself and the world. He emphasizes that in a dream, the subject experiences a full-fledged form of "I", despite being disconnected from external reality. Thus, sleep is a virtual reality created by the brain, in which the personality functions as inside the world [6, p. 227].

Lucid dreams are of particular interest, in which a person realizes that he is dreaming. Studies show that such states are accompanied by activation of the frontal parts of the brain, which makes them similar to wakefulness. They confirm that the levels of consciousness can be flexible and switchable [2, p. 89].

Thus, the modern scientific and philosophical view of sleep supports the idea that dreams are not an illusion, but a functionally significant form of consciousness with its own internal logic and cognitive tasks. These ideas echo the Jungian interpretation of sleep as a special space of subjective reality.

4. COMPARISON OF C. G. JUNG'S VIEWS AND MODERN THEORIES

Despite the differences in methodology, C. G. Jung's approach and modern scientific theories of dreams show a number of similarities. Jung saw dreams as an expression of archetypes and symbols of the collective unconscious that could influence personal development. Modern research, in particular Tononi's theory and Metzinger's approach, assert that dreams are an autonomous model of consciousness in which the subject experiences himself in a virtual but integral reality [6, p. 227; 7, p. 109].

Both concepts recognize dreams not as a random phenomenon, but as part of a person's mental organization. For Jung, it is a path to self—knowledge through symbolism; in science, it is a mechanism for processing information and stabilizing the "I" [3, p. 211; 10, p. 112]. Thus, a dream can be understood as an alternative reality — not a copy of the waking world, but an independent space of subjective experience.

A comparison of the key provisions of the Jungian approach and modern theories is presented in Table 1.

Table 1

Comparative characteristics of C. G. Jung's approaches to dreams and modern theories of consciousness

This brings Jungian symbolism closer to modern neurophilosophy: both sides emphasize that dreams do not just reflect the external, but actively construct the internal. In a dream, a person functions, develops and experiences, which makes this state of consciousness significant for understanding human nature.

CONCLUSION

The phenomenon of dreams continues to be an important object of research in philosophy, psychology, and the science of consciousness. The article showed that C. G. Jung's approach and modern neuroscientific and philosophical theories, despite the difference in methods, agree in recognizing sleep as a special, alternative state of subjective reality.

Jung viewed dreams as a symbolic language of archetypes and a path to self-discovery. Modern researchers confirm that dreams perform cognitive and emotional functions, form a model of Self, and process internal conflicts. Both approaches emphasize that dreams are not a byproduct of the brain, but an important part of the structure of consciousness.

Thus, dreams can reasonably be interpreted as an alternative reality in which a person continues to exist and develop. This makes the study of sleep not only a task of neuroscience, but also philosophical challenges related to understanding the nature of human existence and the boundaries of consciousness.

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