Dream symbols and prevalent personae in the best and worst dreams of Christian University students

Abstract

The paper explores dream symbolization and prevalent dream personae in the best and worst dreams of university students. Thirty male  and thirty female English major Christian students at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria were used as samples. Among the findings were:  symbolization in the dreams of the students was clearly outside university academic work or other campus experiences; symbolization  was largely verbal and not visual; generally. Verbal symbols (i.e. words) standing for referents in the outside world were higher than  those standing for referents in the world of the imagination in the dreams. Symbolization relating to the past featured least in the  dreams while the present featured most. The overall attempt in the work was to juxtapose science and psychoanalysis (through dreams)  with Christianity via the sixty Christian students used as samples to exemplify and particularize, from a novel angle, the nexus in the  science and religion dialogue.