I am doing a research paper on the meaning of dreams. I strongly believe that dreams do have meaning. I believe they can be therapeutic and can reveal things about people that would not be realized in any other state of awareness.

I am running into a problem, though. Most everything I've looked up had to do with physiological studies of the brain- and why dreams would have limited or even no meaning at all.

I mean... dreaming isn't a clear phenomenon that can be studied in solely physical ways. It just seems like... scientists study every physical aspect of the brain and think they know everything there is to know about dreaming. I read in an article by Robert Wilkerson that there's kind of a "brain-mind" split and that the mind can't be physically studied like the brain.

I wanted to know if anyone possibly knew any resources that could refute some of the scientific statements made by these people, pertaining to dreams' meanings. I'm not trying to say that they're wrong about their research- all I'm saying is, there's more to dreaming than the physical aspects of the brain. I know that when it comes to dreaming, opinions are what we have to rely on. I'm not saying that's a bad thing- I think it's a great thing, because we can all hypothesize and come up with a million new theories, and never be completely right or wrong.

So basically, I guess I'm asking.... what are the known facts about dreams? What can we safely assume is true, and what aspects of dreaming are completely left to our own opinions?

Thanks!!