Outline the nature of audit planning and describe its principal Essay

Outline the nature of audit planning and describe its principal objectives, identifying issues that you consider to be relevant to the planning of the audit of FXT - Essay Example Planning in auditing the books of FXT International Limited will ensure that the auditing process produces the maximum out of the minimum. The various aspects of auditing the books of FXT International Limited include vouching, verification and valuation (Kumar and Sharma, 2005, p. 59). It is Abacus’ plan to conduct an effective audit through an efficient approach that will last the shortest possible time. The basis of the auditing plan is FXT International Limited’s line of business. FXT International Limited offers structured financial products as well as financial derivatives to institutional investors. Therefore, the basis of the auditing plan is the understanding of the financial and derivatives market. Abacus will perform tests of control and procedures to come up with reasonable conclusions that will assist in the formation of an opinion on the client’s financial statements (Kumar and Sharma, 2005, p. 72). The plan will be based on FXT International Limited’s accounting system policies and procedures that direct its internal control processes. Concisely, some of the factors that Abacus will consider when planning the audit include: 4. Knowledge of FXT International Limited business apart from the reporting requirements of financial services institutions. It is the most important factors that Abacus will consider when planning an audit. It is the most important factor because it will enable Abacus to identify the events, transactions and practices that may affect financial information. Auditors will derive such knowledge from areas such as: The article of association will give auditors ideas about FXT International Limited’s size and nature. Additionally, auditors from Abacus will acquaint themselves with the management of FXT International Limited’s business (Kumar and Sharma, 2005, p. 80). Accounting standards requires that listed companies publish audited books of account. The rationale is

Regiment Essay Example for Free

Regiment Essay The United States thought that the Japanese were spying on us and was sent from japan just to spy. Even though no spying was recorded the United States just wanted to keep cautious. The Japanese were relocated in internment camps located in the west coast. However, in nineteen forty three president Roosevelt and the war department decided to allow these Japanese Americans to volunteer in an all American-Japanese regiment to fight for their country in World War two. In May nineteen forty three approximately one thousand five hundred volunteers from the United States and three thousand from Hawaii assembled for training camp at Shelby Mississippi. One month later they arrive in Naples, Italy. The all Japanese-American regiment group joined up with the one hundred infantry Battalion. After fighting ten days in Italy the combat groups got their first rest, dry clothes, and hot food. The battle of the lost battalion took place in October of nineteen forty four. The thirty sixth division was paired with the four hundred forty second regimental combat group to fight the German army in the battle of Bruyeres. Over two hundred of the thirty six battalion group were lost in the forest and are trapped on a steep ridge in the Vosges Mountain in France the German army surrounded them on this ridge. General John E. Dahiquist soon ordered the four hundred forty second regimental combat team to rescue the thirty six division group, this was a shock to the Japanese regiment because General Dahiquist was thought of as bias to Japanese by the Japanese. During this journey to the ridge many care packages containing food and supplies were dropped by air support but the packages would get tangled in the trees or in far distances. When the group entered the forest the forest was so dark the soldiers couldn’t see the soldier in front of them. So the soldier had to hold on to the man in front of them backpack. Finally throughout the way the combat team had to fight the German soldiers and ended up defeating the Germans. Even though they won they still sort of lost because the group lost over eight hundred soldiers just to save two hundred men. So if the Japanese Americans are C-4’s the Japanese Americans would have never sacrificed their lives to save the American soldiers. The Nisei men proved their loyalty to the United States and showed bravery. However no awards were awarded. Most people suggested that this was due to prejudice in the United States. In the year two thousand President Clinton awarded 20 medal of honors to the regiment. The Japanese-Americans helped shorten the war with a victory over the Hitler and his Germans soldiers.

Structural Consensus and Structural Conflict Theories

Structural Consensus and Structural Conflict Theories Compare and contrast structural consensus and structural conflict theories of social action with interpretivist perspectives that emphasize human agency In Sociology, one of the main concepts that have influenced social theory is structure and social action. Functionalism and Marxism fit into the structure view that emphasises the macro perspective; examining society as a whole and how it shapes human behaviour and ideas, therefore, in order to understand human behaviour, the social structures are in need of investigation (Brym Lie, 2009) . On the other hand, social action theories are voluntaristic. They focus on human interactions upon a micro level. It argues that individuals have free will and are not ‘puppets’; therefore, the actions and meanings of individuals create and shape the society. This suggests actions are not determined by structure. In this essay, these theories will be addressed in order to gain a better understanding of how they are relevant in today’s society. It is important to compare and contrast these theories through use of evidence and critical thinking as they often contradict each othe r but nonetheless create a wider understanding of human agency. In the first half of this essay, structural conflict is illustrated as an assumption that society is becoming more individualistic, though as a counter argument functionalism uses the idea of social solidarity, which leads to their further analysis showing their agreements and disagreements. A contrary debate is provided in the second section of the essay that focuses further on the humanist individualistic approach. However, Weber believes both structural and social action should be taken in to consideration in order to understand human’s actions efficiently. Functionalism falls into structural consensus theory that came into sociology in the middle of twentieth century, although, some of its ideas were present in the founders of sociology in the ninetieth century. It has been argued that the model that functionalism has created of society has led to other perspectives re-emerging in response to those ideas (O’Byrne, 2010). Thus the theory has made such impact on sociological thinking to this day. Functionalists such as Emile Durkheim (1858- 1917) whom is arguably one of the founding fathers of sociology firstly stressed consensus notion in social structure; stating that any human thinking is inherited rather than invented. This takes place in socialisation process that teaches humans to conform to norms and values or in other words- cultural behaviour considerably accepted in certain settings (Jones, 2003). He deemed this term ‘collective consciousness’; Durkheim described this as beliefs and ideas of a common human b eing in the same society (Punch et al, 2013). Furthermore, Durkheim explored society as a system and its function within the society. In order to explain this, use of organic analogy takes place as a way of describing how each social factor or institutions are interdependent for the society’s needs. For instance, if one body organ stops functioning, then the rest of the body cannot survive, this can be explained within social institutions too, without the nuclear family the society wouldn’t be able to form social cohesion and solidarity (Jones, 2001). On the other hand, other functionalists such as Talcott Parsons had similar ideas, though ‘for Talcott Parsons one of the central tasks of sociology is to analyse society as a system of functionally interrelated variables’ (Cohen, 1968, p.45). Although Parsons does links his ideas to Durkheim, that is, in the society the personal beings and their views need to be treated as variables as stated by Cohen (1968). In contrast to structural consensus theories mentioned above, Marxism is known as a structural conflict theory that has been influenced and introduced by Karl Marx (1818- 1883). Economics was highly influential for him as well how the working class sell labour power, which determines how we relate to one another (Duffy, 2009). The theory examines the conflict between bourgeoisies and proletarians, unlike functionalism, he focused on class conflict and how it can be settled. Though since his death, there have been many interpretations of his thesis, some that stick to structural explanations of capitalism, and others that emphasize human agency as a humanist approach (Fawbert, 2014). Louis Althusser (1918-1990) interpreted Marx’s work on a structural capitalist sense; however instead of solely focusing on economic determinism, he alternatively concentrated on politics and ideologies. He claims that these levels are objective. This is because he believes humans are not active ag ents in social change, as we do not shape our society. For Althusser, to understand why the capitalism hasn’t collapsed, the states and its exercise of power need to be examined. He has discovered the repressive state apparatus, which consists of institutions such as the legal system or the police. In addition to the political apparatus that is- ideological state apparatus that includes media, family, education etc. that shape human’s process of thinking. As a result, our structure can be interconnected, just like how certain structures of dominance changed in history (Jones et al., 2011). To summarise, in his view, human agency plays no part in social change but the structures, and the only way of capitalism being taken over is through its internal contradictions. Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), on the other hand was more of a humanist Marxist whom was famous for originating the notion of hegemony idea that there are constant ideologies to alter a person’s perspectives on the world. (Salamini, 1974) ‘For Gramsci, like Althusser, culture is relatively autonomous. However, unlike Althusser, social change is caused by cultural struggles as much as changes in economic forces.’ (Fawbert, 2011, pp.3). As this theory focuses on human agency and social action, it can be argued that it shifts towards the micro perspective due to the ideas moving away from the structural capitalism. This may suggest that the theory is more applicable to contemporary society as human beings have become more complex to understand as a result of constant social change. According to Punch (2013) Marxism and Functionalism have a few things in common, they both investigated the society from a macro perspective view instead of how individuals affect structure, and they were also both concerned about the society moving towards modernity and the ninetieth century industrialization as well as its effects on quality of life. This also included the introduction of theories of how modernity came about and its components. However, Marxists did focus more on the capitalism rather than the industrial society. Marx highly believed in political revolution of the working class that would involve rebellion, although his predictions have been criticised due to Eastern Europe Soviet Union destruction and rise of nationalism. However, it has been argued that in Marx’s eyes, these communists’ movements weren’t what he was hoping for. Durkheim, however, rejected the politics of revolution but did construct ideas about socialism. He focused greatly o n norms and values and social solidarity; therefore, a revolution would disturb these socially. Moreover, although Marxism is stated as highly deterministic, it can be argued that he does look at solidarity within social class. For instance, he believes that the proletarian does have to collectively rise up to the Bourgeoisie’s, sensing the idea of togetherness within the lower class. Though they had different motives, they both however, used analogy to explain the social structure. In this case Durkheim used organic analogy as explained above, whereas Marx used a building analogy – the base and the superstructure. The superstructure involves social institutions such as family and education, which supports class interests along with maintaining and legitimating the base through ideologies and culture. Economic base alternatively shapes the superstructure as it consists of means and relations of production that is owned by the bourgeoisie’s. This suggests that Marxists believed there are only two classes in which it is very difficult to move from one to another. Whereas functionalists disagreed with this and instead believed in meritocracy, the idea that if you work hard enough you can achieve through merit, essentially, gain success of what you deserve. This implies that if you put in enough effort, you can move from lower to upper class (Collins, 20 00). Moreover, both theories have been criticised for ignoring individual differences and their motives. This is because they strongly believe that the society shapes the individual instead of individual’s meanings and actions influencing the society, therefore the theories aren’t as applicable in contemporary society as it needs to examine human’s meanings to the world. Now we turn away from looking at macro perspectives to micro and their differences and similarities within. The ideas of interpritvist view of action and structure are displayed as contrary. Unlike structural theories, social action discusses the interactions between individuals in small groups and their motives; in result of this it is called social pragmatist theory. Human beings aren’t seen a puppets whereas the structure debate talks about individuals as predictable human beings. This then raises question on how the structure influence person’s actions and, in opposition, how does one’s actions alter the social structure (Morselli, 2014). There is a disagreement amongst the theories within social action when the discussion of the connection between society and action comes in. This is because theories such as ethnomethodology disagree with the concepts of wider structures but sees us as rational human beings and how we make sense of our everyday world (Bilton et al., 2002). While others such as G.H. Mead (1863-1931) who is symbolic interactionist stresses the socialisation as much as structural theories, in spite of this, he underlines the idea of reacting self and the behaviour expected. Mead has a base of three premises that tries to explain human agency. The first is that depending on what the thing is, humans will act certainly towards it, such as institutions, for instance, an individual would act differently in a school environment compared to a governmental institution. The second premise enhances the meaning of these things that it derived from- in most cases social interaction. Interpretive process then takes places in order to administer and modify such things (Blumer, 1986). Hence, Bilton (2002) suggests that although they are all micro theorist they interpret the terms of action and meaning inversely. Following on Meads work, these 3 premises challenged other sociological thinking, especially functionalism, to the view that solely the society determined human action and thinking. Evidence to back his theory was shown in Erving Goffman’s (1992-1982) work of whom was vastly influenced by Mead’s ideas of symbolic interactionism. His study tried to examine how social identity was defined by adaptation of certain roles, in this case, the mental asylum tried to reduce each inmate’s individuality through uniforms, haircuts, use of number instead of names, leading to each one of them changing his or her identity and self-image for the institutions interests (Calvert, 1992). Finally, Max Weber (1864-1920) took on an approach that combines social structure as well as agency theory emphasising motivational action. This differed to previous theories as functionalism greatly focused on institutions maintaining cohesion of wider structures, whereas Marx’s ideas were concerned on social class conflict as well as the origins of industrial capitalism. Though Weber rejected Marx’s view of economic determinism, he didn’t come across as falsifying them; he argued that Marx provided an unpolished portrayal of human motivation, therefore, lack of causal analysis of historical circumstances (Hughes et al., 1995). He also rejected the idea of universalism- that all societies go through same stages, due to meaningless infinity of complexity affecting each society differently (Chernilo, 2013). He therefore, tries to look at motivated social action as well as discuss large structures, such as cultural ideas. Weber’s vision was that we have move d away from traditional action to rational or in other words, goal-orientated. Individuals in our contemporary society start to think in a way to gain the benefits of the final goal and outweigh its consequences. Social structure becomes the outcome of this as our lifestyle is the product of our motives. As a consequence, Weber argued that modern capitalist societies are in a triumph of rationality. To explain this he used religion, specifically puritan protestant movement, which criticised the ‘catholic’ way of thinking. An example of this is his book The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism (1997). He found that Calvinism created the work ethic and asceticism that contributed to the rise of industrial capitalism; this maintained capitalism due to this religion accumulating constant wealth as a result of belief of predestination. The book moreover, states that the human actions can create consequences of rational thinking on a structural basis. Due to such disenchanted world, all superstition and values become pushed out cultural thinking. This is a crisis for Weber as then this leads to no meaning to the world in the way that religion has created previously (Jones et al., 2011) To summarise, the human agency has been evaluated variably depending on the theories. Durkheim mainly focuses on social solidarity influencing the decision making, although Marx agrees that society is responsible for shaping one’s opinion he’s more economical determinant. To balance this out, Weber brings in human’s motives and how these drives decision making upon an individual, as well as taking structural causes into consideration. Therefore, it can be argued that these sociology fathers have defined human agency but due their differences it is difficult to fully comprehend the affect the society has on human agency. References Bilton, T., Bonnet, K., Jones, P., Lawson, T., Skinner, D., Stanworth, M., Webster, A. (2002) Introductory Sociology, 4th edn., Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillian. Blumer, H. (1992) Symbolic Interactionism: Perspective and Method, California: University of California Press. Brym, R. Lie, J. (2009) Sociology: Your Compass for a New World, Brief Edition: Enhanced Edition 2edn., Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Co Inc Calvert, SP. (1992) Sociology Today, Hertfordshire: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Chernilo, D. (2013) The Natural Law Foundations of Modern Social Theory: A Quest for Universalism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Cohen, P. (1968) Modern Social Theory, London: Heinemann Education Books Ltd. Collins (2000) Internet-linked dictionary of Sociology, Glasgow: HarperCollins. Duffy, F. (2009) Marx, Social Change and Revolution’, Research Starters Sociology [Online] Research Starters, EBSCOhost (Accessed: 17 November 2014). Fawbert, J. (2014) Lecture 6: Structural and cultural Marxism: Althusser, Gramsci and the Frankfurt School, Understanding society, [Online] Available at: https://breo.beds.ac.uk (Accessed: 22 November 2014). Hughes, A.J., Martin, J.P., Sharrock, W.W. Understanding Classical Sociology: Marx, Weber, Durkheim, London: SAGE. Jones, P. (2003) Introducing Social theory, Cambridge: Polity Press. Jones, P., Bradbury, L., Boutillier, S., (2011) Introducing Social Theory 2edn., Cambridge: Polity Press. Jones, S. (2001) Durkheim Reconsidered, Cambridge: Polity Press. Morselli, A. (2014) Contemporary Capitalism between Human Action and Social Structure, Economics Sociology, 7 (2) pp. 11-19 EBSCOhost [Online] Available at: http://0-eds.b.ebscohost.com.brum.beds.ac.uk (Accessed: 17 November 2014). O’Byrne, D. (2010) Introducing Sociological Theory , Dawsonera [Online] Available at: https://www.dawsonera.com (Accessed: 15 November 2014). Punch, S., Marsh, I., Keating, M., Harden, J. (2013) Sociology, Making sense of Society, 5th edn., Edinburgh: Pearson. Salamini, L (1974) Gramsci and Marxist Sociology of Knowledge: an Analysis of Hegemony—Ideology—Knowledge, Sociological Quarterly, 15 (3) pp. 359-380 Wiley Online Library [Online] Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com (Accessed: 05 December 2014). Weber, M (1905)The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism,London: Routledge. 1

The Sixth Sense Essay -- essays papers

The Sixth Sense The Sixth Sense, directed and written by M. Night Shyamalan, follows the troubled life of eight-year-old Cole Sear, played by Haley Joel Osment, who is haunted by his supernatural abilities to see and communicate with the dead. Being sought after by the disturbed spirits of his hometown of Philadelphia, Cole must reconcile this frightening power with his desperate desire to be normal. Growing more isolated from his helpless mother and distrustful of his peers in school, Cole soon encounters child psychologist Dr. Malcolm Crow (Bruce Willis), who is led by obsessive ambitions, although weakened by the thought of his neglected wife. Still, Malcolm represents the only hope for dissolving the horror and restoring sanity. The main character would have to be Dr. Malcolm Crow played by Bruce Willis. Early on in the story is attacked by a former patient. The experience leaves him traumatized, and lost. Something inside him has died. Dr. Crow feels the only way to redeem himself for failing to help that former patient is to somehow find a way to help Cole. Wearing in a dull gray suit, he brings a sadness to his character’s detachment that supports the entire production. The movie The Sixth Sense is made in a very unconventional way. The end really changes the sequence of the movie. The end of the movie finally makes the whole movie understandable. There is a very strange flow in the sequence of the plot. In my opinion, the very last scene should have bee...

Book Report: “Deaf Again” by Mark Drolsbaugh Essay

Deaf Again is the story of Mark Drolsbaugh, and was written to show the world a deaf perspective, of how they live, struggle on a daily basis. Deaf Again is about Mark Drolsbaugh journey from being born hearing, to becoming hard of hearing during the first grade, and the difficulties of being forced into the mainstream and not knowing of the joys of the deaf community and deaf culture until he is in his twenties. Mark starts his story by talking about his mother’s natural birth. He was born in Pennsylvania to his deaf parents Don and Sherry Drolsbaugh. Mark was born able to hear and learned to talk and know a little how to sign because of his parents. This all changed when he was in first grade. Mark began to experience significant hearing loss. His grandparents were informed and Mark was taken to different doctors, audiologists, and speech pathologists to try to fix his deafness. Since Mark was not completely deaf, his grandparents held on tightly to what hearing and speech their grandson had left and to find ways to improve it. All the negativity that Mark dealt with towards being deaf, made him also feel negative towards his deafness. His Grandparents believed the way to improve Mark’s hearing was for him to keep attending school with children who could hear, because if he were to go to a school that would sign and help him accept his deafness it would â€Å"ruin† Mark ’s chance at being able to be â€Å"fixed†. School was difficult for Mark because his classrooms contained more than twenty students and the information he had to learn would only go over his head. Mark would wear hearing aids, and because of this he was also ridiculed and made fun, because he was different. Mark would get into fights and have report cards saying that his behavior could be improved. Mark’s grandparents made a smart move and had Mark transfer to Plymouth Meeting Friends School, PMFS for short. It was a small school with two teachers and eight kids to each classroom. Mark began the third grade at PMFS with welcoming children, making him feel comfortable. Mark not only would have a challenge with his deafness, but religion as well. Mark’s family was Jewish and would have problems when celebrations would come around. To relieve stress from school and his family, Mark would play baseball with the children in his  neighborhood. The problem was not playing baseball, it was his friend Sekou. Sekou was African American; during this era there was extreme racial discrimination. Sekou’s family was proud of their culture, while Mark wished his family had some pride with Mark being deaf. When it was time for Mark to shift to high school, his grandparent had him attend Germantown Friends School. Germantown Friends School was one of the best schools in Philadelphia, but the problem was that the school was much larger and the curriculum was known to be tough. Mark persevered and began attending the high school even though he would be the first student who was deaf at that school. At first the transition was very difficult because of Mark not knowing what was going on in the classroom and for a long time he was unable to catch up until he had an interpreter named Emily come to help. Despite his difficulties connecting to other students, Mark made many friends from joining the baseball team at GFS. Unfortunately, throughout his high school years Mark still felt inferior trying to fit into the hearing world. Mark knew he needed help and depended on his friends when they would go to parties he needed his friends to explain what was going on and as more people joined the conversation it became clear to Mark that it was pointless to ask â€Å"what did they say† etc. there were too many people for him to keep up with. He knew he didn’t belong and even though he tried, he knew people would always view him as different. Soon Mark graduated and he struggled with what he was going to do for the next chapter of his life. He took a job working at a supermarket and was satisfied with just that until a woman named Linda Baine offered him a position at PSD as a dorm supervisor. Working at PSD, Mark began to learn about deaf culture and the deaf community. With the shutting down of the dorms because of the small amount of students living in them, Mark was out of a job. Linda had encouraged him to attend Gallaudet University, a university for the deaf. Soon Mark transferred from Temple University to Gallaudet and moved to the university’s location, Washington D.C. Mark had never really had many friends who were deaf or was a part of deaf culture, but at Gallaudet, all that changed when he met fellow students who were just like him. He learned that he no longer had to try to fit in with the hearing world; he had finally found people who he could communicate fully and have meaningful conversations with people who saw him as their equal. At Gallaudet, Mark  also learned leadership skills and he learned to have the courage to speak up for himself. In hearing schools, Mark was unable to provide any input or offer discussion when it came to group projects because of the language barrier. But now since all his peers know sign language, he is able to express his opinion and lead when it came to schoolwork. It was there where Mark met his future wife, Melanie McPhee. Mark and Melanie would later get married and then graduate and both were successful in obtaining jobs within their community. Mark and Melanie have three kids together that are all hearing. Their children learned ASL as well as spoken language and are thus bilingual. Mark had a main argument throughout the book that he would bring up a lot; to teach deaf children ASL at a very early age. Instead of trying to force deaf children to speak spoken language, to teach them ASL because it is at these early years in a child’s life that language development be implemented in order for the child to not fall behind in school. The problem most parents are doing is not teaching their deaf children any language so when they enter school, they are far behind. Parent who do this are actually causing harm to the children cause now they believe they are not good enough and will live their life less than what they are. I agree with Mark because language is very important because in our society, we are constantly communicating and if a child does not learn this, they suffer greatly mentally and emotionally. Most professionals (and hearing parents of deaf children) see deafness as a disability, something that needs to be cured or fixed. When children see this attitude that their parents are against signing, the child picks that up and feels the same way that it is wrong to be deaf it is wrong to sign, and their self-esteem suffers. The other problem is that most deaf children that are born into hearing families don’t become a part of deaf culture and the deaf community. Mark never felt like he belonged in the hearing world but when he discovered the deaf community and deaf culture, he found the place where he belonged, with people who understood him. It’s important for children and adolescents to have a sense of belonging and that can only be found in the deaf community. A prime example of how the deaf community helps people who are deaf is Mark; his book is evidence that the deaf community helps the deaf find belonging in their community. As Mark Drolsbaugh puts it, the number one challenge was I-S-O-L-A-T-I-O-N. This is his story and how he overcame the obstacles and  became the deaf man he was born to be.

The Role of Dreams in the Human Psyche

Plan: 1) The history of dream perception in indigenous cultures. 2) The modern theories of sleep and dream interpretation. 3) Jung's archetypes. The Meaning of Sleep and Dreams identified by Freud, Jung, and other theorists. We all dream. Every night – as we dim the light of consciousness – we enter the realm of the dream. In this dream state our imagination runs free with little or no interference from our conscious mind. In the morning, when we awaken and return to consciousness, we may bring with us a recollection of the wanderings of our imagination – we remember the dream. To dream is natural, it is a universal experience. All people of all cultures enter into this dream state when they sleep. As sleep research has shown even animals dream. How we regard the dream, however, varies from culture to culture and from person to person. Originally the dream was held to be the voice of God. Most indigenous cultures hold that the dream is sent by the Great Spirit and serves to offer advice and instruction. This idea of the divinity of the dream can also to be found in ancient Egyptian and Greek society. In the Old Testament Jacob interprets a dream for the Egyptian pharaoh. Jacob explains that God has spoken to the pharaoh and warned of seven years of prosperity to be followed by seven years of famine. In Egypt and Greece the dream was considered as a message from the gods. â€Å"The Egyptian people believed that the gods revealed themselves in dreams, but the soul was not transported to another place or time. The Egyptians believed that dreams served as warnings, advice, and prophecy† (Agee, 2010) http://people. uncw. edu/deagona/ancientnovel (Diane Agee, 1). Both Egyptian and Greek society there existed temples where one would go to dream and receive healing or instruction from the gods. Homer's Iliad (8th century BC) tells the story of Agamemnon who receives instruction from Zeus through a dream. â€Å"Another element of Homeric dream interpretation, similar to that of the Egyptians is that not all dreams are prophetic, so people had to attempt to distinguish between â€Å"true† dreams and â€Å"false† dreams. For example, in the Iliad Zeus sent a misleading dream to King Agamemnon, which undermined his authorityâ€Å"(Agee). In this practice the sleepers actively attempted contact with divine beings. This practice reflects the Homeric view of dreams; according to this view â€Å"the dream was not conceived as internal experience, a state of mind, or a message from the irrational unconscious to the conscious ego. Rather, it was an objectified messenger, a supernatural agent sent by a deity† (Parman pg. 18)â€Å"(Agee). Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, used dreams as a diagnostic aid. In the near East the dream was considered to be a source of divine inspiration. Mohammed, the founding prophet of the Islamic culture, is said to have received much of what is written in the Koran through his dreams. In Christian tradition the dream was thought of as the word of God, or the work of the devil. The biblical legacy pertaining to dreams is very important. There are descriptions of forty-three dreams in the Old Testament, while in the New Testament there are nine (including apparitions and visions) (Sokolovskii, p. 27). St. John Chrysostom preached that God revealed himself through dreams (The life of St. John Chrysostom, para. 5, thenewarchive. om, p. 229 ), whilst other church fathers, such as Martin Luther, viewed the dream as the work, not of God, but the Devil. According to Luther it was the church, and only the church, which was the conduit of God's word. For Luther revelations made to people in dreams could only be diabolic (The Legacy of Martin Luther). http://home. inreach. com/bstanley/luther. htm In the Christian epoch the church and its s criptures supplanted the importance of the dream. The dominance of Christianity obscured the divinity of the dream, which was now considered superstitious. The rise of rationalism and science further undermined the value of the dream. To this day skepticism toward the value dream remains the predominant attitude. In the early part of the 20th century, however, the dream was championed by two great psychologists, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. For Freud the dream revealed that which the dreamer would rather keep hidden. By exploring the dream one was forced to face that which was suppressed and rejected within oneself. Jung had another theory. Jung felt that the dream acted as a mirror for the ego – revealing that which was missing within the consciousness of the dreamer. For Jung the dream acted as a teacher and guide on the road toward wholeness. With the work of both Jung and Freud the dream regained its status as a source of wisdom and healing. A series of dreams would develop, balance and refine the conscious awareness of the dreamer. Jung had rediscovered the age-old wisdom of the dream and its capacity to heal and make whole. Apart from healing, the dreams also seemed to be encouraging and actively participating in the growth and development of the personality. Jung termed this inherent drive of the psyche as the force of individuation, the force by which we become whole and indivisible. Freud, â€Å"The Interpretation of Dreams†: The conscious element of the dream lies in its remembrance, the unconscious element lies in its mystery and perplexity. Half conscious, half unconscious, the dream acts as a bridge between the known and the unknown. Physiological Theories and Stages of Sleep So now that we know why we need sleep, we need to know what is the thing, that actually puts us to sleep. Some may recognize the name melatonin, because it is sometimes prescribed for jet-lag or sleep deprivation. But we also create this chemical inside our bodies, although it is in much smaller portions. ttp://library. thinkquest. org Melatonin is a hormone secreted from the pineal gland in the center of our brain. â€Å"It is released when our eyes begin to register that the sun is beginning to set and darkness begins to fall†. This is the hormone that makes you go to sleep and is also used in our body to regulate our sleep-wake cycles. If you wonder why older people ten d to sleep less than younger people, it is because the amount of melatonin produced in our body seems to lessen as we age. Although sleep research has yielded a great deal of information on how we sleep, why we need to do so remains a mystery. There are two prominent theories of sleep function. One — the restorative model –assumes that sleep exists to service the brain in some way. According to this theory, non-REM sleep restores the relationship between the nervous system and muscles, glands, immune and other body systems. REM sleep maintains learning, reasoning and emotional balance. Another — the adaptive model — holds that sleep exists as an adaption to our biological clocks. Because it normally takes place during times of reduced physiological functions it may be a means of preserving energy for the hours when it is needed (source Are you Getting Enough? Harvard Women's Health Watch, 1070910X. March 94, Vol. 1, Is. 7. Academic Search Complete) Cortical and neurological theories of sleep compete with the neurohumoral theory, developed in the first quarter of the twentieth century. The brainstem theory, formulated in 1962, was associated with the discovery of a small region of cells in the brainstem thought responsible for dream generation and the secretion of acetylcholine. It gave way in the 1970s to the cortical-brainstem theory (the production of dopamine in the lobes of the brain was associated with dreaming). It became clear, moreover, that destruction of this group of cells due to injury leads to the extinction of dreams but not of the phase of paradoxical sleep† (Sokolovskii, p. 17). This poses the issue of the presence or absence of dreams in animals. If animals do dream, their dreaming † is probably limited to what Freud called Tagesreste (residues of daytime impressions) and â€Å"childish dreams,† the significance of which lies in the fulfillment of desires unfulfilled in the waking state†(p. 17). The so called work of dreaming, which encodes the true meaning of a dream (condensation, displacement, symbolization, repression, and the other mechanisms of dreaming that make its content non-obvious and decodable only through interpretation), â€Å"is apparently connected with the presence of developed language and with the play of signifiers and is conditioned by it† (p. 17). It therefore cannot exist in animals that do not have such a developed second signal system. A typical night's sleep consists of a number of cycles lasting about 90 minutes in length. Each of these cycles is made up of four separate stages. During stage one, we are entering into light sleep. This stage is characterized by Non-rapid eye movements (NREM), muscle relaxation, lowered body temperature and slowed heart rate. The body is preparing to enter into deep sleep. Stage two is also characterized by NREM, this stage is characterized by a further drop in body temperature and relaxation of the muscles. The body's immune system goes to work on repairing the day's damage, the endocrine glands secrete grown hormone and blood is sent to the muscles to be reconditioned. In this stage, you are completely asleep. Stage three is just a deeper sleep. Your metabolic levels are extremely slow. And, finally, the famous REM, or rapid eye movement stage, occurs about every ninety minutes of sleep. In this stage of sleep, your eyes move back and forth erratically. It occurs at about 90-100 minutes after the onset of sleep. Your blood pressure rises, heart rate speeds up, respiration becomes erratic and brain activity increases (source). Your involuntary muscles also become paralyzed. It is called in the mnemonic for medical students as an â€Å"awake brain in the paralyzed body†, as opposed to stage one through three characterized as â€Å"idle brain in the awake body†. An EEG would record brain waves resembling those you would see when you are active. This stage is the most restorative part of sleep. Your mind is being revitalized and emotions are being fine tuned. The majority of your dreaming occurs in this stage. These stages repeat themselves throughout a night's sleep. (source) The following diagram shows our sleep cycle: source Sleep Wake Cycle The Meaning of Sleep and Dreams Identified by Freud, Jung and other theorists The function of dreams is that by reproducing difficult or unsolved life situations or experiences, the dream aids towards a solving or resolution of the problems. pic]â‚ ¬Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€š ¬ Freud called dreaming â€Å"the royal road to the unconscious† Our personality as a whole, like every organism, is working towards its own fulfillment. ’ He connects this even more directly with the overall self-regulatory physical processes in saying ‘There is in the psyche an automatic movement to ward readjustment, towards equilibrium, toward a restoration of the balance of our personality. This automatic adaptation of the organism is one of the main functions of the dream as indeed it is of bodily functions and of the personality as a whole. Dreams are the product of the unconscious mind . In the deeper state of Delta, our minds are resting even more fully and we are further distanced from the physical world. Perhaps it is in this state that we can receive cues from the energy of people and situations that we are connected with in waking life or from Jung's collective unconscious. Since dreams were a way of communicating with the unconscious, Jung felt that the imageries in dreams were a way of revealing something about ourselves, our relationships with others, and situations in our waking life. Dreams guided our personal growth and helped to self achieve our potential. Often discussing what is currently going on in your life, helps to interpret and unlock the cryptic and bizarre images of your dreams. Jung’s sleep theories are closely associated with his f archetypes. Jung's theory divides the psyche into three parts. The first is the ego, which Jung identified with the conscious mind. The second part is the personal unconscious, which includes anything which is not presently conscious, but can be. The personal unconscious includes both memories that re easily brought to mind and those that have been suppressed because of being painful or too difficult to accept as a part of reality for some people. But it does not include the instincts, or id – aggressive drives, that Freud would have it include. But then Jung adds the part of the psyche that makes his theory stand out from all others: the collective unconscious. You could call it your â€Å"psychic inherita nce. † It is the reservoir of our experiences as a species, a kind of knowledge we are all born with. And yet we can never be directly conscious of it. It influences all of our experiences and behaviors, most especially the emotional ones, but we only know about it indirectly, by looking at those influences. There are some experiences that show the effects of the collective unconscious more clearly than others: The experiences of love at first sight, of deja vu (the feeling that you've been here before), and the immediate recognition of certain symbols and the meanings of certain myths, could all be understood as the sudden conjunction of our outer reality and the inner reality of the collective unconscious. Grander examples are the creative experiences shared by artists and musicians all over the world and in all times, or the spiritual experiences of mystics of all religions, or the parallels in dreams, fantasies, mythologies, fairy tales, and literature of different cultures. A nice example that has been greatly discussed recently is the near-death experience. It seems that many people, of many different cultural backgrounds, find that they have very similar recollections when they are brought back from a close encounter with death. They speak of leaving their bodies, seeing their bodies and the events surrounding them clearly, of being pulled through a long tunnel towards a bright light, of seeing deceased relatives or religious figures waiting for them, and of their disappointment at having to leave this happy scene to return to their bodies. Perhaps we are all â€Å"built† to experience death in this fashion. Quite a few people find that Jung has a great deal to say to them. They include writers, artists, musicians, film makers, theologians, and, of course, some psychologists. Examples that come to mind are the mythologist Joseph Campbell, the film maker George Lucas, and the science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin. Anyone interested in creativity, spirituality, psychic phenomena, the universal, and so on will find in Jung a kindred spirit. But scientists, including psychologists, have a lot of trouble with Jung. Not only does he fully support the teleological view (as do most personality theorists), but he goes a step further and talks about the mystical interconnectedness of synchronicity. Not only does he postulate an unconscious, where things are not easily available to the empirical eye, but he postulates a collective unconscious that never has been and never will be conscious. There is still a lot of work to be done to connect our knowledge in physiology and psychology of dreams. The French neurophysiologist Michel Jouvet, author of the novel Le chateau des songes [The Castle of Dreams ] (Jouvet 2000) and discoverer of the phase of paradoxical sleep, analyzed 6,600 of his own dreams before concluding that two kinds of memory—long-term and short-term—were used in them. Physiologists have yet to reach a consensus concerning the mechanisms of sleep and dreaming.