Dreaming Mind

Image as Intelligence

Phyllis Hampton

01 Feb 2026

Images are often treated as decorations of thought—secondary, symbolic, or merely illustrative. But in the dreaming mind, image is not an accessory to meaning.

It is meaning.

Before language forms, before narrative organizes, before explanation becomes possible, awareness moves through image.

This is why dreams speak in image.
Not because they are vague, but because they are precise.

An image is not asking, "What do I stand for?"
It is asking, "What do I feel like to be with?"
Image is not meant to be translated.
It is meant to be entered.

This is image as intelligence.
Relational.
Somatic.
Spatial.
Alive.

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