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Why do we dream? What function do dreams fulfil in our life?
Many researchers agree that dreams contribute in a large part to our physical, mental and spiri-tual health. They also found that if a person were not allowed to dream, s/he would suffer seri-ous psychological and psychic trauma. Let us look at what the specialists say.
There are three orientations that allow us to acquire an appreciation of the significance of dreams.
· The historical approach
· The psychoanalytical movement initiated by Freud, Jung and a few others in the first half of the XXth century, and
· Findings from laboratory researches.
1. THE HISTORICAL APPROACH
Until the start of the psychoanalytical movement, dreams did not have much meaning in western society. Nevertheless, if we go back far enough in time, we find that in the history of Mankind dreams have been revered in all the great religions and philosophic traditions, including Christi-anity. We now know that almost all important ancient civilizations saw dreams as the main vehi-cle for Divine Revelation.
· Egypt: In Egypt, for instance, dreams were perceived as a message from the gods. Some were a demand for penance and forewarned the dreamer of danger to come, while others brought answers to questions asked by the dreamer. Professional interpreters of dreams re-sided in temples built more than six thousand years before our era. They were called "the wise men of the Magical Library".
· Greece: The first Greeks also saw dreams as a visitation from the gods. A technique called 'incubation" that was also practice in Egypt, consisted of provoking dreams for a specific pur-pose. This technique was worked and developed to a very high degree in many hundreds of temples throughout Greece and the Roman Empire. The Greeks wrote about dreams from various perspectives.
Although Hippocrates rejected their divine source, he diagnosed illnesses from indications found in the dreams of a sick person. Plato was more interested in emotions and the implication of dreams in daily life. Aristotle rejected the divine nature of dreams. He theorized that dreams indicated physical conditions. He also believed that because dreams brought about ideas and actions, they seemed prophetic.
· Islam: Dreams have an important place in Islam. Parts of the Holy Quran were revealed in dreams. There is mention of the dreams of prophets such as Joseph, Daniel etc. in the Holy Quran. There are many traditions mentioning prophetic dreams of the Prophet Muhammad who also interpreted the dreams of his disciples. At the turning of the eleventh century, the Islamic society numbered thousands of dream interpreters.
· Biblical tradition: In the Bible there are about seventy references to dreams and visions. Daniel's book shows a sophisticated approach to dreams and their symbols and it seems his wisdom was directly due to his ability to interpret dreams.
After studying dream symbolism, Jeremiah suggested that to properly understand a dream one had to analyze it after a period of time. This was especially true if it foretold the future, for it was only then that the interpretation could be tested.
The New Testament shows that the First Christians considered dreams as the vehicle of Divine Revelation. It is written that the magi were guided towards Jesus by their dreams. The exile of the Holy Family to Egypt was the result of Joseph's dream, warning him of Herod's malevolent intentions.
· First Christian Era: Two Church fathers from Alexandria, Clement and Origen, were deeply interested in dreams. Clement considered sleep as an especially receptive period of spiritual reality, as in this state one is especially sensitive to the discovery of the soul's destiny. Ori-gen saw dreams as a representation of symbols revealing the nature of the nonphysical world. He said that many of the firsts Christians who were probably pagans, converted to the new faith because of dramatic dreams. Origen recommended care in the study of dreams, as even evil spirits could speak through dreams.
Dreams continued to fascinate Christians for almost eleven centuries, until the time of Thomas of Aquinas who was educated according to the Aristotelian school of thought and was one of the first to apply a rational approach to Christian teachings. Unfortunately, Aquinas also adopted Aristotle's approach in relation to dreams, reducing the dream phenomenon to a single physio-logical process. Therefore, from the eleventh to eighteen century dreams were relegated to se-cret dungeons until Freud's pioneering work.
2. THE PSYCHOANALYTICAL TRADITION
Philosophers of the Renaissance continued to follow Aquinas' approach to dreams; seeing them as mere images of the physiological state or valueless residues of past sensory experiences of the dreamer. Thinkers of the period saw no valuable link between the events of the dream and the personality of the dreamer in his waking state.
· Freud: Sigmund Freud rediscovered the relationship between dreams and the waking state. No doubt, he was the first in modern history to use dreams, and to study clues arising from them, about the origin of psychological troubles and mental illness. Freud's hypothesis was that the unconscious was the storehouse that hid from consciousness all the repressed sex-ual desires and aggressive tendencies that brought the individual in conflict with moral stan-dards of society. The individual had to repress these needs and desires to be able to function in an acceptable manner prescribed by that particular society. According to Freud, dreams expressed prohibited and amoral needs that were reprehensible to the consciousness of the person. Yet, even in dreams these desires were disguised, showing only an inexact image of the underlying motivation.
· Jung: According to Carl Gustav Jung, Freud only perceived the superficial levels of the psyche when speaking about the unconscious. Taking Freud's theory further, Jung detected more than a veil between the conscious and the unconscious: He saw a deeper level of the psyche to which he gave the name "collective unconscious". He saw that deeper level of thought as a large sea of images or archetypes forming the psychic heritage of all humanity. Jung ob-served that dreams helped us grow towards incorporation into the whole. This, he believed, was the principal objective of the human soul.
Since Jung's work, ancient approaches to dreams that had been ignored for more than eight centuries were effectively resurrected. Now, dreams are studied with greater respect. It is inter-esting to note that Jung's approach is as pleasing to theologians as to psychologists, easing and stimulating a renewed interest and study of dreams in the Christian tradition.
3. MODERN RESEARCH IN LABORATORIES
In 1953, a major breakthrough in the research on dreams took place. Specific physiological ef-fects occurring during the dream period of sleep were discovered; these were the REM. (rapid eye movement), erections with men, and the different cervical vibrations with all subjects, men and women. These discoveries allowed for the observation of the action of dreaming, so that research could follow the pattern of other scientific phenomenon. The main period of sleep dur-ing which we dream is now known as 'REM'. By measuring the cervical wavelengths during the sleep period, researchers can detect and differentiate between REM and non-REM levels; that is, periods during which we dream and others when we do not dream, or dream just a little.
It is interesting to note that the REM level is longer at the end of the sleep period. For most peo-ple dreams at the beginning of the night are of vague images and feelings rather than concrete visualizations.
Researchers have also found that a person kept from dreaming would gradually lost the faculty of thinking correctly, would sometimes behave in a socially unacceptable manner, there would be more and more loss of memory, and a heightening of tension and aggression.
In short, the scientific study of sleep has revealed it to be a biological and physiological state necessary to the experimentation of our states of consciousness through dreams. Essentially, during these periods we are unhooked from the physical World and have the possibility of be-coming more conscious of the non-physical aspects of our being. Maybe, as Clement of Alexan-dria suggested, it makes us more conscious of our destiny as spiritual beings.
Let's repeat the questions I asked at the beginning: Why do we dream and what is the function of dreams in our life?
We dream because it is necessary to our physical and psychological health. We dream because we are spiritual beings, creators, who have lost part of our creative faculties. We dream because our soul proposes a life full of harmony, discovery and adventure where it feels good to discover what we are capable of. We dream because the spiritual beings that we are would love it if its message were recognized for what it is: a divine message that invites us to return towards the Source of all blessings.
What is the function of dreams in our life?
They teach us how to become, once again, children of Providence by showing us, stage by stage, the steps we need to take to rediscover our spiritual state.
My dreams have taught me who I was, where I came from, how many times I came to Earth and what I still have to do to reach the zenith of my evolution and to accomplish what Jesus had accomplished: Assumption. My dreams teach me, day after day, how to change what I must. They have taught me how to interpret them. In fact, mostly because I apply the lessons learned in my dreams, I have become a little like the prophet Daniel. I have become wiser, thanks to my dreams.
What do dreams do in my life?
They help me understand and interpret the Bible. Yes, the Bible. That is how I learned that the Bible was the Way each person had to follow, to arrive at perfection and total or Christ Con-sciousness. The Bible is the Way that Amilius-Adam-Jesus followed to come "at the right of His Father", to vanquish death and thus become the principal Guide of Humanity.
I dreamed, many times, of Jesus and Mary, who came to show me certain texts of the Bible to study and interpret. Through other dreams I learned the reasons for the actions of the prophets and of other personages mentioned in the Bible.
Dreams are very important to me. They allow me to see the Plan, to understand men and explain their behaviour. I can now accomplish the mission I was charged with: That of teaching.
Now that we know a little better the dynamics of the dreams, let us look at the various aspects of dreams in the life of human beings. (What follows is mostly from Edgar Cayce).
First, let us see why we make bad dreams. When we start to work with dreams, we may discover that there could be reasons that would make us resist the unconscious, especially when a bad dream or a nightmare unbalances our enthusiasm. It is possible that, rather than risk a confron-tation, we stop remembering our dreams. If we remember the principles, we will be in a better posture to experiment with a more positive attitude.
1: Several bad dreams are the result of a physical imbalance of either a twisted spinal column, a moved vertebra or more simply a bad meal (such as eating pork before lying down) or bad elimi-nation. There may be other causes too that bring up strange dreams. One can purge the dreams where s/he feel in distress and abandoned by balancing each part of our system to the energy that lives within us, by praying or meditating, by walking or by any other gentle exercise. The golden rule is to eat wisely so that elimination is easy. The body will feel well and the soul will be able to work quietly.
2: Other not very pleasant dreams may be an encounter between the dreamer and an unspeci-fied aspect of the personality that the dreamer rejects. We often blame the dream for what is not pleasant in it, but this attitude is false. We are at fault when we do not see the insight a dream offers us. We must remember that, according to Cayce, almost all people in our dreams are facets of our personality. Here is a dream that will explain what can happen when we decide to face a difficult situation.
Dream: I am in a poor district of the city and it is very dark. A man chases me until I realize that I do not have to constantly run away from those who chase me. I stop running and turn to face the person. I touch him and ask whether I can be of help. He becomes very nice, and tells me that he and his girl friend need help. I follow him to the apartment the couple share, where we speak about their problem and I feel some love and compassion for both.
3: A bad dream can represent a part of us that needs assistance, our attention; it can also be a spiritual truth disguised as something ugly and repulsive. At the time of dreaming it may be a truth the dreamer has difficulty in accepting or rejects in totality. Therefore, it is necessary to look beyond appearances.
4: Dreams sometimes tend to compensate for some of the provisions of our conscious personal-ity. Consequently, dreams can show us doing things we would not normally do. For example, there may be a person who wants to help everyone. Yet, a dream may show the other extreme: The dreamer finds himself killing an innocent person.
Such dreams should not make one fear they harbour psychopathic desires. We should take into account the fact that our conscious efforts of behaving in a certain manner may be preventing us from expressing justified anger that would add to our personality and make us more balanced people.
4: Dreams sometimes tend to compensate for some of the provisions of our conscious personal-ity. Consequently, dreams can show us doing things we would not normally do. For example, there may be a person who wants to help everyone. Yet, a dream may show the other extreme: The dreamer finds himself killing an innocent person.
Such dreams should not make one fear they harbour psychopathic desires. We should take into account the fact that our conscious efforts of behaving in a certain manner may be preventing us from expressing justified anger that would add to our personality and make us more balanced people.
7: Birth and death, both frequent in dreams, generally represent new ideas and beginnings, or the death of our old ideas and old ways of being. Study that which is born or dies to have a clearer understanding. For example, a woman dreams that she goes to the burial of a minister's wife: This could mean that spiritual aspect of her personality is dying.
Now let us see what Edgar Cayce says in connection to dreams. Edgar Cayce, the most powerful clairvoyant of the modern era, was called the Man of Mystery of Virginia Beach. In a state of trance he did more than 14,000 readings including 1,000 on dreams. Here is what he says in reply to questions asked to him:
1. What are dreams?
Dreams are phenomena or experiments that the person uses and applies in everyday life. A per-son should approach dream interpretation with a creditable goal. Even if able to interpret the dream, the application remains an exclusively private question. Dreams are illustrations, not means of escape. They are given so that there is an understanding about how to apply and live them for our personal enlightenment, so that we understand ourselves better and live a better life in the spiritual plan or in a spiritual way.
Dreams, just as visions and impressions during normal sleep are representations of the experi-ment necessary for development, if the person wants to apply the lessons properly. These dreams, visions and impressions can be regarded as warnings, conditions that must be met in life, conditions that should be interpreted as lessons to learn, and truths to be accepted.
Dreams are a natural phenomenon. Do not see them as unnatural or supernatural. Dreams are natural. They are a part of human nature and are a sign of the activity of God, His association with man and a demonstration of His desire to give man a way of understanding.
2. At which age do we start dreaming?
REM indicates that babies dream a short time after their birth. We cannot know what they dream of, but it raises many interesting questions in connection with our former lives.
3. What happens to those who do not dream?
People who say they do not dream simply do not remember their dreams. If one attached elec-trodes to the eyelids of the dreamers and immediately awoke them after the REM they would remember their dreams.
4. What is the purpose of dreams?
In each person there exists a vast unexplored space that we do not understand, an interior giant who sometimes seems like an angel and other times a monster. This is the unconsciousness and we learn its language in dreams. There are moments when the language is retracted and split up, at other times it is detailed and complex.
At times the images are obscene and at others, very beautiful. Each person should ask: "Am I the Master of this giant, this genius; or is it he who directs me? Can it accept a conscious com-mand and cure the physical body? Can it cause disease? Can it lie to me? Does this giant have the ability to see further than normal perception?
What does it try to say to me when I sleep? Perhaps, by understanding its language, one can answer these questions, and consequently, open a communication with this other part of our Self.
Dreams can help us understand ourselves, become sources of intellectual stimulation, provide a report of our psychic experiments and are sources of inspiration in our spiritual search.
Dreams help us understand others and ourselves. If we practice having dreams, remembering, writing and interpreting them, dreams can help us achieve our goal in this life so that we arrive at our destinations, programmed or predestined. Dreams say something when we have construc-tive ideals and goals. They cannot say much when our ideals are poor or when we do not give them the importance they should rightfully have, or when we do not interpret them. Open your eyes when it comes to dreams. Do not reject them like images without valour1. Write them down. The most significant dreams could be those we do not want to write. Be honest. Write the dream as precisely as possible even if it sounds completely insane or seems to offend you.
5. How to interpret dreams?
You can approach the interpretation of dreams starting from several levels:
a) The level of ego: Often, each aspect of the dream says something in connection with yourself.
b) The level of the others: Environment. If people in the dream are people whom you know, the dream can say that you need to examine those features of your character.
c) The level of truth and logic: Ask yourself: Are my logic and reason good in this dream? Are my logic and my reason good enough in all the days of my life?
d) The level of telepathy: Is somebody projecting images in my dreams?
e) The level of the premonition: Does the dream announce a future event?
f) The level of reincarnation: Is this dream showing me scenes of one of my former lives?
Cayce insists: "... we can and should interpret our dreams. We are very complex individuals and dreams can highlight any of the aspects of our personality. To expect others to interpret our dreams can prevent our psychic development..."
Cayce: "... even if a person wishes it or not, the physical Consciousness is put aside during sleep. Experiments like dreams and visions form part of the activities of the invisible World, which is it true Self of the individual. And in the invisible World all is visible".
Cayce continues saying: "It is only through the successive experiments that the individual can develop. We cannot learn if we do not test. One should occupy oneself with dreams, but without forgetting common sense and logic. To be unaware of dreams it is to frustrate the Source. The response of all the problems is inside and the dreams are a means of discovering these answers".
Cayce finishes saying: "Have a book or a written record of dreams and symbols. To understand the dreams is comparable to learn a foreign language and that requires perseverance, practice and patience. The study of the subconscious, subliminal, the psychic forces of the soul, the hu-man point of view is and should be the subject of study of the human family. Because through self, man will understand His Creator when he understands his relation with Him. And he under-stand that through the study of his personality".
How to interpret dreams?
A comprehensive symbolic system is at the heart of all dream interpretation. Dream symbols are a significant part of the message transmitted by dreams. Although other non-visual dimensions such as the emotion and content of a dream, may also convey significant information. Conse-quently, without knowledge of the meaning of the symbols, dreams2 will remain a complete mystery.
Historically, several researchers wishing to simplify the interpretation of dreams gave the symbols a universal and eternal value. This attitude led to the publication of books based on symbols and their significance. Such an approach is based on the belief that the symbols constitute a com-mon language, stable and consistent through time and between cultures. At first sight this may simplify matters, but in fact, this design is too rigid, not allowing an individual personal associa-tions with the symbols of his own dreams.
According to another outlook, dreams are entirely personal; and no one other than the dreamer can interpret the dream. Taken to the extreme, this position would restrict us, as the interpreta-tion would be an exercise where we perpetually rediscover rather than build from compelling information received from the people who preceded us.
Carl Gustav Jung was the first psychologist who reconciled the two positions about dream sym-bols by recognizing two levels of unconscious: The personal and the collective. The personal unconscious is accessible through dreams and spontaneous imagery. This level of thought is composed of our personal memories acquired throughout life.
After several experiments, Jung realized that certain symbols seemed to be common to everyone, everywhere. This led him to conclude that there was a type of symbol independent of cultural, individual differences. He called these 'archetypes'.
1- We can therefore say that a more or less surface layer of the unconscious is undoubtedly per-sonal, 'the personal unconscious'. It rests on a major level that does not derive from personal experience, but was born at the same time as we did. Because of this, this layer is called the 'collective unconscious'. 'Collective', because this part of the unconscious is not individual, but universal. The collective unconscious is the dynamic process that acts on everyone, universally. The known elements of the collective unconscious are called 'archetypes'.
2- The system of symbology of the archetypes that is best conceived in Western civilization (be-sides that of Jung), is that of Edgar Cayce. During the 1930s, Cayce gave a series of readings on the Revelation of John. In the readings, he showed a system of symbology based on the seven levels of the human body, a system that approaches the systems developed in Eastern cultures. According to Cayce, some of the events and symbols tested by Jean (saint-John, writer of Reve-lation) could be connected to the seven spiritual centres of the body, where the infinite touches and reacts with specific glands of the body. These seven centres represent the basic dimensions of human life through which the Divine can be expressed.
A summary of these dimensions would be:
First level: Of sexual expression. It is on this level that we discover a vast reserve of sexual and CREATIVE energy and decide to express it. Dreams reflecting activity on this level often resemble the traditional dreams according to Freud in which the personality tries to decide ways of using this energy that often seems too large.
Typical Symbology archetype:
Color: Red;
Animal Symbols: Ox, elephant, rabbit, snake;
Occasions: Creativity and procreation;
Obstacles: Idleness;
Typical topics: Sexual dream, expression of artistic talents;
Other symbols: Sexual organs and act of love, the earth.
Second level: The Man-Woman balance. It is on this level that we try to acquire a balance be-tween the male and female forces. Dreams from this level of activities reveal contrary symbols, such as night and day, the yin and the yang, an androgynous being, etc.
Typical Symbology archetype:
Color: Orange;
Animal Symbols: Half animal, half man;
Occasions: (Balance) a mystical marriage of the aspect male-female;
Obstacles: Sexual temptation; domination of a sexual polarity on the other;
Typical topics: To meet a stranger, sexual dreams where the typical roles of domination are faded; marriages; eclipses;
Other symbols: Hermaphrodites or androgynous beings, kings and queens, the sun and the moon, Neptune and water.
Third level: Power, Initiative, Fear, Aggression. It is on this level that we come across the topics of power and the way in which it can be used. We also face the difficult task of converting our fears and aggression to courage. We find in dreams from this level, such topics as ambition, war, battle, courage and fear. It is a level that is all too familiar to us.
Typical Symbology archetype:
Color: Yellow.
Animal Symbols: Lion, tiger;
Occasions: Desire of personal capacity, anger, aggression;
Typical topics: Scenes of war, being attacked, somebody chasing us, being or becoming decisive.
Other symbols: Weapons, warrior, Mars, fire.
Fourth level: Human Love. It is on this level that we encounter romanticism, maternal love, compassion and jealousy. At this level we must decide whether our love will be a free gift or whether it is possessive and manipulating. Dreams on this level exhibit romantic scenes, attempts to form new relations and scenes of love at the emotional level.
Typical Symbology archetype
Color: Green.
Animal Symbols: Birds of all types symbolize various aspects of this level i.e., birds of prey sym-bolize the manifestations of human love or songbirds symbolize the most innocent aspects of love.
Occasions: Compassion, softness.
Obstacles: Jealousy, fear of losing the love, handling through the emotions;
Typical topics: Love song, to be friendly and to lose something expensive.
Other symbols: Heart, houseplants, spring, Venus, air, a face and Mother.
Fifth level: Will and Choice. We are confronted here with the questions: Whom will I serve? What do I choose for my life? Of what will my life be made? At this level there is sometimes tension between the personal will and the divine Will; between serving our own ambitions and serving the Spirit that lives within us. Dreams from this level present occasion where we will have to choose between two tendencies. Topics of vocation, authority and judgment also occur.
Typical Symbology archetype:
Color: Blue or blue-king;
Animal Symbols: Generally, there are no animal symbols starting from this level.
Occasions: Personal sacrifice: That your Will be made; choice and demonstration of power.
Obstacles: Selfishness; to give to Caesar what belongs to God; in other words, to choose to go to a restaurant rather than help a buddy who needs assistance.
Typical topics: Choice between two paths; whether one will speak up, or not; authority versus responsibility.
Other symbols: The cross, crucifixion, the mouth or the spoken word, the neck, the devil (which is the personification of the personal will), Uranus, ass = to be obstinate.
Sixth level: Higher thought and Memory. It is on this level that we become conscious of who we are and what we were. It is the level of the perception and the memory of the soul. When we become conscious of activity on this level of our being, we often meet the form of that which we adore, Christ, the Son, the Light. In general, dreams from this level have an illuminating signifi-cance that lasts.
Typical Symbology archetype:
Color: Indigo (between blue and purple);
Occasions: To have inspiring goals, to see the invisible and to remember.
Obstacles: Apparently none;
Typical topics: To transcend time and space; to obtain a new vision of the life and oneself; to meet Christ in a form where we can recognize It;
Other symbols: Single eye, 3rd eye, light; the Son, Sun, a star or heavenly object; Christ, a guru, a book or a book-shop; an earthquake, an open door, Mercury and a magic child.
Seventh level: Service, Wisdom and Integration. It is on this level that we meet the highest, in-ternal wisdom: The Godhead: God in us. It is the level of total wisdom. In religious traditions, God without Name, single God represents this wisdom. It is the seat of the highest Law that is the total gift of oneself in Love and Service! Ideally, this level of our being gives us control of all the other levels.
Typical Symbology archetype:
Color: Purple or crimson;
Occasions: Service and Control;
Obstacles: Tepid attitude or, more especially, a hesitation to be useful.
Typical topics: Harmonious work between various parts; wisdom expressed or Divine love through service, achievements;
Other symbols: Old wise man, father, God, roof of a mountain, silence, number 7, Jewish candle-stick with 7 branches, Jupiter.
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