To Begin With, Our Dreams
Last night, I had the strangest dream!” How many
conversations in your life have started that way? People are
fascinated with the movies that play in their head while
they’re sleeping. Some believe that dreams can predict the
future. Others say that dreams depict real life. Still others
believe that dreams are a manifestation of what we want to
be.
Interpreting dreams has evolved over the years to what
some consider an art form. We spend one-third of our lives
sleeping. In the average lifetime, six years is spent
dreaming. That’s more than 2,100 days spent in a different
world! Every night, we dream an average of one to two
hours dreaming and usually have 4-7 dreams per night.
Consider some of these other facts about dreams and
dreaming:
1. Everybody dreams. EVERYBODY! Simply because you
do not remember your dream does not mean that you
did not dream.
2. Dreams are indispensable. A lack of dream activity
can mean protein deficiency or a personality disorder.
3. Men tend to dream more about other men, while
women dream equally about men and women.
4. People who are giving up smoking have longer and
more intense dreams.
5. Toddlers do not dream about themselves. They do not
appear in their own dreams until the age of 3 or 4.
6. If you are snoring, then you cannot be dreaming.
7. Blind people do dream. Whether visual images will
appear in their dream depends on whether they
where blind at birth or became blind later in life. But
vision is not the only sense that constitutes a dream.
Sounds, tactility, and smell become hypersensitive for
the blind and their dreams are based on these
senses.
The dream world is fascinating full of speculation, hope,
and sometimes even fear. We can wake up from a good
dream feeling refreshed and hopeful. On the other hand, we
can wake up from a bad dream feeling tense and
apprehensive.
Ever since Freud's Interpretation of Dreams was
published, there has been recognition of the importance of
dreams. But even before that there were dream
interpretations. People had superstitious notions about
dreams - for example, "Something is going to happen
because I dreamed it was going to happen."
This is a common misconception. Regardless of what
some people might say, if you dream you are falling and
don’t wake up before you hit the ground in your dream, you
will not die. If you dream that someone close to you dies,
that’s not an omen to warn you of their death. Dreams do
not predict the future.
What dreams can do is provide a sense of insight into
ourselves. They can help us cope with situations we’re
unsure about. They can guide us in a certain direction when
faced with uncertainty. They can simply give us an overall
good feeling as we dream of something pleasant.
The dream state is an experimental playground which
gives you a chance to explore and express emotions without
the usual inhibitions you may display in your waking life.
Dreams provide an avenue of expression for that part of
yourself that knows both your history and your potential as
a spiritual being.
They are another way the universe provides guidance
about relationships, careers, and health problems. Through
dreams you may find answers to your spiritual questions and
even receive encouragement to some challenge in your life.
While some dreams may allow you to release bottled
emotions from your day's activities, others can lead to
profound insights in a psychological or spiritual way.
Acquiring the ability to interpret your dreams is a
powerful tool. In analyzing your dreams, you can learn
about your deep secrets and hidden feelings. No one is a
better expert at interpreting your dreams than yourself.
In this book, we’ll look at dreams and dreaming as a
science as well as the various meanings that dream content
can have. This is not meant to be a definitive guide to
dreams. It is simply a starting point for you to look at what
“movies” your sub-conscious is creating at night and how
you can apply it your life and affect change if needed.
Remember that a dream unifies the body, mind, and
spirit. It provides you with insight into yourself and a
means for self-exploration. In understanding your dreams,
you will have a better understanding and discovery of your
true self. So stay awhile -- explore, discover, have fun,
and find out what's in your dreams!
DID WE ALWAYS DREAM?
That may seem like a silly question, but think about
early man. Have people always dreamt even when the
world around them was quite simple and mundane? The
answer is yes. While we cannot have definitive proof of
paleo-man, we can know that back in the Roman Era,
striking and significant dreams were submitted to the
Senate for analysis and interpretation.
What did man do with these odd images that
appeared during their sleep? Well, they did what we do
today – tried to interpret them!
Dream interpretations date back to 3000-4000 B.C.
where they were documented on clay tablets. For as long
as we have been able to communicate our dreams, we
have been fascinated with them and strive to understand
them.
People in primal societies were unable to distinguish
between the dream world and reality. They not only saw
the dream world as an extension of reality, but that the
dream realm was a more powerful world.
Back in the Greek and Roman era, dreams were often
seen in a religious context and messages from the gods.
Temples, called Asclepieions were built around the power of
dreams. It was believed that sick people who slept in these
temples would be sent cures through their dreams.
In Egypt, priests also acted as dream interpreters. The
Egyptians recorded their dreams in hieroglyphics. People
with particular vivid and significant dreams were believed
to be blessed and were considered special. People who had
the power to interpret dreams were looked up to and seen
as divinely gifted. In the bible, there are over seven
hundred mentions of dreams. Tracing back to these ancient
cultures, people had always had an inclination to interpret
dreams.
Dreams were also seen as prophetic and an omen
from outside spirits. People often looked to their dreams
for signs of warning and advice from a deity, from the dead
or even the works of a demon. Sometimes they look to
their dreams for what to do or what course of action to
take.
Dreams often dictated the actions of political and
military leaders. In fact, in the Green and Roman era,
dream interpreters even accompanied military leaders into
battle to help. Some interpreters aided the medicine men
in a diagnosis. Dreams offered a vital clue for healers in
finding what was wrong with the dreamer.
Dreaming can be seen as an actual place that your
spirit and soul leaves every night to go and visit. The
Chinese believed that the soul leaves the body to go into
this world. However, if they should be suddenly awakened,
their soul may fail to return to the body. For this reason,
some Chinese today, are wary of alarm clocks.
Some Native American tribes and Mexican civilizations
share this same notion of a distinct dream dimension. They
believed that their ancestors lived in their dreams and take
on non-human forms like plants. They see that dreams as a
way of visiting and having contact with their ancestors.
Dreams also helped to point their mission or role in life.
During the Middle Ages, dreams were seen as evil and
its images were temptations from the devil. In the
vulnerable sleep state, the devil was believed to fill the
mind of humans with poisonous thoughts. He did his dirty
work though dreams attempting to mislead humans down a
wrong path.
In the early 19th century, dreams were dismissed as
stemming from anxiety, a household noise or even
indigestion. Hence there was really no meaning to it. Later
on in the 19th century, Sigmund Freud revived the
importance of dreams and its significance and need for
interpretation. He revolutionized the study of dreams. atj
