Dreams or Dreamers? Part One

From my Encyclopedia.

DREAMS OR DREAMERS?: -

“We are told by Herodotus that in the temple of Bel {This is the Keltic god known as Ba'al by the Phoenicians, Bel might have been in Babylon through the Byblos city on the Persian Gulf that sold ships to the Egyptians in 2900 BC. Later Byblus in Lebanon is thought to be what some [who try to limit Phoenician interest] call Byblos as a small part of a decreasing international influence.} in Babylon, a priestess lay on a bed ready to dream visions of the second class, and that the beds of such soothsayers were often made of the skin of a ram --is well known.

The ancient Hebrews obtained such dreams by sleeping among tombs, and this especial gateway to the supernatural world seems to have been, and still is known to the majority of nations, primitive and civilized, as intimately as hypnosis and other methods of reaching its planes and hearing its pronouncements. Sleep was, of course, often induced by drugs, whether the soma of the Hindus, the peyote of the ancient Mexicans, the hashish of the Arabs, or the opium of the Malays or Chinese, and these narcotics which have the property of inducing speedy sleep and of heightening inward vision were and still are greatly prized by professional dreamers allover the world, especially as they rendered dreaming almost immediately possible.” (10)

'Professional dreamers' following visions from above and divining our future, quickly became willing to sell their advice to those who threatened them if they didn't. The dependence on such easy answers continues among the mass of population ‘til this moment as 'experts' and politicians join the media in a free for all. We believe the breakdown in matriarchal influence and egalitarian governance created this cauldron of deceit in the Mediterranean after the influx created by the rising waters that formed the North Sea due to glacial effects if not sooner, when the northern 'Hyperboreans' colonized the area. The issue of what is real about dreams is open for debate to say the least but there are many who think they can interpret the chaos of these partial insights. Personally I enjoy the practice, if there is something positive to say but I regard 'free will' as the most important ingredient in what really makes the world 'go round'. William James and his book 'Pragmatism' was important to Carl Jung whose work in dream interpretation sets the stage for many symbolic and archetypal interpreters to this day.

"The first treatise on the subject was that of Artemidorus, who lived in the time of Antonius Pius. He differentiated between the dreams of kings and those of commoners, as he believed that the visions of royalty must have reference to the commonwealth {The Bible and the plagues predicted by Joseph, for example.} and not to the individual {No reason in common sense or science to believe this. Carl Jung was a commoner who saw the First World War in advance. Tesla's vision led to many great and useful inventions - however dreams are seldom so vivid or what one can call 'flashes of illumination' - that is an entirely different phenomena.}. Dreams which represented something as happening to the individual who dreams them, show that they have a personal significance, whereas if the dream relates to another it will concern him alone. He detailed the numerous species of dreams throughout five books, and then adduced numerous examples. The rules of Artemidorus are far from clear, and according to them, any dream might signify any event, and any interpretation of the same might be considered justifiable.

The method of testing dreams according to Amyraldus in his 'Discours sur les Songes divins' (Saumur, 1625) is whether the instructions and advice that they contain make for good or ill--a test it is impossible to apply until after the result is known. But Amyraldus surmounts this difficulty by proposing to test dreams by the evidence they show of divine knowledge--by asking oneself in short, whether the dream it was desired to examine gave any evidence of such things as God alone could know.

It would seem from an examination of such dreams as were submitted to the diviners of antiquity that the symbolism they exhibited was of a character so profound that it could only be unriddled by an interpreter who received divine aid, such as was afforded in the case of Moses or Daniel in the Bible. It is plain, however, that the most far-fetched interpretations were given to many of the most epoch-making dreams of antiquity, and indeed, the oneiocritical {Greek dream interpreters} system is one of the weakest spots in the armor of occult science, and was the first of its departments to fall into disrepute and become the prey of charlatans.

There are serious students of the occult who doubt entirely the occult significance of dreams, and it must be granted that no good reason exists for classing them generally with the vision, or a condition of 'second sight' or ecstasy." (11)

The amount of time we live in our dream state is substantial and there are many things we can work upon in our dreams. To regard it as occult is somewhat foolish. If one learns and achieves things that are of value, should be a higher concern. Truly some probably can gain tap-ins through the dream state, especially if they become adept at conscious dreaming and astral travel. To say it is supernatural is an appeal to ignorance. There is no such thing as 'super'-natural - it is all a matter of what we can't explain. Dream work and Yoga's 'soft focus' have answered or made sense of many things that mental blocks due to over- intellectualization might create. There are ways to become conscious and effective in dreams and the overall experiencing of life - that is how I prefer to think of it, rather than a psychic developmental thing. Psychic aspects of life usually have a more physical component. If our soul is what counts then what we interpret from the physical during the sorting out process of dream reality might be more important than what happens during the waking state.

"Dreams and Psychical Phenomena

Dreams of a supernormal character fall within the purview of psychical research. The dividing line between normal and supernormal dreams is not easy to draw. Subconscious elaboration often presents supernormal affects.

Goethe solved many definite scientific problems in his dreams and also composed poems. So did La Fontaine compose The Fable of Pleasures and Coleridge Kubla Khan. Bernhard Palissy made one of his most beautiful ceramic pieces on dream inspiration. Maury confessed: ‘I have had in dream ideas an inspiration that could never have entered my consciousness when awake.' Tartini heard his Sonate del Diavolo played by Beelzebub in a dream. Holde composed La Phantasie in his sleep, Nodier's 'Lydia' was similarly born. R. L. Stevenson's most ingenious plots were evolved in the dream state. Kruder, Corda and Maignan solved mathematical problems in dream, Condillac finished an interrupted lecture.

A dream of Professor Agassiz is frequently quoted. He had been for two weeks striving to decipher the somewhat obscure impressions of a fossil fish on the stone slab in which it was preserved. It was found impossible. In his dream he saw the fish with all the missing features perfectly restored. The image escaped him on awakening. He went to the Jardin des Plantes in the hope that an association with the fossil would recapture it. No such thing happened. Next night he again dreamed of the fish and in the morning the features of the fish were as elusive as ever. For the third night he placed paper and pencil near his bed. Towards the morning the fish again appeared in his dream. Half dreaming, half awake he traced the outlines in the darkness as best he could. On full awakening he was surprised to see details in his nocturnal sketch, features which he thought impossible. He hastened to the Jardins des Plantes, began to chisel on the surface of the stone, taking the sketch as a guide and to his surprise he found the hidden portions of the fish as indicated in the drawing." (12)

I am not convinced this is dream state work. The early and late REM sleep is more akin to Beta brainwave relaxation. With bio-feedback and its creative state some ad agents like those at McDonald's have used this state to make and test ads. Hank Wesselman has been studied by the University of Illinois and he is even more able to reach the 40 MGHZ brainwave state than psychic healers and yogis. He is a person who was part of the anthropological or archaeological team that found Lucy and his gift was brought out by his wife who is a shamanic teacher. It is possible to generate this kind of state while taking exams (I've often done it.) and good marks often come. Those who stay in alpha state and experience tension and pressure or stress are less able to recall, create or integrate. Intuition is also often mistaken as psychic. There can be a component of it, and as Mr. Shepard notes it is often a fine line between some of these concepts. Thus you are able to see that I am not a believer in unexplainable phenomena, rather I think we are simply not able to explain it in every case because we are learning or are presently ignorant.