Dreams in history, Part 1

Whether or not modern civilization as a whole gives a flying flip about dreams or their possible role in human development, it is evident that dreams have held a high place in the cultures of our ancient past. Let’s take a look at some of these early people groups and their attitude toward dreams.

Sumer (3000 BCE)

Click for larger view

The Epic of Gilgamesh, the greatest extant literature of ancient Mesopotamia, is laden with several dream sequences of a prophetic nature. In the first tablet, for instance, Gilgamesh tells his mother of a dream:

“Stars of the sky appeared,
and some kind of meteorite …fell next to me…
I loved it and embraced it as a wife.”

His wise mother gave an interpretation:

 “There will come to you a mighty man, a comrade who saves his friend…
You loved him and embraced him as a wife;
and it is he who will repeatedly save you.
Your dream is good and propitious!”

Other dreams in this great poem reveal that, at the least, dreams were vehicles to see future events and should be carefully considered when planning to take action.

Egypt (1500 BCE)

The ancient Egyptians were perhaps the first lucid dreamers in recorded history, nay, soul travelers. They used dreams as vehicles to jettison the physical body and seek the deeper wisdom, advice, and solutions of the spirit world. They even built temples solely dedicated to “dream incubation”. Having marital woes? Sleep in a temple and consult the priest in the morning. This “Master of the Secret Things” would interpret your dreams.

Their word for “dream” is “rswt” and translates to “awakening” and is symbolized by an open eye. Working with dream recall, they believed one would sharpen their memory. Dreams helped them tap into ancient knowledge and to bring guidance and healing.

Although difficult for our modern Western minds to conceive, the ancient Egyptians were said to have had developed advanced conscious dream travel. Even military strategies would be influenced by these master telepaths and remote viewers.

For non-lucid and practical purposes, the Egyptians had published dream books. In one hieratic papyrus, we read the following: “If a man sees himself in a dream…” Below this are several examples separated in a “good column” and a “bad column”. For instance, if a man sees himself in a dream looking out a window, his voice is being heard (good). If a man sees himself in a dream with his bed on fire, he is driving away his wife (bad). This papyrus dates between 1300 and 1200.

Greece

Enter Hypnos and Morpheus. For the ancient Greeks, dream were a way to connect to the gods. Hypnos was the god of sleep, and Morpheus, the god of dreams. They built hundreds of shrines for them, and used them as dream temples, essentially hospitals, like the Egyptians. Here, physical, emotional, and spiritual healing would take place.

Socrates studied music and art because of instruction from a dream.

Plato suggested that in dreams the hideous beast in even the most respectable persons is revealed.

Heraclitus disturbed the status quo, which stated that dreams came from the gods. He, on the other hand, suggested that they came from the dreamer’s mind.

Aristotle, who is the first person to mention lucid dreams was also one to conclude that dreams hold no real purpose. For him, dreams were simply a recollection of the days events.

Similar to the dream books of Egypt, Artemidorus wrote his five-volume Oneircritica, an exploration and interpretation of certain dream symbols.

Hippocrates supported Aristotle’s notion that a person’s dream could be instrumental in knowing the bodily health.

Lucid flight school

After reading LaBerge last night, I resolved to dream lucid. I committed to it. I set my intention on it. I accomplished it.

The setting is futuristic, and I am a female trainee at a “wing camp”. There are several people with me, none of whom I recognize. We have been assigned to complete a jumper course, which is a matrix of 3X3 square trampoline-type mats, stacked at multiple levels. Rather than a standard flat survace, however, these mats are simply a rank and file of two-digit numbers that seem to be free floating. 20, 60, or 80 designate the number of feet you would launch when you land on it.

I am a small framed woman and decide to jump in some of the tight fitting areas to master the skill of maneuvering on air.

Although the details are hazy, I am inside an indoor recreation room, now a male. I am looking out into a larger rec area through a huge plate glass window, and I see several women playing Ping-Pong in stripper clothes. One of the “strippers” is doing something provocative with the corner of the table, and I realize that I am in a dream. Lucidity at last!

I take a few steps and launch into flight.

[One of the tasks I had assigned myself while in waking life was to focus on the vividness of the dream. Lately, every source I read about lucid dreaming talks about how a lucid dream can be as vivid as waking life.]

To my great pleasure and satisfaction, the color and clarity of the floor tiles are astonishing. But I want more proof. Taste!

I am flying now between buildings in a futuristic complex of town homes. They look more like the face of an oversized mausoleum, with rows of rectangular sections stacked upon one another in stone. The size is immense, like two huge, intricately carved cliff faces, each overlooking the other. I choose one home, which, although similarly flat at the entrance, has some pleasing porch décor, giving it some charm. I fly in and down into a small kitchen.

There on my right is a shelf full of dry food items, and I see what I’m looking for. Peanut butter Ritz crackers. I taste one, and realize that, yes, in my lucid dream state, I can taste the salt, butter, and peanut butter flavors. Interestingly, while I am chewing, I can’t launch. I have the inner realization, “Of course, I can’t eat and fly at the same time. Everyone knows that.”

After more flying and a few more brief experiences, I lose lucidity. What a ride!

Dreamsign Catalogue:

1. Inner awareness (1/4)

• I have the inner realization, “Of course, I can’t eat and fly at the same time. Everyone knows that.”

2. Action (1/9)

• I am a small framed woman and decide to jump in some of the tight fitting areas to master the skill of maneuvering on air.

3. Form (3/10)

• I am a female trainee at a “wing camp”.
• …a jumper course, … a matrix of 3X3 square trampoline-type mats, stacked at multiple levels, … a rank and file of two-digit numbers that seem to be free floating… 20, 60, or 80 designate the number of feet you would launch when you land on it.
• I am flying now between buildings in a futuristic complex of town homes.

4. Context (2/9)

• I see several women playing Ping-Pong in stripper clothes.
• One of the “strippers” is doing something provocative with the corner of the table, and I realize that I am in a dream.

Intuition and lucid dreaming

What is intuition?

According to Google, intuition is a noun that means the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning. The origin of the word is Latin, denoting spiritual insight or immediate inner seeing.

For those of us on a quest into the inner world of the self, this is a concept worth exploring. Intuition belongs to the subconscious, like a knowing or truthful belief. Lucid dreaming is the ability to consciously interact with this inner world, and perhaps to access hidden treasures that for most people, through cultural conditioning or ignorance, is unattainable.

Paul McCartney hears the melody of “Yesterday” in a dream.

I prefer to believe that all things are within the realm of the possible, and that lucid dreaming is a way to explore the reservoir of genius, wisdom, and even perennial truth. After all, where did Galileo, Bach, Mozart, Edison, and McCartney achieve greatness? Were they just lucky? Or did they tap into something accessible to us all?

They tapped into themselves first, and shared their discoveries with the rest of the world in the form of self-expression.

Who is to say what you can or cannot do? Who is to determine the length and breadth of your accomplishments while in this brief life of waking and sleeping? What authority is to proclaim that these two modes of experience are mutually exclusive? As a dreamer in life, should you not live in such a way as to enhance your dreams? And what should come of riches inside your the dream world? Should they not also expand your waking life?

Our world is a mystery. Life is a mystery. And dreams have been far too important, revered, studied, worshiped, and interpreted for them to be of no good use. They are not meaningless, as Aristotle first proposed, or the ancients wouldn’t have used them to predict possible outcomes, heal the sick, and communicate with the gods. Dreams are not the simple effects of random neural firings, as suggested by Alan Hobson and Robert McCarley in 1977, or their contents would be devoid of artistic richness and logic, as in the example of the musician from Liverpool, who first heard the melody of “Yesterday” in a dream.

Dreams are a way to approach your hidden genius. So convinced that he had subconsciously plagiarized the melody of “Yesterday” before dreaming it in its entirety, Paul McCartney played it for friends and associates for about a month, asking if they had heard it anywhere. “Eventually it became like handing something in to the police. I thought if no one claimed it after a few weeks then I could have it” (Paul McCartney quote from Wikipedia).

“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.” – John Lennon

Diagnostic value of dreams

The Iroquois, among other indeginous peoples, believed that anyone not in touch with their dreams were not in touch with their soul. I am fascinated with the idea that dreams are a window into this “soul world”, or subconscious plane. (I use soul and subconscious interchangeably).

I have learned from experience and through psychology and self-help studies that the outcomes or results of our lives, which make up our life situation, are born from actions and behaviors, which in turn, originate from our subconscious beliefs about ourselves and our world. In other words, our souls drive us. If our dream states have anything to teach us about this powerful inner world that conducts the major portion of the work of attracting and repelling things into and from our lives, this could be one more tool in our belt for self improvement.

In the Bible, dreams were held in great esteem. Joseph was a dreamer, and he could interpret accurately the dreams of the Pharaoh. Here’s a thought: what if Pharaoh was a lucid dreamer? Would he have been better equipped to interpret his own dreams? Who knows his mind better than himself? Joseph no doubt took context clues from Pharaoh’s life situation, and related his dreamscapes to these waking realities. Can we not do the same today?

Why did I dream of my son as a 2-year-old the other night? Possibly because last month we got into a pretty heated conflict about me leaving him when I divorced his mom, and he is still not over it. Now at almost 20 years old, he feels he was cheated by losing his father in the house. And I feel guilt. Therefore, I dream of my son as a baby, and how wonderful it would be to start again.

Why did I dream of Chris the photographer being angry about not getting paid? Because she is photographic my upcoming wedding, and her fee is still in my pocket. Granted, the wedding is a month and a half away, but it’s on my mind to pay her.

Freud said that dreams are tools for wish fulfillment and conflict resolution. But what if there’s more to it? What if our dreams give us hints to the deeper meaning of our lives (through diagnosing our beliefs about ourselves)? Now, meaning is subjective and is assigned based on our personality, desires, social/religious paradigm, etc. It seems to me that this is all the more reason why dream work is a valid and beneficial tool for discovering unconscious desires and habits as well as the conditions in which we find ourselves. Does this not lead us toward the highest work of humankind– to improve, to grow, to self-actualize?

Given the gravity and emphasis that the ancients put on dreams, it seems to me they have at least as much meaning as waking life, albeit mysterious.

 

SIDE NOTE: My fiancé and I paid Chris this week for her services as our wedding photographer. She was in a poor mood, just as she had been in my dream. This could possibly reveal that, like my prediction about Teresa eating Frito’s yesterday, I had an unconscious realization that Chris would be in a bad mood. Or it could be coincidental.

Keeping a dream journal

One of the first things LaBerge directs the student of oneironautics in Chapter 2 of his book, Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, is to start a dream journal.

The purpose of this is to become more adept at dream recall and more familiar with the composition of your dream states. He mentions that knowing and recognizing “dreamsigns” will be of use when you learn the lucid dream inducing techniques in later chapters (which I plan to discuss in this blog in the days and weeks ahead).

Years ago, I read a book on astral projection by John Magnus and used his method of journaling my dreams with a great deal of success. One thing that stuck with me was that he suggested when first waking up, don’t open your eyes or move your body. (LaBerge mentions not moving your body but doesn’t specifically mention not opening your eyes. Although this can be deduced since eye lids are parts of the body, it was of significant help to me not to have any visual stimulation while trying to recall the dream). So, without moving or looking at anything, think about what you were just dreaming, and reconstruct as much as you can. It helps to work backward. Once you piece together everything you can recall, then open your eyes, grab your pen and paper, and jot it down.

Source: http://compucentro.info/blog/csc/journal-examples.html

This blog will suffice as my dream journal, a resource page for my blog readers, as well as my exploration of the various materials I personally interact with, including books, the Internet, videos, etc. If you are interested in starting a dream journal, you can click here, or if you are interested in reading an online dream journal, click here or here. (I found these by doing a Google search).

One final thing to discuss. “Dreamsigns” are those strange happenings in dreams that should signal you to the fact that you are indeed dreaming. In your journal, it is a good idea, according to LaBerge, to underline those signs, and categorize them.

Once you have collected several dreams, re-read each dream journal entry, and write in the margins beside each underlined dreamsign one of 4 words: inner, action, form, context. These are the 4 ways in which dreamsigns will appear.

Inner (Inner awareness) – when you have a thought that is not consistent with waking life. Example: “When I found the door locked, I ‘wished’ it open.”

Action – when you experience yourself, someone else, or an object performing an action that is not consistent with waking life. Example: “I’m riding home on a unicycle.”

Form – when you, someone else, an object, or the setting takes a form that is not consistent with waking life. Example: “I see a tiny purple kitten.”

Context – when the place, role, time, or situation is just not consistent with waking life. Example: “My bed was in the street.”

At the end of each dream, tally the number of times each dreamsign occurs within each category. Keep a running tally of the total number in each category for your entire journal. When you have enough dreamsigns catalogued, start paying attention to the category with the most “hits”. (Read my dream journal for examples in this blog). This will be your focus in dreams to come as you begin using induction techniques to go lucid.