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.

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.

Lucid salt

I had a brief lucid dream last night at 2:30am!

In my dream I was with my boys, and in particular, in the kitchen with my son, B.K.

[The environment and characters in my dream were an obvious continuation of my waking life experience last night, having my sons over for Thanksgiving dinner and a movie].

In the kitchen, I picked up a salt shaker and began dumping salt on the ground, saying, “Whenever you see me do this, it means that I am aware that this is only a dream.” While B.K. and I had a brief conversation about this, my level of awareness, or lucidity, was fluctuating, because I said something else that didn’t make sense. I told B.K., “If you ever pour salt on the ground in my dream, that will be a signal to me that you are lucid.” Of course, one of my characters being lucid in my own dream is silly. But how fascinating to recall how I was trying to instruct my own son to learn lucid dreaming.

I decided that I wanted to experiment with lucidity within the dream, thinking I might manipulate the environment or something. My apartment was strangely empty, so I felt the need to walk outside for more stimuli. First, I needed privacy, thinking interaction with people would cause me to lose awareness. So I led my sons into the back bedroom and closed them in. At this very moment I woke up.

Although my state of awareness was unstable, I felt exhilarated that I had accomplished lucidity.

Two observations: 1) In LaBerge’s book, Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, he mentions that lucid dreams should be handled in an “open, flexible, and noncommanding” way. The instant I woke up, I realized that I had been too rigid and self-interested to stay asleep. Having forced my boys to be shut into a back room seems to have forced me out of the dream. 2) I felt guilt upon awakening, for trying to force my sons out of my dream, even though I was not rude, mean-spirited, or unfair in any way. This may show me something about my sense of responsibility to my boys, even in my dream state.

I checked my clock when I woke up, and it was 2:30am.

Source: http://binauralbrains.com/lucid-dreaming-binaural-beats/

My last dream of the night was about my older brother, Daniel. My dad was there too. We were in a local convenience store, and the clerk was extremely rude to my father, who had come in from out of town. I told her that she should improve her performance as a customer service agent. She made an excuse, so I told her that she had insulted my father, and then I said something very witty which I cannot now recall.

My brother had received some legal papers of some sort. Apparently some agency wanted them signed, essentially agreeing that he did not endorse his brother (me or our other brother, Donn?) as a political candidate (or something). At no time during this dream sequence did I ever become lucid.

DREAMSIGN CATALOGUE:

1. Inner awareness (1/2)

• I told B.K., “If you ever pour salt on the ground in my dream, that will be a signal to me that you are lucid.”

2. Action (1/1)

• I picked up a salt shaker and began dumping salt on the ground

3. Form (0/1)

4. Context (1/1)

• led my sons into the back bedroom and closed them in

First attempt at lucid dreaming

A lucid dream is any dream in which one, for an uninterrupted and prolonged amount of time, is aware that one is dreaming. The phenomenon had also been referred to by Greek philosopher Aristotle who had observed: “often when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream”. – Wikipedia

Your fledgling Oneironaut has some good news and some bad news. The good news is that although I don’t remember most of what I dreamed about last night, I know I dreamed a lot. This means there will be a lot of recorded activity in the weeks to come as I work out the bugs in my dream retention. When my head hit the pillow, I focused on being aware of my awareness, hoping that I could stay “awake” as I fell asleep. To my chagrin, I woke up several times realizing too late that I had been dreaming.

The last dream I had was vivid, one that I didn’t want to end. My oldest son, Jon [almost 20 years old in waking life] and I are on a bus trip. In the dream he was no more than 2 years old and such a cuddle bug.

Source: http://www.learnluciddreaming.com/

The difference between a dream, even a vivid one, and a lucid dream is that during the latter, you are aware that you are in a dream. Last night, I never reached that point, but during this last highly pleasant dream, I did experience a thought process worth mentioning.

In my dream with 2-year-old Jon, I was also aware of a future dimension where he is a lot older. Somehow it made sense in the dream that I could spend time with my son while younger in order to improve my relationship with him in his older dimension. I felt elation with the discovery that I could travel back and forth in time and effectively fix errors from the past.

I have four sons. I divorced their mother when Jon was 11, the twins were 9, and the youngest was 7. I have often felt guilty for leaving the house and disrupting their “ideal” situation and for changing my role as a father in the home. Recently Jon and I have had some tough discussions about it, and understandably he still harbors anger over the whole thing.

I am optimistic about my journey into lucid dreaming. I already detect the potential for healing in my waking life as I explore the dynamics of my own soul and psyche. Today happens to be Thanksgiving. I will have all of my sons with me tonight for dinner.

I plan to hug Jon a little longer than usual.

DREAMSIGN CATALOGUE:

1. Inner awareness (1)

• I felt elation with the discovery that I could travel back and forth in time and effectively fix errors from the past.

2. Action (0)

3. Form (1)

• In the dream Jon was no more than 2 years old.

4. Context (0)

A cause for lucidity

A few nights ago I asked the question, “Am I dreaming?”

The answer could fall either way, so I performed an uncharacteristic action. Just a test, like pinching myself… except way more fun.

I was standing next to a young woman wearing a light gray skirt. If I am awake, I surmised, I wouldn’t reach over and touch her like this. After applying said action to my (and hopefully her) satisfaction, I decided beyond doubt that I was asleep.

The moment my awareness bloomed sufficiently, I realized that my surroundings were coming from an inner transmitter. I was having a lucid dream.

Source: http://howtocontroldreams.com

Rewind 32 years ago. I used to have lucid dreams all the time. Like clock work. I had no reason to suspect that I was the only person having these vivid and profoundly pleasurable nocturnal adventures, in fact, I figured they happened to all kids at a certain age. These nightly episodes, being as intense and wonderful as they were, impacted me to the degree that I would go to bed early each night before my parents would have to yell, “Bedtime!” I couldn’t wait to get under the covers, close my eyes, and enter a world of my own creation. I could fly!

My routine lucid dreaming ceased as quickly as it began. I don’t think they even lasted more than a few months. Over time, I dismissed them as a biological phase in my early childhood development, a brief span when my pre-adolescent mind was sufficiently open, pure, and prepared for these spirit-world ecstasies.

Perhaps losing lucidity in dreaming is as natural to us as losing baby teeth. Perhaps not. Only rarely do I have lucid dreams now, and never for more than a few moments before I wake up.

I have chosen to open that old, dusty box again. It is a box of dreams, and it is filled with mystery and wonder. I invite any who happen upon this site to travel along with me as I journey back into the limitless landscape of my own inner cosmos.

Fast forward to earlier this evening. I’m at Barnes & Noble, thumbing through self-help books, deciding what to read next. It’s what I do. There’s no shame in my game.

I’m just browsing the self-improvement isle, looking for nothing in particular, when lo and behold, there they were. Two titles: A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming by Dylan Tuccillo, Jared Zeizel, and Thomas Peisel, and Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming by Stephen LaBerge, PhD and Howard Rheingold. I buy them both.

The following blog is an open investigation of lucid dreaming, and it is a primer to help me dust myself off and fly again. I hope that it will be a guide for you too. This blog is dedicated to all those who share in this exploration wherever you are, and to the science of Oneironautics.