Dreams
Dreaming is the subjective experience of involuntary imaginary images,
thoughts or sensations during sleep. Dreaming is associated with rapid eye
movement (REM) sleep, a lighter form of sleep that occurs during the later
portion of the sleep cycle.
Dream imagery ranges from the normal to the surreal; in fact, dreams often
provoke artistic and other forms of inspiration. Forms of dream include the
frightening or upsetting nightmare and erotic dreams with sexual images and
nocturnal emission.
History
Dreams are likely as old as humanity. The earliest literature, including
Homer's The Odyssey and the biblical book of Genesis feature dreams
prominantly.
Many historical figures were reputed to have been influenced by their dreams.
Psychology of dreams
Dreams are, according to some psychologists (most famously, Sigmund Freud),
rich in symbolism and offer a window into the unconscious mind. Interpretation
of dreams is a regular part of psychoanalysis. It is said that one may control
the course and content of dreams by a technique called lucid dreaming.
However, this could distract one from the dream-matter provided by the
unconscious mind.
Most mainstream academic psychologists do not believe that dreams have a
coherent meaning. Carl Jung's view of dreams was more precise than this: that
dreams have meanings, but their meanings are idiosyncratic, complicated, and
not susceptible to more than vague, uncertain, and sometimes superficial
interpretations. In particular, interpretation needs to be based on the
thoughts of the individual dreamer, and not on any formula.
Source:
Wikipedia.org
George du Maurier, in his Peter Ibbetson, has given one of the best
descriptions extant of the life of dreams. He says the whole cosmos is in a
man's brains, so much at least as a man's brains will hold. And when sleep
relaxes the will, and there are no earthly surroundings to distract
attention--no duty, pain, or pleasure to compel it--riderless fancy takes the
bit in his teeth, and the whole cosmos goes mad, and has its wild will of us.
There are the "ineffable false joys"--how well we know them; "the unspeakable
false terror and distress"--we know them, too; and they chase each other
without rhyme or reason, and play hide and seek across the twilit field, and
through the dark recesses of our clouded and imperfect consciousness. No
wonder that early man, with sufficient intelligence to remember his dreams,
and ponder over them fearfully, was, in his ignorance, persuaded they conveyed
serious messages to him, messages in which the more clever men of the group
saw an opening for personal ascendancy by devising a system of interpretation,
and thus assuming a position of importance and leadership in the tribe. That
dreams should occupy so prominent a position in divination is not at all
surprising. Dream life--indeed sleep life altogether--is still an unsolved
problem, and when the coincidences of events as between dreaming and waking
are taken into account, it is most natural that primitive man and civilised
man should try to turn dreams into a science, and formulate a skilful list of
interpretations. Besides, in all Christian countries there is a solid reason
for accepting information conveyed in dreams, inasmuch as the sacred
narratives in the Bible allege Divine guidance by this means. We may, of
course, have our own interpretation of such phenomena, but the wide stretch of
centuries covered by these facts is not without significance, showing as it
does the strong and tenacious grip which dream interpretation had upon the
race. From Jacob's dream to that of Pilate's wife is a far cry, and yet both
Jew and Pagan agreed in the real importance of the dream as a guide to life
and conduct.
But a distinction was made between the various kinds of dreams, or rather the
better type of mind attempted to make such a distinction, though seldom with
success. In the Christian and Pagan worlds no notice was taken of the wild,
incoherent, purposeless dream, except by a class of low magicians who sought
money by exploiting the fears of the fearful. Nevertheless, if one kind of
dream came from God, or the gods, where did the others come from? Here was an
opportunity for the sharks of occultism, and for the charlatan generally. The
dream-book and the diviner came into being, and they have never yielded to
pressure from civil or military authorities. You cannot stamp out a
superstition which has its basis in the operations of sleep, over which men
and women have practically no control. Only a right understanding of the
subject can rob the superstitious of their fears and the credulous of their
credulity. To forbid dreaming by Act of Parliament would be a nonsensical
procedure; and yet it is just as absurd to attempt to keep people from
wondering what is the meaning of their dreams.
If we look carefully for the origin of dream superstition, we shall find one
source in the Pagan tradition of the importance of dreams in conjunction with
the high place given to them in the Bible; another source is the long and
historical list of remarkable coincidences; and a third source is the somewhat
humiliating fact that we do not yet know the nature of dreams and sleep.
Take the last point first. Here is a brief account of some experiments
regarding the brain and the mysteries of sleep recently made by Professor
Wenley of Michigan University, who declares authoritatively that the
investigations have destroyed many accepted theories. The accepted theory of
sleep has been the lessening of the blood-pressure in the brain.
The experiments showed directly opposite conditions. By delicate and most
careful measurements, the following results were tabulated:
'The size or volume of the brain increases when the individual goes to sleep,
and decreases when he awakens. On this point it was noted that in some cases
the brain became smaller at first, and then increased as the sleep became
deeper. Very striking was the evidence that the size of the arterial pulse in
the brain increases steadily with the increase in the volume--i.e., that the
dilating of the arteries after each beat of the heart is more pronounced. This
is particularly true when the subject is propped up. As the sleep passes off,
the brain volume decreases, but then the blood-pressure increases. These
results show that whatever sleep may be caused by, it is not a lessening of
the blood-supply to the brain, for there is no such lessening.'
What kind of consciousness, therefore, is dream consciousness? The question
remains unanswered.
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