DAILY FREEDOM

“A DREAM  is the royal road to the subconscious” is one of the chief precepts of the modern psychoanalyst. Since in these days, more than in any other, every intelligent man and woman realizes the supreme importance of the subconscious mind, it is only natural that there should be a general revival of interest in the meaning, or interpretation, of dreams.

The advice contained in the Delphic maxim “Know thyself” has probably never been so greatly valued as it is to-day. People are beginning to appreciate that the greater their knowledge of why  they think certain thoughts, or why they commit certain acts, the better will they be able to obtain a mastery over both mind and body. Thus they can shape their lives in a manner conducive to their own happiness and to that of others. All this may appear to have little to do with dream interpretation but, nevertheless, it is intimately connected.  For it is the subconscious mind which becomes active only when we sleep; we cannot make ourselves aware of it by any effort of the will or act of memory in our waking condition. It manifests itself when our conscious mind is rendered partly inactive. We say “partly” because, if our consciousness becomes wholly inactive, as it does in deep sleep, we can never remember our dreams, for memory is part of the conscious mind. It is a fact that we dream during the whole period of sleep, but we can remember only a very small part of that period.

The dreams which we are able to describe are those which occur just as we are falling to sleep or just as we are beginning to awaken. it is during these times that our conscious mind is partially active and in a state to receive impressions which are retained by the memory. Frequently, however, these impressions are so faint that they are remembered only for a very short time. We may remember a dream for a few minutes when we wake up in the night, but the next day it is entirely forgotten. On the other hand, there are dreams which are so vivid, and which impress themselves so very strongly upon us, that we can recall them and describe them in detail years afterwards.

 From the above remarks it will be realized that dream interpretations can be made only when our conscious mind is sufficiently aroused to receive a more or less vivid impression from the subconscious.  Regarding the nature of the latter we can say nothing, even to-day, for little is known about it. We know that it is from the subconscious mind that we receive the flashes of intuition and prophetic vision that lie hidden in depths which our conscious mind cannot fathom. During sleep this mysterious underworld of thoughts comes into control, and, because it is unbounded either by time or space, it can reveal to us conditions of our present and future state of which we have no knowledge when we are awake and wholly conscious.

That “dreams go by opposites” is a general belief which is sometimes doubted. With certain qualifications, however, it is a perfectly true statement, although it is only recently that the reason for this has been discovered. There is one peculiarity about the subconscious mind which particularly distinguishes it from the conscious. When we are awake we are constantly making mental contrasts, or thinking in opposites. For instance, we distinguish black from white, large from small, forwards from backwards, joy from sorrow, and so on, by reason of the fact that the one is the direct opposite of the other. Now, when we are asleep we sometimes lose this power of contrast, and there occurs in our mind what is called a “unification of opposite.” In other words, we are unable to draw distinctions. When we think we dream of black it may really be white, up may be down, small may be great, sorrow may signify joy. In fact, almost every dream is a puzzle-picture which must be solved with aid of post experience.

 I will not enter into a detailed history of dream interpretation. It is sufficient here to say that the peoples of the earth at all times have attached significance to them.

The Bible and The Quran contains many examples of dreams-prophetic and otherwise- but perhaps the most famous of them all is the one experienced by Pharaoh, which took the form of a parable that only Joseph could interpret.

The ancient Chaldeans, Chinese, Egyptians and Hindus, as well as the Hebrews, Greeks and Romans, implicitly believed in dreams as a means of foretelling the future (Plato calls them “prophetic vision”), although they were regarded as “divine messages,” as omens of the gods, rather than manifestations of the human mind itself. We owe much to a Roman seer called Artemidorus  for  our  knowledge of divination by dreams as practiced by various ancient peoples. He compiled The Five Books of the Interpretation of Dreams and visions, a work which must be rejected in the light of ancient dream interpreters which must be rejected in the light of the medical knowledge which we possess to-day. For instance, there are many dreams which have purely physical causes, such as those vivid and horrible nightmares which spring from a disordered digestion.

The are also dreams which are “self-suggested;” that is to say, those caused by our thoughts turning either deliberately or unconsciously into certain channels for a few moments previous sleep.

 Let us consider first of all those dreams which arise from physical disorders, and as such have no significance in the prophetic sense. They affect the blood-flow through the brain, and may be caused by a faulty digestion, an abnormal condition of the heart, liver disorders, an increase or decrease in the body temperature, and various other conditions which modify the normal working of the human functions.

They need not be regarded as being signs of any serious disorder; most people experience then at some time or other, and they can usually be attributed to over-eating during the previous evening or partaking of some rich food which does not agree with the stomach.  

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