Unfolding The Dreams

What is the last thing you remember about your dream? Now, don’t start scratching your head, trying to recall those cloudy visions, because more your mind labours for it, faster it slips away.

 From the dawn of the philosophical age to the on-going technological revolution, dreams have always remained a mystery to man. Are they just random visions of our sub-conscious or do they reflect our suppressed desires?

Before plunging into more aspects about dreams let’s understand what actually a dream is. Dreaming is a state in which a person experiences all five senses while they are at rest. Its one’s mind that conjures these unusual images. Mind itself is the object and the subject.

The dreaming world is separate from the waking one. The man sleeping on a cot in Calcutta, quite healthy at the time of going to bed, wanders in Delhi as a sickly man in the dream world and vice versa. Deep sleep is separate from both the dreaming and the waking world. To the dreamer the dream world and the dream objects are as much real as the objects and experiences of the waking world. A dreaming man is not aware of the unreality of the dream world. He is not aware of the existence of the waking world, apart from the dream. Consciousness changes. This change in consciousness brings about either the waking or the dream experiences. The objects do not change in themselves. There is only change in the mind. The mind itself plays the role of the waking and the dream.

On a very general level, the most striking difference between dreaming and wakefulness is that the dream state is realized in the absence of external sensory stimuli that could modulate the unfolding chain of events. There are certain exceptions, in which weak subliminal stimuli can directly influence consciously experienced dream content. For example, the sound of your alarm clock sometimes finds its way into your dreams without waking you up, instead becoming part of the ongoing dream narrative—though it is most likely to do so in a slightly distorted manner.

A dream is not an entirely new experience, because most often it is the memory of past experiences. During the day, information flow from the sensory organs constrains the autonomous activity of the common functional substrate and thus modulates the phenomenal reality of waking consciousness. During the dream state at night, consciousness unfolds on its own, independently of these additional constraints imposed by the subject’s perception about the external world.

Mind is a powerful tool. Through the play of the mind in dreams and deliriums nearness appears as a great distance and a great distance appears as proximity. Through the force of the mind a great cycle of time appears as a moment and a moment appears as a great cycle. The unreal world appears as real whereas it is in reality a long dream arisen in our mind. This world is nothing but a long dream. The mind sports and creates an illusion. Through the play of the mind the dream-world appears as real.

Now the million-dollar question, do these dreams affect our future? Many philosophers and psychiatrists studied and landed on the same decision that dreams carries some signs. Few of these signs I thought to be worthy to share.

Accident: Personal afflictions may be inevitable. But you will remove soon from the trouble.

Baby: If you are nursing a baby, it denotes sorrow and misfortune. If you see a baby that is sick, it means that somebody among your relatives will die.

Beauty: To dream that you are beautiful indicates that you will become ugly with sickness and that you will become weak in body. Increasing beauty indicates death.

Boat: To sail in a boat or ship on smooth waters is lucky. On rough waters, it is unlucky. To fall into water indicates great peril.

Books: To dream of books is an auspicious sign. Your future life will be very agreeable. Woman dreaming of books will get a son of eminent learning.

Crow: This indicates a sorrowful funeral ceremony.

Death: This indicates long life. But a sick person dreaming of death has the positive results.

Disease: If a sick person dreams of disease it means recovery from the same. To young men it is a warning against evil company and intemperance.

Elephant: Good health, success, strength, prosperity, intelligence

Fire: Health and great happiness, kind relations and warm friends.

Floods: Successful trade, safe voyage for traders. But to ordinary persons it indicates bad health and unfavourable circumstances.

Flowers: Gathering beautiful flowers is an indication of prosperity. You will be very fortunate in all your undertakings.

Ghost: This is a very bad omen. Difficulties will be overwhelming. Terrible enemies will overpower you.

Girl (unmarried): Success, auspiciousness will come over you. Hopes will be fulfilled.

Nightmare: You are guided by foolish persons. Beware of such people.

And the list goes on....Happy Dreaming !

REFERENCES:

The Philosophy of Dreams – Shri Swami Sivananada

The Philosophy of Dreaming and Self-Consciousness: What Happens to the Experiential Subject during the Dream State?  - Jennifer Michelle Windt and Thomas Metzinger