Dreams
by
Dr. P.C. Simon
copyright 2006
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Dream is a mixture of the conscious and the subconscious activities of the mind. The conscious activities of the past are
replayed on the minds screen during sleep. To this process, the subconscious mind adds its own information, including
intuitive information. Some dreams are true and others are not depending on the ability of the dreamer to identify with the
various elements of the dream. If we believe that a dream is going to happen, it becomes an activity of the mind and the
mind makes it happen.
A dream is a letter our subconscious writes to us. A dream that is not interpreted is a letter that is not read. Heraclitus
said "During sleep, one returns to his true nature."
Dreams are essential for the well being of the individual. They are more important than sleep. Some people can get along
with few hours of sleep but dream they must.
A dream is a projection of our mind. While dreaming, everything seems real. When we are dreaming, if somebody told
us that what we see is not real, we would not believe it.
Swedenborg wrote that his dreams led him into the inner (spiritual) world. His "Journal of Dreams" filled thirty six
volumes. Some of his enemies said that they were a mad man's rambling. But those who understood, wished that they
had such madness.
There are two kinds of dreams. One is the elaboration of what was on the subconscious mind. The other is the
prophetic dream. Examples are those recorded in the bible such as the dream of Pharaoh, his butler and baker which
Joseph interpreted; the dream of Nebuchadnezzar which Daniel interpreted. It is intuitive information or divine
revelation. A dream may also be induced by spiritual entities.
SYMPTOMS OF DREAMING
Just before a dream there is a burst of activity in the brain similar to an epileptic seizure. This lasts for a fraction of a
second. It convulses the body. Sometimes a grunt is given out. What causes the jerk is an enigma. The main symptom
of dreaming is rapid eye movement (REM) of the eyeballs under the closed eyelids.
Dreaming also can be detected electronically. By means of an electrode fixed to the abdomen of the pregnant woman,
the fetus can be observed dreaming.
During dreaming, the sleeper may lie motionless, snoring may stop, children grimace and in the adult male, the penis may
swell and erect between two REM periods.
During early night, sleep is deep and REM periods are short, occurring at intervals of about 90 minutes. During early
morning, REM periods can be as long as one hour.
REM is the light sleep. NREM is the deep sleep. There is an NREM of 20 to 30 minutes. During deep sleep, bodily
position changes, pulse rate increases, breathing becomes shallow, irregular and rapid,. blood pressure rises, the sleeper
turns and changes position. Adults spend about 1/5 of their sleeping time in dreams and children spend about half the
time dreaming. Normally a person dreams three or four times each night and has about 1000 dreams a year.
Dream is essential for our mental health and well-being. Alcohol, drugs, and sleeping pills reduce REM sleep and cause
disturbances of mind, like drowsiness. If a sleeper is awakened as soon as the REM starts, the NREM is reduced to a
shorter period. If he is again and again awakened at the commencement of REM, the NREM is shortened until at last he
begins to dream as soon as he sleeps.
Micro sleeping will bring fleeting wisps of microdreams. They come and go in flashes. A person who is not allowed to
dream when asleep will start dreaming as soon as he closes his eyes and will stubbornly resist awakening. Further
deprivation will bring about dreaming when awake and hallucinations. Dream has a function of restoring internal
balance. Dream is necessary. Continued dream deprivation will bring mental collapse and may eventually lead to death.
REMEMBERING DREAMS
Dr. Nathaniel Kleitman of "The Dream and Sleep Research Lab" of Chicago found that dreams may last from 5 minutes
to an hour. Out of 2240 awakenings, 1864 times the dreamers remembered their dreams. If a dream is slept through, the
dreamer usually forgets the dream. But if he is awakened during the dream, the dream is not forgotten.
This is what happened to Friedrich August Kekule von Stradonitz . He was going home late one night after visiting his
friend Hugo Mueller. He took the bus as usual and sat on the outside on the top deck. He fell into a reverie. The atoms
were gambolling before his eyes. He was thinking about the valences of atoms and he saw the small atoms were held by
the larger ones, forming a chain. At this moment, the bus conductor shouted "Clapham Road", and he woke up. He spent
part of the night putting on paper what he was dreaming.
The second time Kekule dreamt about the atoms was in front of his fireplace in Ghent. He saw the atoms dangling
around in a snake-like fashion. Suddenly it appeared to him that the snake was biting its tail. Suddenly, as if by
lightening, he was awakened from his dream and he worked the whole night putting his ideas to an hypothesis he had.
In his publications in 1860, Kekule did not refer to his dreams. Many scientists never refer to how they get any
information. Accidents, imagination, and dreams have often been the initial ingredients of discoveries. Kekule himself
wrote "Let us learn to dream, gentlemen. Then perhaps we shall find the truth. But let us beware of publishing our
dreams till they have been tested by the waking understanding."
Weiss and Brown reported that Otto Loewi discovered the chemical substance that transmits nerve impulses in a dream.
When the idea occurred to him for the first time in a dream, he fell asleep again and could not remember it well when he
awoke the next morning. When the same dream came to him a second time, Loewi went directly to the laboratory and
performed the experiments suggested in the dream. He did not mention the dream in his publications but he told his
friends and family. Weiss, who recorded this information, got it from his own wife who was Loewi's daughter. This
story along with many others’ proves that highly significant research schemes originate in dreams which I believe is
intuitive information arriving.
Herman Helmoltz,nineteenth century philosopher and physiologist said "fruitful ideas often come in the morning upon
awakening."
Melvin Calvin, who won a Nobel prize for chemistry in 1961, described how the explanation for photosynthesis came to
him when he was waiting in his car parked in a prohibited zone. It occurred to him like a flash. In a matter of 30 seconds
the cyclic character of the path became clear to me.
Therefore, there should be such a thing as inspiration, I suppose, but one has to be ready for it.
CAUSE OF DREAMS
We do not yet know the true cause or meaning of dreams. But, if they could be correctly interpreted they would yield
valuable information. Once again the true strength of the dream lies in our belief of what we have dreamt.
DREAMS COMING TRUE
Many dreams are meaningless, at least they have not been interpreted and no significant results have been accumulated..
All biblical dreams are significant according to the biblical version of the results. I quote below a few dreams that
materialized and proved helpful to the dreamer.
In the book " In Search of the Dream People" Richard Noone writes about the Temiar People in the interior of
Malaysia. Noone says that they are the most perfectly adjusted people in the world, far more advanced than the so called
civilized people of the world. They control their anger and aggression through manipulating dreams. Temiar children are
encouraged to talk about their dreams every morning. They are taught how to conquer the opponent they meet in their
dreams. All the actions of the Temiar people are the result of the dreams of one member or another. They live in long
houses and cultivate land jointly. The product is divided not according to the contribution of each member but according
the need of each family.
Another neighbouring tribe called the Negreto teach their children to use dreams to guide their lives.
Senoi is another aboriginal people in Malaysia who use dreams to guide their community life. They try to have dreams
every night and tell their dreams to their elders and get them interpreted. It is a way of leading a harmonious community,
without crime and violence.
Kilton Stewart the anthropologist wrote a chapter in Tart's "Altered States Of Consciousness"in which he describes
Senois as the most adjusted people on earth. They have no wars, no fights and are well adjusted psychologically.
WASHINGTON CARVER
Washington Carver, “The Man Who Talks with the Flowers” wrote, "One of my most surprising answers to prayer
came when I was a little boy of 5 or 6. I had no pocket knife...So, one night I prayed to the Father to send me a knife
and that night I had a dream. I dreamed that out in the field where the corn rows joined the tobacco rows, there was a
watermelon cut in halves. One half was all gouged out. The other half, plump and full, was leaning up against three
stalks of corn. Out of it stuck the black handle of a pocket knife. The next morning I could hardly wait till I got through
breakfast before I scampered out to the cornfield. There, where the corn rows joined the tobacco rows, I saw a
watermelon cut in halves. One half was all gouged out and the other half, plump and solid, rested up against three stalks
of corn and sticking out of it was the black handle of a pocket knife.
SELMA LEE
Master Sergeant James Lee of Shepherd Air Base was reading late at night in his house in Witchita Falls, Texas, when
his telephone rang. It was his mother-in-law enquiring about her daughter. She lived in Clovis, New Mexico, 300 miles
away. She had a nightmare and woke up and phoned to ask about Selma, her daughter. He said that his wife was quite
well and said that he would get her to come to the phone. When he went to call his wife, he found her dead in the
bathtub.
ISLING
Another interesting dream is one that Mr. Isleng, Sheriff of Harris county had on January 2, 1966. For two days he was
dragging Lake Houston for the body of 15 year old Jerry Crosser. He dreamt that a youth's body was floating in the
deep water of the lake away from where they were searching. Next morning he insisted that they should search the area
he dreamed of and found the body.(105: p. 17)
JOE
The T.V. show "That's Incredible" reported the dream of Joe. Joe saw in his dream a wooden house on an island being
destroyed by a cyclone. He had the same dream a second time. He told about this to the local radio announcer who had
no idea which island it was. After about six months, his brother asked him to come over to Dolphin Island. As soon as
Joe went into his brother's house, he knew that it was the house he had seen in his dream. He told his brother and some
fishermen. They did not pay attention. When hurricane Frederick struck in August 1979, six months after he had seen it
in his dream, the local people remembered Joes's warning and left the island. Though the island was wiped out, only six
people died and the damage was limited to one and a half- million dollars.
CALPURNIA'S DREAM
It is probably true that Calpurnia dreamed of Caesar's murder by Brutus and Brutus in his turn dreamed that he would die
at Philippi, and he did, by suicide.
DANTE
At the time of Dante's death, he was writing the Paradiso of the Divine Comedy. His children looked for this section of
the Paradiso but could not find it . They searched everywhere and finally Jacopo, his son, tried to write it himself to
complete the manuscript. Then, one day Jacopo had a dream in which his father took him to the house where Dante
died. He led him to the wall and said, "What you look for is here" and disappeared. His son woke up from the dream,
even though it was middle of the night he hurried to the house where Dante occasionally lived and woke the man and
told him the dream. They both went into the room and found a curtain almost sealed to the wall in question. When they
removed it there was a niche. The missing Cantos were found in it. It was damp and would have been lost for ever if it
was not found at that time.
SUSAN B. ANTHONY
Susan B. Anthony, the Suffragist leader was advised to go to Atlantic City for health reasons. One day she had a dream
of being burnt alive. The dream forced her and her niece to return to Philadelphia the next morning. Later, they
learned that the hotel and ten other hotels in the area were burned the night they returned.
COLERIDGE'S DREAM
Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Kubla Khan came to him in a dream. On awakening, he was conscious of having composed
two or three hundred lines during his three hours sleep. He immediately sat to write them down. He was interrupted by a
man from Porlock. One hour later, he had forgotten the lines.
LOUIS AGASSIZ
Agassiz, a famous biologist and paleantologist, was working on a fossil fish on a stone slab in which it was preserved.
He had a dream and thought that he knew how to expose the fossil. He went to Jardin de Plante but failed to expose the
fossil. The next night, he saw the fish again but again failed to expose the fossil. The third night, he placed pencil and
paper beside his bed. When the dream appeared, he immediately woke up and made notes while half asleep. The next
day, he found the notes he made were accurate and he succeeded in exposing and classifying the fish.
JAMES WATT
There is a story that James Watt, inventor of the steam engine, was concerned about making lead pellets for shotguns.
He dreamt night after night for a week of walking in the rain but the raindrops were lead pellets. So, he got permission to
melt a few pounds of lead and cast it from the belfry of a church which had a moat. When he recovered the lead from
the moat, the lead had hardened into tiny, round pellets. Since that time, all lead shot has been prepared by this method.
DREAMS OF FAMOUS PERSONS
Wolfgang Mozart received his inspiration in a semi-conscious state. George Frederick Handel received the melody for
the last movement of his oratorio, the Messiah, in a dream. Niels Bohr, the Danish physicist, is said to have dreamed of
the planetary system and thus discovered that the atomic nucleus was surrounded by circling electrons similar to the
orbiting planets of the sun.
CROISSET
Jack Pollock's book, "Croiset, the Clairvoyant," describes dreams and quotes symbols associated with dreams. The
symbols mean different things to different people.
DESCARTE
On November 10, 1618, Descartes had a dream in which the Angel of Light visited him and showed him the marvellous
science of mathematics. He devoted the next 31 years of his life to live this dream. He applied algebra to geometry and
created analytical geometry. He applied mathematics to physics. He applied physics to medicine and philosophy. He
could change everything including God, angels, space, time, plants, animals, and complex social relationships into
numbers. Descartes believed that all knowledge is in the recesses of the mind. Those who grope there for knowledge
will find it. If they are not there innately, they come from God through direct illumination.
Wolfgang Goethe, the poet philosopher of Germany went for a walk to Belvedere at Weimar. During his absence his
good friend Frederick arrived from Frankfurt at Goethe's home. He was drenched in the rain and there was no one at
home. So Frederick undressed and put on the dry clothes and fell asleep in his chair.
During the sleep he dreamt that the poet was walking on the road to Weimar and went to meet him. Goethe was
indeed walking towards his home after visiting the belvedere and he suddenly stopped as if he saw someone. His
friend who was walking with him did not find any one. Then the poet turned and said " If I was not sure that my friend
Frederick was in Frankfurt, I would have certainly thought that it was he. Again he turned and said "Yes it is you
Frederick and how is it that you are on the road dressed like this with your gown and night cap and my slippers". His
walking companion saw nobody and thought that the poet was losing his senses but did not comment anything. When
they reached home there Frederick was. The Poet exclaimed “Oh, you Phantom". Frederick protested “What a good
greeting he gets from his friend”. Then he explained that he got wet and changed and fell asleep and had a dream that he
came and met him on the road. The peculiarity of this dream is that during dream the spirit goes out just like when a
person dies.
MY DREAM
The only factual dream I ever had was in 1933. My mother-in- law had a hand operated Singer sewing machine. For
some reason I took it from the table and placed it on a folding chair. The machine with the chair fell to the floor. I tried
to find if anything was broken. Nothing was broken but the handle would not turn. I worked for many hours without
any result. Finally I went to bed at about midnight. At 4 A.M. I had a dream. In my dream which was as clear as
something happening during the day, I took a screw driver and loosened a screw of the sewing machine and the machine
worked fine.
Immediately I woke from my dream and went to the machine took the screw driver and loosened the exact screw
which I had seen in my dream and the machine worked perfectly.
F.W.H. Myers reported one such case in his book" Human Personality And Its Survival After Bodily Death" p.90 of the
revised edition, 1961. His report stated that one Mrs A. M. Bickford-Smith on reaching Morley's hotel at 5 O'clock on
Tuesday 29th January 1889 found a gold brooch missing. She thought that she might have left it at the fitting-room at
Swan Edgar's. She went there at once but was very disappointed that it was not there. That night she dreamed that she
will find it on a page of the "Queen" news paper that was on the table. In her dream she saw the very page where it
would be. Directly after breakfast she went to Swan and Edgar's and asked to see the paper, at the same time telling the
young ladies about her dream. The paper had been removed from the room but was found and to the astonishment of
the young ladies she said " This is the one that contains my brooch" and there at the very page she expected, she found it.
HOW TO UTILIZE DREAMS
To utilize your dreams, keep a notebook beside your bed so that you will be ready to record your dream on waking.
Suggest to yourself every night before you go to sleep that you would like to dream and that you must wake up
immediately after the dream and you want to remember the dream. Be faithful to your own promise to yourself and as
soon as you wake up, note the dream down in a book. Through self-suggestion prior to sleep, create an acumen in your
observation of dreams. Try to observe the setting, people, action, colour, feeling, and words. Work on analysing your
dreams every day otherwise their continuity and progress will be difficult to assess. Dreams are illogical because only
fragments of the dreams have been recalled or because the dream is reflecting something illogical in the dreamer's life.
Sometimes dreams are illogical because of mental blocks. If you are unable to decipher an important dream, suggest to
yourself for your next sleep that the dream should report itself more clearly. Dreams of ill-health can be symbolic or
literal.
To solve problems, ask for guidance through dreams. Be practical in your interpretation and always look for a lesson.
Recurrent dreams and serially progressive dreams indicate failure of one sort or another. That shows no correction has
been made for the existing aberration. Dreams are reactions to the inner self (subconscious mind). Dreams come to
guide and not to amuse. If we do not use it, the clarity and remembrance will subside.
Do not fear to converse with the dead in dreams. Dreams are primarily about self. Only few dreams relate to family,
friends, and world events. Be thankful for informative dreams. Persistence is necessary to learn the meaning of dreams.
Finally, before going to sleep tell yourself "I want to have a dream that will contain information to solve the problem I
have in my mind". State the problem and say "I will have such a dream. I will understand it and will remember it."
MEANING OF DREAMS
Those who believe in dreams see that their dreams come true. Dreams are not events occurring in sequence. We are not
able to decipher many dreams. To understand a dream, one must assign his own meanings to words and phrases. To
one person "raisins" will indicate health, to another it will indicate sickness. Each one makes certain sense out of his
dream and believes in the dream and those who believe steadfastly, quite often see the dreams come true. Perhaps it is
not the dream that makes the dream come true it is the belief . It is the mind of the person that makes things happen.
Try to remember the dream when you are half asleep before you wake up completely. Try to go back to sleep and re-
dream the dream. Very often we will be able to recall the dream in all its details.
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