Spirituality and Dreams 101

Do you remember what you dreamt last night? Had a recent doozy of a dream? Those memorable ones hold so many clues into our lives and the situations at hand. Dreams are like

little analysts cloaked in symbolic language- sometimes more easily recognized, sometimes

subliminal. Keeping a dream log for 3 years+ has been a wonderful journey. Some folks

swear by a chocolate goodie, others by banana, still others by spicy foods, figs-either mission or calimyra to help bring on dreams. Dreams are the subjects of songs, poetry and scripture alike. Read the apocalyptic book of Revelations and you wonder what the heck the author ingested to

have a dream/vision like that, or prophet Ezekiel and his vision of the dry bones? God communicates directly through dreams in many of the world’s religions. Of course, under the duress of persecution, torture and death one just might also have nightmares, and legend says a person’s hair can even go white.

Prophetic dreams and visions have gotten short shrift in the liberal tradition following

on the heels of the likes of Feuerbach, and countless others. The philosopher Rene Descartes believed dreams were meaningless and irrelevant. Supernaturalism and ‘superstition’

in general was discredited, debunked and considered an embarrassment, influenced by myth, a Gnostic influence at best, through reasoned academic circles. Theologian Rudolph Bultmann said, ‘Mythological conceptions can be used as symbols or images which are perhaps necessary to the language of religion and therefore also of the Christian faith . . . to speak of God as acting does not necessarily mean to speak in symbols or images. Such speech must be able to convey its full, direct meaning ... to speak of God as acting involves the events of personal existence. The encounter with God can be an event for man only here and now, since man lives within the limits of space and time. . . . to speak in this manner is not to speak in symbols or images, but to speak analogically . . . we conceive the communion between God and man as an analogue to the communion between man and man.’ P318 Rudolf Bultmann interpreting faith for the modern era, ed. Roger A. Johnson.

Looking to the Hebrew bible and the Talmud, dreams figure importantly from the very beginning. The Egyptians had a sophisticated dream interpretation method, and the ancient Greeks even had dream temples. Un-encumbered by cell phones, internet access, getting from point A to point B in 65mph cars- or 500mph via aircraft, perhaps the ancients were closer to nature and their intuitive self. Native Americans, Eskimos, African natives, Aborigines, and Shamans from Central and South America believed in the reality of dreams and visions and went on dream quests.

For ancient people dreams were accessed to help in hunting, daily living, the soul’s journey, curing illness and revealing the sacred. Muhammad, peace be upon him, received his holy messages through dreams. The prophets are evaluated according to their visionary perception; Muhammad’s revelation is the last of six cycles of prophecy. Dreams and visions are not distinguished from one another-waking or sleeping. In his famous Night Journey the angel Gabriel appears. Some Indian traditions believe that the soul or subtle body can wander during sleep; and there are dream classification systems- for instance for good and bad omens. For other Eastern traditions such as Buddhism, it is this world that is the dream or illusion.

Lest we debunk the 6^th sense too much, let it be said that animals have senses far sharper than humans realize- birds see in the UV range beyond RGB; dogs can ‘smell’ cancer or ‘know’ dangerous intent before humans have a clue, and we’ve only recently ‘discovered’ that animals experience emotion. (Next post: Spirituality and Animals) Whether you look at these stories and revelations as entertaining, important fiction, or literally true, like operas (or soap operas) they have a something to teach us.

Take any number of biblical figures- Jacob, Joseph, NT Joseph, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John- to name a few, and you have an impressive collection of dreamers. So the pharaoh might have seen in Joseph (Genesis 37) a better psychic than the court appointed hangers on with his dream interpretations. Dream interpretation puts Joseph in a position of leadership. Impressive. A counter point of view to the rational religious skeptics may be found at: http://www.topdreaminterpretation.com/religion-without-inner-spirit.html which claims, ‘the Christian religion ignores the dream life of people and the world of dreams in general. And they do this although all prophets legitimated themselves with dreams. With that, religion ignores the inner Spirit. Religion has no vivid inner Spirit.’

There are diverse takes on dreams, their meaning and interpretation from neurology to psychology to evangelical stances. One collection based on collected and popular interpretation features 720 pages in a pdf of dreams interpreted- http://www.scribd.com/doc/200218/-10-000-Dreams-Interpreted. Another resource with 3000 entries is The Dreamer’s Dictionary by Lady Stearn Robinson and Tom Corbett. The Dream Encyclopedia by James R. Lewis organizes types of dreams into categories and has helpful background information, history, theory and different models. The author summarizes and says psychiatrist Sigmund Freud believed dreams involved sex and aggression, Alfred Adler-power and status, and for Carl Jung, dreams communicate what is in the unconscious mind. Maybe it’s yes, both + and. See http://www.sleeps.com/ a website for ‘dream central’ which features interpretation, as is

http://www.experienceproject.com/dream-dictionary/

How do dreams intersect with spirituality? Dreams can inform us on the progress of our

soul’s journey, reframe dilemmas in moral-ethical terms, illumine another path for us, identify our subconscious take, or simply make a humorous point. In reviewing a particularly funny dream, it became apparent, ‘Oh my gosh, you clever little mind to put my dilemma like that. I get it!’ The scholars have identified several types of dreams for those interested in pursuing the psychological take. This site is a popular compendium of every aspect of the topic- http://www.dreammoods.com/ and has summary information on psychologists Freud, Jung, Adler and others. Of course there are countless academic journal articles on the subject.

In a solid resource for small group study, Reformed Spirituality, author Howard Rice said,

‘Most often …visions and voices come to people through their dreams. In our dreams we are less likely to be blocked from receptivity and are more vulnerable to experiences we might otherwise dismiss or fail to recognize.. . .’The danger with any visionary or auditory experience is that people can easily mistake their own deeply held desires for visitations from God and may manufacture the experiences without being aware of it. Some forms of mental illness affect people by erasing the boundary between reality and fantasy, so that they are convinced that they are hearing voices or seeing visions. . . . (but this does) not invalidate the experiences of healthy people . . . ‘ p33 There is always that voice of educated reason in the mix. But, by all means, have fun with it.

For local links, see PhD Mary Jo Myers and area psychologists: http://www.maryjomyers.org/formagroup.htm and http://therapists.psychologytoday.com/rms/cities/Columbus-Therapists.html

For an alternative focus:

http://www.bodymindspiritdirectory.org/OH-Columbus.html

Meditation for this Post:

‘Our religion is the traditions of our ancestors-the dreams of our old men, given them in the solemn hours of night by the Great Spirit; and the visions of our sacred medicine men, and is written in the hearts of our people’ Seattle, Dwamish

Indian Spirit by Michael and Judith Fitzgerald; Introduction Thomas Yellowtail