Dream interpreters and sages of the past have constantly tried to uncover the mystery of dreams. Even the famous psychiatrist Sigmund Freud, in his Interpretation of Dreams, published in 1900, tried to lift the veil over the secret of sleep. And, nevertheless, the dream continued and still continues to ask riddles, one more complicated than the other …
"The sleep of reason gives rise to monsters" - says the Spanish proverb, brilliantly illustrated by Francisco Goya and Salvador Dali. But maybe in the West this is so, but in Russia more constructive dreams are dreamed …
Gostomysl's dream
According to the Joachim Chronicle, the history of Russian statehood begins with a dream. Once Gostomysl, the sovereign of Novgorod and the leader of the Ilmenian Slovenes, had a dream how "from the womb of his middle daughter Umila" a wonderful tree grew. Gostomysl sent for the wise men; they gave the conclusion: "from her sons to inherit him, and the land will be satisfied with his reign."
Soon, Umila married one of the Varangian kings who ruled on the island of Rugen, and gave birth to a son. According to the authors of the Joachim Chronicle, the son was named Rurik.
When the time came for Gostomysl, who ruled Novgorod for several decades, to hand over the affairs, then "the convocation of all the elders from the Slavs, Rus, Chudi, Vesi, Mary, Krivich and Drevovich, show them a dream and the ambassador of the chosen one to the Varangians ask the prince." This is how the Rurik dynasty appeared in Russia.
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Dream of Prince Mal
The Drevlyan prince Mal is one of the main losers of ancient Russian history. It was he who led the Drevlyan uprising in 945 against the Kiev tax system, as a result of which Prince Igor Rurikovich was killed. Having finished with the latter, Mal decided to build on his success and wooed the widow of the “insatiable publican,” Princess Olga. She politely declined the offer to join destinies.
Immediately after the unsuccessful matchmaking, Mal saw a rather transparent dream: "And the dream is often in vain, Mal prince: behold, Olga has come to him, and many valuable chervens have been planted with pearls and the blankets are rich with green patterns."
The chronicles are silent about the fate of Mal, but for his capital, Iskorosten, everything ended sadly: “And when she took the city and burned it, she took the city elders captive, and killed other people, and gave some of them into slavery to her husbands, and left the rest to pay tribute.
Dream of Ivan the Terrible
John IV was very attentive to his own dreams. The tsar kept a whole staff of dream interpreters with him. According to the testimony of overseas guests, John's morning began with a "meeting", during which he shared his own dreams with expert analysts.
According to legend, it was a dream that prompted Grozny to renounce the throne for a while and hand over the cap of Monomakh to Simeon Bekbulatovich. Apparently, later the dream was recognized as "not prophetic", and Rurikovich regained his throne back.
A few days before his death, Ivan the Terrible had a dream, which, as the wise men predicted to him, foreshadowed his imminent death.
It is interesting that Grozny himself got into Russian dream books. The appearance of Ivan Vasilyevich in a dream, according to interpretations, promised a serious conflict with the authorities and the loss of the acquired property.
Dreams of Catherine I
Empress Catherine I believed in dreams and had a habit of telling them to others. Two weeks before the arrest of her chief chamberlain, Willim Mons, she had a dream that turned out to be prophetic. The Empress dreamed of how her bed was suddenly covered with snakes crawling in all directions. One of them, the largest, rushed at her, wrapping rings around “all her limbs,” and began to choke her.
Catherine defended herself, fought the snake, and finally strangled her. Then all the other small snakes hastily crawled out of bed. Catherine I interpreted this dream in such a way that she would be in big trouble, but she would come out of them unharmed. Circumstances confirmed this interpretation - Peter I ordered to cut off the head of his wife's lover, but did not touch her herself.
Before her death, Catherine I had another dream, also prophetic. And again she interpreted it correctly. She dreamed that she was sitting at a table surrounded by courtiers. Suddenly the shadow of Peter I appears. Peter was dressed the way the ancient Romans dressed. He beckons Catherine to him. She goes to him, and Peter is carried away with her under the clouds. Flying away with him, she casts her gaze to the ground. There she sees her children, surrounded by a crowd of representatives of all nations, noisily arguing among themselves.
Catherine I interpreted the dream in such a way that she should die soon, and that after her death there will be a turmoil in the state. In April 1727, she saw this dream, and on May 5 the empress died.
Dreams of Paul I
On the night of November 5, 1795, on the eve of his accession to the throne, Tsarevich Pavel Petrovich saw in a dream that some invisible force was lifting him to heaven. The dream was repeated three times, and each time he woke up. Noticing that his wife was not sleeping, he told her about his dream and was amazed to learn that she had seen the same thing.
Before dinner, he told about his strange dream to Count Vielgorsky, Pleshcheev and other people around him in Gatchina, and after dinner he received news from St. Petersburg about the unexpected death of Empress Catherine and about his accession to the throne.
At the coronation of Paul, there was another circumstance that "bore the seal of the miraculous." The guard, who stood at the clock at the old Summer Palace, told his superiors about his vision. The gray-haired old man appeared to him and told him to tell the emperor that on the site of the palace a temple should be built in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker with the chapel of the Archangel Michael.
When the soldier objected to the elder that he did not dare to disturb the emperor, the elder said that the emperor already knew about it. Reported to Pavel and told about the soldier. “Yes, I already knew that,” was the reply of the emperor. Following this, it was ordered to build the Church of Nicholas the Wonderworker with the chapel of the Archangel Michael on the site of the old palace, and the newly built palace to be called Mikhailovsky.
Pavel gave his two sons the names Nikolai and Mikhail, which first appeared in the genealogy of the Russian imperial house. Another circumstance is interesting - the elder, who appeared to the guard soldier, and it was Nicholas the Wonderworker himself, said that he would see the Emperor in 30 years. And, indeed, after 30 years in Russia Nicholas I became emperor.
The dream on the eve of the death of Paul I is given in the notes of Countess Oberkirch. He dreamed that a narrow brocade caftan was being put on his back, with such an effort that he was ready to scream in pain.
Lomonosov's dream
Mikhailo Vasilievich Lomonosov, as you know, was a scientist and was very critical of the secret meanings of dreams. Once, on a trip abroad, he dreamed that "he sees his father thrown out after the crash of a ship on an uninhabited island in the Ice Sea, to which in his youth he had once been brought with him by a storm."
Lomonosov was extremely worried about this dream. Returning to Petersburg from a foreign land, he first inquired about his father. It turned out that he really “at the first opening of the waters, went as usual to the sea to fish; that four months have already passed, and neither he, nor any other of his artel who went with him, have not yet returned."
Mikhailo Vasilyevich hastily organized a search for the missing priest: after a while, the body of Vasily Lomonosov was found on the "dreaming" island and was buried there according to the Orthodox tradition. Subsequently, some scientists began to interpret this case as evidence of the existence of a telepathic connection between close relatives.
Dream of Filaret, Metropolitan of Moscow
Metropolitan Filaret had prophetic dreams more than once. When Filaret was at the Trinity Lavra, Archimandrite Anthony came to him with his usual report. After the report, Filaret told him: "I had a dream, and I was told - beware on the 19th."
To this Anthony remarked: “Vladyka saint, is it possible to believe in dreams and look for some meaning in them? How can one pay attention to such a vague indication? The nineteenth numbers in the year are 12.
Filaret replied to Anthony: "I have decided to partake of the Holy Mysteries every 19th day."
Two weeks later, on September 19, the Metropolitan received Holy Communion. In October, he did the same. In November, a few days before communion, one of the Metropolitan's admirers told him that a respected lady wished to visit him in order to receive his blessing. Vladyka said: "Let him come, only before the 19th." So deeply rooted in him was the idea of the fatal 19th number!
On November 18, feeling healthy, the Metropolitan told his cell attendant that tomorrow he would serve the Liturgy, and that everything was prepared for this ceremony. The cell attendant noticed Filaret that he was tired, and whether it would not be better for him to serve on Vvedensky day. However, Vladyka told him: "This is none of your business."
He served the liturgy and died on the fateful 19th.
Dream of Nikolai Karamzin
The first wife of the historian Karamzin died in 1802. He loved her passionately. Seeing all the hopelessness of the patient's condition, he either rushed to her bed, then was torn off by urgent work. It was a painful time in his life. Tired and exhausted, he threw himself on the sofa and fell asleep.
Suddenly he sees a dream that he is standing at a dug grave, and on the other side is Ekaterina Andreevna (the one he later married) and stretches out her hand to him across the grave. This dream was strange in that at these moments, occupied by his dying wife, he could not think of another marriage, which took place in 1804.
Mendeleev's dream
“I clearly see a table in a dream where the elements are arranged as needed. I woke up, immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper and fell asleep again. Only in one place was an amendment subsequently necessary,”Dmitry Ivanovich recalled his famous dream.
The scientist himself later regretted his frankness many times, since reporters began to attribute the creation of the periodic table to a dream, belittling the scientist's merits. After that, Mendeleev forever stopped sharing his own dreams. And the scientist made a lot of discoveries after the periodic law, and it is not known what role dreams played in them.
Dream of Ivan Kulibin
“When Ivan Kulibin worked in Nizhny Novgorod on the device of the clock, he had an amazing dream. Three eagles flew into his window. At first he was frightened, but then he poured grains on them, which the birds began to peck. At the same time, the largest of the eagles said in a human voice to the Russian inventor: The Lord will hear you in the days of sorrow, send you help and intercede for you."
“Kulibin asked: Do you fly high? Don't you know, - answered the eagle, - that we are soaring near the Sun? The eagles rose and flew away."
After some time, Catherine II arrived in Nizhny Novgorod, and Kulibin with his instruments and still unfinished watches was introduced to her by Count Orlov. The Empress graciously accepted the self-taught mechanic and ordered him to come with it to St. Petersburg after finishing work on the watch.
Then Kulibin remembered his prophetic dream and then remembered it all his life, since all three Orlovs, standing close to the throne, constantly patronized him.
Igor Sikorsky's dream
The ingenious aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky also seriously believed that one of his dreams determined his entire future.
Sikorsky had this dream in 1900, when he was eleven years old. But he remembered him for life.
In a dream, he saw himself walking down a narrow corridor. On the walls on the left and right there are identical doors, as on a motor ship. There is a rich carpet on the floor. Everything was illuminated by a soft bluish light. The floor was shaking slightly. And surprisingly, he felt and understood that this was not a train or a steamer, the then known modes of transport. No, it was still an unknown large airship.
It is amazing that a little boy saw all this in those years when no one had yet managed to create a flying machine. Moreover, then everyone believed that the idea had no sense, since it was fundamentally impossible.
Years passed. Igor Sikorsky grew up, studied, created the multi-engine Ilya Muromets aircraft, which served as the prototype for American Boeing, Russian Tu and Ilov. He left Russia and in 1919 ended up in the United States, where he created a series of wonderful aircraft and helicopters. And gained worldwide fame.
Once, while on board his next plane, he watched the flight. It got dark. Suddenly they turned on the light, and he froze in amazement. Everything he saw around him completely repeated the picture he knew from his childhood dream: a bluish light pouring from the ceiling, a narrow corridor whose doors were trimmed with walnut wood. And there was the same feeling of soft movement. Many years later, the children's dream was reproduced with extraordinary accuracy in real life.
Oleg Antonov's dream
Soviet aircraft designer Oleg Antonov is a prime example of how sleep can contribute to scientific and technological progress.
One day he dreamed about the shape of the two-finned plumage of the future giant aircraft "Antey", which he immediately imprinted on the drawing after awakening. It is possible that the name of the aircraft was also dreamed by the engineer. Otherwise, its logic is not entirely clear.
In Greek mythology, the giant Antaeus drew his strength exclusively from the mother of the earth and lost his power as soon as he broke away from the soil. This feature became fatal for Antaeus in the fight with Hercules: he threw him high in the air, and then the weakened ridge broke.
It is interesting that envious people from NATO call our plane Cock (one of the meanings of which is "Cock"). Apparently, the classifiers of the North Atlantic Alliance sleep too little.