Everybody knows household dream books: a fish dreams of pregnancy, falling teeth - to losses, a loved one - to separation. People have amused themselves with such interpretations even in ancient times. True, they can hardly be taken seriously. The human psyche is too complex to be reduced to a simple "cause - effect" formula. The images generated by the sleeping brain are sometimes in no way connected with a person's previous experience and, moreover, with the experience of other people, which is presented in a generalized form and with a fair amount of fantasy in popular dream books.
FROM PAPIRUS TO QURAN
People have always tried to understand why this or that dream and how it can affect the present and future. However, they have not achieved much success in this so far.
In ancient Egypt, there were special temples dedicated to dreams - "serapim" (on behalf of the god of dreams, Serapis). Priests served in the temples, who deciphered the dreams of parishioners and made the appropriate predictions. Of particular interest were the dreams of royalty: the dreams of the pharaohs were considered encrypted messages from the gods, therefore they were interpreted with great care. By the way, it was in Ancient Egypt that the first dream book was written - the papyrus from Deral Madinekh (2000 - 1700 BC).
Dreaming practices were treated with great attention in China. At the court of the emperor, there was always a priest-interpreter, who daily wrote down the dreams of his master and was supposed to present reports about what they mean and what they portend. This was considered a matter of national importance. There is a known case when the emperor Wu-Qing (Shang-Yin dynasty, about 1324 - 1266 BC) saw in a dream a person unknown to him, who, according to the plot of the dream, performed the functions of a palace adviser. Waking up, Wu-Ching ordered the best artists to write portraits of the stranger from his words. Then he sent messengers to all parts of the country in order to find a person in his dream from these drawings, deliver to the palace and give the powers of an adviser. The most amazing thing is that such a person was found. And he really took a high position at the court and served the emperor for the rest of his life, although before that he was a simple worker.
In ancient Japan, dream cultivation was widespread. Believers could come to temples (both Buddhist and Shinto) to undergo a magical rite, fall asleep in a prayer room and see a prophetic dream. Sources say that this procedure was extremely popular: on some days, queues were lined up at such temples.
Dreams were also given great importance in the Islamic tradition. The prophet Mohammed himself urged his followers to retell their dreams to him every day. And the Quran for the most part consists of the words heard by the prophet in a dream.
Promotional video:
RELIGION ON THE SIDE
For a long time, humanity was interested in dreams mainly as a part of religious practice. Scientific research on dreams began only at the end of the 19th century. The first fundamental works on the psychology and physiology of dreams belong to the pen of the Dutch psychiatrist Frederick Willem van Eden. He compiled a classification of dreams based on personal experience, highlighting the so-called "transparent" dreams - those that visit a person on the verge of sleep and reality, when the sleeper has the ability to control the plot without feeling that he is already asleep.
The baton was taken over by the founding father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, who eventually managed to put the interpretation of dreams on a scientific track, depriving this occupation of a religious flavor.
In accordance with his own theory of the unconscious, Freud considered dreams to be the product of not only and not so much real experience as the inner, hidden life of the brain. At the time of sleep, the outside world ceases to exist for a person, that is, it ceases to supply him with information for understanding. Therefore, desires repressed by consciousness come to the fore, interpreting which, one can solve complex psychological problems. Initially, Freud believed that dream images are individual, but later he introduced a provision on symbols to the theory. Symbols, as Freud believed, have a universal stable meaning, they can be found not only in dreams, but also in myths, fairy tales, and poetry. For example, according to Freud, a house symbolizes a person, crowned persons - parents, plots with the participation of water reflect the experiences of birth, and dreams about leaving, seeing off,rail travel speaks of death. Freud's theory of symbols was criticized a lot - they say, inventions, stretching, no connection with reality.
Since the time of Freud, of course, a lot has changed. But - what a paradox! - modern Internet users prove by practice that his theory of symbols is not far-fetched at all. It is enough to analyze the top 5 queries in search engines on the topic: "What does it mean if you dreamed of this and that", and it will become obvious that people still most often dream about money, the road, their own death, teeth. And everyone is eager to know what the brain is hinting at when it throws such stories. In the meantime, the answers to these questions can be found in the classic work of the father of psychoanalysis "The Interpretation of Dreams": just in that part that was subjected to especially fierce criticism in the scientific community.
But still, despite the universality of some symbols, the interpretation of dreams is an individual matter. A lot depends on the nuances, situation, mood, so that the same images can be interpreted in completely different ways.
No one better than the dreamer himself can interpret his dream. But in order to understand what the brain wants to tell you, first you need to learn how to clearly remember dreams, since small details that are quickly erased from memory are sometimes decisive.
DOOR TO SUBCONSCIOUSNESS
Analyzing your own dreams is a great way to establish a dialogue with the subconscious, to become aware of your hidden fears and desires, and, in the end, to understand what will make you happy. And in order to memorize dreams in all details, I suggest using a simple system:
1. Get ready for bed. Try to complete all important tasks and free up half an hour for relaxation. Relax, play calm music. Let go of the problems you encountered during the day. Set yourself up to be positive. We advise you to write down everything that comes to mind for 10-15 minutes - this will help clear your brain of unnecessary information. When done, tear or burn the notes without reading.
2. Change into nightwear made from fine, lightweight, natural fabrics. Do not sleep in underwear that you have worn during the day: it accumulates unnecessary energy.
3. Unplug all electrical appliances in the bedroom, especially the computer and mobile phone. If you cannot do this, try to at least put them away.
4. Give yourself a mindset to remember the dream. Say out loud several times: “In a dream, answers to important questions come to me. My dreams are a source of wisdom. I remember what I dream about."
5. Place a small pillow under your cheek filled with aromatic herbs such as lavender, mint, clover. And next to the bed are untreated natural stones. Herbs will help you calm down, and stones will help you concentrate.
6. Do not forget to leave a pen and paper somewhere nearby so that you can write down the dream right away in the morning. Don't postpone the recording until later: many important details are forgotten in the first half hour after waking up.
Correctly recorded dream records will allow you to quickly get to the bottom of the essence, which the brain carefully packs into complex images and chains of associations. Follow the instructions and the process will become much easier and more logical.
After you finish the first, draft recording of the dream, write down separately:
- The main events;
- their behavior, thoughts, feelings;
- the actors (describe the strangers in as much detail as possible) and their actions;
- participants in events that are not people (animals, mythical creatures, monsters, and so on);
- things, objects, buildings (all the details are important here: shape, color, size, etc.);
- memorized words.
Start with a date. Leave a blank page to mark the events and experiences of the next day. At first (one or two weeks), just write down according to the scheme everything that you dreamed of, as well as everything that happened in reality. And you will soon begin to understand the relationship between the events of night and day. Do not try to interpret dreams using dream books: this will violate the purity of the experiment. Pay more attention to your own thoughts, feelings, and ideas.
A very important stage in the interpretation of dreams is the search for associations - the construction of associative rows based on the dream images. It is important to give yourself complete freedom and avoid self-censorship as much as possible. Imagine, write with "broad strokes." It is important to use the so-called "wheel method". Imagine that the dream image is the center of the wheel and your associations are the spokes. All associations must come from the original image, that is, from the center of the wheel, and not from the previous association. Analysts also advise avoiding speech cliches, well-established expressions like "green melancholy", "high-flying bird" and so on, since each of them has its own deep meaning and can distort a personal associative array.
After a while, you can try to use a dictionary of symbols (for example, Freud's, or K.-G. Jung). Do not take what is written in these books head-on. Look for those interpretations that will "hook" you with something. Try to isolate what exactly reflects your situation, your individual experience. As you read the interpretations, ask the question all the time: "What does this have to do with me, what does it mean for my life?" Remember: a dream is a message addressed to you personally, which means that the language of the message is chosen in accordance with your personal characteristics. In other words, if you dream about fish, do not rush to make an appointment with a doctor and buy antiviral drugs: perhaps you just missed seafood. After all, there are just dreams.
BRILLIANT DREAMS
Dream research is important not only for satisfying the public's curiosity. And not only as a resource for the treatment of certain mental disorders. If we analyze the number of scientific discoveries and inventions made in the wake of dreams, works of art written under their influence, it becomes clear that this is not at all an accident. Everyone knows the story of the discovery of the periodic system of chemical elements: Russian chemist Dmitry Mendeleev saw its structure in a dream. However, few people know that the great Albert Einstein directly linked the discovery of the theory of relativity with his old childhood dream. He dreamed that he was rushing in a sleigh at a terrible speed, which is increasing and increasing, and the stars sparkle around, merging into a single colored iridescent array.
German chemist Friedrich Kekule saw in a dream the formula of the benzene ring - and this led to a revolution in organic chemistry. The Italian composer Giuseppe Tartini remembered a dream in which he sold his soul to the devil in exchange for a brilliant piece of violin. Shocked by this plot, he created his famous "Devil's Trill".
The great English romantic Robert Stevenson wrote novels based on plots he saw in his dreams. In particular, "The Strange Story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" was entirely his dream. Spanish artist Francisco Goya was often inspired by his own nightmares, creating his canvases based on them. And the inventor of the sewing machine, American mechanic Elias Howe, solved the problem of locating the eyelet on the needle only after he had a terrible dream in which he was killed with strange spears with holes at the very end, at the point …
It is possible that the key to unraveling human genius lies precisely in the study of the night work of the brain. Who knows, maybe, having learned more about the nature of dreams, we will be able to get closer to revealing this innermost secret.
Maria SARYCHEVA