COMMUNION

by

David Calvert

Throughout recorded history dreams have helped shape the destinies of great
nations, have been instrumental in expanding self-awareness, and have changed the lives
of the great and lowly alike, proving themselves to be both prophetic and powerful. It has
been calculated that we sleep away a third of our day on average, and that if we live to
the age of 75 we will have slept for an incredible 25 years and dreamt for 10 of them.

Dream Source
Though times and human cultures may have changed, our fascination with dreams
has not. In the palace ‘dream halls’ of Japanese emperors – long before the emergence of
Buddhism – could be found the Kamudoko, a polished stone bed on which the emperors
would lie to seek enlightenment from the gods. And every Roman Legion had a
soothsayer - a priest who would be called upon to consult the oracles and shrines. He
would interpret dreams to see if the omens boded well. The soothsayer was every bit as
important to legionnaires as their weaponry and battle tactics.
Arguably, it was in ancient Greece where dream study truly began to flourish.
They erected magnificent ‘dream temples’ solely for the purpose of analysing and
interpreting dreams. Among the philosophers of the time were Aristotle and Plato who
believed that man himself was the true source of dreams, and not the gods. Their notions
have persisted over the centuries, becoming popularised in the writings of
psychoanalysts, Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung. They also believed that dream
content was in some way derived from personal experience – a premise on which
contemporary opinion is based.
There are many schools of thought concerning dreams and their interpretation.
Freud thought that sex played a significant role in our dreams, because it is a powerful
driving force and has an important role in our everyday lives. In our waking lives sex is
repressed by social restrictions and conventions. In our dreams, however, there are no
such restrictions. Adolescent males frequently experience frank sexual encounters in their
dreams. These are commonly referred to as ‘wet dreams’ because they invariably result in
orgasm. Jung recognised, however, that other deep desires drove man.
Clinical studies have proven that we all dream, even animals. Rapid eye
movements (REMs), the movement of the eyeball beneath the closed lids, are a sure- fire
sign that an individual is dreaming. Awaken someone during REM sleep and they will
instantly recall their internal visions. REM sleep occurs about five times over and eight
hour period and follows a period of deep sleep. Why then do some people claim they
never dream? The answer is twofold. Either they simply don’t remember their dream, or
they are being censored because of their content. After all, dreams are a true expression
of whom and what we are; including those desires we care not to admit to.

Dream Types
It is now accepted that during dream-sleep all the things we experience seem real
to us because the same information transmitters (neurons) in the brain, which process
actual waking episodes, are also at work during sleep. At the same time the brain
disregards, to a certain extent, real world distractions, making our dream world one of
virtual reality.

Lucid Dreams
Nowhere is this virtual reality more striking than in the lucid dream. The lucid
dream is as vivid and real as it gets. At some point the sleeper becomes aware they are
dreaming. If they continue to dream whilst in this state of awareness called ‘lucidity’ they
can control and steer it in whatever direction they choose. Many problems can be
overcome by lucid dreaming. Creative people such as writers get their best ideas from
dreams. However, ordinary dreams are subject to half-remembered fleeting images and
cannot be summoned on demand. The lucid dreamer can call on any scenario they wish,
can play with ideas, and combine conscious elements into their dream before allowing the
subconscious to take over.
No one knows why spontaneous lucid dreaming occurs. The brain is supposed to
be unconscious during sleep. Clearly, something goes wrong that allows a measure of
consciousness to take over. People have used this ‘mistake’ of the brain to their advantage
by developing techniques to deliberately induce it.

False Awakenings
False awakening dreams are relatively common and are frequently confused with
lucid dreams. At some point in our lives we have all experienced a false or multiple false
awakening. The alarm wakes you up. You get up, shower and have your breakfast before
setting out for work. You may even experience a full working day before you suddenly
realise that you are in fact dreaming. Though the false awakening shares the same
‘clarity’ as a lucid dream the difference is that you are unaware you are dreaming and as
such do not have the same level of control as in the lucid dream.

Nightmares
Nightmares can be very distressing to individuals. We have all experienced them
at one time or another. They happen less frequently in adults than in children and occur
during periods of REM sleep, as opposed to night terrors that occur during NREM (non-
rapid eye movement) sleep. Nightmares are characterised by certain physiological
responses caused by a feeling of fear, such as increased pulse rate and body sweat.
There is no single cause for nightmares. Sometimes physical and/or psychological
factors are involved in their creation. Feverish illnesses can certainly cause them, as can
the medicinal drugs used to combat the illness. Unusual stress or trauma can also bring
them on. Other than for an interrupted sleep, and feelings of irritability, anxiety and
depression the following day, nightmares very rarely cause physical harm to the
experiencer. There are, however, certain successful visualisation techniques that can be
used to ‘neutralise’ nightmares. Lucid dreaming is one such technique.

Enactment Dreams
Dreams deal with emotion. However, not all emotion causes dreams. It is
unexpressed emotional arousal in the waking state that causes us to dream. For example,
a disagreement with your boss, in which you are unable to vent your true feelings of
anger toward him, will probably be enacted in a dream. The dream will take the form of a
metaphorical scenario that parallels the real-life experience. In it your boss may be
symbolised by a terrible ogre whom you attack and vanquish, thus allowing full
expression of your anger. If you continue to ruminate angrily over the same issue the
brain will try to solve the problem the same way and will create a repetitive dream in
order to do so.

Re-enactment and Problem Solving Dreams

The re-enactment dream is among the commonest of all dreams and is said to be
caused by the thoughts in our heads prior to falling asleep, suggesting they are pragmatic
in nature. Yet dreams do far more than merely reflect life. When viewed from a
subconscious perspective even information can be assessed differently.
What once seemed an insoluble problem for the German-born scientist; August
Kekulé became clarified after a dream. He was pondering over the molecular structure of
benzine when he dreamt of a snake swallowing its own tail. From this he realised that if
the carbon and attached hydrogen atoms formed a ring the problem of the benzine’s
structure could be solved. This 19th century discovery eventually leads mankind into the
era of the motorcar and aeroplane.

Precognition
Dreams are as diverse and as complex as life itself and can offer us insights into
who we are, into our hopes, fears and problems. Many possess certain logic and can be
explained in such terms. However, a small proportion continues to defy scientific
rationale.
On October 21st, 1969, in the Welsh village of Aberfan, 140 people died when half
a million tons of coal waste swept over them. Among them was nine-year-old, Eryl Mai
Jones who, on the previous evening, told her mother of a strange dream she had in which
she saw something black cover her school. She wasn’t the only one to predict the disaster.
Many others are on record as having done so. Because of it, and several other incidents,
several bureaus were established. All were dedicated to collating such premonitions in the
hope that one day disasters like Aberfan could be avoided. Unfortunately, they did not
prove practical.

Symbolism, Metaphors & Puns

We have seen from the foregoing that there are many types of dreams, each is rich
in symbolism that is tailored to meet the individual’s needs. The old adage, “One man’s
meat is another man’s poison” is an apposite description when considering how to
interpret the symbols in a dream. For example, lightning may engender fear in one person
and cause exhilaration and awe in another. Clearly then, it is the dreamers waking life
perception of the phenomenon which colours the interpretation of the dream.
One Interesting aspect of symbolism is that of dream metaphors and puns. The
term “for the chop”, for example, indicates losing one’s job. Anyone experiencing this
unenviable situation might well dream of being beheaded. And being called “as thick as a
plank” may cause an individual to dream of carrying around with them a stout length of
wood which they are unable to put down. Such dream metaphors and puns are the
subconscious’ way of getting a message across to the dreamer in terms they are familiar
with.

Contemporary Dream Interpretation

In his landmark monograph The Interpretation of Dreams, Freud emphasised
dream analysis as a means to unlocking the unconscious mind, which he suspected were
composed of repressed psychological material.
Modern-day psychoanalysis dream interpretation, however, has seen a fall in
popularity. That not withstanding, there is still a body of literature that supports dream
interpretation, and continues to provide an influential therapeutic focus.
At present, there are two prevailing theories about dreams and their relationship
with psychoanalysis: the neurophysiologic theory, and the activation-synthesis theory.
Nevertheless, neither of these theories has been fully accepted as yet.

The human mind is perhaps the single most fascinating mystery man has ever
tried to decipher and may never be fully understood for, like man himself, it is in a
constant state of evolutionary change and adaptation.

ENDS