The Secret of Dreams.
by Yacki Raizizun.
DREAMS
Everybody dreams, but there are few who place any importance to the phenomena of sleep. Before we can begin to comprehend or even a.n.a.lyze dreams, whether our dreams are symbolic or otherwise, we must first divert from our mind our materialistic conceptions of what the individual called man really is. The external or physical man, is no more the man than the coat he wears. The physical man is only an instrument of which the real inner man or soul expresses itself in the physical universe. Various materialistic theories have been given in the past, trying to explain the mighty phenomena of dreams, but these theories have always been more or less unsatisfactory. Why? Because the-materialist tries to explain the riddle of human existence without an individual human spirit his explanation will always be unsatisfactory.
Dreams afford a separation of soul and body. As soon as the senses become torpid, the inner man withdraws from the outer. There are three different ways which afford this separation. First, natural sleep.
Second, induced sleep, such as hypnotism, mesmerism or trance. Third, death. In the above two cases the man has only left his physical body temporarily, whereas in death he has left it forever. In the case of death, the link which unites soul and body, as seen by clairvoyant vision, is broken, but in trance or sleep it is released. The real man is then in the astral world. He now functions in his astral body, which becomes a vehicle for expressing consciousness, just as the physical body is an instrument for expressing consciousness in the waking state.
Consciousness is not annihilated when the man is in the Astral world, it is only temporarily suspended. Just the same as in the case of death. The man is fully conscious in the astral regions clothed in the body of the Astral matter. This Astral body is in the physical and extends little beyond it. The Astral world is here and now, interpenetrating the physical, and not in some remote region above the clouds as so many imagine.
Man is a soul. He has a body. He expresses himself in three worlds.
While he functions in the physical body, viz., physical, emotional and mental worlds. Just as the Astral interpenetrates the physical the mental interpenetrates the Astral. The Astral body in which man functions during sleep is the body of emotions and desires and he expresses these desires and emotions in the physical life.
The Astral body in which man functions during sleep is very subtle matter. It resembles the physical. In fact, it is an exact reproduction of it, but it can only be seen by clairvoyant vision.
When a man leaves his body in sleep or death, the spirit must leave the physical body before it will be rested and recuperated to enable it to undergo the strenuous daily toil of physical life.
Here is an example. Let a man go to bed say ten o"clock. Let him sleep until six next morning. The ordinary man will awaken feeling refreshed and ready for his daily toil. Let him go to bed at ten, lie awake all night, next morning he will not feel refreshed and during the day he may feel sluggish and sleepy. Let him go to bed and lie awake night after night for a few weeks, what will be the result? He will be a physical wreck. Although he may have the same amount of hours lying in bed, he will not feel recuperated and refreshed unless he has had his natural sleep and this can only come to pa.s.s.
When the soul or spirit withdraws from the physical body, the physical body is not the man, and as long as our materialistic writers who endeavor to interpret dreams fail to grasp the nature of the inner man, the real self, they will be forever groping in the dark.
The first question that naturally arises in the mind of the layman is this: How can a man leave his body in sleep and continue its natural functions such as digestion, circulation of blood, etc.
We do not consciously direct the circulation of the blood, or any of the natural bodily functions during our waking state. These things go on whether we will them or not. Although the spirit leaves the body in sleep as previously stated, there is still a magnetic connection with soul and body. This magnetic connection acts on the sympathetic nervous system and the cerebro spinal which controls the functions of the human organism. In sleep the astral man may be in the immediate vicinity of his sleeping recuperating physical body or it may be thousands of miles away in s.p.a.ce, the magnetic connection still exists regardless of the distance. No matter what distance the astral man is away from his physical body, he can return to it with the rapidity of thought, as the saying is, for it is the soul that thinks, the brain is only an instrument of the soul.
Many of our dreams may be attributed to subconscious memory, for when our mind is centered on a certain train of thought these thoughts are apt to filter through into the conscious state in sleep. The subconscious memory cannot be truthfully called a dream, for it is only a memory of something we have previously perceived in reality or imagination. One only has to examine his subconscious dream in the light of reason to eliminate them. Telepathy does explain some of our dreams, for just as it is possible for minds to receive telepathic communications (thought transference) from another in the walking state, it is also possible for the so-called dead to have telepathic communication with the living, for thought is a power, its limitation is unknown.
While many of our dreams may be traced to subconscious memory or telepathy and happenings of material affairs of our daily lives, others are undoubtedly the astral happenings of the ego while functioning in the etheric regions. There we meet not only the misnamed dead but also many of those who are still in the physical body, and let me state here that many of our difficult problems of physical life are worked out in sleep.
The old axiom, "I will go to sleep on it," has a greater significance than is generally attributed to it, for sleep and dreams have more to do in shaping your lives than you have any idea of. You can go to school in sleep and study anything you are studying in physical life and make marvelous progress. This requires much training, however.
Keeping the mind free from evil thoughts is most essential to enable the sincere investigator to enter that larger state of consciousness, for the thoughts of our waking state have a more or less effect on the ego during sleep. Every individual harbors a certain train of thought, whether at business or pleasure this train of thought has a tremendous influence on the ego, in fact it shapes ones destiny.
Choose well your thoughts for your choice is brief and yet endless.
--Anna Besant in Thought Power
Man may be said to live two lives in one, one when he is fully awake and the other when he is sound asleep. These two lives, of course, is the expression of his one existence. The highly developed, spiritual man as he retires into the interior world during sleep, realizes a state of spiritual bliss that is far beyond the stage of ordinary mortals. Man has been in the habit of looking at himself as a ma.s.s of flesh and muscle with a slight chance of realizing the Divinity within him. As the earnest soul gradually arouses himself he finds his proper place in the universe, for within him are all the attributes of deity, and when he reaches the end of the long evolutionary journey that is ahead of him he will find himself and know what he is destined to be, a G.o.d.
VARIETIES OF DREAMS
In order to distinguish and cla.s.sify the different kinds of dreams in which everyone has an experience they may be divided into four variations. Nearly all dreams may be cla.s.sified under this heading:
1. Physical Stimulus.
2. Subconscious memory.
3. Telepathy.
4. The Actual Astral experience of the Ego or Soul in the Astral region.
Physical Stimulus may be the direct cause of impressing certain ideas on the physical brain which may appear to be a reality. The falling of a book, picture or any article in the room may cause the sleeper to dream of firearms; a soldier may dream of a battlefield; a sensitive female may dream it is a burglar; a person who throws the bed clothes off him on a cold night may dream of snow and ice; the continual dropping of water from a faucet in the room of the sleeper has been the direct cause of a friend of mine dreaming of a pa.s.senger train; the steady tramping of footsteps overhead may be the cause of dreaming of thunder storms, etc. We must also take into consideration the physical and mental environments of the sleeper.
THE SUBCONSCIOUS MEMORY
The subconscious memory may be the direct cause of certain dreams.
When the mind is centered on certain things, the sleeper goes over his life again and again in phantom fashion. He lives over the experiences of his daily life. Very often the ego enlightens the sleeper of some material thing for his own benefit, which he may use advantageously in his waking state, but as he generally looks at the phenomena of dreams as an hallucination of the brain, he allows many a golden opportunity to slip through his fingers because the materialist"s brain cannot grasp things of the spirit.
All the knowledge and rubbish of our past lives is stored up in the subconscious mind where it remains in minute form. Memory is only the awakening of the sub-conscious mind, a long and forgotten incident, that has made a deep impression on the mind, is apt to filter through into the conscious state in dreams. In time of illness or when one"s vitality is low, the dream picture of the past is apt to play a very prominent part in one"s sleep. Childhood and long-forgotten scenes come up frequently and appear as real and genuine as if they had only happened the previous day. They frequently give the dreamer joy or sorrow, according to the stages he pa.s.sed through.
Even action of past lives may come up into the subconscious. Dreams of running around nude without any feeling of shame may be the memory of a previous existence. Falling from a high cliff or trees. Being chased around by some wild animals may be attributed to a primitive past.
Dreaming of primitive people, places and things, only takes the dreamer a step nearer the stone age, from whence he came. Instead of looking at these subconscious dreams with horror and dread as some people do they should study them and shape their lives accordingly.
TELEPATHIC DREAMS OR THOUGH TRANSFERENCE.
Telepathy is a known and established fact. The connection between minds without material means of any kind, has often been demonstrated by the very simple method of one person acting as a sender, while the other acts as a receiver. The sender thinks of a certain subject selected before-hand. He may write it down on slate or paper. This often helps him to keep his mind concentrated on the subject he wishes to send to the receiver. The receiver places himself in as receptive a position as possible, and Keeping his mind calm, the impression he receives he makes note of. After a few experiences he may find the message to be correct, word for word. This is telepathy.
In sleep there is often telepathic conditions between minds who are in close sympathy with each other, such as man and wife, mother and children, or people whose business brings them close together, may exchange thoughts during sleep. For instance, in one case a mother received the thought of her boy, who was away from home, telling of his sickness. A few days later she received a letter verifying her dream. A salesman dreams of a friend telling him of his company doing a big business in a neighboring town. Upon his friend"s return his dream was found to be correct.
A lady in San Francisco (whose husband was in Australia) for three successive nights, dreamed of his returning to America. She did not expect him until early in the fall of the year. She was dreaming of him in the spring. On the fourth morning after her dream she received a letter telling her about his unexpected return. These are so-called telepathic dreams, usually from minds of living people, although telepathic connection from minds of disincarnate beings is possible.
THE ACTUAL ASTRAL EXPERIENCE OF THE EGO DURING SLEEP IN THE ASTRAL WORLD.
The actual Astral experience in which the ego sees distant sights, sights and visions which he knows do not actually exist upon the physical plane, such as communicating with the dead, recovery of lost and stolen property; having premonitions of a certain thing which actually happens, such as approaching danger or death.
Above are but a few of the actual astral experiences of the ego which it endeavors to impress on the physical brain. Sometimes it impresses them by symbols, for symbols are the true language of the soul, and to know how to interpret the meaning of the symbols of your dreams is of the utmost importance to the beginner. A symbolic dream, which is an actual astral experience, can only be interpreted by the dreamer himself, for no one lives your life but yourself. The first impression you receive intuitively, of a dream you see symbolically, is usually correct. The reason the layman does not interpret his dreams correctly, by following his intuition, is because he generally has some material idea of his own concerning dreams.
Here is a dream that may be said to be an actual experience of the ego. Taken from the Chicago American, July 17, 1920:
Dreams sons drowned; found bodies in river, Burlington, Vt.
The dream was responsible for the finding of the bodies of George Raymond, Jr., 14 years, son of George Raymond, and his uncle, Winford Raymond, in the Lamoille river at Fletcher. According to Winford"s father, the vision of the boy"s mother appeared before him in a dream and directed him to look for the boys in the river. They had been absent from home since Sunday. The dream was so vivid that the father wakened and at 2 o"clock went to the river bank, where he found the boys" clothing. At daybreak the bodies were recovered.
Here is a dream of the so-called dead who, many believe, exist in a state of dreamless sleep or annihilation, appearing in a vision, and so impressing on the astral brain of the sleeper where the boy"s bodies were, that he actually brought the vision or astral experience through into the waking consciousness. Here is proof of a mother looking over her children, even if she is separated from them through the doorway of the tomb. No sane person today can actually believe the tomb to be the doorway to the night of oblivion. Many of the misnamed dead are present, and when we go to sleep at night we meet them and converse with them just the same as if they were inhabiting their mortal bodies.
We do not claim, however, that the dead are all-knowing; but free from the physical bodies, the spiritually enlightened ones have a broader vision of things, especially if there is a close sympathetic feeling between the dead and the living, as there appeared to have been in this case, for the conditions must be absolutely harmonious before one may bring his actual astral experience into the waking consciousness.