DREAMS-WHAT DO THEY MEAN TO YOU AND YOUR LIFE?

Dreams have fascinated people in different cultures since around 2500 BC in the Mesopotamian Civilisation. Dream interpretation was a practice among Chinese, Afircan and Indian cultures.  Philosophy, psychology, human evolution, anthropology, divinity, religion, and science have combinly given us a clear understanding about dreams at the present time.

Dreams have always fascinated people for reasons known and unknown.  The earliest record of a dream came from literary tests in Mesopotamian civilization, dating back to the third millennium BC.  This was the dream of the Sumerian king, Dumuzi of Urk, around 2500 BC.  The record of the interpretation of this dream by the king's sister, Geshtinanna, a dream interpreter at that time, is available and has been subjected to study in the present time.  The sister had interpreted the dream as an indication of some bad things to happen and advised him to go hide. 

So, when we consider the topic of dreams in the present time, we are talking about something that has fascinated, confused and induced a considerable amount of fear and anxiety in humans for more than four and a half millennia of recorded history.

We are lucky that since then, the topic has been explored by the field of religious speculation and the studies of philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience.  The latter three have given us a better understanding of it and shown that it is a way of our mind and an interaction between its conscious and unconscious parts.

In this post, however, I am looking at the cultural aspects of the dream and how various cultures have interpreted it.

Dream interpreting in Chinese culture.

Dream interpreting has been popular in China since ancient times.  The most popular dream-interpreting reference in China is the book Duke of Zhou.  Ancient Chinese believed dreams could imply auspicious and inauspicious aspects, and the book helped them interpret them. 

For example, in its interpretations, when people dreamt of a tiger or a snake, it heralded the happening of auspicious things, but dreaming of coiled snakes meant unrest in their lives.

Dreams in Chinese Culture

Chinese culture viewed dreams not as a matter of superstition but as a matter of science.  Dreams are reflections of facts, the repetition of things that happened in the awakened state and hence understood without the help of dream interpretations.

Dreams are the body's self-implications.  Ancient Chinese medical science stated that dreams are expressions of the body's health conditions.  According to Chinese philosophy, Yin and Yang are two opposing principles in nature—yin negative and Yang positive.  When there is an imbalance between these two in the body, the mind plays it out through dreams.

A dream of someone being roasted in a fire results from that person's inner heat being high, which causes them to get angry and nervous in life.  Seeing anger in dreams is the result of high liver fire from the person suffering from liver problems; a person seeing frightening things in dreams is the result of suffering from lung dryness and lung sickness.

Dreams according to Traditional Healing in South Africa. 

Traditional Healing Expert Sangoma Gogo Moyo believes that the scenarios we experience in dreams have meanings.  He gives the following explanations for people's different dream experiences.

Falling in dreams means you are anxious and moody and find it hard to maintain stability in a relationship.  You need to work towards finding solutions to these problems.

Dreaming of being chased, of your ex-lover, snakes, a dead person, money, water, a wedding, being naked, or food all have meanings, and you need to find reasons behind them and seek solutions.

Dreams in the Indian culture.

In the Indian view, a dream is a person who lives honestly, is free from evil thoughts and is always empowered with dreams. And such people dream of incidents that are supposed to happen in the future. These dreams are often connected with the life of the dreamer or of their relatives.  They also mention the medical tradition of Ayurveda that found meanings and purposes in dream experiences.  They also keep that the Indian view of dreams differs from that of the Western.

The Western view of dreams.

Western views of dreams, in my understanding, consider various aspects, including philosophy, psychology, human evolution, anthropology, divinity, religions, scientific research, and many other disciplines. It is challenging to consider all those in a small piece like this.   Here is an essay I found interesting to read and understand. 

Conclusion.

Dreams have always fascinated me, and based on my dream experience, I agree with most of the views expressed above in that they are a part of the universal dream experience. What do you think, and have you had any dream experiences?

This post is created for the Blogaberry Creative (Monthly Challenge)