Philosophy of Dreams
In attempting to put together the information gathered from viewing thousands of dreams – not simply at face value, but explored in depth through the emotions and direct associations of the dreamer – a philosophy or view of life arises.
The synthesis of the information gathered suggests that our birth as a physical and psychological being is a paradox. We are unique, and at the same time a common undifferentiated process. Psychologically we have our identity out of the lives of thousands of humans who preceded us and left the gift of language, of music, art, of concepts and information. Our mental life, our consciousness, is in some real way formed out of what they left from their life. Our consciousness has been whittled out of the rock of possibilities by the love, the struggle and pain, the endeavour and wit of their lives. Particularly our psyche has been shaped by or modelled on our parents, and the traces in their life, unknown though they may be, of their parents, backwards for many generations.
Our identity is given to us by the humans who raise us. This sense of self arises because we are treated as if we were a self. This, with language is the creative matrix of our self awareness. The giving of a name is therefore a miracle that acts as a nucleus around which the many mental connections can be made that form our self image. Perhaps this is why giving the name in baptism is seen as a holy rite in Christianity. See Programmed
Our conscious personality can live without ever becoming aware of its connections with other lives except as it meets them in everyday affairs. That its existence has depended upon what was given by countless other lives – that human’s constantly create each other through the dynamic flux of communication, consciously and unconsciously – might never be realised. That ones own life is also a part of this creative process, this sea of living consciousness, might never be known. Nevertheless, each individual life constantly takes part in the collective, negatively or positively. This is not a mystical thing, but is plainly observable. Language for instance is not something we created alone. The clothes we wear, the food we eat, the house we live in and the materials it is made of, are all a part of collective skill, effort and knowledge. We exist in this collective creativity all the time. We depend upon it but perhaps seldom acknowledge it. Our unconscious however is vitally aware of it and communicates to us as fully as it can considering our frequency of ignoring it, what it sees of our relationship with this collective life process and social activity.
From the point of view of dreams, if our life has given nothing in deed, in love, in rearing of children, in ideas or art, or in common humanity, we are dead, – during life and afterwards. Giving and receiving, kinship and symbiosis, growth and decay are the fundamentals of the Life and the living process according to dreams. Life is action within the whole. See Life
At death, we face a very real end, a real death. There is no magical escape from this. All that we have been, all we have become, all we gathered and won is lost – finished. But the paradox occurs again. Dreams suggest that out of all we gave of ourselves, out of all we received from the being of others, arises a new existence recreated in a realm of univeresal consciousness. This may mean that we continue as living influences in the lives of those who still live. But the suggestion is that something more than this occurs. For death is shown in dreams as a huge transforming experience. At death we can no longer live in an individual body, and to survive in this new experience, which is the world of the universal, we have to learn how to change from an isolated individual into someone or something that is part of universal forces – the universal forces of Life and the world that in fact caused us to exist in the first place. In fact we have to go through a transforming proces much as a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. We cannot retain consciousness in the life after death without transfroming into universal awareness. For some cannot meet these levels of experience and are asleep at this level. See Steiners view of life and death
One of the great secrets observed from over thirty years of dream watching concerns health. It is that each of us carry within us fears about our health, or about our own personal adequacy. This is natural enough, but in dreams these feelings are shown as being like a hypnotic suggestion for the body to be ill. These negative emotions are like bad infections or viruses we have contracted. To counteract their influence we must take time to feel the basic force for life and survival in us. Become aware of the force that is constantly renewing body and mind. Imagine it pervading every part of you and work with it toward healing and renewal. Whatever feelings of pleasure you can find, let them spread to areas of pain or discomfort. Let them fill your body and restore it. See Life’s Little Secrets; Martial Art of the Mind
The second great secret is that behind the facade we may erect to tell people who we are, each of us want to be capable of loving and supporting at least one other human being. We want at least one other person to be glad we exist. This secret of love permeates your sexual drive. Even the sex cells – the sperm and ovum – when they meet, burst asunder and give themselves completely to each other. Dreams suggest we have an urge toward this at a personal level. We deeply desire our lover to so open to us, and we to them, that we take them into ourselves and are enriched by the merging of the other personality without compromising our independence. If you are frightened of this giving of yourself, you remain frustrated in a large degree. And one of the great themes in dreams is the constant reminder of the fears and hurts that stand in the way of such love. See Learning to Love; Beware of Love
A fourth secret is that we can communicate with the deeply unconscious parts of our nature such as body processes. Dreams portray the life process as intelligent and purposive, as something existing in all things and synthesising all individual experience. Life as presented by the unconscious is responsive to our own actions and attitudes. If we care for and love the innate process of our being, such as daring to face the cultural and childhood sources of internal pain, and heal them, then life loves us, responds more fully to us, and opens its treasures to us.
It reminds us not to run away from or repress emotional pain and depression, for such pains are like fire alarms warning us of danger to our well being. See Pain-Meeting It
There is so much that dreams have explained or taught me that I have only given an introduction, so I would suggest reading such features as Meeting yourself – Features Found on Site – Things I Want to show You