Dreams are the thoughts or impressions that occupy our minds when we
are asleep.
Every night, unless disease or strong excitement prevent, we are the
subject of a phenomenon which if it only occurred once in a lifetime we
would consider one of the greatest mysteries. We pass in an unconscious
moment from the usual world of deed and action into another world,
where we are unaware of what goes on around us; where we see, not with
the eyes, where we hear things of which the ear gives no impression; in
which we speak and are spoken to, altho no speech passes our lips or
reaches our organs of hearing.
In that world we are excited to joy, to grief; we are moved to pity, we
are stirred to anger; and yet these emotions are aroused by things that
do not exist. Time seems to have lost its landmarks; distance offers no
barriers; the dead return and the past comes once again to cheer or to
grieve us.
We live in a land of Dreams. Many of the thoughts that pass thru our
brains are forgotten before we awake. It often happens that people
talk in their sleep, thus proving that they are dreaming, but on being
awakened they deny that they dreamed, for their dreams have left no
trace upon their memory.
The question whether we ever sleep without dreaming is as old as
the days of the ancient Greek philosophers, and there are many able
authorities on both sides of the question.
Locke, a great writer on mental phenomena, is of the opinion that
dreaming is not always present during sleep; but many of the ancient
as well as the modern writers contend that the mind is never at rest
but continues uninterruptedly even in sleep, and that to cease to dream
would be to cease to live.
Sir William Hamilton argues as follows: “When we dream, we are
assuredly asleep, but the mind is not asleep, because it thinks. It is
therefore manifest that mental processes may go on even tho the body
is unconscious. To have no recollection of our dreams does not prove
that we have not dreamed, altho the dream may have left no trace on our
memories.”
Dreams, like our waking thoughts, are dependent on the laws of
association. Altho the senses, are usually torpid in sleep, some of
them continue to transmit to the mind imperfect sensations which they
receive. Experiments have been tried to determine how far external
impressions will cause dreams. A bottle of hot water applied to the
feet of a sleeping man caused him to dream that he was on the crater
of a volcano and that the hot earth was scorching his feet. Another
man, having a blister applied to his head, dreamed that he was being
scalped by Indians. A match suddenly lit may cause a man to dream of a
terrible storm with lightning and thunder. Darwin relates the case of a
man who was born deaf and dumb, and who never dreamed that he conversed
with others except thru the sign language. So, also, a blind man never
dreams of seeing vivid colors. Thus we see that our dreams are in many
cases dependent upon our senses.
The condition of our digestion may also influence our dreams. If the
digestive functions are properly performed, our dreams are apt to be
pleasant, whereas every one knows the torturing dreams that may follow
an indigestible supper of Welsh rabbit or lobster. In the same way
the dreams that are caused by opium or other drugs or by intoxicating
liquors are apt to be of a disagreeable nature.
The mind works with wonderful rapidity during sleep. A person who is
suddenly awakened by a loud noise may dream of many things in the
short second before he awakens. A long story may spin itself out in
his brain,—adventure, robbery, war,—until he is awakened by what he
believes is a shot. A certain writer was suddenly aroused from a sound
sleep by a few drops of water sprinkled on his face. He dreamed of the
events of an entire life in which sorrow and happiness were mingled, of
a fight on the banks of a stream into which an enemy plunged him. We
can dream more in a minute of time than we can enact in a day.
So, too, dreams are often characteristic of the peculiar life and
thoughts of the dreamer. A miser will dream of saving money, a merchant
of business deals, a musician of melody, etc. As a general thing our
dreams are wanting in coherence. They do not seem true to life. They
mix together things that are absurd and unconnected. We never dream of
the past as a thing that is past, but as a reality. People that are
long dead appear to us as living.
Do Dreams Foretell the Future?
It is a popular belief, and has been thru all ages, that dreams
foretell for us what will happen. Many remarkable cases seem to prove
this. All nations of antiquity believed in the divine nature of dreams.
The Bible is full of allusions to dreams and most of the important
events were revealed to men thru dreams.
Jacob dreamed that he saw a ladder which reached into the sky and that
angels were ascending and descending. His whole life was shaped by this
vision. His son, Joseph, was called “The Dreamer” by his brothers. We
all know the fascinating story of his dreams, his interpretations of
the visions of the butler and the baker and his reading of Pharaoh’s
dream which eventually obtained for him the position of ruler over
Egypt. The Books of the Prophets and of Daniel are based on dreams. So
are many of the incidents of the New Testament.
Coming down to more modern times, we find that many intelligent
men—writers, inventors, kings—believed in dreams.
Franklin believed that he obtained a clearer insight into political
events thru his dreams and often acted upon the inspiration he received
while asleep.
A celebrated doctor discovered a well-known remedy thru a dream.
Tartini, a celebrated musician, is said to have composed his “Devil’s
Sonata” under the inspiration of a dream in which the devil appeared to
him and invited him to try his skill upon his favorite fiddle. When he
awoke, the music was so firmly impressed upon his memory that he had no
difficulty in writing it out on paper.
The poet Coleridge is said to have composed his poem “Kubla Khan” in a
dream. He had taken an anodyne for some slight indisposition, and fell
asleep in his chair. When he awoke he retained the impression of over
two hundred lines of verse which had come to him in his slumber.
Cabanis, the philosopher, found in his sleep the conclusions of many
problems that he was not able to solve while awake. Condorcet, the
mathematician, found in his sleep the final steps in a calculation that
baffled him while awake.
Napoleon was a great believer in dreams and was often guided by them in
his campaigns.
Columbus, it is said, dreamed that a voice spoke to him saying, “God
will give thee the keys of the gates of the Ocean,” and that it was
this that kept up his courage.
In remote times the greatest of importance was attached to dreams.
The ancients resorted to them in cases of difficulty or calamity.
When pestilence spread among the Greeks before Troy, Homer represents
Achilles as taking refuge in dreams, his reason being,—
“_Dreams descend from Jove_.”
Aristotle, Plato, Zeno, Pythagoras, Socrates, Xenophon and Sophocles
have all expressed their belief in the divine or prophetic character of
dreams.
A great number of historical instances are recorded in Greek and Latin
classics of dreams that came true. The night before the assassination
of Julius Cæsar, his wife Calpurnia dreamed that her husband fell
bleeding across her knees. She tried to warn him, but he laughed at
her fears. On the night that Attila died, the Emperor Marcian at
Constantinople dreamed that he saw the bow of the conqueror broken
asunder. Cicero relates a dream thru which a murderer was brought to
justice.
Dreams were even allowed to influence legislation. During the Marsic
War (90 B.C.) the Roman senate ordered the temple of Juno to be
rebuilt, in consequence of a dream. There are many other examples in
ancient history.
The old fathers of the Christian Church attached considerable
importance to dreams. Tertullian thought they came from God as one of a
series of prophecy, though he attributed many dreams to the influence
of evil spirits. St. Augustine relates a dream thru which he was
convinced of the immortality of the soul.