On dreams and the mind…

In his public lectures the yogi master Paramahansa Yogananda often made observations about the nature and purpose of dreams:

Dreams are actually lessons in the working of the Cosmic Consciousness. They come to man for a reason; their purpose is to awaken in him a realization of the dream nature of the universe and its method of operation.

The substance of a dream is held in materialization by the subconscious thought of the dreamer. When that cohesive thought is withdrawn in wakefulness, the dream and its elements dissolve.

This heavy, earthy clod, floating in space, is a dream of God. He made all things out of His consciousness, even as man in his dream consciousness reproduces and vivifies a creation with its creatures.

From the Nature of The Physical Mind–Sir Arthur Eddington:

The frank realization that physical science is concerned with a world of shadow is one of the most significant advances.

To put the conclusion crudely, the stuff of the world is mind-stuff…

What does it mean?

A dream which is not interpreted is like a letter which is not read. ~The Talmud

The Son of Man--Renee Magritte

A Shapechanger on a mission

Submitted by DB, Palm Coast, Florida:

This is a dream I had in 2003. In many dreams I am an observer.

A shape changer receives “packages” delivered directly into his mind. They contain instructions about situations he is to help resolve. When a package arrives, his head moves slightly, like he’s been hit by something. I accompany him as an observer to a village where a young boy who needs help lives. On the way our car is attacked by evil doers.

As we arrive, I have a strange feeling that he is not doing what he’s supposed to do, but there’s no way I can know what was in the package’s instructions. We go into this boy’s house and the shapechanger takes a round candle holder and for each candle he inserts, an angelic counterpart appears to help resolve the situation, though I am never quite sure what it is. As the situation is becoming resolved, one of the angels–a woman, lurches forward momentarily. We ask her if she is alright and she says a package just arrived for her next assignment.

I wake up thinking that maybe that is how we receive inspiration.

Carl Jung on dreams

“The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and secret recesses of the soul…”

Carl Jung

Jung believed it was essential to write down dreams. In writing to a friend, he stressed the importance of taking time to record and reflect on one’s dreams.

“You tell me you have had many dreams lately but have been too busy with your writing to pay attention to them. You have got it the wrong way round. Your writing can wait, but your dreams cannot, because they come unsolicited from within and point urgently to the way you must go.”

Jung quotes from Jung and the Story of Our Time by Laurens van derPost

She finds cat hair on her plate and beats a man with an anchor.

I dreamed of going to a restaurant where I was served a plate with cat hair stuck to it and I brought it to the owner’s attention loudly. The chef who had prepared it was feeding cats in the kitchen. They didn’t want the public to hear about it so they tried to hush me up. Someone who heard about the cat hair said, “Oh, that’s nothing, you should see the kitchen and the prep area.”

It was a seafood restaurant and I walked back to the kitchen. There were fish and fish bits all over the floor–so much that I slipped and fell and got it all over my pants. My friend took a picture and we called the health authorities. Of course, they cleaned it up before the inspector got there, but there was so much of it they had to just cover some of it with pavers.

They sent a man to shut me up. I ended up in a row boat with him and had to fight him off by hitting him with the anchor. It knocked him out, but it was that weak and impotent “dream” hitting, where you feel its no good. My son saw me hitting him from the shore and called that he was coming out. He didn’t have to, though. He and my friend met me on the shore and held the man for the police. I woke up. I think I was a restaurant critic.

SM, California

Shamanic journey

I was in a serious car accident and for months afterward felt “disconnected” from daily life. A friend suggested I visit a shaman. This is one of my dreams after my first visit.

In my dream I entered the underworld through a cavern and slid down its striated walls until I splashed into a clear pool of water. When I surfaced, I had taken on the shape of an otter. I swam to a pebbly shore where, as I emerged from the water I transformed back into my human form, only I was healed.

Soon I was joined by a horse that first appeared as a cloud of sparkling molecules and aggregated into horse form. I walked beside the horse as it led me up an incline, through a large hole in the cavern that led to an outside shelf. I stood overlooking a forest of green trees with a lake and mountains in the distance. I realized that there were no power lines or other signs of human habitation. It seemed that it was Earth from a very different time.

A week after I had this dream, I visited an art gallery. A photo of the cavern from my dream was prominently displayed on the wall across from the entrance. It took my breath away.

MB, Washington