Dreams are a subject of universal experience and interest, but are little understood. There is general interest in reading about dream experiences, in hearing others recount theirs and in narrating our own, but the rational explanation is generally lacking, as is also the capacity to guide waking life so as to be able to control dreams.
All dreams, from those having a physiological cause to the highest, those capable of revolutionizing the personal life, are but the results of conditions or states of consciousness. We have to understand ourselves first if we would understand the meaning of our dreams. Dreams from the higher aspect of our nature can give us real help and guidance. These can be encouraged, and, if the subject is properly understood, it is possible also to avoid the sensuous dreams which sometimes cast a shadow over the whole life.
In all of us there are three levels of consciousness, normal, subnormal and supernormal, just as the physical body has normal, subnormal and supernormal temperatures. Our usual habits and mannerisms, prejudices and predilections, belong to the normal level and are more or less the same for the average man. If we act in a childish and petty manner when the normal course of our lives is interfered with, or when we do not get what we want, we fall below the normal level of intelligence. The example may be given of a man who is used to one kind of bread and is unable to get it on one occasion; if he makes a fuss and loses his temper, he falls into a subnormal mood. If he silently takes it as an opportunity to mortify his appetite, he is in a slightly supernormal mood.
Man has three aspects, bodily, mental and spiritual. The very word "Man" comes from the Sanskrit "Mana" or "Manas," meaning "Mind." Man's normal mood is mental. The mood is subnormal when a man allows his intelligence to be affected or enslaved by the body, including its terrestrial passions and desires. When the human aspect is brought into harmony, at least for a time, with the divine or Spiritual Self, the animal tendencies are controlled and the mood is supernormal.
Corresponding to this threefold classification, our dreams are (a) bodily or sensuous; (b) normal; or (c) of the highest type, real spiritual experiences. Our moods are the dreams of waking life. An average good mood corresponds to normal dreams, a sensual mood to subnormal dreams, and a high mood, as in true spiritual meditation, is of the same state as pure inspiring dreams. Fanciful daydreaming is subnormal. People weave stories around themselves as the chief characters, or hold imaginary conversations in which they always have the last word, etc. Reason is in abeyance when we fancy ourselves to be the centre of the picture. Castles in the air are merely a waste of time, and if they are continued they are dangerous, for fancy may wander into wrong channels and indulgence in wrong bodily practices may follow.
Fancy is a characteristic of adolescence and should not be carried over into adult life. Adolescent boys and girls should be helped to direct their fancy into right channels by being surrounded with an atmosphere of purity and given a noble ideal for their hero-worship. They should be given something to do so that they will not have time to daydream too much. Unfortunately, at that age children are allowed to read undesirable books and to go indiscriminately to the cinema, which intensifies those subnormal tendencies. Fancy is the antithesis of true imagination, the image-making faculty of the Soul, in which the reason is most active.
The difference between waking and sleeping consciousness is merely that outside impressions are cut off in sleep. There is no cessation of bodily organic functioning or bodily consciousness. The mind, however, functions detached from the physical body, but entirely in a subjective state, i.e., the mind is turned within upon itself and is not aware of any surroundings or objects.
There are two main types of bodily dreams—those caused by bodily discomfort, and those based on impressions made on the body by wrong indulgence, actually or in fancy, during waking life. Our thoughts and feelings constantly affect the body, making the heart beat faster, or making the breathing irregular or rhythmic. Dream reactions from waking thoughts may come much later, as when a person dreams of eating meat years after he has given it up.
In the normal man, the mind is trying to free itself from bodily dreams and to live in terms of its own ideation. This is impossible at once and so he has confused dreams. When something of the impress of the Spiritual Self is added to the mixture of mental and bodily dreams, an allegorical dream may result. The truth is caught by the brain, but is distorted by bodily and mental pictures.
The controlled and self-collected pure mind can be impressed by the Spiritual Soul, and the impression transferred to the brain. Such are warning dreams for oneself or for others, or retrospective dreams, picturing past incarnations. Higher still are prophetic dreams, proceeding from the Higher Self, which are possible even in waking life if the body has been kept pure, as the Temple of a Living God. In a still higher state of purified calmness and concentration, the man with a firm desire to benefit humanity can receive dreams from the Great Gurus, whose religion, philosophy and science is Brotherhood.
The important thing to remember is that dream experiences depend on waking consciousness. To have the higher type of dreams, we must control and purify the senses and study and meditate on universal principles.
You often say, "I would give but only to the deserving." The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture. They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish. Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights is worthy of all else from you. And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.
—Kahlil Gibran