Among the greatest mysteries of humanity, one of them is a great enigma since always, which is still far from being unraveled: the world of dreams. There are those who think that dreams are purely random manifestations of the unconscious and there are even those who believe in divine messages. But what exactly are dreams?
What is a dream?
In short, the dream is an experience involving imagination, the unconscious and, for some, spirituality. The fact is that it is a projection of our mind that occurs when we are sleeping. To give you an idea, even babies still in the womb dream during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.
What do babies in the womb dream about? Why do we dream of what we dream of? Do dreams have meanings or are they mere randomness? We prepared this article to make some discussions about it, but understand that there is no definitive answer, as we still know very little about the world of dreams.
Why do we dream?
The truth is, we don't know. What we have are theories. There are those who think that it is the divine communicating, there are those who believe that they are manifestations of our repressed desires, there are those who talk about randomness and the more rational ones, such as the renowned American psychiatrist John Allan Hobson, who talk about “a mere by-product of human activity”. nocturnal brain”. In other words, meaningless.
The truth is that we don't know much about the function of dreams, since comparative studies between people who report having dreamed every night and people who report never dreaming do not show very different results in the behavior and impact of dreams on these people's lives.
Anyway, the fact is that sleep is necessary for our mind and body to rest, so we can say that the dream is part of this state of relaxation. Even because it only occurs during the REM phase, in adults, which requires deep sleep. That is, a lot of relaxation.
Dreams throughout history
To get an idea of ​​how dreams fascinate human beings, the first records of clay tablets depicting dreams date back to 4.000 BC That is, since a very primitive time, human beings have tried to understand what dreams are, what they are. their meanings etc.
What we do know is that until the emergence of civilizations such as the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans, the most common thing is that primitive peoples (as many other indigenous people do to this day) thought of dreams as a continuation of reality, making no distinction between dream world and real world.
When Egypt, Ancient Rome and Greece began to rise and dominate global culture, dreams began to be related to divine manifestations, as these three civilizations were quite religious, each in its own way and following its own beliefs and own gods and deities.
In Greece, for example, temples were even built where people could simply go to sleep under the blessings of the gods, especially Morpheus, who was none other than the god of dreams.
In Egypt it was also common for priests to be called upon to interpret the dreams of pharaohs and other leaders, which were always considered prophetic and premonitory.
Christianity uses a lot the image of the dream as a communication between God and the human being, which helped to popularize the belief that dreams are connected to the divine.
During the Middle Ages, this changed, as the Church began to consider dreams as demonic manifestations, as opportunities to succumb to temptations that the morality of waking life warded off, and here the interpretation of dreams as our hidden or repressed desires is born.
From the 19th century onwards, with the modernization of medicine, the separation between Church, science and State, as well as the development of fields of knowledge such as psychology, psychiatry and psychoanalysis, dreams were being removed from purely spiritual to gain scientific and psychological.
dreams for science
Science does not have an exact explanation of what dreams are. The most likely and accepted is that dreams play an important role in the development of our central nervous system, because the younger the person, the greater the amount of REM sleep and, consequently, the number of dreams.
In addition, science also explains why we remember some dreams and we don't remember others: we tend to remember dreams that are interrupted, that is, from which we wake up abruptly. In addition, it is common that, between 10 and 15 minutes after waking up, we remember what was dreamed - and then we gradually forget, we don't know why.
Dreams for the Bible
According to the Bible, dreams can be a means used by God to communicate with human beings, but that does not mean that the Lord will always do this. If only a few dreams have a purpose in the Bible—and that's for figures important to Christianity—then it can be assumed that most dreams are common.
Dreams appear in the Bible, for example, to warn Christians, as in Matthew 2:12; to reveal a prophecy, as with Joseph in the Old Testament (Genesis 37:5); and also to encourage people who are in doubt, as in Judges 7:13.
Dreams for Psychoanalysis
According to the work of Freud, father of psychoanalysis, the content of dreams is always related to the fulfillment of a desire that we often repress in waking life. For this reason, he divides the dream into two parts: manifest sense (what we "see" in the dream) and latent sense (the meaning behind it).
In this way, his work “The Interpretation of Dreams” tells us that the superego, which is our “censor”, puts on the facade (manifest meaning) to camouflage our true desire, as we are often afraid and ashamed of its content.
types of dreams
More than understanding the meaning of dreams, it is important to know the types of dreams, because then, according to what you believe and what makes the most sense to you, it will be possible to interpret them correctly. Check out the main types of dreams:
- Premonitions:
They are dreams that warn or warn us about something that is going to happen, usually something negative and/or dangerous. People who have these dreams are usually considered sensitive, as they have connections with the spiritual dimensions of the Universe.
- lucid:
Lucid dreams are those that we manage to conduct and in which we can consciously and actively interact with people, situations, environments and everything else that appears there. This type of dream requires technique and a lot of study to become possible.
- Telepathic:
They are very rare, but they do happen: they are dreams in which we communicate with other people, whether they are alive or not. In the case of the living, it is common for them to have a similar dream or, at least, a dream in which you appear and communicate, even if the message is different.
- Clairvoyance:
They are dreams that reveal to us something that, logically and rationally, we could not know. Unlike precognitions, they do not reveal the future, but something that is happening in the present, but without our knowledge or awareness.
- Nightmares:
They usually reveal our fears, shames, traumas or pains that have not yet been healed, alerting us to the need to recover from this in order to have a healthier life.
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Anyway, now that you understand what some religions, civilizations and fields of knowledge think about dreams, it's your turn: what is your opinion about dreams? What is their meaning? According to your opinion, dreams can bring important messages and insights.
