The Interpretation of Dreams - Essay Example

Explaining a Concept Research” The concept that I intend to explain is Dreams. Dreams arethe sequential appearance of ideas, images, sensations and emotions in the subconscious mind that transpire involuntarily during different stages of sleep. Although it is unfortunate that we are still unable to understand as to why dreams occur and what is the purpose of what we see. Dreams have always been a topic of interest and a topic of conflict between scientist and psychologists. Dreams are also a major subject of interest and conflict between many religious philosophers. The scientific study of dreams is known as Oneirology. Furthermore, scientists are of the view that in addition to humans, mammals and birds also dream. It is believed that the "Rapid Eye Movement (REM)" is a stage that occurs when the human brain is at the pinnacle of its activity a state in which the activity resembles of a state when awake. Rapid eye movement sleep takes place due to the movement of eyes continuously while sleeping. However, dreams may occur during other different times and state of sleep, but they are less memorable or vivid. A Dream can be as long as a few seconds to twenty five minutes long. Individuals are more likely to have either a vague or unambiguous recollection of dreams if they are awakened from sleep during the rapid eye movement stage. According to scientists, an average person has two to four dreams per night, and some may even have up to eight occurrences of different dreams in a night. Moreover, some people are able to dream longer as the time during the night advances. About two hours of sleep are spent dreaming in a full eight-hour long sleep. According to modern research, dreams are directly connected to the unconscious mind. They categorize from ordinary and normal to completely unreal and obscure. They are of different natures that fluctuates from magical to sexual, exciting, fear inducing, or adventurous. What a person sees in a dream is out of the control of the dreamer, laying in effect an exception to lucid dreaming, in which the dreamer can exert some degree of control over his dream. Dream interpretations and opinions regarding the nature of dreams have varied and drifted through the continuum of culture and time. Dream interpretations can be traced as far back as 5000-4000BC. Ancient records of dreams have been acquired from Mesopotamia that are as old as 5000BC, where they were inscribed on clay tablets. People in the Roman and Greek empires believed that dreams held a divine meaning portending the occurrence of an auspicious or ominous event. Furthermore, some believed that dreams were direct tidings from the Gods of the dead people. Some cultures even practiced dream incubation, deciphering dreams that they deemed were prophetic. Sigmund Freud is the pioneer of Oneirology he explained the methods of who developed psychoanalysis. He believed that dreams are the confused form of manifestations of ones fears, desires and imagination that he/she had from their childhood which they could not fulfill and still have the wish to. The historical records of dreams are abundantly rich and volumes could be written. The Mesopotamians believed that while dreaming, the soul of the dreamer actually leaves the body and visits the people and places the dreamer witnesses in his dream. Some believed that the god of dreams himself carried the soul of the dreamer. Babylonians and Assyrians believed that dreams are of two types, the good ones and the bad ones. These people believed that the pleasing ones were sent by their God as a foresight from their future. Whereas, about the bad dreams, they thought that they were like a threat sent by the demons. In ancient Egypt, the Egyptians illustrated their dreams on the papyrus plant. People who had vivid recollections of dreams were considered sacred and special. Moreover, they believed that the best source of divine guidance was dreams, therefore, in search of it they went to supposed special sanctuaries and slept in special ‘dream-beds’ to receive divine guidance. In Chinese history, people held the belief that the process of dreaming has two vital aspects; first, in which one part of soul is freed from the body during sleep and journeys through the dimension of the dream; second, in which the other part of the soul remains inside the body. The texts that belonged to the Indian civilization found in the Upanishads tell us that there were two theories that they believed in. One is that dreams are our desires and feelings we have that while dreaming the soul steps out of ones body and is guided by the God until awake. The Greeks also had similar beliefs regarding dreams. They also practiced dream incubation and distinguished dreams as good and bad. However, these ancient Indians believed that the person is visited by their God and given a holy and a divine message, while dreaming. When over, the dreamer is sent back to his own dimension through a keyhole. Antiphon was the first Greek philosopher who a book on dreams; this influenced other great Greek philosophers to study the phenomena of dreams and the theories associated with it. Greek philosopher, Hippocrates, believed the soul received messages during the day and images during the night before the dreamer in his dream. Aristotle believed that dreams could predict illnesses and diseases. In Abrahamic religions also dreams hold quite significance. In Judaism, people believed that dreams are a part of the physical experiences that a person faces in ones life and that lessons can be obtained from them. The ancient Jews laid heavy emphasis on dreams and believed dreams to have a strong connection with their religion. Since they were monotheistic, they believed dreams to be the voice of their one god. However, Jews also kind of had the same beliefs, they also believed in good and bad dreams and their purpose and also their appropriate origins. Jews, like many other ancient people, developed dreams with the purpose of deriving sacred meanings out of them. Similarly, Christians shared their beliefs about dreams with the Jews and staunchly believed dreams to be a supernatural manifestation because of the Old Testament was rich with the stories of divine dreams implications. The story of Jacob’s dream that stretched from the heavens to the earth was the most inspirational and famous amongst the Christians. Some Christians believed that God spoke with his people through their dreams. Likewise, in Islam, dreams have an important value and that they have played a very vital role in the history of Islam and the lives of Muslims of its followers. In Islam, a method that is known as Istikhara, is believed to be the sole source through which Muslims can receive divine revelations or messages from God. However, in the Middle Ages people seemed to have a different view about dreams. As a consequence, Native American tribes believed that the dead ancestors spoke with their descendants through dreams. Some of these people also believed that dreams were a manipulative tactic from the devil to lure innocent people towards bad and tempt them through wrong. In art, dreams are a frequent occurrence. Great artists such as Salvador Dali, Picasso and Rousseau produced works that explained their own sets of beliefs about beliefs. In literature, the theme of dreams was regularly used. In medieval literature the phenomena of dreams was used to justify stories and twists in plots. ‘The Book of the Duchess’ and ‘The Vision Concerning Piers Plowman’ are two such books whose plots revolved around dreams. Furthermore, the theme of dreams was also featured in fantasy novels; for example, one of the best dreams ever created in literature is Wonderland, from Lewis Carroll’s fantasy novel ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Modern Culture conceives of dreams as manifestations that express one’s deepest fears, desires or obsessions. Films such as Wizard of Oz, Spellbound and the most recent Inception are wholly based on dreams. Now I come to the biological aspect of dreams. Scientists have observed that dreams are primarily due to continuous movement of eyes during whichbrain function is mostly like wakefulness. According to research a human spends an average of total of six years in dreaming i.e. two hours per night. However, it is not yet known in which portion of the brain dreams originate, or if the whole brain is engaged in a dream or just a part of it and what benefit or purpose dreams hold for the body or the mind. During rapid eye movement stage of sleep, the release of hormones in the body, such as histamine, norepinephrine and serotonin is utterly suppressed. Rapid eye movement episodes in sleep and dreams that follow prolong gradually and the subsequent episodes being longer up to 15-20 minutes. According to some text and records found that the remembrance of a dream can never be done in one piece instead it occurs in shreds like a puzzle which is why all the pieces of these puzzles need to be put together to understand their true meanings. Similarly, dreaming has also been observed in animals. It is believed that rapid eye movement and the ability to dream has been encoded in many living organisms that subsist on earth. However, the intensity or the vividness of the dream differs in animals. For instance, dolphins experience minimum rapid eye movement and opossum and armadillo experience maximum vividness of a dream. In addition to humans, cats, dogs, birds, rats and elephants are known to be able to dream. References Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. New York: Modern Library, 1950. Print. Hobson, J A. Dreaming: An Introduction to the Science of Sleep. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Print. Read More