Basic Vocabulary
The vocabulary of dreams is symbolic, but the language of dreams is more than a series of dream dictionary definitions.
This is one of the key lessons I learned in my recent Rhine Research and Education Center course, Dreams and Altered States. It probably wasn't the primary, or intended lesson, but I found it anyway, layered in between the pages of Professor Loyd Auerbach book Psychic Dreams—which was our text for the course.
Language is always a form of translation. We take thoughts and experiences and objects we have seen or possessed and pair them up with words. In this sense, language is a simple substitution game devised by our ancient ancestors, rediscovered over and over again by toddlers and still utilized by the most articulate of adults today.
By substitution, we communicate basic needs. Common words for common things. Coffee. Ink pen. Quiet.
Then there is the bigger game where spoken, and most especially written, language takes flight and finds itself capable of poetry and metaphor and almost limitless symbolism. To my mind, this is the way that dreams and ordinary language overlap.
Unlike word-based communication, however, the vocabulary of dreams is made out of images.
Dreaming in Symbols
As an autistic, aphantasic (mind-blind) person I find the idea of concepts as images fascinating.
If I thought in pictures as I'm told the ordinary person does—I would be so distracted by symbolism I would be veering off course all of the time. For me, the thousand words inherent in every picture can be a very literal thing and I think this is true for everyone to a degree.
In everyday thought and conversation, of course, there is one primary meaning or label or name for any one given thing. This is why language exists and how it developed. But it is the inherent complexity of symbolism that makes it possible for free-association, particularly in writing, to take us places we could never predict.
And this is especially true of dreams.
Not all dreams are meaningful, of course. Some can be sourced in the stress of the day or worries buried deep in our subconscious or in the existent light or sound that bleeds into our sleeping awareness. The best dreams, however, come from somewhere else and this is where Professor Auerbach's book and what it has to say about how dreams are constructed comes in.
Psychic Dreams explains that dreams are a narrative built from sensory, psychological or psychic input. Specific examples of each input type are included along with various theories that attempt to explain them. The theory I found most interesting was that of neuroscientist J. Allan Hobson, who believes that our dream narratives are drawn from our own neurobiology.
According to this perspective, the firing of neurons are translated into images and images are then made into story.
This idea stopped me cold—even though it is something I suspect most people have already thought about). To me, the idea that we are translating from firing neurons, to pictures, to narrative seemed very important. Especially because, in the cases of psychic dreams, I believe that these neurons are influenced by something not us.
Received Information
In one of his books or talks, biophysicist Rupert Sheldrake shares an analogy.
Imagine that you know nothing of radios and that you assume that the sound is generated by the radio itself. To test your theory, you open the radio and remove some of the parts. When you see that the radio no longer functions, you may assume that you have understood how a radio works. But you would be wrong.
This, according to Sheldrake, is how many scientists approach the brain. And it is how a lot of them approach dreams as well. The parts do matter, obviously, but they are not the fundamental truth of minds or radios.
Dreams and Altered States was a comprehensive course. I learned about altered states and parapsychology, out of body experience, near death experience, the specific science of dreams and more. I was reminded that Rupert Sheldrake is right in saying that the mind is the receiver.
I was convinced that the research into psychic dreams is valid and that the information communicated through dreams matters—and I was fascinated by the idea that we are the subconscious translators of all we receive.
Now I have more questions. Some have answers. Others might not. But I think they are all worth asking. Here are the ones on my mind this morning.
Who or what is transmitting?
How can we be better receivers?
How can we best understand our own translation?
What is discernment and how does it apply to dream interpretation?
Why are we so compelled by the mystery of dreams?
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I may be writing something about the parallels between dream construction and meaning and the way autistic people process life in AutisticWriters.com at some future point.
Psychic Dreams (affiliate link) is available through Amazon and elsewhere. Please note, that if you buy Psychic Dreams though my Amazon affiliate link, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you.
For more on about the Rhine Research Center and their wonderful online classes, please visit RhineOnline.org
The Dream Gate Dream
A couple of weeks ago, I had a lucid dream about a high ancient-looking stone wall. The wall was covered with vines and there was a recessed rustic plank gate or doorway. The overall effect was medieval and charming.
It might have been dusk or overcast in the dream but I could see everything clearly. Just above the doorway, I saw a symbol that looked like a triquetra. I even exclaimed (in the dream) "that's a triquetra," except I actually said "trifecta," as in horse racing, because things get garbled for me in dreams. Either way, I was excited because I love all things Celtic, so I woke up in the middle of the night and recorded the dream (and drew the symbol) in my dream journal.
Earlier that month, I’d been told that ancient dreamers were always on the lookout for gateways in their dreams. Since my impression in the dream was that I was seeing a wall, not a building, I felt that what looked like a door to modern eyes was technically a gate.
So I made myself go back to sleep and back into the dream. I found the door again easily and everything was the same—except that instead of the symbol above the door, there was a long narrow sign with lettering.
Annoyingly, I find it hard to read in dreams and I couldn’t read the sign. I woke up again and wrote down the second dream and went back to sleep, but I didn't go back to the door, that night, or go through it.
When I woke up the next morning I was thinking how nice it was that I dreamt about the triquetra which I remembered as representing the Trinity and the Welsh triads and other pleasant things. Then I looked at my dream journal and saw that the symbol I had drawn had three interlocking triangles instead of three loops.
I was pretty sure I remembered the triangle symbol from a past obsession with mythology. I thought that it was probably Scandinavian and when I googled it, there it was.
It was not a triquetra. It was a valknot.
No one is absolutely sure what the valknot symbolizes. Due to its presence on Old Norse funerary items, however, it has been associated with the dead. My thoughts on the dream in light of this particular symbol were that this door is closed and maybe it should stay closed. Or maybe not.
One Gate, Two Perspectives?
And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. —Matthew 18:18
Then Holy Week came and I noticed another gate / doorway in the Icon of the Resurrection which is traditionally displayed in Eastern Christian churches at Easter.
The Icon of the Resurrection shows Jesus standing on the broken down gates of the netherworld as He pulls Adam and Eve from their tombs to freedom. You can also see King David, Moses, John the Baptist and others. On the left below Jesus and the fallen gates are broken locks and the devil, bound. This is what Jesus did after the crucifixion when he defeated death.
Dreams are many things to me—a vehicle through which my guardian angel shares information, a template for my creative work, a font of mystical experience (rarely) and more. I have had some unusual spiritual experiences in dreams and I don't always fully understand them.
Some of my most interesting spiritual dreams seem to be about various afterlife locations. And I can't help wondering if the gate I dreamt about symbolized (or opened into) one of them. I also feel like the Icon of the Resurrection may have portrayed a similar or even the same gate, from a Christian perspective.
What Does This All Mean?
When it comes to dreams, the question is always the same. What does it mean?
And the truth is, I'm not sure. I'd had a tough week. Historically, several close family members have died in April including my mother (April 15). Then there is the Passion which is less brutal than it is hopeful but still pretty darned brutal overall.
This year a family member was hospitalized on Holy Saturday with a serious illness and stayed in the hospital through Easter and into this week. Various small and not so small things went wrong. Some people were kind and others were not. I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep.
So I don't actually know if I'm ready to figure out this particular dreams. But I have considered some of the questions it brought up for me. Please note, I'm not asking the dream these questions, but I have been praying and reflecting.
Should I go through that particular dream doorway?
Given the connection with the valknot and the icon and the fact that the gate was closed, I think not or at least not yet.
Should I keep working with my dreams?
I think so. The key for me is to be open to dream experience while staying within the broad parameters of my Catholic Faith.
Am I divining by dreams?
To me, when the Bible talks about divining, its warning against listening to the (probable) fallen angels worshipped by non-Jewish people at that particular time. I'll have more to say about this in a future post (and in the dream book) but the short answer is, no, or not in a bad way.
Should I keep trying to wrap my head around the mysteries of the Catholic Faith?
How can I not?
Dreams can be tricky. Like many other life experiences, they can take us in the right direction or in the wrong one. But I believe they're given to us for a reason and that—as the Icon of the Resurrection clearly shows—God is always there for us.
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