A Short History Of Dreams

Think about it we spend about one-third of our life in sleep. The amazing, recuperative effect is essential to our survival. The ultimate therapy for being tired is going to sleep, and then to dream. Most of us have had an amazing dream at one time or another, and then wondered what it meant.

The analysis of dreams by dream specialists is probably as old as dreaming itself. All humans, and various animals, dream every night, and humans have always been riveted to know what causes dreams and what they mean.

Many cultures believe that our existence is but a dream state that humans are just sleep-walking through life. The same as when we sleep-walk through our dreams, not taking in the reality of the moment. It is thought that many primitive peoples are unable to initially tell apart the real world from the dream world. Basically these people looked upon the dream world as an expansion of the material world around them.

the first writings documenting dreams date back to about 5000 years to Mesopotamia. Which at that time was the heart of civilization and which is now called Iraq? The Assyrians who occupied Mesopotamia would tell any bad dream they had to a peace of clay. They would then throw the clay into water. They believed that by following this action the destructive energy of the dream would dissolve into the water.

The Egyptians on the other hand thought that dreams were communications form the gods. They believed by applying the dreamers face with beer and herbs then rubbing the face with myrrh that it would guard them from the adverse effects of bad dreams. The Egyptians also believed that anyone who had a vivid dream or a meaningful one was blessed, and was given special standing in their social order. Likewise, people who were able to understand dreams were thought to obtain these gifts directly from the gods, and they also had a special position in society.

The ancient Greeks believed that dreams were produced by the soul's withdrawal from the body. They thought that while they slept they were in communion with the gods. Dreams were thought of as a way of obtaining knowledge and of getting away from physical suffering in times of illness. Dream analysis was such an imperative field to the ancient Greek and Roman world that a dream analyser often went with military leaders into war as advisers.

The Chinese were another culture who thought that the soul left the body every night while sleeping. They through that if the dreamer was to be suddenly awakened that the soul would not be able to get back into the body. Apparently some Chinese, so I've been told, are still wary about having alarm clocks in the house - it just shows you how superstition still has an influence on modern affairs!

Think about this! In the dark ages people believed that demons were accountable for most dreams. It was thought an immense sin by the church to have dreams. Dreams were not allowed to be talk about. Anyone who the church thought might have had a dream faced unyielding torture or even death. The only thing the populace could do, at that time, was to pray not to dream so they could be free of demonic possession. Thank God that we don't live in the dark ages any more.

The thing is dreams were of such a great consequence in the old days that they regularly influenced the behaviours of political and military leaders: shaping everything from the action of a battle to the outcome of a political result.

Now coming into more modern times like the 19th century the regard for dreams changed immensely. Dreams At that time were often rejected as outcomes of anxiety, the result of everyday living, or even unhealthy food and heartburn. So basically, dreams were thought of as having no meaning at all.

Until Sigmund Freud came along, and opened the gate-way for dreams to become a matter of scientific research. He dumbfounded the world of psychiatry by emphasising the importance of dreams, and he rekindled the once forgotten art of dream interpretation once more.