The Dream Sourcebook: A Guide to the Theory and Interpretation of Dreams (9 page)

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Authors: Phyllis R. Koch-Sheras

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BOOK: The Dream Sourcebook: A Guide to the Theory and Interpretation of Dreams
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centuries. Hindu tradition, in fact, holds that all phenomenal existence is the dream of God or Vishnu. Many sacred paintings show a sleeping Vishnu with a cord from his navel becoming a beautiful lotus flower. The belief is that everything emanates from the mind of God and that we are a part of that image, dreaming our own worlds into existence and eliminating them upon awakening into consciousness. As always, people were inclined to translate dreams, identifying certain dream symbols as omens of good or bad things to come. Curiously, the Vedas, the sacred books of ancient India that were written as long ago as 1500 B.C., contain references to different periods of sleep which Western researchers did not identify scientifically until the midtwentieth century! Briefly, these periods of sleep were established as a measure of how soon after the dream its prophecy would come true. Indian dream texts also suggest that a dreamer who remembers several dreams upon waking should interpret the final dream. This belief is remarkably like that of modern dream interpreters, who refer to the dream remembered upon awakening as most likely the last dream dreamed and the one most closely connected with waking experience.
"I Am Indeed A Practical Dreamer. . . . I Want To Convert My Dreams Into Realities As Far As Possible."
Mahandas Gandhi, Indian statesman
Contemporary Non-Western Cultures
Dreams continue to be held in high esteem in cultures outside Western culture. There are still dreamers throughout the world who accept their dreams' gifts, heed their dreams' warnings, and seek out their dreams' adventures as a regular part of their
 
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cultural life. In many cultures today, among them New Guinea's Arapesh, Mexico's Tarahumara, and several Native American tribes, dreams serve as an alternate dimension to waking life, with knowledge to be gained from the experiences that unfold each night. Like some ancient cultures, Australia's Aborigines, the continent's native hunters and gatherers, today maintain their belief that the dreamworld is an actual place, a spiritual dimension they call "Dreamtime"; it is here that they look to connect with their ancestors, whom they call "Dreamings." These ancestral beings are considered to be more powerful than living people and to have nonhuman manifestations such as rocks or trees. Rather than creating the dreams, like a god or demon would, these ancestors merely live in dreams, and it is to dreams that the living must travel in order to make contact. One way in which contact is useful is in the creation of art: Songs, stories, and artwork inspired by dreams are considered to be the gifts of the ancestors, channeled through the dreamer, who is merely the vehicle of reproduction for the ancestor's original creation. These traditions continue among the Aborigines today, echoing the ancient practice in many cultures of creating song, dance, painting, sculpture, and household objects based on dream content.
Other twentieth-century cultures, too, have chosen to incorporate dreams into daily life as a matter of course, often with remarkable results. In the 1930s, archeologist Kilton Stewart traveled deep into the mountains of what is now Malaysia to study the Senoi, a minority tribe of 12,000 people who he said appeared at that time to live in extraordinary harmony, with very little fighting, stealing, anger, upset, or mental illness. In search of an explanation, Stewart came to regard their intense dreamwork activity as the reason for their peaceful existence. Although it is unclear how many of the Senoi people participate
 
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in these dream practices, his reports are still fascinating and useful for dreamers today.
According to Stewart, the Senoi believed the dreamworld to be just as real as the waking world, however different. They believed the conflicts they experienced in waking life found expression in their dreams. By talking about these dreams, Stewart suggested, the conflicts were put to rest, rather than causing the dreamer to take some physical action that could result in strife. Unlike most Westerners, who are at times embarrassed by their dream content, the Senoi saw nothing wrong with dreams, instead viewing even incestuous dreams as merely "facets of one's own spiritual or psychic makeup." Interestingly, the beliefs of these isolated Malaysian forest dwellers are strikingly similar to some contemporary dream theories put forward by Western dreamworkers, especially the idea that every person, place, and thing in a dream is in fact representative of a part of the dreamer.
From childhood, Stewart reported, Senoi children learned to participate actively in their dreams, confronting danger, interacting with even the most sinister dream characters, and gathering "gifts" of insight and information that they can bring back with them to their waking world. Being aware of a dream while in the dream (an experience called lucid dreaming) enables the dreamer to make decisions and take actions that influence the dream's outcome and, therefore, its usefulness in waking life. It is a rare skill among Western dreamers, but Stewart reported that Senoi children were encouraged to perfect it from the time they could first recount their dreams. Each morning, the Senoi gathered for dream sharing, looking to the content of the tribe's dreams for all kinds of information, from where to hunt that day to what songs and dances to add to their rituals.
Interestingly, Stewart's findings were later disputed. Although
 
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Senoi dreamwork was found to occur, Stewart apparently exaggerated the extent of it, as well as the Senoi's resulting peace-fulness. There were in fact occasional incidences of discord, violence, and mental illness in Senoi life. (One anthropologist, who went to live among the Senoi in the 1930s, learned this the hard way: When H. D. "Pat" Noone forbade his Senoi wife to sleep with Noone's adopted Senoi brother, the brother shot him to death with a blowpipe.) Sociologist G. William Domhoff sought to determine the truth about Stewart's much-disputed claims in his 1985 book
The Mystique of Dreams: A Search for Utopia Through Senoi Dream Theory
. Domhoff concludes that Kilton Stewart's "preoccupation [with] the major social problems that faced the civilized world" led him to ascribe to Senoi dream traditions a kind of healing power that could solve the problems of violence and mental illness. "His desire to be a great healer and prophet led him to imbue his dream principles with the mystique of the nonviolent and easygoing Senoi," writes Domhoff. ''It was Kilton Stewart who developed the novel idea that societies can benefit from sharing their dreams and that they can shape them through . . . mind control.''
Exposure to dominant peoples and the amenities of modern life has irrevocably changed the Senoi way of life. Nonetheless, Kilton Stewart's theories are worth noting, if only because Senoi dream theory has enjoyed popularity among Western dreamworkers and dream researchers for several generations. Times have changed, even for the Senoi, and their once idyllic life has lost its innocence as the twentieth century has invaded their culture. Yet while some of Stewart's claims have been questioned, it is still interesting to consider the effect regular dreamwork can have on individuals and an entire culture.
On the African continent, there are many variations in the way different tribal peoples view dreams and dreamwork. Some
 
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look to dreams for their healing power, others might look for divine messages, and still others rely on dreams to guide their artistic creation. Among Zezuru healers in Zimbabwe, for example, dreams are said to be the source of all training on the medicinal use of plants, and also serve as a diagnostic tool, according to the University of Zimbabwe's Pamela Reynolds, who worked with sixty traditional healers of the region. And for all Zezuru people, dreams hold special interpretive possibilities that can shape waking experiences. She writes, "Zulu believe that without dreams, true and uninterrupted living is not possible. Zezuru believe the same: dreamless nights are said to be unhealthy."
The Temne of Sierra Leone, too, look to dreams for divine training. "Among the Temne, the vision and knowledge of diviners are largely attributed to accomplishment in dreaming, through which they become experts on the dreams of their clients. Not only, then, do their dreams have power; they have power over other people's dreams," writes Rosalind Shaw, coeditor of
Dreaming, Religion, and Society in Africa
. This same volume includes an essay by Roy M. Dilley of the University of St. Andrews about the Tukolor, who believe dreams are associated with spiritual agents, and that in dreams the soul is allowed to roam free. To the Tukolor, some dreams are utter nonsense, others are meaningless entertainment, and still others are incubated to reveal new techniques they can use in their traditional weavings. Africa is a massive continent, and it is not surprising that dream beliefs vary from culture to culture. And, contrary to the stereotypes that are associated with native peoples, not all African tribes invest dreams with special significance. The Berti, for instance, "are not encouraged to dream and to remember their dreams," according to Ladislav Holy, also of the University of St. Andrews. In fact, they rarely tell their dreams to others, and claim not to dream very often at all, despite the biological
 
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evidence Western researchers have gathered showing that all people (and mammals) dream every night.
Like many societies on the African continent, the Native American tribes of North America have traditionally looked to dreams for healing, which they believe is often symbolized by the appearance of an animal or bird. Despite vastly diverse cultures among the few thousand Native American tribes who populated this continent when the Europeans first landed, every tribe placed a great deal of importance on dream life. Contacting supernatural spirits and borrowing from their power was common in all of these cultures. A dream interpreter, like a medicine man, had special status in the tribe, and was consulted regularly. Rituals designed to filter bad dreams and attract good ones incorporated the use of a dream catcher, a small, handcrafted net that is decorated with symbolic objects such as feathers and beads.
The seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Iroquois tribe held that dreams shed light on human nature and could also provide insight and guidance, according to Susan Parman, author of
Dream and Culture
. Parman writes: "The Iroquois took their dreams very seriously, and interpreted them as the wishes of supernatural beings, or as enactments of personal fate they were destined to fulfill." The dream as destiny is a theme that surfaces in other Native American cultures as well.
In tribes such as the Sioux, dreams were a rite of passage for adolescents on the path to adulthood. Dreams were considered tools for guidance, and it was with this aim that a teenage Sioux would embark alone on a vision quest, in search of a sign from a guardian spirit as to what life plan to make. "Unarmed and naked, except for loincloth and moccasins, he would go out into the prairie, exposing himself to the sun, danger, and hunger, and tell the deity of his essential humility and need of guidance," social psychologist Erik Erikson wrote in
Childhood and Society
.

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