Dreams can be a “royal road to the unconscious”, as Freud believed. Freud deciphered dreams as repressed material that surfaces when the defense of the ego is lowered. Now, does this necessarily mean that if you dream of killing your father you have turned into Oedipus?There is another side to dream analysis that deals with the subconscious or the higher self. Is there more to dreams than repressed material? How can we begin to interpret our mystical dreams?
Human consciousness is made up out of two levels of consciousness, we will work with this analogy for this theory. The exoteric consciousness deals with the(objective consciousness) material and the subconsciousness (subjective consciousness) deals with the esoteric or non-material realm. Objective consciousness processes information through the senses of smell, sight, taste, hearing, and touch. The esoteric or subconsciousness is said to be our Higher Self which is in touch with the psychic world.
Dreaming
In the state of dreams we are in the subconscious world or our inner world. This state allows us to access information from our objective cosnciousnes and subjective consciousness. The dream state is that of a shamanic experience of being in between worlds with us being as the dot on the axis mundi. Dreams can be analytical towards processing information about our daily lives which can help our human progression. The side of dreams that can help us fix worldly problems come from the objective part of our consciousness. Perhaps think of it like this these type of dreams are those where you feel like you are running on a treadmill that never seems to stop. This dream may signify that in your exoteric or material world you are facing a problem that seems not to go away and you are stuck in a loop like the snake biting it’s own tail, the ouroboros. Dreams that come from the subjective state or subconsciousness( the Higher Self) are impersonal they are not subject to the material world and can be seen as the Akashic records of wisdom. In this explanation you can gather that by tapping into the subconscious you can tap into previous incarnations.
o·nei·ro·man·cy
ōˈnīrəˌman(t)sē/
noun
the interpretation of dreams in order to foretell the future.
So we can interpret dreams from the material world by analyzing their meaning through symbols, as such we can also interpret dreams from the non-material in the same way. The second process or the first rather working here is the subconscious or our Higher Self. Our wisdom keeper which is our Higher Self, has stored all the lessons learned from previous incarnations and through dreams it is nudging us with objective material to give us guidance. The Higher Self in our dream state is giving the objective mind clues through symbols, it is distilling information unknown to us in our waking state. Since it is the most knowledgeable of the two it is constantly trying to guide us through symbols expressed in dreams.
Why is the analysis of symbols in dreams important? Psychic events that put us in touch with our Higher Self are non-material so it is reasonable that our Higher Self sends us messages to be deciphered while we sleep. In order to dredge out the messages that we are subconsciously receiving the Higher Self sends pictures or symbols since they are universal and they are it’s only mode of language. We must remember that Higher Self has no language, pictures or symbols are universal and in this instant also cosmic. So we must be careful in deciphering said messages since this requires our objective interpretation based on the material given. Messages can get lost in translation based on our rate of vibration wether it is low or high at the time when we receive them. Think of it as tuning into a frequency, you have to match that frequency in order to receive the message.
Lets revisit the theory of being in between worlds. When we sleep our subconsciousness has more control at the moment than our objective consciousness. We are still aware of both worlds, the change is that the dream world has more power at the moment than the material world. We must not totally be so submerged in one or the other state of consciousness this will cause a lack of balance and the overpowering of one over the other will erase our recollection of our contact.
Some researchers have argued that these two types of sleep are so different from one other, and from the waking state, that consciousness itself can be thought of as consisting of into three fundamental states: the waking state, the REM state, and the NREM state (e.g., Hobson, 2009).
Stages of sleep and determinants
Rem Sleep.
This stage in the sleep cycle comes in 90-120 minutes cycles and in put into a percentage it accounts for 20-25% of sleep. During Rem sleep rapid eye movement is prevalent, one theory as to why there is rapid eye movement in Rem sleep explains that we are constantly seeing pictures while we sleep hence the rapid eye movement. This would correlate with the assumption that our wisdom keeper or Higher Self is giving us clues via images or symbols. Research shows that brain waves during Rem sleep spike in the region of the brain that is associated with vision. Rem sleep renders our vivid dream state, for mystics and this should be the most important part of sleep. Another curiosity is that during Rem sleep our brain waves are staggeringly similar to brain waves while we are in a waking state. An interpretation of this would be that although we are not awake in the material we are awake in the ethereal world. Beta waves are present during this sleep cycle which tells us that a high-levels of concentration and thinking are present during Rem sleep. Rem sleep is needed by the brain to complete difficult tasks while in a waking state thus if you did not have enough of the rem the doc ordered your brain will compensate for it the next time you sleep by giving longer intervals of Rem sleep.
Researchers have proven that during Rem sleep deprivation the brain compensates by dreaming during other sleep cycles that are not normally attributed to the dreaming state. This would mean that any outside suggestions while not in full sleep such as noise can influence the dream state thus the dream at that moment becomes polluted by messages from an objective state or wakefulness.
During stage 0 of the sleep cycle or light sleep which is actually categorized as stage 1 is when we are easily susceptible to waking up at the whispering of our names. This is when you are slipping away into a dream state. It is during this stage when people experience the mysterious feeling of falling from the sky which is accompanied by a hypnic jerk or muscle reaction that feels like you hit earth again. This could be the stage where out of body experiences or astral projection begins, many people have reported a feeling of being able to float in the air.
The Power of Suggestion
Dreams can be influenced by the environment we surround ourselves in while we sleep. If the faucet keeps leaking in the bedroom while you sleep it will make you dream of being by a lake or beach. This can also give rise to dreaming of going to the restroom, this dream specifically has had people who have soiled themselves. Also, going to sleep with a full bladder can be a physiological disturbance causing you to dream of going to the restroom in your dreaming thus interfering with the outcome of a dream state. So this interference can be variable, it can be caused by either biological discomfort, psychological discomfort, and outside interferences like leaky faucets. If before you slept you had and argument with your family this could give guise to similar occurrences in your dream. It is the power of suggestion, you are in a hypnotic state. You can try to talk to a person who is sleep talking, if you do you will find that this person will try to carry out a conversation with you. So, it is important to eliminate any discomfort that may pollute the dream state.
The Akashic Records Within Dreams?
The way we remember is by first encoding information into our brain. Then the brain needs a subtle reminder perhaps a picture that then reminds you of a memory from the past bringing out the encoded memory back into the objective consciousness. Certain life events within our spiritual path make such an impact on our beings that the impression of them brings back memories that we thought we had forgotten. Every memory is a connection, certainly that is why our brains are made out of these connections(100 trillion connections). To retrieve stored information we have to activate it in such a way that it can influence other mental events and behaviors. This is linked with the science of encoding information into the brain, information that does not get properly encoded or that does not leave an impression on us does not get stored in the brain. Ergo it goes out one ear and out the other. While dreaming the subconscious is bringing connections to light and once we correlate these with the objective consciousness or the material we create a spark and our memory is retrieved from storage. Memory can be restored by association.
It would be irresponsible to completely say that dreams are not of great use in the sense of analyzing repressed material, in releasing our inner tensions. The dream state can yield a lot of information regarding our daily lives and dreaming is a therapy session of purging pent up frustration, guilt, fears, and so on. This interpretation however accurate is also incomplete. Dreaming should not be simply regarded as a process of the brain but also of consciousness. Not all dreams are influenced by our objective state or outside world some are influenced by the Higher Self. We are left with so many important questions we need to explore. Are the Akashic records accessible in our dream state? Think of a Hypnotic trance, memories of previous incarnations brought forth, could this connection lead to the theory that if we tap into the our subconscious we could then tap into the Akashic records? Another important question is how do we know when dream symbolism is attributed to psychological states in the material or associated with messages from the Higher Self? In part two we will delve into trying to decipher dreams from the Higher Self.