A TIME FOR DREAMS...

Our time spent sleeping is also a time for dreams. Throughout the ages humans have tried to find meaning in these "visions." We'll probably never know what pre-historic humans thought about their nocturnal visions. Records kept by Earth's ancient cultures give us at least some insights into what they believed. In Mesopotamia dreams were used for "divination"--to predict future events. The Egyptians and Assyrians kept written "dream interpretation dictionaries," detailed in the definition of what each dream subject meant (though they chose to use an "opposite interpretation"--so dreaming of death might actually mean a long life ahead.) Influenced by the Mesopotamians, the Hebrew culture also felt that dreams delivered prophesy of events, but they saw dreams as a direct channel for God to communicate with the prophets. Over time there was a worry of "false dreams" leading to the famous warning "Beware of False Prophets"--this helped to turn the Church against the use of dreams for "divination"... Meanwhile the ancient Greek's theories on dreams were influenced by Eastern Shamanistic ideas of actually traveling outside the body during sleep and dreams. From these ideas came the Orphism movement, influencing Pythagoras and Plato (who felt dreams were a state somewhere between our spirit and "matter"...) We know that Socrates considered dreams as "inner guidance." Aristotle had some differing ideas about dreams (rather unpopular with his contemporaries.) He felt that dreams only came from our five physical senses, and were not connected to a higher source. He did think it was possible to have dream prophecies, but only by chance. Humans could use their own power of suggestion to influence their own lives (giving us the idea of the "self-fulfilling prophecy"...) The emergence of the Kabbalistic works during the middle ages gave information on dreams, and their use in "connecting" people to Heaven. From the Middle Ages forward, religious leaders and philosophers kept moving farther away from the spiritualistic aspect of dream interpretation. The wonder of mystics and miracles faded with the emergence of modern science. Dreams were sometimes reduced to nothing more than nocturnal physical reactions caused by the dinner people ate before going to bed at night!

MODERN PSYCHOLOGY RECONNECTS WITH SPIRITUALITY... Fortunately the 20th century's prominent psychologists brought renewed interest in dream interpretation. Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) connected dreams to wish fulfillment, with plenty of sexual symbolism. He didn't associate dreams with our spiritual nature, but his student, Carl Jung, recognized the deeper connection. Jung really brought the dream back full circle to it's spiritual roots with his theories on the dream's power to connect us with the collective unconscious, for guidance and self-awareness. Jung also reconnected the ancients' theories to modern day dream interpretation through his work with archetypal symbolism. Themes common to all humans occur in dreams, almost "instinctive" in origin. Jung's concepts linked the physical world and the spiritual realm through dreams. Modern quantum physics actually describes a "realm" where dreams may dwell--known as the "implicate order." The Universal continuum that contains all time, but is also "timeless." Energy flows from this "implicate" order to the real world we live in, the "explicate" order, and back again. Can we catch a "dream wave" into the collective unconscious, the holographic sum of all knowledge?

  Mystery Game Clue 6 - Click on the audio button to listen to the next clue! NOTE - If you want to play our "Dead and Breakfast" Mystery Game you need to start at the beginning! Click HERE - More Hints for our Players - The Dead and Breakfast Inn owner can't help it, she HAS to step in and warn her old school friend - the man Florence brought along for the weekend is a liar and a cheat, and may even be blackmailing her... Now click HERE to continue on your journey!