From dreams to soul, from
science to faith
There are two questions about dreams
1: What is the purpose of dreams?
2: How do we dream?
Several theories have been proposed which answer one or both of these questions
but here I'm gonna discuss only three which I think are some how connected with
each other
1: According to Sigmund Freud dreaming is for wishfulfilment, we dream what we
wish for.(This explains why people dream of flying)
2. According Rosalind Cartwrigtht she considers as dream problem solving
( This explains why we sometimes have wierd dreams such as becoming tiny and
riding a bee perhaps this is problem solving+ wishfulfillment)
3.Allan Hobson's theory answer both of the question , according to him dreams
are by-product of neural impulses
Let's analyse these theories
1-[Freud's]
Counter Question : If dreams are wish fulfillment why do we have nightmares and
night terrors?
2-[Rosalind's]
Counter Question: If dreams are problem solving, again why do we have
nightmares?
3-[Hobson]
Counter Question: If dreams are by-products and accidental why they are so
meaningful sometimes and seem like a story?
And what about those dreams which inform a person about future or the past or
something like threat and is claimed to be true.
......
Part 2 Religion's Perspective:
According prophet Muhammad Peace Be Upon Him there are 3 types of dreams
1: Rahmani: the dreams which are by God, to convey you some message( This
explains why we dream about future events , threats etc occur; like Abraham
Lincoln saw dream of his assination before being assasinated and the dream of
Julius Caeser's wife who dreamt about his death by being stabbed before his
death by being stabbed by his friend Marcus Brutus and other members of senate )
2:Shaitani: The bad dreams which are by Satan ( This explains why we have
nightmare and bad dreams)
3: Nafsani: Dreams constructed by ownself (nafs) which can be for
wishfulfillment (This is what Freud also says) and may be for some other
purposes also
...
According to Freud's psychoanalytical beliefs and according to regious beliefs
dreams are symbolic but Freud interpretation of different symbols was totally
absurd, senseless and illogical.Regious scholars often have logical
interpretation and prophets were expert in interpreting dream remember the
dreams and there interpretations in Surah Yusuf.
.
Psychologists and Oneirologolist believe that a person dream 5,6 times a night
but doesn't remeber it.
Why do we forget dreams ?
Sleeping is an altered state of mind in which we are not fully concious and can
not store dreams in our memory because we are not concious, a person remembers
dream when he wakes up suddently after the dream , at that time he becomes
concious and is easy ablento recall his dreams and when he recalls it is stored
in his memory.
Why do we wake during dreams?
Any problem such as if you have to urinate can wake you and interrupt your
dreaming but m not sure about it but I believe while nightmare our nervous
system shifts from rest position to flight or fight, from parasympathetic to
sympathetic. Endorphines are harmones which released by one the glands in your
head perhaps pineal gland or pituitary gland which are released while sleeping ,
they make person feel relax and soothing when we percieve danger in our dreams
fight or flight respose activates which makes andrenaline glands to release
andranaline harmone and uses body's energy for "fight or flight" instead of
resting and using energy in metabolism and other internal bodily processes which
are beneficient for the body, the shift from rest (endorphines) to "fight or
flight"(andrenaline) wakes up the person. That is why we remeber nightmares more
often because we get afraid , The shift takes place and then we wake up and
become concious and remember the dream.
People often dream about what they are obssessed with, in a stage of dreaming
brain is more active than while awaking, we can not make faces by ourself in
dreams, we see what have seen, we expieranced what we have senses that's why
blind people also dream but do no see anything in dreams but hear or touch.
Let's get back to problem sloving theory of dreams
Many of the inventions were came as an idea in dream such as
Mandaleeves periodic table
Sewing machine
and there was an indian guy who would invent theorems in his dreams he sees and
indian goddess teaching those to him, he has invented 6000 theorems
we see what we are obssesed with this guy would be religious and would be
obessesed with theorems
It means these innovating dreams are problem solving dreams , I think these
might occur when your obssessed with some problems and it becomes your wish ,
this kind of dreams can be said nafsani as it is contruct by ownself whether it
is a wish to be fulfilled or the problem to be solved.
...
One can also manage the content of his dreams by practising this kind of dreams
are called lucid dreams, I have experianced it once but I was not able to
control my surroundings but myself for a short time
Once I was dreaming and came know that m dreaming , when I came to know the
dream ended and I woke up
With these evidences I can conclude that dreams are about wishfulfilment and
problem solving
but
why do we dream?
How do we dream?
I will study that later
..
Researchers have found intelliigent people face difficulty in sleeping, perhaps
because they keep on thinking which prevents them from sleeping but I have found
a way to sleep and prevent yourself from thinking more
Keep on thinking something which makes you feel good, which makes you relax and
think of that same scene again and again do not attempt to modify it or
modifying will prevent you from sleeping because once you have made an idea you
can think about that again and again which will make your brain used to that
idea and you won't think anything else just that idea, it prevents you from
thinking further and gradually makes you sleep , if you make effort to think
more it won't allow you to sleep easily, so don't make any efforts, just relax,
that is the reason people count sheep to sleep because thinking of the sam idea
all the time prevents us from thinking further as I have said.
......
According to the Holy Quran God takes our souls when we sleep and gives it back
when we are to awake.
1-If soul is not present in the body how can we see dreams?
Answer:Because the body sees dreams and remebers them, soul is not concerned
with any intellectual activity and our body doesn't seem require soul because
all the cognitive processes are governed by body that is how we remain alive
even when not having soul, soul is very difficult to understand may be it's the
entity which makes one differ from and other. Soul needs a body to live, our
body is our soul's tool which it uses for thinking and other cognitive processes
soul doesn't have its own memory soul
depends on body for its memory. Our body
doesnt seem to require soul for its existence
because memory saves in brain and all the
motor and sensory actions are through body
and brain, that's why on the judgement day
the soul will go in heaven or hell with a new
body because all kinds of pleasures and pains
can only be experianced by our body but soul
is important because it's what which makes
us different from others otherwise we have
same structured body same looking brain (different faces don't matter )
The concept of soul.is very difficult understand, somepeople consider it as
body's software but its not mind is.
Perhaps human will not ever be able to understand soul
(workes hard on this today I hope you enjoyed)