Parashat Vayetze

Weird Theories - experimentation - Time to learn about dreams

In BOLD and red is stuff I have written

In blue is stuff I have found

In purple and italics is an activity to try if you feel brave  
 

Kohelet 1:9 -

What was, is what will be

What has been done, is what will be done;

There is nothing new under the sun!

In this weeks parasha the story about Ya'akov goes through the whole episode of trying to marry Rachel. A lot of issues are brought up, including trade practices because Laban (Rachel's dad) makes Ya'akov work 14 years and deceives him every step of the way. But I want to deal with the part of the parasha where Ya'akov dreams of a ladder that stretches up from earth to heaven. There are angels of God ascending and descending the ladder...If there is nothing new under the sun, lets have a look at dream interpretation, and have a little bit of fun with what we can do with dreams.

Bereshit Rabba 68:11
"And he dreamed"--Rabbi Abbahu said, "Dreams have no influence whatsoever." "Bar Kappara taught, "No dream is without its interpretation."

"The Rabbis related it to Sinai."--The ladder symbolizes Mt. Sinai. The angels symbolize Moses and Aaron. "And behold the Lord stood beside him" symbolizes that God came down on Sinai.

According to the tradition, if two words share the same gematria (numerical equivalent) then there is a deeper connection between them. The connection the rabbis show is that the ladder (sulam) and Sinai each have the gematria of 130. Sinai is the ladder that connects the physical world and the spiritual world.

That's some old school dream stuff, what about more recent interpretations?

Freud and Dreams

According to Freud, dreams are spyholes into our unconscious. Fears, desires and emotions that we are usually unaware of make themselves known through dreams. To Freud dreams were fundamentally about wish-fulfillment. Even "negative" dreams (punishment dreams and other anxiety dreams) are a form of wish-fulfilment; the wish being that certain events do not occur. Very often such dreams are interpreted as a warning.

Freud believed that although our dreams contain these important messages, they are encoded - disguised. The unconscious mind doesn't speak any verbal language therefore it must communicate with us via symbols. Some of these symbols are near-universal, others very personal.

Jungian Dream Interpretation

Like Freud, Jung believed that dreams are important gateways to unknown parts of ourself. Dreams are an expression of the personal unconscious through the archetypes of the collective unconscious.

Whereas Freud believed that dreams were frequently distorted in a subconscious attempt at repression, Jung believed that any such distortion was usually unintentional.

As an example, say a dream included birds. Possible associations with this symbol would be flight, freedom, cage, etc.

Another stage of Jungian dream analysis is "active imagination". Here, the dreamer mentally evokes a character from the dream and asks it questions. Through this approach the unconscious can be questioned directly.

The various symbolic associations would then be examined and the most important ones combined to give a holistic view of the dream's meaning.

The obvious question is this: If our dreams talk about our innermost thoughts, what do you dream about, and what do you think it means, if it means anything at all?

And now to take this topic a step further (or a step back), remember that Rabbi Abbahu said, "Dreams have no influence whatsoever." "Bar Kappara taught, "No dream is without its interpretation."

Habo is about taking dreams and turning them into reality.

What if we could walk into our dreams and control what goes on there.

AN ACTIVITY THAT I URGE YOU ALL TO GIVE A CHANCE...

LUCID DREAMING

WHAT IS LUCID DREAMING?

Lucid dreaming means dreaming while knowing that you are dreaming. The term was coined by Frederik van Eeden  who used the word "lucid" in the sense of mental clarity. Lucidity usually begins in the midst of a dream when the dreamer realizes that the experience is not occurring in physical reality, but is a dream.

 Why bother?

HOW DO I LEARN TO HAVE LUCID DREAMS?

The two essentials to learning lucid dreaming are motivation and effort. Although most people report occasional spontaneous lucid dreams, they rarely occur without our intending it. Lucid dream induction techniques help focus intention and prepare a critical mind. They range from millennium-old Tibetan exercises to modern methods developed by dream researchers. Try the following techniques and feel free to use personal variants. Experiment, observe, and persevere - lucid dreaming is easier than you may think.

Reality Testing

This is a good technique for beginners. Assign yourself several times a day to perform the following exercise. Also do it anytime you think of it, especially when something odd occurs or when you are reminded of dreams. It helps to choose specific occasions like: when you see your face in the mirror, look at your watch, arrive at work or home, pick up your NovaDreamer, etc. The more frequently and thoroughly you practice this technique, the better it will work.

• 1.      Do a reality test.
  Carry some text with you or wear a digital watch throughout the day. To do a reality test, read the words or the numbers on the watch. Then, look away and look back, observing the letters or numbers to see if they change. Try to make them change while watching them. Research shows that text changes 75% of the time it is re-read once and changes 95% it is re-read twice. If the characters do change, or are not normal, or do not make sense, then you are most probably dreaming. Enjoy! If the characters are normal, stable, and sensible, then you probably aren't dreaming. Go on to step 2.
• 2.      Imagine that your surroundings are a dream.
  If you are fairly certain you are awake (you can never be 100% sure!), then say to yourself, "I may not be dreaming now, but if I were, what would it be like?" Visualize as vividly as possible that you are dreaming. Intently imagine that what you are seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling is all a dream. Imagine instabilities in your environment, words changing, scenes transforming, perhaps you floating off the ground. Create in yourself the feeling that you are in a dream. Holding that feeling, go on to step 3.
• 3.      Visualize yourself enjoying a dream activity.
  Decide on something you would like to do in your next lucid dream, perhaps flying, talking to particular dream characters, or just exploring the dream world. Continue to imagine that you are dreaming now, and visualize yourself enjoying your chosen activity.

Dreamsigns

Another dream-recall related exercise introduced in  EWLD and further developed in  A Course in Lucid Dreaming is identifying "dreamsigns." This term, coined by LaBerge, refers to elements of dreams that indicate that you are dreaming. (Examples: miraculous flight, purple cats, malfunctioning devices, and meeting deceased people.) By studying your dreams you can become familiar with your own personal dreamsigns and set your mind to recognize them and become lucid in future dreams. The Course also provides exercises for noticing dreamsigns while you are awake, so that the skill carries over into your dreams. This exercise also applies to lucid dream induction devices, which give sensory cues--special, artificially-produced dreamsigns--while you are dreaming. To succeed at recognizing these cues in dreams, you need to practice looking for them and recognizing them while you are awake.

3.2.4   Mnemonic Induction of Lucid Dreams (MILD)

The MILD technique employs prospective memory, remembering to do something (notice you're dreaming) in the future. Dr. LaBerge developed this technique for his doctoral dissertation and used it to achieve lucid dreaming at will. The proper time to practice MILD is after awakening from a dream, before returning to sleep. (Modified from  EWLD, p. 78)

• 1.      Setup dream recall.
  Set your mind to awaken from dreams and recall them. When you awaken from a dream, recall it as completely as you can.
• 2.      Focus your intent.
  While returning to sleep, concentrate single-mindedly on your intention to remember to recognize that you're dreaming. Tell yourself: "Next time I'm dreaming, I will remember I'm dreaming," repeatedly, like a mantra. Put real meaning into the words and focus on this idea alone. If you find yourself thinking about anything else, let it go and bring your mind back to your intention.
• 3.      See yourself becoming lucid.
  As you continue to focus on your intention to remember when you're dreaming, imagine that you are back in the dream from which you just awakened (or another one you have had recently if you didn't remember a dream on awakening). Imagine that this time you recognize that you are dreaming. Look for a dreamsign--something in the dream that demonstrates plainly that it is a dream. When you see it say to yourself: "I'm dreaming!" and continue your fantasy. Imagine yourself carrying out your plans for your next lucid dream. For example, if you want to fly in your lucid dream, imagine yourself flying after you come to the point in your fantasy when you become lucid.
• 4.      Repeat until your intention is set.
  Repeat steps 2 and 3 until either you fall asleep or are sure that your intention is set. If, while falling asleep, you find yourself thinking of anything else, repeat the procedure so that the last thing in your mind before falling asleep is your intention to remember to recognize the next time you are dreaming.

The questions I put to you are:

-Are you turning your dreams into reality? (hagshama)

-Can you imagine the type of world you want to live in?

-If dreams can be interpreted to reflect our feelings, and dreams can be manipulated - I don't even know how to end that sentence, but wow, what a concept.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this one

Shabbat Shalom

Benji