DREAMS OR DREAMERS?: -

“We are told by Herodotus that in temple of Bel {This is Keltic god known as Ba'al by Phoenicians, Bel might have been in Babylon through Byblos city on Persian Gulf that sold ships to Egyptians in 2900 BC. Later Byblus in Lebanon is thought to be what some [who try to limit Phoenician interest] call Byblos as a small part of a decreasing international influence.} in Babylon, a priestess lay on a bed ready to dream visions of second class, and that beds of such soothsayers were often made of skin of a ram --is well known.

The ancient Hebrews obtained such dreams by sleeping among tombs, and this especial gateway to supernatural world seems to have been, and still is known to majority of nations, primitive and civilized, as intimately as hypnosis and other methods of reaching its planes and hearing its pronouncements. Sleep was, of course, often induced by drugs, whether soma of Hindus, peyote of ancient Mexicans, hashish of Arabs, or opium of Malays or Chinese, and these narcotics which have property of inducing speedy sleep and of heightening inward vision were and still are greatly prized by professional dreamers allover world, especially as they rendered dreaming almost immediately possible.” (10)

'Professional dreamers' following visions from above and divining our future, quickly became willing to sell their advice to those who threatened them if they didn't. The dependence on such easy answers continues among mass of population ‘til this moment as 'experts' and politicians join media in a free for all. We believe breakdown in matriarchal influence and egalitarian governance created this cauldron of deceit in Mediterranean after influx created by rising waters that formed North Sea due to glacial effects if not sooner, when northern 'Hyperboreans' colonized area. The issue of what is real about dreams is open for debate to say least but there are many who think they can interpret chaos of these partial insights. Personally I enjoy practice, if there is something positive to say but I regard 'free will' as most important ingredient in what really makes world 'go round'. William James and his book 'Pragmatism' was important to Carl Jung whose work in dream interpretation sets stage for many symbolic and archetypal interpreters to this day.

"The first treatise on subject was that of Artemidorus, who lived in time of Antonius Pius. He differentiated between dreams of kings and those of commoners, as he believed that visions of royalty must have reference to commonwealth {The Bible and plagues predicted by Joseph, for example.} and not to individual {No reason in common sense or science to believe this. Carl Jung was a commoner who saw First World War in advance. Tesla's vision led to many great and useful inventions - however dreams are seldom so vivid or what one can call 'flashes of illumination' - that is an entirely different phenomena.}. Dreams which represented something as happening to individual who dreams them, show that they have a personal significance, whereas if dream relates to another it will concern him alone. He detailed numerous species of dreams throughout five books, and then adduced numerous examples. The rules of Artemidorus are far from clear, and according to them, any dream might signify any event, and any interpretation of same might be considered justifiable.

The method of testing dreams according to Amyraldus in his 'Discours sur les Songes divins' (Saumur, 1625) is whether instructions and advice that they contain make for good or ill--a test it is impossible to apply until after result is known. But Amyraldus surmounts this difficulty by proposing to test dreams by evidence they show of divine knowledge--by asking oneself in short, whether dream it was desired to examine gave any evidence of such things as God alone could know.

"The dream of Prof. Hilprecht, Babylonian scholar who vainly tried to decipher two small pieces of agate, is more complicated and belongs to clairvoyant order. {Working on decrees in dream state is a necessity for success. I have won cars, and had many answers to my decrees when they are right for good of all. The car was a demonstration for others who I told I would win in a nationwide raffle for a whole month before it happened.} As reported in 'Proceedings' of Society for Psychical Research (August 1900) he went to sleep tired out in vain speculation and dreamed of a tall, thin priest of old pre-Christian Nippur who led him to treasure-chamber of temple and went with him into a small low-ceiled room without windows in which there was a large wooden chest, while scraps of agate and lapis-lazuli lay scattered on floor.

Here he addressed him as follows: 'The two fragments which you have published separately belong together, and their history is as follows: King Kruigalzu (c.1300 BC.) once sent to temple of Bel, among other articles of agate and lapis-lazuli {Modern and ancient esoteric stone from which blue scarabs or beetles make great symbolic ritual and talismanic pieces.}, an inscribed votive cylinder of agate. Then we priests suddenly received command to make for statue of god Nidib a pair of ear rings of agate. We were in great dismay, since there was no agate as raw material at hand. In order for us to execute command there was nothing for us to do but cut votive cylinder into three parts, thus making three rings, each of which contained a portion of original inscription. The first two served as ear rings for statue of god; two fragments which have given you so much trouble are portions of them. If you will put two of them together you will have a confirmation of my words.'

The continuation of story is given by Mrs. Hilprecht who testified to having seen Prof. Hilprecht jump out of bed, rush into study and cry out: 'It is so, it is so.'

There are many authenticated cases of strange bits of information obtained in dreams. Professor William James was very deeply impressed by Enfield case in which discovery of body of a drowned woman was affected through a dream of Mrs. Titus of Lebanon, a stranger to scene.

Prof. Charles Richet mentioned following instance of dream cognition: 'I saw Stella on 2nd of December during day, and on leaving I said 'I am going to give a lecture on snake poison.' She at once replied: 'I dreamt last night of snakes, or rather of eels.' Then, without of course giving any reason {This story seems to be ESP.}, I asked her to tell me her dream, and her exact words were: 'It was about eels more than snakes, two eels, for I could see their white shining bellies and their sticky skin; and I said to myself I do not like these creatures, but it pains me when they are hurt.' This dream was strangely conformable to what I had done day before December 1. On that day I had, for first time in twenty years, experimented with eels. Desiring to draw from them a little blood, I had put them on table and their white, shining, irridescent, viscous bellies had particularly struck me.'