THE PROBLEM OF EVIL - 3

RAF Air Marshal Sir Robert Victor Goddard

In 1935, RAF Air Marshal Sir Robert Victor Goddard believed he experienced a parallel universe.

Goddard was aboard a biplane going to inspect a dilapidated out-of-use airfield near Edinburgh, in Scotland.

Goddard encountered very severe weather on his way to the airfield, but upon approach suddenly exited into calm, clear skies.

Looking down at the airfield, which he expected to be a litter strewn, weed choked mess, he saw a completely new and renovated airstrip that was in use.

AIR MARSHAL GODDARD

According to the Gospels, one evening Jesus and his disciples were crossing the Sea of Galilee in a boat.

It became very stormy.

Jesus woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" 

Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.


Thailand. In the right state of mind, some people can avoid pain and injury.

1. "Everything is only part of impermanent psychological processes...

"Letting go is the end of suffering." [11]

Buddhism's View That Evil Is an Illusion - John Piippo

Hinduism and Buddhism (and Christian Science) suggest that by applying mind over matter, suffering can disappear.

2. According to Mary Baker Eddy, there is no pain, only "belief in pain"

EVIL AS ILLUSION

3. The Taoist idea of yin-yang suggests that everything is fine if we avoid the extremes.

Some people find it difficult to believe in the God 

of the Old Testament,

the idea for which came from earlier religions.

A lot of the stories in the Old Testament are borrowed

 from the Sumerians.

"The story of Noah and the flood story, 

the creation of man out of clay,

Cain and Abel,

 the gardens of Eden,

 the tree of knowledge, 

creation of Eve from Adams rib, 

and numerous other myths, 

like the throwing of Moses in the river after he was born, 

are all stories found recorded on Sumerian clay tablets

 dating 5000 years back in time."

Hebrew Bible: Plagiarized Mythology.

Evidence of 'near death' experiences lead some people to believe in God.



Eric Dubay refers to the mystery of
"God, Brahma, Tao,
Universal Mind, the One,
the Void, the Field, Infinite Consciousness,
or whatever you want to call it."

God, Brahma, Tao, Void ...

Is God within us?

Jesus said that the Heaven is within us.

Is God a process rather than a being?

Is God not 'a ruler' who directs the world from above, 

but 'a principle' that controls everything from within?

The Taoists and Buddhists might agree.



How real is the world?

Eric Dubay (God, Brahma, Tao, Void ...) writes:

"In dreams you create entire worlds, environments,

 situations, and even other people.

"You interact and converse, create conflict

 and resolutions, get emotional and involved..."

In the parable about the Garden of Eden, 

Adam and Eve created problems for themselves.

Did God create mosquitoes?

Is there an old man in the sky who created the universe?

Su writes in her blog about "the child in a burn ward
screaming, screaming, screaming."

Su refers to Eastern religions and the value of
'Stepping out of mind.....god willing'.

Nina refers to the cruel 'plantation owners' of this world.

Nina refers to the Taoist view of things in
'a select destiny'.



Dawkins does not believe that the CIA

 & its friends did 9 11?

Is there an old man in the sky?

The Jewish, Christian and Moslem religions think so.

The Jewish, Christian and Moslem religions have their

origins in Zoroastrianism, which began in Iran, 

around the 6th century BC .

(Influence of Zoroastrianism on Judaism and 

Christianity - (CAIS)©)

In Zoroastrianism (Zoroastrianism)a:

There is a God who is the Creator and who is all good.

There is an evil force who will ultimately be destroyed.

There is a saviour who will save the world.

In Zoroastrianism we find the equivalents of baptism,

 communion, guardian angels, heaven, 

worship on Sunday, the celebration of Mithras' birthday

 on December 25th, celibate priests who mediate

between man and God, and the Trinity.

(Influence of Zoroastrianism on Judaism and Christianity - (CAIS)©)

People in countries influenced by Buddhism, 

such as Thailand and Indonesia, often seem happier

 than most.

BUT, what if the Zoroastrians have not got it quite right?

The Buddhists believe in some kind of life after death, 

but they keep a noble silence on the idea of God.

The Taoists refer to some kind of divine force 

called the Tao, but they say that it cannot be described 

in words.

It is difficult to imagine an old man in the sky 

designing this world on his design board.

It is difficult to imagine him designing a world 

in which one creatures survives by eating 

another creature.

So, maybe there was no Bible-style creation.

Maybe things have always existed.

Maybe there is a mysterious something which nourishes us.

Maybe we reap what we sow.

Maybe what we are now is due to what we thought in the past.

Maybe what we will become is what we are thinking now.

...

We quote from: 'a select destiny' (Deep Into Artlife West - blogspot)

"Something we cannot define with science and logic is happening here, a grand design, some not-of-this-world intention we are simply not at the rightful stage of development to comprehend regardless of our effort.

"I believe this makes us a unique product of evolution to remain invincible in the face of pure unadulterated evil where vast and continuing material loss strips us to the lowest category of Earthly life and it has no influence at all...

"We go on in trust, always looking forward, accepting each test as triathlon athletes determined to pass and not just well, but intact, because in spite of the incessant repeats, it makes the good, the pure, the honest, the natural reverent and holy, gifts from somewhere else reminding us the world we desire really does exist and one day we are destined to reach it." 

Science and Religion.

Here are some people's thoughts about life:

1. "It does not matter how long you are spending on the earth, how much money you have gathered or how much attention you have received.

"It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters." 

- Amit Ray

2. "Nature doesn't disdain what lives only for a day. 

"It pours the whole of itself into the each moment. We don't value the lily less for not being made of flint and built to last. 

"Life's bounty is in its flow, later is too late. 

"Where is the song when it's been sung? The dance when it's been danced?"  

- Tom Stoppard, The Coast of Utopia

3. 'Religion comes in opposites to be attractive to different personalities.'

- Steven Reiss , a professor of psychologist at Ohio State University.

According to Reiss, organised religions address the 16 basic human desires - curiosity, acceptance, family, honour, idealism, independence, order, physical activity, power, romance, saving, social contact, eating, status, tranquility and vengeance.

...
Bart D. Ehrman

4.  The real Jesus reportedly taught that we should tune in to the Holy Spirit, love our enemies, see our own faults before we see the faults of others, heal the sick, feed the hungry and treat our fellow citizens as our brothers.

Most of the rest of the stuff about Jesus is apparently invention.

Tony Bushby writes: "In the fourth century, the Roman Emperor Constantine united all religious factions under one composite deity, and ordered the compilation of new and old writings into a uniform collection that became the New Testament."

"Constantine's intention at Nicaea was to create an entirely new god for his empire... 

"Presbyters were asked to debate and decide who their new god would be... The names of 53 gods were tabled for discussion."

(God's Book of Eskra, Prof. S. L. MacGuire's translation, Salisbury, 1922, chapter xlviii, paragraphs 36, 41).

The Forged Origins of The New Testament.

"The earliest of the manuscripts of the New Testament which are still in existence, do not date back beyond the middle of the fourth century AD."

(Catholic Encyclopedia, op. cit., pp. 656-7).

The World's oldest Bible is the Sinai Bible.

"When the New Testament in the Sinai Bible is compared with a modern-day New Testament, a staggering 14,800 editorial alterations can be identified."

The Forged Origins of The New Testament.

5. Lyndon Nadel writes:

You may have seen this Symbol. It is a Dragon eating his own Tail. It is the ancient symbol for time.

It represents Infinite time, where time begins, ends, and continues all at the same point.

What we live in, is named Infinite time. Meaning that time has already begun, finished and continued down every path.

Every possible scenario that could be carried out in time, has already done so.

Every possible dimension that could exist, has already existed and is currently in existence. All at the same moment.

The time in which we are experiencing at this present moment, has already been concluded, in every possible direction that it could occur.

In one dimension, we all die of a nuclear world war III, in another we all live prosporous lives and man kind reaches out into the stars after conquering human suffering.

It has already happened, and it will happen again.

Lyndon Nadel writes:

We do not have the power to alter or change time; our brains only offer us the opportunity to choose the destiny that we witness. 

We pick and choose every moment, which dimension we head down in our finite lives.

Bare in mind, that you are not altering the universe in anyway; you are not changing what will occur; you are merely chosing between the events you wish to witness in this life.

Because every senario has has a different ending, and every moment leads to a different dimension...

Reincarnation Explained.   Time is NOT linear.

...

6. Anthony Peake takes the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics as a literal truth and merges this idea with the time theory of John William Dunne (1875–1949) which says that the past, present and future all exist simultaneously with the outcome being that people can enter the future in dreams or the past by deja vu.

We encounter 'a pretty teenage girl'.

What we perceive is our brain's best guess at what the girl is like.

Donald Hoffman believes that human perceptions of girls and other things are all illusions.

Donald D. Hoffman is a Professor in the Department of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, with joint appointments in the Department of Philosophy, the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science, and the School of Computer Science.

...

The scientists who study quantum physics say that an object does not exist until we observe it/

....

"The current understanding - that all probabilities all exist at once, in the same reality, until you measure or observe them - is mind-blowing. And yet the math is there to prove it."

What is Reality?


Norway 1905

"When we produce a thought, that thought can change us and can change the world in a good way or in a bad way.

"If it is right thought, if that thought is produced in line with right thinking, then it will have a healing, nourishing effect on our body and on the world.

"Just by producing right thinking you can change the world. You can make the world a better place to live..."

Dharma Talk: The Buddhist Understanding of Reality



In John's Gospel, Jesus says: "It is the Father who lives in me who carries out his work through me...

"If you live your life in me, and my words live in your hearts, you can ask for whatever you like and it will come true for you."

In Luke's Gospel, Jesus says: "Give and men will give to you - yes, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will they pour into your lap...

"The kingdom of God is inside you."

At its best after 4 minutes.

How to explain the world?

0 = +x -x

Particles are constantly popping in and out of existence, according to the scientists.

The +x -x could be seen as representing all possible things.

According to the scientists, a bottle of Coke exists in all possible locations, until it is observed existing in one particular location.

Atom Is Seen in 2 Places at Once - New York Times 

The observer apparently decides where the bottle of Coke is to be found.

And, just as a bottle of Coke can be in more than one place at once, it can also be in more than one time period at once.

The observer apparently decides the time period in which the bottle of Coke is to be found.

Our understanding of time and space may be out of date, according to the scientists.

"The world has the incomprehensible property of existing in a 'superposition' of possible states and every so often plumps for one or another."

Can Quantum Mechanics Explain Free Will?

Jean Piaget[7] stated that young children have to learn about time and space.

There is a lion somewhere ahead of us.

Perhaps we observe it right in front of us, about to eat us.

Or, perhaps we observe it sitting peacefully, eating manna from heaven.

Particles appear to exist in all states simultaneously according to the experiments in quantum superposition

"Experiments in quantum physics seem to demonstrate the need for an observer to be present to make potentialities become real... 

"Basically, what quantum theory says is that fundamental particles are empty of inherent existence and exist in an undefined state of potentialities. 

"They have no inherent existence from their own side and do not become 'real' until a mind interacts with them and gives them meaning. 

"Whenever and wherever there is no mind there is no meaning and no reality."

Buddhism and Quantum 

Is Reality an Illusion? | Jan Westerhoff

JOSEPH CAMPBELL

...

Helped by invisible hands?

The American academic Joseph Campbell, in The Hero With a Thousand Faces, wrote:

"It is only when a man tames his own demons that he becomes the king of himself if not of the world."

Campbell writes about people going on a journey, overcoming various challenges, achieving greater wisdom, and then spreading this wisdom.

The Hero's journey can be internal.

Joseph Campbell.

Joseph Campbell advises you to "follow your bliss".

Joseph Campbell wanted to get above, or transcend, the world that most of us experience.

He wanted to tune in to the divine and experience bliss or rapture.

Joseph Campbell wrote:

"If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living.

"Wherever you are - if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time."

(Joseph Campbell - Wikipedia)

...

Joseph Campbell lived most of his life in an apartment in a building on Waverly Place and Gay Street overlooking New York City's Sheridan Square and Christopher Street.

It can be argued that some people do not need to go on a journey, as they have already tuned in to the divine.

What would people who are 'tuned into the divine' look like?

The American academic Abraham Maslow studied mentally healthy people instead of people with serious psychological problems. 

According to Maslow, mentally healthy people have such qualities as:

Honesty

Goodness and kindness

Spontaneity

Fairness

Joy

Joseph Campbell, in The Hero With a Thousand Faces, wrote:

"Instead of clearing his own heart the zealot tries to clear the world."

In other words, avoid being a fundamentalist.

As Jesus said - see your own faults, rather than the faults of others.

Joseph Campbell, in The Hero With a Thousand Faces, wrote:

"The agony of breaking through personal limitations is the agony of spiritual growth.

"Art, literature, myth and cult, philosophy, and ascetic disciplines are instruments to help the individual past his limiting horizons into spheres of ever-expanding realization.

"As he crosses threshold after threshold, conquering dragon after dragon, the stature of the divinity that he summons to his highest wish increases, until it subsumes the cosmos.

"Finally, the mind breaks the bounding sphere of the cosmos to a realization transcending all experiences of form - all symbolizations, all divinities: a realization of the ineluctable (unable to be avoided) void."

The VOID can be seen as being an absence of the selfish personality or self.

Understanding the void means understanding that we are all brothers and sisters.

Emptiness: The Most Misunderstood Word.

Joseph Campbell, in The Hero With a Thousand Faces, wrote the following:

"Perhaps some of us have to go through dark and devious ways before we can find the river of peace or the highroad to the soul's destination."

"Wars and temper tantrums are the makeshifts of ignorance; regrets are illuminations come too late."



"As Freud has shown, blunders are not the merest chance. They are the result of suppressed desires and conflicts. They are ripples on the surface of life, produced by unsuspected springs. And these may be very deep - as deep as the soul itself.

"The blunder may amount to the opening of a destiny."



"Dream is the personalized myth ... in the dream the forms are quirked by the peculiar troubles of the dreamer."



"God is love."

~~

LIFE IS A DREAM?

...

Vasubandhu (4th to 5th century C.E.) was a Budhist monk.

Vasubandhu's major ideas are:[7]

"Whatever we are aware of, think about, experience, or conceptualize, occurs to us nowhere else than within consciousness."

"External objects do not exist."

As Chögyal Namkhai Norbu puts it: "In a real sense, all the visions that we see in our lifetime are like a big dream . . . ."[2]

...

Markus Buch -

"If life is a dream, then it must have a purpose...

"Therefore, what is the purpose of life as dream?

"Life is definitely a story full of symbolic events ...character development...

"Therefore, the best bet for me is to behave nicely..."

Author Caroline Myss suggests the real meaning behind 'we create our own reality'.

"It's primary purpose is to make us start focusing on what our lives can be if we live courageously, honestly and full out. 

"She encourages us to ask ourselves, 'How am I creating my reality? From what level?'  

"Am I using it to access the bigger part of me, or the smaller, fearful part that just wants to be safe?"

The Truth Behind 'You Create Your Own Reality'

...

"According to contemporary teacher Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, all appearances perceived during the whole life of an individual, through all senses, including sounds, smells, tastes and tactile sensations in their totality, are like a big dream. 

"It is claimed that, on careful examination, the dream of life and regular nightly dreams are not very different, and that in their essential nature there is no difference between them."

Java.

"Carl Jung believed that aside from each of us having our own conscious and subconscious selves, all humans are all somehow connected in one universal and collective unconscious."

Interstellar: Parallel Universes, Dreams, & The Mind .

"This collective unconscious is what gives us similar imagery in our dreams, and even ideas for myths, beliefs and folktales around the world...

"Cultures across the globe have very distinctive 'hero's journey' stories, along with many other archetypal tales and beliefs, that somehow all seem to share similar points in the plot line.


Cyprus

"One of the main ways in which Jung suggested that humans connect to the collective unconscious is through dreams.

This maybe points to the idea that somehow, through dreams, we can reach out to other people who are very far away or even gone from this world, since dreams exist in a place that knows no dimensional bounds... 

"Love is the only thing that seems to transcend both time and space."

Interstellar: Parallel Universes, Dreams, & The Mind


Morocco.

Jesus said: "Because of your faith, it will happen."

The Buddha said, "What you dwell upon you become." 

Hindu mysticism says, "Whatever a person's mind dwells on intensely and with firm resolve, that is exactly what he becomes." 

...

...

COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS; GAY GODS

What's in your mind?

Race, sex, gender, guns ...?

Carl Jung's idea was that "when the darkness of the unconscious begins to stir, if these forces are not understood, they will magnetically draw people together...

"These people will become unwitting instruments for what Jung calls 'the powers of darkness' to act themselves out in the world."

What Would CG Jung Say


Golden Dawn, Greece.

"The collective unconscious makes people ripe for political manipulation, especially in the era of mass politics." [63]

It's best if we understand our minds.



Ancient myths give us some clues about what's in people's minds.

The Egyptian god Seth, while married to his sister Nephthys, had sex with other male gods such as Horus.

The 'Greek Myths' tell us something about the collective unconscious - the memories and impulses of which we are not aware, but which are common to mankind as a whole.


Eros (Cupid)

The 'shadow' is said to be one's dark side.

Eros, the Greek God of Love, could be a positive or negative force, leading to virtue or misery.

...

The Greek Myths feature bisexual gods and heroes, and transgender folks, and cruel killers.

Athena, goddess of wisdom, loved the maiden called Myrmex.

Zeus loved Ganymede.

Apollo loved Prince Hyakinthos.

Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, loved Adonis.

Adonis by Henry Oliver Walker - Library of Congress

Hermes, the wing-heeled messenger of the gods, had many male lovers.

Iphis was born female but raised male by his mother.

Callisto was the daughter of Zeus and the follower of the lesbian goddess Artemis.

When Zeus disguised himself as the goddess Artemis, Callisto had sex with him.


Ganymede by Henry Oliver Walker - Library of Congress

Teiresias was transformed from a man into a woman for seven years. 

During his female years, Teiresias became a priestess of Hera, married, and even had children, according to Hesiod.

Antinous was the male companion of the Roman emperor Hadrian. 

Hadrian encouraged the deification of Antinous.

Adonis by Henry Oliver Walker - Library of Congress

In the creation story for the Egyptian gods, the first deity, Atum, was both male and female.

The Egyptian sun god Ra is said to be the mother and father of the gods.

The Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut was female but wore men's clothing.

Hapi, the god of the Nile, is depicted in hieroglyphics as an intersex (both male and female) person.

The Hindu god Shiva has been depicted as being androgynous.

The Hindu god Vishnu was gender-fluid and was sometimes male and sometimes female. 

Vishnu had sex with Shiva.

...

The male Hindu god Krishna took on female form in order to marry a bloke called Aravan.

The Hindu hero Shikhandi was born female but became a man.

The Hindu god Agni married both a man and a woman.

The Hindu god Ila changed genders every month.

Bhagavati-devi is the Hindu goddess of cross-dressing, and more than 5,000 male worshippers dress as women each year for the ritual Chamayavilakku festival in Kollam. 

What's in people's minds?

Both the Republicans and Democrats in the USA appeal to 'the Dark Side'.

"A leader, such as Donald Trump, will invariably appear - in my language, get “dreamed up” - who will express, reflect and, like a lightning rod, amplify these darker forces. 

"This leader is typically someone who, in Jung's words, has “the least resistance, the least sense of responsibility and … the greatest will to power.”[6] 

"Jung comments that this leader “will let loose everything that is ready to burst forth.”[7] 

"As if offering a prophetic warning, Jung says with complete certainty, “a mass always produces a ‘Leader,’ who infallibly becomes the victim of his own inflated ego-consciousness, as numerous examples in history show.”[8] 

"I think many of us intuit that Trump's reign is not going to end well – the question becomes: how can we mitigate the damage?"

What Would CG Jung Say

BAD DREAMS ARE USEFUL

Bad dreams show us our dark side.

And this can be useful.

British cabinet ministers may dream of beating young boys dressed in girls underwear.

White fascists in South Carolina may dream of shooting dead their annoying neighbours.

Sam Wolfe has written about bad dreams being related to the unconscious mind.

Sam Wolfe points out that, according to Carl Jung, the unconscious mind consists of both the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious.

A Jungian Perspective on Nightmares and Bad Dreams

Hitler apparently used symbols and instincts from the collective unconscious to win over the masses.

Advertisers reportedly do the same thing.

Sam Wolfe reminds us that Jung claimed that humans want 'wholeness'.

In other words, humans don't want their minds to be full of conflicts.

The Sunni Moslem does not want to be one minute seeing Islam as the religion of peace and the next moment wanting to kill a lot of Shias.

Individuation is the name Jung gives to the process of achieving wholeness.

Individuation involves dealing with 'the dark side'.

Jung said that "the individuation process…forms one of the main interests of Taoism and Zen Buddhism."

Jung also believed that this idea of becoming 'whole' is referred to by Jesus.

Jesus said: "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?"

Some supporters of Jung believe that the faults that Hitler saw in the Jews were faults that Hitler himself also possessed.

..

Sam Wolfe points out that "Individuation is difficult because it involves giving up ... the mask we put on..." 

According to Sam Wolfe: "One way that the personal shadow manifests itself is throughpsychological projection."

A Jungian Perspective on Nightmares and Bad Dreams

For example, the gay homophobe will be constantly accusing other people of being gay.

The bad driver will blame other motorists of getting it all wrong.

The American general will blame the dead Iraqi children of deliberately getting in the way of his bombs.

Sam Wolfe writes: "If we despise someone for being lazy, cowardly, mean or deceitful or if we are constantly annoyed at someone for being arrogant, greedy or sluttish, this perception reflects a despised part of ourselves."

Herman Hesse, in his novel Demian, wrote: "If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us."

Sam Wolfe writes: "In order to integrate your shadow into your personality, you first must recognise and accept that these despised traits are a part of your self ..."

A Jungian Perspective on Nightmares and Bad Dreams

You must DETACH yourself from the bad traits.

Both Jesus and Buddha pointed out that we should see our own faults and then detach ourselves from these faults.

In our bad dreams there are symbols that represent the bad stuff.

We might dream about threatening creatures whom we are having to shoot at.

When we waken up we may realise that the dream is about our own faults and failings.

The psychologist Paul Tholey suggests that the dreamer should try to engage in dialogue with the hostile dream figure, with the goal of achieving some kind of reconciliation. 

A Jungian Perspective on Nightmares and Bad Dreams

Sam Wolfe writes: "Ugly and terrifying characters in our dreams can be transformed into beautiful and friendly characters. 

"The shadow, therefore, is really hidden treasure...

"As the German psychologist Kuenkel said, 'The true way to healing' is to seek out the 'barking dogs of the unconscious' and reconcile with them." 

As Jesus said, love your enemies.

Sam Wolfe writes: Greet your demons and monsters like a long-lost friend and so too will your enemies in real life cease to be enemies. 

Continued here: A Jungian Perspective on Nightmares and Bad Dreams

Not all dreams are bad.

I once had an employee who believed that while she was asleep she could leave her body and go off to visit her relatives some hundreds of miles away in Sumatra.

Australian Aborigines believe that people leave their bodies during sleep, and temporarily enter the Dreamtime.

Australian Aborigines believe that in dreams dead relatives communicate their presence. At times the departed relatives may bring healing.

Australian Aborigine Dream Beliefs

Some Indigenous American tribes believe that dreams are a way of visiting one's ancestors.

Alice in Wonderland.

Today, about one-third of hospital patients over the age of 70 have 'hallucinations' which they think are real.

Hallucinations in the Hospital.

One patient I know sees her departed father.

The Sumerians in Mesopotamia (Iraq, Syria, Kuwait) believed that the soul, or part of it, actually visits the places and persons experienced in dreams. 

The Babylonians and Assyrians in Mesopotamia divided dreams into "good," which were sent by the gods, and "bad," sent by demons.

Ancient Egyptians believed that dreams brought messages from the gods.

In Chinese history, some people wrote of part of the soul leaving the body during sleep to travel in a dream realm.

The Indian text Upanishads, says that dreams can be expressions of inner desires, and, can involve the soul leaving the body and being guided until awakened.

The ancient Greeks believed that the Greek god Morpheus sent warnings and prophecies in dreams.

The Greeks borrowed the idea that souls leave the body during sleep.

The Roman philosopher Cicero believed that all dreams are produced by thoughts and conversations a dreamer had during the preceding days.

Jacob's dream of a ladder of angels, 1690, by Michael Willmann. Jacob's dream of a ladder

Most of the dreams in the Bible are in the Book of Genesis.

The ancient Hebrews believed that dreams can be the voice of God.

The Hebrews differentiated between good dreams (from God) and bad dreams (from evil spirits).

St. Augustine and St. Jerome claimed that that they gained useful insights from their dreams.

Martin Luther, however, believed dreams were the work of the Devil.

...

Some philosophers and scientists believe that the "physical world" may be an illusion.

In the Taoist book Zhuangzi, by Zhuang Zhou, we read:

"Once upon a time, Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly, a butterfly flitting about happily enjoying himself. 

"He did not know that he was Zhou. 

"Suddenly he awoke, and was palpably Zhou. 

"He did not know whether he was Zhou, who had dreamed of being a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming that he was Zhou. 

For the Hindus, Brahman (God) is everything, and is both in the world and not in the world, at the same time.

Hinduism

In the 17th century, Descartes wrote that a mind can exist without a body.

Meditations on First Philosophy.


Goya

Freud taught that the content of dreams is the result of unconscious wish fulfillment.

Freud saw dreams as a "road to the unconscious."

Freud argued that important unconscious desires often relate to early childhood memories and experiences.

Freud thought there was a possibility that dreams can be linked to telepathy.



Carl Jung wrote that dreams are messages to the dreamer and that the messages can help the dreamer to solve emotional or religious problems.

Jung wrote that recurring dreams mean that the dreamer is neglecting an issue related to the dream.

Jung believed that memories formed throughout the day also play a role in dreaming.

The unconscious deals with these when the ego is at rest.

Jung wrote that while dreaming we may tune in to the collective unconscious.

Jung also wrote about symbols in dreams.

For example, in your dream your wife might be represented by Britney Spears, or your boss might be represented by Adolf Hitler, or your workplace might be represented by Disneyworld.

...

Jie Zhang proposes that the function of sleep is to process, encode, and transfer the data from the temporary memory store to the long-term memory store.

Deirdre Barrett describes dreaming as simply "thinking in a different biochemical state" and believes people continue to work on all the usual problems in that state.[71]

From the 1940s to 1985, Calvin S. Hall collected more than 50,000 dream reports at Western Reserve University.

Hall's studies indicated that participants from varying parts of the world demonstrated similarity in their dream content.

Hall found that in dreams different locations and objects continuously blend into each other.

In the Hall study, the most common emotion experienced in dreams was anxiety.

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Hall found that sexual dreams occur no more than 10% of the time and are more prevalent in young to mid-teens.

Daydreaming can be useful.

There are numerous examples of composers, novelists and filmmakers, developing new ideas through daydreaming. Similarly, research scientists, mathematicians and physicists have developed new ideas by daydreaming about their subject areas.