Wednesday, March 9, 2016

Dreams

Do dreams have any meaning? I have been grappling with this question for long time. Even today, I do not have a conclusive answer.

My dreams are very random. Generally, most of us have random dreams so I am no exception. Sometimes, I see the earthquake shaking the earth. Sometimes, I find myself in a different world. Once I saw my result of UPSC. At one other time, I saw trident and a lion.

I searched on internet to find their meaning. The meanings are as varied and as open ended as my dreams were. For instance, seeing earthquake or experiencing earthquake foretells great fortune which is coming your way. If you see some one dying, it means long life for the person. But in Islamic studies, It may mean differently. Seeing earthquake may indicate a disaster coming to you and seeing yourself dying may mean a disease or ill-health.

Being a student of psychology, I have good enough understanding of freudian concept of dreams as mental pathways which brings out your inner conflicts, desires and wants. Freud wrote the book "interpretation of dreams". He explained dreams as conflict of ego, superego and id(reality impulse). He searched for the hidden meaning behind vivid dreams. Freud believed that dreams are most direct way to reach your unconscious mind.

Psychology also proposed other theories explaining dreams. I remember Hilgard has done excellent work in this regard. Dreams could be attributed to random firing in our intra cranial cortical system. They have a cleansing effect which helps in removing all the misfired or unfired neurons from our brain nerve system.

Some other theories describe dreams as totally meaningless and random creation.
Anyway, whatever the mystery behind dreams may be, It is a timely pointer that I should revise my subject. I am missing names and theories.

So will write some more substance at some later date.

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