What exactly are dreams and why do we have them? These are the questions we will seek to answer in this and the next presentation. Consciousness and activity in the emotional body are one thing: the memory in the brain of that emotional consciousness and activity is a totally different matter. The existence or the absence of physical memory in no way affects the consciousness on the emotional plane, nor the ability to function in the emotional plane with perfect ease and freedom. It is, in fact, not only possible but also not uncommon, for a person to function freely and effectively in their emotional body during the sleep of the physical body and yet to return to the physical body without the slightest memory of the emotional work they had been engaged in. The break in consciousness between the emotional and the physical life is due either to the underdevelopment of the emotional body or to the lack of an adequate etheric bridge between the emotional and the dense physical matter of the body. This bridge consists of the closely woven web of atomic matter, through which the vibrations have to pass and which causes a moment of unconsciousness, like a veil, between sleeping and waking. The only way in which memory of the emotional life can be brought through into the physical brain is by sufficient development of the emotional body and by an awakening of the etheric Chakras, one function of which is to bring forces from the Emotional World to the etheric envelope. In addition, there must be active functioning of the pituitary gland, which focuses the emotional vibrations.
Sometimes, on awakening, there is a feeling that something has been experienced of which no memory remains. The feeling indicates that there has been emotional consciousness, though the brain is insufficiently receptive to receive the record. At other times the person in their emotional body may succeed in making a momentary impression on the etheric envelope and the physical body, resulting in a vivid memory of the emotional life. This can only be registered through one of the five senses. This is sometimes done deliberately when something occurs, that the person feels that they ought to remember on the physical plane. Such a memory usually vanishes quickly and cannot be recovered. Efforts to recover the memory, by setting up strong vibrations in the physical brain, still further overpower the more delicate emotional vibrations and consequently render success even less likely. There are some events, too, which make such a vivid impression on the emotional body that they become impressed upon the physical brain by a kind of repercussion or reverberation.
In other cases, a person may succeed in impressing new knowledge on the physical brain, without being able to convey the memory of where or how that knowledge was gained. Instances of this, common to most people, occur where solutions of problems, previously insoluble, suddenly arise in the consciousness, or where light is suddenly thrown on to questions previously obscure. Such cases may be taken to indicate that progress is being made with the organisation and functioning of the emotional body, although the physical body is still only partially receptive. In cases where the physical brain does respond, there are vivid, reasonable and coherent dreams, which occur to many people from time to time.
Few people, when in the emotional body, care whether the physical brain remembers or not. Nine out of ten of these people do want to return to the body. In coming back to the physical body from the Emotional World, there is a feeling of great constraint, as though one were being enveloped in a thick, heavy cloak. The joy of life on the emotional plane is so great that physical life in comparison, seems no life at all. Many regard the daily return to the physical body as workers often do on their daily journey to the office. They do not positively dislike it, but they would not do it unless they were compelled.
Eventually, in the case of highly developed and advanced monads, (5) Enlightened souls, the etheric bridge between the emotional and the physical worlds is constructed and then there is perfect continuity of consciousness between the emotional and the physical life. For such people, life ceases to be composed of days of remembrance and nights of oblivion and becomes instead, a continuous whole, year after year, of unbroken consciousness.
Occasionally, a person, who has normally no memory of their emotional life, may unintentionally, through an accident, or illness, or intentionally by certain definite practices, bridge over the gap between emotional and physical consciousness. From that time onwards their emotional consciousness will be continuous and their memory of their sleep life is perfect. But, of course, before this can take place, they must already have developed full consciousness in the emotional body. It is merely the “dissolving” of the veil between the emotional and physical that is sudden, not the development of the emotional body.
The dream life may be considerably modified as a direct result of mental growth. Every impulse sent by the mind to the physical brain has to pass through the emotional body, and, as emotional matter is far more responsive to thought vibrations than physical matter, it follows that the effects produced on the emotional body are correspondingly greater. Thus, when a person has acquired mental control, i.e., has learned to dominate the brain, to concentrate, and to think as and when they like, a corresponding change will take place in the person’s emotional life; and, if they bring the memory of that life through into the physical brain, their dreams will become vivid, well-sustained, rational and even instructive.
In general, the more the physical brain is trained to answer to the vibrations of the mental body, the more the bridging of the gulf between waking and sleeping consciousness is facilitated. The brain should become more and more the obedient instrument of the person, acting under impulses from that person’s will.
The dreaming of ordinary events does not interfere with emotional work, because the dreaming takes place in the physical brain, while the persona is away attending to other matters. It does not really matter what the physical brain does, so long as it keeps itself free from undesirable thoughts. However, to recollect a dream, the persona must be present, even if the emotional and mental envelopes have retreated from the physical body.
Once a dream is started, its course cannot usually be changed: but the dream life can be controlled indirectly to a considerable extent. The last thought on sinking to sleep must be a noble and elevating one, as this strikes the keynote, which largely determines the nature of the dreams which follow. An evil or impure thought attracts evil and impure influences and creatures, which react on the mind and emotional body and tend to awaken low and earthly desires. On the other hand, if a person falls asleep with their thoughts fixed on high and spiritual things, they will automatically draw around themselves, elementals created by similar efforts of others and consequently their dreams will be lofty and pure.
As we are dealing in this series of presentations mainly with the emotional body and phenomena closely associated with it, it is not necessary to attempt to deal exhaustively with the larger subject of dream consciousness. Nevertheless, to show the proper setting of the part that the emotional body plays in the dream life, it is useful to give a very brief outline of the main factors operative in producing dreams. For a detailed study of the whole matter, you can read the excellent textbook, Dreams by C.W.Leadbeater, from which the following facts are extracted.
The factors concerned in the production of dreams are: –
1- The lower physical brain, with its infantile semi-consciousness and its habit of expressing every stimulus in pictorial form.
2- The etheric part of the brain, through which sweeps a ceaseless procession of disconnected pictures.
3- The emotional body, pulsating with the wild surging of desire and emotions.
4- The monad (in the causal body) who may be in any state of consciousness, from almost complete insensibility, a (1) Young Soul, to perfect command of its faculties i.e., a (5) Initiate.
When a person goes to sleep, their monad, or to be precise, the focus of their monad, withdraws further within themselves and leaves their various bodies more free than usual to go their own way. These separate bodies: (1) are much more susceptible to impressions from their environment than at other times; and (2) have a very rudimentary consciousness of their own. Remember, envelopes are made from tertiary matter, which is actively conscious and these envelopes are filled with secondary matter, which is passively conscious. Consequently, there is ample reason for the production of dreams, as well as for confused recollections in the physical brain, of the experiences of the other bodies during sleep.
Such confused dreams may thus be due to (1) a series of disconnected pictures and impossible transformations produced by the senseless automatic action of the lower physical brain; (2) a stream of casual thought, which has been pouring through the etheric part of the brain; (3) the ever-restless tide of earthly desire, playing through the emotional body and probably stimulated by emotional influences; (4) an imperfect attempt at dramatisation by an undeveloped persona; and (5) a mingling of several or all of these influences.
In the next presentation, we will briefly describe the principal elements in each of these kinds of dreams.