We briefly described the principal elements in a number of different kinds of dreams in the last presentation. Let us now look at these five elements in greater detail.
We start with:
1- Physical Brain Dreams. – When in sleep, the persona, for that period, resigns its control of the brain. The physical body still has a certain dim consciousness of its own. In addition, there is also the aggregate consciousness of the individual cells of the physical body. The grasp of the physical consciousness over the brain is far feebler than that of the persona over the brain and consequently, purely physical changes are capable of affecting the brain more noticeably. Examples of such physical changes are irregularity in the circulation of the blood, indigestion, heat and cold, etc.
The dim physical consciousness possesses certain peculiarities: (1) it is to a great extent automatic; (2) it seems unable to grasp an idea except in the form in which it is itself an actor: consequently, all stimuli, whether from within or from without, are immediately translated into perceptual images; (3) it is incapable of grasping abstract ideas or memories, as such, but at once transforms them into imaginary precepts or objects: (4) every local direction of thought becomes for it actual spatial transportation, i.e., a passing thought of China would transport the consciousness instantly in imagination to China; (5) it has no power of judging the sequence, value or objective truth of the pictures that appear before it. It takes them all just as it sees them and never feels surprised at anything, which may happen, however out of place or absurd; (6) it is subject to the principle of association of ideas and consequently images, unconnected except by the fact that they represent events, which happened near to one another in time. These are apt to be thrown together in inseparable confusion; (7) it is singularly sensitive to the slightest external influences, such as sounds or touches, and (8) it magnifies and distorts them to an extreme degree. The physical brain thus is capable of creating sufficient confusion and exaggeration to account for many, but by no means all, dream phenomena.
2. Etheric Brain Dreams. – The etheric brain is even more sensitive during the sleep of the body than it is during ordinary waking consciousness, to influences from outside. Whilst the mind is actively engaged, the brain thereby being fully employed, it is practically impervious to the continual impingement of thought from its environment. But the moment the brain is left idle, the stream of inconsequential chaos begins to pour through it. In the vast majority of people, the thoughts, which flow through their brains are in reality not their own thoughts at all, but fragments cast off by other people. Consequently, in sleep life especially, any passing thought, which finds something in agreement with itself in the brain of a sleeper, is seized upon by that brain and appropriated, thus starting a whole train of ideas. Eventually, these fade away and the disconnected, purposeless stream begins flowing through the brain again.
A point to notice is that, since in the present state of the world’s evolution, there are likely to be more evil thoughts than good ones floating around, a person with an uncontrolled brain is open to all sorts of temptation, which the possession of mind and brain control might have spared them. Even when these thought-currents are shut out, by the deliberate effort of another person, to stop impulses from reaching the etheric brain of a sleeper from outside, that brain does not remain completely passive but begins slowly and dreamily to evolve pictures for itself from its store of past memories.
3. Emotional Dreams -These are simply recollections in the physical brain of the life and activities of the emotional body during the sleep of the physical body, to which reference has already been made in the preceding discussions. In the case of a fairly well-developed person, the emotional body can travel without discomfort to considerable distances from its physical body. It can bring more or less definite impressions of places, which it may have visited, or of people whom it may have met. In every case, the emotional body, as already said, is intensely impressionable by any thought or suggestion involving desire or emotion, though the nature of the desires, which most readily awaken a response in it will, of course, depend on the development of the person and the purity or otherwise of their emotional body.
The emotional body is at all times susceptible to the influences of passing thought currents, and, when the mind is not actively controlling it, it is perpetually receiving these stimuli from its local environment and eagerly responding to them. During sleep, it is even more readily influenced. Consequently, a person who has, for example, entirely destroyed a physical desire, which they may previously have possessed for alcohol, so that in waking life they may even feel a definite repulsion for it, may still frequently dream that they are drinking and in that dream experience the pleasure of its influence. During the day, the desire of the emotional body would be under the control of the will, but when the emotional body is liberated in sleep, it escapes to some extent from the domination of the persona, and, responding probably to outside emotional influence, its old habit reasserts itself. This class of dream is probably common to many who are making definite attempts to bring their desire-nature under the control of the will.
It may also happen that a person may have been a drunkard in a past life and still possesses in their emotional body some matter drawn into their emotional envelope, by the vibrations caused in the permanent atom by the previous episodes of drunkenness. Although this matter is not vivified in this life, in dreams, the control of the persona being weak, the matter may respond to drink vibrations from the environment and the person dreams that they drink. Such dreams, once understood, need not cause distress: nevertheless, they should be regarded as a warning that there is still present the possibility of the drink-craving being re-awakened.
And finally;
4. Persona Dreams – Much as the nature of the emotional body changes as it develops, still greater is the change of the persona, ensheathed in the lower causal envelope, that it inhabits. In its early stages of development, when the emotional body is nothing but a floating wreath of mist, the persona is also almost as unconscious as its physical body, being blind to the influences of its own higher plane. Even if some idea belonging to it should manage to reach it, since it has little or no control over its lower body, it will be unable to impress the experience on the physical brain.
Sleepers may be at any stage of development, from that of complete oblivion up to that of full emotional consciousness. It must be recollected, as already said, that even though there may be many important experiences on the higher planes, the persona may nevertheless be unable to impress them upon the brain so that there is either no physical memory at all or only a confused memory.
The principal characteristics of the consciousness and experiences of the persona, whether or not they are remembered in the brain, are as follows: –
(1) The persona’s measure of time and space is so entirely different from that which it uses in waking life that it is almost as though neither time nor space existed for it. Many instances are known where in a few moments of time, as we measure it, the persona may have experiences, which appear to last for many years, event after event happening in full and circumstantial detail. (2) The persona possesses the faculty, or the habit, of instantaneous dramatisation. Thus a physical sound or a touch may reach the persona, not through the usual nerve mechanism, but directly, a fraction of a second before it even reaches the physical brain. That fraction of a second is sufficient for the persona to construct a kind of drama or series of scenes leading up to and culminating in the event, which awakens the physical body. The brain confuses the subjective dream and the objective event and therefore imagines itself to have actually lived through the events of the dream.
This habit, however, seems to be peculiar to the persona, which, so far as spirituality is concerned, is still comparatively undeveloped. As the persona develops its consciousness, it rises beyond these graceful sports of its childhood. The person who has attained continuous consciousness is so fully occupied with work on higher planes that they devote no energy to this dramatisation and consequently, this class of dream ceases for them.
(3) The persona possesses, to some extent, the faculty of pre-vision, being sometimes able to see in advance events, which are going to happen, or rather which may happen unless steps are taken to prevent them and to impress this fact on the physical brain. Many instances are recorded of such prophetic or warning dreams. In some cases the warning may be heeded, the necessary steps taken and the foreseen result either modified or entirely avoided. What is happening here does not make sense unless the good offices of your guardian angel are involved. Events in the future are probabilities that can be delineated by calculating the most likely outcome, based on complete knowledge of all the circumstances that may lead to that outcome. This is something an enlightened person can do and even then, not very well. You need the faculties possessed by a 2nd Self to stand a chance of predicting the future reasonably accurately. Even then, the timeline forward would be short.
Finally;
(4) The persona, when out of the body during sleep, appears to think in symbols: an idea, which down here would require many words to be expressed, is perfectly conveyed to it by a single symbolical image. Why symbols? Because we are dealing with causal thought, not mental thought when referencing the actions of the persona. If such a symbolic thought is impressed upon the brain and remembered in waking consciousness, the mind may itself translate it into words. On the other hand, it may come through merely as a symbol, un-translated and so may cause confusion. In dreams of this nature, it seems that each person usually has a system of symbology of their own. Thus water may signify approaching trouble: pearls may represent tears: and seven fat cows and seven thin ones represented to Jacob, seven years of plenty and seven of famine.
If a person wishes to have useful dreams, i.e., to be able to reap in their waking consciousness the benefit of what their persona may learn during sleep, there are certain steps they should take to bring about this result.
First, the person must form the habit of sustained and concentrated thought during ordinary waking life. A person who has absolute control of their thoughts will always know exactly what they are thinking about, and why. They will also find that the brain, trained to listen to the promptings of the persona, will remain quiescent when not in use and will decline to receive or respond to casual currents from the surrounding ocean of thought. The person will thus be more likely to receive influences from the higher planes, where insight is keener and judgment truer than they can ever be on the physical plane.
It should scarcely be necessary to add that the person should also be a complete master of at least their lower passions. By a very elementary act of magic, a person can shut out from their etheric brain, the rush of thoughts which impinge upon it from without. To this end, they should, when lying down to sleep, picture their aura and will strongly that its outer surface becomes a shell to protect themself from outside influences. The auric matter will obey the person’s thoughts and form the shell. This step is of appreciable value and achieves results.
The great importance of fixing the last thought, before falling to sleep, on high and noble things, has already been mentioned; it should be practised regularly by those who wish to bring their dreams under control.
Now to another related topic, the continuity of consciousness. Let us examine it in more detail in the next presentation.