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According to the Indian Philosophy, the natural manifestation of life is reflected in the normal human consciousness in three states –– waking, dreaming, and dreamless. This view encompasses wider and deeper dimensions of dreams as compared to the theories and models of the modern sciences and schools of psychology. The latter largely describe dreams as combined reflections of – bodily experiences, hidden or suppressed desires, or subconscious impressions of illusive and haphazard thoughts. The Indian scriptures mention a great deal about the super-conscious and spiritual domains of dreams. It is argued here that the supernormal powers of the unconscious and subtler cores of mind make possible the extrasensory perception of transcendental knowledge and the communication with the subliminal world. Research on the science of dreams affirms the validity of both the views.

As might have been experienced by most of us, quite often dreams could be mere reflections of the instability of mind or of the bodily activities. Often the cause of disturbed sleep –– because of too many dreams –– is found to lie in perturbed mental or physical health. Many a times we get the subconscious perceptions of what is happening around us as an associated experience in dream. For instance, sometimes if someone is playing music at some distance when we are asleep, we might dream something associated with a musical instrument; even the noise of kitchen utensils or the ring of a telephone may sometimes sound like loud music to us in the dreams. Such dreams are short-lived and often experienced in disturbed sleep. Usually, the continuity of sleep is broken with such dreams. But one might feel as though the incident (dreamt) had lasted for a few hours.

The authentically reported instances of experiencing premonition, clairvoyance and mental telepathy through dreams may not be as large as the above kinds of ‘every day dreams’. However, proportion of the higher level dreams is significant enough to draw the attention of the researchers as well as the common curiosity of people. We shall review a few of these live-examples.

The political opponents – especially the white fundamentalists - had planned the assassination of the then American President Abraham Lincoln because the latter was a strong proponent of the emancipation and development of the Blacks – the slaves. Exactly two days before the success of the heinous scandal of the fundamentalists, the president’s wife had dreamt that somebody had murdered her husband in a theater. She had tried her level best to cancel the president’s scheduled visit to a theater that week but she could not dissuade him.  The world knows that President Lincoln was assassinated (by an actor on the stage) in the theater when he was watching a play. Incidentally, he too had seen his own corpse in a dream just four days before and had also discussed it with friends. The precognitive dreams of the Lincoln couple are considered significant by the historians of their ultra –scientific country.

The impact of intensive dreams could sometimes be so deep that it might inspire transmutation of ordinary personalities into exceptionally virtuous ones overnight. On the other extreme, it might trigger people to commit what could be termed as heinous acts. The inhuman crimes of assassinations of President Roosevelt and President McKinley are historical examples of the negative impacts of violent dreams. The killers in both the cases are said to have gained direction from the dreams.

Another amazing incident of the reality of dreams is reported in the old records of a British District Court. In the first decade of the 19th century, there used to be a hotel owned by Mr. Ascher in Portlio town of Ireland. All the tourists (traders) from the nearby villages and port used to lodge in this hotel.

One night, Ascher’s wife dreamt that, two men in sailors’ guise came to their hotel in the evening. They had a sumptuous meal and went along the road to the Karic village. Thick trees and shrubs surrounded this road and there was no habitation around. Suddenly, one of the strangers attacked and killed the other after walking some distance and buried the victim’s body in a ditch beneath the shrubs. The dream was over by now. The image of this dream was vividly clear in Mrs. Ascher’s mind and she narrated it to her husband.  Ascher paid no attention to her story. Late in the afternoon, she was stunned to see that two of the visitors who had just entered the hotel were the same fellows whom she had seen in the dream last night.  She brought this to Ascher’s attention. Nothing significant happened. The two chaps had gone back in the evening. The hotelier had forgotten about them in his busy routine. But, his wife could not.

After a couple of months, Ascher’s wife heard someone talking in the hotel that a man from such and such village had suddenly disappeared from such and such date; his family had tried hard to find his whereabouts but there was no clue.  The date and the name of the village sounded familiar to her. Yes! It was the same day when the ‘mysterious visitors’ of her dream had lodged there and gone towards that particular village. This time she forced her husband to report about her dream and the visit of those two ‘sailors’ in the office of the local magistrate. The police investigated the case on the basis of her statement. The dead body of the missing man was found at the spot shown by her. The killer too was identified; he confessed his crime and was sentenced to death by the court. Thus a dream proved to be an important ‘witness’ for a criminal case.

It happened in May 1966, when one Mr. Hukumchand of Barusagar, Jhansi (India) had gone to Mathura in connection with the publicity of a charity school named “Parshwanath Digambar Jain Vidyalaya”. One evening during his sojourn at Mathura, a snake had bitten him when he was strolling in the Gandhi Park there. Onlookers took him to the Ramkrishna Mission hospital in Vrindavan. One night, in the hospital, he dreamt that a saintly man with a white beard had taken him to a nearby village and asked him to unearth the idol of the Jain Teerthankar Parshwanath at a particular place. Driven by his religious faith and natural curiosity, Mr. Hukumchand did go to the indicated spot soon after he was discharged from the hospital. He also arranged for the digging operation with the permission of the local collector. A majestic idol of Parshwanath was found after three days.

The idol was made of gold and jasper (touchstone), worth Rs 1,25000 at that time – in 1962. This was handed over to the Archeology Department, Mathura. As such, there may occur some fraud cases where ‘self-styled’ swamis may hide an idol beneath earth’s surface and later on claim to have seen an idol at such and such place in a premonitory dream. However, they won’t generally hide it so deep, nor could one risk using such an expensive idol for this purpose. Most importantly, a fraudulent person would not hand-over such a rare piece of art to the archeologists so easily. Mr. Hukumchand’s integrity stands beyond question in this respect. The idol found by him was consecrated in the local Jain temple where it is still worshiped and stands as a testimony of the hidden realities reflected through dreams.

The following incident was reported in a Marathi magazine entitled   “Purushartha” –– Dr. S. S. Azgaonkar was a renowned ophthalmologist of Bombay. His wife, Lalithabai died in 1952 on the auspicious day of Vat Purnima.  She was pretty old, still she was observing a fast on that day as she had been doing every year since her marriage. A day after her demise, her brother Mr. R.G. Sawant, who was an advocate in Bombay, saw her at the doorstep of his house. He was a bit shocked but brushed it aside as an illusory reflection.  A couple of months passed. Then Lalitabai appeared in the dream of Mrs. Sawant and said –– “Go to the doctor and have a check up. You are pregnant! I will be (re)born from your womb as a baby girl. Please call me as “Lalita” in this birth too.”

Mrs. Sawant was nearly 40 years of age at that time. She had no child and there was no hope left, as several gynecologists had declared that because of some defect in the uterus she could not deliver a baby. However, because of her late sister-in-law’s instructions in the dream, she insisted her husband to take her to their family doctor. The doctor was stunned to see the new development.  Her uterus was now perfectly suitable for its natural purpose. Not only that, she was pregnant too! In due course, Mrs. Sawant gave birth to a baby girl, and, as per her latent desire (conveyed in the dream) this child was named “Lalitabai”.

Incidents narrated above are of special interest to the Indian people. The illiterate villagers may not understand the philosophical deliberations on religion, but they do discuss and infer the implications of dreams with great confidence.  Their sincere faith is often exploited by the so-called experts of esoteric knowledge who claim to foretell the fate of innocent ones by deciphering the latter’s dreams in an arbitrary manner as per the requirements of smooth running of their ‘business’ of astrology.

The extremes of blind faith in dreams as “messages from the other world”, on the one hand, and narrow interpretations of dreams as “expressions of mental complexity and unfulfilled sensual desires” on the other, have impeded a true scientific research on dreams. In view of the subliminal nature of the unconscious mind, it would be desirable to review the ancient science of spirituality for in-depth research on the genesis of dreams. 

The Indian scriptures illuminate deeper knowledge on the eternal relationship between the soul, the mind and the omnipresent consciousness and describe dreams as the expressions and mode of subtle linkage between them.

The Kathopanishda states ––

Swapnantah Jagaritantah Chobhau Yenanupashyanti ||
Mahanta® Vibhumatmanam Matwa Dharo Na SHocati   ||2||1||4||

Meaning: That, which sees the dream like the vision of an awakened state, is the omnipresent soul. The wise men, who know its secret, overcome all worries and ignorance. 

The state of dreaming is described as one of the four natural states of the existence and expression of the individual consciousness. In the waking state, we receive information and knowledge with the help of our sense organs. However, this knowledge is incomplete because of the limited range of perception of these bodily sensors.  For example, our ears can listen to only the sounds falling in the small range of audible frequencies. The domain of vision of eyes is limited too. During the state of dreaming, the individual consciousness manifests itself in the subtle body (the inner core of the mental sheath).  The unconscious mind is for the subtle body, what the conscious mind is for the physical body. It can ‘perceive’ knowledge from anywhere in the limitless expansion of the cosmos and within and beyond the barriers of time, because of its extrasensory existence. It can be linked with the cosmic consciousness and receive transcendental signals. However, how efficiently this supernatural power of the mind could be expressed and used via dreams depends upon its inner strength and spiritual radiance. The latter is augmented with the piety and serene depth of thoughts, sentiments and conduct.   

No image could be clearly seen in a stained mirror. The same is true about the reflections of dreams in the mirror of human mind. Because of the intimate relationship between the body and the mind, the lethargic or unhealthy state of the body, or its erogenous stimulation etc, also blur and darken the sensitive ‘screen’ of mind. This results in disturbed, vague or obscene dreams. It is a pity that majority of the people –– the ignoramus as well as the bright or sagacious ones, do not care for sentimental refinement and righteous orientation of thoughts.

Moreover, the extrovert attitude, frequent excitations and depressions of mood, excessive attachment, uncontrolled lust, etc disturb the natural stability, vitality, trenchancy and harmony of mental activities. As a consequence, almost 90% of the dreams appear to be blurred on an average and cannot be retraced by people’s memory in general.  The rest (10%) are usually vague imaginations of the subconscious mind or reflections of the intra- body conditions and suppressed emotions.

We may recall that pure, honest and saintly minds are more likely to be charged by the spiritual force of the soul. Vision of the depth of life and its transcendental realities and realization of its divine realms becomes possible through the dreams appearing in such enlightened minds.

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