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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books 180 Questions Enquiries About Islam Volume Two: Various issues What is the Reality of Dreams?

================================== It is necessary that we discuss, in a concise manner, the various opinions that have been propounded in connection with this subject: There have been numerous interpretations about the reality of the dreams which can be categorized into two categories: Materialistic Interpretation Spiritual Interpretation The materialists say there could be several causes of dreams: It is possible that dreams are a direct consequence of the daily acts of man; i.e.

whatever has transpired with man over past days becomes embodied for him in his thoughts, whilst he sleeps. Possibly, a series of unfulfilled desires become a reason for witnessing dreams - a thirsty person observes water in his dreams, and a person awaiting someone, who has gone on a journey, dreams that he has arrived.

(From ancient times, it has been said that a camel witnesses cottonseed in its dreams!) It is likely that fear of something causes man to dream about it; it has been repeatedly observed that those who possess fear of thieves witness them in their dreams.

Freud and the followers of his ideology have presented another material explanation for dreams: In the course of a detailed introduction they define dreams as being the gratification of repressed tendencies which, with alterations, creep into the arena of self-consciousness, to deceive the “I” within man.

Explanation: After accepting the fact that the human mind is comprised of two parts: The self-conscious part (that, which is associated with the day-to-day thoughts, voluntary knowledge and the freedom of choice of man) and the sub-conscious part (that, which is concealed within the inner-self as an unfulfilled tendency and inclination), they go on to state: It frequently happens that in the state of sleep, when the 'self-conscious' apparatus has shut down, the inclinations and tendencies which we have been unable to gratify due to certain reasons and which have accumulated in our inner-self turn to the sub-conscious in order to achieve a kind of fictitious and imaginary gratification.

At times this is reflected without any change (like an aficionado, who witnesses his beloved, whom he has lost, in his dreams), while at other times there occurs a change in form which is reflected in appropriate appearances, in which case there arises the need for interpretation (of the dreams).