A Reflection about Dreams: April
28, 2024
Unitarian
Universalist Congregation. of the Outer Banks. Thomas
E Wilson, Guest Speaker
Listening with the Universe
Scripture Lessons for reflection:
Ezekiel.
Chapter 37: 1-14
Some
time later, I felt the Lord's power take control of me, and his
Spirit carried me to a valley full of bones. The Lord showed me
all around, and everywhere I looked I saw bones that were dried out.
He said, “Ezekiel, son of man, can these bones come back to life?”
I replied, “Lord God, only you can answer that.”
He
then told me to say: Dry bones, listen to what the Lord is
saying to you, “I, the Lord God, will put breath in you, and
once again you will live. I will wrap you with muscles and skin and
breathe life into you. Then you will know that I am the Lord.”
I
did what the Lord said, but before I finished speaking, I heard
a rattling noise. The bones were coming together! I saw muscles and
skin cover the bones, but they had no life in them.
The
Lord said: Ezekiel, now say to the wind, “The Lord God
commands you to blow from every direction and to breathe life into
these dead bodies, so they can live again.”
As
soon as I said this, the wind blew among the bodies, and they came
back to life! They all stood up, and there were enough to make a
large army.
The
Lord said: Ezekiel, the people of Israel are like dead bones.
They complain that they are dried up and that they have no hope for
the future. So tell them, “I, the Lord God, promise to open
your graves and set you free. I will bring you back to Israel, and
when that happens, you will realize that I am the Lord. My Spirit
will give you breath, and you will live again. I will bring you home,
and you will know that I have kept my promise. I, the Lord, have
spoken.
AND
Revelation
22: 1-5
Then
the angel showed me a river of the water of life, as clear as
crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the
middle of the main street of the city. On either side of the river
stood a tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit and yielding a
fresh crop for each month. And the leaves of the tree are for the
healing of the nations.No longer will there be any curse. The throne
of God and of the Lamb will be within the city, and His servants will
worship Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on their
foreheads. There will be no more night in the city, and they will
have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun. For the Lord God
will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.
AND
[Remember,
O Muhammad], when Allah showed them to you in your dream as few; and
if He had shown them to you as many, you [believers] would have lost
courage and would have disputed in the matter [of whether to fight],
but Allah saved [you from that]. Indeed, He is Knowing of that within
the breasts. [Quran,
8:43]
Our language is full
of signs, symbols and images For instance: when you see the Letters
“MD” that is a sign that the name attached is a Doctor of
Medicine. I have as part of my identification the Letters for M.Div.
“Master of Divinity”. Can you imagine any other title so absurd
to prance around and proclaim the absurd notion that “I AM A Master
of Divinity!”, as if the Divine is my pet. It actually means that I
am a religious person who studied theology- “Theo”, Greek word
for God and “Logos” Greek word for words and passed the
courses. M.D. and M.DIV. , are signs that help you to know that if
you want to talk about God or the subtle differences between
Unitarians and Universalistes, most MD's will not be able to help
you. If you want to talk about Kidney Problems you are not going to
be helped much by a M. Div.
Images are pictures
that refer to something beyond itself; and you can know what it
means if you know what the image means. For instance the image of a
Capital U which has the Capital Letter S superimposed on the U with
the bottom of the U erased mans we ware referring to a matter of
currency in the United States, it is a image denoting a value.
“Signs“ and
“Images “are not symbols for they only denote the objects to
which they attached
Symbols are terms,
names, or even pictures that may be familiar in daily life, yet
which possesses meaning, unconscious or preconscious meaning, and
refers to something that has a variety beyond simple explanation. For
instance X is a letter in the alphabet. But is also can be used as “X
makes the spot”, or meaning an unknown whose meaning or value needs
to be derived, or denoting a thing of value. If you tip the X 90
degrees then is becomes a cross, a meeting; a vertical and horizontal
, originally separate from each other, but by its intersection is
held in dynamic tension.
The Christian faith
took the cross as its symbol; it can mean the cross on which it's
hero died, or it can refer to the dynamic of the human and divine
held in dynamic tension, or it can mean a meeting place if it is put
on a building, of it can mean the middle of a target, or it can mean
a burden you have to carry because of your own unworthiness or your
holiness. Symbols are signs that have multiple meanings and symbols
are the pre-conscious and unconscious center of understanding dreams.
Dreams are gifts
given to each of us to try to figure out what is going on in our
lives. Many religious traditions see meaning in dreams; Joseph
Campbell said. “Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths”
Some faiths dismiss dreams; for instance the Buddha does not dream
because the Buddha is the Awake One and does not sleep. For
Buddhists, dreams are filled with images that are empty and false,
BUT if properly understood, as Buddhist teacher Sangharakshita said:
“If you want to really know yourself, pay attention to your
dreams.” In tension, is the Rev. Heng Sure, a
Buddhist Monk who relates
“Perhaps
the Buddhist approach to dreams is identical with the path to
understanding the purpose of waking life: transforming ignorance by
the brilliant sword of Prajna wisdom. We must wake up from our “dream
within a dream,” before we can know that we are actually sleeping
through our lives. After awakening there is no need to dream any
longer.
Jewish and
Christians understanding of their faith puts a lot of energy and
witness to see God speaking through dreams as interpretations for
the past, present and future. St. Augustine saw dreams as a preview
of the afterlife where the soul separates fro the body.
In the three lessons
we had for today, We see the readers of the Abrahamic Holy Books
seeing dreams from their God as giving them strength in the days to
come. The Ezekiel story is about having hope in the middle of what
seems like an impossible situation. The Jewish people kept the dream
story because they saw their People come back from exile. The
Reading from the Quran is a time when Muhammad had a dream that his
band would be able to crush what they thought was a smaller foe.
However, the opposing army was much larger; but they attributed the
dream to giving them so much energy that when the larger army showed
up, the Prophet's army had so much energy that they did the
impossible. They acknowledge if they had been filled with fear, they
would have lost. The reading from the Book of Revelation relates a
dream that there is a future that they are moving forward towards.
All three of the lessons are the same dream motif as the Rev. Dr.
Luther King's “I Have A Dream Speech” relying on the arc of
Divine Justice.
Carl Gustav Jung, a
Swiss Psychologist, a friend and then a critic of Sigmund Friend,
practiced in the late 19th to the middle of the of the 20th
century. Freud believed that dreams were ways of dealing with
problems and wish fulfillment. For instance if you are a boy and
want to marry a girl just like the girl that married dear old dad,
that speaks to some issues that may need to address if you want to
grow up or at least get rid of incestuous thoughts and penis envy.
Freud believed that girls did not have that kind of relationships
with their father, only boys. Freud was about how we learn to grow up
and become adults taking our roles seriously and unconscious thoughts
need to be exposed as fantasies. Dreams in Freud's view were secrets
meant to be kept secret unless shared with a therapist.
Jung believed that
we humans were like ships sailing on an ocean of unconscious and
pre-conscious material. The task is how we are able to sail using
this material for a richer life. Dreams form a great deal of that
material, and coming to creative interaction with these elements make
for good sailing through life. He wrote:
“The art of
interpreting dreams cannot be learnt from books.
Methods and rules
are good only when we can get along without them.
Only the man (sic.,
he was a product of his time as well) who can do it anyway has real
skill, only the man of understanding really understands.
No one who does not
know himself can know others.
And in each of us
there is another whom we do not know.
He speaks to us in
dreams and tells us how differently he sees us from the way we see
ourselves.
When, therefore, we
find ourselves in a difficult situation to which there is no
solution, he can sometimes kindle a light that radically alters our
attitude—the very attitude that led us into the difficult
situation”. ~Carl Jung, CW 10, Page 325.
Dreams needed to be
paid attention to:
“We also live in
our dreams, we do not live only by day. Sometimes we accomplish our
greatest deeds in dreams.. . . It is only in modern times that the
dream, this fleeting and insignificant looking product of the
Psyche, has met with profound contempt.
Formerly it had been
esteemed as a harbinger of Fate, a portent and comforter, a
messenger from the Gods. Now we see it as an emissary of the
unconscious, whose task it is to reveal the secrets that are hidden
from the conscious mind, and that is done with astounding
completeness.”
Jung quotes
Aeschylus; “When we sleep the soul is lit up completely by many
eyes: with them we can see everything that we could not see in the
daytime.” By this the dream is being regarded as a truth telling
oracle.
Jung says: “The
unconscious is the dark within that our conscious eyes do not
perceive . . . We only become aware of this unheard hearing, the
unseen seeing; when the unconscious send us there unconscious images
in dreams.”
If
you have time I would suggest that you take 17 minutes and watch a
good introduction into Jungian thought about dreams by going on line
and view “Carl
Jung And The Psychology of Dream – Messages from the Unconscious”
https://carljungdepthpsychologysite.blog/2022/05/08/dreams-cannot-be/
Until I met Pat, my
view of dreams were not to be shared with other people unless you
were in therapy, because they were often strange. She had this habit
of being open with me. I was a Priest and I limited the number of
people with whom I was open. She was involved in several Spiritual
Growth experiences but I would go off on silent retreats. I had been
a therapist and had listened to to many people tell me what was going
on in their lives. Sometimes, some one would want to share a dream; I
would listen and then I would ask; “Thank you but can you tell me
what your dream is saying about your real life”. Often it meant to
them that the person, “she” for men had not shared any dreams
with me, would say it had to do with how unhappy she was.
Pat had been
involved in several spiritual growth groups and she heard about the
Haden Dream Work Conference. She dragged me with her, and she and I
got hooked at sharing dreams with each other. I trusted her enough to
share. We went to the Group Dream Work Leader Training that went on
for two years. The first book we used was Bob Haden's book “Unopened
Letters From God.” Bob, an Episcopal Priest and Spiritual Director,
said that God was sending letters every night to us in the form of
dreams and one of the ways to grow spirituality is to open those
dreams to see what God might be saying to us. We considered Bob a
friend and he died about a year ago, two months before Pat died.
Half way through our training, we put together Dream groups at the
churches I served. Pat did a Women's group and I did a men's group.
In our training there were almost as many men as there were women.
She was a perfect leader. I had to deal with men. Women share their
dreams in non judgmental ways, which was the plan. Without women to
break up the free-floating testosterone in the room, I had men who
wanted to have the “Right” answer on what the dream meant. Her
women listened and shared and my men competed, on who had the biggest
. . . and best . . . idea. I got tired of that, but Pat and I could
share with each other.
When Pat got sick,
she no longer had the energy to go to the meetings and when she died,
I was asked if I could take her place. I have had to relearn that I
was no longer a therapist and fix “people”, in this situation, I
could only help the group by listening and sharing. Like Pat would
have done.
In the group,
members bring the dreams that they wish to share. The way the meeting
would go is we would start off with how things are doing in their
life since we last met. “All may, some should, none must”. Then
we would randomly find out who would share, and if we had time who
else would share. If a person had a dream , we would ask them the
title of the dream, like “A Salami Sandwich left too long in the
refrigerator”, We would vote on who would go first to make sure no
one person dominates. The person would turn her back, to avoid eye
contact. She would read, or tell the story she had written down in
her dream book. The group would listen in silence, they would be
free to take notes. After the telling, we would thank her for sharing
– sharing is a gift not an obligation.. The group would ask
questions for clarification like: “What color, or model. was the
car ?” “Is this person connected to you in any way” “Tell me
about the roadway.” and the group would thank her. They were not
to analyzing the dream. Then the person would read the dream again.
Then, the person would be asked if we could share the dream with the
members; meaning that each member of the group could share, if they
wished- “all may, some should, none must” that if the dream had
been their dream; this is the message I would have heard. The dream
remains her dream, all the other members of the group are offered the
opportunity that if it were their dream, this is what they would
understand as a message. The person is thanked for sharing; the
person would turn back their to the group and if she wants to, she
can share some insights she got through the group's understanding.
“All may, some should, none must.”
There is no one
“correct” answer, there is only the sharing with people who
promise to listen with each other. This is not therapy; it is a
community of care. I see it as what a church is meant to be; a called
out assembly, gathered together, who are aware of the sacred space
between them.
People tell me that
they have a hard time remembering their dreams. The biggest problem
is that the first thing we tend to do when we awaken is to open our
eyes and think about all the damn stuff that needs to be done today.
One way around that, is to think about writing or recording a few
words about the dream you had before you start planning the day. Take
care of the night first - before you go blundering into the day..
Give it a title as a memory help to fill in. My problem right now is
that when I wake up, I notice that Pat is not in the bed with me and
I start mourning again and feeling sorry for myself by throwing a
pity party. Pat would have hated that. I need to wake up facing a
note book. Many of the dreams I could remember in this time was in
the dream to have someone else in the bed with me. Those dreams
usually ended disastrously for me as the dream me. Dreams are not
morals police; dreams are here for our healing and they use images
that get us to pay attention. I believe it was my spirit warning me
that my healing is going to take time; there are no shortcuts.
How you do your
dreams is up to you. “All may, some should, none must!”
