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The interpretation of dreams is nothing other than the juxtaposition of similarities I dream often that I can fly. In my dreams I just imagine that I can ignore gravity. By just using the power of will I can fly a few meters above the ground. I can control the altitude by just using the will. I can move up down very easy. Why is this not possible also in reality? And is there any meaning in these dreams or are the neurons or whatever just “working in sleep” for whatever reason? Sometimes I know the reason of a particular dream. I can find causes for this.
In later antiquity Artemidorus of Daldis was regarded as the greatest authority on dream-interpretation ... Oneirology: derived from Oneiros (dream). The study of dreams. In the middle of the second century AD, Artemidorus of Daldis (Daldianus) ( ή Ονειροκριτικός ) in Asia Minor wrote Oneirocritica, a work (5 books) dedicated to the interpretation of dreams. The results were obtained from interviews with thousands of people about their dreams. Carl Jung interpreted around 80000 dreams in his entire life that leads to the question if there was any time left to do something else. While the work of Artemidorus has often been dismissed as mere divination, the careful study of dreams by modern psychiatrists has brought them back into the realm of scientific observation. What says Artemidorus about flying dreams? Book 2, Unit 68:
So I am a lucky man! I was flying in my dreams in an upright position, not like superman. I do not remember that I was flying very far above the earth, so I will not become a very important person or prosperous like Bill Gates. Maybe in the next dream I will try to fly at higher altitudes. Was Artemidorus thinking that if a person does not fly very far above the earth in his dreams is a sign that he is afraid to do so and and this is the reason that he will not be very successful in his life? Another interesting interpretation of dreams by Artemidorus is from Charles Stewarts paper, Repression in the Antiquity. Artemidorus explains why Caesar's dream of having sex with his mother means good fortune: "just as a man who follows the precepts of Aphrodite when he makes love completely governs the body of his obedient and willing partner, the dreamer will control all of the affairs of the city". According to Artemidorus there are 3 kinds of predictive and 2 kinds of non predictive dreams. The predictive dreams are: 1. The oneiros or somnium: an allegorical dream, which requires an interpretation of its symbols. 2. The horama or visio: the literal predictive dream, which shows the events just as they are going to happen. 3. The chrematismos or oraculum: an apparition of God or another person who foretells the future.
The nonpredictive dreams are: 1. enupnion or insomnium, a dream without predictive value. 2. phantasma or visum, a dream containing a frightening apparition. So I assume that in my case the dream of flying is an enupnion but sometimes I experience a phantasma. No predictive dream is known to me like Kekule's solution of the benzol molecule geometry. Why do I not have predictive dreams? Is this so bad? I consider what Aristotle has to say in his theory for precognitive dreams as he writes many other things about dreams for example:. Of all animals man is most given to dreaming. Children and infants do not dream, but in most cases dreaming comes on at the age of four or five years. History of Animals, Bk. 4, 537b
Sleeping Eros, Hellenistic sculpture How does Aristotle know this? I find also the following text: When something has moved a portion of water or air, and this in turn has moved another, then even when the initial impulse has ceased, it results in a similar sort of movement continuing up to a certain point, although the original mover is not present. In this way it is possible that some sort of movement and perception reaches the souls of dreamers, coming from the objects… and thus they (images and emanations) produce perception in the body because of sleep, people asleep being more sensitive to even slight internal movements that cause appearances (phantasmata) from which people have previsions of what is going to happen…on our account, one would expect it to be random subjects who have prevision. For the mind of such a person is not reflective, but is deserted, as it were, and completely vacant. Thus, once set in motion, it is led on according to the direction of its moving impulse. Aristotle This explains why precognition occurs more often to average rather than intellectual people. At least I am not disappointed that my dreams are not predictive. But is Aristotle's opinion true? It seems that Socrates had a predictive dream. One night in the year 407 B.C., Socrates had a dream. He saw a graceful white swan flying toward him with a melodious song trilling from its throat. The next morning Plato came to him and asked to become his pupil.
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