It is argued by the Materialist, with some degree of strength,
that the healthy man does not dream, This is, perhaps, true, in a way,
but the whole man comprises the past, present, and future. The past
and future always embrace more of the conditions that surround him than
the present. The present is only the acute stage, while the chronic stage,
considered from a personal view, is the past and future combined.
Man cannot eliminate entirely these states from himself, for, while they
are past and future to the personal mind, they are ever present
to the higher subjective senses; he is, therefore, never in perfect
health unless these states are in harmony with the present.
The personal self, in a normal state, cannot free itself from the past
or from the anxieties of the future.
The reader should ever keep before his mind the fact that no man
ever had the same dream twice. He may have had very similar dreams,
but some detail will be missing. Nature seems to abhor duplicates.
You could no more find two dreams alike than you could find facsimiles
in two blades of grass. A man cannot live two days exactly alike.
Different influences and passions will possess him. Consequently, no two
dreams can be had under exactly the same influences. Stereotypes are
peculiarly the invention of man and not of God or nature.
Since it is impossible to find a man twice in exactly the same
mental state, it is equally impossible for him to dream the same
dream twice; therefore, it is only possible to approximate
dream interpretation by classing them into families.
This I have attempted to do in a more comprehensive way than
other writers who have preceded me.
All men are acquainted with health and sickness, love and hate,
success and failure. Sickness, hate and failure belong to kindred families,
and often ally their forces in such a way that it is hard to say whether
the dreamer will fail in love, health or some business undertaking.
But at all times a bad symbol is a warning of evil, though that evil may
be minimized or exaggerated, or _vice versa_, according as signs are good.
Thus, if the dream symbol indicates wealth or fortune to the peasant,
his waking life may be gladdened by receiving or seeing a fifty-cent piece,
or finding assuring work, while the same symbol to a wealthy man would
mean many dollars, or a favorable turn in affairs.
It is the same in physical life. A man may hear the sound of a wagon.
He cannot determine by the rattle of the wheels whether it is laden
with laundry, groceries or dry goods. He may judge as to its size
and whether it is bearing a heavy or a light burden. When it
objectifies he will be able to know its full import and not before.
So with dream symbols. We may know they are fraught with evil or good,
as in the case of Pilate's wife, but we cannot tell their full meaning
until their reflections materialize before the objective sense.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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