Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted; Or, What's in a Dream: A Scientific and Practical Exposition — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted; Or, What's in a Dream: A Scientific and Practical Exposition
John Stuart Mill · en
We do not claim that this book will prove an interpreter of all dreams,
or that the keys disclosed will open to you all the mysteries of the future,
or even all those surrounding your own personality, but by studying
the definitions and the plane upon which they were written, you will be able,
through the power of your own spirit, to interpret your own dreams.
The combination of dream and dream influences are as infinite as the stars,
or the combination of thought and number. They can only be classed
and considered as such. They cannot be analyzed in detail or as a whole.
In mathematics we have nine digits from which an infinite variety
of combinations may be formed and solved by the deduction of the mind.
Through them we may measure time, space, quality and quantity.
The symbol o and I exist by reason of _no thing_ and _some
thing_ or death and life. The figure one is subject to
illimitable expansion. It is without beginning in the infinite
of number, as God is without beginning in the infinite of being.
As with the vegetable kingdom, the tiny seed or acorn silently
working its magical transformation into a plant or tree,
and directing its destiny with marvelous intelligence
through the torrid and frigid vicissitudes of the seasons;
so is man without beginning in the infinitude of his own
being or microcosm. Man is both a type and antitype.
A type of what pre-existed in the imagination of the world, and an
antitype of a future life yet to manifest itself on another plane
where the incidents of the one will be subjective, as the events
occurring in infancy or in other planes are now subjective.
His dreams, thoughts and actions, and the influences that
produce them and their multiplying combination, cannot be
numbered or reproduced any more than you can number the leaves
of the forest, or find two exactly similar units among them.
Thus the full meaning or interpretation of dreams cannot be fully
demonstrated through mental or even spiritual stereotypes.
But by the intelligent use of this book you will be able to trace
out almost any dream combination and arrive at the true nature
of its portent.
A wise doctor, in preparing medicine for a patient,
considers well his age, temperament and his present condition.
So should the interpreter of dreams ponder well the mental state,
the health, habits and temperament of the dreamer.
These things no one can know so well as the dreamer himself.
He, therefore, with the aid of this book, will be able to interpret
his dreams by the light that is in him.