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by Andrew Scott

From the dawn of human civilisation human beings have been dreaming and they will continue to dream both good and bad dreams as long as they exist in this planet. There is no class, caste or language barrier for dreaming and neither is it confined to any group or special type of individual.

In fact dreaming is a sort of universal language but the interpretation of dreams differ from country to country and from individual to individual.

Many people are not at all bothered about what they dream but they merely dream because dreaming cannot be avoided by anyone neither is there any tried out antidote against it. Others believe that dreams bring to light true facts of the past or the future events in one's life. Specially the teenagers of both sexes dream to derive some sexual pleasure harboured in their minds.

Nevertheless dreams are very important in one's life because you can even talk with both the living and the dead in dreams. So dreams will worry you or bless you.

Also remember that dreams are not merely dreams. They can be true events of your past, present or future life and some dreams have spiritual connections. Dreaming is a natural phenomenon and any man, woman or child will continue to dream throughout their lives.

Specially in the East early kings consulted sages to interpret the dreams of their royalty and most of these dreams were concerned with future events.

What is dreaming? In general dreaming means to see visions or pictures on the mental screen of a sleeping person and the dictionary meaning of dreaming is "To have visions in sleep or a series of pictures or events in the mind of a sleeping person". These visions or images may be connected with human beings, events or places of the past or the future, material things or natural things of some special concern. Some dreams are of much prophetic value and they may be a warning about the death of the dreamer or one close to him or some other important message for the dreamer.

There are many theories both in the east and in the West about dreams and the most important of these is the psychological theory about dreams. According to this theory people dream about some ambition or desire being fulfilled in dreams of which one cannot fulfil in real life.

Everyone dreams but not all can interpret dreams and the hidden meaning of a dream. Therefore in the ancient times the responsibility of interpreting the dreams were given to sages or experts who were held in very high esteem.

During the ancient times kings, queens and leaders consulted their royal interpreters of dreams to analyse dreams. Specially in India and the East, including Sri Lanka, prophets used dreams to predict important events. Some people, specially the youth, get their desired sexual pleasure through the medium of dreams. Others meet their dead relatives in their dreams.

Everyone will dream as long as the world goes on and no one has the discretion to select the dreams he wishes to have.

Nevertheless dreams unfold the future, warns you about misfortune and they even warn you about your enemies and their activities.

Taken in a nutshell dreams tell you what has happened, what is happening and what will happen. Dreams mean different things to different people. Taken widely some of the areas they cover or predict is they tell us about the past and future events of one's life, confront you with your dear departed friends and relatives, give timely warnings about any disaster, give premonitions of the death of the dreamer, close relatives and intimate friends. We are aware that man by nature is ambitious but he cannot get everything he desires in his life.

So every person - man, woman and child dreams freely both during day and night and thereby gets some sort of psychological satisfaction. Dreaming has no age, caste or creed barriers and it is a sort of a universal language to all mankind.

Sometimes we see impossible things in our dreams such as flying in the air and jumping from unimaginable heights. It is interesting to note that Latin, Greek and Sinhala literature abound with descriptions of dreams and their interpretations and their prophetic values. In the great "Geeta" Lord Krishna mentions that if one could remember him even in dreams that he would come to his rescue in any disaster.

It is said that Guru Nanak Dev, a great saint, solved thousands of knotty problems through the prophetic powers acquired through dreams. The Bible has several references about the belief in dreams and it is said that Prophet Mohammed saw and learnt a major part of the holy Quran in dreams.

Napolean had dreamt about the famous victories and Shakespeare mentions about the prophetic powers of dreams in some of his works.

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