The Edgar Cayce Readings Approach to Dreams
Although it is true
that many of us do not make a conscious effort to remember
our dreams, everyone dreams. During the early part
of this century, while psychologists such as Sigmund Freud
and Carl Jung were demonstrating the clinical importance
of dreams, Edgar Cayce was providing average individuals
with guidelines for working with what has become one of
the most practical approaches to dreams. Hundreds of Cayce's
readings deal with the subject of dreams and dream interpretation.
Perhaps the most important insights gained from the wealth
of this material is the fact that each of us is aware of
much more-about ourselves, our physical bodies, our surroundings,
even our lifestyles-at subconscious levels than we realize
when we are awake.
In
the dream state we open our minds to many different levels
of our own unconscious. Not only are all of our previous
conscious experiences stored there, but it is also the storehouse
of resources which rarely come to conscious awareness. The
subconscious has remarkable talents for finding solutions
to problems. It houses all of our wishes, hopes, and memories
of past experiences, and can also assist us with self-examination,
providing practical guidance for any question. It even makes
it possible for us to have psychic experiences.
Dreams can diagnose
the causes of our physical ailments, point out the thoughts
and emotions that we've tried to overlook, and often make
suggestions for improving our relationships with others. While
dreaming, we can gain awareness about our entire being: physically,
mentally, and spiritually.
It was Jung,
a Swiss psychiatrist and contemporary of Edgar Cayce's, who
found convincing evidence for a deep level to the unconscious
mind. This profound depth, Jung felt, came from a genuine
spiritual reality that hadn't been acknowledged by Freud.
Jung called this level the "collective unconscious." Here
all minds could communicate through the use of universal symbols
- images which seem to have a common meaning among people
all over the world. For example, a symbol such as a lion or
a great cat has a universal or archetypal meaning of power
and vitality. Birds frequently symbolize various kinds of
love or concern; water is often suggestive of the Spirit itself.
An old woman or an old man or a grandfatherly figure can symbolize
our own "Higher Self' or our own internal wisdom. Myths or
fairy tales often have similarities among cultures, and these
similarities are shown through their universal symbols and
themes. Sometimes our own dreams may contain these kinds of
symbols.
Of course,
not all the symbols and Images in our dreams represent the
universal or archetypal. Many, if not most, are best interpreted
by discovering the personal associations one has with that
person or object. The dream symbol of a rifle, for example,
would likely mean one thing to a
gunsmith and something quite different to a victim of war.
There is really
no such thing as a 'bad" dream because all dreams have the
potential of helping the dreamer. Dreams of disastrous events
may simply be advice to us to change our diets or our attitudes,
or they may be emotional releases from the various situations
In our lives. They can become invaluable tools in instruction
and guidance if we would only begin to work
with them.
For
example, one person who dreamed of a headless man in uniform
was told in his Cayce reading that instead of losing his head
over his duties by following the letter of the law and getting
too caught up in his job, there was a greater lesson to be learned
by following the spirit. A person who dreamed of a wild man
running through the streets, shouting, and causing a great deal
of trouble was told that the dream was advice for him to control
his temper. One woman dreamed that a friend of hers was speaking
to her. She noticed that the woman had beautiful false teeth
of different shapes - but every other tooth had the appearance
of pure gold. She was told that the gold teeth represented the
spiritual truths of which she herself was often speaking, but
they were false because she hadn't applied in her own life what
she had been preaching. Another woman dreamed that her mother-who
had died-was alive and happy. Cayce assured her that she was
not trying to fool herself, that her mother
was indeed alive and happy: "... for there is no death, only
the transition from the physical to the spiritual
plane." (136-33)
In
trying to arrive at a dream interpretation, one possibility
to consider is that the dream is largely literal. For example,
seeing ourselves eat a salad in a dream may indicate the need
for change in our diets to incorporate more salads. We may dream
of someone we have not seen or heard from in a very long while,
and then meet that person a short time later. In other cases,
the action may be more symbolic of what is happening in waking
life. Dreaming about different roomswhich we haven't yet explored
could be pointing to the unopened doors of our own personality.
A car often symbolizes our physical body and the need to make
a change or correct a physical condition.
On
the other hand, dreams of birth and death are often more symbolic,
as they point to new beginnings and perhaps the end of doing
something the old way.
In other words a dream "death" is often the
death of a part of our personality. For example, a woman who
dreams of attending the funeral of her minister's wife may
be allowing the spiritual aspects of her own life to be overlooked
or "laid to rest." Dreams of being pregnant or taking care
of a small child who really doesn't exist in the waking state
isn't necessarily a prediction. The dream could merely be
pointing out a new condition which will be coming our way
or a new idea to which we will soon give birth.
When dreams
give guidance or seem to pass judgments, it is usually in
response to values and ideals we have previously set for ourselves.
Most dreams can be seen as a kind of comparison (Cayce used
the word "correlation"). While we sleep, a comparison is made
between recent actions and the inner values we hold. For example,
one woman was advised for health reasons to avoid eating chocolate,
and yet she continued to eat it anyway. She had a dream in
which she was crossing the border into
Mexico illegally for the purpose of buying chocolate. Obviously,
she would be the best one to determine that her dream was
simply pointing out she was doing something she had been told
not to do; at one level, she knew it was "illegal."
Scientific
studies have shown that each of us dreams, but not all of us
remember. If we'd like to try working with our dreams, we need
to begin by keeping a note pad by the
bedside so that we can jot down whatever we remember immediately
after waking up-even if it's only a feeling. If we get enough
sleep, if we expect to start remembering our dreams, and if
we make an effort to record whatever is on our minds when we
first wake up, we should be able to start remembering our dreams
in a relatively short period of time. As we look at what's going
on in our lives and then look at a particular dream, we'll begin
to have an idea of what individual symbols may mean to us-especially
if the symbol repeats itself in later dreams. The symbol won't
necessarily mean the same to us as to someone else because dreams
are as individual as dreamers.
There is a simple five-step approach
to working with dreams that even the novice can begin using
immediately: Write down your dreams each
day. Begin by realizing that the
feeling you had about the dream is at least as important
as trying to come up with one interpretation; besides, because
of the multiple levels of our own beings, dreams generally have
more than one meaning.
Remember that-for the most part-every
character in the dream represents a part of yourself. Watch
the actions, feelings, expressions, and conversations of these
characters in your dreams and measure them against the activities
in your waking life.
Watch for reoccurring symbols,
characters, and emotions in your dreams, and begin a personal
"dream dictionary" of these symbols and what their importance
is to you.
When working with dreams, remember,
first of all, that your dreams can be extremely helpful even
if you don't recognize immediately what they mean; and, secondly,
remember to practice, practice, practice!
Essentially
the purpose of dreams is to make us more consciously aware of
what we are going through in our lives based on our thoughts,
feelings, and actions. They can show us the desires that are
motivating us and help us sense the needs of our bodies. They
can provide insights for living life more creatively and assist
us in making important decisions based on what we already know
at a conscious level. For example, dreams may give us guidance
on helping to heal a relationship, but only if we've already
tried to do the best we can with that person. When we set our
sights and make the decisions that are called for, then they
will aid us by bringing life into clearer focus. Working with
our dreams can be like speaking with a trusted friend who knows
everything about us and is just there for us to discuss what's
going on in our lives. Most of the time, the friend will just
listen, but in the listening we can begin to find answers within
our own self. The answers have been there all the time; we just
never knew how to look for them.
Adapted from An Overview
of the Edgar Cayce Material by Kevin J. Todeschi
Edgar Cayce Books
