Sleep and Dreams: A Bridge to the Spirit : Selected Talks, 1910-1924What are Dreams? Every age, every culture, perhaps every person, have different answers. We can at least agree on one thing, however: dreams are other. Their presence in our lives demonstrates that we are not limited to a single mode of consciousness. The world of sleep is largely a blank for us, an abyss of non-consciousness, yawning between one day and the next, but the very fact that we can dream announces our potential for awareness within that abyss. We spend a third of our life asleep--a fact that dream theorists rarely consider. This startling collection of lectures by Rudolf Steiner, selected and introduced by the psychologist Michael Lipson, provides a truly unique way of approaching dreams, based on an understanding of the spiritual nature of human beings. A radically new view of dreams "as the threshold to spiritual reality" arises, once we acknowledge that physical existence is only the tip of an iceberg hidden largely in the spiritual world. Sleep, death, and meditation are the three realms in which consciousness has the opportunity to deepen its immersion in the divine flow of existence. In principle, we can become infinitely more self-aware in each of them, since human consciousness is not fixed--neither in contents nor in terms of alertness. All day long, the contents of our consciousness change, and during the night, the level changes. These lectures permit readers to glimpse the fantastic depths of experience we normally "sleep through" and to contemplate Steiner's astounding program: to maintain self-aware consciousness through sleep, through death, through all being. Contents:
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Contents
The Secrets of Sleep | 1 |
Sleep and the ThreePart Soul | 24 |
Sleep and the World of the Stars | 38 |
Understanding Sleep through Imagination Inspiration and Intuition | 52 |
Dreams and the Spiritual Researcher | 69 |
A Continual Dreaming | 89 |
Preparing for a New Birth | 104 |
Dreaming and the Etheric Body | 117 |
Bringing the Unconscious to Consciousness | 135 |
Confronting the Totality of Our Lives through Dreams | 143 |
The Logic and Illogic of Dreams | 159 |
Dreams and Human Development | 170 |
Interpreting Dream Images | 183 |
The Human Essence in Spiritual Connection | 199 |
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activity actually appears astral body awake awareness become begin brain bring capacity carry cognition comes completely concepts connected consciousness consider continually cosmic course death described dream dream images Earth earthly ence enter etheric everything example existence experience experienced expression external fact falling asleep feel forces further hand happens higher human ideas images Imagination impressions influence inner kind leave light live logic look matter means memory mental mirror Moon moral morning move natural laws nature never night normal normal consciousness notice observe once ordinary organs ourselves outer particular pass perceive person physical body physical world present reality relate relationship sense sensory side sleep someone soul speak spiritual science spiritual world Steiner things thinking thoughts true unconscious understand universe waking whole write
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Page x - The unconscious is the true psychical reality; in its innermost nature it is as much unknown to us as the reality of the external world, and it is as incompletely presented by the data of consciousness as is the external world by the communications of our sense organs?
Page xi - ... soon as he had this idea, his thought somehow took the form of another man, and that man wished for an identity and a name, even though he was just made of thought. And by pure accident, as when a crow happens to be under a tree when a palm fruit falls from it and hits him, he thought, "I am Jlvata." This dream man, JIvata, enjoyed himself for a long time in a town made in a dream. There he drank too much and fell into a heavy sleep, and in his dream he saw a Brahmin who read all day long. One...
Page xiii - That was a mistake," answers the adult-authority. "Everything you do in a dream has a purpose, beyond your understanding while you are asleep. You must relax and enjoy yourself when you fall in a dream. Falling is the quickest way to get in contact with the powers of the spirit world, the powers laid open to you through your dreams. Soon, when you have a falling dream, you will remember what I am saying, and as you do, you will feel that you are travelling to the source of the power which has caused...
Page xiii - ... When you meet them, you may be frightened of their terrific power, but go on. When you think you are dying in a dream, you are only receiving the powers of the other world, your own spiritual power which has been turned against you, and which now wishes to become one with you if you will accept it." The astonishing thing is that over a period of time, with this type of social interaction, praise, or criticism, imperatives, and advice, the dream which starts out with fear of falling changes into...
Page x - Once upon a time there was a monk who was inclined to imagine things rather a lot. He would meditate and study all the time, and fast for days on end. One day this fancy came to him: "Just for fun, I will experience what happens to ordinary people." As soon as he had this idea, his thought somehow took the form of another man, and that man wished for an identity and a name, even though he was just made of thought. And by pure accident, as when a crow happens to be under a tree when a palm fruit falls...