Dreams And Nightmares
|
|
Dreams have been a
mystery to us since ADAM breathed life. All most all human beings
including infants have experienced this mental activity that consists of
thoughts, images and emotions occurring during sleep or even at the time
of being half asleep. Infants experience this as nightmare during which
time they suddenly awake and start crying with panic and their limbs
kicking. Sometimes they get sweet dreams that are evident with their
smiles even when their eyes are closed. As a matter of fact, every day
every human experiences this strange phenomenon that is the exclusive gift
to the human race. Most of the time we forget soon after the sleep is
disturbed. But some times they are more realistic and even after your
sleep is over it is difficult to believe everything that happened was only
an illusion.
|
During bad dreams we
are too happy to realize that it was only a dream. We may call such
dreams that involve fear or horror, or the sensation of pain, falling,
drowning or death as NIGHTMARES.
During such an unpleasant
emotional response we sweat a lot and getting any more sleep during that
day becomes very difficult. It is also equally true that during pleasant
dreams we are disappointed that it was only a false experience of reality.
It could be getting admission into IIT, getting selected for the Indian
cricket team, ggetting a chance to act with Aishwarya Rai, Lord Krishna
giving darshan to you, your bald head has grown thick hair etc.
Some times our dreams get
repeated again and again which makes us scared about going to bed if only
they are unpleasant in nature and eagerly wait for dreams that improve
your morale of success. Of late , researchers have been analyzing and
interpreting the meaning of dreams of either type with the help of
psychologists and a dictionary of dreams has already reached the market.
Newspapers have opened columns to answer the implications of dreams
experienced by the readers with the same importance of the horoscope
column.
In Hindu mythology
every type of dream is taken as a premonition of certain thing to
happen and chances are more if it is in the early morning. Even
globally, all races, cultures and religion have referred to this
phenomenon with seriousness and taken as a clue from the ALMIGHTY to
protect yourself accordingly.
There is also an equal
school of thought which believes that this is nothing short of nonsense
and can be conveniently ignored with a strong mind. Some scientists are of
the view that dreams are more frequent when there is indigestion, ailing
health, suffering from flu, over ambition, fear psychosis and so on. Some
go to the extent of claiming that a healthy individual should have a sound
sleep free from such disturbed mind that activates dreams.
|
|
Any way a few
historical dreams that actually came to reality are quoted below for the
interest of the readers.
1. A few days before his
assassination American president ABRAHAM LINCOLN who was very attentive to
his dreams dreamt of his own corpse laid out in a room of the White House.
2. MARTIN LUTHER KING also
seems to have had a precognitive dream about his death a few months before
his assassination.
|
3. A day before the
TITANIC demise, a woman on infamous ship dreamt of the horrible event that
was to occur the next day. She told her husband, who ridiculed at her
worries and ignored her pleas. However the dream so affected her that she
secretly prepared herself the night before and had all her children sleep
in their warm clothes in order to be ready in a moments notice. During the
night, when the ship struck the iceberg, she and her children managed to
escape and be rescued. Her husband, sadly, went down with the ship.
Here is a very
interesting true happening that happened 2 to 3 decades back with one of
my close friends.
He was a chain smoker to
the extent of a minimum of 2 packets a day and my repeated advice and
warnings were futile. Then one night he had an exceptionally vivid and
realistic dream in which he had inoperable cancer of the lung. He
experienced the incredible anguish of knowing his life was soon to end
that he would never see his children grow up. But to his great relief,
surprise and joy that was all in the dream and he felt as if he was
reborn. Needless to say that experience was sufficient to induce the
immediate cessation of cigarette habit.
What all we have seen
above are actually night dreams.
There is another
interesting topic under day dreams and great dreamers. They are
actually dreaming for the great future of them, country they belong or for
some social cause. They are actually fully awake while contemplating to
achieve great heights during the course of years or even decades.
Who else could be a better
dreamer than our ex-president Dr.A.P.J.ABDUL KALAM? Here are a few lines
written by that unique man from one of his poems. “DREAMS FLOAT ON AN
IMPATIENT WIND, A WIND THAT WANTS TO CREATE A NEW ORDER. AN ORDER OF
STRENGTH AND THUNDERING OF FIRE”. KALAM’S advice to the youngsters of the
Nation is to “DREAM, DREAM and DREAM.
You have to dream before
your dreams come true. Great DREAMS of great DREAMERS are always
transcended. “All successful people men
and women are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal
in every respect and then they work every day towards their distant
vision, that goal or purpose—BRIAN TRACY.
But such dreamers were
invariably having most of the qualities referred below in abundance to
succeed what they desired. 1. Confidence 2. Courage
3. Commitment 4. Creativity 5. Purpose 6. Passion 7. Persistance 8.
Resilence 9. Risk 10. Responsibility
All of you can start
DREAMING from this very movement in good earnest for your long cherished
ambitions for a positive cause!
Contributing Writer:
J. PANCHAPAGESAN DSP-RETD, CHENNAI
|
