Originally dreams were thought to be messages from the gods, perhaps as an early warning device for disaster or good fortune. The Ancient Egyptians seem to have been the first dreamers to attempt interpretation of their dreams. Around 5,000 years ago they summarized their conclusions about dream symbols in one of the earliest documents on the subject.
BThe Greeks didn't begin seriously considering dreams until about 2,700 years ago. Like the Egyptians, they believed that dreams carried divine messages, which could only be interpreted with the aid of a priest. Dreams also aided in their practice of medicine: sick people were sent to particular temples where the 'gods of the body' had their shrines. Here the sick performed various religious rites, slept, and hoped to gave a dream that assured a return to good health. Sometimes this would go on for weeks or even months until they had the 'right' dream.
CThe first steps into modern dream interpretation were taken 1400 years ago, when the Greek philosopher Heraclitus suggested that a person's dream world was something created in their own mind. This went against the other philosophers, who believed dreams were the result of outside forces, such as the gods. Most Greek philosophers considered the meaning of dreams. Plato, for example, realized how much dreaming could affect the dreamer's personality or the actions they subsequently took. He told how Socrates studied music and the arts because he was instructed to do so in a dream.
DAristotle studied dreams and the dreaming process in a rational way, and argued against the idea that dreams were messages from the gods. He claimed that most so-called prophetic dreams are to be classed as mere coincidences, and suggested that dreams are a recollection of the day's events. Aristotle also helped advance the theory that dreams reflected a person's bodily health. He suggested that a doctor could diagnose a person's illness by hearing a dream that they had, a theory supported by Hippocrates, the founder of modern medicine.
EThe Roman Artemidorus produced the first comprehensive book on the subject of dreams, around the year 150. He claimed that dreams are unique to the dreamer, believing that the person's occupation and status in the community would affect the symbols in their dreams.
FMany religions have believed in the significance that dreams can offer our lives. The fourth century Christian St Augustine claimed that the direction of his life was dramatically affected by dreams that he had. Much later, however, other Christians, such as Martin Luther, the founder of Protestantism, claimed that dreams could lead us into evil ways.
GEuropeans were very curious about dreaming around the beginning of the 19th century. Robert Cross Smith helped to start this 'dream craze' in Britain, publishing several popular books about dreams. Later in the century, Alfred Maury, a French doctor, introduced modern dream interpretation. He believed that the catalysts of all of our dreams were stimuli such as an object falling.
HProbably the best known of the modern dream philosophers was Sigmund Freud, whose book The Interpretation of Dreams was published in 1900. His theory was that although dreams may be prompted by external stimuli, wish-fulfilment was the cause of most of them, dreams reflecting our deepest desires. To Freud, no dream was of entertainment value; they all held important meanings.
ICarl Jung, a student of Freud for some time, argued that dreams were messages from ourselves to ourselves and that we should pay attention to them for our own benefit. Today, most psychologists agree with Jung's theory, and it is this theory that makes dream interpretation something that we can use in our everyday lives. If Freud were alive today he would disagree with every theory that says you are able to interpret your own dreams. Jung believed that, although it was difficult, dreams were meant to be understood.
JEver since the Freud/Jung rivalry, other theories about dreams and dreaming have flourished and are continuing to be developed today. Some people say that dreams are either the clearing of fragments of our memory banks or the storage of these fragments. Either way they are believed to be of little or no significance and should be disregarded. However, there are the people that argue against this and say that some dreams, at least, are important to living full and complete lives.