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The Meanings of Flying Dreams
Some First Thoughts on the "Meanings" of Dreams ©1999 Linda Lane Magallón | ||
Is the "meaning" of a dream...Narration, Solution, Resolution or First-Hand Experience?
It can depend on the dream, can't it? Some of our dreams are "multi-layered," that is, they can be viewed through the lenses of more than one of these 4 approaches. Certain dreams favor using one approach over the others. Here are a few ways to glean the "meanings" of flying dreams.
These four approaches are typical of the four human personality types (Myers-Briggs topology). However, be aware that most dreamworkers and most folks, who remember and report their dreams, are members of the first population. In fact, the question, "What is the meaning of dreams?" is a top priority of that population. Thus, it should be no surprise to realize that most of the "answers" to the question are given from the point of view of the first population. Most of the answers are metaphoric. They make good stories. They are valid because they satisfy the need to perceive a message in the sharing of a dream. But is the message, the metaphor true, from a scientific standpoint? Verification is the concern of the second population. Sleep researchers and some clinicians write about this approach to dreams. And, using this lens, it can be determined that, indeed, some of the metaphors are accurate descriptors of the underlying cause or trigger of the dream. But not all theories or metaphors have been subjected to scientific scrutiny. That leaves the task of making a "reality check" about "meaning" up to the individual dreamer. The only way to do that is to compare the "answer" with your own dream. But not just once. Your best chance to find the meanings that suit you and your dreams are to track many dreams over time. That requires keeping a dream journal. Sorry, but there isn't a quick-and-dirty approach to dream meaning that will nurture you any more than will cotton candy at a carnival. Don't get me wrong. I like cotton candy, but as a special treat, not as a staple of my diet. Unfortunately, because there has been such public pressure to produce the quick-and-dirty response, dream interpretation has a pretty bad reputation. It ranks right down there with the newspapers' daily horoscope. Amusing perhaps, interesting yes, but too general (or too specific) to be of much use to you, in particular. Fortunately, and more so than any time in history, dreamwork has the opportunity to grow up. Unfortunately, a field with a poor reputation means little public funding, so the progress is slow and halting. But serious work has been done in several areas and some of the pieces of the puzzle are beginning to fall into place. We're just at the launching pad of this further journey, though. There are comparatively few dedicated dreamers to do the work required to move things along. Perhaps you can be one of them. And, if you are a member of the third or fourth population, your contributions will help balance our understanding of dreams. As we continue down the "royal road," we may develop very different ideas about what we mean when we ask, "What does this dream mean?" |
Egyptian During the XIIIth dynasty (1786-1633 B. C.), a discourse on dreams was published on papyri and some fragments of it still survive. The Chester Beatty Papyrus characterizes dreams with only two simple choices. They are either "good" or "bad." Some interpretations use "explanation by opposites," or the reverse of what one might normally think that the dream means.
The Egyptians had a strong belief in the "ba," an astral or spiritual second body that looked like a bird but had a human face. A painting (ca. 1250 B. C.) shows the ba with wings spread, hovering above the physical body. Indian The Atharva Veda (1400-900 B. C.) has a "Treatise on Dreams" which also separates dreams into favorable and unfavorable categories. In the 68th Parachista, sexual symbolism is not ignored:
The Hindus were the first to place dreams into an astrological perspective and link their content to human personality types. At the time they recognized only three temperaments: bilious, or fire signs; phlegmatic, or water signs; and sanguine or aerial signs. (Medieval alchemists added melancholy and earth signs to form the current four). According to the 6th Parachista of the "Treatise," men of sanguine temperament dream of clouds, wind and the flocks of migrant birds. Mesopotamian Cuneiform tablets taken from the Royal Archives of Assurbanipal (668-627 B. C.) at Kujunik in Nineveh, Assyria, contain ideas from an even earlier period of Mesopotamian history. In Babylonian thinking, flying dreams were often associated with danger and even death. One text links descent into hell with the prolongation of life, while ascent into heaven signifies its shortening. Another text defines the significance of a repeating flying dream:
More interpretations (from the de Becker translation):
Chinese When the Taoist master Lie-tseu (400 B. C.) commented on dreams, he alluded to a medical theory in which the organs, viscera, blood vessels, etc., are divided into "full" and "empty" ones. This is our first explanation that links flying dreams to physiological factors.
Roman Artemidorus of Daldianus (150-200 A. D.) was a dream interpreter who lived in Roman Asia (now Turkey). In his Oneirocritica (The Discernment of Dreams), he distinguishes between speculative and allegorical dreams. According to him, speculative dreams use a simple and direct image of the event they portend. In other words, they are to be taken literally. On the other hand, "sometimes there are dreams which cannot possibly happen; as when you dream that you fly...These are allegorical..." Thus, he considered flying dreams to be symbolic of something other than flying. For the most part, Artemidorus saw flying dreams as a portent of good luck. However, he considered it essential that the dreamer should return to the ground easily and wake up immediately after landing. He also believed that the dream in which one sees oneself flying head downwards was to be feared. Book 2, Unit 68, deals with flying dreams:
Astrampsychus, another dream interpreter from the Roman period, returned to even simpler associations in his Oracles. Like Artemidorus, his interpretations of flying dreams did not use "explanation by opposites."
Mid-East Mas'udi Ali ibn Husayn of Bagdad wrote during the reign of Caliph al-Muti (946-974 A. D.) He said, "If the sleeper sees things which meet his desires, that is because the soul, knowing all forms, can, when it is purified in sleep from the defilements of the body, float at ease over everything that it desires to possess, although it well knows that in the waking state it could not enjoy such a privilege...It is thus that a man sees himself flying in the air, although in reality he does not possess the ability to fly. He really only sees the form of flight, without bodily participation, as he knows it is not executed before his eyes, but his thought, concentrated on this operation, acquires enough force to make it really sensible to him." Other Ancient Beliefs Calvin S. Hall, famous for dream content analysis, states that, in ancient belief, dream flying was supposed to indicate the beginnings of lung disease.
Central Africa
Native America The basis of the religion of the Yuman Maricopa (in Arizona) is dream experience with spirit birds and animals. The Kwakiutl Indians (in the Pacific Northwest) believe that a guardian spirit named Ma'maq'a has the power to catch the invisible disease spirit which is constantly flying through the air in the form of a worm. The Tachini Navahos (in the American Southwest) believe that when people dream, the spirit inside comes out of the body, travels among other spirits and brings back messages. According to the Tachini:
Pacific Islands In the Kiwai tribe of New Guinea, the land of the hereafter is considered to be a nether world. One tribesman, sick unto death, dreamt that while visiting this netherland, he was kicked from behind. He flew up and landed at his own place. When he awoke, his people told him, "You died yesterday." In the Dobuans Islands (near the Trobriand Islands), death is ascribed to the werebena (flying witches). A young boy at Dauwada dreamt that his grandmother came at night and chased him. He had wings and flew away. Three out of 107 dreams (1 %) collected by C. G. Seligman from the Coastal Solomon Islanders were of flying through the air. According to the Solomon Islanders:
Australia A medicine man in Central Australia dreamt that he went out-of-body. His soul was at first transformed into the shape of a feather (wamulu = eagle or hawk-down) and the wind blew it to the west. It "rolled over, disappeared in the sand and went right in under the ground." When it came out, it looked like himself (in waking life). He flew up to the Milky Way. There, was a black hill called Talarara (Hill Standing Up), "where the souls always fly to when they go up to the sky." He flew from one point of the Milky Way to the other before coming back into his body at daylight. Japan A Japanese proverb: "Dreams and falcons are what you make of them."
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