Page 30 - NAMAH-Jul-2020

Namah Vol. 28, Issue 2, 15th July 2020

was probably Carl Jung who undertook an dreams in your sadhana if you already don’t.
extensive, innovative, intuitive, scholarly, Now let me come to the main thesis of the
expedition into the psyche. Credited with article that I shall attempt to put across.
expounding on many useful concepts
like introversion/extraversion, collective This article begins with a dream shared by
unconscious, shadow, animus/anima, the an American in a podcast (of which I am a
famous one-word association test which regular listener) called, This Jungian Life. It
many of us today play like a game (where has three psychologists talking about various
we say a word and our game-partner has to issues from the perspective of Carl Jung’s
say the first word that comes to their mind work and theory. Unmistakably, this dream
on hearing it), Jung also gave many useful was discussed owing to the extraordinary
insights into what dreams are, and more situation that has gripped the world. We
importantly perhaps, where they try to lead all are going through an unprecedented
us. Being the products of our unconscious time, and almost overnight, a disaster of
psyches, he saw them as complementing and epic proportions, has been unleashed on
compensating our ego-selves, and thus made all of us which has not left any aspect of
dreams a major tool in his work with his our lives untouched. Some are calling it
therapy patients. As his work and study the biggest socio-psychological-economic
deepened, Jung came to the conclusion disaster in their living memories. The most
that dreams are messages from the deepest humbling and ironical fact about this is that
wisdom that is at the common source of all it has all been brought about by a virus, a
the world’s most ancient civilisations. And microscopic entity that is not capable of even
that in fact being open to our dream-world is living outside a host. With all the inflated
a way to open to the Infinite, the Self. Dreams, talk around intercontinental missiles, atomic
then, can be a window into providing us deep bombs, space-wars, this minute virus has
insights into changing our ego self to become deflated all the so-called superpowers as well
more in tune with what is going on at our
deeper levels.

It has not just been psychology as a discipline
that gives so much importance to dreams,
but many spiritual traditions have placed
much significance on dreams. From the little
that I have researched, and I am sure you
would have your own examples in mind
of such traditions, certain forms of Sufism
work a lot with dreams, as do some schools of
Tantra. Mother and Sri Aurobindo have also
answered various questions of their disciples
in this regard. Therefore, I take it that, with
this brief introduction, some of you, if not
most of you, may be motivated to include

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