Understanding Dreams: What they are and how to interpret them. Nerys Dee

to dreams and sleep and it has been said that, unless his works are viewed as if they were dreams, they make little sense.

      The Tempest, set in that state between reality and illusion, is an example of this. Caliban dreams that ‘the isle is full of noises and sounds and sweet airs that give delight and hurt not’, and he cries to dream again. And the wise character of Prospero suggests that maybe life is but a dream anyway. ‘We are’, he says, ‘such stuff as dreams are made of and our life is rounded with a little sleep’. The tragedy of Macbeth is a nightmare in itself and the sleep-walking Lady Macbeth re-enacts her crimes, agonising in her guilt. From Hamlet, the now famous line, ‘To sleep, to sleep, perchance to dream’, gave rise to a musical play, while the remainder of that quotation, ‘For in that sleep of death what dream may come when we have shuffled off this mortal coil’, offers an enlightened view of life after death. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is but a dream inhabited by timeless images from real life, shadowy figures and figments from another dimension. In this we can identify with either and both worlds, but usually it is the symbolic one that wins.

the world of dreams

      Experiences in sleep are many and varied. We know that certain physiological changes are often incorporated into a dream and that false awakenings are difficult to distinguish from the true awake state. Flying and travelling in sleep may not be dreams at all, but a form of astral projection, just as inspirations which come in the dead of night are messages from a source beyond our reach in the harsh light of day. We do not know if dreams are a cause in themselves, or if they are reflections from outer consciousness, but either way, experiences in sleep cast a new light on our very existence.

       the power