Key Concepts for Dreamwork

DREAMS & SPIRITUAL GROWTH By Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI OBLATE SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY CONTINUING EDUCATION DEPARTEMENT 4/8/2021 2 4/8/2021 . WEEK 1 : DREAMS IN SOCIAL 3 SCIENCES & CHRISTIANITY

. WEEK 2 : THE PRACTICE OF DREAM APPRECIATION-PART #1 PLAN FOR . WEEK 3 : KEY CONCEPTS FOR THE SERIES DREAMWORK

. WEEK 4 : THE PRACTICE OF DREAM APPRECIATION PART #2

© Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI 4/8/2021 . PURPOSE OF CLASS: Introduce basic 5 knowledge of dream work for oneself and group, situate it within a Christian framework informed by science, appreciate it as mean to enhance spiritual growth for self and others, practice dreamwork & sharing

. BASIC PREMISE: dream appreciation vs dream interpretation, disclaimer as an GENERAL enthusiastic dreamworker REMARKS . GUIDELINES: walking on sacred ground, respect confidentiality, adjust to your own rhythm, remember self-care & support,

INVITATION: keep recording your dreams!

© Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI 4/8/2021 6 4/8/2021 . Research indicates mammals, birds, human beings7 dream, (possibly all living organisms) difficult to prove even if Koko the Gorilla reported having nightmares through sign language . According to J. Taylor, it is possible that 100,000 years ago our ancestors dreamt about speaking before they did (no evidence, of course!!) . We all dream, some do not remember, many do. Later in class: tips to facilitate dream recall SCIENCE OF . Not dreaming, or lack of REM sleep: waking dreams (visual and auditory hallucinations); interference DREAMING with memory and learning; a loosening of associations; impaired ability to do tasks requiring focused attention; difficulty maintaining a straight line of thought, creating irritability and suspiciousness . Many stages (cycles) in sleep: NREM 1 (2-5%), NREM 2 (45-55%), NREM 3-4 (16-21%), Rapid Eye Movement (REM, 20-25%), hypnopompic imagery

© Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI 4/8/2021 . REM: dreams are more self-reflective, bizarre, visual, 8 emotional, have more self-involvement, more narrative quality than NREM dreams, most NREM dreams are brief, “thought-like” and mundane than REM dreams, REM sleep deprivation will impede learning complex tasks, and create “rebound effect”; more REM in future nights, . REM sleep: paralysis of body by brain, maybe so we do not act out our dreams, cyclic periods of vascular engorgement of genitalia in both men and women, rapid eye movement, increases in respiration, etc. . HYPNAGOGIC IMAGERY: visual, tactile, auditory, SCIENCE OF olfactory or other sensory events, usually brief occasionally prolonged, occur at the transition from sleep DREAMING to wakefulness, dreamer may perceive oddities or nightmarish images like other persons or non-physical entities in the room or next to him or her

. LUCID DREAMING: considered a hybrid form of dreaming; dreamer is self aware, experiences the same physiological features of REM sleep: eye movements, increases in respiration, heart rate and skin potential

© Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI 4/8/2021 9 . MEMORY PROCESSING - processing and integrating new information into existing memory nets. Reactivating memories – typically emotionally impactful daily episodes and past memory associations; (Memory “triage” – emotion as marker for which information is selectively processed; Extracting the ‘gist’ or meaning from those memories, Long-term memory consolidation and/or re- consolidation, Developing an inner model of self and reality; SCIENCE OF autobiographical . EMOTIONAL PROCESSING – dealing with DREAMING unresolved or impactful emotional issues of the day. Stress Reduction and Mood Control (Fear Extinction, Emotional Problem Resolution) . LEARNING – something new evolves from the dream experience. Enhancing Knowledge and Skills (declarative and procedural learning): Creative, Restorative Adaptive, Transcendent.

© Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI 4/8/2021 . Most people on earth: dreams are understood as 10 making invisible forces visible . WORLD RELIGIONS see many motifs as spiritually salient in dreams: death, gods, ancestors, animals such as bears and snakes, sexuality, healing and diagnosis, etc. . AFRICAN PEOPLES: common belief that ancestors DREAMS IN pass to higher plane of existence and may mediate WORLD between divine forces and the living RELIGIONS . MUSLIM DREAM INTERPRETATION: dream interpreter is mediator between the divine and the human realm, Prophet Muhammad said after his death prophecy left to dream visions as a divine gift, classical & contemporary dream interpretation manuals-source unconscious; prophetic and ethical guidance

© Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI 4/8/2021 . The Zohar, book of ancient Hebrew wisdom: “When 11 a man has had a dream, he should unburden himself of it before men who are his friends so that they should express to him their good wishes and give utterance to words of good omen” (Zohar II:200a, 259) . Many sayings in RABBINIC WRITINGS about dreams: most important elaborate passage in DREAMS IN Babylonic Talmud: Berachot 55a-57b, known as TALMUDIC* DREAM BOOK: rabbinic view of WORLD dreaming and dream interpretation RELIGIONS . Guidelines from TDB: uninterpreted dream is like an unopened letter, reckon with non-sensical factor, always interpret it positively (even dark dreams) to invite a positive outcome, dream interpreters must honor their responsibility, dreamer has a choice *Mishna and Talmud part of collections of orally transmitted sayings; compared by some to James Joyce’s Ulysses’ -“steam of consciousness” © Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI 4/8/2021 12

. SENOI PEOPLE OF MALAYSIA: have a developed dream theory; they share dreams openly where there is opportunity for feedback on meaning of the dream, this daily sharing begins to shape the DREAM SHARING dreamer’s pattern of dreaming IN NATIVE PEOPLES . NATIVE AMERICANS: dream is a personal and interactive social process: dreams are magical spaces within context of dialoging with imaginal world in the presence of elders, a power dream becomes much more

© Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI 4/8/2021 13 . XAVANTE PEOPLE OF BRAZIL: lucid dreams shared by an elder, new ritual instructions and new songs revealed, teaches other elders the songs, later through ritual enactment with costumed dancers and singers, both a re-enactment of mythopoetic drama and introduction of new creative material that becomes part of the tradition

DREAM SHARING IN NATIVE PEOPLES

© Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI 1. Name two new insights you have gained about the science of dreams or dream sharing/interpretation. QUESTIONS FOR SHARING 2. Briefly describe how you perceive dreams in your own life. What prompted you to take this class on dreams? 4/8/2021 15

. “How much there is in the Bible about dreams! There are, I think, some sixteen chapters in the Old Testament and four in the New Testament in which dreams are mentioned; and there are many other passages scattered throughout the DREAMS & book which refers to visions. If we believe the Bible, we must accept the fact that, in the old VISIONS IN days, God and his angels came to humans in BIBLE their sleep and made themselves known to humans.”

-Abraham Lincoln, Quoted from Lloyd Lewis in Myths after Lincoln, story told by his bodyguard and biographer

. As Christians we pledge in taking the invisible world seriously, so seriously we are willing to die for it! . In Nicaean creed we affirm our belief “in God, the Father Almighty, maker of Heaven and Earth, and DREAMS & all things visible and invisible. . In the sacraments we affirm our belief in an VISIONS IN “inward and spiritual grace” of which the externals BIBLE are the “inward and visible signs” . Almost every page of the Bible deals with an invisible, spiritual dimension; for example, the Kingdom or Reign of God

© Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI 4/8/2021 17 . Life of Jesus begins with dreams and angels, his ministry ushered in with baptism by the Spirit, & temptations by the devil, climaxes by transfiguration and reaches mystery in the Cross and Resurrection . In apostle Paul, an invisible world is DREAMS & proclaimed, he is overpowered by it on the VISIONS IN road to Damascus, it reveals itself by visions of being caught up in heaven, he finds rebirth in BIBLE Christ through the Cross . There are some seventy passages referring to dreams and visions in Bible; they both seem to come from same source of inner world

© Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI . DREAMS: appear to us during sleep, we will see 4/8/2021 18 many examples; VISIONS: intense imagery, sound, feeling during waking state; most commonly occur during prayer or periods of major stress or transition . Example of vision: MARIE OF THE INCARNATION (Ursulines) mystical vision Christmas 1633 confronted with a powerful vision, saw herself DREAMS & walking hand in hand with a fellow laywoman against the backdrop of a foreign landscape, on the VISIONS IN roof of a small church in this distant, foggy BIBLE landscape sat the Virgin Mary and Jesus . She recounted the vision to her priest, who informed her that the nation she described was Canada . From this Marie concluded that her vocation was to help establish the Catholic Faith in the New World

© Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI 4/8/2021 19 4/8/2021 1) Preparing for the dream (vv.10-11): he sets out to 20 Haran, stops for one night, puts stone under his head, lays at that spot. 2) The dream (vv. 12-15): ladder up to sky, angels going up and down, God promises offspring and expanse of land, assures him of protection and gift DREAMS & 3) Response to the dream (vv. 16-22): Jacob is VISIONS IN BIBLE: confirmed that God resides in that place, does ritual with oil and stone, he names it Bethel, JACOB’S DREAM promises a tithing of 10% because looked after by GEN 28: 10-22 God . Jacob’s DREAMWORK: recognizes being visited by God, sees significance of the place, he acts on the dream creating an altar, he receives the covenant which defines a relationship (conditional; accepts if God follows through on promise) between God and chosen people

JACOB’S DREAM GEN 28: 10-22

© Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI 4/8/2021 . BOOK OF DANIEL: Latest book of Old Testament, 22 most complete treatment of dreams, author offers message to his people struggling against oppressor Antiochus Epiphanes, story of a Jewish man exiled in Babylonia, highly regarded for skill, learning and wisdom . First unrecalled dream: IMP: “But as for me, not because of any wisdom that I have more than all the DREAMS & living has this mystery been revealed to me, but in order that the interpretation may be made know to the VISIONS IN BIBLE: king, and that you may know the thoughts of your BOOK OF DANIEL mind” (vv. 30) . He interprets another dream in Chap. 4, 10-17;does a sound bit of dream interpretation: King has become like tree, great spacious, flowing with life and beauty and assumes god like role; warns him of his hubris; he does not heed message and loses his mind for seven years (corresponding to 7 years reign) © Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI . Joseph considers putting away after discovering 4/8/2021 23 pregnancy, “the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream” bidding him to retain Mary as wife and telling him the child is of Holy Spirit (Matt, 1:20) . Wise men are told, after having found child Jesus, are “warned in a dream not to return to Herod” (2:12), immediately after Joseph again visited by DREAMS & angel of the Lord in a dream, bidding him flee to VISIONS IN BIBLE: Egypt for safety (2:13) . After sojourn in Egypt, Joseph bidden once more by GOSPEL OF an angel in another dream to return to land of Israel MATTHEW (2:19) and yet another dream bids him to return not to Judea but Galilee (2:22) First two chapters of Matthew five dreams: every decision in action packed section based on revelation made by God in a dream

© Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI 4/8/2021 24 FOUR CONCLUSIONS ON DREAMS AND VISIONS* 1. D & V regarded, in both old and New Testament, as revelations from God, Daniel and Joseph, revered as skilled interpreters, Abraham and Solomon who understood revelations God gave them were regarded as great and wise, those overcome by their inner experience, Paul and Ezekiel, great missionaries and DREAMS & prophets 2. From this perspective entire Bible is story of God’s VISIONS IN breakthrough into human conscious mind via the BIBLE unconscious 3. Many religious experiences such as Jacob wrestling with adversary and Moses and burning bush may be seen as of a visionary kind 4. The early Church regarded dreams the same way as the Bible; as revelations from God. *This section, along with the previous slides, is extracted from chapter 6 of Sanford’ book, Dreams: God’s Forgotten Language © Fr. Daniel Renaud, OMI 4/8/2021 25 . CYPRIAN, one of the founders of Latin Church, asserted that councils were guided by God through dreams and visions . JOHN CHRYSOSTOM: dreams are enough for God to send to those attuned to him, no need for extraordinary revelations or visions . TERTULLIAN: dreams as one of the charismata of DREAMS AND God, dreams visions promised to people of his time VISIONS IN as much as apostles . Constantine received important dream-vision EARLY CHURCH before his battle for Rome, opened new era of Western civilization . SYNESIUS OF CYRENE: “dreams more than any other thing, entice to hope” “and when our heart spontaneously presents hope to us, as happens in our sleeping state, then we have in the promise of our dreams a pledge from the divinity”

EARLY CHURCH

. By Jerome, probably due to mistranslation in Latin Vulgate from original Greek and Hebrew Bible; dreams are bulked in with soothsayers & witchcraft . Became a superstitious practice and not associated with God, especially after invasions of Rome by Barbarians . In Western World, dreamwork tool of magic, demonic, & superstitions EARLY CHURCH: . In Greek speaking cultures, faithful to first five centuries teaching by Church Fathers, maintained original dream DREAMS IN tradition passed on by Gregory of Nyssa and others . Thomas of Aquinas (1225-1274) had dream and revelatory DISFAVOR visions, said to have been instructed by Apostles in dream to compose a difficult theological issue . Aquinas: end of his life had a vision: “such things have been revealed to me that all I have written seems like straw, and I now await the end of my life”