It’s said that dream interpretation dates back at least 5,000 years, as evidenced by Sumerian clay tablets. While Mesopotamians believed the soul departs the body of a sleeping person and actually visits the places being dreamed about, the Babylonians envisioned their dreams as omens. Ancient Egyptians thought that dreams came laden with divine messages and there were those who would go so far as to sleep on “dream beds” in hopes of receiving comfort and advice from the gods.
The Chinese imagined that part of the soul journeys to a special dream realm during slumber, while the Greeks supposed that the gods themselves visited the dreamer. As a matter of fact it was both a Greek and Egyptian belief that that one could actually “incubate” dreams with the intention of receiving divine prophesies and revelations.
Although the gods no longer seem to inhabit this earthly realm, dream interpretation remains. A perennial classic in the field of psychology, is “The Interpretation of Dreams” in which Freud (whose middle name was Schlomo) identified dreams as “the royal road to the unconscious,” theorizing that they’re manifestations of subconcious fears and desires, often relating to early childhood memories or obsessions.
One of Freud’s most devoted followers was the young Carl Jung, who eventually rejected many of his mentor’s theories, while expanding upon others. Acknowledging that dreams relate to one’s unconscious desires he also contended that they present us with revelations that can help to resolve emotional or even spiritual issues.
All rum stuff for an activity that tends to occupy about a quarter of our time asleep; but now it’s time to close the book on all this dreaming with a final selection. And as there are so many dream-themed songs to choose from a little divine revelation might have been nice. Here are a few examples:
- Dreams – Fleetwood Mac (The Corrs covered it too, neither one’s a favorite)
- Dream a Little Dream of Me – Cass Elliot version (close but no cigar)
- Innocent When You Dream – Tom Waits
- All That You Dream – Little Feat
- American Dream – Lucinda Williams
- Bad Dreams – Lick the Tins
- Boulevard of Broken Dream – Green Day
- When I Grow Too Old to Dream – Vera Lynn
- Have a Little Dream on Me – Fats Waller
- Last Night I had a Dream – Randy Newman
- Our Bungalow of Dreams – Bix Beiderbecke
- Poor Helpless Dreams – Ron Sexsmith
- Deep in a Dream – Frank Sinatra
- Sweet Dreams Are Made of These – Eurythmics
- The Blues is Just a Bad Dream – James Taylor
- Army Dreamers – Kate Bush
- When I Dream – Chrystal Gayle
- A Dream Lives on Forever – Todd Rundgren
In the end I went with a track from Suzanne Vega’s third album, “Days of Open Hand”. Released in 1990, it’s not to be confused with the Bruce Springsteen song of the same name from his tenth album, “Lucky Town”, or the Steve Miller Band’s tenth album, which like today’s selection is entitled “Book of Dreams”.
LISTEN TO TODAY’S SELECTION – Saturday 30 June
Book of Dreams
In my book of dreams
In my book of dreams
In my book of dreams
I took your urgent whisper
Stole the arc of a white wing
Rode like foam on the river of pity
Turned its tide to strength
Healed the hole that ripped in living
In my book of dreams
In my book of dreams
In my book of dreams
The spine is bound to last a life
Tough enough to take the pounding
Pages made of days of open hand
In my book of dreams
In my book of dreams
In my book of dreams
Number every page in silver
Underline in magic marker
Take the name of every prisoner
Yours is there my word of honor
I took your urgent whisper
Stole the arc of a white wing
Rode like foam on the river of pity
Healed the hole that ripped in living
In my book of dreams
In my book of dreams
In my book of dreams
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