People have been interpreting dreams for thousands of years. Many dream interpretations have been found by archeologists on clay tablets and people have always seemed to be interested in understanding the meaning of their dreams.
In some societies, people were not able to figure out if they were dreaming or if they were actually awake and having things happen to them. Or chances are that they chose not to make a distinction between being awake and dreaming and they chose to see a dream as part of a reality in a world that was fascinating and powerful.
The Greek and Romans believed that dreams were part of their religious ideas. They felt that dreams would direct them and that they were dreaming so that they could get messages from the gods or from people that have already died.
People would take time to try to decide what their dreams meant and what kind of action they needed to take in their lives so that they could please the gods. They thought that dreams would warn them of bad things that were coming, and they also thought that dreams would tell the future.
Some cultures would build alters or shrines so that people could go there to sleep in order that they could dream and get messages that they needed. They had such strong believes in dreams that they would dictate people in high positions such as politicians or those that were military leaders to interpret dreams so that the dreams could help them to win battles.
Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, felt that dreams were centered around healing. There were temples that were built called Asclepios’s that were built so that people could sleep there and hopefully they could dream and be healed. The people believed that they would be able to dream cures and that medicine men would get information so that they could help to heal people.
Many believed that healers needed dreams from the interpreters so that they could find out what was wrong with the sick.
Priests in Egypt would often have a second job as interpreters. They would write their dreams in the form of hieroglyphics and they would bless those that dreamed special things. People who could interpret dreams were looked at with high admiration and they were thought to be very spiritual and gifted.
Dreaming is thought to be something that has to do with the soul and the spirit. Some believe that the soul and the spirit will leave the body and go into the world which was how dreams happened. The Chinese thought that when someone was quickly woken up while they were dreaming that the soul might not be able to return back to the body and so many Chinese would refuse to use alarm clocks so this would not happen.
Native Americans and Mexican tribes believed that dreams were from a different dimension. They thought that their ancestors would come to them with dreams and that they could come in forms of people, plants or animals. They believed that dreaming was a way that their ancestors could contact them and show them what they were supposed to do in their life.
In the 19th Century, dreams were often fueled with stress and anxiety and so people did not believe that dreams needed to be interpreted but they were just part of an anxious thought that happened before bed. Freud believed that dreams were important, and he began to study dreams and seek for interpretations.
In the Middle Ages, people thought that dreams were evil, and they felt that it was temptation from the devil. They believed that while you were sleeping that you were vulnerable and that the thoughts that came would be bad for them and would cause you to go down the wrong path or make bad choices in life.
There are many different interpretations of dreams all the way from ancient times to now. People have always thought that interpreting dreams was important. Books all over the world talk about dreams and dream interpretation, including the Bible that makes more than seven hundred different references.