Dreams in Other Religions

Hinduism:

In Hinduism, particular importance is given to the time when you have a certain dream.  Like other belief systems, Hindus also have their own dream dictionary that relates symbolism with their suggestive meanings in the scriptures.

According to Hindu scriptures, there are mainly six types of dreams.1. To hear in the dream what has been heard during the day. 2. To see in the dream what has been observed during the day. 3. To dream about something which has been dealt with during the day. 4. To get a desired thing in the dream. 5. To dream of an unheard or unseen thing. 6. Dream as a result of physical ailment. The fifth type of dream from the above is the most important in signifying a good or bad reward. The sixth type of dream is of intermediate importance in signifying a reward.

Dreams observed at sunrise are effective for a week and dreams observed during the day are considered practically without significance.

Taoism:

Symbol of Tao

Taoism has a very distinct approach towards dream, since they regard dreams as a sign of mortality while it is considered better to 'not to dream' as it signifies immortality.

In an excerpt from the Book of Nourishing the Vital Principle and Prolonging Life(Yang-hsing yen-ming lu) one finds the following:

'Movement subdues the cold; Stillness subdues the heat. The reason for being able to attain long life is having the ability to move and to be still. Chuang Tzu said: "The perfected Man does not dream whenever he sleeps." Shen Tzu said: "If one does nothing during daytime, one will not dream at night"

This passage reveals that 'not to dream' was regarded as a symbol of having reached the highest stade of Taoist self-cultivation. Conversely, it implies that a person who still has dreams hasn't yet attained immortality.

They believed that dreaming and thinking too much will disturb one's spirit and hinder one's ability to become and immortal.

This negative thinking regarding dreams has its roots in Taoist philosophy of the causes of dreams, which maintains that dreams are a result of spirits connecting to human beings and most of them were thought to be evil spirits and demons.

Dreams in Buddhism

Dreams appear in the earliest Buddhist writings, and played no less an important role in Buddhism than in our lives today. Being human, Buddhists have always slept; and when asleep, they dream. While dreaming they perceived the same disembodied shadows and disconnected images as we do. After waking they sought the meaning of their dreams. The diviners and prognosticators of India and China, being culture-bound individuals, interpreted the dreams according to the modes and methods available to them. Those methods were in some respects suggestive of methods used today, in some respects they were quite different.

For the Buddha, dreams opened a door into the ultimately empty and selfless nature of all dharmas. This emptying out of the self in turn made possible the liberating vision of Great Compassion, which sees all beings as sharing the same body and substance.

According to Buddhist psychology dreams are ideational processes which occur as activities of the mind. In considering the occurrence of dreams it is relevant to remember that the process of sleeping can be regarded as falling into five stages.

- drowsiness,
- light slumber,
- deep slumber,
- light slumber and
- awakening.

 It is categorically stated that dreams occur only in light slumber which is said to be like the sleep of the monkey.

 For Tibetan Buddhists, all experience is illusion. One way to achieve awareness of the illusory nature of reality is through work with dreams. Buddhism does not see the world itself as an illusion, but the emotions and concepts we hold which provoke our responses to the world are seen as the illusion. Therefore dreams are not thought of as being illusions, but depict the illusions of our everyday experience of life. The very nature of dreams are expressive of the complicated realm of fears, longings and mental concepts we are deeply enmeshed in. Nightmares especially show how deeply involved our waking self is with the internal world of passionate feelings and imagery.

 But then again, like most other religions, Buddhism also believes in prophetic dreams, dreams with significant meaningful interpretation and then the dreams that are meaningless and have no relevance whatsoever.

Dreams in Islam

The sacred book of Muslims, the Quran discusses the story of Prophet Yusuf(Joseph) and Yaqoub(Jacob) in chapter 'Yusuf', it states that Allah gave prophet Joseph the ability to interpret dreams.

[12:6] And thus will your Lord choose you and teach you the interpretation of sayings and make His favor complete to you and to the children of Yaqoub(Jacob), as He made it complete before to your fathers, Ibrahim(Abraham) and Ishaq(Isaac); surely your Lord is Knowing, Wise.

Prophet Yusuf's dream

Thus, in Islam, interpretation of dreams is a wisdom granted to chosen ones of Allah. From the examples of the dreams interpreted by Prophet Yusuf for the pharoah and his prison mates, we can see that it was but the most logical and sensible meaning that could be derived from them. This proves that even though the power to accurately interpret every dream is granted to only a few, but generally it is not the knowledge of 'ghaib' or the 'unknown', neither it is close to 'foretelling' but it is an application of good logic and reasoning based on personal instincts.

However, Islam recognizes a wide range of dreams as 'khuwab-e-pareshan' that translates disturbed dreams, which are the result of stress and do not mean anything.

Prophet Yusuf interpreting Pharoah's dream

In Islam, great importance is also given on the interpretation; positive interpretation causes positive effects and negative ones bring negativity. Thus in ahadith it is suggested to give positive interpretations to dreams and to be careful with whom you share your dream. Some traditions also maintain that one should refrain from sharing their bad dreams as it multiplies the negative effect of the dream.

Yet it is obvious that Islam believes in prophetic dreams or dreams with clear and obvious messages, these dreams manifest themselves into reality and therefore are a form of early signal of future happenings for the person.

According to the Quran, a person does not have his soul with him during sleep - applying that the conscious mind is switched off; a sleeping person has an awakened 'unconscious' which portrays itself in the form of dreams - since the unconscious can sometimes 'sense' what the conscious cannot, therefore it may be helpful in foreseeing.

Dreams in Judaism

Jacob's dream of ladder

In Judaism, there is considerable amount of literature on dreams, in Jewish thought dreams not only have significance but they can be even out-of-body experiences receiving important messages to the person.

The book of Genesis is scattered with dreams of the Patriarchs and others. The first dream is (28:12), Jacob dreamt of a ladder standing on the ground with its head in the heaven and angels ascending and descending. This was a message to Jacob that there will be new angels accompanying him during his journey to Charan replacing the angels who accompanied him in Israel (Rashi). Similarly, the dream of Joseph and the eleven stars (37:5) were a message that Joseph would in the future reign over his brothers in Egypt.

Joseph's dream of stars prostrating him

Thus Judaism maintains that dreams need to be sometimes interpreted as they might have meaningful messages relating to the person, someone else or occurrences in the world.

Jewish views on dream interpretation:
According to Jewish thought, there are four categories of dreams with regards to their interpretation.

The first category is of the dreams which have more than one possible interpretations that can be either negative or positive and therefore depend upon their interpretation for their effect. The realization of such dreams follows the mouth; if you interpret positive it turns out to be positive and vice versa.
In this category if none interprets the dream, although there exists the negative potential as there exists positive, there will be no negative effect in reality.

The second category comprises those dreams that have a particular interpretation and can therefore be considered either a negative or positive dream. But nevertheless its interpretation can change the dream from either positive to negative or from negative to positive.

The third category of dreams is prophetic. Prophetic dreams have only a single interpretation and cannot be changed, such as the dreams of prophet Joseph, Jacob and the Pharoah.

The fourth category represents the wide variety of dreams that have no relevance whatsoever.
The Abarabnel (Genesis 40:24) writes that dreams are the revelation of disorganized thoughts that are suppressed during waking hours and released during sleep. Such dreams are vain, have no meaning and have no effect one way or the other.

Dreams in Christianity

Even though modern Christians may not associate much importance with dreams and their interpretation, but their religious text does highlight the significance of dreams. There are about 121 mentions of dreams in the Bible. Prophet Joseph and Daniel are recorded as having interpreted dreams sent from God, and the Bible describes many incidents of dreams as divine revelation. An example of a Biblical dream is told in which Jacob sees a ladder to heaven.

In the old testament, God declares that He would speak through dreams and visions.

"Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream" (Num. 12:6)

The Bible also states that God may warn you or encourage you through dreams. It is believed that it is your subconscious self that speaks to you through your dreams. Dreams can be the means by which your mind tells you that you need a change in life.

Joseph's dream

We have with us the example of the great prophet Joseph who was bestowed with the power of precise interpretion of dreams. Prophet Joseph is not only accepted by Christians as such but  Muslims and Jews accept him alike as a prophet endowed with the capability of interpreting dreams, the Quran has a whole chapter about prophet Joseph. It is believed that he saved Egypt from years of famine based on the interpretation of the pharoah's dream, this points out to the fact that dreams do possess some meaning and can prove to be useful in preparing ourselves for the future.

Christian dream interpretors derive information from biblical texts, as such they have their own Dream Dictionary of Symbols, they have pre-set meanings for certain symbols such as a peacock represents vanity or eternal life while an apple is the symbol of sin due to its association with Adam and Eve's original sin.

What does Bible says about Dream Interpretation?

The Bible maintains that only those with an 'enlightenment of Truth' are fortunate enough to interpret the messages they receive through dreams. It is also not correct to interpret every dream as a message from God. The sources of dreams or premonitions that you experience are not always clear, thus the reasons behind them cannot be easily understood. 

The interpretations of dreams in the Bible are not dependent upon astrology nor upon any other occult science, but are simple and ingenuous. The dreams are interpreted symbolically. Seven fat cows mean seven fat years, etc.