Image: Author. Digitally drawn and manipulated collage.
I've had 45 years to get used to the idea that human civilisation will, at some point in my lifetime, descend into an 'apocalypse'. I was 15 in 1975 when I dreamed about it. This particular apocalyptic dream presented an image of immeasurably tall metal structures stretching high into the sky, breaking apart and crashing to the ground. Even at 15, long before I got into spiritaul philosophy and Jung, I knew it was significant. I had several of these epic dreams. I tried to draw the destruction, to make sense of it and get it out of my head - but I failed.
Over my lifetime I've had quite a few of what I now know to be 'numinous' dreams. I have learnt to trust that they are archetypal because they are accompanied by a couple of signifiers. First of all - I always wake abruptly in dread, sit bolt upright in the bed with the sound of my own heart beating wildly and loudly in my ears. It's a strange disembodied sensation, like my heart is actually inside my head. In that instant I know, without doubt, this dream is a message from the unconscious and it is telling me something very important. The second is harder to articulate - it's a sense of 'gnosis', of knowing beyond doubt that this dream holds a fundamental truth that I should not ignore. There is a quality about it that is impossible to dismiss.
The language of dreams is symbolic. If the physical signs hadn't been there, this dream would have had a different meaning. Some dreams are more personal, they come from the 'personal' unconscious and uncover hidden aspects of your own psyche. They are still valuable, but they are more to do with what's going on in your own consciousness, your own life.
“Dreams are impartial, spontaneous products of the unconscious psyche, outside the control of the will. They are pure nature; they show us the unvarnished, natural truth, and are therefore fitted, as nothing else is, to give us back an attitude that accords with our basic human nature when our consciousness has strayed too far from its foundations and run into an impasse.” [Collected Works Volume 10, paragraph 317]
Jung saw dreams as the psyche’s way of communicating important things because they alerted the individual to what was really going on. Knowing what is going on is important in what Jung called the process of 'individuation' or the evolution of individual consciousness.
My apocalypse dream wasn't a 'personal' dream. Jung also wrote about the 'archetypal unconscious' - the shared, timeless repository of human consciousness. In my thesis I decided to use the term 'numen' for this realm - just to separate it from the quagmire of the 'unconscious' that Freud also wrote about. For me, 'numen' is akin to 'Godhead'.
'The numen makes its presence known in various ways, 'as a numinous dream, a waking vision, an experience in the body....in the wilderness....' (Corbett in Frantom, 2013:22)
Despite the fact that I am keeping up the 'good fight' by sharing and commenting on socials about topics that range from climate change to Trump to multi-nationals and the environment - deep in my heart I know it is futile. I'm fighting because it's what humans do - it's that old survival instinct kicking in. In the end instinct is no match for the numinous dream, or what I am witnessing right now with my own eyes.
Image: Author. Digitally manipulated collage.
Super-viruses, environmental degradation, fires, species' extinction, acidification of the oceans, reduction of rainfall in already drought-prone areas, degraded soils, plastics, overpopulation, powerful multi-nationals replacing impotent governments, #Cult 45 signalling not only the death of democracy but decency and ethics - you don't need a dream to convince you that the human race is nearly over. And it looks like we are going to lose.
This was such an interesting and enlightening read. I don't think I've ever had a numinous dream that you describe. I agree that we humans are in a downward spiral that will end with our extinction. It is utterly depressing to be bearing witness to such a thing in this early stage.
ReplyDeleteI hope you don't mind me telling you this story. In August of 2011 I woke in the night with a headache that was unbearably painful. I waited to see if it would go away, but after an hour the pounding was too much, and I woke my husband and asked him to take me to the emergency room. They ran some tests, and I saw a neurologist who declared that I had a "neurological event" (not a stroke). The pain diminished, and I didn't think anymore about it until one day a couple of weeks later I burned my hand while cooking with very hot oil. It was a very bad burn, probably a 2nd degree. I felt it happen and then never felt it again at all. It was then that I realized that I had also stopped remembering my dreams. I used to dream in the most incredible details. I could recount a dream on and on and on. I no longer remembered a single thing and still don't all these years later. Blank. Nothing. But every now and then, if I have a nightmare I can remember it. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, I remember. That's when I started to wonder if nightmares are generated by a different part of the brain. Your post made me wonder if numinous dreams are also generated by a different part of the brain. Is that even possible? I have no idea.
Thankyou for sharing your story Robin. There are many ways of looking at life - there are many different conceptual frameworks. I believe many of these frameworks are right, but as a seeker for most of my life I have chosen one that works for me. I'm not a medical doctor so I can only give my opinion in this context.
DeleteIt seems to me that your neurological event did change something in your brain. I fully acknowledge the material manifestation of the body and any symptoms as 'real', but I guess my fundamental position is that of 'energy' first, followed by the physical as a manifestation of that energy. So I always look beyond the physical to the energetic forces that have created it. I'm not a physicist either but I did read a bit about quantum physics in relation to the findings of quantum scientists that matter is actually created from the void - they have done experiments that demonstrate this - so I suspect physics supports my orientation to 'energy first, then material' on some level.
I think it is possible that numinous dreams come from a different part of the brain but I don't know much about it. What I do know is that the brain is incredibly complex and seems to defy, even contradict, scientific assumptions about it. As in, it is now acknowledged that the brain can repair itself in some cases. I have noticed things about my own brain though - one that I have become more 'dyslexic' with age. I attribute this to the fact that I am an artist constantly shifting from the creative to the intellectual and have succeeded in weakening the cortex that divides left brain thinking from right. The presence of this cortex is now in dispute, but I swear I can tell when my brain shifts from one to the other. It is like a 'click' - one minute not really 'seeing' something I am looking at to 'ah, there it is. I can see it now'. I have demonstrated this to myself many times.
Re not remembering your dreams. I find when I am really absorbed in my daily life and don't attend to the 'spiritual' - which may simply mean sitting in reflection even for a few minutes, or watching my breathing as a sit quietly - I don't remember my dreams. As soon as I start doing some meditation, even if it's just short sessions, I start remembering my dreams again. Scientists say we dream all the time but only ever remember a fraction of them. My numinous dreams have appeared at times in my life when I go deeper into myself and acknowledge that my existence has a spiritual basis. In the end I think it's a matter of 'connection' - of neurological/energetic pathways that get blocked or redivert or link up.
Hope that makes sense.
Thank you so much for your reply. I appreciate your perspective and taking the time to write it down for me. Our brains are such complicated things.
ReplyDeleteI've been corresponding with my twin brother. He sent us this link yesterday... an article written 2017. You probably have already read this, but just in case:
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/climate-change-earth-too-hot-for-humans.html
Wow, that's quite an article Robin. I posted it on Facebook. Thanks.
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