Are Dreams Meaningful Essay Example

thing as well as it can be understood.

Having mentioned that, the negative answer to the question above would be that God is incomprehensible because God is infinitely comprehensible. Kelsey (1974) emphasizes that Aquinas does not claim that the inability to understand is entrenched in a part of God that is denied to the limited intellect, in its quest for spiritual understanding. Incomprehensibility results not so much from a lack of lumen gloriae (divine light), but more from its purity which is overwhelming to the limited intellect. Thomas approaches this idea with due foresight.In stating that the difficulty in understanding God lies in God's unlimited ability to be comprehended, he effectively avoids alternatives objectionable to the Christian faith. The same idea may be used in coming to a decision on whether dreams are meaningful or not.

To humanity, the entire universe is revealed as one extraordinary order. It comprises an indefinitely great number of substances, each one related to the other in a variety of ways. Above all, however, each one has a certain objective as a result of which, it is inferior to some and superior to certain others.To achieve these purposes they each have their own metaphysical structure. Therefore dreams must have a purpose and structure, which then, plausibly points to the need for them to be meaningful. As an added result, because all things interact more or less immediately with everything else, the process of dreaming is part of the process or sensation of being alive.

Such a precise and established order can be understood only by humanity, which has been gifted with intelligence and free will. Humanity, though a part of the

cosmic order, also aids in resolving what that order is.Every atom of every individual substance contains the interpretation of each and every cosmic and social order. In each of them man can see the hierarchy and interrelation of parts.

Dreams form a part of human functioning that may be critical to our greater understanding of the universe, but just like God’s comprehensibility is too “boundless” for the limits of our intellectual capacity. Taking it a step further, it is important to remember that the idea of awareness is basic to existence, since all things are part of the same universe.Due to the core nature of awareness, whether a person is awake or participating in a dream, he or she is still aware (Flanagan, 2001). It is therefore not possible to diminish the meaningfulness or value of awareness in a dream unless the meaningfulness of being aware while awake is also dismissed.

In conclusion, though there has been found to be no empirical evidence to suggest that dreams share any link with an individual’s personality, dreams are an advanced part of the individual, something that is there but from which no meaning can be derived as of yet.Also dreams are as much a part of our awareness as is the sensation of being awake and its importance should therefore not be diminished. The proper interpretation of dreams will probably be possible the day humanity is able to better understand itself and have a deeper understanding of the workings of the universe. BIBLIOGRAPHY Aquinas,Saint Thomas.

Aquinas's Shorter Summa: Saint Thomas's Own Concise Version of His Summa Theologica. Manchester: Sophia Institute Press, 2001. Flanagan, Owen. Dreaming Souls: Sleep,

Dreams and the Evolution of the Conscious Mind (Philosophy of Mind Series).

New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 2001. Fredericks, James L. Faith Among Faiths: Christian Theology and Non-Christian Religions. New York: Paulist Press, 1999. Kelsey, Morton.

1974. God, Dreams, and Revelation: A Christian Interpretation of Dreams. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House. The Oxford Companion to the Mind.

New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 2004. Tedlock, Barbara (editor). 1987. Dreaming: Anthropological and Psychological Interpretations. New York: Cambridge University Press.