what is dreams ?

A dream is the experience of envisioned images, sounds, or other sensations during sleep. The events of dreams are often impossible or unlikely to occur in physical reality, and are usually outside the control of the dreamer, (except in the case of lucid dreaming, in which the suspension of disbelief is broken and the dreamer realizes that he or she is dreaming—being sometimes even capable of changing the oneiric reality around him or her and controlling various aspects of the dream). Dreamers may experience strong emotions while dreaming. Frightening or upsetting dreams are referred to as nightmares. The scientific discipline of dream research is oneirology.

Dreams have a long history both as a subject of conjecture and as a source of inspiration (artistic or otherwise). Throughout history, people have sought meaning in dreams. They have been described physiologically as a response to neural processes during sleep, psychologically as reflections of the unconscious, and spiritually as messages from God or predictions of the future (oneiromancy).

In antiquity, dreams were thought to be part of the supernatural world, and were seen as messages from the gods.

Likewise, the Torah (known in Christianity as the first 5 books of the Old Testament) and Qur'an both tell the same story of Joseph, who was given the power to interpret dreams and act accordingly.

This continued into the Early Middle Ages. A story from Nevers, which is reproduced in the Golden Legend, states that one night the Emperor Charlemagne dreamed that he was saved of dying from a wild boar during a hunt. He was saved by the appearance of a child, who had promised to save the emperor from death if he would give him clothes to cover his nakedness. The bishop of Nevers interpreted this dream to mean that he wanted the emperor to repair the roof of the cathedral dedicated to the boy-saint Saint Cyricus.

In the Later Middle Ages, dreams were seen as temptations from the Devil, and thus were seen as dangerous.

However in India, scholars such as Charaka (300 BC) gave alternative explanations for the reasons behind dream. In Charaka Samhita, the explanation of dreams is as follows : "The cause of dreams are seven. They are what you have seen, heard, experienced, wish to experience, forced to experience, imagined and by the inherent nature of the body".

In the later 19th century according to the theories of Sigmund Freud, dreams were a reflection of human desires and were prompted by external stimuli.

Many tribal peoples believe that the human soul temporarily leaves the body during the dream-state, wandering in other worlds and meeting other souls, including those of the dead. These nocturnal journeys have provided a great deal of material for myth-making. In North America and Southeast Asia such voyages are thought to expose errant soul to the danger of abduction by a sorcerer or malevolent spirit; when this happens, local shamans are customarily employed to search for and retrieve the lost soul.” (Willis, p.33)