Dreams

In my religions class we are currently discussing the connection between culture and religion. As I was doing my reading for the class, a few Native American examples of culture were introduced that I found interesting, one of which was their interpretation of dreams. One view that Indians have of dreams is that the soul quits the body at nights and goes out to hunt, dance, and visit--all things attractive to the soul, which a waking man must strive to obtain in order to prevent his soul from quitting his body altogether. A second vision of their dreams involve human souls coming from without to visit the sleeper, who sees them as dreams. Native Americans suppose the dream is a visit from the soul of a person or object dreamt of, or a sight seen by the rational soul who has gone out for an excursion, as the sensitive soul remains in the body. I thought this was an interesting take on dream interpretation and I'm fascinated over their view on what dreams are because I've never really thought about them in that way before. I always interpreted dreams as more of a quick glimpse into our subconscious mind rather than a spiritual experience--it's interesting to view other cultures different views of what a dream is.