E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Keith M. Eckrich, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
by
Price, Fifty Cents
The Dreamer 5
Varieties of Dreams 12
How to Evolve the Large Consciousness 37
Everybody dreams, but there are few who place any importance to thephenomena of sleep. Before we can begin to comprehend or even analyzedreams, whether our dreams are symbolic or otherwise, we must firstdivert from our mind our materialistic conceptions of what theindividual called man really is. The external or physical man, is nomore the man than the coat he wears. The physical man is only aninstrument of which the real inner man or soul expresses itself in thephysical universe. Various materialistic theories have been given inthe past, trying to explain the mighty phenomena of dreams, but thesetheories have always been more or less unsatisfactory. Why? Becausethe-materialist tries to explain the riddle of human existence withoutan individual human spirit his explanation will always beunsatisfactory.
Dreams afford a separation of soul and body. As soon as the sensesbecome torpid, the inner man withdraws from the outer. There are threedifferent ways which afford this separation. First, natural sleep.Second, induced sleep, such as hypnotism, mesmerism or trance. Third,death. In the above two cases the man has only left his physical bodytemporarily, whereas in death he has left it forever. In the case ofdeath, the link which unites soul and body, as seen by clairvoyantvision, is broken, but in trance or sleep it is released. The real manis then in the astral world. He now functions in his astral body,which becomes a vehicle for expressing consciousness, just as thephysical body is an instrument for expressing consciousness in thewaking state.
Consciousness is not annihilated when the man is in the Astral world,it is only temporarily suspended. Just the same as in the case ofdeath. The man is fully conscious in the astral regions clothed in thebody of the Astral matter. This Astral body is in the physical andextends little beyond it. The Astral world is here and now,interpenetrating the physical, and not in some remote region above theclouds as so many imagine.
* * * * *
Man is a soul. He has a body. He expresses himself in three worlds.While he functions in the physical body, viz., physical, emotional andmental worlds. Just as the Astral interpenetrates the physical themental interpenetrates the Astral. The Astral body in which manfunctions during sleep is the body of emotions and desires and heexpresses these desires and emotions in the physical life.
* * * * *
The Astral body in which man functions during sleep is very subtlematter. It resembles the physical. In fact, it is an exactreproduction of it, but it can only be seen by clairvoyant vision.When a man leaves his body in sleep or death, the spirit must leavethe physical body before it will be rested and recuperated to enableit to undergo the strenuous daily toil of physical life.
Here is an example. Let a man go to bed say ten o'clock. Let him sleepuntil six next morning. The ordinary man will awaken feeling refreshedand ready for his daily toil. Let