Oneiromancy
Oneiromancy is a form of divination based upon dreams; it is a system of dream interpretation that uses dreams to predict the future.
Dreams occur throughout the Bible as omens or messages from God:
• Jacob dreams of a ladder to heaven (Genesis 28);
• his son Joseph dreamed of his future success (Genesis 37) and intrepreted the dreams of the Pharaoh of Egypt (Genesis 41);
• Solomon conversed with God in his dreams;
• Daniel interpreted dreams (in the Book of Daniel);
• Joseph, husband of Mary, was directed to flee to Egypt (Matthew 2);
• Paul was told to go to Macedonia (Acts 16).
Aristotle and Plato both discuss dreams in various works. Artemidorus gives a list of authors mentioned in his Oneirocritica, the longest of the ancient dreambooks. All of the referenced works are lost, but fragments are preserved in Artemidorus and other ancient authors. Achmet wrote an edition of Artemidorus Oneirocritica in addition to his own. Astrampsychus was the pseudonymous author of a number of divinatory, magical and medical works, including an Oneirocriticon.
Oneiromancy is also used as a type of magic in the Dungeons & Dragons game, which influences, interprets or alters dreams, and also has an effect on the fictional Plane of Dreams, or Dreamscape.
Dream interpretation
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Dream interpretation is the process of assigning meanings to dreams. Various systems of dream interpretation have assigned meanings in terms of future events (oneiromancy), in terms of chance events during the night, and in terms of unconscious mental activity — to name a few.
Dream interpretation was taken up as part of psychoanalysis at the end of the 19th Century; the manifest content of a dream (what is perceived in the dream) is analyzed to reveal the latent content of a dream (the underlying thoughts of the dream — why it was dreamt). One of the seminal works on the subject is The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud.
There has been much scientific research on dreams, and modern theories attempt to explain as many facts found in scientific research as possible. These include:
• The cause and purpose of dreams
• The content of dreams
• The varying frequencies of dreams (more before birth, fewer towards death; increased in premature births, etc.)
• The relationship between dreams and depression
• The possible evolutionary role of dreaming
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