On Dreams

Q: When one sleeps one gets dreams also. Have these dreams anything to do with the brain?

Dreams have nothing to do with the brain. A dream is merely a confused transcript in sleep of something that happens behind. The thing gets confused because the controlling mind is not there. All sorts of things rush up from the passive memory, events of the day, impressions of the mind. If the mind remains conscious in dreams, you can know the working that takes place behind. Some dreams correctly represent what is taking place behind — such dreams are clear and cogent.

As I said about Samadhi, so also about dreams, it is very difficult to say what happens exactly on the physical plane. All things on the physical plane are merely devices — they are a system of notation,— just like the wireless or telegraphic notation. It is a convenient device for sending messages, but often we get too busy with the device and mistake it for the thing that it is behind the device.

And this applies to all scientific discoveries. For instance, when you say “hydrogen and oxygen in certain proportions form water”, the statement does not explain anything. It only state a fact. You do not know what water is. It only means there is something behind which manifests itself as water under those conditions.

It is the same with the theory of “electrons”. So far as the physical facts are concerned the theory may be perfectly true. But why should the blessed electrons, which are fundamentally the same substance, form totally different elements and compounds by the change of arrangement of the same number?

– Sri Aurobindo