#sleep #dream #healing
“In the ancient world, many cultures built elaborate temple complexes dedicated to their healer gods – Imhotep in Egypt and Asklepios in Greece”— Paul Ebeling
These gods were recognized as having the power to cure supplicants from a variety of ailments within sleep and sacred dreams.
Those who desired healing might travel many hundreds of miles to reach such a temple, working through periods of fasting and purification, taking part in invocation rituals, drinking water from holy, mineral-rich springs and observing a variety of other devotional customs before finally lying down upon a ‘sacred skin’ to await a curative reverie. This process was called incubation – ‘to lie upon’.
A sleep temple is a hospital for the spirit body.
Although real-life operations did also take place, the sleep temple was primarily an infirmary for that ethereal aspect of our being that slips into unmanifested realms each night when we fall asleep.
Sleep states and dream revelations were viewed as important indicators of health, and dreams were seen as an opportunity for mortals to connect with higher divine energies capable of inspiring miraculous healing.
The Big Q: Does modern science reject the idea of a human being having a soul outright?
The Big A: Contemporary pharmaceutical medicine seems to have little interest in matters of the spirit – which was the tradition at the heart of the healing arts employed by our ancestors.
However, current scientific research does however validate the veracity of the placebo effect and the efficacy of therapeutic treatments aimed at the unconscious mind and autonomic nervous system, such as hypnosis, meditation and fasting.
State of mind clearly has a profound influence upon the physical health of any person. The proof of placebo power alone shows that belief and suggestion must sometimes unconsciously activate the body’s natural maintenance system, aka homeostasis. These unconscious processes might be more readily available to a patient during a sleep state. The placebo effect might actually become embedded during sleep, when the climate for healing and regeneration is at an optimum and certain genes are switched on that are always switched off during waking hrs.
Have a prosperous day, Keep the Faith!
