Journey into the Egyptian Dream World Imagine a world where the boundaries of reality are broken: Humans can fly, fish can walk, and stone walls speak about the history of the universe. It seems like an asinine idea, but it is something that mankind has been experiencing since the beginning of time via dreams. While some say dreams are just the unconscious mind manipulating thoughts and images during sleep, others think the dream world is a sacred place. To the ancient Egyptians dreams were not just meaningless brain “noise,” but rather a gateway to the future and the heavens. Through intense study, and expert interpreters, ancient Egyptians used dream exploration to solve problems and communicate with gods. Cultures throughout history …show more content…
The ancient Egyptians viewed dreams as a realm where they could directly communicate with the gods. There were three main gods that were worshiped for sleep: Tithoes, Bes, and Neith-Athena. Tithoes appears to have been a popular god, worshipped by ordinary people. He has an apotropaic character and is linked to the warrior Bes and to Neith-Athena. Just like these two gods, he was considered to protect believers from all danger whilst they were asleep. They also believed dreams foreshadowed the future, and the scenes were often drawn on scrolls of papyrus. They depicted anything from animals with human qualities doing odd jobs, to humans engaging in sexual intercourse. This is evidence that the Egyptians also had many dreams that were difficult to explain. For example, one side of the scroll may have portrayed a carefree, stress-less environment full of intercourse, but the alternative side illustrated a world that was full of chaos. This was an indication that while the ancient Egyptians believed dreams were powerful, angelic phenomena, there was also a forceful dark side. If a bad dream occurred the Egyptians were instructed to go to the cellar, eat bread, drink beer, and pray to the