The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-03-12
THOMAS PRIME
TALKS On DREAMS
lnterprets Their Phenomena
From the Viewpoint
of TheosOphy.

delivered last night by Mr.. Thomas
osophical Society:
I have been asked to speak tonight
on the subject of dreams, and al
though it may not be regarded as a
very important part Of the Theosophi-
cal studies, it is at any rate an inter-
esting subject and since dreams are
common experiences of almost all of
US, it may be we'll to understand how
much or how little they mean or are
of Importance. A few people sleep
very soundly and rarely dream at all
but all of us sometimes dream and 1t
must be interesting to have some ex-
PLANTATION of these dreams; how some
times they are quite confused, are i'm
probable and absurd, and at other
times they seem to have certain
amount of truth about them and we
feel that they are very different from
the ordinary type of dream. I sup
pose too that quite a number of us
have had experiences of dreams COM
ing true, of dreams which have proved
to be provisions of something about to
occur, of something which had already
occurred or was then occurring at a
distance, perchance thousands of miles
away from the sleeping body,
All these different varieties of
dreams require some explanation.
There is a good deal of difficulty in
arriving at a satisfactory explanation
along the lines laid down by students
of psychology, but in our Theosophical
system we have an explanation which
seems more perfect and more salts
factory than we get outside our sys-
tenn, and I will try to indicate what
that explanation is.
Those of you who have attended the
former lectures given in this room will
be aware that our Theosophica1 teach
ing takes for granted the existence of
various planes in nature, consisting OF
other types of matter very much finer
than the matter of the physical world;
in it's essence it is the same matter
but in state of much greater sub
division, and vibrating at a much more
rapid rate and consequently not limit
ed to the laws of nature as we see
them with regard to physical matter.
This finer matter is perfectly real, ex-
listing just as truly as does physical
matter and is perceptible to senses
higher than the physical senses. Now
man has within himself matter of all
these different types and by means of
it he is able to sense the higher levels
and to receive impressions from them
if he has developed the faculties nee
essary for SO doing. In the physical
world man is constantly receiving i'm
pressions from outside through the
channels of his senses which belong
to his physical body, in a similar way
he can and does receive impressions
from other planes of more refined and
subdivided matter by means of the
matter he has within himself and
which corresponds to them. So we
understand that a man is much more
than merely a body and a soul. The
soul is the man owning several vehf-
cles of consciousness and all of them
channels through which communica-
tons may reach him. The lowest and
densest of these is the physical body,
composed of the solids, liquids and
gases of the physical plane. There
are finer conditions of physical matter
than these, they are known as the
others, and man has a vehicle of con-
seriousness composed of them, it is call
ed the etheric body and through 1t
flows the life-force called prana. These
two bodies are not usually ASSOCIATED
from each other during physical life
and for our present study we may re-
gard them as acting together as one
vehicle of consciousness.
From the more rarefied matter or
the next plane of nature, called the
astral plane, man has his astral body.
1t is his vehicle Of desires, in it he
feels all his emotions and passions
love and hate are all felt in vibrations
of this astral body. Higher still is the
mental body made from the mental
plane, the one next above the astral,
of it's matter thoughts are built, in it
the vibrations of thoughts are felt.
All these bodies must be regarded
as interpenetrating each other. To the
scientific student there will be no diff
ficulty in this idea of INTERPRETATION,
since he knows, or at any rate, reason
tells him, that even in "solid' Steel
the chemical atoms are far apart from
each other, floating, as it were, in seas
of ether. The finer matter of one
plane of nature can interpenetrate
that of a denser plane far more read
iIy than, for instance, water can run
in between particles of sand. So we
think of astral matter interpenetrat1ng
the denser physical matter, of mental
matter interpenetrating astral and so
on, for there are still higher planes
of nature than those we have to con-
slider now.
In his waking consciousness man
will usually have all his bodies in use
at the same time, the impulses from
the mind and desire bodies impelling
the physical body to action. The phys
icaI body has some consciousness of
it's own, some things it can do for it
self, the taking of breath, the beating
of the heart, for instance, are under
it's control, but generally speaking the
physical body is impelled to action by
impulses or messages received from
the higher vehicles. The brain is not
tha mind, it is the instrument for re-
ceiving and interpreting messages sent
TO it. 1t is indeed a very sensitive
instrument and liable to be very con-
siderabIy affected by all sorts of small
disturbances of the body. People Of
ten think of the brain as being always
reliable up TO its own level of compre-
hension. It is no such thing; II may be
affected in it's power TO respond 10
impressions by quite number OF
things. it is dependent upon the con-
dition of the body for its true work
ing. The blood which circulates
off it very SPTi-