Sri Aurobindo

Letters of Sri Aurobindo

Volume 1. 1933-34

Fragment ID: 16657

1933-34

When I once asked you whether a certain dream was an attack by a vital force, you said “Yes”. And you added: “There are other dreams that are formations put in by the vital forces, but this is not one of them.” Please elucidate the difference.

I said this dream was an actual happening on the vital plane, not a formation. If somebody attacks you in the street, that is not a formation. But if somebody hypnotises you and suggests that you are ill – that suggestion is a formation put in by the hypnotiser.

It depends on the dream. It is sometimes a fact on the supraphysical plane, sometimes a representation in the mind of something that happened otherwise – sometimes only a formation.