DREAM GALAXY

Oral history · Falling & stuck

Four nights of flying from a cliff

Minnesota River · c. 1860s (told)

He once dreamed four nights in succession of flying from a high cliff over the Minnesota river. He recollected every particular of the scene, and it made a great impression upon his mind.

Original text — Indian Boyhood, Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa)

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Source
Indian Boyhood — Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa), 1902. Ch. XI, The Laughing Philosopher
Rights
Public domain (US)
Record type
Oral history
Place
Minnesota River · Native American, Dakota
Date
c. 1860s (told)
Uncertainty
High — Told by Charles A. Eastman (Ohiyesa), a Dakota physician and writer, from the stories of his own people. Told as a comic tale: Hachah tried to fly from the real cliff and landed in the river.
Imagery
Flight · Heights · River · Falling
Feelings
Wonder · Longing

Another way to look at this dream

Notes on the images in this dream from psychology, myth, folklore and semiotics. Each names its source.

Flight

How did flying feel — effortless, effortful, frightening? Is there something in your waking life you would like to rise above, or see from higher up?

Jung · Compensation

Jung thought dreams often compensate for a one-sided waking attitude: they show the side we leave out. A flying dream can be read either way — lightness someone lacks, or a height they have climbed too fast.

C. G. Jung, “General Aspects of Dream Psychology”, Collected Works 8

Early dream research Dream research

Ellis gave flying and falling dreams a whole chapter, “Aviation in Dreams”, and explained flying mainly through breathing sensations during sleep.

Havelock Ellis, The World of Dreams (1911), ch. VI

Classical Chinese medicine Historical medicine

The Lingshu says that when the upper body is in excess, “one dreams of flying”. This is a historical theory about the body, not medical advice and not a way to diagnose anything.

Huangdi Neijing, Lingshu ch. 43 “Yinxie Fameng”

All perspectives on flight →

Falling

Where were you standing before the fall? Were you reaching for something to hold, or letting go?

Jung · Descent

In his memoir Jung describes deliberately “letting himself drop” into an inner depth in 1913, and treated descent as a way of meeting what lies below everyday awareness — frightening, but not only a disaster.

C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962)

Early dream research Dream research

Ellis explained falling dreams through bodily sensations at the edge of sleep. Sleep researchers today describe the related “hypnic jerk”, a sudden start while falling asleep.

Havelock Ellis, The World of Dreams (1911), ch. VI

Classical Chinese medicine Historical medicine

The same passage of the Lingshu pairs flying with falling: when the lower body is in excess, “one dreams of falling”. This is a historical theory about the body, not medical advice and not a way to diagnose anything.

Huangdi Neijing, Lingshu ch. 43 “Yinxie Fameng”

All perspectives on falling →

Water

Was the water clear or muddy, still or rising? Which water in your own life — a place, a swim, a flood — does it bring back first?

Jung · The unconscious

Jung called water the most common image for the unconscious: something deep, below the surface, that we can look into but not see through.

C. G. Jung, “Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious”, Collected Works 9i

Classical Chinese medicine Historical medicine

The Lingshu pairs dream images with the balance of yin and yang: when yin is excessive, one “dreams of wading through great water, and is afraid”. This is a historical theory about the body, not medical advice and not a way to diagnose anything.

Huangdi Neijing, Lingshu ch. 43 “Yinxie Fameng”

Hebrew Bible; Babylonian myth Myth & scripture

Several creation stories begin with primordial water — “darkness was upon the face of the deep” in Genesis, the fresh-water Apsu in the Babylonian Enuma Elish. Here water is what exists before order.

Genesis 1:2; Enuma Elish I

All perspectives on water →

Exploration notes, not a diagnosis, a prediction, or evidence of real events.

Dreams that share its images