“One of the most important questions for an adherent of transcendental realism would have to be: How does the Ego produce the world of mental pictures out of itself? A world of mental pictures which was given to us, and which disappeared as soon as we shut our senses to the external world, might kindle as earnest desire for knowledge, in so far as it was a means of investigating indirectly the world of the I-in-itself. If the things of our experience were “mental pictures”, then our everyday life would be like a dream, and the discovery of the true state of affairs would be like waking. Now our dream images interest us as long as we dream and consequently do not detect their dream character. But as soon as we wake, we no longer look for the inner connections of our dream images among themselves, but rather for the physical, physiological and psychological processes which underlie them. In the same way, a philosopher who holds the world to be his mental picture cannot be interested in the mutual relations of the details within the picture. If he allows for the existence of a real Ego at all, then his question will be, not how one of his mental pictures is linked with another, but what takes place in the independently existing soul while a certain train of mental pictures passes through his consciousness. If I dream that I am drinking wine which makes my throat dry, and then wake up with a cough, I cease, the moment I wake, to be interested in progress of the dream for its own sake. My attention is now concerned only with the physiological and psychological processes by means of which the irritation which causes me to cough comes to be symbolically expressed in the dream picture. Similarly, once the philosopher is convinced that the given world consists of nothing but mental pictures, his interest is bound to switch at once from this world to the real soul which lies behind. The matter is more serious, however, for the adherent of illusionism who denies altogether the existence of an Ego-in-itself behind the mental pictures, or at least holds this Ego to be unknowable.”

-Rudolf Steiner

Ego Produces Mental Pictures

Steiner uses the word ego to refer to the conscious mind. The mind does produce mental pictures, but that doesn’t mean that the world of matter doesn’t exist. It means that the realm of matter is a realm of illusion, and we see things differently than what they really are. A proof of this is the fact that we sometimes see things differently from what others see. I can remember once a friend and I were going into work and noticed a black thing on the hallway floor several feet ahead of us. Both of us saw it as a large black beetle. When we got closer, though, we found it was just a piece of a plastic trash bag. What was really there didn’t change; only our mental image of it did. What’s hard for many people to grasp is that the image of a piece of plastic bag was just as much an illusion as the beetle. There is a reality behind those illusions, but it is probably just an unformed bit of energy. Quantum Physics tells us that things change when we observe them. Some interpret that to mean we are creating reality, but in fact we are only creating illusions.

Dream Images

Dream images are not the same as mental pictures. Dream images are usually not random nonsense or the conscious mind simply cleaning house, as some claim. Dream images can reveal a lot about our self and our world if we know how to understand them. First, dream images are almost always allegorical, so a good dream dictionary is needed to get an idea of what they mean. Second, the time of night during which we have the dream changes what it is about. Dreams that happen during the first hour or two if sleep are about the past, so they can generally be ignored. Dreams that happen in the middle of our sleep period are about the present and can reveal things we are not aware of, such as an illness we have. Dreams that happen in the last hour or two of sleep are about the future, so they are usually the most significant. The key is to understand the allegorical symbols in the dream and then put them together like the pieces of a puzzle. We also have to remember our dreams. I find that simply telling myself to remember as I am going to sleep helps. We also need to know when dreams are false and should be ignored. Certain foods can affect dreams, especially when eaten in the evening. For example, eating beans in the evening can cause meaningless nightmares.

Interest Changes

Steiner says that once we understand that the physical world is one of illusion, we will turn to the real world of spirit and concentrate on developing our spiritual Self. While that is true for some, it doesn’t always happen. Some accept that the world of matter is an illusion, but don’t believe in a spiritual world. Fortunately, we are seeing a growing interest in the spiritual, even if it is only in reading the books of self-declared spiritual gurus. In my opinion, any steps in the right direction are better than no progress at all.