dreams, whether our dreams are symbolic or otherwise, we must first
divert from our mind our materialistic conceptions of what the
individual called man really is. The external or physical man, is no
more the man than the coat he wears. The physical man is only an
instrument of which the real inner man or soul expresses itself in the
physical universe. Various materialistic theories have been given in
the past, trying to explain the mighty phenomena of dreams, but these
theories have always been more or less unsatisfactory. Why? Because
the-materialist tries to explain the riddle of human existence without
an individual human spirit his explanation will always be
unsatisfactory.

Dreams afford a separation of soul and body. As soon as the senses
become torpid, the inner man withdraws from the outer. There are three
different ways which afford this separation. First, natural sleep.
Second, induced sleep, such as hypnotism, mesmerism or trance. Third,
death. In the above two cases the man has only left his physical body
temporarily, whereas in death he has left it forever. In the case of
death, the link which unites soul and body, as seen by clairvoyant
vision, is broken, but in trance or sleep it is released. The real man
is then in the astral world. He now functions in his astral body,
which becomes a vehicle for expressing consciousness, just as the
physical body is an instrument for expressing consciousness in the
waking state.

Consciousness is not annihilated when the man is in the Astral world,
it is only temporarily suspended. Just the same as in the case of
death. The man is fully conscious in the astral regions clothed in the
body of the Astral matter. This Astral body is in the physical and
extends little beyond it. The Astral world is here and now,