“Dreaming Away Pandemic Nightmares” (Linkedin)

 My new article on Linkedin “Dreaming Away Pandemic Nightmares”

Either awake or asleep, thoughts about the pandemic haunt all of humanity like no other event in the last century. Covid-19 nightmares around the world are one of the most recent subjects of study. Harvard University research confirmed that people worldwide are experiencing remarkable changes in the frequency and nature of their dreams as a result of the global health emergency. This further confirms that the virus impacts humanity as a single body, and therefore, it is high time that we start acting as such.

The repercussions from the coronavirus are not isolated incidents but global occurrences that affect the whole human race. Daytime fears and concerns about the pandemic remain trapped inside people’s minds at night while they sleep according to a Harvard Medical School study. The research evaluated thousands of responses to a global survey recounting similar bizarre dreams of swarms of killer bugs and other virus-related imagery, regardless of people’s location and occupation.

Dreams are constructed from a set of thoughts and desires that a person accumulates during the day. Even if he may not be aware of them, they remain below the surface in one’s subconscious. When a person puts his head on their pillow and falls asleep, he no longer has control over his thoughts and hidden desires. During sleep they are withdrawn from the individual’s memory and arise in the form of dreams.

When our emotions, ideas, sensations, and desires are free from limitations, free from the oppression of the outside world, and without physical boundaries, they connect and integrate into a dream, mixing up elements and experiences which many times manifest in an illogical and bizarre way. This process has given rise to all kinds of theories and speculation about their origin and interpretation. But dreams are nothing more than that, a psychosocial and physiological process. At the end of the day, what we are is flesh with an internal nervous system that awakens us all the time and does not let us rest even in our sleep when our brain is no longer working at full power.

Dreaming is an important mechanism that allows us to process images and get rid of them. Sometimes dreams are not simple, they can put us into unpleasant situations, stress, and fears. It is therefore advisable to read something soothing or even funny before bedtime. Reading Psalms can also help to channel the thoughts in a good direction. Sex can also ease stress and release the body from the tension it has accumulated during the day.

The stress of our daily life since the coronavirus outbreak has become a worldwide phenomena. According to the wisdom of Kabbalah, this period is a time when humanity completes its stage of individual development and moves on to a higher and new stage in which all individuals connect as one body, to be as one family, one soul. Therefore, it is only natural that even nightmares are now globally similar as the world itself has become global and round.

We have all become connected, we share common challenges and experiences. We go through the same pandemic and face the same crises while we are awake. Although everyone thinks about their personal life, about their family and work, these individual thoughts are now merged in the world’s collective consciousness so our experiences are increasingly similar. These new conditions present a remarkable opportunity to transform our nightmare into the dream of a more pleasant world and vivid reality.