The Tamil Classification Of Dreams

The Tamil Classification Of Dreams 

Subsequent to Freud there were attempts to classify dreams in order to study them quantitatively in which coding system was devised for quantitative scoring. One of the most famous is the Hall/Van de Castle dream coding system ( See www.dreamresearch.net) in which we have categories as

1. Characters,

2. Social Interactions 

3. Activities 

4. Success and Failure, 

5. Misfortune and Good fortune 

6. Emotions 

7. Settings, 

8.Objects and finally 

9. Descriptive elements.  

Many quantitative studies have been conducted using this classificatory which is also questioned by some.  

I offer another, perhaps more complicated, than the above, derived by my own research in which I have used extensively concepts available in the Tantric Psychology texts of the Siddhas in the Tamil country.

What we have to classify is not just the dream processes but the whole lot of the unconscious processes  that become available for study in the Access Test that my associate Sivakumar R and myself have developed. 

This classification does not have a quantitative study in mind (though it can be done along these lines) but rather the UNDERSTANDING of  dreams and other unconscious processes and hence hermeneutical in is orientation. This system , though it goes back to the primitive times where medicine was not differentiated from magic, has evolved over the times and in the hands of great thinkers like Tirumoolar, has  become reasonably scientific.

I am taking this evolution a step further by providing  our Access Test ( now copyrighted and officially known as 'Loganathan and Sivakumar's Baum Test', LSBT in short ) as a way in which the whole system can be empirically  investigated, quantitatively or qualitatively. The "unconscious" is used not in the sense it is used widely in Analytical Psychology but rather in Heideggerian sense of something  remains covered-up, concealed  i.e. the maRaip poruL in Tantric texts as well. There is the  CONSCIOUS that is available as in  the open (veLippattu niRpathu) as opposed to that which remains still unavailable, concealed etc (veLippadaa niRpathu)  a distinction that goes back  to Tolkaapiyam (3rd cent. BC) itself.  This  Access Test provides a peep into these hidden and subterranean elements that also become available for consciousness in dreams and related processes. 

There are basically THREE parameters each of which are further differentiated:

A) The PROCESSES fabricating the dream and other unconscious elements.(called puththi )

B) the OUTCOMES or the ACCOMPLISHMENTS  directly related to above type of processes; ( the siththies) and  finally.

C) The EXISTENTIAL WORLD within which these unconscious elements are accessed and made elements of conscious understanding.( the aathaara cakras or kaRRaLi).

Any dream or elements similar to them must be located first in the three dimensional cell created by the above parameters.

Each of the above three are further classified as below:

A ) The puththies  :

1.mOhanam: the sexual and related matter

2 vasiyam: the seductive and enchanting

3 aakarsam: the magnetic, that which seeks to draw unto oneself and enslave

4 vithvEsanam: the educative and informative

5 uccaadanam: the exorcistic,  that which drives away something.

6 Peethanam: that which transmutes, tranforms or changes

7 Thambanam : that which arrests , prevents or avoids

8 MaaraNam: destructive an d death bringing

B ) The outcomes or siththies are classified as follows:

a) The personal :

1.  aNimaa: that which makes one small and inferior and disgrace , shame etc

2.  mahimaa: that which is opposed to the above and hence that which makes one feel great and hence flattering 

  

b) The psychological:

1. karimaa: the depressive, melancholy and other related states

2. lahimaa: that which is opposed to the above ie. That which lifts up the spirit and  makes        one cheerful and happy.

c) The motivational:

1. praththi: attaining what is desired, accomplishing and succeeding

    The social or personality related:

2. pirakaamiyam: being lovable  everybody; sanguinity

3. vaciththuvam:  magnetic and capable of drawing unto oneself many others as followers      etc

4. iisaththuvam: leadership qualities, the ability to rise up to commandeering position  of          Power and       Authority.

C ) The Existential worlds are six in number defined by the psychodynamics that constitutes the EXISTENCE of an individual.; the overall DESIRES that conditions the EXISTENCE of the person :

1. World 1 (muula aathaaram): the world of physical reality where existence is founded by worldly desires from which a person begins his existence any way

2. World 2 (swaathittaanam): The mental world where intellectual pursuits  become the matter of absorbing interest

3. World 3 (maNipuurakam): The depth psychological where the world of the UNCONCIOUS becomes that which is sught after

4. World  4 (anaakatham): disenchantment with the worldly and trying to workout FREEDOM from mundane desires

5. World  5 (vusuththi): the desire now becomes that of service to humanity and maintainign oneself in purity

6. World 6 (aaknjai) : the desire now becomes that of uplifting the whole of humanity through providing  deep and profound insights.

I am hoping that  this classification based on the Tamil psychology system and my own research will further the research on dreams, which are immensely relevant and maybe a necessity in this modern world, where the study of dreams have been drowned by the modern physical science which is dominated by quantitative studies alone.

ULLAGANAR

( Editing and re-paragraphing by his student )