a great unknown in science. We take them as a mere echo of diurnal experience. Freud believed dreams expressed unfulfilled desires. Ancient peoples took dreams so seriously that kings had their dreams explained to them and took decisions in accordance with them. They regarded dreams as a harbinger of the future. There are 27 night visions mentioned in the Bible (Singer and Adler 1906, 654; Habermann 1909, 154). Plotting them against a time axis we get a 500-year rhythm (see Fig. 1 and 2). For the Jews it was Gabriel, the angel of dreams, God’s messenger, who took over the reins of the ruling spirit of time every 500 years. Is the imaginative, right hemisphere activated collectively in a 500-year cycle? Can dreams contain some useful information inaccessible to the waking consciousness? The temples of Asclepius served as ancient medical institutions. After a preliminary purification, the patients slept at the altar of the god who appeared to them in their dreams and revealed the therapy prescribed by the priest. Long before the patient begins to feel ill, various color forms can be observed in the dream consciousness affecting the organ that will become sick (a black serpent bites into the kidney, say). Not only the location, but also the character of the impending illness could be deduced from these colors and forms. It can be diagnosed at the level of the soul before the corresponding organic changes detectable by instruments take place. We have positron tomography worth millions, but we make no use of dreams, which are free. It sounds quite reasonable that deeper layers of our consciousness might tell us something about the state of our own body. But could they also inform us about the nature of reality around us? Could a required herb simply appear to the patient in a dream? In a similar manner, animals are able to discern and find medicaments, which can help them (zoopharmacognosy). In doing so, they do not use rational thinking – they are constantly in a state akin to a dream. What is the true meaning of the wordsymbol? The rose is the symbol of love. A true symbol contains real knowledge. Phenylethyl alcohol is the major and characteristic constituent of rose scent. It is a chemical compound closely related to phenylethylamine, the molecule of love, which is synthesized by the limbic system when one falls in love. Let us take a Greek myth. Endymion, for example, is the lover of the moon goddess; he is forever young and always asleep. Experts in religious studies find it to be no more than pure fantasy. In fact, there is biochemical knowledge encrypted there. Silver is a metal sacred to lunar deities. Silver rejuvenates and accelerates regeneration. It is used for the revivification of tissues. However, it also induces vivid imagination and sleepiness (Selawry 1966). Or the myth about Aphrodite, born of sea foam on the shores of Cyprus. The metal sacred to Aphrodite is copper, which was mined in Cyprus in antiquity. Again, experts in religious studies do not see anything more than an accidental association here. As a matter of fact, copper cannot be described in a word any better than by describing it as the metal of love. The functions of copper in the body are very closely associated with emotional 58 (22) Emil Páleš
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