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Metaphor - Sleep Temples

Jonathan was a traveler; he loved to travel to exotic places and to discover what ancient civilizations did. He particularly loved Egypt. He would travel to Cairo. This was a bustling city with lots of noise and aromatic smells from spices and cooking. But there were also the not so pleasant smells from donkeys and camels that moved around the streets intermingling with the taxies and buses. Jonathan had always found Cairo a thriving city but one difficult in which to fall to sleep at night. His mind would range over the past: the pharaohs and the pyramids. The noise and the smells of Cairo just seemed to make this inevitable. But nothing in life is inevitable.

 

His investigations into Egyptian culture had disclosed that the ancient Egyptians had no trouble getting to sleep at night. And in his moments of wakefulness, Jonathan would contemplate the strange and powerful knowledge of the ancient Egyptians. The pyramids were a mystery to modern man. How they were constructed and for what purpose still elude us. With all our modern knowledge, we still have gaps. And one of these gaps is in the working of the sleep temples of ancient Egypt.

 

These sleep temples were located down the Nile from Cairo in the region of Sakara, which is north of Khartoum, but located further in the desert and away from the Nile. The Nile, of course, is the most important river in Egypt. It is their life-blood. The seasons and most of the crops are dependent on its rise and fall. Drifting down the Nile in a fulicur is one of the most relaxing experiences imaginable. Jonathan had many times taken a fulicur down the Nile as the sun set. It was such a relaxing experience that he often fell easily to sleep. Sleep just seemed to come over him almost without him being aware of it. This was the way of the Nile. It allowed all the cares and worries that one had to just fall into insignificance against the grandeur of the Nile.

 

And so the next day, Jonathan made his way out of Cairo heading for the sleep temples of Sakara. The only way for a traveler like himself to get to Sakara was on horse back across the desert. It took about two hours in the hot sun. The journey was not at all arduous, and surprisingly the desert had more to see than just sand.

 

On reaching Sakara it was evening and Jonathan had arranged to see a guide who would take him around the sleep temples the next day. They talked late into the night. The guide went off to his home and his wife and Jonathan went to his room. Sakara was quiet and peaceful relative to Cairo and he soon drifted off into a peaceful and restful sleep: a sound and satisfying deep sleep. And in this deep sleep he began to dream.

 

He dreamt of Menaphis the high priest of the sleep temple. Menaphis was the high priest after his father and his father before him. The secrets of the temple had been passed down from father to son. The most important secrets were the knowledge of helping people to dream. Not insignificant dreams but dreams that allowed them to resolve their problems. This was the most significant part of the priests work. Menaphis was an expert at this. He could get the people who came to the temple to dream dreams so significant and so important and so useful that they resolved many problems in just a few nights, sometimes just in one night. But for some individuals the problems were very great. Even so, he could always help but it just took longer. The dreams had to be built up. They first resolved the lesser problems, and once they were resolved, the more significant problems could be worked on. All the time, Menaphis had a way to allow the person to sleep soundly and peacefully through the night while all this was taking place. In this he never failed. The secrets of the temple ensured that this was so. No one was clear what these secrets were and some just felt that Menaphis had an intimate knowledge of the workings of the unconscious mind. But whatever it was, and the people who came for help were not concerned, all they wanted was a solution to their problem.

 

Jonathan awoke with a banging on the door it was the guide who was to take him to the sleep temples that day. He dressed and they went down for a small breakfast and then went off to the temples. Jonathan was even wondering if his dream was a premonition and whether Menaphis did exist or whether it was all just a dream. Egypt had a strange effect of making dreams come true.

 

The sleep temples of Sakara, like all the monuments of ancient Egypt, were strewn with hieroglyphics. Jonathan was quite an expert on Egyptian hieroglyphics. He had learned to read hieroglyphics after he had studied Greek civilisations. They too had sleep temples. One of the most famous of the sleep temples was that at Delphi in the north of Greece. The temple of Delphi was situated up on the mountain above the town and away from the shore. The Oracle of Delphi was famous throughout the land. Although the sleep temples of Greece were so called, they were not like the sleep temples of Egypt. They were places people went to resolve their problems. True, the sleep temples of Egypt did this too, but the Oracle of Delphi was more to do with resolving problems. The sleep that came over the individual wanting help was not a normal sleep but a trance state that allowed them to be receptive to the Oracles pronouncements.

 

The temple at Delphi was located on the far side of the complex. This had developed over the years with peddlers selling their wares and trying to sell the seekers potions. There was even an amphitheatre. This was not as big or as famous as Philae in the Pelopenese, but it was grand all the same. Many plays were acted here, many of which were about the fame of the Oracle. Exactly how the Oracle resolved the problems was not known. Seekers came to the temple. First they had to go through some purification ceremony. Then they were clothed in special robes and were garland in flowers of great perfume. Only then could they enter the temple. They always entered alone. Soon after entering they would enter a sleep-like state and when in this state the Oracle would deliver its resolution. When the individual came out of the temple they could remember nothing of what took place. It was all like a dream and as if they were asleep. All they had were vague images and impressions. But what they were certain of, and why they were certain eluded them completely, was that they had a solution to their problem. The solution was not always something simple. Sometimes it involved them changing their life-style or taking responsibility for something. But whatever it was, the individual knew deep down that it was a solution: but a conditional solution. It would only be a solution if they carried out what they were instructed to do.

 

This reminds me of a youth called Caleb. Now Caleb had been given a sword from his father when his father was on his deathbed. This sword, his father said, is the sword of life. But, my son, it has two sharp edges: one of beauty and one of ugliness. The edge of beauty moves with grace and appreciation while the edge of ugliness cuts with ignorance and distain. My son, you can create a situation of ugliness or you can create a situation of beauty. You must learn to recognize both. When you come to recognize both you can then avoid the situation of ugliness and turn more and more to the situation of beauty. My son, he continued, only you can recognize your true nature. Only you can recognize when you turn to the side of ugliness and when you turn to the side of beauty. At this Caleb was not sure of his fathers meaning. How do I know? said Caleb. My son, when you wield the sword, you will cut with only one of the two sides. When you cut with the side of ugliness you will feel certain emotions and feelings. The type of feelings you would have if you used your sword on a deer and cut its throat. On the other hand, when you cut with the side of beauty, your soul surges in your breast. You will know from your feelings and emotions that your deed was just. You will know instinctively which side of the sword you yielded. Learn to recognize these differences, my son, learn to yield the sword on the side of beauty and not on the side of ugliness.

 

His father continued, But there is more to the sword, my son. Your mind is like the sword with its two sides: the side of ugliness and the side of beauty. When you wield the sword, the direction of the blade is being directed by your mind. If your mind is filled with ugliness, then the sword will cut with the side of ugliness. When your mind is filled with beauty then so your sword will strike with the side of beauty. So the secret, my son, is to fill your mind with beauty and banish all thoughts of ugliness. Sharpen your mind and constantly keep it under your control. Know when your thoughts are ugly and when they are beautiful. Do not wield the sword when your thoughts turn to pictures of ugliness. Learn only to wield your sword when your thoughts are pure and full of beauty. As you turn your thoughts only to those of the highest order, so you will only wield your sword on the side of beauty.

 

Calebs father was almost at his last breath. But he managed to say one more thing. As you keep your mind sharp and in your control, so Caleb, you will keep the side of beauty of the sword sharp and in your control, so Caleb you will keep the side of beauty of the sword sharp and you will learn only to wield the sword on the side of beauty.

 

And so he died. Caleb sat there looking at his dead father and pondering all that he had been told. Realizing that the mind controls the body and the emotions. To wield the sword on its side of beauty he will need to sharpen his mind and keep it within his control. In so doing, when he wields the sword it will strike with the side of beauty and not ignorance. And so Caleb thanked his father as he buried him in the family grave. &

 

And so the seekers of the Oracle at Delphi often could not remember what they were instructed to do since this was given to them while they were in a sleep-like state. But their unconscious knew what it was, and so long as their unconscious was prepared to take on board the Oracles instructions, then a resolution to their problem was certain. That was why the Oracle had such good success. People clearly wanted a resolution to their problem: both consciously and unconsciously. Who wants to carry a burden around for long periods of time? Who wants to make life so depressing for themselves? No, people want to be unburdened; people do not want to be depressed. On the contrary, people want to be happy and want to live life to the full.

 

And so it was that the sleep temple at Delphi came to be known far and wide. But it was not about sleep as such, not like the knowledge of sleep in ancient Egypt, as shown by the hieroglyphics on the walls at Sakara. And as Jonathan studied the hieroglyphics he came to understand at some level what the sleep temples of Egypt were all about.

 

Sleep was disturbed when individuals worried and placed excessive burdens on themselves. As these burdens mounted, they became like mountains of pressure in which there seemed no relief. All problems became big problems to them. All concerns were big concerns. Each day became more and more difficult. And the aim of the sleep temple was to bring perspective to the individual. They were asked to consider the worst thing that could possibly happen to them. And having thought about this, they were to consider getting through this event or situation. They were shown that they had resources within themselves to do this. It was they who resolved the most difficult thing that could happen to them. The solution did not come from outside but from inside: from their own resources. What they were shown, really, was they had resources within themselves far greater than they realised. And that if they could resolve the most difficult thing that could happen to them, then they could certainly resolve lesser ones. They could draw on the same internal resources that they used for the biggest of all problems.

 

But that was only part of the solution provided by the sleep temples. They taught people to see the bedroom as a place to sleep. In just the same way as a garage is a place to put the car when finished for the day, so the bedroom and the bed was a place to sleep. Not a place to brood or worry, not a place to exercise in, but a place to shut down for the night and allow the body to recuperate through the night. The priests pointed out the need the body has to rest each night so that a new day could be faced with a clear head and a restored energy.

 

Above all, they emphasised constant relaxation. Not just when going to bed at night but at all times. And as Jonathan was reading this from the hieroglyphics, to his amazement he found that the main priest who expounded this was Menaphis! It appeared that Menaphis had discovered that calm relaxation was not a luxury but a necessity. That over the years man had become so preoccupied with challenges, with work, with wars and with constant developments, that they had lost a most fundamental body need  a need to relax. Menaphis knew that when the body was calm and relaxed, the mind and body acted as one. When an individual was synchronized in mind and body sleep came much more easily. It was also a deep, satisfying sleep. A sleep that allowed the person to dream as they were meant to dream.

 

It appeared that Menaphis had come to appreciate one of lifes mysteries. And like many mysteries the idea was simple, but so simple it had been missed. Like looking for something and you dont see it. You dont see it because it is right in front of you! And so individuals who came to the sleep temples at Sakara were taught to relax: to relax throughout the day and to remain calm in all circumstances. To realize that objects cannot make them tense, they can only do this to themselves. Situations that happen cannot make them tense; they can only do this to themselves. Even people cannot make them tense, only they can do this to themselves. Menaphis taught the seekers to the temple not to be so hard on themselves. That they deserved better and it was within their own behaviour that they could make it better, could make it so. And those who left the temple resolving to do this, improved. But others did not heed the words of Menaphis. They considered it too easy. They wanted a complex solution to their problem.

 

Jonathan thought about what he had learnt from the hieroglyphics in Sakara and resolved himself not to make the same mistake. That he too would now learn to relax and remain calm and to do so each hour of each day. And that night Jonathan went to sleep easily and quickly, and drifted into a deep and restful sleep.

 

About the Author

 Ronald Shone is a senior lecturer in economics and a practicing hypnotherapist. His interest in hypnosis began at the age of fifteen, and led to his earlier books on the subject: Autohypnosis; Creative Visualization; and Advanced Autohypnosis, all published by Thorsons, and the first two in a variety of translations. His formal training as a hypnotherapist occurred later, and he obtained his Diploma in Clinical Hypnotherapy (with distinction) from the London College of Clinical Hypnosis in 1995. Since then he has published on such areas as the history of hypnosis; hypnosis and stress; bereavement and M.E. Further information and contact information on him can be obtained from his web site: www.shoners3.freeserve.co.uk

 

 

  

  

 
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