Today’s entry in the blog is an explanation of what Charles Fillmore, co-founder of the Unity movement taught about dreams.  This is another long entry, so you may want to grab a cup of coffee… Additionally, today I’m including  a link to Unity’s online radio station Unity.fm.  It’s a great way to learn about the Unity teachings and how to apply them to your life.

Fillmore and Dreams

Charles Fillmore wrote numerous articles about dreams, most published in Unity magazine, and one sixty page booklet entitled Inner Vision. From 1917 to 1943 Unity published a short three page tract called “Interpretation of Dreams” that provided only enough text to convey the point that dreams are an avenue by which God instructs people. The text that follows will quote extensively from those articles as his printed output on the subject is much more difficult to find than Jung’s.  Additionally, references will be made to Jung as a part of the discussion.

As noted above, by the mid 1890’s Fillmore was writing about psychology, and in the early 1900’s he began writing about dreams in earnest.  An early example is this letter from and answer to a reader taken from the August 1909 Unity magazine:

I am greatly interested in dreams, but do not know how to interpret

mine.  How do you know that certain things stand for, or are they

symbols of something else? – A.A.E

We know that all external objects represent ideas.  For instance,

figures represent the principle of numbers.  An ox, or a horse,

or a body of land or water represent the Principles of Being.

We instinctively associate these objects with some idea.  The

ox stands for strength; the horse for vigor.  Land represents

the idea of stability and water of flexibility or changeableness.

So one may run through the whole gamut of existence and

find the right idea back of every visible object.  With this key,

we interpret dreams (Fillmore, 1909).

By this point, Fillmore was making the point that dream images represent ideas, a concept that is encountered again in 1911:

All dreams indicate states of mind working in the dreamer,

and how they are affecting mentality and the body.  All the

people, places, and things one sees in the dream state

represent ideas, and a true interpretation can be had by

resolving them into their primal thoughts.  Every person,

for example, that you know has some dominant characteristic,

and if you should dram about that one, he would represent

that characteristic in your own mind.

The thoughts of the day are usually carried into the

dream state, and portray their tendency and ultimate effect

in the mind before they work out in affairs.  Analyze your

dominant traits of character and your general trend of

thought, and you will find them working out in your

conscious and subconscious mind.  By meditating in the

silence, you can, as a rule, interpret your own dreams.  It

is difficult for another to do this for you, unless he is familiar

with the general trend of your thoughts (Fillmore, 1911).

Several points should be made in reference to these paragraphs.  It is clear from the above quote that Fillmore believed meditation could serve as a transcendent function, although he did not specifically use that term as Jung did.   One could ask if the “primal states” and dominant characteristics noted could be equated to the archetypes as described by Jung.  Moreover, Fillmore recognized that “thoughts of the day” do manifest in dreams.  This is known as day residue, and to Jung day residue provided important clues to the meaning of a dream since it was a link between the dream and the conscious situation of the dreamer.

Meditation in the silence could allow one to interpret one’s own dreams.  Fillmore, like Jung as noted above, believed that if one were to work on interpreting his dreams with another person, it was vital that the other person (analyst or friend) be thoroughly familiar with the conscious situation of the dreamer in order to provide a correct interpretation of the dream; however, Fillmore initially taught that the onus of dream interpretation generally rested with the dreamer.

One key disparity between the Fillmore and Jung approach to dream interpretation has to do with amplification.  Fillmore did not seem to teach a process of amplification similar to Jung’s that included study of world religions, cultures and literatures.  Thus, an individual who sought dream interpretation from Unity may have had difficulty in recognizing the emergence of archetypical energies in his or her life.

Fillmore’s interest in dreams and their interpretation continued to grow and in 1914 was installed as a regular feature in Unity magazine under the heading “Interpretation of Dreams.”  This feature continued regularly until 1917 (Teener, 1939).

The value of dream interpretation continued to grow in importance in the Unity Movement to the point that on May 15, 1920 Weekly Unity announced that Unity School of Christianity had created a Dream Interpretation Department in order to help readers with understanding their dreams.  Part of the notice read:

However, because people have lived so much in the outer,

and have not always been in touch with the higher Source

of Being, the mind faculties are usually not yet keen

enough to catch and read intelligibly the messages given.

Therefore, when the mentality is still, as in sleep, the

voice of the Master Teacher reaches the consciousness of

the soul, and the lesson one is in need of is out pictured

on the imaging faculties of the mind.  In this way, God’s

children are being educated through visions and dreams.

Unity has developed teachers who are able to

read and to interpret these messages, hence the installation

of this Department…(Fillmore, 1920).

Unity magazine posted a similar announcement in July of that year, with the name of the department noted as the Inner Vision Department.  Charles Fillmore, as previously noted, was a keen businessman as a well as a mystic, and this notice made reference to how this department would be funded:

Although the interpretation of every dream and vision

submitted to us requires the close study and clear discernment

of developed workers, we make no charge for this service, but,

like all Unity’s ministry, it shall be on a love offering basis.

We shall let the Spirit within each one determine compensation.

The Lord provides for us when we do his loving service and

make the matter known to his people, hence this explanation

(Fillmore, 1920).

Response to the establishment of the Inner Vision Department was overwhelming in more ways than one.  Many people had many dreams they wanted interpreted, but the love offerings for this service were not equal to demand put on the teachers who were doing the interpretation.  This matter was addressed in January 1921 in an article entitled “About the Flood (Not Noah’s)”:

The Inner Vision Department is flooded with dreams and visions,

and we shall hereafter limit our service to one dream interpretation

at a time for each person.  Some of our correspondents send in

as high as six dreams in a single letter.  We estimate that it costs

us one dollar for every dream we interpret, so you can see what

the financial part of the work involves.

We do not make a definite charge for this work but leave

the matter of compensation to the divine justice in those who

ask for our help in discerning the leading of the Spirit.  We

find, however, that people do not appreciate the instruction

of the Spirit as fully as they do the healing, and their free

will love offerings are not quite as generous as they should be.

We want to make this department self-sustaining, and in order

to do so, those who ask for interpretations of dreams should

be informed of the expense involved, that they may give as

they receive (Fillmore, 1921).

By the time the Inner Vision Department was created, Fillmore’s teaching about dreams had reached its apex and apparently had been taught to Silent Unity prayer workers.  The February 1914 edition of Unity magazine included with its dream interpretations this line, “Here are some samples of dreams, with interpretations by our Silent Unity correspondents” (Fillmore, 1914).  Unfortunately, a review of the Unity Archives has not revealed any notes as to how these Silent Unity workers were trained, but it can be inferred that they were taught about the structure mind and the other points noted above, along with the points noted below.

Fillmore believed that “every form and shape in the dream represents some mental or physical characteristic” in the dreamer’s life (Fillmore, 1914).  He based this analysis on a review of the dreams of Bible characters whose dreams revealed a truth or information about questions and concerns that the Bible character was experiencing.  Fillmore’s dream teaching drew heavily upon examples and models taken from the Bible, and he would often make reference to the dreams of Solomon, Job, Daniel, Joseph, and others.

That there was a connection between the spirit, mind and body made in dreams was taught by Fillmore.  He said in 1914:

There is a need of a fuller understanding of the meaning of

dreams and visions, because the Lord is educating his people

everywhere by this means.  When once a disciple gets the

key (that is, that each and everything seen in the dream or

vision represents ideas in his mind), his education goes

forward from day to day.  Many people have come under

our observation who have been trained in a few years to

interpret their dreams, and now they are guided daily in the

renewing of mind and body” (Fillmore, 1914).

Jung made a similar point in 1916 when he said, “Not infrequently the dreams show that there is a remarkable inner symbolical connection between an undoubted physical illness and a definite psychic problem, so that the physical disorder appears as a direct mimetic expression of the psychic situation” (CW 8:502).

Fillmore was clear in his belief that dreams were essentially religious experiences and should be processed as such.  The April 21, 1915 edition of Weekly Unity published a lecture he gave entitled “Guiding Visions” in which he elaborated on this idea.  He said:

Now, those visions and those things that you have seen are

from the Lord, and if you would acknowledge those occult,

hidden things as being real, and in the silent recesses of

your soul be obedient, you would get something more

definite, and this would lead to a farther revelation, and

soon you would have the door open between you and your

higher self (Fillmore, 1921).

In the same lecture he countered the claims that dreams are often considered meaningless by many religious persons:

The most delicate subject the metaphysician has to deal with

is that of  visions and dreams.  The practical everyday man

considers them foolish, childless and valueless.  The

orthodox religionist, also, who bases his salvation on the

Scriptures, puts a like estimate on these seemingly meaningless

picture of the mind.  And even those who have a certain faith

in visions and dreams are in a large degree in darkness as to

their real import.  The reason of all this is that the realm in

which these forces operate is so far removed from material

consciousness that it is difficult to get a right interpretation

or a right understanding of the symbols (Fillmore, 1921).

He goes on to comment that the Bible is replete with individuals who received divine inspiration through dreams and visions, but questions, “Does anyone know of a theological college where the interpretation of dreams is taught?” (Fillmore, 1921).

A practical matter related to dream interpretation is the question of how does one remember one’s dreams.  Jung and Fillmore both addressed this issue.  Jung said:

It is probably in consequence of this loose connection with the

contents of consciousness that the recollected dream is so

extremely unstable.  Many dreams baffle all attempts at

reproduction, even immediately after waking; others can be

remembered only with doubtful accuracy, and comparatively

few can be called really distinct and clearly reproducible.

This peculiar behaviour may be explained by considering

the combination of ideas in dreams is essentially fantastic;

they are linked together in a sequence which is as a rule

quite foreign to our “reality thinking,” and in striking

contrast to the logical sequence of ideas which we consider

to be a special characteristic of our conscious mental

processes (CW 8:445).

Fillmore’s response to this difficulty was directly addressed in Unity in 1915:

First, learn to still the thoughts when awake by entering into

the inner recesses of the being and communing with the Lord,

and second, be very quiet after awakening and refuse to allow

the conscious mind to take up at once its train of thought.

Usually when one awakens, the first thing he does is to begin

to make conscious connection between the happenings of

the day before and the possible events of the new day, and

as the conscious mind usually gets the attention more readily

than the inner voice, all the instruction of the night is put

aside and silenced by the noisy intellect which clamors for

the consideration and the interest of the outer man and his

relation to the outer world.  Instead of trying to connect

immediately with the interests of the previous day, turn the

attention within and make a quiet effort to remember your

dreams.  If even a fragment of a dream is clear, study it

carefully, asking the Spirit of Truth to reveal is significance

(Fillmore, 1915).

Along with providing a method to help individuals remember their dreams, Fillmore makes it clear that even a dream fragment has value if studied.  Moreover, as intimated throughout this essay, Fillmore taught that one could ask God – pray, in other words – for the meaning of a dream to be revealed.

In the July 11, 1925 edition of Weekly Unity was printed an ad for a new Unity publication entitled Inner Vision, a sixty page book which was written “with the firm conviction that it will answer for the seekers of knowledge some of the questions that have puzzled them, and that it will lead to a deeper understanding of the significance of their dreams and visions” (Fillmore, 1925).  This is the only book published by Unity about dream work, and for the most part is a compilation of articles, or parts of articles, that had already been printed by Unity or Weekly Unity.  Those points have already been addressed in this essay.

Inner Vision was last printed in 1945.  According to a typed note made by E. Pharaby Boileau, a reference librarian who began working at Unity School in 1942, “Inner Vision booklet was discontinued from stock because it was generally misunderstood by the public.”

In his 1939 doctoral dissertation about Unity School of Christianity, James Teener makes a remark, “This department [Inner Vision] is no longer carried regularly in Unity, but help is extended to any who ask for it, and Mr. Fillmore frequently refers to the guidance he receives through the method [dreams]” (Teener, 1939).

Apparently in the late 1920’s or 1930’s, the Inner Vision Department was closed.  Quite possibly, Unity was not receiving the “dollar a dream” suggested love offering and closed the department owing to its inability to sustain itself.  Archival research has failed to produce a date or a reason for the closure of the department; however, by 1925 dream interpretation ceased to be printed in Unity.  On August 1, 2006 the author of this essay did ask Rev. Dorothy Pierson, a Unity minister who went to work for Fillmore in the 1930’s about the Inner Vision Department.  She did not recall it; however, she did comment that, “Back in those days they were trying everything – starting and stopping projects for any number of reasons.”

Rev. Pierson did recount two stories of dreams of hers that Fillmore interpreted.  Her first dream was that another Unity worker was ill.  Fillmore asked her what she did about it.  “Nothing,” was her reply.  He promptly scolded her and said that she should have done something like bless the other worker.  He told her she may have been the only one to offer prayer for the individual that day.

Her second dream was that she was flying and what a wonderful experience it was.  Fillmore’s response – and she chuckled as she recounted this – was, “Can you pay your rent?”  Fillmore’s concern was that her dream represented escapism or inflation of ego, when her first concern should be the meeting of her earthly needs.

Fillmore retired in 1933, and it is quite probable that the teaching of dream work within the Unity Movement ended with him.  Every minister, when asked by the author of this essay if they knew that at one time Unity taught dream interpretation, has expressed complete surprise.  When asked if they knew about the Inner Vision Department, the response consistently has been “no.”  And is should come as no surprise that Unity Institute (the current name of Unity’s seminary located just outside Kansas City at Unity Village, Missouri) does not teach dream interpretation.