Word of the Day: Oneiromancy

The word 'oneiromancy' is just one of many related words ending with what would be -manteia in Greek. That particular suffix comes from the Greek mantis, which means prophet (and by extension, a holy man or hierophant). A 'manteia' of any kind is thus an oracle or form of divination.

So what is 'oneiromancy'? The first half of the word, oneiros, means 'dream'. Oneiromancy thus is the practice of divination through dreams, either directly (as in a prophetic dream in which events proceed as dreamt) or symbolically (as in a dream in which the images represent something else).

Oneiromancy, like all the other manteia, is subject to ethical and moral difficulties. In nekromanteia or 'necromancy', the form of divination requires interaction with the bodies or spirits of the dead. Most cultures find this, if not a little outré, rather vile or unnatural. The whole idea of divination does not sit well with humans, who would like to believe that free will is superior to predestination – although of course humans would love to know if nobody else did, being selfishly curious in general.

In oneiromantic history, several oracles have purportedly dreamt accurate dreams of events which came to pass. The question of utility rears its ugly head: if you should dream a 'useful' dream (e.g. that an identifiable terrorist is going to carry out an act of terrorism in a specific place at a specific time), should you tell anyone? There is no scientific justification in advance that you are right, and if you were correct about the prospective details, you'd be a suspect too.

And what if you dream the details of an examination paper or a bunch of examination results? Are you ethically bound to remain silent? Or can you share your dream under the defence of 'it was only a dream'?

Decisions, decisions...