KARACHI, May 29: The importance of dreams in a person’s life can hardly be overemphasised. People who are trained to do so can heal patients through dreams. Indeed, this was practised in ancient Greece. Similarly, clinical psychologists can solve various problems of their patients by taking their dreams into account.

These views were expressed by Ruby Phiroze Lilaowala, well-known Parsi scholar, while speaking at a local hotel here on Thursday. The title of her lecture, organized by the Dastur Dr Dhalla Memorial Institute, was ‘The Interpretation of Dreams”.

Ms Lilaowala said the brain was divided into two parts. ‘‘The right side is the repository of imagination.

‘‘The left side is geared towards practicality. Naturally dreams stem from the right side of the brain.

“In 1889, Sigmund Freud wrote a book called ‘The Interpretations of Dream. He linked all dreams to psychological disorders. Carl Jung said that dreams are transcendent. Aristotle linked all dreams to the divine,” she said.

She recalled that in 1959 archaeologists had discovered a tablet from the tomb of an Assyrian king suggesting some interpretations of dreams. She added that throughout the Old Testament there are suggestions about the voice of God speaking to people in their dreams.

Shedding light on dreams of creativity, she pointed out that Michelangelo as a child had dreamt that he was painting a rooftop. “He was pulled up for lying. Sistine Chapel, revealing the panorama of Jesus’s life, is a living testimony to the painter’s dream. Beethoven used to tell people that he saw music in his dreams. He composed some of the most memorable symphonies despite the fact that, being stone deaf, he was unable to listen to music. The great genius of mathematics, Albert Einstein, hit upon the idea of the theory of relativity in his dream.”

She explained what, broadly speaking, certain images and pictures in dreams meant.

Introducing the speaker, a girl volunteer said that Ms Lilaowala was frequently called upon to lecture at Theosophy Lodges in India and abroad and at various Lions and Rotary Club. ‘‘She also lectures in Gujrati at Agiary and Atash Behrams in Mumbai and in Gujarat.

‘‘Nine years ago, she started a column in Jam-i-Jamshed called “Kaleidoscope” which is popular with the Parsis all over the world. Apart from this, she has conducted over a hundred interviews with eminent Parsis in India and abroad for Jam-i-Jamshed.”

The president of the Dastur Dr Dhalla Memorial Institute, Byram D. Avari, said he hoped that after the lecture of an Indian scholar in Pakistan more cultural exchanges between the two rivals of the subcontinent would follow.

He praised the strength of conviction of the Parsis who, in the course of the lectures, had patiently listened to some of those views which were diametrically opposed to their religious beliefs.

Earlier, the seniormost priest of the Parsi community in Karachi, Edvard Godrej D. Sidhwa, began the programme by pronouncing the benediction.