The Dream Book of Self-Knowledge
- torture images are shown to the dreamer to express his inner motivations; he can then take the side of the torturers and multiply his negative karma*26 or, in identifying with the feelings of those being tortured, can repay his karma; only later, with sufficient compassion, can the dreamer understand the effect of the Law of Karma*34 and understand how those suffering repay their debt from the distant past and how the tyrant creates karma that he will someday experience just as painfully.
- can also be part of the dreamer's past lives (see Past and Future Visions archetype).
- with hunger: possesses the prerequisites for the approaching transformation of one's being, but only if compassion is present; otherwise this act is merely the sadomasochistic outpouring of an ill soul.
- with fire: if compassion is present from the dreamer, then it is the preparation for the transformation of the personality and destruction of lower components of being (instincts and sometimes even emotions); without compassion it is only a sadomasochistic sign whose origin lies in the third phase of the Basic Perinatal Matrix archetype since fire is a frequently experienced element indicating spiritual rebirth in this very archetype; see Inflammables.
- corpses of people who were tortured: these psychopathological syndromes*83 are an emotional culmination of the third phase of the prenatal process – a phase in which the experience of pornographic scenes or masochistic and sadistic elements are typical; see the Basic Perinatal Matrix archetype.
