Long before Freud in 1920, the ancient cultures of Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia in the West and also the indigenous peoples of Australia and America, including the Pacific Islands, lived out their wishes through their dreams. Interestingly, despite the thousands of kilometres of oceans that separated these cultures, the type of dreams, their purpose and interpretation were common to each civilisation.

The American Indian tribes and the ancient Egyptians end up sharing the samw view, that dreams were the healing mechanism of the soul's unfulufilled wishes. The tribal roles of Shamans or Holy Men or Sorceressses or spiritually advanced elders were often given a dream or vision, a prescription for the physical problem, an antidote that came from trusted and non-physical guides.

Many ancient societies built lavish dream temples, employing scribes to write down all dreams received within the temple gates so that they could later be analysed for the greater understanding of society.