Who Thinks Dreams Are More Than Just Images Flashing By When We Sleep?
the web definition for dreams is:”Dreaming is the subjective experience of imaginary images, sounds/voices, words, thoughts or sensations during sleep, usually involuntarily.”
however, many cultures and individuals believe dreams are actually spiritual voyages during the night.
please add your thoughts on this, as well as lucid dreams and OBEs in dreams.
I believe that dreams are a combination of things. Sometimes it can be images deriverd from astral travel, as it is said that the soul must be free of the confines of the body several times per week. Sometimes I feel that it is images from past lives or simultaneous dimensions of the soul (ie: me, but living a life in another dimension, simultaneous to this one), it can be images from the spiritual dimension, which is the true home of our soul, from whence we came and the place we eventually all return, often over and over again. Sometimes it is just the subconscious, processing the many things that the brain is incapable of taking in at the conscious level due to our personal filters and beliefs and values, which we “process” later on at the unconscious or subsconcious level, and yet others are situations that we are mulling over in our conscious mind. Personal issues, challenges, paying the bills, finding or changing jobs, relationships, etc. etc. etc. And yet other dream material is simply nonsense. Nope, I have absolutely no scientific data to back any of it up, just my belief.
I think dreams are manifestations of something in my subconscious that I did not actively think about during waking hours…..I also think it is a visit, if I dream of a lost loved one. I also fly in my sleep, so maybe I really am having a spiritual journey. I like to believe I am!
i jus think dreams are jus dreams
Dreams derive from parts of our own minds. But the fact is, our men of learning do not know the makeup of the mind. They diagnose and treat illnesses of the mind and tell us why we think and act as we do, yet they have not the foggiest idea what the mind is, where it comes from or where it goes. The world’s experts on the mind do not know what it is they’re experts of.
Each one of us is not just one person, but we are comprised of “many persons.” Although we’re many persons, we are one. When any of these “persons” speak with the conscious part of our minds, we call them “spirits.” These so-called “spirits” talk to us constantly, day and night. But it’s while we sleep when we’re not cumbered by our own conscious thoughts that we tend to remember their speech. When talking with us these spirits must limit their descriptions and words to things with which we’re familiar, and that is the reason dreams are given to us using symbols and metaphors. Although these spirits are parts of us they range from good to evil and everything in between.
I think they’re keys to the subconscious mind. I often have dreams that show how I feel about a certain stage in my life. (Roller coaster, a flood.) Once when my ex-husband and I were trying a reconciliation, I dreamed we went for a walk, and he picked me up next to a cliff and was holding me above his head. I had to decide if I really could trust him.
Well they might think that in other cultures and more power to them but, no, I do not believe in it; anymore than I do in Tarot readings.
Agreed that there is a place for dreams but you seem to have unnusual expectations. Aren’t dreams out of one’s control? At best they could encourage the one who had the dream but would not be that useful to anyone else.
More reliable would be the conclusions we make while alert and confirmed by others.
I’ve had both directed dreams and lucid dreams. A directed dream is one where as you are falling asleep, you ask your mind to give you a dream to help you understand something . If you practice doing this, it gets to be pretty reliable. A lucid dream is one where you become aware that you are dreaming during the dream. I’ve had lucid dreams where I was totally aware but not in control, and other lucid dreams where I had some limited control. OBE (Out of Body Experience) is something I’ve never experienced, and I’m very skeptical that it can happen.
I believe dreams are a natural part of how the brain transfers our short term memories to long term memory. However, that seems to be only a small part of why we dream. I think dreams are sometimes symbolic communication from our subsconsious mind. The more we treat dreams that way, and encourage our subconscious mind to communicate, the more intersting and vivid the dreams become. The only problem with this is that it can really make it hard to get enough sleep! Its exhausting to wake up several times a night, all excited after having a fantastic dream.