Introduction
What is a Dream?
We all dream. Every night - as we dim the light of consciousness - we enter the realm of the dream. In this dream state our imagination runs free with little or no interference from our conscious mind. In the morning, when we wake and return to consciousness, we may bring with us a recollection of the wanderings of our imagination - we remember the dream. To dream is natural, it is a universal experience. All people of all cultures enter into this dream state when they sleep. As sleep research has shown even animals dream. How we regard the dream, however, varies from culture to culture and from person to person. Unfortunately, most of us remain unaware of our dreams. We fail to remember them. Even if we do remember a dream it is typically dismissed as meaningless and unimportant. For those of us who do place an importance on the dream, it remains a mystery. So what is a dream?
Dreams - God's forgotten language:
Originally the dream was held to be the voice of God. Most indigenous cultures hold that
t the dream is sent by the Great Spirit and serves to offer advice and instruction. This idea of the divinity of the dream can also be found in the ancient Egyptian and Greek cultures. In the Old Testament Jacob interprets a dream for the Egyptian pharaoh. Jacob explains that God has spoken to the Pharaoh and warned of seven years of prosperity to be followed by seven years of famine. In Egypt and Greece, the dream was considered as a message from the gods. There existed temples where one would go to dream and receive healing or instruction from the gods. Homer's Iliad (8th century BC) tells the story of Agamemnon who receives instruction from Zeus through a dream. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, used dreams as a diagnostic aid. In the Christian tradition, the dream was thought of as the word of God. St. John Chrysostom preached that God revealed himself through dreams while other church fathers, such as Martin Luther, viewed the dream as the work, not of God, but the devil. According to Luther the church, and only the church, was the conduit of God's word. For Luther revelations given to people in dreams could only be diabolic. In the Middle East, the dream was considered to be a source of divine inspiration. Mohammed, the founding Prophet of Islam, is said to have received much of what is written in the Koran through his dreams.
Two main categories of Dreams:
The dreams that originate with the physical body are for your functioning and survival in the world of physical nature. They deal with your physical and psychological well-being. These dreams are like your manager and janitor who tries to keep your body and mind tidy for your general well-being. Then, there are those dreams that have a mystical and special characteristic to them which are for your spiritual development and progress. They produce instant knowledge and information that is beyond your ability to garner through intellectual or logical means.
Two main Types of Dreams:
(1)Dreams from the physical body:
Food:
Did you ever notice that when you take a nap after you’ve eaten lunch you can have some crazy images go through your mind? The same thing happens at night too, because food can trigger some wild and wacky dreams. If you enjoy these psychedelic excursions, then take note of what you had to eat beforehand and repeat the process. On the other hand, if you’re not interested, then take note of what you ate and make certain to avoid eating whatever it was. Food is one of the generators of dreams, which are not worth interpreting.
Health:
Your subconscious knows a lot about you that you don’t, or maybe don’t care to know. Often it will tell you something about your practices or lifestyle to tip you off about what its needs are. In dreams it tries to get the point across to you, sometimes politely, at other times not so.
Psychology:
Stressful relationships and social situations can cause our mind to get out of kilter but our subconscious intervenes to straighten things out.
(2)Dreams from the spiritual world: Those special visits, instructions, lessons, and guidance that we receive that are sometimes (but not always) interwoven with one of those mundane dreams your body generates. They are hidden and disguised because you are not supposed to know where the information is coming from. Like it’s a big secret. You are led to think that you dreamed up all those unique thoughts and ideas all by your little old self. The bad news is that they occur much less frequently than the run-of-the-mill physical dreams. The good news is that when you do experience them, you get the feeling that something special has occurred. Even if you can’t figure out what it means, there is a profound sense of purpose or message behind it. When experienced, they become landmarks in many people’s lives leaving them with a permanent and unforgettable impression of otherworldliness embedded deep within their subconscious mind.
