Voice of the Spirit

 Our dreams say so much - yet sometimes we think that they say so little. “Oh, I just had a nightmare, which doesn’t mean anything.  I’ve got to get to work,” a man in a hurry to get to the office says.  Yet our dreams are a pathway to messages, understanding and even transcendent spiritual wisdom.  Many great visionaries and geniuses receive their visions in a dream.  Einstein, for instance, freely admitted that The Theory Of Relativity was not “his,” but that it came to him in a dream.

Yet, how many of us work with our dreams, yet alone even remember them.  Whether personal messages, problems we’re trying to solve at a deeper level, or literally seeing something as it may exactly unfold in the physical world, dreams are a mirror of the soul and a source of higher communication.  Below, I would like to begin to offer some tools of awareness for the very profound, yet often neglected process of dreaming and what it really means to us.

The Process Of Our Minds And Dreaming

Below, I would like to explain the different levels of our functioning minds and how that relates to sleep and dreaming.  It is now established through research that when we begin our sleep cycle, that we actually drift from our awake state of consciousness, Beta, rather quickly to Alpha, which is more of a light sleep, then through the deep sleep of Theta and on to Delta, our deepest level of sleep. 

About 90 minutes later, we drift upward above Theta into the Alpha levels.  Our bodies then lay rather still, as if we’re viewing something in front of us, while our eyes being to move rapidly beneath our eyelids.  This, of course, is called Rapid Eye Movement or REM.  At this stage is where our dreams take place.  After one to four minutes, the mind drifts back again into the Delta level only to repeat this process, with variations at ninety minute intervals all through the night.  This gives us each about 4-6 dreams per night, which is far more than most of us probably think that we dream!

Beta - This is our waking state, the state that is our conscious level as in going about our daily lives.  The Beta level represents our cognitive mind functions, say as in driving a car or getting dressed.  For lack of a better term, Beta can be referred to as our rational mental process.

Alpha - There are varying levels of the Alpha state, with the first being where the body is relaxed but the mind is still quite alert.  Then there is the level of being sort of in a twilight mode, where ESP and psychic flashes occur quite strongly and accurately.  Then, slightly deeper is the light sleep associated with meditation, trance and hypnotic levels. It is at this hypnotic level that REM, rapid eye movement occurs as we’re dreaming.  Often, we experience the twilight state mentioned above when we first wake up; we’re sort of here, (the physical world) yet we’re still sort of there, as in our dream world. 

Theta - This is the next level down, a stage of deep sleep where there is a type of dreaming referred to by scientists as non-REM or NREM.

Delta - Here is the deepest stage of all sleep and this is where physical body repairs are done. This level is highly therapeutic where extensive physical repairs and restoration actually occurs.  This could even clarify and shed light on the aging process in the elderly, since are bodies are said to renew themselves every night.  With this concept in mind, there may be no reason for any of us to age.  Since the elderly tend to be light sleepers, the lack of Delta sleep may actually explain the appearance of aging, which is perhaps, an illusion.  With the concept that we were are all created in God’s supreme and perfect image, ageless, timeless and permanently perfect, aging may merely be an illusion. 

Types Of Dreams

There are so many types of dreams, with multiple purposes and sometimes, what we may think is a dream is actually not.  Below, I will chronicle the various dreams we all experience and what they mean to us as individuals, and also shed light on what we typically think is a dream, but is reality, is something entirely different.

Pre Cognitive

A pre cognitive dream is showing you something, en event, an occurrence or experience that may indeed happen in the physical world, similar or exactly to as it is seen in the dream.  It could be called a psychic dream, in a sense.  With a pre cognitive dream, it can serve many purposes; showing you something so you are aware it may or will happen, so you can change it, or at the very least, be prepared to deal with it.  Precognitive dreams are spiritual in nature, as you’re seeing something first which occurs in the spiritual realms, before it drops down to the lower level of the physical plane, where we experience it as “reality.”  Some people are scared of these types of dreams, however, one never should be.  Two things again are in play; you’re having and remembering the dream because you’re supposed to.  You may be able to legitimately change it, so if it is bad, it can be prevented, but at the very least, you’re psychologically and emotionally prepared, even if it cannot be changed.

Here is an example of a pre cognitive dream that can be changed: John has a vivid dream where he sees his friend Susan in a serious car accident, that day, at around noon on a certain street.  John informs Susan that he had this dream and advises her not to drive on that street around that time and preferably, not drive at all on that particular day.  Susan heeds John’s warning and therefore, avoids the accident that was given to John through the dream as a warning, not as an immutable event written in stone.

Reoccurring Dreams

I think most of us have had a reoccurring dream for years, perhaps, decades.  I, myself, to this day, keep having a reoccurring dream of being in my senior year in high school, but by the end of the year, I can’t seem to graduate.  When we have this type of dream, it means that there is an issue within our consciousness that must be worked through and resolved.  It will keep coming to us until we’ve moved past the issue, which presents itself repeatedly in our dreams.  Don’t consider this to be an obstacle or stumbling block, but rather, an opportunity for growth where our dreams are showing us what work still needs to be done.  By healing the underlying issue, we are able to move forward with our respective journeys.

Symbolic Dream

Here, we see symbols, pictures and scenes that on the surface don’t make literal sense to us and may even seem surreal.  Symbolic dreams speak to us in code, sort of like Morse code.  One needs to determine what the symbols mean and sort out the messages and images of the dream.  It’s sort of like solving a riddle, or putting together a puzzle. These dreams are trying to communicate information and messages to us but we have to figure out what is being given to us.

For example: A spider that is green that changes to being red is climbing on the wall, then it starts to fly and changes into a smiling baby.  Now let me offer an interpretation for this dream:  The spider may represent something that is sneaky, insidious, poisonous and toxic (represented by the nature of spiders who can possess a venomous bite) which calls attention to a circumstance or situation that may be of this nature in the person’s life who had this dream.  The fact that the spider is green, then changes to red, can indicate the sense of “go” then “stop” as in traffic lights - green, of course meaning go, as in go ahead with something or that something is moving forward in one’s life, while red would indicate stopping, or something coming to a halt.  So, the situation, (negative) represented by the spider is moving forward in the life of the person who had this dream, but then it stops.  The fact that the spider is climbing the wall can indicate that the negative conditions represented by the spider that have stopped are now climbing higher or gaining momentum. Then, the spider begins to fly, which means that this situation it “taking off,” “lifting off,” and beginning to have wings.  When the spider changes into a smiling baby, it indicated that whatever negative situation that was occurring changes into something new (represented by a baby) and pleasant, as the baby was smiling.  As the conclusion of whatever the dream represents ends with a sense of a positive new beginning from something that ultimately seemed toxic, perhaps deadly.  It was going, then stopping, than lifting off and taking off and ultimately changes itself into something of a new and positive beginning.

Lucid Dreaming

Lucid dreaming means dreaming while actually knowing that you are indeed dreaming.  The term was coined by Frederik van Eeden who used the word “lucid” in the sense of mental clarity, meaning you mentally know that you are dreaming while doing so. Lucidity usually begins in the midst of a dream when the person realizes that they are not in physical reality, but are in a dream. Often this realization is triggered by the dreamer noticing some unlikely occurrence in the dream, such as flying.  Sometimes people become lucid without noticing any particular clue in the dream; they just suddenly realize they are in a dream.

The basic definition of lucid dreaming requires nothing more than becoming aware that you are dreaming. However, the quality of lucidity can vary greatly. When lucidity is at a high level, you are aware that everything experienced in the dream is occurring in a dream.  With low-level lucidity you may be aware to a certain extent that you are dreaming, but not enough to completely realize that you’re asleep at that time.

Nightmares

Nightmares are often like a person who shouts above everyone in the room so they will be heard.  Nightmares often come through in a way that is similar to a horror movie, so we are shocked in a sense into remembering this type of dream and looking at it.  We often will take note and analyze it because it startled and scared us.  Frequently, the message of the nightmare is not morose and morbid, such as being thrown off of a tall building, but something we simply need to take heed of and listen to.  Nightmares are not usually predictive or pre cognitive, but represent what you really need to take a look at - something that is truly bothering you.  What the nightmare is about, say, being murdered or burned in a fire, for example, is not really at all what the you’re suppose to look at as a conclusion to the meaning of the dream.  It is sort of like a shocking headline to a news story - it is designed to grab your attention, so you can actually look at the underlying content to really understand the story - i.e. the dream.

Garbage Dreams

Like somebody belching, garbage dreams are often the rumblings of our subconscious mind that need to vent, release or simply be acknowledged.  Often, these types of dreams don’t have a lot of clarity or clear message to interpret and may be there as a form of our own internal overload being released. Frequently convoluted and messy, these type of dreams are sort of like taking many conflicting ingredients and tossing them all into a blender and mixing them all up.

What We Think Are Dreams But Aren’t

Because we’re asleep, we may think that everything that occurs for us is a dream.  In actuality, many things happen when we’re asleep, besides dreaming even though we perceive these experiences as dreams, and here, I would like to explore some of those fascinating realities.

Astral Projection

Astral projection simply stated, is when our spiritual selves leave our physical body and travel through the spiritual realms to see, learn, experience, gain knowledge and to preview what may come into our earthly existences.  Every night when we sleep, especially if we have a full night’s sleep, we leave out bodies this way and astral travel, accompanied by our spiritual teachers and guides.   With astral projection, we embark on a fascinating journey of learning, exploring and viewing; places, events and possibilities to occur in our earthly realm.  Our teachers and spiritual guides lead us where we need to go to learn, protect us from making a wrong turn, (as in going somewhere we should not go to) as well as keep us safe.  When astral traveling, we are connected to our physical bodies by a silver cord that keeps us connected to our physical bodies at the base of our spines.

An example of astral projection that we may have thought of as a dream, is the sensation of flying above a city, seeing it, observing it while in our sleep cycle.  Another instance would be where you see yourself moving about a place that seems foreign to you, but at the same time, appears totally real.  If you’ve ever been jolted out of sleep, say by a loud noise, you might feel unsettled in your body, as if somehow, you’ve been twisted in knots.  That could very well be that you were jerked back into you physical body abruptly from astral projecting, therefore, you feel not put together right somehow, or contorted in a way, almost like wearing a size 6 shoe when you have a size 7 foot.

Dreaming Of Passed On Loved Ones

Often, people who are not open to receive communication and messages from loved ones on the other side dream of these loved ones.  If one’s defense mechanisms are set up in such a way to not believe their loved ones who are passed on can or would contact them, they need to be in a dream state to receive such messages.  While dreaming, their defenses and internal barriers are relaxed enough, so an open channel occurs for their transitioned loved ones to indeed come through.  In most instances, these are real communications from the other side.  Even if the messages are not totally clear, loved ones who have passed are often trying to come through.  It’s important to listen to what these dreams are saying, as often, their value can be of tremendous healing and help to those of us who are still here.

Going To School

We all go to school in our sleep cycles, where we are the student of an instructor, a master teacher.  Also, we may have more than one instructor, depending on what we’re in the process of learning at any given time.  Sometimes we are taught individually while other times we sit in a classroom with those who are also going through the same lessons and learning as we are.  From tackling our earthly problems, to spiritually based instruction, anything we may need to learn is taught to us in the higher planes while we are asleep.  This gives a whole different meaning to the term, night school. (LOL)  Here, though, we see that it is not a dream we’re experiencing, but rather, being in a spiritual school.  We may not always know consciously what we’re learning here, but what we learn in school is absorbed by us on a deep internal spiritual level, which through time, filters up through us to ultimately, our conscious minds and becomes assimilated.

Problem Solving

While asleep, our minds stay busy at work, finding solutions and searching for answers to whatever our challenges may be at the current time.  Whether working to repairs to our bodies, finding the right way to deal with a work related conflict or coming up with a perspective on a family matter, our higher minds are in a state of regular problem solving while our bodies lay in rest.  Since the mind never stops working, this is just another realm and reality of the tremendous power of our minds - so much more that most of us ever think.

Programming to have a dream to answer a question

Often, we just can’t find the answers we’re looking for in our awake state.  We need to look to our higher minds, where transcendent knowledge is ever present.  In this mode, we program ourselves to have a dream that answers our question.  Just like giving an assignment or a task to someone working on our behalf, they undertake this request and begin working on it.  The reason I say, begin working on it, is because often, it takes time to have a question answered through a dream.  In the same way a person working on a task may take days, weeks, potentially even longer to come up with a solution, the same thing occurs when we program our minds to resolve a question through a dream.  Be patient once you have done this!  Also, you can repeat the command to reinforce to your mind what you want it to do via your dreams to solve whatever issue is at hand!  Sometimes, the answers come in a very startling, surprising way - out of the blue.  Be prepared, though, as your question will be answered. 

Divine Inspiration

Many a great artist or inventor receives their creations from the other side while asleep.  What may be thought of as a dream is an actual channeling of divine work (paintings, inventions, songs) from the Godhead directly.  When these creations are given to any of is, they are a supreme gift from higher awareness and genius, for us to bring through into the physical realm, to be shared with the collective of this world.  Often, these individuals will awake with a work of art completed or nearly completed, as if is just is.  That is because it does already exist in the spiritual realms, and we, as individuals channel such work through our minds, abilities and talent into manifestations here.

Understanding and Interpreting Your Dreams

There are two aspects of dream interpretation; the personal and the universal.  There are some symbols that may be considered universal - that represent our collective, joined consciousness, such as water representing emotions in a dream. If you have a dream where it’s raining on you, this can indicate the present of intense emotions you’re going through regarding something in your life.  If you see a lake, and you’re in it, this can represent that you’re feeling consumed by a lot of emotion. 

However, the personal aspect of dream interpretation is far more important and relevant.  What does a dream mean to you?  It doesn’t matter if the symbol of a lion, let’s say, which would represent strength and courage to most, means something completely different to you.  What if you had been attacked by a lion at some point in your life? Then, a lion appearing in your dream would mean something entirely different to you then for someone who had never had that experience.  What you feel personally about understanding your dream trumps and overrides what is considered to be universal.  For example, seeing Jesus and assuming it means a spiritual and loving presence may not apply to an atheist.  Therefore, it would indicate something different to that person.  Always, ask yourself, what does this dream and its parts mean to me?  Connect the dots, piece by piece, if you have to.  You will figure it all out!

Here are some tools for interpreting and understanding your dreams:

If you don’t remember your dreams, say this affirmation, which will help you to recall your dreams:  “I now remember my dreams as I am supposed to, giving me the information I need to make my life and the lives of those around me better!”

Remember, not recalling your dreams means that some part of you is blocking what your dreams are - in a sense, being shut down and closed off.  Learning to open this channel within is like plugging the phone in to receive phone calls that have been trying to get through to you.  There are many relevant messages waiting!

As you remember your dreams, write them down.  Keep a dream notebook or journal and make sure to write down what you dream.  Preferably, keep this pad and pencil or pen next to your bed, so you can take note of your dreams when you first awake.  Often, the details of a dream fade from consciousness rather quickly, so grab it while it’s hot, so to speak.

Dreams speak to us on many levels.  For example, you can look at any dream as you being all people in that dream.  Different people can represent different parts of your consciousness as well as different feelings and aspects of what you’re going through.  For example, if you dream of your Mom, your Dad, your brother and a co worker, here is a way to view this:  Your Mom can represent the nurturing maternal part of you, your Dad can represent the masculine and assertive aspect of your energies, your brother can represent your internal sense of support and being your own ally, while a co-worker can indicate the feeling of working with yourself as in internal teamwork.  Even if the dream consists of multiple people doing many things, you can be seen as all people in your dream doing all things, and interpret from that vantage point.  Think of it that the different people and actions in a dream represent different parts of you and your varying reactions and actions that you may feel and / or do.

If you’re not sure what a dream is saying to you after you write it down, run it by a friend.  Someone who understands you will be able to help piece together what the dream is saying, as they know your uniqueness and can see the dream more objectively.

Program your mind to tell you what a dream means to you.  The answers will come, often, when least expected and in a flash.  Here is a good affirmation:  “My higher mind clearly shows me what my dreams mean to me in ways that are completely understandable and clear.”

Also, if you’re having a problem that you just can’t seem to solve in your awake state, program your dreams to do the work and give you the answer!  Here is a good affirmation: “My dreams now solve the problem at hand, giving me clear answers immediately!”

Don’t worry - the answers will come. Also, reading different books on dream interpretation can be helpful.  One of the best is Wilda Tanner’s The Mystical, Magical, Marvelous World of Dreams.

All in all, dreams are a divine tool for transformation, growth, enlightenment and higher understanding - one which most of us, unfortunately neglect or only deal with ever so randomly.  Make exploring and understanding your dreams as important as what you put your mind to when you’re awake.  After all, approximately one third of our lives are spent sleeping and there is a great treasure of knowledge and insight in our sleep and the mysterious pathway to transcendent understanding known as our dreams.  Dream speak to us - a voice from within and far beyond, giving us awareness, insight, knowledge and a preview of all that is to come.  It is said that nothing happens in our lives - nothing at all, without us first previewing it, seeing it in our sleep and dream cycles and accepting it.  Learn to listen and take heed of your dreams and all that they mean, as you will then know so much more that is and what is to potentially come.