Are our dreams merely subconscious thoughts suppressed by our consciousness, exploring activities of the last 24 hours brought on by heavy or spicy meals as some dream experts say? If we view dreams as a one-dimensional conception, we will never understand the complexities of dreaming that helps explain our lives as connected to the cosmos. Some dreams do have a feeling of simplicity that they are just that: a dream.
Dreams, however, can consist of different compositions and textures. Those waking up during a dream to say, ‘I think I’m dreaming,’ are or have become consciously aware of being in their ‘dream’ or out-of-body (OBE) state. Are they a viewer, a participant, or a generator of the dream? Are they all three? This ‘dream’ then comes from and into conscious awareness, not subconscious unawareness. These dreams become our memories from OBEs.
This is what researchers have named Lucid Dreaming when we become aware that we are dreaming and orchestrate the outcome. Perhaps, all that we are doing is consciously participating in our OBE, but drifted elsewhere and forgot it upon awakening, calling the experience a dream. Unless we awaken directly while in a particular event during a ‘dream’ we can easily bury it with a jumble of other ‘sleeping’ thoughts. Can we really call these events dreams in the routine sense?
When we give ourselves a task to do before dozing off to sleep, we consciously participate in something. What seems to occur is that we (our mind and astral body) are stepping out of our physical body to do something. Often we do this without first giving ourselves instructions. Is this then merely a dream when it seems so real? How does our subconscious instruct us to do something or go somewhere during our sleep when we have not purposefully instructed it to do so? Does our astral body have a mind of its own?
Do we have a super-conscious mind connected with our subconscious and conscious minds? Is this super-conscious mind our higher-self that remains elsewhere in a dimensional universe, analogous to the film ‘The Matrix’ where machines kept citizens alive? People only lived through consciousness or astral bodies, not through physical bodies.
More than three decades ago, while lying awake on a couch, I spontaneously left my body. I found myself looking up through the apex of a crystal pyramid at a blue sky dusted with white clouds. I was certain that I was on top of a mountain. Looking just beyond myself, I saw a tall, dark-haired man standing within my range of vision. When I noticed that I lay atop a cobalt-blue bed cover I as quickly returned to my physical body and conscious awareness as I left it. Despite the cobalt-blue color striking me as meaning healing, I’ve never resolved this event to my satisfaction. Something about that notion didn’t seem right, especially, not being ill at the time.
The theme of film ‘The Matrix’ has since given dimensions to my thoughts on the matter. Can we unconditionally say with one-hundred percent certitude that we’re positive of events when in astral realms while in this physical world? We are often certain of the events while experiencing them, but they get hazy just moments later. Any answers coming from others in this dimension and elsewhere are really hearsay. We can believe anything we wish. The truth of that event may be one of those, ‘We’ll know when we get there,’ answers. I’m just satisfied that I’m certain it occurred, and happened without any ‘artificial’ enhancements or altered mental state.
When we doze off with the radio or television playing, we can logically assume that if we dream, the context of programs translates into mental images, entering our minds. When we sleep alongside another, can we mentally pick up his or her thoughts, making their contents aspects of our dreams? When we travel dimensionally in OBEs, can conversations and activities with others make their way into our dreams as symbols our subconscious translates so that we remember and understand? If we are sensitive and protected during sleep, are we picking up the thoughts or conversations of others, making symbolic pictures that have meanings for us?
For that matter, dreams may have no meaning at all for us, but are just bits and pieces of floating information our subconscious minds receive. Or, is information being imparted purposely through dreams, so that sensitive individuals believe it, giving them prophetic dreams? When dreams are not representative, but literal, and especially when they come true, this is a good indication they are prophetic dreams.
Perhaps, not everything in our dreams is about us. This was evident in the cancelled television show, ‘Medium’ that was one of the most honest depictions of mediumship to hit the small screen. The producers obviously strove for authenticity over fantasy. The main character was based on a genuine person who solved crimes through her dreams.
Dreams are not always as they seem. Therefore, understanding them takes work, deciphering genuine information from a hodgepodge of ideas and images.
How can some dream experts categorically conclude that their symbolisms are universal, often dealing with merely sexual matters? I once dreamed my teeth were falling out as a response to the fact that my braces were soon coming off and I, unconsciously, feared my teeth with them. This didn’t fit the category of experts.
Some symbols surely have social significance if the population becomes aware of them. If having no cognizance of a particular symbol, how can we know its meaning to understand its relevance? What would be the point then of having particular symbols in dreams? Dream symbols then become useless as a tool. When we learn about dream symbols they may gain relevance, but is it the horse before the cart, or the cart before the horse? I’m not the expert, but we most likely subconsciously catalogue our own symbolism from our own life experiences that gives meaning when needed to convey messages. *
Some OBE myths need dispelling. One person who emphatically knew about OBEs insisted that having sex with favorite movie stars is a benefit or perk of astral travel. She said that we can have sex with any movie star or celebrity with whom we wish. Wow! Who reaps the benefit? Surely, not the movie stars, who will be very busy during sleep satisfying anyone and everyone. Is this some sort of punishment for being a celebrity? This kind of nonsense muddies the waters for genuinely finding answers.
… stay tuned …
