Significance of Dreams (Jesus, tradition, soul, church, experience)

[karmel19]

I believe all religious writings contain stories in which people receive guidance in the form of dreams; for example, Joseph was warned in a dream to flee with the baby Jesus to Egypt. And the earlier Joseph (coat of many colors) interpreted the Pharoah's dream, in which (if I remember right), seven skinny cows meant there would be seven years of famine. Could some of you share a few of these stories from your faith tradition? Do you have any personal experiences?

Here is a quote from the Baha'i Writings on the subject:

Indeed, O Brother, if we ponder each created thing, we shall witness a myriad perfect wisdoms and learn a myriad new and wondrous truths. One of the created phenomena is the dream. Behold how many secrets are deposited therein, how many wisdoms treasured up, how many worlds concealed. Observe, how thou art asleep in a dwelling, and its doors are barred; on a sudden thou findest thyself in a far-off city, which thou enterest without moving thy feet or wearying thy body; without using thine eyes, thou seest; without taxing thine ears, thou hearest; without a tongue, thou speakest. And perchance when ten years are gone, thou wilt witness in the outer world the very things thou hast dreamed tonight.

Personally I believe we all receive guidance in dreams, but in many cases it is symbolic; that is, the dream uses exaggerated symbols (like the skinny cows)to get a point across to us, much as a movie director would do. There are many books written about how to work with your dreams to understand what they are trying to tell you. But also, there are some dreams that fit the description in the quote above--you dream something, and after some years it occurs. Recently I opened an old spiral notebook and ran across a dream I had in 1979 about a friend of my ex's; in the dream I was driving someplace along the side of a mountain, and something caused me to stop and walk over to the side and look down, and I saw this man's body down on the rocks near his van, which had gone over the side and crashed. I had not remembered this dream at all, so I was quite astoninshed when I saw what I had written down, because in 2004 this man disappeared and eventually was found; his van had gone over the side somewhere in the San Bernardino mountains and he was killed.

[Scott1]

Interesting topic, thanks for sharing a bit of Baha'i... I wish we had more members on RF!

[Malus 12:9]

Personally I believe we all receive guidance in dreams

They can also be concocted by influences such as constant horror movies or environments.



Like so

[fromthe heart]

Originally Posted by karmel19

I believe all religious writings contain stories in which people receive guidance in the form of dreams; for example, Joseph was warned in a dream to flee with the baby Jesus to Egypt. And the earlier Joseph (coat of many colors) interpreted the Pharoah's dream, in which (if I remember right), seven skinny cows meant there would be seven years of famine. Could some of you share a few of these stories from your faith tradition? Do you have any personal experiences?

Here is a quote from the Baha'i Writings on the subject:



Personally I believe we all receive guidance in dreams, but in many cases it is symbolic; that is, the dream uses exaggerated symbols (like the skinny cows)to get a point across to us, much as a movie director would do. There are many books written about how to work with your dreams to understand what they are trying to tell you. But also, there are some dreams that fit the description in the quote above--you dream something, and after some years it occurs. Recently I opened an old spiral notebook and ran across a dream I had in 1979 about a friend of my ex's; in the dream I was driving someplace along the side of a mountain, and something caused me to stop and walk over to the side and look down, and I saw this man's body down on the rocks near his van, which had gone over the side and crashed. I had not remembered this dream at all, so I was quite astoninshed when I saw what I had written down, because in 2004 this man disappeared and eventually was found; his van had gone over the side somewhere in the San Bernardino mountains and he was killed.

Speaking from a religious perspective I'm not sure how my church views these things but on a personal level I can tell you dreams have warned me before of impending things to happen. I feel we all dream for a reason if only to relieve stress we don't acknowledge in our wake.

[cardero]

Consider dreaming a way to take your soul out for a walk.
It visits places and people and times and events. It eavesdrops on moments. It goes to the future, the past, and the present. It goes to different dimensions, different realities.
Dreams do our souls a world of good.
Dreaming is as significant for the soul as nutrients are for the body.
Remember your dreams, write them down, keep records, learn from your dreams, create and expound on who you are in your dreams. Refresh yourself through your dreaming.