Prophetic dreams

[Artemis5]

How does one know if a dream is prophetic or just a random dream from images brought up from your subconscious and something you just desire to see? Also what exactly is a lucid dream?

[Athanor]

The problem is that it’s hardly ever possible to know if a dream is prophetic unless perhaps a person over the years has had similar dreams that can reliably be said to have come true.

For example, certain families seem to have a more intuitive leaning and dreams of the death of family members often take a similar form over the years. In these cases, it can be possible to decide that your dream is commenting on an upcoming event.

However, the whole issue is very complicated. For example, a woman who had cancer dreamt that her watch stopped and the watch-maker said that it couldn’t be repaired. She also dreamt that her favorite tree in the garden was cut down. Convinced that these dreams were predicting her imminent death from cancer, out of shock she faced a certain outer problem that she had previously ignored. But fifteen years later, she was still alive. In this case, the dream was trying to force her to “live” and face up to certain issues.

Other times, events that happen in a dream and then appear in the outer world can be termed “synchronistic”. They can also be called “meaningful coincidences” and are usually meant to have the ego sit up and take notice of some situation, often an inner problem. You could read more about synchronicity in “There Are No Accidents” by Robert Hopcke.

In most cases a person can only make a few adjustments in his or her life in case something unpleasant apparently predicted in a dream might occur. This would include the avoidance of taking on some stressful activity or project, perhaps putting off large changes in life such as moving, getting married etc., and just ensuring a basic stability in financial matters exists including having some set-aside savings, up-to-date payment of insurance premiums etc.

Pleasanter dreams about meeting attractive people etc. more often represent inner situations as opposed to outer ones, since by one estimate dreams overall refer to inner life 85% of the time vs. 15% to outer relationships and situations.

Also, it’s generally better to treat dreams as not being from “you” but from a more objective source, just as none of us controls our heartbeat, breathing, digestion etc. One view of dreams is that they try to balance out the ego’s sometimes narrow view of things by showing the fuller picture. Think of the narrow beam from a lighthouse that leaves a lot in the dark. Dreams try to light up the “darkness” as well so that things are more developed overall in a person.

Briefly, a lucid dream is a dream in which one knows one is dreaming. One can recognize alien figures as aspects of yourself, meet them and talk with them.

Analyst Anthony Stevens writes “There is an apparent kinship between lucid dreaming, active imagination, hypnotic and mediumistic trance, and certain forms of acute psychosis”.

There are various ways to help induce lucid dreaming, but personally I believe that the waking approach of “Active Imagination” as described for example in “Inner Work” by analyst Robert Johnson is much more accessible and direct for most people although it’s not good for everyone to attempt it because the images that emerge can tend to be difficult to “turn off” if a person is not careful when using this potentially valuable technique of self exploration and development.

[Artemis5]

Athanor,

many thanks for your response I had a different idea about each one that clarified it for me

[Jennings]

I concur with the general thrust of Athanor's explanation but not entirely. I speak principally from personal observation and experience while Athanor, I would gather, from academic study and probably professional practice.

I recall an incident where a motor cyclist's wife dreamt of him having an acccident when the motor cycle burst into flames. Daily the motor cyclist travelled the same route to work so on the morning in question he altered his route, had the accident, and the motor cycle burst into flames. I'll leave the thought with you.

I have experienced prophetic dreams which usually transpire within a day or two of their happening. The first that I recall, which was a vivid monocoloured dream, was of the Lynmouth disaster in 1952. The writer J W Dunne wrote an interesting book on the subject entitled, 'Experiment With Time' which helped me to understand the nature of this dream. I have had many others since. Earlier in my life when in a mobile occupation, frequently I would dream of dusting and cleaning cupboards in an old cottage-like property and around three weeks later would be notified that my family and I were on the move again! I also recall in my earlier life, from a very young age, having recurring dreams that accurately predicted my future and the course that my life would take. I have read of others who have expressed similar experiences.

I had an interesting lucid dream many years ago and was later astounded to read exactly the same dream which Robert Monroe had and which he mentions in his first book on OOBs. I would suggest that it is unsuitable to classify such events as academe does as, to do so, tends to limit the mind's perception of them. We need the freedom to expand our thought processes.

To suggest that we cannot control the organs of our bodies is a mistaken view; with a little practice it is easy to achieve but, who is interested?

From personal experience I found lucid dreaming a scary phenomenon but one which I find can easily be induced with a little practice. The problem is that those dreams are so realistic that it is difficult to distinguish the real world from the dream world and it is easy to be confused about which one is which. I much prefer my feet to be on terra firma and to know exactly where I am! There is an astounding resemblance between lucid dreaming and the real world (if one can be certain which world one is in)! Contrary to what Athanor suggests, in lucid dreaming one is unaware that one is dreaming as the phenomenon is so realistic. I cannot accept the connections Anthony Stevens makes about lucid dreams; I cannot see any relevance to trance, psychosis, or hypnosis but, there may, just may, be a connection to the imagination; meantime, I am uncertain.

I am, however, grateful to Athanor for bringing to attention some of the (presumably) current research literature on the subject.

[Artemis5]

Thanks Jennings, you do make a good point as does Athanor

The thing is I thought I had prophetic dreams before, I saw myself getting married several years before I got married, and a few weeks before my mother passed I dreamt of her death, but that I believe is because she was very sick and hospitalized many times, I also knew I wanted to marry. And there was times I had future dreams, still waiting for those, so I will think and about both positions and see what happens in my dreams and the future. I am still learning about dream interpretation so any reply would be very helpful and I like to hear what all people have to say, it is very enlightening.

[Jennings]

If I can add this addendum to my thoughts on lucid dreaming and other aspects of the mind. When dreaming lucidly it feels as if the time element involved is the same as that of real life, therefore, upon awakening it feels as if one was leading two seperate lives without the intervention of sleep and this is surreal. I much prefer, when asleep, to feel that I have temporarily stepped-off the world but when lucid it feels as if one has not slept. Again, when lucid, one can chose to be an observer or a participant. In one fairly recent lucid dream state when I became aware in the dream that I was lucid I woke myself up only to later discover that I was still in the lucid dream state. On finally awakening I was confused about which state I was in; not in the least a pleasant experience! I am not afraid of entering the state; I simply do not enjoy the experience and although one can slip into it spontaneously it is a stage which can, generally, be kept under conscious control. I have also experienced two short OOBEs and those were entirely different as one was in the fully awake stage and totally aware and liberated. Interestingly, any emotion experienced in OOBEs catapults one back into the body with a thump, so emotion appears to be the sheet-anchor to our secular existence. I wonder if Athanor can say if this is mentioned in any of the literature on the subject?

[unclesirbobbyrobson]

Well I do beliee that dreams can be prophetic. I also believe that most dreams simply are symbolic representations of our inner confusions and feelings. They can be both. The only way to truly tell if a dream is prophetic is if you wait and see. If something happens then it maybe a premonition.

I think that the dream you had about your mother was probably just about your own inner feelings. that you were playing through the worst possible scenario death.

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One way of telling how vital dreams are is to study people who are deprived of sleep and dreams.Sleep deprivation is very dangerous if it continues for extended periods. If you are deprived of sleep for several days then you will slip into madness. The reason for this is that sleep and dreams are linked to vital brain functions.

During the day we store up new thoughts and experiences within short term memory blocks. So if we are deprived sleep these become overloaded. The mind has no more space to store new feelings so these are merely forgotten.

During sleep vital brain waves emerge. Beta waves and theta waves are only ever detected within the brain at night. These help us process through those new feelings and experiences stored in short term memory. We integrate these new feelings into long term memory blocks. So if you do not sleep then you will not be updating your thoughts. You will not be building a bigger picture.

http://unclesirbobby.110mb.com/dreamessay.php DREAM DICTIONARY
http://unclesirbobby.110mb.com/dreamessayhowtopost.php Some tips
http://unclesirbobby.110mb.com/dreamessayhowto.php How to use dreams symbols

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[Wolfjk]

Originally Posted by Artemis5

How does one know if a dream is prophetic or just a random dream from images brought up from your subconscious and something you just desire to see? Also what exactly is a lucid dream?

Hi Artemis5,
You have got some interesting replies to your questions. However my experiences are that dreams are a vital function of life and deal only with the problems that happen in the sleep they happen in. One whole life-experiences serve as basic material for creating a dream. It means that whatever event the dream might predict, one had already contemplated it consciously or unconsciously, remembered or forgotten! Ah there is the rub! for we forget most things we think of!
However there is also the law of probability which is an exact mathematical science. Some dreams may come to pass not because they are predictive but by chance.
If tere were any form of precognition abroad in the world today, the practical use af trade and commerce would have to cater for it. In lottery, insurance and many other walks of life the mathematical probability rules. Were there even a one in amillion chance of precognition the odds on lottery and gambling would have to change. However the odds of an event happening shorten if we know something is likely to happen. If we know about a subjects behaviour or the likely outcome of a process.
There have been a lot written about lucid dreaming, and there have been many many boastful claims that can't be varified or checked. Many lucid dreamers expect the reader or listener to suspend ones judjement. However in a lucid dream the level of consciousness is a critical factor. One can only maintain the the level of consciousness between waking and sleep for fractions of a second. However there is usually a twist to the story! The sleeper's subconscious is full of tricks and often plays a practical joke on the unsuspecting lucid dreamer! In fact many lucid dreamers when theyreach lucidity and try to keep lucid by not waking up, go back to sleep and dream they are lucid!

How does one know if a dream is prophetic or just a random dream from images brought up from your subconscious and something you just desire to see?

There are no random dreams! Every dream is created to do a specific task in the sleep: entertaining, moving, or waking the sleeper.
Cheers Wolfjk