The Promise in Dreams
Yes, I thought as I sat on my bed,
being in dreams is living instead;
messages surf in that endless sea,
hailing dreamers, the immortal ye.
A.O. Kime (1941- )
 

While dreams are no more a phenomenon than a beating heart or the senses, for understandable reasons we seem to be more fascinated by them. Since the dawn of time, man has tried to make sense of dreams and dreaming... often believing they contained messages of one sort or another... but nobody has really gotten anywhere. In light of this, I have begun a serious study of dreams, at least to the extent one can 'study' the metaphysical. I have found some interesting possibilities.

To begin from scratch, we first need to put things in perspective. We don't know any more about dreaming than anything else metaphysical even though we often experience dreams. Because of these experiences, if someone said they had a dream we would know what they meant, more-so than any other phenomenon referenced by name. While almost all phenomena has a name, whether it's the spirit world, our soul, God, angels, or our subconscious, we only have a vague idea what they are supposed to mean. We must rely on our concept of those terms... except for dreaming.

Dreams are a little bit different because - since we often experience them - we've got a better idea what they are even though we still can't explain them. One would think this should make dreams explainable, after all, we experience dreams almost every night but despite this, we remain baffled. Well, the following answers to some questions should be enlightening.

However, due to the limitations every language has when it comes to trying to address the ethereal - lacking metaphysical semantics - there are places some answers really can't go. And, sometimes, may only be able to convey the general idea.

Question: What can we make of our dreams?

While we do know dreams are manifestations produced by our subconscious mind... that alone isn't telling us much. Yet, we can draw much from realizing that dreams are intimately portraying the awesomeness of another reality.

We must first conclude there is a purpose for dreams based on the fact that few, if any, portions of our body or mental faculties exist for no reason. While dreams could be attributed to the fact our mind must remain active to remain healthy - it appears only a minor and lesser reason. In that dreams seem to arbitrarily select a scenario based on our memories, something from this, something from that, and puts them in some order to create a short 'story' is phenomenal. Oftentimes however dreams contains things from 'out of the blue' seemingly not drawn from our memory banks. In those cases, we might rightly conclude the 'dream machinery' is being fueled by our imagination. But that's still not the half of it.

In considering these phenomenal choreographing abilities, there's far more to the story. But instead of trying to assess dreaming in a sterile scientific-like fashion - which cannot penetrate the metaphysical - some good old-fashioned empirical reasoning is in order.

Along with a multitude of other miracles of life, that which constitutes a living being, dreams represent one of the most bizarre. While we are wired to the spirit world in several ways - the sixth sense and transcendental psychic abilities being the most notable - it's also true with dreaming. After all, dreamland is ethereal. The stark difference is that dreaming is far more personal in nature and provides a way to actually experience the spirit world. In other words, without dreams, or even nightmares, evidence of the spirit world would be further removed making its existence nearly impossible to determine. Since it really wouldn't be evident otherwise - a chameleon in our neck of the woods - dreams must be saying "I'm here". That's mainly the purpose for dreams.

Question: I've read what you believe is the reason for dreams but it seems somewhat lacking, surely there is more to it than just a process to know the spirit world exists. Can you expand on that?

Although it opens another door, the fact we 'experience ourselves' in dreams but not in a physical state - which could be described as our 'spiritual self' (or spirit) - then effectively we'd be living life in two dimensions simultaneously. While that in itself should have been considered a scientific revelation long ago- but wasn't since science won't attach any significance to dreaming - dreams gives us countless glimpses of this other world without having to die first. Sure, the afterlife could be quite a bit different but dreams don't have to be perfect examples for us to get the general idea. Leading us to water ought to be enough. Dreams are also saying that you don't have to be flesh-and-blood in order 'to experience'. And, since 'to experience' is what life is all about, that says plenty.

Of course, the skeptics would argue that upon death our brain dies too therefore no more memories, no more imagination, no more dreaming. Well, if that was the case, then dreams exist for no purpose at all. It would be incongruous to have meaningless dreams in light of our bodies all-inclusive purposeful functions. Dreams aren't just a natural consequence of our brains activity... there's always-always a reason. Dreams aren't just muscles twitching.

Dreaming may also be partially the reason for our very need to sleep. Sleeping is a very curious need - there seems more to it than just the physiological reasons put forth by science. Sleeping makes sense for physical reasons... but less-so mentally. Although still speculation, the missing reason or reasons for sleeping may be spiritually related and involves dreaming.

Question: The role dreams may play in the scheme of things has really piqued my curiosity, have you ascertained anything new?

Well, only that the number of unopened doors are increasing as one curiosity leads to the next. For example, the 'depth' of a dream may mean something... perhaps representing the degree one is experiencing their spiritual essence. As you know, some dreams are so shallow you even know you're dreaming whereas others represent reality as much as when we're awake. There must be some reason for these differences other than physiological explanations. Perhaps it's related to how spiritual we are.

The best way to find these unopened doors is to take a few minutes upon awaking from a dream to reflect, not so much what it was about but more the phenomenal nature of dreaming. The freshness of a dream upon awakening captures the right frame-of-mind.  While dreams are most often garbled... there are enough logical sequences, however short, to elicit wonder. In that unguided dreams can be choreographed with logical continuity is yet another door.

Question: I've read your earlier thoughts on dreams, anything new?

For one thing, the 'fuzziness' of most dreams may be the sole reason people dismiss them as no more than a twitching muscle. Only vivid dreams can prompt a re-thinking.

Secondly, the fuzziness of most dreams doesn't lend well to the notion that they represent the activities of our spirit. Without clarity often, and as erratic and illogical as they often are - with an ever-changing picture - it doesn't seem our spirit would do this. A soul, one would think, would have the ability to conduct itself logically, with purpose. In other words, after death and in the event our soul is allowed to live on, we would expect it would have intelligence. If the activities within dreams was what the soul wanted to do while we're asleep, then dreams should have some logical order. Well, some dreams do have logical order and the ones which should attract our attention. There are different types of dreams and we can't let these poorly choreographed ones, for whatever reason a flop, distract us from considering there is a message dreaming is trying to convey.

Well-choreographed dreams seem to be giving us a preview of what our soul may do after our death. In other words, dreams may only be giving us mere glimpses, representing a tiny fraction of what the soul does when we are asleep or what it would likely do after our death. Further, in that the matter of salvation is automatically determined - that our own subconscious mind determines this - memories, upon which dreams largely draw from, will largely influence the future activities of the soul. After death, the entire makeup of the soul may be based in whole, or in part, on the memories of an individual. In this, how humans conduct themselves on earth, the memories they have of it, may determine how much joy or pain one would have in the afterlife. Religions would say it differently but in essence it's the same message.

Question: Your thoughts on dreams are intriguing, how did you ascertain them?

Having no doubts and without hesitation... primarily through emanation and delivered most dutifully by the muse of Greek mythology.

If you are referring to dreams representing the activities of the soul, that appears true but only for one type of dream... those very involved, clear and with more continuity. Those not qualifying would be the type that make no sense and perhaps even those containing recent experiences and mind-possessing thoughts.

Some can be so real that upon awakening one is breathing heavily trying to catch their breath. However, it is uncertain where a nightmare fits-in but they are most definitely different (a type). The term 'nightmare' has been around since the 14th century to delineate a bad dream from a good dream but that was it. For these purposes, dreams need be categorized into types as well.

The most interesting types of dreams are the long-running adventures, or seemingly long-running. These types of dreams don't seem to draw on memories or recent thoughts, but create, out of the blue, the scenes, action and personalities involved. These types of dreams represent best the apparent activities of the soul.

Another type in the category of long-running adventures are those which evolve. In other words, what might be a car one instant becomes a bicycle the next. Or that the person you are with, who is often nobody you've ever known in 'real life', can change into someone else after awhile. Sometimes however, we have a bit of control over the action (lucid dreaming) and this adaptability could represent the capabilities of the soul. If full control was possible in the afterlife it would have profound implications. Imagine being able to change the scenario to your liking on the fly.

Of course, one can't change realties in a physical state... only in a dream state. For that reason, a dream state is seemingly a more ideal state. While such a controllable dream state could be the long-heralded 'heaven' but in considering the other works of God, it likely isn't. The works of God are never that simple... forever immersed in complicated dimensions.

Question: In your most recent assessment of dreams, what did you mean by 'this adaptability could represent the capabilities of the soul'?

Okay, this time I'll rephrase everything and once again consider 'soul' and 'spirit' as being one-in-the-same. What I meant was that the soul could, in the afterlife, have the ability to choreograph its existence at will, first by creating and then adjusting its circumstances on the fly. My contentions are predicated on how I believe the soul's state of existence would be in the afterlife... that is, the soul would exist only in what might be described as being in a 'dream state'. Actually, this dream state is just another form of existence... that is, assuredly 'existence' itself is not just limited to life as we know it (requiring a physical body). While probably everyone expects the afterlife will be different, with many believing the afterlife would mean 'being alive' but in spiritual form (somehow), I'm suggesting how one might experience such an existence except it wouldn't be the same as 'being alive'.

Whether to call it 'life' or 'existence' makes no difference, it is to 'experience'. Experiencing is what life and/or an existence is all about. Not to experience is not to exist. Currently, humans experience in two different ways, both consciously and while dreaming. Whether or not that would be an advantage over being just a spirit, without human form or human senses, there's things to consider. While not to know pain, a soul is not to know sensory pleasures either, except for its memory of them. A soul without a body would likely experience similar to the most vivid of dreams but that's still effectively real (to the dreamer). After all, we've all experienced dreams which, at the time, seemed real.

Importantly for this argument, we were experiencing these dreams oblivious to all physical realities around us which, in essence, makes no reality more 'real' than another. As for this 'spiritual existence', a previous life (as a human) enriches that experience and, I believe, the sole reason for being human. It is a way to collect memories to feed upon later because without taking on a physical form, worthwhile memories could not develop. An imagination cannot function without a platform of experiences.

As we've noticed while dreaming, the experience can rapidly evolve and change directions. Yet, except on rare occasions, humans have no conscious control over this, most dreams seem to be randomly influenced by a multitude of factors, primarily by memories, cravings and anxieties past and present but also those coming from out-of-the-blue. The soul, essentially an imagination with a memory, should have the ability to manipulate the action more to its liking. The extent of this ability could vary and be predicated on 'worthiness'. This 'action' would likely be unlimited in scope, endless in diversity, encompassing anything an imagination wishes extrapolated from memories. Since memory should influence the action to a great extent, for some the experience could effectively be heaven, for others... hell.

Dreaming summary

I should add that the relationship between dreaming and the soul was also an ancient belief. Today, while most people consider dreams 'just dreams' and meaningless, and while most often true, that shouldn't automatically relegate dreaming itself as also meaningless. I think we should begin to look at dreaming as a legitimate phenomenon instead of an anomaly and concentrate more on understanding dreaming... less on individual dreams. There is simply a greater reason for dreaming, beyond what science contends... and it's spiritual. If we experience something quite often, such as dreaming, and still do not understand what is transpiring after 2,500 years, it should tell us perceptions have been faulty about psychic phenomena. However, to arrive at any answers, one simply can't fathom metaphysics kept at arms-length... it must be engaged and experienced.

By A.O. Kime

© A.O. Kime (2003)
A.O. Kime is the author of two books plus 70+ articles on ancient history,
spiritual phenomena, political issues, social issues and agriculture which
can be seen at http://http://www.matrixbookstore.biz