To sleep, perchance to dream

A few weeks ago I came across an article that impressed me so much that it has stayed on my mind. And, you know, this blog and you readers are the receptacle whenever my mind starts to move meaningfully. Here is the article. Go read it and come back to finish my post.

Ok. Fine. You can keep reading even if you didn't read it right now.

This article, written by a dream expert, is about the importance of dreams. Not just the healthfulness of sleep and dreaming, but the spiritual importance of dreams. Dreams with a capital "D" - ones that come from God. This paragraph is what hooked my interest:

"It can be difficult to know which dreams to ignore and which to pay heed to, but our current standard for dismissing most or all dreams cannot be what God intended when He built the dream mechanism into our very biology. Dreams have become a kind of “dead letter office”: a lot of attempted deliveries, but few messages received. If dreams are one method of receiving divine revelation, they are underutilized."

The hair on my arms stood up when I read this. Think of the possibilities this suggests!

I have always been fascinated by the untapped human potential. I love hearing stories of people who suddenly, in a crisis, have superhuman strength. I feel empowered knowing that millions of Jews did not die in concentration camps despite the horrible, animal conditions they lived in. I am amazed by survival stories, and stories where humans seem to do the impossible. Somehow I feel my strength and worth more knowing that other mortals did these things.

I had these same feelings when I read this article. I have never taken my dreams seriously and had always assumed that only a prophet or someone with real significance could have a revelatory dream. But this article suggests that dreams are a gift, available to all, that can connect us directly with God. Like all spiritual gifts, it requires refinement and practice and a living a life worthy for the spirit's companionship.

The author suggests writing dreams down, including names, places and other details; over the weeks and years pay attention to patterns; pray about the interpretation of dreams; talk to the people involved in your dreams.

The article is full of personal experiences that people have shared with the author over the years of her research. Some of the stories are very simple but some are amazing. Like this one:

"Sometimes people receive dreams for the specific purpose of helping others. Several years ago my former college roommate, a nurse by profession, had a visitation dream of a labor and delivery doctor who had died suddenly of lymphoma in his early fifties. They had worked together professionally and he was her favorite doctor to assist. In her dream Cyndi sees him standing by the elevator in his running shorts and says, “What are you doing here?” She thinks but does not say, “You’re dead.” He said to her, “I need a wedding, a phone call and a delivery.” Cyndi recalled feeling overjoyed to see him, and happy when she awoke, but puzzled. The metaphorical message of the dream confused her, yet it was vivid enough she could not dismiss it. She called me to help her make sense of the dream, and I said, “Sometimes when dead people come to visit in dreams, they need something from you.” Although the dream provided no clear instructions, Cyndi took an empty notebook around to all the people on the labor and delivery unit and said, “I’ll take care of your patients while you write something about Dr. Skidmore.” When the book was full of warm, personal, funny love letters about a beloved doctor and friend, Cyndi called and arranged to leave it in the Skidmore mailbox. A few days later, Mrs. Skidmore called Cyndi and said, “I wanted to hear about my husband’s work life, but he never talked about it. I thought when the children were grown I would have the chance to hear that important piece, and then he died so suddenly that I didn’t get to know him as a doctor. I felt that loss deeply. It helped me to hear from other people who loved him and missed him. You have given me the one thing I thought I could never have.”

I have no expectations of having significant dreams like this one. But since reading this article and subsequently paying more attention to my dreams I have thought back to several dreams I've had in my life and reevaluated their meanings.

Growing up sharing a bed with my older sister we were in a habit of sharing our dreams with each other. We found it uncanny that we both often dreamed of our younger brother Brother Brig in situations where he was fighting and defending a sibling or our family. Years later, in a conversation with my mother, I discovered that she had been having similar dreams. Frequent readers of this blog know that Brother Brig ended up in the special forces of the army, and fighting in Afghanistan.

If I hadn't been thinking about dreams lately, I probably would not have paid attention a dream I had yesterday while, ahem, napping, that helped me be sensitive to Spouse when he came home from work after, what I found out later was, an especially horrible day. If I hadn't heeded that dream I probably would have complained about him coming home so late, got after him about his sneaky itunes purchase, insisted that he help me with the dishes, pestered him about putting his clothes away and begged him for a back massage. Any one of those things could have sparked bad feelings, possibly a disagreement and for sure would have prevented my feelings of compassion and sympathy for the rotten-ness he experienced at work.


Feed my fascination. Have you ever had a prophetic dream? A dream that changed your course of action? A dream that you have never forgotten? Have you ever lifted a car with one arm with adrenaline pulsing through your veins? (or something like that)