Let’s start our course excerpts blog off with an excerpt from University Of Metaphysical Sciences Dreams and Dreaming course from the section on Dream Interpretation. (from page 3 in the course, of 60 pages)
Yes, there have been multitudes of workshops, books and studies done on dreams, but up to now, these endeavors have been c
onsidered frivolous and unimportant by society, and have even been called the junk of the mind. Most people feel that dreams, their recall, interpretation and meaningfulness, are for those who have too much free time on their hands. People who investigate their dreams are often considered hobbyists, rather than what they really are—brave explorers of an unmapped and misunderstood world that may have just as much reality as this physical one. Exploration of dreams is considered by most in society as frivolous play at best. However, according to Jeremy Taylor in his book Dream Work (1983), “In non-technological societies where people use fewer tools and are virtually without machines, dream life tends to have much more importance and prominence than it does in industrial/technological cultures.” Perhaps we would do well to observe the more primitive societies in existence today, for they are more proficient at dreaming than we in our highly technological societies. We could learn from these primitive societies, for they excel in their understanding and uses of dreams.
John Layard says in his book The Lady Of The Hare (1988), “All primitive peoples recognize [that dreams are messages from God], and accordingly pay great attention to them…all knowledge of the other side of life came to mankind through [dreams], later canalized into dogma, which is its static representation, true but lacking in redemptive efficacy so long as it is divorced from its organic source.” This points to the fact that all religious doctrine, rituals and beliefs are based on information originally received via channels of other worldly nature, like dreams. It is well documented in the Bible that many of the most important messages came to mankind through dreams, but why are dreams not used in such a way now? We are left with only the static conclusions that others made in their own dream analysis early in history, yet is not spirituality a constantly evolving thing? Perhaps we should look at our dreams in the present day as messages from God, universe, Self, whatever the source might be called by any given individual. These may be the changes that are needed as human spirituality evolves. Spiritual messages through dreams did not end upon the point of crystallization of the Bible.
Many of the visions and divine realizations in the Bible are products of dreams. John A. Sanford quotes the Bible, Numbers 12:6, in his book Dreams: God’s Forgotten Language (1968), “And he said, ‘Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision, I speak with him in a dream.’ Thus equating clearly the common origin and significance of dreams and visions [in the Bible].” Elsie Sechrist states in her book Dreams: Your Magic Mirror (1968), “In the Bible there are constant references to communication between man and God, between man and the angels, and between man and his higher self through the medium of dreams.” She also addresses meditation, as in metaphysical methods: “In meditation, man opens himself to those benign powers which are the strongest forces in the universe, as well as to all time, all space, and all levels of consciousness. It is his attempt to communicate with his source, with God. Whereas prayer is ‘man talking to God,’ meditation is ‘man listening for God’s voice.’” So could dreams be likened to meditation at our deepest level where we clearly receive messages from some higher source or power? Are dreams actually the “ultimate meditation?”
