Why We Dream

Your dreams are about you, the dreamer. A friend, someone who claims to be a dream interpreter or a book may suggest possible meanings to you, but the real discovery of their meaning must be made by you. The full significance of the words and images in the dream is unique to you. Your subconscious chose them out of an infinite reservoir for a reason, because they convey its message better than other words and images. And only you can know the full impact of their emotional content. Also, an awakening occurs when we discover a truth for ourselves. Others may have told us things about ourselves for years that we accept intellectually, but the light comes on when we really feel it and understand it on a “gut” level.

So why do we dream? Why is our subconscious sending us messages? The answer is not simple because there is no universal agreement about the true purpose of dreams. Scientists have developed theories that have evolved over time, and mystics and psychics have added their own perspective. Edgar Cayce gave many readings on dreams, and the view expressed in the readings is that dreams are for the “benefit of the individual” (Edgar Cayce Reading 294-15). They serve as a review of our daily actions, a problem solving function and lead to the discovery of new talents and abilities. However, this assumes the individual is sincerely trying to improve his life. Otherwise, the dreams are likely to be chaotic and of little use. You will find your dreams to be the clearest when you meditate on a regular basis, establishing your purpose as one seeking help from the spiritual forces.

In the Seth material channeled by Jane Roberts, we find that the dreamer is active in building the events and experiences for the next day. According to Seth, various possible scenarios might be tried out before the one that becomes physically manifested is selected. So it is no surprise that the daily events sometimes seem familiar because we have already lived them the night before. After many years of dream work, I have found that I have indeed lived the experiences the night before. This dream preview has enlarged my awareness of people and events around me, and it has clearly demonstrated to me that things do not just happen each day. We have a direct hand in building the life we live, and that process starts in the subconscious before the physical events in our lives are ever encountered. Edgar Cayce expressed it by claiming that every significant event in a person’s life is first foreshadowed in a dream. This claim became one of the main drivers for my investigation of dreams that began over forty years ago.