Why We Have Dreams about the Future
I am going to focus in this post on why we have dreams that relate to the future. They may be dreams about some person we meet in the future, an illness not yet visible, an opportunity not yet seen, or a global event such as climate change. First, I want to repeat something I stated in an earlier post, which is the relative infrequency of dreams of global events. Most of our dreams relate to our personal lives in some way and do not extend beyond the sphere of family, friends, and coworkers. Very few of the psychic readings of the even famous psychic Edgar Cayce, who is often regarded as a prophet, related to global events. Most related to the individual for whom the reading was given.
I believe we have certain dreams about the future for several reasons. First, during the course of the day, and especially right before falling asleep, we may be thinking about some aspect of our future or the broader future such as for the economy. Our conscious focus triggers a subconscious response in the way of a dream, which may provide an answer to our concerns. As an example, if I am single, I may despair about ever meeting someone with whom I can share my life. If you have spent the day obsessing about this, you might have a dream that shows you with someone you do not now know, but will later meet as your future partner.
The subconscious is part of a universal consciousness and can receive information from an unlimited number of sources. It is not restricted by time or space. Your subconscious filters out most of the information it receives and does not pass it to your conscious mind through a dream. However, if you consciously seek some answer related to the future, the subconscious will reveal the answer based on current conditions and pass it to your conscious mind in a dream. Your conscious desire is the trigger for the dream. This applies to your personal life as well as for global events.
Another reason for a dream about a future event relates to the unconscious mind and its purpose. You have entered this life with a purpose, and your conscious choices may be taking you in the wrong direction. The subconscious creates a dream with a message that is intended to steer you into a direction consistent with your soul’s purpose. Sometimes the message is subtle, and other times it comes as a stern reprimand.
Still other reasons for dreams of the future involve warnings and missed opportunities. If something in the future is a threat or danger, your subconscious sees the threat and creates a dream containing a warning. If dreams of warning are ignored, catastrophic results can occur. Also, sometimes we are shown the future we could experience, but are not experiencing, if we lived up to our potential. The dreams are provided as encouragement to more fully utilize abilities we possess.
Anything the unconscious mind thinks we need to know about the future will find its way into a dream, if the unconscious thinks that is the right way to inform us. However, the dream may not be remembered upon awakening, so the message may be lost. If the subconscious considers it important enough, the message is repeated in different ways in further dreams until we do remember them and get the message.
Dreams of the future can relate to the next day, or they can concern an event many years into the future. When I was thirteen or fourteen, I had an extremely vivid, powerful dream that showed me the entire course my life would take. Now in retirement, I realize that my life has evolved exactly as depicted in the dream. However, most of my dreams about the future relate to the next day.
When interpreting your dreams, you may have a tendency to see events depicted in the future as happening soon—within days or weeks at the most. Often this is the case, but time to the subconscious mind is not the same as to the conscious mind. The subconscious may see an event as a certainty and show it as occurring in a dream, but in our material word, the event may be years or even decades away.