Dreams, Dreaming and Afterlife Dreamers

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- )

artist rendition of hammock and book

Exploring what dreaming (not dreams, per se) may actually represent

While dreams are no more a phenomena 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.

Of course, there are reasons why the nature of dreams have remained elusive to science but I won't overly dwell on them here... for my thoughts on why science can't comprehend metaphysics see spirit world or metaphysics.

To begin from scratch, we first need to put things in perspective. We don't know any more about dreams than about anything else metaphysical even though we often experience them. Because of this experience, 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 mind, we only have a vague idea what they are suppose to mean. We must rely on our concept of those terms... except for dreams.

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 understand or explain them. One would think this should make dreams explainable, after all, we experience dreams almost every night but despite this, we remain baffled... this should be telling us something. Well, it does, and perhaps the following "questions and answers" may explain:

Question: What can we make of our dreams?

Answer: Without question, dreams best portray the awesome power of the spirit world in a most personal way. We do know dreams are manifestations of the subconscious and seemingly have forewarned some people of events, but that's a gift extremely rare. However we should direct our attention to the overall purpose for dreams, not the gift, despite this interesting psychic connection. This rarity, being off on a tangent, has another face so let's concentrate on the general purpose for dreams for the average person.

We must first conclude there is a purpose for dreams, an assumption of course but based on the fact that few, if any, portions of our body or mental faculties exist for no reason. To some degree, I believe, a mind must remain active to remain healthy and to some extent, the mind determines what the mind is lacking in that regard. 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 'story', however short, is phenomenal. Oftentimes however dreams contains things 'out of the blue', seemingly not drawn from our memory banks, so in those cases the 'dream machinery' may be feeding off our imaginative powers. I really can't expand any farther on the mechanics so let's see where dreams might fit in the 'big picture'.

Along with the multitude of other miracles of life, that which constitutes a living being, dreams represent one of the most bizarre. Of miracles such as body organs, our circulatory system, those more physical... our five senses stand out, so do dreams and the sixth sense. These five senses serve us in ways that connect us to the physical world while the sixth sense connects us to the spirit world. While dreams have not been commonly considered a 'sense', they have a relationship to the sixth sense as often evidenced. In divergence, dreams are more personal in nature whereas transcendental psychic abilities generally are not. Dreams are a way to personally experience the spirit world. In other words, without dreams, or even nightmares, evidence of the spirit world would be further removed making its existence even harder to recognize. However I don't believe it was ever purposed that the spirit world should be easily recognizable either. Largely the message in dreams are saying "we're here, we love you, we even like to entertain you so check us out". 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?

Answer: You're right, perhaps my answer did fall short but at the time, nothing more was available to me. As I've said before, the connection to the muse is not hard-wired and they also need to be participating (available). While not the complete answer you might be looking for, I do have something more to add although only describable in the most vaguest of terms. Actually it seems it might only open another door. The fact that we can dream seems to be directly connected to our spirit, in that we are experiencing our spiritual self when we dream. I don't really want to expand further because I need much more information but I am suspecting where this might lead could be absolutely profound. I'll say this anyway although I may have to retract it later... it seems as if we are actually living life in two dimensions simultaneously, within the body and as a spirit. In other words, we don't need to die to experience this other world, we already are but to the degree we're aware of it may vary greatly. Another clue which might help substantiate this at some point is our very need to sleep. Sleeping seems to be a very curious need, beyond the physiological reasons put forth by science. I think this other reason is spiritually related. While the tendency is to jump to conclusions, it's too early for that even though one could possibly find logic by extrapolating this.

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

Answer: Not too much except that perhaps the 'depth' of a dream could mean something, I'm speculating that it does. For the reasons I mentioned before, however vague that I was, I think dreams represent our spiritual side and now, as a later thought, the depth represents the degree one experiences their spiritual essence. I think you know what I mean, some dreams are so shallow you even know you're dreaming. If this is true, and while I'm not sure yet if it will 'fit' with my overall concepts, so far it looks like it might. What could this possibly mean? Well, I'm not ruling out a lot of things but it could be a way to gauge how spiritual we are. In a further stretch of my imagination, it could be a developing process to set the stage which would later serve as the portal we enter as a spiritual being. I know that sounds far-fetched but I think it has some merit as being possible. I think it would be beneficial to take a few minutes upon awaking to reflect upon dreams, not so much what it was about but more the phenomenal nature of dreams, how they can be choreographed with logical continuity. While most often dreams are garbled... there are enough logical sequences, however short, to elicit wonder.

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

Answer: Well, several times I began to doubt myself, that dreams may not really be reflecting one's spiritual side but I'm back to thinking it does. The reason I had my doubts was because of the 'fuzziness' of dreams, that if dreams do in fact represent the activities of the soul, but without clarity often, and as erratic and illogical as they can be with an ever-changing picture, it didn't seem as if a soul 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. Although some dreams have more 'order' than others.

As I always analyze dreams upon waking and after some thought, I began to believe dreams may only 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. Since I believe 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?

Answer: If you are referring to dreams representing the activities of the soul, I only believe that could be true for some 'types' of dreams. For some reason, undoubtedly because of the nature of dreams I've been having the last year or so, I began to diligently analyze them upon awakening. In doing so, there actually seems to be 'types' of dreams... some are different because of being very involved with more continuity. I've also noticed that after awakening from some, I'm breathing heavily to catch my breath. Not so surprising, I've also found that the contents of some dreams contain many things I observed or was thinking about the previous day.

The types of dreams that interests me the most are the ones that are 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 could represent, I think, the activities of the soul... but for language limitations, semantics, I can't quite explain why yet since I haven't found a way to structure my arguments. On the other hand I've concluded that some dreams are merely that, just dreams... with no more meaning that a twitching muscle.

There is something else interesting about these long-running adventures, the meaning of which I never pondered at first... that they 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. This adaptability, while probably believed due to merely straying thoughts, I think instead there is a great significance. While it would be premature to draw any conclusions, I sense that this adaptability could represent the capabilities of the soul if it were, say, on its own... as in the afterlife.

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

Answer: I should have expanded on that. 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. Before I elaborate, a few things first. 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, I'm suggesting how one might experience such an existence except it wouldn't be the same as 'being alive'. For this purpose let's consider 'soul' and 'spirit' as being one-in-the-same.

While there is a difference between 'life' and 'existence', but if to bring the spirit world into the analysis, the end result is somewhat the same... it is to 'experience'. Experiencing is what life and/or an existence is all about. Not to experience is not to exist. Actually, humans can 'experience' in two different ways, both consciously and while dreaming. Whether or not that would be an advantage over being a spirit, without human form or human senses, who knows? While not to know pain, a soul is not to know sensory pleasures either, except for its memory of them. As to how the soul 'experiences', it would be similar to the most vivid of dreams, but effectively as real to them as tangibility. 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 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.

As we've noticed while dreaming, the experience can rapidly evolve and change directions. Yet, humans have no conscious control over this, dreams seem to be randomly influenced by a multitude of factors, primarily by memories, cravings and anxieties, past and present. As for the soul, essentially an imagination with a memory, it should have the ability to manipulate the action to some extent, more to its liking... but I only sense this, I can't back it up. The extent of this ability could vary and be predicated on those things surrounding 'worthiness'. This 'action' would likely be unlimited in scope, endless in diversity, encompassing all things an imagination could possibly project based on memories. As 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. It should be obvious that if we experience something quite often, such as dreaming, and still do not understand what is transpiring after 2,500 years, that should tell us perceptions are faulty about psychic phenomena. Psychic phenomena are, of course, matters of the spirit world. Further, one can't fathom much of anything kept at arms-length.

A.O. Kime

Go back to (or see more) articles on metaphysical wonders (phenomena) and the application of inkwell philosophy
For an outstanding Catholic analysis of dreams see Interpretation of Dreams
For a related article see Afterlife Dreaming, Immortality and Concept of Time
Also see our guest article The Dialogue of Dreams

Matrix of Mnemosyne... the place of smoke signals from the spirit world

Last modified: 06/22/10