The Spiritual Dimension of Dreams

[Lin Neiswender]

From an email I got this afternoon... interesting. Always wondered about those exam dreams!

The Spiritual Dimension of Dreams
by Michael Sheridan

reprinted with permission
In this article, I take a look at the Spiritual Dimension of Dreams. Up
until now, I have focused on the basics of dream interpretation and how some
dreams indicate health warnings. Dreams also comment on our spiritual path and
how true we are being to that path. This is hardly surprising, since dreams
come from a spiritual source.
What does surprise many people is the diversity of paths in the spiritual
field. I remember when I first began to explore this realm, I went to a "Mind,
Body and Spirit Exhibition" in Dublin expecting to find a lot of eccentric
people peddling their causes. Instead, I was almost shocked to find normal
people (and lots of them) who had found something that they wanted to share with
others. The one thing that stood out the most was that most of these people
claimed that their answer was the only answer and path to take in life. How
do you know which person, if any, has the correct answer?
Years later, I discovered through working with dreams that they all do!
There are many paths to awareness, and the path for you is detailed in your
dreams. It is as unique to you as any other aspect of your personality. When you
have found it, you will know it. The mistake to avoid is assuming that because
a particular path is right for you, it is right for everyone. As you will
see in dreams, following the wrong path can be damaging.
We all have at least one spiritual ability, and our dreams relentlessly
remind us of our abilities and why we need to develop them. People who feel drawn
to work in the spiritual field usually do so out of a desire to help others.
Most soon learn, however, that in order to become good at what they do, they
must first help themselves by clearing any baggage they are carrying from
childhood, relationships or other negative conditioning environments they were
subjected to. If you work in this field and have not done this clearing,
your dreams will show how the negative conditioning inhibits your ability. They
will also show under what circumstances you should use particular abilities.
If the idea that we have spiritual abilities seems alien to you, just
consider for a moment that you are first and foremost a spirit/soul. You
temporarily have a body that you know someday will die, but you, the spirit, will live
on. When you accept that you are a spirit, the concept of having a spiritual
ability is natural. You talking with a spirit is simply one spirit talking to
another; spiritual healing is one spirit healing another, etc. Many people
refer to these abilities as gifts. A gift implies something that has been
given, so I prefer to use the term spiritual power or ability, since these
powers can neither be given to you nor taken away. They are just simply part of
your nature.
Dreams that reflect the spiritual dimension will invariably take place in
locations that indicate spirituality. The most obvious locations are churches,
synagogues, mosques, and other places of worship. Whether we believe in a God
or not, we still associate these locations with receiving direction from the
spiritual realm or God. Other locations and symbols may not be so obvious.
In dreams, unpolluted water represents spirituality, so a river indicates a
request to let your spiritual side flow more freely. A canal is a body of
water where the flow is controlled by manmade structures. In dreams, this means
the dreamer's spirituality is restricted by manmade structures or
conventional ideals. A swimming pool has a somewhat similar meaning. A lake, a body of
water with no flow, asks the dreamer to develop an outlet for the
spirituality. A beach is the approach to the sea. Since the sea represents spirituality,
the beach indicates the dreamer's spiritual approach. A road running
alongside a canal or river indicates your spiritual path.
Dreams set on a high location like the roof of a high-rise building can also
be about our higher purpose, as are dreams set in a university, college,
high school or other similar places of higher learning. Taking exams is a
particularly common dream. We are given the opportunity to take exams when we have
completed a required course of learning. Passing the exam opens the door for
us to move on to a higher level of learning, or it gives us the qualification
to use what we learned in the real world. In dreams, it is always good to
have exams. It means that we have completed one phase of our learning / life
and are now ready to move from this phase to a higher phase. The dream will
show what needs to be developed in order to pass to the next phase of the
dreamer's spiritual evolution. Dreams that take place at a border, customs post,
check-point or interview room have the same meaning.
Spiritual powers are the most precious parts of our nature, so they will
often feature in dreams that take place in jewelry shops or locations where
precious items are displayed. Guardian angels often appear in these dreams and
hand a "gift" to the dreamer where the gift symbolizes the particular ability.
If the item has to be paid for, the price indicates what is required to
attain the ability. For example, a price tag of $3 indicates commitment is
required, $370 indicates commitment to spiritual goals is required, and so on. You
will find the meaning of numbers in the tutorial on my site.
When we are born, we are aware of our life purpose and our spiritual
abilities. Dreams that reflect our birth often remind us of this purpose and show us
these abilities in symbolic form. For example, a child born with special
vision would indicate the dreamer is psychic.
The next column on The Spiritual Dimension of Dreams will focus on how a
particular ability is indicated in dreams, and where possible, how to develop
the ability once you recognize that you have it.
____________________________________

Michael Sheridan is webmaster of _www.dream-analysis.www._
(http://www.dream-analysis.com/) a free, popular website rich with information on dream
interpretation and psychic development. Fresh articles are published every Sunday,
in addition to ongoing classes and workshops and other interesting features.
Michael can be reached by email at _michael@dream-michael@dmich_
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Spiritually_Speaking/post?postID=rs7M...
NkdBC3gUTHNdP_BLkZ1TNpm2-LzrU0vXIVFT0eJTc-w3LGELz2PQyiNtbgkzQDQ)

[Jules]

I am going to look at the few dream I do remember from this angle...I will post what I discover- if anything.

[Lin Neiswender]

Cool Jules, good idea. I had one once about being given a huge white crystal, obviously a spiritual dream.

[Camille]

Lin, this is the part of dreaming I like to learn about most...once I went to a Jungian dream
workshop, and the expert dream interpreter suggested that I "spiritualized" my dreams too much...
but to me that is the most important part to dreaming and I tend to naturally think about my dreams in terms of spirit, though I can tell the difference between cathartic dreams, anxiety dreams,etc...They are way different than the fabulosity of the spiritual dream!

The dreams that are set in in strange, but gorgeous places, sometimes with remembered dialogues...those are the ones I take most seriously...Flying dreams are supposed to be spiritual dreams.

I read somewhere once that when we sleep, at least once during the sleep we are conversing with God...

Coehlo says in the Alchemist that dreams are the language of God.

[Lin Neiswender]

That's a great point about dreams being the language of God. He/She shows us the situation and lets us figure it out for ourselves, much as He/She lets us make our own choices in our everyday lives. I can see you having very spiritual dreams Camille, as that is an integral part of your personality.

[Camille]

Lin, actually I do not think I have spiritual dreams very often, but those dreams I do have are unforgettable!

[Camille]

Lin, I will check out the links above at the end of the day, when most of my daily responsibilities are done : ) Thank you for starting this conversation and posting the article and links! BTW That painting is awesome!

[Lin Neiswender]

Wish I knew the artist....

[Jules]

I just remembered a time, back when I was 12 or 13 or thereabouts when I had a wonderful dream- I was riding a horse through a narrow canyon pass- just enough room for horse an I to fit through- and the rock walls streatching very high into the sky. I cannot write the entire description but I do remember the details- how it looked, felt, sounded, smelled. I traveled down this twisty narrow passage until it opened into a huge cavern- two smaller caves to the left and right - but I entered the main cavern expecting darkness to be struck by the shimmering, glimmering shine of an entire wall of diamonds.

I was babysitting for a neighbor kid (how I know I was close to 13 years old) a few days later and after putting him into bed I started to read his book until his mom came home. It was a Tarzan book. Well into the forth chapter this segment of my dream was described in detail- exactly how I drempt it- all the way to the glittering diamond wall. I knew I had never read it before- I would not read a Tarzan book- except this one time, and then only because it was there and I had time to kill.

I never bothered to look into this dream for meaning after reading it in Tarzan- I chalked it up to some sort of weird déjà-vu... yet , today, I can also see that this winding through a canyon and discovering the brilliant treasure may have been an indication of my spiritual path. This dream happened shortly after my visit to Mesa Verde and my dance with the hummingbird (the events that proved to be my first spiritual experiences)

I did not even remember about it until I started to think of my other dreams in terms of spirituality.

[Lin Neiswender]

Perhaps you have some foreseeing ability, Jules, since it was several days before you read the description that you dreamed about it. That may be one of your gifts. Have you had any other such experiences? I am sure that diamonds have a strong spiritual significance of enlightenment, especially expecting to see darkness and instead experiencing great light, the moment of actual enlightenment, a Zen flash, perhaps fleeting but nonetheless amazingly powerful. And horses and Mesa Verde too- Whew! That's a lot of power symbols!

[Jules]

I can recall a few *weird déjà-vu* experiences very similiar to this from childhood - seems like from fourth grade until maybe 8th grade- when societies tendency to ignore the inner/spiritual world and encourage worldly thinking- after I gave in to that it did not really happen or it did and I squelshed it
It could be. I get confused sometimes when thinking about what exactly is/are my spiritual gifts...I believe that a person can fail to see their own talents and gifts because they are too close to them- their talents come so naturally they do not perceived them as gifts. I hope I worded that so it made sense.

[Lin Neiswender]

Maybe your gift will return to you as you work through the symbols...

[Camille]

Okey Jewels, this answers my above questions...
I agree, humans are positively loaded with untapped, unnoticed, and unrealized spiritual gifts.

I do believe that however one is inclined to create, whatever passions one discovers and uses throughout their lives...these are spiritual gifts, meant for all aspects of healing self and the world, and all our gifts are unique to every one!

That's how diversely creative Creation is... a special set of gifts for each persons' advancement in life! And we are creations born with these unique creations...many yet to be discovered by each of us!