Ways the Holy Spirit Teaches: Dreams

 

Ways the Holy Spirit Teaches: Dreams

In the two previous posts, on The Job Enigma and Elihu, we learned from Elihu that one of the ways that God speaks to man is through dreams. The importance of studying our dreams is emphasized in some detail in the posts Why Dream? and A World of Dreams under the Psychology label. In those posts we learned that dreams can advise us on all kinds of concerns, including diet, exercise, human relationships, and even research problems. But here, we're focusing on spiritual matters, as we should, according to Elihu.

It was in the mid 1960’s that I began to record my dreams and to attempt to interpret them. I employed the approach advocated by Jung and his followers, along with several other references that turned out to be useful, but often the meanings of certain more obscure symbols were discovered through a lengthy trial and error process. I recorded several thousand dreams, accumulated over a period of several decades.

Why should one invest the time and trouble involved in remembering and recording dreams? Many reasons can be offered. Dreams offer a doorway into the subconscious mind, and thereby provide a way to know our true nature. Our conscious self-image is often formed by our own ego requirements and by comments of both our admirers and our detractors. But the subconscious is brutally honest in its truthfulness.

Our dreams strive to influence us to move upward steadily to a higher character – a higher plane of existence. For those seeking spiritual guidance, the dreams will steer them in the right direction, but in most cases very gradually. The progress will only be at the rate that the dreamer is open to following the guidance. It is often discouraging when the dreams seem to be constantly criticizing, but logically no one is going to change for the better if his dreams tell him that he is just fine as he is and doesn't need to change.

One symbol that is especially helpful is that of discovering something of value. During this time I was reading a variety of books and articles on mysticism, religion, and depth psychology. Occasionally the dreams would offer a comment on the subject matter; and also on the little insights that would sometimes occur to me during a period of revelation. If I came across something that would be especially helpful, according to the dream guide, I would dream of discovering something of great value, like a trove of old coins, or antique heirlooms, or a golden key.

On the other side of the coin, the dreams would warn me away from a harmful practice or doctrine. For example, I fell into the habit of reading my daily horoscope in the newspaper. I was not aware of taking any of it seriously, but the dreams told me to drop the practice; so I did.

I don't want to wander away from the primary purpose of this post, which is to assure the reader that the Holy Spirit will speak to him through his dreams, if he will be willing to open his mind to the guidance, accept it, and act on it.

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