Dreams

[Mortification]

How do you know if some dreams are just dreams and when others may be something else, like a message or sign that God has allowed?

 

[empther]

If God is sending a message he’ll make it clear and certain that’s what he’s doing.

Dreams mean nothing, beyond the unconscious clumsily and unsystematically trying to organize and catalogue today’s experiences with all prior experiences. The result is a meaningless mess. Ignore it.

 

[Mortification]

If God is sending a message he’ll make it clear and certain that’s what he’s doing.

Dreams mean nothing, beyond the unconscious clumsily and unsystematically trying to organize and catalogue today’s experiences with all prior experiences. The result is a meaningless mess. Ignore it.

Of course, not all dreams regarding religion or God are going to be sent from God. They are just what you said, our subconscious catalogue doing funny things.

However, did not Joseph receive messages in his dreams? I’m sure there are other instances that escape me at the moment where it is known that God communicates with humans through dreams.

And notice in my original post, I said a message or sign that God has allowed. Not necessarily that God is the one sending the message.

 

[Sacred_Heart_1]

How do you know if some dreams are just dreams and when others may be something else, like a message or sign that God has allowed?

You should not use dreams as prophecies because you are going to be wrong everytime. All I would take from a dream, religious in nature, is inspiration. Don’t think God is sending you on a special mission–that is called Schizophrenia. Take a dream, religious in nature, as inspiration, nothing more.

 

[Mortification]

You should not use dreams as prophecies because you are going to be wrong everytime. All I would take from a dream, religious in nature, is inspiration. Don’t think God is sending you on a special mission–that is called Schizophrenia. Take a dream, religious in nature, as inspiration, nothing more.

Of course, and again I restate, not a message from God Himself, but a message that He allows to reach you, say for example from a departed family member?

There’s no schizophrenic mission going on here.

I’ll just share with you a quick experience which just made me really think.

It was a few years ago when I was really away from God and my faith, living my life on my own terms, I felt betrayed and lied to and really was an angry atheist for a while. During this period, I had the most realistic dream that encompassed all of my senses of sight, smell, touch, etc. I was in a room with my grandfather, he was happy and he told me to thank God for this very moment that I was able to be with him briefly, and he kept reiterating and couldn’t stress enough to thank God for it. At that point in my life, the last thing I wanted to hear was stuff about God, so it’s not like it was my overactive religious brain thinking up stuff to comfort me.

This event didn’t bring me back to the faith (I’m back now thankfully but not because of this instance) but it’s one that I just remembered recently while reading about Padre Pio’s life, particularly the part about Poor Souls, where it states the phenomena of departed souls in purgatory visiting mainly saints and mystics to ask for their intercession, but also stated that sometimes it may be a family member visiting a living relative to get them to incite prayers (which they said was rare).

It just made me think is all and wanted to know if anyone had any further opinion or perhaps even experiences on this topic.

 

[Sacred_Heart_1]

Of course, and again I restate, not a message from God Himself, but a message that He allows to reach you, say for example from a departed family member?

There’s no schizophrenic mission going on here.

I’ll just share with you a quick experience which just made me really think.

It was a few years ago when I was really away from God and my faith, living my life on my own terms, I felt betrayed and lied to and really was an angry atheist for a while. During this period, I had the most realistic dream that encompassed all of my senses of sight, smell, touch, etc. I was in a room with my grandfather, he was happy and he told me to thank God for this very moment that I was able to be with him briefly, and he kept reiterating and couldn’t stress enough to thank God for it. At that point in my life, the last thing I wanted to hear was stuff about God, so it’s not like it was my overactive religious brain thinking up stuff to comfort me.

This event didn’t bring me back to the faith (I’m back now thankfully but not because of this instance) but it’s one that I just remembered recently while reading about Padre Pio’s life, particularly the part about Poor Souls, where it states the phenomena of departed souls in purgatory visiting mainly saints and mystics to ask for their intercession, but also stated that sometimes it may be a family member visiting a living relative to get them to incite prayers (which they said was rare).

It just made me think is all and wanted to know if anyone had any further opinion or perhaps even experiences on this topic.

I would say that your vision was a gift from God. Take it as inspiration in your faith. Contemplate your Grandfather’s happiness. He’s not in purgatory. God is merciful. I don’t know exactly what you envision; but if that is a memory that you now associate with a religious experience then make something of it. I believe you had a vision.

 

[Eddie_Eric]

I had a dream like that

 

[Heuchler]

I think that if a dream is from God, it will be so real that it will be unnatural and you will probably suspect that it is something more. This is of course with the assumption that someone is not with mental disorders and is a normal fellow like most of the people who we believe were truly contacted through their dreams.

 

[Mortification]

I wasn’t sure what it was and it’s not like I think about my grandfather everyday it was very random and came out of nowhere, but I woke up from my sleep with tears running down my cheeks. I was so happy to have seen, heard, felt, and been in the presence of (I guess if you can call it that), my grandfather who’s been deceased for 14+ years. I wasn’t sure what it was, it was a nice dream nonetheless, but it really made me feel warm inside and stop and think.

Of course whether real or not, it still has a positive effect. I’m hoping it was though.

 

[tonyrey]

Jesus told us “By their fruits you shall know them”. If the dream has brought you closer to God and increased your fervour only a hardened sceptic would rule it out dogmatically and explain it away in terms of natural causes…