How have you been taught to understand dreams and visions

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dann

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How have you been taught to understand dreams and visions?

John Paul Jackson has taught people how to understand dreams and visions?

What teachers have you had that teach how to understand spiritual dream’s and vision’s?
Is there anyone you know?
 
dann said:
How have you been taught to understand dreams and visions?
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I’ve been taught that most dreams are just dreams and that visions should be investigated.
dann said:
John Paul Jackson has taught people how to understand dreams and visions?
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I don’t know enough about him to contribute here…
dann said:
What teachers have you had that teach how to understand spiritual dream’s and vision’s?

Is there anyone you know?
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If I ever have what I feel is a truly spiritual dream/vision, especially one that seems to call me to some kind of action, I would never take it upon myself to interpret it on my own. I would take it to my spiritual director and then do whatever he tells me.
 
No, I haven’t had any guidance but that is probably because I didn’t think I needed any, other than the Holy Spirit. What I have been blessed to receive falls under the generic heading of private revelation which means it is to help my growth in, and journey of faith. If after testing the dream or vision, prayer and contemplation, I needed counsel I would speak to my spiritual advisor or a priest.
 
Your way of asking this seems to limit responses to your own preconceptions.

For myself, outside of psychology/psychiatry I have no idea what you mean by a “teacher”.
Outside of this scientific profession you seem to suggest any self-taught, self-aggrandising quack or fortune teller or new age charlatan with a swagger or patter culpable of fleecing the gullible or the vulnerable.

You put someone’s hand in water while they sleep and they will either wet the bed or dream they are swimming. Sure, dreams are often the working out of subconscious concerns or issues. Often they are just the brain weaving sense out of fleeting thoughts, random firing of synapses, significant events of the day or just the passing sensations of the sleeping body…be that a wet hand, talking in the background, a car misfiring in the street, a buzzing mosquito or a breeze from the window.

Even more easily than reality, glib speakers can make anything out of anything - dreams are more fertile than life in this regard. Who actually knows what they mean. They may not even have any more meaning than the random patterns of clouds in the sky.
 
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As long as I don’t dream I’m enjoying a hamburger and then wake up chewing my pillow, I’m pretty content.
 
It’s pretty obvious that certain kinds of dreams that many people have, such as the ones where you show up unprepared for an exam or go to work with no pants on, are related to your insecurities, anxiety and lack of confidence. And that certain other kinds of dreams that many people have, such as the ones where you fly, are related to happiness or a sense of optimism.

But beyond these generalities, many dreams are just the brain sweeping itself out…if you have one that seems to mean more, it’s best to ask God what it means and he’ll help guide your thinking. Or sometimes if a dream is from God then the meaning is quite clear to the person involved without needing to look it up in a book.
 
I haven’t been “taught” to understand dreams and visions but I have been taught to “believe” in dreams and visions by my very devout Catholic convert Grandmother. And a super holy (not perfect) sister-in-law from Italy! The events they told me as a child fed my curiosity as a child and when I heard lessons from the Bible it certainly verified that dreams and visions do happen. Joseph had dreams and Mary had visions… I guess that is a kind of teaching?
 
BlackFriar said:
They may not even have any more meaning than the random patterns of clouds in the sky.
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This struck me because I believe God has his hand in everything… even the clouds in the sky were made for us if we just look up. One day I was contemplating God while mowing the grass on a riding mower. I was praying and talking over the roar of the mower. I looked up at the clouds and saw a shape there. I said “God, if that is you, I love you.” No kidding that shape turned into a heart! 😍
Another time I was contemplating Jesus sitting at the right hand of the father. I’m left handed so often have trouble with right/left… and looking up I saw clouds the looked like two people’s heads one was older and one looked like Jesus. He was on the left as I was looking… GEE, I just shook my head and was amazed. It was gone before I could go get the camera!!! 🤩 Since then I’ve been looking but never seen anything like that again… YET!!!
 
When you are asleep your brain is flooded with normal electrical and chemical activity … but your normal inhibitions are suppressed.

During the day, thoughts get organized but when you’re sleeping, your thoughts can become almost a random “word salad” … like running the color comics section of a newspaper through a shredder and coming out like colored confetti.

And then some people may be taking drugs that have side effects, so that adds to the mix.
 
I think old school Catholics had more appreciation of God’s presence in the supernatural and even in the natural phenomena (clouds as you mention). There seems to be a tendency nowadays for many to dismiss these things we grew up with back when everybody’s grandparents as well as the nuns at school had stories to share. Nowadays, many Western people want to explain everything away or stamp it out for being superstition. While it’s true that some people carry things to extremes and start seeing visions of Mary and Jesus reflected on their refrigerator or on their breakfast toast, our grands and the old nuns had their feet pretty firmly on the ground. We need to retain some of that thinking and appreciate small “miracles” and wonders when we see them.

It’s interesting that many of the modern Catholics who don’t like the "superstitious " idea of visions or dreams also would be the first ones telling us to put the Rosary down and go read the Bible…which is chock full of visions and dreams. I suppose they’d claim that we aren’t supposed to interpret it literally.
 
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Yes pious followers of all religions and cults have this experience regularly. Here are a few examples from Islam:


In the end I suppose its a question of: “Is it just in my head or is it in nature”.
Given most of us cannot see what the fuss is with the Muslim video I humbly suggest its just random coincidence. There are so many natural patterns that pass before us everyday for every single person on the planet then these sorts of things are highly probable to occur quite regularly. Especially in the age of so many cameras.

And if they were directly from God then “He” seems to do that with every religion on the planet and likely secular beliefs as well. There is probably a cow out there somewhere with a hammer and sickle emblazoned somewhere on its back 😅.

Its nice when it happens though isn’t it.
Do we feel the same when it supports another faith that doesn’t believe in God (eg Buddhism).
 
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