If something is of God, it has a good beginning, middle, end. One should discern where a teaching/doctrine came from, and examine the fruit. The pursuit of something should be for the greater glory of God and the salvation of souls. The fruit would be a greater prayer life, study of Scripture, obedience to God’s commandments (e.g. keeping holy the Sabbath by worshiping in Church with a community of Christian believers), acknowledgement of Jesus as Lord and Savior, serving those in need, etc.
God gives us what is in our life, and creation to discover. There is much beauty to delight both the senses and the mind. Why reject what He given and pursue an alternate reality? God also gifts us with much in salvation history to contemplate, His divine intervention, many miracles–even contemplating the life of God who became man, Jesus, is the pursuit of holiness. We are called to be children of God, and to disciple Jesus.
Satan offers counterfeit gifts, a distorted imitation, and says it is good to have, and you can be like god to have it. Because it is not of God, it takes sin (such as pride, disobedience) and effort to achieve. Satan wants to separate us from grace to make us blind and hard of heart. Satan allures and captivates and consume the time we have been given to be spent on that which takes us away from the path to heaven. Satan wants us to choose pride to rely on our own reasoning, to seek control, and power.
Lucid dreaming for most is the pursuit of the ability to alter consciousness through the will and power of suggestion, and efforts much like induced trance state, self-hypnosis, or hallucination. It is often paired with astral projection–the belief that one can have out of body travel capabilities. Manipulation of the mind can be assisted through drugs and alcohol. The techniques are both taught in Satanism and New Age philosophies. Its effort opens the mind for entry of evil spirits. They gain a legal right to deceive, oppress, afflict, and disturb, in effect spurring urgency to try harder to find the bliss thru lucid dreaming, hence a spiral downward into greater darkness of the soul.
The truth is only good comes from God. The peace and joy they seek comes from God and is everlasting. Satan’s nature is to deceive that by sin they can have happiness on their own. The good news is that no matter the depth and the amount of time spent in sin and darkness, it only takes one step of repentance and desire to return to God to be back in the light. It will take serious prayers of deliverance, protection, and help of a spiritual director to get back and stay on the right path. Satan does not want to lose a soul, and will unleash a furious attack to pull a person back into darkness and it would be helpful to have the support of others to keep one in the grace of God. God is more powerful than Satan, but we need to be wise to avoid satan’s deceptions–for even satan can quote lines of scripture to accomplish his plan!
God bless!
