You can’t sin while asleep. If you’re not conscious, it is not an act of the will.
Thank you. But still, I wonder, why do I feel so much guilt inside?
I don’t know. Do you suffer from scrupulosity? Were you engaing in unchaste behavior that may have brought on the dream?
Well, I keep having these thoughts that I’m in a state of mortal sin because of this instance, even though I keep telling myself it’s not true and just because I feel bad, that doesn’t mean it’s a mortal sin. Is this being scrupulous?
I’m no expert, but it seems like it might be a form of scrupulosity.
I’m going to confession this Friday, so I’ll talk to Father about it.
Good idea. I’d mention the dream, and your concerns, but not confess it.
So should I mention this after my confession or during my confession?
You may mention it during confession and add --if for some reason there was any sin I include it.
Even if there was no sin, talking to the priest about your worries concerning the incident may be a good thing to do.
Thats very interesting. But from a humorous point of view can you imagine someone taking a deficating donkey into the church and saying its only natural?
A somewhat technical point regarding the last part of your post: no weakening of the will can excuse sin. The will always remains free, and so a deliberate act of the will remains a free moral choice no matter how weak that will is. That is why, for example, the weakening of the human will after the Sin of Adam (combined with the disordering of the lower passions) enslaved us to sin rather than excusing us from sin. What is generally impaired in sleep is one’s ability to intellectually appreciate the morality or immorality of an action, and also the degree to which one’s will is involved at all in one’s thoughts and actions.Thats very interesting. But from a humorous point of view can you imagine someone taking a deficating donkey into the church and saying its only natural?
This dream to me illustrates how we dont have all our faculties when we are in the dream state. Could he not have untied himself or got help? Yet, if we are overly skeptical we could miss out on the meaning of this dream and what God wants to tell us through it. Obviously this saint thought that God can speak to us through our dreams.
Perhaps the op can ask God to show him what these dreams mean.
It might seem confusing to us that something when done awake is a serious sin but when asleep is no longer a sin. I think when it comes to our sexuality we can learn from this that none of the natural actions of our bodies are sinful that occur during masturbation, for they are all natural to the way God made us. It is the intent that is sinful. For instance, Something done outside of marriage may be sinful but inside marriage it is not. Yet, it is the same act.
Thus, the same act done asleep vs awake can be interpreted differently since the intention is different. When someone is asleep their will is weakened. When that same person is awake their will may be strong. The difference is being asleep. it is something beyond their control. And without control, without the ability to make free choices how can it be sin? How can one be accountable for something they have little or no control over? Thus the will of the person when awake is what counts.
I think the idea that the will is weakened does have merit here when we are talking about sleeping. One of the conditions of mortal sin is that one must have full consent of the will. If one’s will is weakened to the point that they do not have full consent of the will that they have while awake. For instance, if a person masturbates in their sleep but can not control it because they do not have control how can they be held accountable for that? They may never masturbate when they are awake but when they go to sleep no matter what they do it makes no difference because what happens when they are asleep they have little control over. Are they supposed to constantly feel guilty for something they have no control over? It’s like being drunk or under the influence of a drug. It would be unjust to condemn a person in that situation. Sin is only sin when we make a choice to do something contrary to God’s law. If there is no freedom of choice how can there be sin? But you are right that there is little thought to the morality as well as usually cognitive awareness is low. For instance, you think you are engaged in sex with some woman in your dream. Certainly your perception of reality is scewed.