armin

I dream a lot. I don't know if there's too much dreaming but I'm close to that. All of my dreams are more or less pleasant and intriguing, in a way that make me want to sleep more. It's become more common for me to be late to school or work just because I wanted to see the rest of the dream. I can distinguish the ones that are just reflections of my daily activities and thoughts from the ones that seem mysterious or unrelated. I see my loved ones a lot in my dreams. The ones in this world and the ones who have passed away.

My dreams have kept me busy lately. I would appreciate any quotes on dreaming. Also, what's the baha'i view on dream interpretation?

Fadl

Here are two of my favorites, both from the Seven Valleys of Baha'u'llah:

and

Then there are two that I like very much from Baha'u'llah in the morning and evening prayers:

It is interesting to note that these two--morning and evening--prayers couple together, in that before sleeping you ask God to watch over what your eyes behold while sleeping (dreams) and then in the morning prayer ask that what we beheld in our dreams be a foundation for our love of God, and an instrument for God's grace. When so often we have dreams that are utter nonsense, or even unholy, reciting that verse from the morning prayer can seem very odd indeed! But, I can tell you from experience, that, when these two prayers are taken together, and when I pray and ask God first to watch over my eyes and vision (evcening prayer), and when I am diligent in reading the writings, keeping the prayers, and living the teachings, everything comes together and my dreams are much less nonsensical, and much more the kind of dream that could be considered an instrument of grace and lovingkindness (morning prayer). I urge everyone to give it a try! If you already have, then I'm sure you have had similar experiences and can testify how a prayerful and contemplative life affects dreaming.

Essence of GOD

"Consider thy state when asleep. Verily, I say, this phenomenon is the most mysterious of the signs of God amongst men, were they to ponder it in their hearts. Behold how the thing which thou hast seen in thy dream is, after a considerable lapse of time, fully realized. Had the world in which thou didst find thyself in thy dream been identical with the world in which thou livest, it would have been necessary for the event occurring in that dream to have transpired in this world at the very moment of its occurrence. Were it so, you yourself would have borne witness unto it. This being not the case, however, it must necessarily follow that the world in which thou livest is different and apart from that which thou hast experienced in thy dream. This latter world hath neither beginning nor end. It would be true if thou wert to contend that this same world is, as decreed by the All-Glorious and Almighty God, within thy proper self and is wrapped up within thee. It would equally be true to maintain that thy spirit, having transcended the limitations of sleep and having stripped itself of all earthly attachment, hath, by the act of God, been made to traverse a realm which lieth hidden in the innermost reality of this world. Verily I say, the creation of God embraceth worlds besides this world, and creatures apart from these creatures."

Baha'ullah, Gleanings p.152

Nuck81

Armin- I'm with you. I've always had intriguing dreams. During my teen years I also began to master "lucid" dreaming. I can basically lucid dream any night I want as long as I remind myself before I fall asleep. I had very interesting dreams involving my dad right after he passed away, including the night of his accident while he was still hooked up to machines although technically brain dead.

It does have its drawbacks though, as I often wake up in a frozen state, which can be a very disorienting and scary experience. It's especially troubling when staying in hotels on business when I don't recognize where I am.

I have only experienced sleepwalking once. I was in Indianapolis on business. I went to sleep in the hotel with a few colleagues and woke up in the hallway three floors up from my room. It actually makes for a pretty good story :-)

armin

Thanks.


Exactly my problem. It's happening more recently for whatever reason. I wake up dazzled, and disoriented. It takes a good hour or so for me to come out of that world which I saw in my dream. In that first hour I'm so deeply occupied that I can hardly focus on the real things that I have to do. Overall I take it as a good thing and don't wish it to stop but would have been nice if I could make sense of it all.

wombatwolf

I have an interesting dream story-

My grandfather passed away last Thursday. My father was not very close to him (and I barely knew him) but he was, basically, a stutterer. He would stutter when he talked, and people seemed to cast him as unequal or impaired because of it. My father told me he was not a very fatherly person. He like to work, and he worked very well.

So we were driving up to his funeral, and me and my dad were staying in a hotel. That morning, he woke up and was kind of in a trance, and he told me he had a dream like no dream he's ever had (in over 50 years). He told me his father was smiling like he'd never seen his father smiling before, and he was eating ice cream and wasn't stuttering at all, was talking clear as anything. And he told my father "This is the best day I've ever had, this ice cream is awesome. I really like it here."

Anyway, I just thought that was pretty cool.

Truthseeker96

I have an interesting dream that lead me to finding the Baha'i Faith. *i was at my nana and papas house and i woke up to find my nana grimly drinking coffee. She tells me how papa ( who i am rlly close to) is dieing and wishes to speak to me. I ran to his room and told him how i love him i was about to cry when he told me not too and that he has till 9 am before he dies. He said god came to him to let him know he was going ro doe and to have my papa tell me that god is real, that god loves us all is is most glorious and merciful. That i should trust in god. I asked him what was the right religion and how does god now me, papa reply that god knows all his children and to look in to the ba... Then he died he never got to finish the sentence telling me whsi h religion to research in. * when. I woke up from that dream i was crying, for years i denied god saying he was not real so i could not think about it and focus on present day matters. So i did a google search on reiligions that start with a ba and found the baha'i faith, once i read about it everything felt right and good. I think that that dream was from god giving me a nudge in the right direaction helping me. For that i am most thankful.. Thanks for reading my dream i felt i had to share it.

cire perdue

What an incredible experience. I believe you must follow your heart and use your mind to make decisions.If that dream came to me, I would believe it wholeheartedly. I was in the hospital in Oct and under dire stress and had a vision of Abdul'baha. It feels like the apex of my life. Faith is truly walking forward in the dark, not willing to deviate from what our heart knows. I am grateful that this Faith seems to be the answer to your dream. Others have dreamed about it as well.

The history is very complex, and we are not from Moslem backgrounds, so in some ways we start behind others. Another important purpose of The Bab was to fulfille the prophecies of Islam, some so vaugue as to be able to explain the diconnected letters of the first verse of the Qu'ran. He has done so. At a meeting with the Shi'ah clergy where He was questioned, as He was answering, one of the Mullas vehemently interupted Him, saying that He was false, because he had made a grammatical error, but if error it were, then Muhammad made it as well, because the Bab was speaking it as revealed in the Qu'ran, but the later clergy had changed the grammar.

There are so many things that can be known about this Faith, but the most important thing is to pray and strengthen one's heart's connection to Baha'u'llah, for no argument can weaken you, though you have no answer. Then there will be times when you have answers that no one accepts. Praying and reading if only a sentence twice daily is so important!!!! I require a small amount of reading in order that I do it. Over the years it becomes habit..........

unique75

Dreams are most often in used as medium in communication between creatures of this world and beyond....,

Myself experienced lots of Dreams in the past, and most of those particularly involving personal matter/s did come true. And there's even this special Dream involving JESUS. HIS promise of constant help to make this unbearable life (of suffering) i am in, much easier for me to carry. And it is so, All praises be to GOD, that despite being overburdens with numbers of physical disabilities and great emotional woes, by HIS Grace, Mercy, assistance and Lovingkindness, I'm able to lived normally.

I had also this spiritual encounters, a Dream about being in Heaven amidst Friendly Brothers and Sisters. And also being called to be guided and protected safely from great upheaval, as is but much much worst than Lot's experience of Sodom & Gomorrah.

I wishes all of you Brothers and Sisters to have the same Dreams I had where I was In Heaven.

WorkInProgress

Throughout my life I have experienced meaningful dreams that have often provided comfort or even been prophetic in nature.

This one turned out to be prophetic -- To frame it into some context: I had this dream about 2 years after Dad passed away from lung cancer. My Mom had breast cancer, which was in remission, but after Dad passed on the cancer started to get the better of her. It was October, a couple of weeks before my mother passed away I had this dream:

There was a Native American man dressed in full regalia, beautiful and majestic looking feather headdress, etc. I understood that he was going to be marrying my mother. I was very distraught about this and argued that this could not be, as my mother was already married to my father. My mother did not seem disturbed by this at all and that puzzled me. Then I saw my father and he was not very concerned about it either – he just kind of looked at me as if this was perfectly normal and acceptable.
The basic feel was that everyone else was calm and content with things and I was the only one puzzled and concerned. Other than the strange calmness of everyone else, the beauty of the Native American man’s attire stood out for me.
As soon as I awoke from this I KNEW (even though nothing in the dream specifically indicated such) that my mother would pass away on October 22nd, my birthday. And sure enough, she did.

I can accept that our subconscious may be generally sorting out our everyday events. But from experience I can say that there is a different feel to dreams that have deeper meaning. Although it may be a rare experience, I do believe that sometimes they are indeed truly spiritual.