Extraordinary  vs ordinary dreams?

Most of us are not aware of being in a dream, we just go through them like a leaf thrown into a creek: letting them just happen to us. Surely, we are the ones creating the dream – although others can also pull us into their dreams – but it’s like having written a play, then getting on stage as the actor and getting so caught up in the acting that you forget not only that it’s a play, but that you were the one creating it.

But it doesn’t have to be that way with dreaming. (or your waking life, for that matter). Dreaming can be a tremendous aid in your spiritual development, it can help you solve problems, show direction, and give you a great deal of happiness, and all you have to do is learn to become aware that you’re dreaming, and then just start creating mid-play, the dream that you want. It’s like in the middle of the play you realize that it’s boring, it’s depressing, you’re you’re not getting anything out of it, so then decide to just change the actors, change the scenery, change the dialogue and just create it anew. Start creating it mid-play. After all, you wrote it in the first place, so you have every right to. 

“Dreaming is the most sophisticated of all spiritual arts”
                                                                                          – Rama, Dr. Frederick Lenz

Dreaming is the most sophisticated of all spiritual arts: in the yoga of dreaming we become aware that dreaming is not ephemeral. When we dream at night, what is actually happening is our subtle physical body, our astral body, another body of ours, is traveling. It’s traveling into different worlds, different dimensions, dimensions that our physical body can’t see or perceive or enter into. Every night we travel to these worlds. There are countless astral worlds and we have lots of experiences there. Some of the worlds are lower worlds, hell worlds, worlds that  are infested with demons and horrible forms – and in these worlds we see our worst fears, and recognize that they do exist – or we can see other heavenly worlds, beautiful worlds, worlds of color and light.

 When we enter into these worlds in dreaming, we rarely remember them afterwards. We can remember the horrible worlds because we can relate to them. In the waking world it might happen that we see a horrible creature or some awful being or a really unkind person. Or we might experience someone chasing us or attacking us. These things can happen. But for most people, which is indicative of the spectrum of consciousness that most people experience, it’s very hard to retain the higher astral dreams. When you move into a world of pure light, of ecstasy, various shades of spiritual coloration – since most people experience so little of that in our waking world – there’s no point of relation. When you wake up, you lose it, you forget these dreams because there’s nothing to join it to in this world, you have no point of reference. On the other hand, there is hate, fear, violence and aggression – unfortunately these are the dominant themes of the world of men and women. The perception of beauty is extant, but not as developed, so it’s easier for us to retain the lower dreams.

Also, many people don’t climb into the higher astral regions that frequently because they’re bound by their desires and tendencies. As you are in the waking world, so you are in the dreaming world. If you’re still attracted to the material worlds exclusively, if you’re bound by fears and personality structures, then in dreaming you’ll also be drawn to those worlds. Your hidden desires will manifest.