The magic of dreams

This past Saturday there was a lot of discussion in class about dreams. Started off with a dream I had where there were a lot of snakes on the ground sitting up – my vision centered on one that was brown in color. Then the dream ended. Curious to know the meaning I asked George (guruji) to shed some light on it. Snakes mean a variety of things but what I didn’t know is they represent Mother Nature, i.e. the female energy in the universe. I knew snakes meant sexual energy but didn’t know that the maternal instinct is also represented through the snake. Then we continued on with where we had left off last time and started off with dreams.

We talked about how when we dream they are so real and in that state we are unwilling to believe anyone who tells us this indeed is a dream. The mind makes them real but how do we have a memory of the dream? Vedanta tells us that when asleep the mind is cut off from the world, meaning, there is no connection to this world of illusion and we are in that consciousness state. So what remembers we were dreaming and the contents of the dream? The consciousness does. As in the waking state, the consciousness – the supreme spirit that resides in all of us – quietly witnesses everything and remembers everything. So it got me thinking – is it possible that the consciousness stirs up memories of past lives or helps us see the future, whatever small glimpse?

A lot of us work things out in our dreams; we find answers to problems, get out of sticky situations and sometimes avert danger due to the things we dream. But could it be that sometimes our dreams show us glimpses of the past or warn us of any impending changes in our life?

Case in point, I was talking to Mom this morning and she told me – she and her coworker both dreamt that their boss was fired and she could sense a change coming to their department. How can two people have the exact same dream the same night?

Last night I dreamt I was in a building, what looked like the 7^th floor and it collapsed. I was in there with a few cousins and my brother and when the building came down; I remember hugging my brother and my cousin to each arm as if protecting them from any falling debris. All 3 of us successfully came out of the crash and the last thing I saw was us walking the streets of that town. Then the dream ended. A friend told me this morning it could represent escapism or being unhappy with a situation. But the coming out alive could also denote successfully fighting any problems. Then this morning, a close friend from India emailed me. In her dream she saw me in a lot of pain and she was so troubled she woke up and emailed me to make sure I was ok. I was fine but in my dream apparently I was fighting something. How did she know something was wrong? I refuse to believe this was a mere coincidence but of course don’t have the vision to understand anything more.

Are dreams connected? Meaning, if we were to keep a tab on them would we see a pattern? Is there a story being narrated or a message the universe is sending us? Or is it just a bunch of baloney our brain is subjecting us to in a state of sleep? Somehow I am inclined to believe the former.