Prophetic dreams

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Maia
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Prophetic dreams

Post by Maia »

I've always found dreams fascinating, and have often wondered if they really can, occasionally, be prophetic. Most aren't, of course, but sometimes one sticks in your mind, and seems somehow special. I've mentioned the following one more than once (on ILP), but it's worth repeating. Bear in mind, though, that the main part of a dream is its emotional content, which can hardly be described to do it justice.

I had it when I was 14, and it has stuck in my mind ever since, as vivid now as it was then. I was at school, but it was near the end of term and we were getting ready to return home for the summer. I dreamt that I was in my home town, crawling through the rubble of wrecked buildings, over bricks, broken glass, pieces of wood and metal sticking up, cutting open the bare skin on my hands and knees, drawing blood. And that was basically it. Not long after this, shortly after returning home, a tornado struck my home town (yes, really), causing millions of pounds worth of damage, though admittedly, probably nothing like the devastation in my dream.

Coincidence, or what? I can't really think of any other good examples of truly prophetic dreams that I've had, but that one seems spot on.
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Re: Prophetic dreams

Post by Age »

Okay.
Wizard22
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Re: Prophetic dreams

Post by Wizard22 »

Premonitions and fears are subconscious. Sometimes they're connected across large swaths of time, later appearing in dreams and nightmares.
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Harbal
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Re: Prophetic dreams

Post by Harbal »

Wizard22 wrote: Wed May 31, 2023 8:22 am Premonitions and fears are subconscious.
Except when they are conscious, of course. :?
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Re: Prophetic dreams

Post by Dubious »

It often seemed to me that dreams are capable of describing future events in terms of current images. Consciousness makes time specific in the waking state by noting each event as it happens. Dreams however, seem to have no such boundary partitions and can emerge as warnings beyond our current awareness.
Maia
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Re: Prophetic dreams

Post by Maia »

I think numinous is a good way of describing the ones that apparently mean something, even if you don't know what that meaning is. A feeling that's impossible to put into words. Most dreams fade, and you have difficulty remembering them half an hour after you get up, but some stick with you.
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Harbal
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Re: Prophetic dreams

Post by Harbal »

Maia wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 12:07 am I think numinous is a good way of describing the ones that apparently mean something, even if you don't know what that meaning is. A feeling that's impossible to put into words. Most dreams fade, and you have difficulty remembering them half an hour after you get up, but some stick with you.
Yes, the occasional sticky dream isn't unusual. :|
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bahman
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Re: Prophetic dreams

Post by bahman »

Maia wrote: Mon May 29, 2023 8:30 am I've always found dreams fascinating, and have often wondered if they really can, occasionally, be prophetic. Most aren't, of course, but sometimes one sticks in your mind, and seems somehow special. I've mentioned the following one more than once (on ILP), but it's worth repeating. Bear in mind, though, that the main part of a dream is its emotional content, which can hardly be described to do it justice.

I had it when I was 14, and it has stuck in my mind ever since, as vivid now as it was then. I was at school, but it was near the end of term and we were getting ready to return home for the summer. I dreamt that I was in my home town, crawling through the rubble of wrecked buildings, over bricks, broken glass, pieces of wood and metal sticking up, cutting open the bare skin on my hands and knees, drawing blood. And that was basically it. Not long after this, shortly after returning home, a tornado struck my home town (yes, really), causing millions of pounds worth of damage, though admittedly, probably nothing like the devastation in my dream.

Coincidence, or what? I can't really think of any other good examples of truly prophetic dreams that I've had, but that one seems spot on.
I believe that the dream is a spiritual phenomenon. I have had spiritual experiences for more than 10 years. I know some of the individuals that appear in my dream. Some are anonymous.
Maia
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Re: Prophetic dreams

Post by Maia »

bahman wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 12:54 am
Maia wrote: Mon May 29, 2023 8:30 am I've always found dreams fascinating, and have often wondered if they really can, occasionally, be prophetic. Most aren't, of course, but sometimes one sticks in your mind, and seems somehow special. I've mentioned the following one more than once (on ILP), but it's worth repeating. Bear in mind, though, that the main part of a dream is its emotional content, which can hardly be described to do it justice.

I had it when I was 14, and it has stuck in my mind ever since, as vivid now as it was then. I was at school, but it was near the end of term and we were getting ready to return home for the summer. I dreamt that I was in my home town, crawling through the rubble of wrecked buildings, over bricks, broken glass, pieces of wood and metal sticking up, cutting open the bare skin on my hands and knees, drawing blood. And that was basically it. Not long after this, shortly after returning home, a tornado struck my home town (yes, really), causing millions of pounds worth of damage, though admittedly, probably nothing like the devastation in my dream.

Coincidence, or what? I can't really think of any other good examples of truly prophetic dreams that I've had, but that one seems spot on.
I believe that the dream is a spiritual phenomenon. I have had spiritual experiences for more than 10 years. I know some of the individuals that appear in my dream. Some are anonymous.
I've had spiritual experiences outside of dreams, too. The best one is when I was camping once in a range of hills not far from where I live. It was late at night and I heard a weird, ethereal flute in the distance, on the wind, right on the edge of being able to make it out. Then I heard a woman's voice close by, right next to me, but I'm sure there was no one there. She seemed to speak for ages, but I can't remember, now, a single thing of what she actually said. I'm sure I was awake too, as I hadn't slept that night and was sitting outside the tent.
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Re: Prophetic dreams

Post by Iwannaplato »

Maia wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 12:07 am I think numinous is a good way of describing the ones that apparently mean something, even if you don't know what that meaning is. A feeling that's impossible to put into words. Most dreams fade, and you have difficulty remembering them half an hour after you get up, but some stick with you.
A kind of specific issue in this broad category has to do with the idea that one was visited.
As modern humans we are generally presented with two main interpretations of dreams: they are meaningless byproducts of the brain reviewing the day OR what one encounters in dreams are parts of oneself and/or shows our feelings about things/people/situations.
Without engaging in the truth of these models, there is at least a third view, which is that sometimes what is in the dream is actually a visitation from something/someone else.

So, if you have a dream about a sister across the country, some part of her actualy visited you in your sleep. Or in the common realm of dreams you actually met her. Not, for example you encountering what your sister symbolizes in yourself NOR that part of yourself that is like your sister NOR just some neuronal side effects which threw and image of your sister at you, but....
she actually came to you - or possibly you travelled to her.

Perhaps she's undergoing some stress. Or perhaps she approached you for some reason at this time. Etc.

And there can be significant differences in the way we experience another person in a dream. Sometimes it seems like everything is on one phenomenological category. Other times a person may seem very vividt, perhaps there is added urgency, and also a kind of alienness. That was not some part of me or a mere image/symbol. Of course these phenomenological differences don't demonstrate that it was an actual visit, but we can black box the epistemological/ontological truth issue.

I certainly have dreams where when I wake up it feels like a person came to me. I will often feel the urge to contact them - if I get along with them and we are friends or family. It felt like an external visit.
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Re: Prophetic dreams

Post by Maia »

Iwannaplato wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 8:05 am
Maia wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 12:07 am I think numinous is a good way of describing the ones that apparently mean something, even if you don't know what that meaning is. A feeling that's impossible to put into words. Most dreams fade, and you have difficulty remembering them half an hour after you get up, but some stick with you.
A kind of specific issue in this broad category has to do with the idea that one was visited.
As modern humans we are generally presented with two main interpretations of dreams: they are meaningless byproducts of the brain reviewing the day OR what one encounters in dreams are parts of oneself and/or shows our feelings about things/people/situations.
Without engaging in the truth of these models, there is at least a third view, which is that sometimes what is in the dream is actually a visitation from something/someone else.

So, if you have a dream about a sister across the country, some part of her actualy visited you in your sleep. Or in the common realm of dreams you actually met her. Not, for example you encountering what your sister symbolizes in yourself NOR that part of yourself that is like your sister NOR just some neuronal side effects which threw and image of your sister at you, but....
she actually came to you - or possibly you travelled to her.

Perhaps she's undergoing some stress. Or perhaps she approached you for some reason at this time. Etc.

And there can be significant differences in the way we experience another person in a dream. Sometimes it seems like everything is on one phenomenological category. Other times a person may seem very vividt, perhaps there is added urgency, and also a kind of alienness. That was not some part of me or a mere image/symbol. Of course these phenomenological differences don't demonstrate that it was an actual visit, but we can black box the epistemological/ontological truth issue.

I certainly have dreams where when I wake up it feels like a person came to me. I will often feel the urge to contact them - if I get along with them and we are friends or family. It felt like an external visit.
I think there's probably truth in all of those explanations, and you can usually tell which one predominates in any particular dream, by its atmosphere and emotional content. I have quite a lot of dreams where I'm searching for something, or sometimes someone, but never quite find it/them. If it's a person it's always someone I'm close to, such as a friend, which always makes me concerned for them. Another type of dream explores fears and anxieties. I'm quite claustrophobic, and I often have dreams involving small, confined spaces, staircases that lead down and then end with a gap, and things like that. Dreams also go in cycles. I might have none that I remember for weeks, perhaps even months, then quite a lot over a few days.
Wizard22
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Re: Prophetic dreams

Post by Wizard22 »

Harbal wrote: Wed May 31, 2023 7:58 pmExcept when they are conscious, of course. :?
Of course...but the premise of this thread is dreams and nightmares, which is a different type of fear.

Most people are not self-conscious of most of their fears. This is why particular types of stress, anxiety, and horror appear as nightmares to most people.
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Harbal
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Re: Prophetic dreams

Post by Harbal »

Wizard22 wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 8:22 am
Harbal wrote: Wed May 31, 2023 7:58 pmExcept when they are conscious, of course. :?
Of course...but the premise of this thread is dreams and nightmares, which is a different type of fear.

Most people are not self-conscious of most of their fears. This is why particular types of stress, anxiety, and horror appear as nightmares to most people.
But don't you find that when you think about particular aspects of some disturbing dreams, you can often relate them to fears and anxieties that you are conscious of?
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Re: Prophetic dreams

Post by Wizard22 »

Harbal wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 8:27 amBut don't you find that when you think about particular aspects of some disturbing dreams, you can often relate them to fears and anxieties that you are conscious of?
I find that most people, including me, piece together significance and relevance of dreams or nightmares post hoc, meaning that connection between the conscious and subconsciousness is tenuous sometimes.

Nightmares, for example, are a way of forcing your consciousness to address subconscious fears and premonitions.

It's a way for your brain and body to focus your attention to what your instinct believes is a direct threat to your person and those around you.
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Harbal
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Re: Prophetic dreams

Post by Harbal »

Wizard22 wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 8:32 am
Harbal wrote: Thu Jun 01, 2023 8:27 amBut don't you find that when you think about particular aspects of some disturbing dreams, you can often relate them to fears and anxieties that you are conscious of?
I find that most people, including me, piece together significance and relevance of dreams or nightmares post hoc, meaning that connection between the conscious and subconsciousness is tenuous sometimes.

Nightmares, for example, are a way of forcing your consciousness to address subconscious fears and premonitions.

It's a way for your brain and body to focus your attention to what your instinct believes is a direct threat to your person and those around you.
Perhaps they don't so much tell you what you didn't already consciously know, but rather prompt you to do something about it. I daresay dreams have other functions, but I don't think there is anything mystical about them.
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