Precognitive and Prophetic Dreaming

What good is dreaming the future if you can't do anything about it?  What purpose do precognitive and prophetic dreams serve?

I use precognitive and prophetic to describe dreams that subsequently take place in the dreamer's waking reality.  Precognitive are dreams that cover the a-z of dreaming the future, from an object seen in a dream and then viewed in waking reality shortly after, to a person we end up meeting, a job we end up taking, a person we end up parting from in sorrow or joy.

Prophetic dreams are life map dreams, often including collective unconscious material, like what the political climate will be like, etc.  In Jungian terms, they are archetypal, they are talking about a much bigger picture than our little hobbit lives encompass.  I've written about a few of mine, Howling Mary, being especially significant to me, but also, Crocodile Friday and my 1995 visit from dad, which though I didn't get the happy ending I was hoping for then, it continues to guide my present.

One of the great gifts Active Dreaming has given me is the triple door approach to dreaming.  1. I can go through the analytical door of my Jungian fondness and dwell on symbolic meaning as it relates to my ego led waking life. 2. I can accept that we dream the future all the time, so I journal regularly and take a reality check on every dream for possible scenarios in waking life. 3.  I can enter consciously into the other dimensions, the foreign inner-space countries, where my fortunes, luck and personal satisfactions are also made. I can walk through any of these doors to a dream, or sometimes, all three at the same time, as that's the way of dreams.

For this, and other vibrant approaches to dreaming, I recommend and frequently write about, Active Dreaming, created by Robert Moss.  His work opens new vistas into how we approach dreaming; it teaches us to live our best dreams and confront our worst with courage and creativity.

But back to the psychic gifts of dreaming; what good is it knowing the shit was going to hit the fan if you can't get out of the way?

For me the best answers come from my dreams and what they've taught me.

#1.  Physical reality isn't all there is; physical laws and statistical probabilities sometimes give way to the pure intention and whole-hearted effort of heart-centered people.  So be a heart-centered person.

#2  Pay attention to what you're doing in those precognitive or prophetic dreams and reality check yourself for what you can do in waking life now.  It doesn't have to be grandiose; it does have to be kind, self-less and contributing to the good of others, as well as of yourself.  Think outside the Box!

#3  Heal you're own inner wounding because it can blind you to what your ego is really up to if you don't face your unfaceable stuff, your shadow, your fears, your pain.  Patriarchy produces emotional stuntedness; all those thou shalt nots, cruel and illogical taboos, especially if you're a woman, add up to psychic wounding for many.  It's your own job, as a spirit leading a physical life, to find your way home, to the light.  It's the job of every one who finds their way to help someone groping in the dark. So, physician heal thyself is an ongoing mandate; dreams are important guides to healing, personally and collectively.

#4. Dreams keep me focused on the alternate realities that my spirit can access for sustenance and guidance (not to be confused with alternate facts, which have no reality).   When I'm overwhelmed by fear of the future, I remember that I dreamed this already and that dreams have and will always guide me on my best path forward.  I can take strength from remembering that I volunteered for physicality in this time and this place and so I can just continue doing what I'm called by my heart to do and carry on, best I can, until I cross out of here or turn things around.  Even when I do shuffle off this mortal coil, I'll volunteer for dream duty on the other side in gratitude for all the guidance I've received myself.

#5 I've heard baby-boomers joke about the surreal nature of our present reality, why not drop some acid again and get a level playing field?  May I suggest that dreams open the same portals that LSD opens, not every dream, but once we tune ourselves to living our dream life as fully as our waking, things make a lot more sense.  Not to mention, if you're really into experimenting, try conscious lucidity and self induced OBEs.

#6 Sometimes when there are no answers, there's purpose. Our Native American ancestors knew that dreams tell us the secret wishes of our soul.

One of my fondest dad dream visits was one in which he helped me escape some evil men, saying to me before he intervened for me to run, "You have no idea how important this mission is."

Okay dad, if you say so, I'll do my best.

Compassion, As Taught to Me in Dreams

Compassion, what does it feel like to you?

To me, it's not pity or "feeling sorry for", because that's like looking over the railing at someone's demise, sad for them, glad it's not me.  Compassion acts and takes risks on behalf of the other person; compassion finds some life line to throw.

We're more compassionate of others when we know ourselves well enough to need compassion from our own harsh self-judgements.

Jesus, with his usual astuteness, put it this way; don't judge the mote in someone's eye until you remove  the plank in your own.  It's easy to see the bits of personal rubbish in others; rare, it seems, for folks to see their own garbage.

It's much harder to be judgmental of others if you're aware and responsible for your own shadow. The more compassionate we are in the face of our shadows, the better we see others with compassion.  

Finding compassion in ourselves involves hatching out of the hard shell that is Ego and living in the physical, but connected to spirit.   Once I became aware, through dreaming, that my physical body and dreaming body are separate aspects of the consciousness I call me, I opened the magic doors to living in two realms, in one lifetime.  Dreams matter as much as things that happen during waking matters; it's me in both places.

Dreams are the most compassionate teachers I've known.  I like to use the phrase, they've scared the pajamas off me, but even my greatest nightmares have turned into my sturdiest allies.  Dreams will shock you out of complacency, but when you have the courage to pay attention to dreams, despite hearing growing up, it's "just" a dream, you find your wisest and most trustworthy life teachers.

Who can afford to be compassionate?  The wise person who's found she or he has nothing to lose by loving.  The person who knows, this solid ground is only one side of the story. How do we know? Dream explorers are leading the way, as are the growing community of near death experiencers, between them, our age-old questions about death and the after life are being openly and compassionately addressed.

We're living in a time of great spiritual advances in inner exploration and we're also living in a time of great physical crisis.  Feels like some kind of divine irony.

Life is joy; without joy, we're dead inside.  There are many paths to joy through dreaming that can ease our suffering and give us the courage to ease the suffering around us.

The mindfulness movement is an exciting spiritual movement, as well; it's Buddhist thought harmonized with the best of current psychotherapies.  We're moving away from the sin driven, punishment/reward paradigms we've endured for centuries towards greater awareness of the complexity of spirit or consciousness.  Despite the external atmosphere of hate, separatism, violence. religiosity and fear, growing numbers of us are keying in to love and compassion as the engines of action.

Following dreams helps us see that all is not always what it seems.  This is one reason I call dreaming "organic" spirituality; we're born plugged in.  We may have unplugged that connection based on believing things we were told or on the lack of guidance available to help us navigate those sometimes choppy waters.  Helping children with nightmare fears can be an opportunity to show them how to address their fears creatively.

Independent spirituality through dreaming isn't something religious enterprises endorse because it could cost them memberships; memberships pay for their existence, often in the luxury to which they've become accustomed. The scientific establishment, for its part, has confined itself to materiality,  with the wonderful exception of Physics. Yet, more and more, people are finding themselves pondering the possibilities of new spiritual paradigms for themselves.  I thank Oprah for sparking pioneering spiritual thinking in mainstream culture.

The time is ripe for all of us to turn inward; drop-in, tune-in and pay attention.  There's a great deal to be gained.  One of those things is greater compassion for ourselves, others and the pickle we're collectively in on this earth dimension.