Should you believe dreams? Dreams and modern psychology
A person’s mental life does not stop even in sleep. Yes, it cannot stop, since the soul is immortal. Only in a dream is our will in relation to the body taken away, and instead of ordinary consciousness, the so-called subconscious appears. That the life of the soul never ceases is proven by dreams. It should be noted that during sleep there is no moment when a person does not see any images with his inner gaze and does not experience certain mental sensations.
Whoever wants to test this, let him set himself the goal of capturing the end of the dream in his mind at the moment the dream ends. With some willful effort this is possible. So, even in a dream it does not stop mental life, only it takes on other forms. The sleepy life of the soul is unique: the words we perceive in a dream are not words, but thoughts that come to us from somewhere.
How can one explain the absurdity of dreams and should dreams be given meaning?
St. Simeon the New Theologian writes: “What does the soul do and about...
Dreams play a significant role in a person’s life; they occur every night, but some people simply do not remember what they dreamed.
Others, seeing something special at night, think:
“What if the story you dreamed means something?”
The question that still haunts the minds of many people, whether dreams can be trusted, still has no answer with certainty.
The science of deciphering night images
IN real life A whole science has been developed to decipher dreams. Many dream books are published, and the designations of night images in them are not always the same.
It often happens that a person has dreamed of a bad event, and when he wakes up, he will be in a bad mood all day. After all, it will seem to him that this will definitely somehow come true. The situation is the opposite with good dreams.
But from the practice of life it has been noticed that everything happens just the opposite, bad night images mean a harbinger of good events...
You know, this may sound banal: - Trust, but verify. Dreams are the work of our subconscious, the analysis of information received by a person during the day. Processing, analysis and conclusions. Subconscious. To translate (interpret) information to a conscious level requires skill. The better you understand yourself, the better the “info” obtained from the dream. Dream books can hardly be trusted. They are compiled based on their own experience and attitude. Even Sigmund Freud, the great “interpreter of dreams” and the founder of psychoanalysis, when his daughter asked him what it means to see a bunch of bananas in a dream? He answered her that sometimes dreams are just dreams...
Remembering dreams after waking up, many try to understand their meaning with the help of online dream books and all kinds of folk interpretations. However, today dreams are quite well studied by science, which assures that they have no connection with the other world. How can we decipher the signals that our brain sends us during sleep?
Do dreams need to be interpreted?
All people are capable of dreaming: even those who are blind from birth dream of sounds. Plots are formed under the influence of many physical and mental stimuli: health status, posture, long-past or recent impressions, air temperature and even the aroma in the sleeper’s room. They can be so vivid and realistic that they affect your mood throughout the day. But is it necessary to try to interpret them?
Psychologist K. Hall has been collecting people's dreams for more than 30 years. By 1985, he had accumulated 50 thousand people's stories of different ages, religion, social status, and came to the conclusion that they are all quite predictable and...
Every night we see dreams, sometimes so vivid and realistic that there is a desire to understand their meaning. Dream books help us with this, but it happens that in different dream books the opposite interpretation of dreams appears. For example, in one dream book it is written that teeth dream of grief, and in another - that of money! Of course, we dream about finances, but the thought of possible grief haunts us. Should we believe such predictions?
How did dream books appear?
In ancient times, people were very attentive to the signs, symbols and events that occur in dreams. It was widely believed that pictures seen in a dream could influence fate. For example, all names, numbers and predictions “seen” during a night’s rest were carefully recorded, since it was believed that this information would definitely play a role in the near future of the person who had the dream.
Don't take the interpretation of dreams too literally
At first, the interpretation of dreams was quite straightforward: rats -...
The world of our dreams is very mysterious. This is that part of the unconscious and mystical, with which it is difficult to do anything, to influence it in any way. But this world exists!
Our soul goes on an incredible, mysterious journey as soon as we fall asleep. And we experience all these events as if in reality: in our dreams we feel joy, pain, fear. Why do dreams exist at all, and can they be trusted? What do Orthodoxy, psychology say about this, and how should we treat dreams in general?
It is best to look at this difficult issue from two different sides. The first side is more practical, rational. Let's find out whether dreams can be trusted from a psychological point of view. The second side is precisely esoteric, spiritual. Namely, is it worth believing dreams from a religious point of view, and what Orthodoxy says on this matter. You can easily compare these two points of view and draw your own conclusions.
Subconscious Games
Psychology is a delicate thing. Should we believe dream books and...
The Holy Scriptures often tell how God reveals His will through dreams. Yes, and in the lives of saints there are stories about this. So each of us can easily remember how he or his loved ones had a “prophetic” dream, or even more than one. How to deal with such phenomena? Should you trust what you see in a dream? The shepherds of the Russian Church explain.
Nikifor Krylov. Sleeping boy
Archpriest Igor Shumilov:
– It’s not very often that the Lord reveals His will through dreams. And these are always events of extreme importance, and not ordinary ones. And the people who receive such revelations are also not entirely ordinary. In addition, this is rather characteristic of the Old Testament times.
The attitude towards dreams should be extremely careful. The patristic tradition teaches about this. Without spiritual reasoning, and for this you need to have a highly spiritual life, it is very dangerous to trust dreams.
Priest Peter Guryanov:
- The Holy Fathers said...
Every person at least once woke up in the morning with the thought: “Why did I dream about this?” And it doesn’t matter whether you believe the dream, or whether you were simply surprised by the bright night “movie”. Seeing something unusual in a dream, people think: what if it’s not without reason? There is a whole theory on the classification and decoding of night visions. And the funny thing is that the same object can mean completely different events.
Did you dream about a fish? To pregnancy. The woman is already mentally preparing for motherhood, and the dream book is in a hurry to “calm down” her. Like, if you dreamed of a dead fish, then this is a sign of loss. And if alive, then to happy love. And the girl walks around thinking: did she dream about a live fish or a dead one? It seems that a good half of the readers recognized themselves in this description. So should we believe that our dreams have some special meaning, or is this an empty exercise and we should not attach any significance to our night visions?
Dream Interpretations in Antiquity
So, let's figure it out: is it possible to believe dreams...
“I dreamed about this today... I need to read on the Internet what this means,” is a typical reaction of our time. But should you believe dreams? Why is Orthodoxy very careful about such “pictures” and calls not to attach much importance to them?
A man in a dream is a defenseless warrior
A person spends approximately a third of his life in a sleeping state. His body relaxes, everything calms down, but his organs continue to work: blood is pumped, breathing does not stop, his stomach digests food. The mind is also asleep, so the subconscious comes to the fore. In such special condition the person is not protected.
It was considered base among warriors to attack a dormant enemy. But demons don't stop 24 hours a day. On the contrary, a person in a dream is an excellent target for temptation. If during the day a person can protect himself with prayer and sign of the cross, then how to defend yourself at night? Therefore, crafty spirits try to send different images to a person.
They are intimidating...
Dreams before and dreams now
The meaning of dreams was important for people in ancient times, and remains significant today. Some cultures regarded dreams as a message from God or gods (depending on religious views). In the Middle Ages, the church fiercely fought against the interpretation of dreams, believing that the devil was hidden in them.
Dreams began to be viewed from a completely different perspective when the science of psychology began to develop. Now they are understood as a way of communication between the conscious part of a person and the unconscious. Can you trust what they write in dream books? Or are prophetic dreams just a few coincidences?
Well, in this article we will still talk about the connection between dreams and psychology.
What do skeptics say about dreams?
According to skeptics, with the help of dreams, our brain processes the impressions received over the past day. This is precisely the reason why a person usually dreams of familiar places, familiar people and what he thought about intensely before going to bed or during the day. Sometimes in...
Should you believe dreams?
Surely any of us asked ourselves whether we should believe dreams. Indeed, there are sometimes so many coincidences between them and reality that one cannot help but think about the meaning of the dreams inspired by Morpheus. In this case, it is not clear what to take literally and what in a figurative sense, because more often than not, events in dreams are incredible and sometimes frightening.
World religions have ambivalent attitudes towards attempts to interpret dreams
To the question - can you trust dreams? Orthodoxy advises not to attach too much importance to them, arguing that excessively believing dreams is a sin and superstition.
Muslims believe that these are warnings that need to be heeded in time. The question of whether dreams can be trusted is answered, rather, positively in Islam. The only problem is that not everyone will be able to decipher them correctly.
Specifics of dreams
It is impossible to definitively answer the question of whether to believe dreams. After all, many of them seem to us...
When we sleep, the boundary between consciousness and unconsciousness becomes very weak and it becomes possible for everything that we carefully try to hide and control in our daily life to come out.
Only in dreams is our true nature and the deep layers of our soul are exposed.
In a dream, we, strictly speaking, are who we really are; in dreams, our real essence is manifested.
It often happens that access to the subconscious is closed as a result of painful experiences or severe shocks. For example, a person after death loved one stops dreaming. It would be more correct to say that he does not stop seeing, every person still dreams, but memory simply works in such a way that when a person wakes up he does not remember them.
There may be many reasons, but one of the supposed reasons is the psyche’s unpreparedness to face the information of the unconscious, the trauma was strong and not lived through and the consciousness is not yet ready for it...
We all dream. But should you believe dreams?
Even those people who think they rarely dream actually do see them.
They just remember only a small fraction of them. People's ability to remember dreams is caused by the time they wake up in short phase and psycho-emotional state.
What do dreams depend on?
The frequency of dreams increases if in reality a person experiences stress or strong emotions. As a result, sleep becomes restless and dreams become more frequent.
Just before important events a person most often doubts whether to believe them. Especially if they give a certain indication of the development of events. Even on ordinary days, rarely does anyone ignore what they see at night. And the thought may slip: “Why did I dream about this?”
And here it doesn’t matter whether you believe in dreams, or whether you are simply surprised by the bright night “cinema”. It often happens that people think about what they see and it does not leave them.
They are looking...
What are our dreams really: mysterious signs from the other world or sick fantasies of our mind? Candidate of Theology Yaroslav Khizhnyak explains.
Salvador Dali, Dream II, 1931
The modern world is diverse in its forms. He has a lot of entertainment and... sins. He actively defends social justice and the right to improve living standards. At all times, people sometimes went crazy in search of effective means achieving earthly goods. But we know that being happy does not mean making excuses: they say, we are called into this world in order to enjoy its benefits, and it does not matter which way we achieve this.
All types of piety (social, religious) have so reduced their influence on society that they seem to have completely disappeared. And a man inspired by myths about beautiful life, ready to take any adventure. Yes, it is quite natural that a person wants to live like everyone else normal people, have comfortable housing, celebrate...
From the “Spiritual Diary” of Bishop Arseny (Zhadanovsky)
Each of us experiences dreams. Some tolerate them calmly and are not worried, while others give them great importance or, as they say, they believe in dreams; hence, many have anxiety, despondency, fortune-telling assumptions and even a desire to satisfy, to fulfill what they dream about. It is therefore interesting to establish the true view of dreams, and in this we can be well helped by the godly fathers, who knew human nature well with all its good and bad sides and who penetrated through spiritual experience into the lofty secrets of spiritual phenomena. Three types of dreams can be distinguished: 1) natural dreams, 2) dreams from the enemy of the human race, and 3) dreams from the divine vision.
Dreams are ordinary, natural. During sleep, the activity of our body and soul does not stop; only the mind or that part of our spirit that governs our entire inner being is paralyzed by sleep. And so we, left without a leader during sleep, indulge in the unbridled...
Can you trust dreams?
Are you asking if dreams can be trusted? It’s better not to believe, because even in reality the enemy brings a lot of trifles to mind, but in a dream it’s even more convenient for him. If any dreams come true, then after they come true, thank the Lord for his mercy. And give thanks for pleasant and edifying dreams. Quickly cleanse your soul and memory from seductive dreams upon awakening. The best way to do this is prayer and bringing to memory good events, especially from gospel history. Then put a stronger impression on these events in your head and don’t take your mental eyes off them. Keep your full attention on them. Bad thoughts will immediately begin to weaken and go away.
IT IS DANGEROUS AND SINFUL TO BELIEVE ALL DREAMS
In a certain monastery there was a monk, adorned with all the virtues and for that reason respected by the brethren. Unfortunately, he always believed in all kinds of dreams. The tempting spirit rejoices greatly when it recognizes in a person weak side, with which he can easily defeat him: the enemy of our salvation has armed himself with all his hellish power against...
Dreams and their meanings - this topic interests many people. We often try to decipher them ourselves, turning to dream books. We often see the same dreams, some of which we consider prophetic. But what are they really? Psychoanalyst Eduard Levinsky told us about this.
– What dreams are considered prophetic?
- Problem prophetic dreams always worried people. A dream, as it were, allows a person to see from the outside a certain picture that is not developing according to the will of the dreamer. This situation turns dreaming into a mysterious and incomprehensible process. A dream is at the same time a conscious action, because the dreamer sees a dream and a passive state, where the dream develops according to its own laws. Something is clear to him, but some inner meaning of everything that happens in a dream is often inaccessible to him.
Dreams occupy a certain place in our lives. Depending on whether the journey to the kingdom of Morpheus was pleasant, a person’s mood may deteriorate or, on the contrary, improve. Sometimes we remember dreams throughout the day or immediately forget them after waking up. Particularly impressionable people tend to idealize their dreams and consider them harbingers of unheard-of happiness or misfortune. In some cases, they get upset when they see a bad sign for themselves. Skeptics argue that dreams in themselves mean nothing and cannot have any serious consequences.
They say that you don’t need to attach any significance to what you see in the silence of the night. Dark time day is famous for its mystery, and therefore anything can be dreamed of. Should you believe dreams? Today there are special books and electronic portals that describe the interpretation of dreams. Dream books contain a minimum of information about the nature of this phenomenon and rarely give any detailed meaning. Should you trust the interpretation of dreams? Let's try to figure it out!
Light bulb effect
Each dream is unique in itself. There is an opinion that experiences associated with ordinary everyday life are deposited deep in the subconscious, from where they cannot just come out. In a dream, a person relaxes, so the subcortex begins to actively work.
A distinctive feature is that these experiences are almost impossible to notice in yourself. Only when in a state of complete relaxation does a person “light a light bulb” in his head. All unfulfilled desires immediately come out, embodied in the form of dreams.
Lack of logic
Should we believe dreams and dream books? As a rule, when a person sleeps, he does not control the events that occur. There is no possibility of any reaction. In dreams there is often no logic. Events can overlap each other and contradict generally accepted standards. However, in a dream, no one, as a rule, is surprised by a strange coincidence of circumstances. On the contrary, everything seems plausible, despite the obvious absurdity. Should we believe dreams based on this characteristic? The conclusion suggests itself: definitely not. The absence of any logic often reduces interest in dreams in principle, and people try not to pay any attention to them.
Incredible journeys
Being in the arms of Morpheus, a person stops worrying about pressing problems. In many cases, people fly in their dreams, visit some mysterious planets, are messengers of divine creatures. Incredible travel is one of the opportunities to feel happier, free from everyday burdens and various difficulties. Sleep strengthens nervous system a person, allows him to temporarily forget about upcoming decisions complex issues. Such dreams, when you are traveling somewhere, should be taken precisely as an opportunity have a nice rest. There is no need to try to look for some additional meanings in them that simply are not there. Just enjoy your vacation and don't make any further assumptions.
Some people have a habit of sleeping during daylight hours. Someone is counting similar phenomenon bad habit, other people don’t see anything special in it. Is it worth believing? daytime dreams? This question worries many who like to sleep sweetly. As a rule, such dreams are not particularly deep. They are superficial and do not bring the desired satisfaction. The healthy need for sleep is only partially realized. It is better to avoid such useless rest, and if it is necessary, then there is no need to worry about the dreams you have at this time. It is unlikely that they will correspond to reality.
About scary dreams
In some cases, a person wakes up in the middle of the night covered in sweat. When you dream you really forget about everything. I just want to hide my head under the blanket and not think about anything. It seems that anything can happen to you; you completely lose your sense of the reality of what is happening. You jump out of such dreams in the same way that specially trained people jump with a parachute. A sudden awakening is also known to not improve health. Of course, scary dreams can't make you happy.
They tire more than even the most grueling work, they form obsessive states, phobias. What can you dream about? Terrible jaws, bloody battles, etc. Should you believe dreams about teeth? Not necessary. You have to take it on faith that they mean nothing. It’s just that the person was overly tired the day before, has unspoken aggression or uncontrollable fear. To get rid of such unpleasant dreams, you must work on yourself. Overcoming fears is not easy, but effort is still necessary. This will help you stop jumping up at night with anxiety.
What psychologists talk about
Experts tend to approach the issue of dreams with a clear sense of logic. Any unfinished business, unfulfilled promises and individual experiences weigh heavily on the heart. From the point of view are a reflection emotional life. It's just that nothing will bother you. Everything needs a reason.
If desired, the origins of any problem can be found by contacting a psychoanalyst. With the help of such uncontrollable visions, a person is mentally cleansed, which allows him to feel better. This necessary stage, which cannot be ignored. Therefore, each person has the right to decide for himself whether to believe dreams. Having made a choice, make a specific decision for yourself and calm down. You shouldn't torture yourself needlessly.
Religion
This is an interesting question that deserves special attention. From a religious point of view, dreams are often prophetic, predicting something. They are not thoughtless, not useless, but necessarily indicate some kind of shortcoming that a person needs to eradicate for his spiritual growth. Should you believe dreams? Orthodoxy views this moment wisely and ambiguously. It is necessary to pay attention to what you dream.
But you need to correlate this with your internal state. If there are any negative emotions, it is better to understand their nature, atone for your guilt, and cleanse yourself mentally. Then bad dreams will stop bothering you. Religion calls for this.
How to learn to understand dreams
Being aware of what you see at night is not always necessary. If you want to learn to understand dreams, you must first turn to your inner nature. By carefully analyzing your emotions, you can understand what really bothers you. So any tangle of contradictions can be disassembled into separate threads.
Instead of a conclusion
When trying to answer the question of whether you should believe dreams, you need to consider several points. Under no circumstances should you take any of your overnight experiences at face value. Feelings can be deceiving, being a reflection of a state of mind that often has nothing in common with reality. If the dream is too reminiscent of a prophetic one, you can listen to it, identifying something useful for yourself. It is better to immediately subject bad impressions to oblivion, so as not to spoil your life. In any case, there is no need to take dreams too seriously. Most often, they do not mean anything more than just the subjective experiences of an individual person.
The world of our dreams is very mysterious. This is that part of the unconscious and mystical, with which it is difficult to do anything, to influence it in any way. But this world exists!
Our soul goes on an incredible, mysterious journey as soon as we fall asleep. And we experience all these events as if in reality: in our dreams we feel joy, pain, fear. Why do dreams exist at all, and can they be trusted? What do Orthodoxy, psychology say about this, and how should we treat dreams in general?
It is best to look at this difficult issue from two different sides. The first side is more practical, rational. Let's find out whether dreams can be trusted from a psychological point of view. The second side is precisely esoteric, spiritual. Namely, is it worth believing dreams from a religious point of view, and what Orthodoxy says on this matter. You can easily compare these two points of view and draw your own conclusions.
Subconscious Games
Psychology is a delicate thing. Is it worth believing dream books and dreams with scientific point vision? A question that cannot be answered unequivocally.
To understand whether to believe dreams and whether to pay attention to them, it would not be amiss to turn to own experience. Remember - there were dreams that came true! Everyone had them. But there were also empty, insignificant ones. Conclusion: dreams are very different. Some are significant, some are just a continuation of our subconscious.
If you constantly think about work and you dream about it, you don’t need a dream book. If you watched a horror movie at night and immediately dreamed about it, should you be surprised? There are visions that simply continue your reality and experiences. Your body is asleep, but your mind is not.
But is it possible to believe dreams that have absolutely nothing to do with reality and your experiences? Yes, there are dreams that you can believe and which should definitely be deciphered using a dream book. There are even more such visions than others. Very often, in reality, we receive advice, instructions in our dreams, and we can even find a way out of the situation. Often a dream shows us our mistakes and can even provide a real solution to problems.
Journey of the Soul
The Christian religion advises to be very careful in the world of dreams and believes that we are defenseless while we sleep. That it is much easier for evil spirits and dark forces to influence us precisely in a state of sleep. That's why nightmares are scary and unpleasant dreams You can’t tell anyone - so as not to allow the force that is trying to scare us to continue living.
In the Orthodox religion, it is believed that our dreams are a reflection of our spiritual level and the purity of our soul. Revelations from above appear to highly spiritual people, and those who are constantly in vanity also bustle in dreams. People who are afraid of everything get scary dreams. Those whose souls are impure and who are sinful sin in their dreams. So you can learn a lot about yourself based on the character and plot of your dreams!
Dreams can be “empty”, meaningless, or they can be prophetic. This is not difficult to feel intuitively. It happens that we dream of angels or who tell us something, or some very bright and large-scale natural phenomena. They are always a voice from above, and now they need to be deciphered through a dream book! Such visions cannot be ignored.
You should not take it seriously if the dream book says that a dream promises trouble. This should be taken as advice - to be more careful, to pay attention to this or that aspect of life. Taking everything on faith without exception is unreasonable!
But if you really want to believe, then by all means believe. Light and pleasant dream, which promises happiness, will definitely come true if you believe in it. Remember, you choose what to believe and what does not exist. This is how each of us creates our own destiny, and you too are the creator of your life. Believe only in what will make you happier. And never be afraid of dreams, because they are unreal.
We all dream. But should you believe dreams?
Even those people who think they rarely dream actually do see them.
They just remember only a small fraction of them. The ability of people to remember dreams is caused by the time of awakening in a short phase and the psycho-emotional state.
What do dreams depend on?
The frequency of dreams increases if in reality a person experiences strong emotions . As a result, sleep becomes restless and dreams become more frequent.
It is before important events that people most often doubt whether they should be believed. Especially if they give a certain indication of the development of events. Even on ordinary days, rarely does anyone ignore what they see at night. And the thought may slip: “Why did I dream about this?”
And here it doesn’t matter whether you believe in dreams, or whether you are simply surprised by the bright night “cinema”. It often happens that people think about what they see and it does not leave them.
They look at the interpretation of the dream, but in most cases various dream books may contradict each other. As a result, it is not clear whether to believe what you see.
Should you trust it?
Each person is individual, each has his own character and temperament, which is why all people should not interpret dreams and trust dream books in the same way.
Just like you shouldn’t take on faith everything you see when you sleep.
After all, sleep is a rest for the brain from the concrete logical thinking and immersion in the sea of emotions and images that are part of our personality.
By thinking only logically and rationally, we ignore our intuitive hidden part. She, repressed into the unconscious, is able to notice signs and things of the surrounding world, to which the logical part of the brain often turns a blind eye.
And night dreams are a place where you can fully reveal yourself by paying attention to the information encrypted in symbols. Everyone's dreams are different. However, it is possible to decipher General characteristics certain night visions of a person, creating a general scheme.
What do we often dream about and what does it mean?
Sigmund Freud also said that a person’s unconscious desires work during sleep. Therefore, they need to be given some attention.
Dreams may indicate the following:
- Flying. Psychologists are of the opinion that if a person sees himself flying, then he wants to live in harmony with himself and strives to free himself from restrictions.
A person flying in a dream feels happy, which is why such visions are typical of lovers and children, who are least dependent on life’s problems. - Nudity V public place. This may indicate that in real life you have a fear of being laughed at and exposed. Perhaps you don't like yourself or are ashamed of your body.
- Nightmares. If you dream of a creature that frightens you or any discrepancy with the norm, then this is a sign that your psyche is overstrained, you are in a state of stress, which can develop into depression. And the scarier the monster, the closer the danger. A person may not be aware of his own emotional state, thereby driving worry and anxiety inside yourself. The psyche, thus, tries to overcome mental trauma and force it to be erased from consciousness.
- Exams. Such visions speak of self-doubt, unexpectedness and surprises inspire danger.
- Falls. Fear of falling may indicate a loss of interest in life and faith in luck.
Believe it or not?
So, is it worth believing the dreams you remember? First of all, you need to understand what the dream was like. Absurd, vague, or with a vivid plot about upcoming events.
- If the vision was “about nothing”, where only a few objects were remembered, then you can simply forget it.
- If bright, which has a clear storyline, then it can and should be analyzed.
By analyzing such dreams, you can learn to deal with difficulties and change your current attitude towards life. Author: Ekaterina Volkova
Good afternoon, dear visitors of the Orthodox island “Family and Faith”!
We published various articles and answers from priests about “whether you should believe dreams or not.”
Today we invite you to read the opinion of the Orthodox doctor, Dimitry Aleksandrovich Avdeev, who clearly sets out the answer to the question: Should we believe dreams?
Dreams from God are most often seen by holy people who have cleansed their souls with tears of repentance. Their content is always soul-saving and connected with important events. But even the saints, to whom dreams are sent from God, do not immediately accept them, considering themselves unworthy.
And how many gullible people were destroyed by the devil, who believed that their dreams were from God. In the Holy Scriptures, the Lord Himself tells us about the need for caution if we do not want to be deceived by dreams, the culprit of which is Satan. “Empty and false hopes belong to a foolish man, and sleepy dreams inspire fools” (Sir. 34:1). And further: “Like one who embraces a shadow or chases the wind, so one who believes in dreams” (34:2). “Do not put your heart on them. Dreams have led many astray, and those who trusted in them have fallen" (34:7). Thus, Holy Scripture warns against turning your heart and attention to dreams. After all, dreams have already deceived many and caused the fall of those who trusted them.
Saint Gregory Dvoeslov wrote: “We will have enough of that virtue if we do not pay any attention to the play of the imagination. Dreams are most often nothing more than chimeras of a deceptive mind or demonic tricks.” “Truly,” says the saint, “it is a great virtue not to believe anything from your dreams. After all, dreams in most cases come from images and fragments of thoughts that swirl in our head, or from the devil, who mocks us and tempts us.”
And here is the story about the terrible fall of the ascetic and elder Iron. With the help of dreams, the devil deceived him - from the heights of virtue he plunged into the abyss of destruction. Iron spent fifty years in the desert in high deeds and abstinence. He labored alone in the desert. And he was known to many for his high life. But one day Satan appeared to him in a dream in the form of Christ and gave him a commandment to withdraw from others, supposedly for the purpose of intense fasting and asceticism. He didn’t even come to church on Easter. And all this in order not to eat with other fathers anything that was served for lunch, and not to disturb strict fast, which he decided to observe on the advice of the devil.
Satan kept him in deception for a long time. And one day he appeared to him in a dream in the form of an angel. Unhappy Iron bowed to him like an angel. Satan ordered him to immediately jump into the well to make sure for himself that because of his great virtue, holiness and deeds for the sake of God, nothing bad would happen to him. And Iroi, having the firm confidence that his dreams were true, jumped into the well.
It happened that other monks immediately noticed this and with great difficulty pulled him out of the well. This ascetic lived only two days, and died on the third. This is how trust in dreams can ruin such a life.
The monks of the Holy Mountain have this rule: neither accept nor reject. This wise rule saves from pride and exaltation, if a person attributes such phenomena to his own merits, and also saves from blasphemy if there has been a manifestation of the Grace of God.
But I repeat once again: it is better and safer not to trust dreams. In case of any spiritual difficulties in this regard, you should seek clarification from your confessor.
In his medical practice I often encounter how conscience convicts a person in a dream. For example, almost all women who killed their children in the womb by having an abortion have nightmares. They see terrible pictures: the torment of their unborn children, their screams. Well, this is quite natural.”
I would like to add to Dimitry Alexandrovich’s answer: always read the Evening Prayers before going to bed. And if you are very tired, read the rule of Seraphim of Sarov (the prayer “Our Father” three times, “Virgin Mother of God, rejoice ...” three times, and the Creed once). And also the prayer “May God rise again and His enemies be scattered…”.
And then your sleep will be calm and pleasant.
Discussion: 4 comments
Save me, God! It’s good that you see good things in dreams and draw the right conclusions. You need to see good things not only in dreams, but throughout your life, then they will multiply. We often do not notice the miracles that the Lord does for us.
Every person has the sin of pride, and often we mix it up not only in bad deeds and actions, but also in good ones. By doing a good deed, a person can fuel his vanity and pride.
Try to repent of your sins more often, and then the sin will lose its power and it will be easier to lead a spiritual life.
Peace and God's blessing to you!Answer
Anastasia, good evening!
Don’t believe in dreams and don’t solve them, all this is superstition and sin. That’s why it’s bad for you because you fill your heart with sin. You need to repent of your sins and partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ at least once a month. Read morning and evening prayers every day (required!), and keep fasts. Every day read one chapter from the Holy Gospel, one kathisma of the Psalter and the Lives of the Saints. Refrain from watching TV and replace it with reading spiritual literature.
Pray and the Lord will not leave you!Answer
HAPPY GREAT LENT! I have often dreamed about different dreams, but I always tried to think about them (it’s impossible not to think!) from a positive perspective: that this is some kind of hint to me, that I’m living incorrectly in some way, that I don’t attend church much, I miss Sunday services, although I’m at work that day day off. When I was young, I talked about such dreams, but only with the goal that my loved ones would believe in God. Such dreams, although many years have passed since then, are simply not forgotten by themselves. Maybe it's pride that lives in me? THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT, FOR THE FACT THAT THE SITE MATERIALS ARE VERY USEFUL AND HELP IN THIS CHALLENGING LIFE! BE HEALTHY!
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Hello, please help me, tell me what should I do? I always have a very bad feeling of fear and it seems like I’m going to die, I go to the hospital and they say I’m healthy. But things aren’t going well for me, I’m always figuring out dreams, it’s very difficult, help me, what should I do?
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