Spirituality and Dreaming

[mRMe]

Certainly we have all had our personal spiritual experiences with our lucid dreams, be they transcendental states of consciousness conversations with God/s. I would like to ask your opinions on what effect your personal belief system or faith has on your Dreaming, I myself am a devout Christian (or consider myself such lol). What faith do you hold, and how do you feel it effects your dreams/lucids?

[shadowofwind]

Hello. My personal beliefs tend to circumscribe what I'm capable of experiencing. For that reason I try not to hold beliefs more strongly than my experience justifies. I don't think in terms of 'God', because that idea doesn't seem to fit my experiences very well. My inner world is more fragmented than that, and the things I interact with in dreams seem to be more at the level of benevolent angels than God. The first 'lucid' dreams that I had were a series of nightmares when I was a small child. From one standpoint, a person could say that these were created by a 'demon'. But from another standpoint, it was my own hatred being shown to me in a way that I could grasp more easily. Seeing that, my perception of the 'spirit' that inspired the dreams changed. Though I am not a Christan, I do feel that there is a reality behind the name of Christ that's unique to Christianity, and that its closely related to what Christians believe it to be. This has actually been an area of difficulty for me, because I'm repulsed by certain more superficial aspects of Christian teaching, which I will never accept, but there's something behind it that I need and must reconcile myself with anyway. I also believe in something like a biblical 'fall', though I don't place that fall in the historic past. I see that not understanding how to reconcile the myth of the fall with what is known scientifically about history is a problem for people. However, understanding how to reconcile the two opens the door to something like magic, and people have enough trouble already managing things like modern physics and money, so maybe its just as well. In any case, my desire to reform myself, and to do my part in the redemption of our world, ties in strongly most of my dreaming. I think of redemption as a matter of transformation, so that we become actually good in our hearts. We're damned in the sense that we've become contorted and limited, not in the sense that God has petty rules that he wants to enforce. It seems to me that to the extent that a person glimpses how far we have fallen, in contrast with what is possible, the only options are to hide or seek redemption. A lot of my thoughts and feelings about these things come from dreams, and of course there's an interrelated cycle with my waking thought and experience also. I don't see an essential difference between the 'muse' that creates my dreams and the one that creates my daytime experiences.

[mRMe]

There is a true Christianity that doesn't have all the terrible hypocrisy and ignorance, the "Americanized" christian churches you have likely been going to are a product of Constantine trying desperately to keep control of his roman people after the death of Christ. While it's true that the most important part is remembering who Jesus was and what he did, many churches i've found will dance around the word so much that you can scarcely tell if the people goin are saved.

[Dthoughts]

Well i hope if i practice lucidity in dreams and become good at it. I will remember to become lucid after i die and still remember the last life i lived.

[saltyseedog]

I think becoming one with your dream body is spirituality, Christianity.... I think the things Jesus tought were legit. But the catholic church got rid of alot of the teachings they didn't like and edited like 75% of it to say Jesus is everything if you don't believe in Jesus you going to hell, Jesus is god incarnated and he died for your sins so you can go to heaven (that doesn't make any sense wtf) Jesus was accepting of his death. He found peace in his acceptance. He was communing with the earth. He was accepting of all the things he didn't have control over in life (well mostly, nobody's perfect). And saw that people were brought into his life for a reason through the intent of the earth. He tought others to listen to their hearts and live in the now. The Catholic church manipulated his teachings to be a tool to control the masses rather than enlighten them. This belief in a eternal Hell that only can be escaped by giving into their religion has caused so much suffering and death. More than any other religion on earth.

[Dthoughts]

What im bothered with is this. I think when we die we might be going back into our own mind/consiousness and create our own world. And if you die expecting to go to hell forever... who knows maybe that the whole reason u actually go to hell and be tortured forever.