Dreaming of God?

[mojo3192]

I have never really been a religious person and have always been good about controlling my dreams, but a dream last night is troubling for me. I was standing in a green field surrounded by a grey nothingness that was lit like a spotlight was shining directly on me and only illuminated the immediate area in which I was standing. A disembodied voice addressed me, and I responded "who are you supposed to be god?" and it replied "yes but I have been misrepresented, by those who worship me". I then said "you know I am not religious, why am I here? For judgement?" it replied "no were just here to talk" I asked "what.... about my troubled youth, or am I damned for not believing?", it chuckled and replied "no just to let you know I am here", I asked "so, what did you want to talk about?" . The disembodied voice then went into a lengthy monolog about creative design and how it seeded earth and took a hands off approach to let life progress on it's own, and how it sees all life here as it's children. It talked about how we are meant to make mistakes, and how only the most vile people are truly damned everyone else gets to move on or have a chance at redemption. I asked "so what am I supposed to do now worship you" it chuckled and replied "no just live your life while you have it", I then asked "is there a heaven?", it replied "yes in a sense, but not like in the bible" I asked "what's it like after we die?" it replied "glorious..... glorious." I then asked "how do I know this is not just a dream?" to which it replied "you don't" then there was a blinding white light, that radiated warmth and I awoke in bed. I didn't post this to make light or subvert the beliefs of others, this was a dream and how it played out. Like I said before I am not religious and don't understand why I would dream about having a conversation with god. Is this my subconsciousness forgiving myself for mistakes I have made? Or is it something else?

[JoannaB]

Well, personally, I would take that dream literally. But that is my personal belief, and not yours. Although it did tell you that no you are not supposed to now start worshipping God, just live your life while you have it, and just make sure you are not truly vile. It also told you that you have no way of knowing that this was not just a dream. Do you have any problems with any of that?

[sea00115699]

It may be your interpretation of God from your subconscious point of view, or it may be something more.

[Presence333]

Cool dream. My input is that because your conscious personality seems to lean more into the 'non-religious' aspect of the psyche the dream was an attempt by your unconscious to provide more balance to your conscious mind. It provided you with resolutions to the conflicts which have kept your more spiritual resources out of your conscious mind and thus hampering it from properly integrating into your life. My guess is that a sense of guilt and fear of damnation might have created part of the imbalance. I think in relation to forgiveness and mistakes, the being is trying to explain to you that it's okay when you make a mistake, that it's actually an important part of being alive, and that you're seen with a sense of nurturing care regardless of mistakes. If you feel forgiven for anything in the past or feel compelled to forgive past mistakes, then the dream is a powerful indication that you have permission to forgive. As that part (the god) of your psyche gets integrated into your consciousness the more you should be able to forgive yourself and others. I think it is a very positive dream, and personally I feel the things the being said to you are quite clear, honest, and wise.

[mojo3192]

Well, personally, I would take that dream literally. But that is my personal belief, and not yours. Although it did tell you that no you are not supposed to now start worshipping God, just live your life while you have it, and just make sure you are not truly vile. It also told you that you have no way of knowing that this was not just a dream. Do you have any problems with any of that? I can understand it. My troubled youth was mostly about drug addiction, I used to be a heavy meth user. I had nearly unlimited access and used daily for years. My girlfriend at the time didn't use drugs, she tolerated me and my stressful lifestyle for years. People coming and going at all hours, fights, and parties.... She had become pregnant and had miscarried due it stress in my opinion caused by my lifestyle. After nearly bleeding to death when we finally got home from the hospital, she looked at me and gave me an ultimatum. To either quit or she was leaving. I felt incredibly guilty, and obligated to this woman who had endured so much for me. We pack up our belongings and moved a few days later and put that past behind us. It wasn't easy to quit, I had to isolate myself from everyone I knew, at first people would come to visit bearing gifts so to speak, often it was hard to turn them away. After a few months people stopped coming, but I kept myself isolated. I married my Girlfriend and our first child was born a year later. It took nearly 5 years before the daily cravings for meth to go away. I would constantly dwell on it and found quitting to be very difficult. As I write this I have been drug free for 16 years this month, I have two children and a loving (spirited) wife with a huge potty mouth . But I have never reintegrated into society, and rarely leave our home (a handful of times a year). Things happened in my childhood that instilled disdain within me, I was physically and sexually abused. Physically by my step mother who would make me strip nude as she beat and demeaned me. Sexually by a neighbor, and later by a transient man at knife point. As a young adult I found it difficult to trust anyone, and this was only amplified by my drug use, and subsequent isolation to quit my addiction. Even now as I near 40, I have a very difficult time even thinking about being around people outside of family, it literally ties my stomach in knots. It has taken me nearly an hour to write this, tears have welled up in my eyes many times. I know what the dream means. It means I need to put myself out there and live my life instead of being locked away and guarded. But it still hurts..... a lot, to even think about it. Now, I am crying, so I think it is time to wrap this up for now. Thank you for lending a ear.

[shadowofwind]

I think that God inspired the dream, though the ideas about God in the dream are still based mostly on people's thoughts about God. (For instance, though this is mostly irrelevant to this discussion, the Bible actually says almost nothing about heaven. Most of the Old Testament lacks the concept of an afterlife. In Ecclesiastes, which was written later, the spirit returns to God that gave it. In the New Testament the main idea of eternal life is a physical resurrection, along with a couple of other minor references to heaven. More familiar ideas of heaven, and particularly about hell, were mostly developed later.) My point is, if there's anything about 'God' that you have difficulty accepting, just change your mind to something that makes more sense to you, and that's probably closer, for you. I agree with the dream that not everyone needs to worship God, that God isn't tyrannical and insecure like that, and that belief in God isn't actually the most important part of your relationship with God. But believing in God and thinking about God does help some people a lot, even though it hasn't been quite my calling so far either. If you would like e-mail contact with another ex-meth user, let me know, I have a friend in Australia who's experience has some similarity to yours.

[101Volts]

Well, That's a dream that I can think of. It seems reassuring and just in time too, I'd just watched "Zombie in a Penguin Suit" on Youtube and I don't get out of the house much and sometimes I only see about as much as a pinhole instead of everything that's there in life and I had a dream last week in which I saw much green and was quite happy to see that. It's a bit of a long dream so I'll not get into it much here. And actually, The way you described green surrounded by grey is how I imagine the world is and how I see the Bible as representing it, To some degree at least - He created it, "And without him was not any thing made which was made". As I interpret it, He did not create the grey but just the green which is this world. I do believe the one who created the world has been misrepresented - And call him a reason or just the universe or whatever, But that's what I'm getting at here. Whatever the case, I think it would be rather funny that someone like Mark Arm might turn out to be a nice guy. _______ The above was written but not posted several hours ago. I don't know much about Mark Arm, Other than that he's the singer for Mudhoney and I was rather confused that he was singing "Amazing Grace" at the end of a Nardwuar interview which struck me oddly.

[JoannaB]

JoannaB sends mojo3192 a virtual hug. It also occurred to me that even though you are uncomfortable worshipping God, but perhaps there is some form of spirituality that you would be comfortable enough exploring? This dream may be showing you that part of you desires spiritual growth. It is not necessary to worship God in order to explore spiritually. You could explore spirituality without committing to a belief system at this time. Also have you looked into Buddhism for example or other spiritual traditions that do not require you to start believing in God if you do not so wish? Spirituality of some sort may help provide you peace. Peace be with you.