Quote Originally Posted by Mark75 View Post
And when you dream you (usually) lie down.
Very funny (not really). The actual position makes no difference, and I said that by way of symbolism. But I am sure that you knew that already.

Quote Originally Posted by Mark75 View Post
How do you know it isn't your subconscious mind filling a desire for god to be there by answering yourself in your prayers in exactly the same way it is in a dream? Does god tell you when to pray?
Good question: how do we know that it is God when we pray? There is no easy answer, and many men and women of faith struggle with that doubt at different times in their lives. I would say this: the existence of God, and a personal one, seems to me eminently reasonable. Of course, it is unprovable, and that is where faith comes in. Obviously, there is a certain amount of faith involved in prayer. Furthermore, I think one of the elements of a developing faith is learning to discern your own mind's thoughts from what may be the promptings of the Divine.

There are people who can and do, as far as I can tell, manufacture "spiritual" experiences. I am thinking specifically about tongues or being slain in the Spirit. This is not to say that there are not genuine miraculous manifestations of the God-given ability to speak in tongues, or genuine epiphanies, but only that some Christian sects seem to rely on creating an emotional whirlwind that produces these highly subjective experiences that then are then taken as real.

I tend to be as incredulous of such religious experiences as I am of spiritual experiences in dreams. Again, discernment is required.

Dreams, however, are a more direct link to those parts of the mind that can produce such overpowering subjective experiences. I know that in dreams I often experience emotions in response to dream scenarios that are much more intense than most emotions in waking life--and these emotions are in response to false situations that my mind has made. In other words, these intense emotions are fabrications of my dreaming mind.

Such a thing is much less likely in normal prayer.

I simply advise that one approach any experience of the divine in an LD with caution and skepticism.

-Lux