What is the Function of Dreaming?

Since time immemorial, people have believed dreams to be supernatural gifts from the divine, as messages from the spirit world. All religions from both the East and the West have looked to dreams as a source of wisdom and guidance. The Talmud says, “An uninterpreted dream is like an unopened letter from God.”

     Dreams can also be a source for problem solving. Many a person has gone to bed with a question on their mind, waking to find a solution. Sometimes the answer is derived directly from a dream. Other times, we find the answer just seems easier to come by the next day. Perhaps our unremembered dreams held the answer, but the conscious mind got to take the credit for the dreaming self’s wisdom!
     So much of our experience is focused outwardly on what is going on around us. Dreams give us the opportunity to spend part of each day focused inward. All spiritual traditions acknowledge the importance of dreaming and have spiritual practices that require deep inner reflection. Sleeping and dreaming are nature’s way of providing a nurturing inward state. Jung said, “In sleep we return, and through our dreams commune with the rest of creation and the collective consciousness.”1 Dreaming is one way in which we stay in touch with our inner self and our personal sense of connection with all creation. Dream work is a spiritual discipline that follows the inner path. Searching in the outer world for treasure rarely brings true happiness because the true gems of life are found within the self.
    Dreams are also a way to commune with spiritual teachers and guides, and sometimes they appear in most unlikely forms. When you learn to look for them in your dreams, their presence becomes more obvious. Often dreams provide spiritual guidance and sometimes they contain prophetic information.