I dreamt that some friends and I were murdered at school, and our faces were all over the news. My parents didn't know yet that I was dead, but that I was in danger, so they were very happy when I came home. But they were distraught when I had to tell them that I did die, and that I was essentially a ghost and would simply vanish in a few days. In the dream, my hearing was very muted and my vision was hazy and grey, as if I were half dead already, and I was sad that I was leaving my parents soon and that they would miss me and nervous that after I passed away that I might go to Hell. What could a dream like this mean?
Responses (4)
It means you tell yourself stories while you sleep. This story is made up from baloney you have heard from random preachers. Almost nobody actually knows anything about the subject. It is all made up.
In the 19th century Americans started moving west and three institutions went with them. There was vaudeville, traveling entertainment. There was lyceum, traveling education and culture. And there was the itinerant preacher, offering a new style of preaching called "hell fire and brim stone". It was very entertaining, only loosely based on scripture, and pastors didn't even try to compete. Instead they switched to preaching public morality and philosophy. Eventually an entire generation grew up not knowing the first thing about the religion they claimed to believe. That is why most Christian churches don't teach doctrines, and most members don't know what they are supposed to believe.
2 Timothy 4:
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
What have researchers learned about dreams?
“Everyone dreams,” says The World Book Encyclopedia (1984, Vol. 5, p. 279). “Most adults dream for about 100 minutes during eight hours of sleep.” So dreams are a normal human experience.
The cause of your bad dreams may be in the things you practice and dwell on mentally from day to day. The solution to bad dreams may call for an adjustment in your routine of life, especially in what you regularly feed your mind.—Phil. 4:8.
Experiments with hundreds of dreams have shown that unpleasant dreams, in which the dreamer is the victim of some type of misfortune, outstrip pleasant dreams by a ratio of 7 to 1.Sometimes when we are trying to solve a problem, the solution comes to us during sleep. This may reflect that not all sleep consists of dreaming. A portion of it is thinking. Sleep thinking is not accompanied by sensory illusions and is not bizarre. It tends to be commonplace, often concerned with the real-life events of yesterday or tomorrow, and is usually banal, uncreative, and repetitive.”
Since it seems that dreams originate principally within the brain, it is not reasonable to think that they have special messages for us. We should view them as a normal function of the brain that helps maintain it in a healthful condition. Prayer to Jehovah calling him by his name in Jesus Christ will give you the needed comfort.
For more information on this subject, please go to jw.org "Online Library." Also for free downloads, or read online.
During our waking hours, our five senses are constantly conveying information and images to the brain, but during sleep this is not the case. The brain generates images within itself without any external sensory input. Therefore, what we see in dreams and the actions we experience in them are at times like hallucinations. This makes it possible for us to do things that are violations of natural laws, such as flying like Peter Pan or falling from a cliff without injury.
Common things that are on our minds when we go to sleep can surface in our dreams.Sometimes when we are trying to solve a problem, the solution comes to us during sleep. This may reflect that not all sleep consists of dreaming. A portion of it is thinking.
Some people feel that the subjects of their dreams have special messages for them.
The Dream Game, by Ann Faraday, says: “Dream books in which you look up the meanings of dream themes and symbols are equally useless, whether they be traditional or based on some modern psychological theory.”
If a person has a dream about the death of a family member or a friend, it is perhaps because he has been concerned about this person. That the person may have died on precisely the night of the dream does not in itself prove that the dream was prophetic. For every dream of this type that appears to become a reality, there are hundreds that do not.
Although God did use dreams in the past to reveal prophetic events and give instructions while his written Word was being produced, he has no need to do so today. So we can be confident that our dreams are not indications from God of future events but essential functions of the brain for maintaining our mental well-being.
For more information on this subject and others, please go to jw.org. "Online Library." Also for free downloads, publications or read online.
If a person has a dream about the death of a family member or a friend, it is perhaps because he has been concerned about this person. That the person may have died on precisely the night of the dream does not in itself prove that the dream was prophetic. For every dream of this type that appears to become a reality, there are hundreds that do not. On the other hand, if your sleep is often disturbed by nightmares, rather than looking for any meaning in them, it might be better to look for possible causes of them in your way of life. How true what the Bible says: “For because of abundance of occupation there are dreams”!—Eccl. 5:7. Sometimes when we are trying to solve a problem, the solution comes to us during sleep. This may reflect that not all sleep consists of dreaming. A portion of it is thinking.
So we can be confident that our dreams are not indications from God of future events but essential functions of the brain for maintaining our mental well-being.
For more information on this subject and others, please go to jw.org "Online Library" Also for free downloads, publications or read online.