Throughout the ages, dreams have been consulted as oracles for guidance all over the world in places as diverse as ancient Greece, Egypt and the Americas. Contemporary science now agrees with this perennial wisdom. In recent times, sleep and dream researchers have discovered that when we’re dreaming we appear to be rehearsing possible scenarios for our future.
"In REM (the stage of sleep associated with dreaming) we’re actually trying to experience the future, to move into the future. We may have the opportunity to step into the future with no risk.” Matthew Wilson, PhD, MIT
Even if you only work with a dream image on occasion, a single dream can nourish you deeply for months and even years. With Dream Discovery,™ you can discover the nightly messages of your dream oracle, your personal life coach and agent for change who can illuminate the next step in your personal odyssey in this life.
Dreamers at the Temple of Asclepius in Ancient Greece
Dreams have the power to expand your perspective so you can see far beyond your current horizon as well as beneath the surface to reveal your highest potential. If you don’t attempt to put a dream “in a box,” you’ll discover that dreams will guide you to think “outside the box.”
"When we are asleep in this world we are awake in another." Salvador Dali
Give your dreaming mind the same respect you might offer an esteemed teacher, a wise sage or life coach, and you’ll cultivate an ongoing conversation with this natural source of wisdom within you. Although not every dream will be especially revelatory, as you discover your dreams over time, you’re cultivating an evolution in consciousness that will enhance your whole life.
Questions for your Dream Oracle
Dreams can offer guidance in the form of either answers or questions. Sometimes the revelation of a new question offers much more wisdom than a simple answer. Honor the wisdom of the dream by encouraging your dream oracle to reveal both the answers and the questions that arise from your dreams.
For any dream ask yourself, what messages could this dream have for me? Your nightly visitors – dream characters – are often the messengers. What are their messages? How are this dream’s messages relevant to your life right now? How can you experiment with activating the wisdom of this dream in your life?
The dharma of the dream honors the most important questions we ask about our lives:
How can I better love? What can I learn from this relationship? How can I heal?
What is my life’s purpose? Which path is best for me?
How can I live what’s in my heart? How can I live more authentically?
Looking back on my life, what have I learned so far? And looking forward, where do I want to go in my life? What is calling me on my path?
“The best way to deal with a dream is to think of yourself as an ignorant child and to come to the two-million-year-old man or to the old mother of days and ask, ‘Now what do you think of me?" Carl Jung
Georges de la Tour
Gifts of Your Dream Oracle
Shining the Light of Self Awareness
Ironically dreams can help you awaken from the sleepiness of daily life. As oracles dreams shine a light on the hidden places in our psyche including unexpressed feelings, unfulfilled wishes and unresolved dilemmas.
Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh offers a practice known as “Shining the Light.” In this practice, the intention is to shine the light of awareness on both a person’s strengths and their areas for growth. Your dream oracle can shine the light of awareness on your unique strengths and talents so you don’t “hide your light” in this life. Dreams also present opportunities for unconscious habits to be revealed in the light of awareness. Shining the light on your life helps you release the past, embrace the moment and grow with the understanding that you are not your problems and limitations. You are the one who shines the light of consciousness on them.
Have you been “hiding your light?” To receive the gift of self-awareness from dream oracle, ask yourself these questions about any dream: What is this dream’s view of my current life? How does this dream expand my self-awareness to help me grow? What is revealed in the light of awareness by this dream? How can I practice using this awareness in daily life to live with more authenticity?
Honoring Your Heart’s Desires
Dreams often reveal our heart’s deepest desires. For any dream ask yourself, does this dream speak to me about the desires living in my heart? Does this dream awaken my intention for a new life dream, one that encourages expression of my heart’s desires? How could I live differently if I choose to honor this desire of my heart?
Marie-Louise von Franz likened a dream experience to a sip from the waters of life that vivify us. When dreaming, we are in contact with the depths of psyche where the timeless wisdom of life flows through us. A dream is a voyage into that deep space of soul where we discover possibilities for our future and find the courage to honor our heart’s desires to live a more authentic life.
Navigating Challenges & Choices
Our dream dramas often reflect challenges and choices we might be overlooking in our waking lives. Your dream oracle can be a personal life coach who helps you learn how to use your intuition to navigate the challenges and choices in your life.
For any dream, ask yourself how is the challenge or choice presented in the dream relevant to feelings and circumstances in my waking life? What are the messages in the dream about a choice or challenge I currently face in waking life? How can I begin to activate these messages to give me more insight? When reflecting on these questions, consider both recent concerns and also the “big picture” of your life.
Susan Sheldon Boulet
Opening Pathways for Healing
Dream Discovery™ has deep roots in ancient traditions that honor the dream as a portal into experiences of the transcendent. Stories in the Bible and other sacred texts reveal that dreams have long been consulted as a source of wisdom for healing body and soul. In ancient Greece dreams were used for insight into important decisions, to offer a glimpse into possible futures and to diagnose and treat illness at the temples of Asclepius. In many indigenous cultures healers, known as shamans, use altered states of consciousness – such as dreams – to journey beyond time and space in order to channel transcendental energies for healing body and soul. In the dreamscape we can all be shamans.
Consider that your dream oracle may be offering you a pathway to restore the natural wholeness of your body and psyche. How can you activate the wisdom of the dream for healing? One dreamer named Michael experienced a compelling series of dreams featuring trees that had many branches and roots but which looked diseased and broken. He listened to his intuition and consulted a doctor about unusual fatigue and was eventually diagnosed with a systemic health disorder.
Michael felt that his dream trees spoke to him about the need to restore his well-being both physically and spiritually. Often a dream image speaks as an oracle like the trees did for Michael. During his recovery, Michael discovered that spending time in his daily life relaxing among trees was an important healing practice for him. Michael also awakened to the reality of the life-giving power of trees for the health of the Earth and to a new life calling — photographing and planting trees. You can read more about Michael’s healing journey here: "A Dreamer's Journey."
Sometimes the gift of healing from a dream is obvious and other times it takes the perspective of time to understand the depth of healing a dream can offer. For any dream, it can be worthwhile to ask these questions, does this dream offer me a pathway to restore the natural wholeness of my body and soul? How can I activate the wisdom of this dream for healing? Does this dream help heal my past and offer me a fresh perspective for my future? Does this dream reveal my next step in healing?
Recent research indicates that the practice of gratitude is healing. Affirm with gratitude that your dreams are offering healing at this very moment. Ask yourself, what is the gift from my dream? Affirm “I am grateful to this dream for the gift of…”
Susan Sheldon Boulet
Enhancing Your Intuition
Your dream oracle is an activist for change inviting you to live beyond limiting beliefs and celebrate the wholeness of your authentic self. One of the benefits of working with dreams is learning to trust your imagination and intuition. Your intuition and imagination are essential aspects of your noetic birthright and as much a part of your human nature as the rhythms of your amazing body.
"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere." Albert Einstein
Intuition is the ability to spontaneously know and understand a phenomenon in a way that transcends reason. When we trust our intuition, we use our natural ability to fully pay attention and to deeply listen for what has yet to be revealed to the conscious mind. An oracle is a source of intuitive wisdom that appears in a flash of insight, a “gut” feeling, a synchronicity and of course in a dream.
Unlike the stereotype, highly intuitive people are not “spaced out” but are actually keen observers who are deeply present and open to life moment to moment. To enhance your intuition, enjoy quiet downtime especially in nature. Throughout your day take moments to let go of mental clutter like excessive thinking and worry. Last but not least, discover your dream life.
In an interview for The Dream Discovery Blog, dream researcher Kelley Bulkeley, Ph.D., of the University of California, Berkeley shared this:
"Whatever value we may get from interpreting dreams and understanding their meaning, there is a deep value to the process of dreaming as an opportunity to play, to stretch our minds and try out different possibilities, to imagine, to rehearse, to play.”
Dream Discovery™ offers opportunities every day for imaginative play which is an avenue for developing your intuition. When we engage in intuitive thinking and imaginative play, we’re activating parts of the brain adults don’t typically use in daily life.
Dream Discovery
So consider that your dream oracle serves as a guide who illuminates your path for healing and navigating life's challenges and choices. Dream Oracle also serves as a guide for the discovery of your heart's desires and greater self-awareness, intuition and creativity. Dream Discovery Workbook is a guided dream journal to help you build a bridge between your dreaming and waking worlds to cultivate a relationship with your personal life coach and agent for change – your dream oracle – who knows the next step in your life journey. Kick-start your dream practice to reveal the themes of your dreams and the messages of your nightly visitors. Ignite your intuition and creativity as you navigate the dream world – a world without limits in time and space. Allied with your Dream Discovery Workbook and Journal, you’ll discover the wisdom of your dreams and awaken new dreams for daily life.
Explore your dreams with "The Dream Discovery Course and the Workbook: A Guided Dream Journal" - Dream Discovery.
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