Most dreams are simply “materialized” subconscious thoughts, or projections of the subconscious mind. So in general dreams are not really fantasy, but they are not much more important than that. What happens is that in sleep our life force withdraws inside and makes subconscious impressions come alive.
Yogananda says it much better: “In sleep, life energy is released from various bodily demands and retires to the brain cells, in which are stored the thought films of all past experiences. The enlivening action of the energy on the stored-up thought films in the subconscious mind results in the projection of the mental motion pictures we call dreams.”
It is possible to have a dream that comes from the superconsious mind rather than the subconsious. An indication of a superconscious dream is that, when you wake up, you feel joy and upliftment. If you feel that the dream has a significance, you can take time, first to meditate, then at the end of your meditation, to hold the dream up and try to feel whether there is any message for you.
- Paramhansa Yogananda has a lot to say about the meaning of dreams. But it is important to understand that this is YOUR dream and no one can interpret it better than you can.
- If you want to learn more about regular and superconsious dreams, you can read the book: The Meaning of Dreaming
- One of the major themes of Yogananda’s teachings is the importance of cognizing the dream nature of the universe. He explains that the way we dream mimics the mechanism that produces all of life: life is like a movie projected on the cosmic screen of space; our nightly dreams are like little movies within the big movie of life.Dreams come to us to strongly hint that what we call reality or life is not as real as it may seem. This is the primary reason we dream! Other theories for why we dream may have some validity, but they are not nearly as important as this central concept: we dream to help us understand a basic reality of life: Life itself is a dream.