OUTRO

Hello friends!
So today was the last day of the semester for me, and as I approach exams like tank this upcoming school week, I thought it would be nice to quickly sum up and pause to reflect what Bible class 2013/2014 has done for me.
All in all, it's been great. I always love to discuss the interesting points we have in class, and while some would argue that in Bible class, you should study the Bible, this past semester has taught me that no matter what, EVERYTHING can be related to God and the Bible, using something called, The Biblical Throughlines:

We were asked to somehow relate the Biblical Throughlines to our passion projects we've been working on all semester, and that got me thinking about things outside this project on this blog, which I think was the purpose of learning them!

Here are the throughlines I thought fit well with the topic of dreams:

-God-worshippers

-Idolatry-discerners

-Creation-enjoyers

-Order-discoverers (this one is unfortunately not featured on the picture, but it is a throughline!)



 

Generally though, with this project I would just like to say how thankful I am to have had the opportunity to learn about dreams! Having so much freedom in this project helped me discover the importance of how you have to be on top of yourselves, which is a key necessity for the real world. We can learn so much from these projects, other than just the obvious. While I truly believe that this is forever my last post on Somnium Ignotis, I would love nothing more than to continue to search my own dreamworld and what God has to offer me in my life beyond school (I'm graduating in June), and how everything relates and intertwines. This experience has been great, and I can't wait to do more. Huge shout out to my mentor, Betty Brandt for helping me out when I was on the dim side with knowledge about this topic. Thanks for reading, keep it real.

WHY DOESN'T EVERYONE REMEMBER THEIR DREAMS?

First of all, I'm going to put the rumour to rest that not everyone dreams.
Every single person dreams while they are asleep, just not everyone remembers what those dreams are. Some people have very vivid dreams, and can recall everything the next day. Other people can remember what a dream was in the morning, however throughout the day, the dreams fades and by the evening they cannot remember a single detail. And yet, there are even so some people who wake up, completely unaware of what they dreamt during their sleep. It's curious, really. According to livescience.com, scientists aren't even one hundred percent sure as to why not everyone can. New research suggests however, that people who respond more strongly than others when hearing their name.
Also, I imagine it may not be too much of a stretch to believe this, but it appears that more creative people tend to dream (or remember their dreams, rather) more rapidly, vividly and avidly. Dreams full of colour and backstory's and all that jazz. The reason why? Rowena-cory-daniells.com states that, "People who are prone to daydreaming and fantasy have less of a barrier between states of sleep and wakefulness and seem to more easily pass through them."
In addition to THAT, it also seems that video game players are able to control their dreams to a point, due to their high levels of concentration. These video game players are also more common in being able to lucid dream (dream, but knowing that you are in control).
Now I would like remind everyone that these facts are just generally speaking. Just because you don't remember  a super vivid dream, that's not to say that you are not creative. And just because you don't play video games excessively, doesn't mean that you cannot control your dreams to a point, or even lucid dream (I lucid dream quite often, and I can't even remember the last time I touched a video game remote!). And if we're talking about dreams that God sends as messages, I would say that that is not based on your creativity or video game standards either. THAT is about the person, not just dreams that you have because your thoughts have been racing on a specific subject or something along those lines...

Dream, Interrupted

Although it has been an excruciatingly long time, as promised I finally have my dream from....November? December? I can't even remember, it's been too long!
I'm going to start by summarizing it as brief and best as I can, and then I will give my mentor's take on what it means:
"My family and three friends went to this "haunted" cabin (that I've dreamed of before) to stay for a vacation. While we were there, my three friends were staying in a small room together, and it blew up. I didn't see them again in the dream, so I think they died. Throughout the dream, I discovered that it was not in fact (or as far as I knew) haunted, but that Loki (villain in the Thor movie series and Norse god of mischief), kept come and causing mischief for fun, and using a magic trick he has in the movies to turn into other people and just stir up trouble. Sending replicas of himself to cause trouble, he would disappear before anyone could catch him, except he was fond of me, so he would let just me get a glimpse of him, then would disappear so that I knew it was him behind it all. My family however, was freaked out since they thought it was legitimately haunted, so we left the cabin early, and right when I woke up, Loki was trying to keep us from leaving because he didn't want me to go."

Here's what my mentor had to say:
"Regarding your dream, it sounds to me like the dream itself is not significant but because you have had the same dream several times, I would say it is your emotions in the dream that are important. God often wants to show us things about areas he wants to heal in our emotions. For example if you constantly have emotions of fear or shame in a dream, then it is God saying that you have fear or shame in your life that you need to be freed from."

Coming Soon To A Blog Near You....

Hey!
So I'm not sure if anyone else knows or not, but 99% of the time, other people's dreams are really boring to listen to. I don't know if it's because you can't stand someone's voice drawling all the random, impossible details, them screwing up the details in their jumbled head and trying to fix it, or if it's simply because you can't visually enjoy the dream so there's no point in listening to it.
Either way, this entire project, I've tried to avoid making an actual dream post because I don't want to bore anyone!! However, I recently sent in a dream to my incredible mentor, and she read the whole thing (who knows how many times, bless her) and responded a very long, lovely response.
However, in connection to how I began this post, I'm still trying to find a way to make it some what entertaining (if it's already NOT entertaining enough for you), so I just wanted to share with the world who reads this that coming soon to a blog near you is a dream I had a few weeks ago....

If you want me to get a taste of my own medicine, feel free to leave a dream you've had before or recently in the comment section below...I could definitely use the comments. I feel like such an outcast on this blogger app (ok, maybe I'm being a tad dramatic). I don't know if dream projects are social suicide or if it's just me....lol.

Dreaming Of A White Christmas

Hello friends, and happy December!
I'm really excited about this month and what it has to offer me as I continue my quest to learn about the (sometimes) unknown world of dreams!
I have lots of things planned including, another theophostic prayer session, perhaps a look and breakdown of one of my own dreams, obviously the question(s) of the month and if I can squeeze in the time, a brief introduction to the curious topic of lucid dreaming!
So while I have no new information at the moment, I just to wanted to update that I am still working on things and have some great blog post ideas in the near or not-so near future. I'll try and continue to be faithful with my works cited page and I will attempt to be as informative as possible in my goals and outcomes page.
In the meantime, all I can do is encourage you from across the digital world to journal your dreams and use any books and tools from your local libraries to help figure out what your mind's up to.
Until next time...

WHAT DOES THE BIBLE SAY?

"Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone into the world." - 1 John 4:1

"Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward." - Hebrews 10:35

"As for these four youths, God gave them learning and skill in all literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams." - Daniel 1:17

"Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more." - Genesis 37:5

"For nothing will be impossible with God." - Luke 1:37

"For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it." - Job 33:14

The Bible suggests (from what I understand) that, 1. To understand dreams is a rare gift, 2. It's not always a popular gift, 3. Dreams are not always from God.
I spoke briefly about this before in October, how some dreams are from God and others from Satan. 1 John 4:1 relates and emphasizes that. Personally, I am still quite confused on how to decide which is from which, but I'll look into that more in the coming weeks...
Understanding dreams and visions is such a unique thing to have. You are decoding messages from God in your brain. Things He has sent you, things not everyone understands. The brain is so complex, and for me, doing theophostic prayer for example has really helped me to decode those thoughts from Him. He sends you messages in your thoughts, feelings and memories. Dreams are just the tip of the iceberg.
Also, understanding dreams are not always popular. Joseph could understand his dreams, and while that ended up getting him a high position in Egypt, being able to prophesy dreams from God was what first got him kicked out of his home at the beginning of his story.

THEOPHOSTIC PRAYER

Well, this past weekend concluded my first theophostic prayer session. And yes, I am still alive.
I met my mentor (her name is Betty) for the first time, as well as another woman, called Barb. The pair of them helped guide me through my first prayer appointment.
A few describing words about how it felt: Incredible, beautiful, amazing, strong, powerful, connecting. I have never ever, felt anything like this before. I learned some things about myself, and felt emotions that I had forgotten about. I smiled and cried throughout it, and I don't even remember some of the things that I said throughout the experience.
One of the things that I learned during my meeting was that it is more important to feel things than it is to figure everything out. I think that that is very relatable for everyone in our lives and in our day to day activities. I love trying to figure things out, it makes me feel smart and brave, but I didn't realize that in all those memories, I was thinking things and feeling emotions that are so very important, but I was too busy trying to figure out what was going to happen to me at the time, I didn't have time to sit there and pay attention to myself. I'm also the type of person of who loves to be in control of things (that's one of the reasons I personally feel so drawn to one of my other passions - writing stories). Reliving some of my worst memories that put me (so to speak) at the bottom of the totem pole, where I wasn't able to control what was happening to me...that was a part that put me in my place. While it's still okay to like being in control things, this helped teach me that ultimately, God is the One who controls things, not me.
During the prayer session, God speaks to you. I heard this from my friend who had been through it as well, and I can also speak out that He talked to me as well. Such a breathtaking experience, let me tell you. After the session was over, and I was reflecting on my time, I was so awestruck by how incredible it was to hear God speak, and put thoughts into my head. He loves me, and He wants the best for me. This was a beginning strand of my healing process, and I can't wait to do more.