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...

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...

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.

Mind-blowing

The brain named itself. Whoa.