Para-Dreaming; an Interesting Concept

So what is the definition of ‘para-dreaming’? The root word ‘para’, derived from the Greek language meaning ‘near, alongside, beyond, beside and abnormal’. In the context of this article, para-dreaming is ‘b dreaming’ or dreaming in the beyond.

Dream study is not a new concept; in fact dreams have been studied and pondered over for centuries. To date, dreaming is still a very complex subject, no one really having a complete formula created to read their messages and meanings. Para-dreaming introduces more complexity as the theory around it involves interaction with inter-dimensional beings. There is very little information available on the web around para-dreaming.

Lucid dreaming comes close, however in lucid dreaming the dreamer has more control over their experiences and the encounters with other beings by the dreamer are considered a creation of their imagination. According to the Lucidity Institute, lucid dreaming is ‘dreaming while knowing that you are dreaming’. Lucid meaning mental clarity; “Lucidity usually begins in the midst of a dream when the dreamer realizes that the experience is not occurring in physical reality, but is a dream. Often this realization is triggered by the dreamer noticing some impossible or unlikely occurrence in the dream, such as flying or meeting the deceased”. The similarities between lucid dreaming and para-dreaming are the extraordinary encounters and experiences of the dreamer. The difference is how these encounters are interpreted as those who study para-dreaming believe that flying or meeting with the deceased is not impossible nor is it part of a dreamer’s imagination.

In para-dreaming experiences with the deceased or encounters with beings that do not fit the description of human are a blending of dimensions. Para-dreamers believe that when sleeping, the Soul leaves the body and travels to other dimensions or to other eras either in the past or future. This is considered normal by para-dreaming experts as they feel that humans are multi-dimensional beings and it makes perfect sense that they would have interactions beyond this dimension. Sleep would be the most likely time to do this travel as the conscious or ‘working’ mind cannot or will not accept the idea of multi-dimensional beings let alone travel.

So what would be the reason for these para-dreaming encounters with other dimensions? Para-dreamers believe that humans learn new concepts about their world and themselves through these experiences. Other dimensional beings are not considered unusual to the Soul and there are Guides of many shapes and sizes that can offer wisdom useful to the human’s life on Earth. Earth is considered a school or learning dimension by para-dreamers and these beings are there as instructors or mentors. Additionally, para-dreamers believe that human Souls are also working in some capacity on other dimensional planes during sleep which the dreamer may or may not remember upon waking.

Author, Meredith Smith, a dream intuitive and dream guide discusses the idea of human Souls working as guides or in other capacities while the body sleeps. In her book; ‘Dreamworkers Beyond the Veil; Night shift Dreams’ she talks about the many different roles played by human Souls on the various dimensional planes while the body is in sleep mode. In her book, Meredith describes the ways her Soul operates on another dimension as she has a gift of being able to be lucid during her dreams. She also describes similar experiences by other dreamers which is indicative of the various roles Souls can play. While some dreamers would not remember these experiences they may wake up tired, feeling as though they did not sleep at all while knowing they slept an entire night.

In what capacities do human Souls work in other dimensions? According to Meredith these roles can be very diverse. Some may work assisting other Souls to cross over after death. One example of this is the woman, ‘Jane’, who during a dream was walking on a street through a thinly veiled mist toward a car accident. She walked up to one of the cars that was over-turned and took the hand of a young woman trapped beneath the car. Jane told the young woman to come with her and when she said that the woman followed her but there is where the dream went to another scene. Some human Souls work in the area of energetic medicine or as messengers for their fellow Souls on Earth.

Para-dreaming researchers feel that many discoveries made by humans on Earth are a direct result of their experiences during their dreamtime travels or during other lifetimes in more advanced dimensions. One example is German physiologist, Otto Loewi, who won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1936. His study on the chemical transmission of nerve impulses was inspired by a dream he had:

"The night before Easter Sunday of that year I awoke, turned on the light, and jotted down a few notes on a tiny slip of paper. Then I fell asleep again. It occurred to me at 6 o'clock in the morning that during the night I had written down something most important, but I was unable to decipher the scrawl. The next night, at 3 o'clock, the idea returned. It was the design of an experiment to determine whether or not the hypothesis of chemical transmission that I had uttered 17 years ago was correct. I got up immediately, went to the laboratory, and performed a single experiment on a frog's heart according to the nocturnal design."

Another example of discoveries made as a result of dreamtime encounters is mathematical genius, Srinivasa Ramanujan. His work provided contributions to the analytical theory of numbers which worked on elliptical functions, continued fractions and infinite series. In his dream he learned from the Hindu Goddess, Namakkal, who would appear in his dreams and present mathematical formulae that he would work out and verify upon waking.

Another aspect of para-dreaming exploration is messages from other dimensions around future events.

President Abraham Lincoln is reported to have dreamed of his death. According to some historical reports he relayed his dream to his wife a few days before his assassination. He believed that his dreams held great power and often recited a poem by Lord Byron. (see article conclusion)

While dream premonitions like Lincoln’s can be disturbing, maybe they are messages from other dimensions that there is life afterward and to alleviate the fear of the dreamer. One such dream was reported by a little girl who died when a mountain of coal waste thundered through her village of Aberfan in 1966 destroying many homes and a school killing 144 people. She told her mother she was not afraid to die because she would be with her friends. She told her that she dreamed that she went to school and there was no school there because something black had come down all over it. Interestingly the friends she named to her mother also died.

Not all dream premonitions come true of course, many people have dreams about loved ones dying or becoming injured that never come true. That is one of the mysteries of dreams. Why some are a premonition message while others may be messages of a different sort; it begs the dreamer to look for the hidden messages being relayed to them from the great beyond.

An example of a premonition dream that did not necessarily portend danger was a woman who dreamed that her son committed suicide. While this dream was obviously disturbing, she remembered something her son said in the dream over and over again about going to the other side after his death. ‘I was in a dark place and the only way out was that I said several times – I am being judged and persecuted – then someone came and helped me out into a better place’. After the woman was able to relax through the fear, she realized that the dream’s message was for her. She was experiencing difficulty in her life and all the themes around these difficulties carried the same thought – I am being judged and persecuted. Once she was able to acknowledge this and work to clear it from her subconscious, she was in a better place. Hidden messages in a dream most likely need to be delivered in a way that the dreamer will remember. Perhaps she would not have remembered the message if the dream was the usual disjointed and mundane dream. Why was this message delivered by her son? Perhaps on another dimension, he serves as a guide or mentor for her.

Para-dreaming embraces the idea of an incarnated Soul’s multi-dimensional natures. Again, working during the dreamtime can include as Guides and Messengers for others on Earth. On Earth in third dimension thinking, a son cannot be a guide to a parent but in para-dreaming this is not an unusual case at all. The thought being that multi-dimensional means roles will be completely different. Perhaps someone who is homeless and destitute here can be a very enlightened messenger in the beyond assisting humanity.

Animals can also serve as guides and messengers in dreams, people have reported dreaming of their animals speaking to them in dreams and delivering important messages. According to Val Heart, animal communicator, our animals may be angels or master teachers in disguise. On her site she talks about her communication with animals and their loving connections with their owners. If someone sees their pet in a dream, they may not be surprised or even remember the dream, however if the pet speaks with them it would most likely be remembered and the message sent effectively. Animals, although existing in the third dimensional existence, are members of their own dimension within the human dimension. This is evidenced by their natures and how they communicate amongst each other and with humans. This may be easier to accept because they are in a dimension we can see but it does allow for the idea of other unseen dimensions working in our dimension as well.

There are certainly mainstream messages we can learn from dreams, in fact they can be a very important tool for our own self-discovery. There are plenty of studies available to suggest that dreaming is also a way for the subconscious to work out daily problems and create fresh ideas for the future.

Both Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud were supporters of dream analysis as part of their therapies. Both believed that dreams were a way to interact and communicate with the unconscious although Dr. Jung did not believe the subconscious was as animalistic and instinctual as Freud did.

Dreams can also be a reflection of fears, distractions, and other issues that may be creating disharmony in the dreamer's life. There are plenty of books ondream interpretations that show how the subconscious communicates in images. Perhaps if someone dreams of climbing a Mountain and at the moment of feeling as though they can't go on, suddenly they are in a valley. This dream could easily be interpreted as reminding the dreamer that life has mountains and valleys so if they are currently 'climbing a mountain', hold on...the valley is soon to come.

While the para-dreaming concept is not necessarily new, the definition and term may be a way to separate this concept from more one dimensional thinking and studies on dreams. Most dream analysis from a scientific standpoint has been focused on the conscious and subconscious minds. This may be a bit too limiting in some of the cases discussed in this article. There seems to be so much more involved that is currently being considered and more information is becoming available to us.

Lord Byron’s poem suggests that this concept has been around for centuries, discussed in fiction literature and poems where it was safe to give it voice. Here is a sample of his poem written in 1816:

Our life is twofold; Sleep hath its own world,
A boundary between the things misnamed
Death and existence: Sleep hath its own world,
And a wide realm of wild reality,
And dreams in their development have breath,
And tears, and tortures, and the touch of joy;
They leave a weight upon our waking thoughts,
They take a weight from off waking toils,
They do divide our being; they become
A portion of ourselves as of our time,
And look like heralds of eternity;
They pass like spirits of the past -they speak
Like sibyls of the future; they have power -
The tyranny of pleasure and of pain;
They make us what we were not -what they will,
And shake us with the vision that's gone by,
The dread of vanished shadows -Are they so?
Is not the past all shadow? -What are they?
Creations of the mind? -The mind can make
Substances, and people planets of its own
With beings brighter than have been, and give
A breath to forms which can outlive all flesh.
I would recall a vision which I dreamed
Perchance in sleep -for in itself a thought,
A slumbering thought, is capable of years,
And curdles a long life into one hour....

A change came o'er the spirit of my dream.
The Wanderer was alone as heretofore,
The beings which surrounded him were gone,
Or were at war with him; he was a mark
For blight and desolation, compassed round
With Hatred and Contention; Pain was mixed
In all which was served up to him, until,
Like to the Pontic monarch of old days,
He fed on poisons, and they had no power,
But were a kind of nutrient; he lived
Through that which had been death to many men,
And made him friends of mountains; with the stars
And the quick Spirit of the Universe
He held his dialogues: and they did teach
To him the magic of their mysteries;
To him the book of Night was opened wide,
And voices from the deep abyss revealed
A marvel and a secret. -Be it so.