Can one dream of their next life?

JohnG

For some time now, I have been dreaming of people and places I have never seen, or been to. Each is a different location, and I'm the one who is the center of the dream. So, is it possible to actually see the choices of my next life?

redcordial

Could be a dream of a past life? I would say that is more likely, but I don't know. Interesting question..

JohnG

The environment is modern; different locations, I don't know where the geographical locations are, but they are modern. And each time, I'm (hoping it's me ) I'm around early teens. Each is peacful though.

But, if these are choices, it means, I'm going to be making that dicision soon.

person

I think if you could see your future lives that would imply some level of predetermination and fate. These aren't part of Buddhist thinking, so I guess I would say no.

Thats not to say that it couldn't be some other form of clairvoyant vision, it could also be some subconscious wish for a new environment or something playing out in your dreams.

JohnG

Thank you Person; I'm sorry, some that there's some typos, I'm on a very used and abused pc. But, that insight of wishing for a new environment is a better understanding then the predermination.

zombiegirl

In my opinion, dreams exist to teach us lessons that are applicable to our current lives... be it... tackling an anxiety, playing out a curiosity, or whatever. Only you can decipher what the possible meaning is, but then again, you may already have?

JohnG

I was told once that the dreams are the opposite of what we are in life. If fearful in a dream, in the waking world it's the opposite. If lost, when awake, you're steadfast. Thankyou zombiegirl, it seems i must return to more meditation and vigilance to the signs in both the dreams, and the world when I'm awake.

Fenix

In my opinion, dreams exist to teach us lessons that are applicable to our current lives

I could'nt disagree more. pardon my crudness. I can't bare to imagine dreams as little home movies that have a purpose other than themselves. Dreaming is a consciousness like any other, namely, just like waking consciousness. Thus we have choice in dreams just as in life, but our unawarness most of the times prevents us.

True I believe our different state of consciousness sets us suspectible for premonitions etc. but they still are in there nature as real as waking life and not like say a book that warns you of this and that etc.

sorry If I'm getting out of line here or anything with this rant, I'm still practicing all this socializing and don't always realize when I am being hostile.

DairyLama

For some time now, I have been dreaming of people and places I have never seen, or been to. Each is a different location, and I'm the one who is the center of the dream.

Traditionally future destinations are said to be the result of actions in previous existences ( karma ). This means future lives are not fixed or predetermined, so it's hard to see how one could dream about them.
You could interpret your dreams as memories of previous lives, but it could just be your imagination working.

David

If they are visions of future lives then in my view each would be but a reflection in a hall of mirrors. The future is only what now may become depending on an interweaving of circumstance.

Cam

In my opinion, dreams exist to teach us lessons that are applicable to our current lives... be it... tackling an anxiety, playing out a curiosity, or whatever. Only you can decipher what the possible meaning is, but then again, you may already have?

There's quite a number of scientific theories on what the functional purpose of dreaming is, and this is actually one of them, and one I'm inclined to believe. Strong emotional states often give rise to emotionally-related dreams that in some way or another present a solution to whatever the problem is.

zombiegirl

In my opinion, dreams exist to teach us lessons that are applicable to our current lives

I could'nt disagree more. pardon my crudness. I can't bare to imagine dreams as little home movies that have a purpose other than themselves. Dreaming is a consciousness like any other, namely, just like waking consciousness. Thus we have choice in dreams just as in life, but our unawarness most of the times prevents us.

True I believe our different state of consciousness sets us suspectible for premonitions etc. but they still are in there nature as real as waking life and not like say a book that warns you of this and that etc.

sorry If I'm getting out of line here or anything with this rant, I'm still practicing all this socializing and don't always realize when I am being hostile.

I don't find you hostile. I watched a NOVA special one night that postulated the idea that dreams exist as a way for the mind to work out problems. It makes sense to me. I have found this true in my own life when I dream about things I am anxious about.

MATT WILSON: So the speculation is that during non-REM sleep, the brain is taking the past and trying to figure out how that might relate to the future, and in REM, actually trying to experience the future, move into the future.

NARRATOR: The dreams of REM, in other words, may be simulations, which allow us to face challenges and test possibilities.

ROBERT STICKGOLD: My sense is that when we're asleep and when we're dreaming, we are actually conscious and figuring out what's important about what happened to us and how that relates to everything else that's happened to us in the past and figuring out what that means about our future.

MATT WILSON: And when you think about the challenge that animals, that we as humans and the brain in general faces, it is the unknown of the future. And in REM, we may have the opportunity to step into that future world with no risk, because the consequences are simply things don't work out as you might have expected, and then you wake up.

So these states may be what are essential for allowing us, as individuals, to reach our maximal level of potential.

...

DEIRDRE BARRETT: Dreams have been responsible for two Nobel prizes, the invention of a couple of major drugs, other scientific discoveries, several important political events, and innumerable novels, films and works of visual art, so they've been very important in our society.

NARRATOR: Deirdre Barrett of Harvard explores the power of dreams to give us insights we might never otherwise have.

DEIRDRE BARRETT: We can see things much more clearly when we think about them in dreams, and it also helps us think outside the box. Our associations are looser and more intuitive and less linear.

The above quotes are from this transcript from the documentary if you're interested. No one's positive about anything, of course, but they did do a fair amount of testing the mind's abilities and states during REM/Non-REM sleep.

JohnG

Thank you all for the insite , And no I don't find any rants in these answers, if fact I find them all answers. My day (night since I work mids) job is a cop; so, I see both sides of an issue.

Preminitions, that's part of the job, and maybe that's what they are, but, the sites are vastly different then the job. I need to seek further in these I now see.

DairyLama

Thats not to say that it couldn't be some other form of clairvoyant vision....

In the suttas clairvoyance is described as one of 6 types of direct knowledge ( abhiñña ).
The others are: psychic powers, clairaudience, the ability to read the minds of others, recollection of past lives, and knowledge of the ending of the mental fermentations.

Fenix

@zombiegirl hey, I didn't see it that way before. I guess you could be right. amazing how something can be seen from different perspectives, thanks

DairyLama

My day (night since I work mids) job is a cop; so, I see both sides of an issue.

Do you think the dreams are directly related to your work?

Arthurbodhi

Just guessing, but why dreams need to limit to our world? Maybe you dream is about a past life in other world/universe.

Blessing.

Mountains

Nothing exists except this exact present moment. The future is a figment of your imagination.

JohnG

Thank you all, I'm getting more information then ever.

Purpois I'm going to start researching those suttas clairvoyance; maybe theres an answer in there somewhere. I, don't think it's in any refrence to my job; in these dreams, I'm not male, and not (at my age) so exuberant and free spirited. I did consider the idea of past life, since one dream was a depiction of the 80's. But, I was acitve Air Force then.

Arthurbodhi, thank you, now that could be an aswer.

Dakini

John: start keeping a dream diary. maybe someday you'll find yourself in those places.

JohnG

John: start keeping a dream diary. maybe someday you'll find yourself in those places.

I do. Sometimes I can get a glimpse of a street, or building; and then go on endlissly searching the internet for cities, towns, with those street names. I' m beginning to thik it's a cosmic conspiracy to drive me nuts. ::shifts eyes nervouly::

Amelia

For some time now, I have been dreaming of people and places I have never seen, or been to. Each is a different location, and I'm the one who is the center of the dream. So, is it possible to actually see the choices of my next life?

I have read, though I can't recall the source, that every face we see in a dream is the face of someone we have seen before-- i.e. strangers walking by on the street.

As for visions of a next life... since I myself have had dreams that literally predicted something, I wouldn't say it was impossible. However, it is not super likely.

JohnG

Thank you Amelia; well if it is a choice of a next reincarnation, either way it's going to be a fun life. :!

federica

I have read, though I can't recall the source, that every face we see in a dream is the face of someone we have seen before-- i.e. strangers walking by on the street.

Correct.....See fact 4 - but the remainder are interesting too.....

JohnG

I'm doing research for a story idea, and could this be the meaning of those dreams? The reseach is on 'walk in souls', the belief when a soul of a person is either too weak, or unable to continue it's course for perfection, so another soul takes it's place; one stronger to continue that persons mission.

So, could these people be a choice on who's life I'm suppose to help out? :rolleyes:

federica

Great quote:
you don't have a 'soul'.
You ARE a soul.
you 'have' a body.

The big problem is, with dreams - of any kind - night~time sleep dreams, nightmares, daydreams - is that we spend so much time ascertaining whether they have a meaning, what that meaning is, what its significance is, and what our mind is trying to tell us - that we forget to Be. Here. Now.

We do this all the time.
Ponder and regret the past, immersing ourselves so far into our memories we actually re-live the moment - and at times, try to change it to our liking....

At other times, we seek significance in other phenomena, like telepathy, or dreams, wondering if accessing the deeper meaning and skill of such functions, can be a key to the future, and reveal hitherto unknown mysteries about what will come -

and all this time, we're missing the best part, ever:

NOW.

jeez, people!

"Is this conducive to my practice, now?"


work it out.
It's not rocket science.

JohnG

sorry.

federica

no @JohnG, don't.....

Look.
Writing fiction is great.
Where would we be without fiction?
We need a little fiction to lighten the mood....I don't mind that - it's cool....hell, it keeps authors in business, and bookshops open....

But I'm talking about all they hypothetical, waste-of-time questions we sit cogitating, when we really could be doing something more constructive!

Why invent being 'better people'... when we actually CAN be??

JohnG

So true. It's just that this has been a non stop ...bugging, (to put it into any words) for me. I just can't let something go until I find a reason.

But so far I believe that, in this life, I'm learning that to be a leader one must listen to those under you; since I have to endure supervisors that don't. :nyah: