If you are a spiritually-minded person who finds yourself drawn to the allure of lucid dreaming you may be wondering what its connection is to spirit and spirituality. Here I will explore this topic in-depth.
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Are Lucid dreams spiritual?
With so much talk in “spiritual” (“metaphysical” would be a more accurate term to use) communities about using lucid dreams, especially for shifting or reality creation purposes, many people wonder if lucid dreams are in some way spiritual in nature or origin.
Lucid dreams are not spiritual in nature or origin. A lucid is just a normal dream in which you are fully conscious.
Lucid dreams have normal physical causes that can be measured and do not have a spiritual cause. Lucid dreams have no spiritual meaning either.
With proper training you can control a lucid dream and give it your own meaning.
Let’s look at the proof that exists for the non-spiritual nature of lucid dreams.
We will investigate their causes and origins to see if it is spiritual in nature and delve into to their overall meaning to see if that has a spiritual leaning.
The non-spiritual causes of lucid dreams
Lucid dreams not some mystical, or even elusive metaphysical, phenomenon.
They have completely normal and mundane causes that lie in the brain and the state of consciousness of the dreamer.
Lucid dreams are not spiritually guided dreams nor are they caused by anything of a spiritual nature.
Specific brain functions which are commonly at play during the waking day merely get activated while you sleep causing you to become conscious, or wake up, within the dream.
When you wake within a dream everything around you appears to be real and feels real but it is still just a dream.
What’s more the origin of a lucid dream is the same as any other regular dream. There is nothing strange or unusual occurring to create the dreamworld in a lucid dream.
The same mental functions that create unconscious dreams are used to create lucid dreams. This therefore demonstrates that a lucid dream has no spiritual origin.
The dream remains the same, it is your state of consciousness that changes and that is not spiritual in nature either.
When you become conscious in a dream, and the dream turns into a lucid dream, brain activity that is usually dormant in sleep but that is active when awake is activated. Hence you wake up within the dream.
It is not mystical or spiritual, it is scientific and mundane.
So in a regular dream you are unconscious and dreaming.
In a lucid dream you are conscious and dreaming. The only difference is your state of conscious awareness.
The dreams are not any more or any less spiritual from one and other.
Because everyone can be trained to lucid dream, and can also be trained to control their lucid dreams, this also shows that these type of conscious dreams do not have a spiritual origin but a physical one.
Having said that, there are cases of very vivid dreams, and even lucid dreams, in the Bible.
However, these dreams were used by God for very specific purposes and differed from the type of lucid dreams you can experience in some fundamental ways.
If you want to know how these particular dreams differ from regular lucid dreams you should read my article, Is Lucid Dreaming Biblical.
The non-spiritual meaning of lucid dreams
Although most lucid dreams are uncontrolled (see this article) there are people who can take full control over their lucid dreams and do anything they want in them.
These are known as controlled lucid dreams and they are the most popularly talked about type of lucid dreams. When people mention lucid dreaming they are almost always referring to controlled lucid dreaming.
If you wish to know more about the difference between these two types of lucid dreams read this article.
For the rest of this article when I talk about lucid dreaming I am referring to controlled lucid dreaming.
Obviously, if you can control and direct a lucid dream this means that the lucid dream has no spiritual meaning.
How do I know this?
Well, let me ask you this – how could a lucid dream have a spiritual meaning when you can give it any meaning you want?
When you can direct the dream in any way you desire then there is no chance that any meaning can be given to you, or even seen by you, because you are controlling the entire dream narrative.
For example, because you can go anywhere you want in a lucid dream, and then do whatever it is that you want to do while you are there, this eliminates:
1. The chance that a lucid dream could be giving you spiritual cues about where you should be in your life.
2. The possibility that you are being spiritually guided within a lucid dream to follow a specific direction.
These are the two typical messages people claim they receive from dreams of a spiritual nature. They are both missing from the lucid dream experience.
So, we can safely say that lucid dreams have no spiritual origin nor have they any particular spiritual meaning. They have the same structure and origin as normal dreams.
Although there are lots of instances of vivid dreams in the Bible modern day lucid dreams do not mean anything from a spiritual perspective. However, your actions within a lucid dream can have spiritual implications.
But, what about the spiritual implications of lucid dreaming … does lucid dreaming have meaning for your spiritual development or devolvement?
The Potential Spiritual Implications Of Lucid Dreaming
Although lucid dreams have no real spiritual meaning or cause, they can have implications spiritually.
These implications can be both negative and positive.
There are both spiritual pitfalls and opportunities for spiritual growth. It all depends on how you use your lucid dreams.
Let’s first delve into the spiritual pitfalls of lucid dreaming before we investigate how they can also be used to help you spiritually.
The possible spiritual pitfalls of lucid dreaming
Lucid dreams may be no more unusual in their origin and structure than a normal regular dream but they can have a profound and dangerous effect on you spiritually?
Lucid dreaming itself is neither good nor bad.
However, just as you can take actions that are deemed bad in the everyday waking world, you can also do things that are deemed bad in the dreamworld.
When you do this unconsciously in a normal regular dream you cannot be blamed for your actions. But when you do them consciously in a lucid dream you are willfully taking those actions.
Lucid dreaming may not be a sin in and of itself but that does not mean you cannot commit sin within a lucid dream.
Jesus Christ told us on many occasions that thinking about committing sin is just as bad as committing the sin, even if we never take action on the thought.
So, if thinking about committing a sin is just as bad as actually committing the sin how much worse is it to commit the sin in a lucid dream?!
You see when you experience a lucid dream it feels very real, lucid dreams are like real life in many ways.
This is why one of the major draws behind the desire to learn how to lucid dream is fantasy fulfilment.
Being able to do whatever you want, with whomever you want, in any place you want to do it in, all without anyone else ever knowing about it can open up immense possibilities for committing sin.
Just remember, although no-one else may see you commit sin in your lucid dreams, God sees all. You cannot escape the eyes of The Lord.
Now, this is not to say that lucid dreaming is evil or in any way satanic or negative.
Lucid dreams are just dreams.
It is how you use them that can lead you to trouble spiritually.
Use your lucid dreams to commit sin and you will reap the reward. Don’t commit sin in your lucid dreams and you will be fine.
This is such an important topic that I wrote a separate article on it which you can read here.
How lucid dreaming can help you spiritually
It’s not all bad news or doom and gloom though.
Just as you can take actions in a lucid dream that will condemn you, in the same way they would had you taken those actions in the real world, the flip side is also true.
Just as you can take positive spiritually healthy actions in the real world, which promote a closer connection to God, so too can you do that in lucid dreams as well.
Likewise, you can use your lucid dreams to help you better connect to your spiritual beliefs and gain a deeper understanding of your religious prophets.
You can even meet important people from your religion in your lucid dreams, even if they have been dead for centuries.
Lucid dreams are powerful tools for self-improvement on many levels.
You can use your lucid dreams to help you improve yourself physically, mentally and spiritually.
Just as you can improve your studies, enhance your physical skills and even program yourself for goal-achievement through your lucid dreams, you can also use them to help you spiritually.
Imagine being able to go back in time so you can converse with historical religious figures and spiritual teachers!
Can you think of ways you could gain deeper understanding of the religious and spiritual texts that you hold dear?
By talking with the authors of those texts r having conversations with learned academics who spent a lifetime studying them, within a lucid dream, you can gain much better perspective on their meanings.
Of course you won’t be actually time travelling, nor will you be conversing with the great masters of the past or leading academics of the present.
You will though be directly communicating with your subconscious mind that knows more than you can possibly imagine. And it doesn’t end there.
You can, for example, read obscure ancient texts (even if they have been translated into your own language) and in a lucid dream meet with a spiritual teacher and ask them for a deeper understanding of the meaning of that text.
Likewise, you can investigate your life to see how your previous and current actions have affected you spiritually. You can even view the potential after-effects of mere contemplated actions to see their impact in the future.
Thus, you can use these insights to improve as a person or to view your potential future if you stay on your current path.
This can allow you to see what spiritual impact your actions will have on your future self and on others.
The bottom line is that lucid dreaming offers many, many benefits, that far outweigh any potential drawbacks.
It can be used for expansion and improvement in all areas of life and that includes your spirituality.
If you are concerned about the potential spiritual pitfalls that lucid dreaming has, just avoid doing things in a lucid dream that you would consider wrong if you did them in the real world and you will be fine.
Lucid dreaming can have tremendous positive implications spiritually when you use it right.
So, what are you waiting for? Check out this amazing lucid dreaming course that teaches you how to induce lucid dreams on demand and also how to totally and completely control them.