Visions and Dreams

here is something I wrote for my religion class...

It is human nature to have dreams, to have visions. The interesting part about the two is that each respective individual interprets both, dreams and visions, differently. Questions have been asked about how closely related visions and dreams are with religion and what the concept of consciousness has to do with any of them.
The conscious is closely related to visions and dreams; in fact without a conscious, neither of the two can exist. What does it mean to be conscious? – Being conscious means being aware of and responding to one’s surroundings. How does consciousness relate to religion? Very simple - religion helps people change their consciousness. Before one encounter’s religion, one may be aware of its surroundings in regards to where they are and so forth, but may not be aware of the little things that surrounds them in every day life; not being aware of the little things allows one to miss important signs that are given, messages that are spoken and could possibly miss the significance of certain events. Without religion, one is not aware of what is really out there, that there is more to life than just one’s own life – the existence of a higher power, a divine power. Once one encounters this higher power, it will alter their conscious and change the way that person sees the world and the people within it. One will begin to see the good and evil of people and of the world.
Religion also alters the consciousness in a way that one will begin to notice certain events and the significance of those events. We will begin to come to the understanding that there are no such things as coincidences but that rather, this divine power, has His own plan and that all things happen for a reason, rather than out of coincidence. One will begin to be able to hear and speak to this divine power, and will be able to hear messages. Religion helps one notice the little things in life that would usually go unnoticed, and it alters one’s conscious in that sense that one is able to notice the little things in life. Religion alters the conscious so much that it is near impossible to not change – it is a transformation.

Psychological understandings of dreams can be applied to Biblical texts; one may ask how? Dreams are a series of thoughts, images and sensations occurring in a person’s mind during sleep, or unconsciousness. Even though one is basically unconscious while dreaming, subconsciously the mind is still aware of what is right and wrong as well as true and false. Dreams are related to the biblical text in terms that dreams are made up of visions and images that can give an individual a particular message. The bible gives all kinds of insight of visions and images and describes them in regards to what is wrong and right or true and false. In the bible there are people who have visions and share messages. The bible also stresses the importance of being aware (or conscious) of what is right and wrong and gives us an idea of what is true and false. Dreams, in essence, do the same thing in that regard.

Personal experiences can have a great impact of a person’s consciousness, especially if that experience came into close contact with death. One of the events I experienced has been perhaps one of the most significant events of my life to date. It changed me as a person, as well as my conscious and how I view everyday life.
It’s almost normal for any teenager to get his license, in fact it’s almost expected of them. Some are lucky and receive their first car from their parents while others just have to share the family car. I was one of the lucky ones who got his own car, however, that joy lasted no more than five days. The car wreck I was in left my car totaled, smashed but my body unharmed. In fact, the accident seemed as if it was in slow motion - coming out of a turn, hearing the screech of the tires, feeling the car fish-tail, seeing the embankment to finally seeing the hill – it was not until then that everything went into full speed. It was almost like a replay shown during a football game, where the first part of the play is in slow motion until the announcers hit the fast forward button to get the play over with. I do not remember the impact, did not feel the car turning up-side-down and I was definitely in another realm; mind, body and soul. It’s almost as if once I saw the hill, I passed out and woke up again an hour later, when really it was a matter of a couple of seconds. My consciousness was in such a funk that I casually unbuckled my seatbelt and crawled out of the car to then find myself looking at my car wondering where I was and what had just happened. The more I think about it, the more I realize that God had his hand on me throughout the whole event and that perhaps that encounter with God was so powerful that it put my consciousness in a completely different realm – one I have never been to before.
It was such a powerful experience that it altered my consciousness – and the interesting thing is that I in a way, consider this event a sort of religious experience because I do truly believe that God’s divine power touched me this day. The way I walked through life changed, I started to enjoy life more and began to enjoy the little things. The relationship with my family got stronger and the relationship with my friends got better. This event, my car accident, is my testimony that there is a higher power, that there is a God. I walked away without any scratches from an accident that I was not suppose to survive.

The consciousness is a very interesting part of the human brain – if someone’s consciousness is changed they are more than likely to change as a person. Their awareness of their surroundings increases dramatically, and their brain is more capable of separating reality from fiction. I have found myself thinking about the movie, The Matrix, throughout this entire paper trying to find a way to be able to relate it to this topic and then it finally hit me. This movie deals with the consciousness and is a perfect example – The matrix has two separate worlds to it, one being the normal everyday life and then there is the other world, known as the Matrix. The main character in the movie, Neo is unaware of the Matrix and is living a normal life as most “normal” humans would, and when he is approached by people from the Matrix he simply shrugs of the idea of there being another world out there until he ends up getting caught by agents. However, the more those from the Matrix contact him the more interested he gets until he finally gives in and enters the Matrix and becomes a part of that world. Of course, this is a little extreme and hard to believe that there is another “computer-based” world somewhere way ahead of us in the future (though the idea is not far fetched given the rapid advancement of technology), but this experience Neo has can be related to religion. Clearly, Neo has an experience that alters his consciousness dramatically to the point where he can only believe that there is another world and that he is much more than just a little spectrum in such a “small” world.
Now, how can this be related? It’s very simple – every day, people go through their lives with the same routines – Monday through Friday, work 9-5; wake up at a given time, make coffee, get ready, go to work; then come back home, make dinner, relax, go to bed just to wake up and repeat that exact same routine the following day until the weekend comes around. The weekend is probably the only time where one does not have a routine. People go through these life routines and do not realize that there is something else out there, something far greater than any of us – humans – something that has a divine power and one does not become aware of that until that person has an experience that alters their consciousness so drastically, that they have no other choice but to completely change the person they have been. Religion can have that affect on anyone, no one is exempt from something like that – whether someone has a near death experience, an outer body experience, hears a message, witnesses a miracle or just has a simple vision or a dream – all of these can alter one’s consciousness, and change the person they are.
Personally, I believe that having lived in different places of the world and having lived in multiple cultures, my consciousness had been altered in the simple fact that I am aware of what is out there in the world. There are so many Americans who live such a sheltered life and believe that there is nothing else outside of the United States, but knowing that there is and being aware of the different cultures and how they work and the way they live their lives, makes me more aware of the little things in life – and being aware of the little things in life helps me to believe in something as Religion even easier, because I do not ignore simple messages or visions. Instead of focusing just on the “big picture”, I find myself scoping out the small things that make up the “big picture”. Instead of trying to create the puzzle in one splash, I focus on the little pieces and try to find ways as to how it all can fit together - I do the same thing with life.
Having a different worldview than most of my peers, that alone makes me more aware of everyday life, which helps me notice the little things in our lives, and by noticing the little things I can see religion, and see that there is a divine power - God and his son Jesus – and by knowing that religion is real and the affect it has, it in essence alters my consciousness which leads back to why I have a different worldview, and why I notice the little things and why I am aware of this divine power. It’s like a circle of life almost; worldview->awareness->divine power->consciousness->worldview->awareness->divine power and so on. This is how everything relates to me – everything is intertwined with one another. One cannot exist without the other.
Dreams and Visions. Religion and Consciousness. Religion and Visions. Dreams and Consciousness. Consciousness and Visions. Dreams and Religions. They are all interrelated with on another and they all have the same effect on an individual – they alter who that person is and shape that person into who he/she will become.