Sinning? In your dreams...

As far as I know, the "lusting in your heart" thing was equated only to adultery (by Jesus). The door to garden-variety fornication is pretty much wide open (dream-wise, anyway).

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Could be that as death approaches the measures being used to get your attention are becoming a little more urgent.You could try Larnis suggestion: that if you think about what it is you want to dream about before you go to sleep then you will dream about that. Seems there's a technique to it you could do a search on if you consider them healthy to avoid.

Of course. Or his own. "Sounds like". Just as well you hedged your bets. Seems science disagrees with you as much as I do. Larni posed the same notion and got this answer. You might have missed the post.http://EvC Forum: Sinning? In your dreams... -->EvC Forum: Sinning? In your dreams...{AbE} fixed linkEdited by iano, : clarifyEdited by iano, : fix linkEdited by iano, : No reason given.

I used to have a lot of those before I became a Christian. Usually right before falling to sleep rather than as a nightmare though. I'd be stuck on this high wall with a drop of hundreds of feet on all sides and could do nothing but cling to the perch. Haven't had that in years.

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Nothing in my hands I bring
Simply to thy cross I cling

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A different kind of clinging though. No terror involved

Usually it's some unidentifiable, futuristic structure. I'm walking along some beam. I fall, but never reach the bottom. I wake up.

So what are you suggesting about the meaning of this recurrent nightmare?Edited by robinrohan, : No reason given.

I used to have similar dreams long ago--before I became an agnostic leftist agitator and switched to a better brand of scotch.

No oozing of Christian theology there. I'd take a roundabout guess though if you like:Unidentifiable futuristic structure. Your a nihilst. You observe the structure all around you here in your life, but are not being able to discern purpose. The structure is there, but contains no information as to what is its function, role, purpose. Futuristic is the mechanism of keeping the purpose under wraps. When we see futuristic things we don't know exactly what they are at first.Walking across a beam. Life. Stretches out ahead (I presume no end of the beam is apparent). Narrow - one can fall off life at any time. And you do. The moment of falling off is your death.And you fall into... what precisely? You do not know (for you do not, in fact, know). But it is reckoned as a nightmare. Not nice. For what reason? Falling into the unknown might equally be nice as not nice: falling into bed, falling in love are nice things.Gods grace wakes you before you find out what it is you fall into. But he leaves sufficient (your considering it a nightmare) for you to get a sense of what lies ahead. The unknown will be unpleasant.Oh... and its recurrent."Behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in and dine with him and he with me."Repeat to fade...Lights out.Le FinEdited by iano, : No reason given.

But to repent means to consciously change your mind or actions and stop doing whatever you were doing. You can't control your dreams when in a deep sleep, can you? I can't. How can you repent from something you have no control over. I can see asking for forgiveness and asking for understanding of the message, but I don't feel a decision made in a dream is a "conscious" decision.

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"Peshat is what I say and derash is what you say." --Nehama Leibowitz

The way I see it is as follows:I used to do things and have no problem with them (that I was directly aware of). Say sleeping around before I was a Christian.Now I am positive that it is wrong. I don't sleep around now but have a look at the processEarly on the temptation to sleep with someone would arise and I would do it. Then I would wish that I didn't, see that it was crap and wish that I hadn't. I would repent of it and ask for forgiveness for it. Forgiveness was given.Then temptation to do it would come again. This time I know a bit more. My relationship has grown with him in the meantime and I understand and agree with why it is wrong. I also remember how I felt the last time. But I've had 4 pints, keep listening to the temptation and awake the next morning "Sheet!" Back to God (after I quit trying to hide but during which Satan piles on the guilt). Its guilt or face God. So face him I do. I repent and am forgivenThen it happens again, less easily this time but still it occurs. Now I'm actually getting a bit sick of it. I realize that usually I'm fine but if I have a skinful of beer then my resistance is lowered.So I quit putting myself in situations where sleeping around can occur. "Don't go out where there are pretty woman and have a skinful of beer"I have changed my mind - but he was the one who led me to it. Fair enough. But the way I see it is that I have arrived in the dream in a situation which I am well able to arrive at in real life. God knows my view on sleeping around now. But the above cycle is a progression out of sleeping around - it is unlikely that I would. But progression-out-of is not arrival-at. God may put me into this dream situation to teach and to test, to show what can still happen to me (lest I should boast in my own ability). My actions in not drinking 4 pints in the company of women works in that narrow framework - but the ability to yield to temptation is still there.Its good to be reminded of it from time to time - even if it means failing the test. Edited by iano, : No reason given.

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So I quit putting myself in situations where sleeping around can occur. "Don't go out where there are pretty woman and have a skinful of beer"

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So now you know not to put yourself into the situation that may result as your dream did.That's pretty much what I'm saying concerning being shown your weakness. You don't try to use willpower if the situation occurs, but you avoid (as you have done with your other weakness) putting yourself in the situations that could have the same result as your dream.Don't open the door to temptation. Now that you have an idea of what is a temptation to you, you can close the door.

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"Peshat is what I say and derash is what you say." --Nehama Leibowitz

Oh, I saw your reference all right. I wonder if you read it yourself?

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The first purpose of the present study was to examine the outcome of dream interpretation. We hypothesized that couples who received dream interpretation would increase more in open communication, empathy, relationship satisfaction, and insight into dream (in terms of themselves, their partner, and the relationship) than would couples who did not receive dream interpretation. Link

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Seems to me that the focus is on communication between partners by talking about an intimate subject (dreams). Or did I miss the part where they superimpose a lot of phoney-baloney symbolism on somebody else's dreams?

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The dream is a symbol of the descent into Hell?

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Maybe in the US. Not on this side of the pond. Here we had some on-deaths-door Roman Catholicism - which can hardly be described as Christian theology. Not sure what Larni was exposed to though

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Not steeped in Christianity?Tell me, does everyone on your side of the pond know about Christmas and Easter? Are many businesses, banks, and the government offices closed on Sundays and Christian religious holidays? How many churches are there in the UK and Europe, and how long have they been there? Are people confused when they see a man or woman wearing a white collar? Do people often point at someone's cross pendant necklace and say, "What's that"?