Dreams

I got into a discussion with myself the other day while driving. I was giving thought to what dreams might mean. Dreams can be so random, but seem so realistic at times. This discussion revolved around the possibility that dreams occur in a parallel universe or may even be a glimpse of a past life. I've heard discussions about parallel universes before but never really delved into it or given it serious thought. I don't have strong feelings either way as to whether it could be a real thing or not. But I thought it could be that because often dreams occur in the present time, but details are different. Like the dream that kinda triggered this discussion I had an infant son who had died, but he eventually magically came back to life. I felt that this was Sanai, but it was definitely a boy. I wondered if maybe in a parallel universe I had a son but it occurred in the present time. I don't know for certain if it was the present, so that opens the possibility of it being in a totally different time, and therefore could represent a past life. Now past lives I've heard a little more about and have heard numerous Near-Death Experience (NDE's) accounts and many have referred to past lives. I've also heard several stories of kids who remember details of a past life which were very interesting. I'm not 100% convinced of this being real, but I'm certainly open to this being a possibility. I find these things fascinating (especially NDE's) because the people who share their stories are so convicted and the similarities between the many different stories are so striking. Since I've never experienced anything like it myself, I don't know for sure what to really believe about them. I just take it all in with an open mind. Anyways, back to the dream discussion. Well, the thing about dreams is that they are often unrealistic, so it conflicts with what we know to be real, and therefore is easy to dismiss any real meaning behind them. But I often remind myself that we are so limited in our ability to comprehend things that what we know as unrealistic may be much realer than we can understand. One interesting thing that many NDE accounts relay is that they had a much higher level of understanding during their experience, but when they were back in their bodies it was all gone. This leads me to believe that what we know in this world is extremely limited, so there can be so much more to our existence than we know, including what we may think to be unrealistic. Another interesting thing is that the messages received during NDE's are so deliberate and personal that it makes me wonder if our dreams are deliberate. We don't create our dreams, so the question is "Who is directing our dream?" Are dreams really messages to us or just remnants of our own thoughts, ideas and experiences? Are dreams realer than what we know to be reality? Why do we wake up to a linear time, but our dreams are all over the place? How many dreams do we actually have during a night's sleep and why do we only remember a small portion or don't remember it at all? What is really happening when we sleep? There are so many questions pertaining to dreams and I feel like we'll never truly know what they are in this life. I never before connected dreams to the possibility of being a parallel experience or versions of past lives, but I think it's certainly possible. Well, this concludes random thoughts about dreams for now. Time to go dreamin'!!!!