Dear Ms. Holland:

I enjoyed reading your article about dreams and their connection with the various 
religions so much that I added a link to it on my spiritual growth page at 
http://home.attbi.com/~charles.beaver/spirit.htm . 

I thought that it would be constructive for me to add something to it. This 
isn’t a criticism of you or your writing. I just thought that no article about 
dreams would be complete, in regards to its connection to religions without first 
mentioning the religion that most favors the knowledge that comes from dreams.
That religion would be Eckankar (http://www.eckankar.org/). They not only believe 
the most in dreams; but they also believe that the waking world is also a dream no 
more or less real than the one at night.

When one talks about the primary meanings of dreams, 2 main purposes come to mind for 
me. One is that the body, also known as the sub-conscious mind, is like a computer. It 
takes in all programming given to it, during the normal waking world, without question. 
Much of this information is of a negative nature. So, at night these subconscious negative 
inputs are released like a safety valve. My belief in this comes from the understanding 
that one gains from reflecting daily on one’s dreams. One can easily see that they are 
typically relating to one’s views of the world or the self. Dream researchers might say
that one is dreaming about what is going on in one’s life currently. That would be a 
correct interpretation; and fits with my theory above. 

The second main purpose of dreams, both waking and sleeping, has to do with the divine 
messages that you write about. In essence, this second purpose is really just an extension, 
part of, but not necessarily separate from the first purpose. That purpose, which happens 
in the waking dream that Eckists understand occurs frequently in one’s daily waking life 
(specifically called a waking dream) is the divine SELF, or aspect of the Creator that is 
you, giving you a reflection of your views of either the world or of your self; your 
conditions, or belief as to the nature of your condition. 

So, these 2 purposes are really one single purpose with 2 aspects to it. First a release 
of one’s negative beliefs, AND, a chance to see what those views are in order to reflect 
and possibly make changes to one’s false beliefs about the self; which is really the SELF. 

Sincerely;

Mike Beaver CCNA, MCP, Network +
Euless, Texas
817-798-2061 
charles.beaver@attbi.com
http://home.attbi.com/~charles.beaver/chron-bul-res2.doc
http://home.attbi.com/~charles.beaver