Dreams have many purposes: a way to decompress and blow off mental steam, to reflect, to be silly, to connect us to something deeper.
Dreams have fascinated us since the dawn of time, with dream interpretations a staple in almost every time and culture. With some awareness our dreams can highlight unconscious patterns, wounds, anything that would otherwise be suppressed by the conscious mind.
In this post I want to talk about vivid dreams in particular. Dreams that seem to transport us to an otherworldly space; that is at times more ‘real’ than our physical reality.
I speak on this topic as someone who has been lucid dreaming since the age of about eleven, and who has developed a dream work practice over the last decade or so.
Why do we have vivid dreams?
I don’t think anyone including myself can give a definitive answer on why we have dreams or what they mean. So I want to approach this as an exploration rather than a fact-finding mission.
The more we work with our dreams; whether through dream interpretation, lucid dreaming or some other method, the more the layers are revealed.
From a scientific viewpoint dreams are relegated to the mind. They are something we construct in our brain during sleep in order to deconstruct our days and untangle more complex interpersonal issues.
I tend to pull from the spiritual perspective with some Jungian input sprinkled here and there. From the spiritual point of view, dreams are much more than expressions of the mind, but a way we connect to different levels of consciousness beyond just the physical.
This concept is tied to the practice of astral projection, also known as out of body experience, where our physical body can become ‘separated’ from our spiritual or energetic body. Many spiritual teachers assert that all dreams as in fact a form of astral projection.
I personally think dreams and astral projections differ, but there is a common thread between them.
So from a spiritual perspective, we have vivid dreams when more of our focus is directed towards the non-physical. When we come to know that we are more than the body and ego. Dreams, the unconscious mind and collective consciousness take up more of our focus.
Unresolved emotional wounds
One of the most obvious reasons for vivid dreams is that we have some unresolved emotional tension.
Dreams act as a canvas for the mind to splash paint on uninhibited, and so often our emotional wounds will manifest as vibrant scenarios mirroring this tension.
For years I had dreams of flooding that would get quite vivid. I wasn’t paying much attention to my dreams outside of lucid dreaming. I wasn’t seeing my dreams as something incredibly important, and instead playing around with them.
Once I started to see my dreams as intricately connected to my emotions, thoughts, feelings, it suddenly clicked that these flooding dreams were relevant to my waking life.
It was the need to run away from something (not just one thing) at all times, the anxiety, the rushing. These dreams were a clear message to slow down.
I sat with this insight and even though I couldn’t resolve the issue right away, I brought more peace to the situation. I haven’t had a flooding dream in years!
Increased spiritual awareness
Another reason we might be having vivid dreams is due to an increase in spiritual awareness. After a spiritual awakening it is common to experience incredibly vivid dreams alongside sleep disturbances.
This can happen for numerous reasons. During an awakening we become more self-aware; we understand why we are the way we are and how we arrived there. We can be brought deeper into the present, with trips down memory lane in order to integrate specific lessons.
Another reason spiritual awareness can lead to vivid dreams is due to how much more energy we are holding in the body. Any practice that increases prana or chi energy will increase the vibrancy of our dreams.
When we dream we inhabit the astral body, which is just another term for our non-physical body. The more energy this body has available, the livlier our astral adventures will be.
Messages from spirit
Vivid dreams can also serve as a message from spirit. This could be our higher self, intuition, spiritual guides, the Universe, God, whichever phrase you want to use.
All dreams have a unique quality to them, but these in particular stand out. When we have dreams from spirit our awareness tends to be very lucid in them (even if we do not practice lucid dreaming).
In one particular dream I distinctly felt I was being kept ‘awake’ by something higher. I was about to wake up and the visuals of the dream cut out, but I was very aware of where I was within the dreamscape and what dream characters were around. It was as if I had to be in the dream long enough to receive a specific message.
In dreams from spirit we might feel as if we are recalling a past life memory, gaining precognitive insight, connecting with a guide or angel, or just generally receiving a message.
Sometimes a recurring dream character will act as a guide, making their presence known.
How to have more vivid dreams
There are ways that we can increase the frequency of vivid dreams…if we wish.
I think it’s important to strike a balance here. Dreams are a very tricky level of consciousness. If we allow our ego to get too involved, the dreamworld will certainly show us what its made of. So proceed with care.
Lucid dreaming is the obvious way to have more vivid dreams. This involves performing ‘reality checks’ which are where you repeat an action such as counting your fingers or looking at the time regularly while awake with the question ‘Am I dreaming?’.
This habit follows over into the dream and when you perform these same actions there is usually a distortion (such as counting six or seven fingers or noticing you can’t read the time) that alerts you to your dreaming state. From there you can take some control over the dream environment and characters within it, with some conscious effort.
Keeping a dream journal is also an excellent way to get to know our dreams better, and to have richer experiences in them. After about a week of keeping a dream journal the first time around I had days filled with vivid dreams…to the point where I stopped journaling them altogether!
The more awareness we bring to our dreams the more frequently we’ll remember them and the more vibrant they become.
Over the years I have stopped practicing lucid dreaming at least deliberately. Sometimes I’ll have a dream where I realized I am dreaming, but they are few and far between. I want my dreams to run their own course these days.
However, I have noticed that during New & Full Moons, along with other powerful astrological events, my dreams will increase sharply in detail.
So it is worth paying extra attention at these times. Doing a New or Full Moon ritual will increase your chances of having a vivid dream, as you’ll already be soaking in and reflecting upon this lunar energy in your waking hours.
Do you have any vivd dream experiences to share?