PSYCHIC DREAMS

Before we can discuss dreams, we must fully understand the nature of of their companion, sleep, without which dreaming would have no objective reality. If man were only a living organism, consisting of certain chemical combinations, without a nonphysical component called spirit or soul, he would rest for periods of time to recharge his batteries of energy. In that case, sleep would be simply the absence of consciousness and would result in a disconnection of all ongoing activities within the body. That is not the case: We know that certain vital functions continue during sleep, even if at reduced levels, and that sleep is by no means a total disconnection from activities, as in shutting off a machine. So the materialistic concept of man, as it was popular in the nineteenth century, is without validity, and his position in the universe is by no means similar to that of a manmade machine, but something far more complex.

The need for sleep arises from the expenditure of physical or mental energy. Either of these expenditures may induce fatigue, not an unnatural state but rather, the result of activity cycles and "built in" in the vehicle, that is, man. When the energy potential urns down, the human machine stops, and sleep result. After sleep has been completed, the human machine continues to function. During sleep the conscious mind rests temporarily, while the unconscious part of the mind continues to function. Vital activities of the bodily machine are carried on automatically to preserve the organism.

I have divided the dream material into four major categories:
1) Dreams due to physical problems resulting in nightmares or distorted imagery.
2) Dreams due to suppressed material and useful for psychoanalytical processes
3) Dreams of a psychic nature
4) Out-Of-Body Experiences (also referred to as 'astral projections')

Dreams caused by the physical pressure in no way relieve these pressures, nor do they contribute anything to the sleeper's well being, except perhaps to notify him of the existence of some disturbance in his body or environment.
Dreams of the second category, those due to suppressed material, are grist for the mills of psychoanalysts.
A psychic dream is a dream in which material from an external source or from an internal source not ordinarily active in the conscious state is received. This means that psychic dreams contain information from messages, warnings or other communications from individual entities outside the dreamer's consciousness, or they may contain material obtained through psychic abilities of the dreamer, abilities that he does not normally use in the waking state. This is the main body of the present work, a much neglected aspect of dreaming. All kinds of people have 'true dreams', that is, dreams that later come true. The ability spans every conceivable class of people. Sometimes paranormal dreams occur in spurts, an a person may have one, then none at all for several years thereafter, when the ability resumes again. Paranormal dreams are comparatively frequent in young children. This is not surprising since ESP seems to be prevalent between the ages of four and eight, after which it frequently disappears, only to resurface around the age of seventeen or eighteen. Sometimes paranormal dreams tune in on events in the distant future, sometimes into events only a few hours away. We have no element of warning, no particular gain from foreknowledge of the event, except in the nature of seeing a preview of a movie before the rest of the population has a chance to see it. At times, a psychic dream may not concern the dreamer at all, but pertain to other people. There is a category of psychic dreams that may more properly fit into a category of warning dreams, because they contain an element of forewarning, usually of disaster or tragedy, which might be averted...that is, if the proper person to whom the warning applied could be identified. Unfortunately, in these category of psychic dreams, the identity is not clearly given, so the connection cannot be made by the dreamer. As a result, the dream comes true as foreseen, leaving the dreamer feeling helpless and convinced that fate has been cruel in giving him this advance knowledge without allowing him to do something about it.

OBEs, we are speaking of projection into the astral world, what is projected seems to be the inner layer of the body, referred to as the astral or etheric body. By projecting it outward into the world outside the physical body, it is capable of a degree of freedom that it does not enjoy while encased in the physical body. As long as the person is alive in the physical world, the astral body remains attached to the physical counterpart by a thin connecting link called the 'silver cord'. OBEs can be classified into two main categories: the spontaneous cases, where it occurs without being induced in any way and is usually as a surprise, which happens sometimes during sleep; and experimental cases, where the state of dissociation is deliberately induced by various means. It stands to reason that the majority of OBEs occur during sleep, when the bonds between conscious and unconscious minds are relaxed. Occasionally, people have OBEs while fully awake, not only when resting or sitting down, but even while driving cars or walking.

**Excerpts taken from the book "Psychic" by Hans Holzer**