Dreams and Dream Visions

A dream is defined as a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep; a state of mind in which someone is or seems to be unaware of their immediate surroundings; a cherished aspiration, ambition, or ideal; an unrealistic or self-deluding fantasy; a person or thing perceived as wonderful or perfect.

Your mind works around the clock, even when you sleep. Some dreams are no more than the residual mental impressions created as your mental software "defragments" the hard drive of your brain chemically each night. Psychologically you dream some dreams in an attempt to resolve cognitive dissonance and mental/emotional conflicts, or to advise your waking mind on how to deal with some issue in your life.

Other dreams are classed as soul experiences. Some you may receive as answers to prayer and so on. The symbols in your dreams may be universal, but their meaning, to you, is personal when you dream them. Therefore, "one size fits all" does not apply to dream symbols. Ask "What does this mean to me? What does it remind me of?" Then listen to your answer to yourself.

– Linda Mihalic, Via Christa site editor

Edna Lister on Dreams and Dream Visions

The study of dreams is an aid in unfolding your personal limitations. – Edna Lister, January 13, 1933

You returned with a dream that you had attended a great formal social gathering in your nightgown. This is your subconscious telling you that you were not protected with enough Light while traveling at night. Keep your intrusions of self cleaned up now. You can do the rest on your own, just a little here and there to clean out the remnants. – Edna Lister, August 1, 1945.

When you dream that you have died, pride has died. – Edna Lister, August 11, 1945.

(I told Edna Miriam a dream of a shaft-like room with barn walls. Woke sleepy-eyed with fire coming up from four walls, with no escape down, only up! She explained the dream.)

This is the appetitive soul being revealed. The subconscious must be lifted and the appetitive soul wants it lifted. Your misuse of Law in the past created a subconscious blockage, and it wants it cleaned out. The subconscious mind presented you with nothing more than a past memory impression and uncleaned mess. Live up in the Light. You were shown in the dream how far you had fallen, in the shaft with no place to go but up. And it took a long time to come up, from winter until May. – Edna Lister, April 22, 1947.

A pearl is built by an oyster's soul substance. When you are hurt, surround the wound with the love of God and the Master will ascend your soul pearl. Dreaming of pearls symbolizes soul substance wrapped around grief, resentment, etc.; Light makes it into a beautiful pearl. – Edna Lister, May 18, 1947.

The following is taken from the book [Welcome My Son] I am working on now. The thoughts are those of the mother in her diary – she states her condition in going to the Children's Realm where she is taken in her so-called 'dreams.' I thought you would appreciate the 'method' of going over, for it is about the best description I have evolved to date.

"Because of my long, loving thoughts about you and your father, I drifted off to sleep with you uppermost in my mind. As I lay waiting for my eyes to close, that same deep sense of peaceful, all-pervading joy seemed to permeate my consciousness, and I recognized it as the same feeling with which I had approached the dream state before. The waters of my mind were motionless and clear, with no conscious thought disturbing them. No emotional waves caused even a ripple on the mirror-like surface of my mind. I had done nothing to force it because I know nothing of how to achieve such a state of consciousness. I just lay there quietly and it happened to me. It was as if something that lay dormant within my soul awakened in the depths of me, expanded until it filled all that I am, then absorbed and lifted me into this new dream-dimension of life.

"As this feeling swept over me and began to consume the old daytime me, I found myself lightly wondering – not hard enough to disturb this absorbing process – if I could remember how it worked this time, so that I could go back again whenever I liked. Or would it be left behind with the dream-state and forgotten when I fully awakened again?" – Edna Lister, October 30, 1947.

When you dream of another, consider what that person represents to you in your life. Your subconscious is projecting into your conscious mind something that you are doing or failing to do in your waking life. – Edna Lister, December 12, 1949.

Your dreams will be of self until you have thoroughly cleansed your subconscious mind. Every dream-individual stands for a certain quality. If even a suspicion of that quality exists in your mind, the subconscious will work to free you of it. For example, black water symbolizes past soul debts approaching. To dream of being in a sailboat symbolizes a problem where you must stand alone on faith. With many dreams you don't know you are finished with lifting or cleansing some issue until you dream you are finished. A soul who seldom dreams will definitely know his place on the path and what he is fighting under the surface. – Edna Lister, March 27, 1950.

People dream about serpents when they begin raising the creative fire. At first, the serpent represents raising crystallized past darkness that is coming to life. If the serpent is quiet, the darkness is merely being shown to them. If it is active, the darkness is coming out. If a snake bites in a dream, darkness is still active in the subconscious. In the best dream of a serpent, it is Light and upright on its tail. – Edna Lister, November 30, 1953.

You are leaving the phase of just ordinary dreams. Your dreams are now soul visions. Lift everything of the past. Lift harder. Ascend into the place where the soul flights will become spiritual seeing and hearing rather than in the appetitive soul's subconscious dream life. Bring everything of the past, present and future up higher, and such vision will be given to you, otherwise it would be just to keep lifting. – Edna Lister, December 9, 1953.

Animals you dream of are symbols of subconscious appetitive soul qualities or characteristics. Wild animals need conquering. Tame animals are ready to be used for good. Rats symbolize treachery and old negativity. You can dream about someone who is trying to teach you something dark. Beware: it is a symbol of your dweller on the threshold of consciousness. – Edna Lister, November 1, 1954.

Some souls have lovely dreams that make up for the hardness of the rest of their life. – Edna Lister, November 26, 1956.

Some have dreams they are unable to recall. When you remember what you have dreamed, you will eventually know what you do at night. When you don't, you have erected barriers of self or have ascended past the point where you require such input; then you will experience waking visions. – Edna Lister, December 10, 1956.

Water usually has some spiritual meaning in dreams. Sparkling water represents the Holy Ghost, and muddy water symbolizes confusion. Waves are a warning to know that some situation is coming. Gentle, rolling waves mean that you are in it but doing it the hard way. If you see a boat, you know you will be taken across to safety. – Edna Lister, March 7, 1957.

The roots of self are buried deeply. Roots are facts you have buried, and you need to resurrect them. To dream about death always implies resurrection. If something buried in the subconscious is brought to light, then you can choose to begin a new way of life from that point. If you have killed some memory and buried it in the subconscious, a dream of death is the sign that it smells and you must resurrect it. If you dream that you have killed an animal or a person, you could have hurt a friend. Place him on a cloud continent of Light and fill him with Light. – Edna Lister, December 19, 1957.

You are born with a threefold consciousness. When your subconscious is out of order, it is working against you. Pounce on it and bring it in line. The subconscious, conscious and super-conscious phases of mind will then agree. This is the true meaning of "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." – Matthew 18:20. If you are unconscious, you find yourself going in three directions at one time.

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." – Philippians 2:5. Go up and let the Christ mind move in as a guest from above. In your dream world you mess around like children who do a thing they like repeatedly. Ascend, pour Light on the dream and you will be able to analyze it easily, but do not go to extremes or dwell on it. When you ascend in consciousness, you won't have dreams messing around in your subconscious mind. Take advantage of the Light and glory that is coming through now. Your creations will do so much more good in the world than the illusions you created before.

Your subconscious uses your dreams to get rid of confusion because it wants more Light instead. Do not seek to have dreams. Dreams are mundane and ugly in comparison to soul visions, which are magnificent. You will easily know the difference between a vision and a dream. Lift desire and mate it with will. Only by giving up self's desires and will can you have spiritual illumination. You must do this to see and hear spiritually. – Edna Lister, January 9, 1958.

It is thrilling to me to know how many different ways in which the soul can present ideas through dreams and visions. No two souls are ever twins in experience, yet each subconscious appetitive soul presents its material with the same trend, the same symbology and motifs running through their dreams. – Edna Lister, February 2, 1958.

Dreams of marriage on the inner symbolize undergoing initiations. – Edna Lister, July 7, 1958.

Do not make a fetish of your dreams. When you are going about your own business, you do not dream. If you return from sleep with fear, your subconscious has found something buried. You forget many illuminations you have experienced. When you forget, you have let the photographic memory cells become fogged. – Edna Lister, October 23, 1958.

Dreams are no longer important to one who has become the law of Light. If you analyze dreams, you give power to the subconscious mind. Spend no time on it. You dreamed of a sailboat. Ships and sailing on the water represent making a soul flight above the grip of the emotions. Go up and see where you really went on the inner. You are awakening the endocrine glands for spiritual seeing and hearing. To see through blackness or a dark pall means you have indulged being resentful, opinionated or prejudiced. Just look over the day or week to see what to lift and prepare yourself. A dream is of value only this way. – Edna Lister, September 4, 1958.

Your dreams come from a low level, not heaven. If you dwell on your dreams, you are just dangling below the Gates of Light. Do not make a fetish of your dreams. When you don't dream, you are going about your own business. Eva dreamed of her mother-in-law with a honeycomb with bees growing behind her ear, dripping down her neck: Honey represents the working of the pituitary gland and the love faculty. A honeycomb symbolizes the brain cells being nourished by love. The bees symbolize gathering into one place without confusion, divine harmony and order. The left side is spiritual. Milk and honey represent Love and Wisdom, and the head and chest. This woman has a chance to pay her debt of service to her husband while he is still on earth.

If you awaken from sleep with fear, your subconscious has found something buried. When you forget, you are letting the photographic memory cells atrophy. You have many soul illuminations that you forget. Hang on to those you remember and ask for more Light before bed. – Edna Lister, October 23, 1958.

Watch and check on your interpretation of dreams, visions and intuition. This is important, for they are dangerous if you misinterpret them and they are easy to misinterpret. You can get very involved in self and off on a tangent without all the facts, going far astray and having to retrace your steps. – Edna Lister, June 12, 1959.

In dream interpretation you may never deviate from principle. You start with a philosophical premise, but the whole thing must be in line with principle. You usually start with symbols you know; for example, a white horse represents spiritualized power, acting in whatever way the horse is moving. The tribes of Israel were supposed to clean out the Promised Land, to kill off all the men, women, and children, which simply means you must start over again with new ideas, cleaning out the old. – Edna Lister, December 4, 1959.

When you are redoing a cycle that you've been through before in this life, you will dream of coming downstairs and the steps will be inverted – you will be walking on their points! – Edna Lister, March 22, 1960.

You can unfold all dream life through symbology. People usually dream in symbols. For instance, if you dream of riding a horse and fear you will fall, it means confusion in your life. The horse is power. If you grab for the reins, it means you are seeking control of your life. If you hold the reins lightly, it means you are safe and happy. If you ride a white horse bareback, it means you are free as air in your life.

Interpretation of the Bible is impossible without symbology. There are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: The black horse is death, the brown horse is materiality, the red horse is Power and misused energy, the white horse is spiritual Power. – Edna Lister, June 15, 1960.

Do not dwell on dreams. You have anchored yourself to the law, and dreams are just a warning to lift and treat. – Edna Lister, July 12, 1960.

You will always have symbolic visions, but remember that the person or personality you dream of always represents something personal to you – loyalty, honor, faithfulness, devotion, etc. – Edna Lister, July 20, 1960.

When your wisdom and love faculties do not open in balance, you are erratic in judgment and emotions. Wisdom must be developed to contact divine Mind through the pineal body. When only the love faculty is opened, the individual lives by emotions, dreams and goes off into illusion, unbalanced by wisdom. – Edna Lister, October 3, 1960.

(I dreamed of a number of dead people in a morgue-like place. Edna Miriam unfolded the dream for me.) To bring higher lessons back to my conscious mind, I brought them through the subconscious dream mechanism because my higher capacities are not yet fully awake. I raised two of the dead bodies back to life; because I spent several lives of renunciation, killing out desire, I had to raise the dead bodies, which represent intuition and illumination raised from sleep. Thus you can awaken each sleeping faculty and lift emotion into apperception. – Edna Lister, September 29, 1961.

Elias Howe, who invented the sewing machine, became discouraged while doing so because he could not figure a way to put the eye on the needle to thread it. His creditors were hounding him, and his wife had given him twenty-four hours notice that she was leaving him. Nearly in despair, he went to bed and dreamed that savages were leading him to a fire. By the light of the flame, he noticed eyes in the heads of their spears. He shouted so loudly that he woke himself up at 3:00 a.m., and had finished the first crude needle by dawn. Howe's story is an example of steadfastness, devotion and surrender. He had faith in his idea, he worked at it steadfastly in devotion to it, and was willing to surrender everything to bring it to pass. – Edna Lister, September 29, 1961.

(I had dreamed of seeing girls dancing from a vantage point in an off-stage dressing room in the wings. I was hanging up something on a clothes rack, but was sobbing and feeling grief about loss.) Your dreams are the appetitive soul ridding itself of the last of your past selfishness. Your sobbing was the final gasp of the appetitive soul giving itself up completely, not exactly looking back, but wondering if the future would hold the same joy and entertainment. The soul's ideals have nothing to do with this gasping, but with that gasp you gave up the last headache, for you worked up to this lifting headaches through two past lives of using them as an escape from intolerable situations. [This person had suffered severe migraine headaches for several years.]

As a banker, three lives ago, you were unable to reach a final decision until a headache let you go home, where you retired with drawn shades, protected from every family vibration. Sometimes it took you two days to come out of it and when you awakened, the decision firmly made, it was always correct, satisfying the board of directors and all parties. Your process was to stand the forceful individualistic vibrations around you, seeking to placate the opposition until you could no longer take it; then the throbbing head kept you in bed with pain too great even to think, finally sleep and the awakening with the whole matter solved. The clerks would say, "It'll be all right. The old man's got a headache," because you never failed.

You were more or less a dilettante in the last lifetime, often retiring behind a headache when you were displeased. You had lost the clearness of solution because of more self was surfacing. Now, reaching for the stars lifts you on each small prodding for irresponsible talk or whatever limitation is confronting you, and the solutions are coming clearer. Your surrender of self is greater and you are working out perfect solutions. You do not realize that your answers are almost instantaneous.

Now that you have turned your back completely on the past and are established with your feet firmly planted, your physical body is being built up into a Godlike strength. You will reach the place where little frustrations do not backfire into nervous reactions, causing a headache, and one day they will be no more.

You will have soul visions now that the little self is cleaned up, for you know where to find God, the answers, and the joy of living. You know how to keep your upward look. That which was a long process involving the physical body to such a painful extent has just become an act of looking up with your mind and reaching for God. – Edna Lister, December 3, 1961.

[A student's husband had died suffering senile dementia. She dreamed of calling his name.] When you call the name of one who has passed over, you become responsible for gathering his life sparks.

Declare, "I now reach out with arms of Light to gather together Name's misused and unwisely invested life sparks. Let them be lifted to a high altar of fire to be cleansed and purified, to be returned to Name's star for investment in Thy perfect works, O Father. In the name of Jesus the Christ, let this be so. Amen." – Edna Lister, June 7, 1962.

A ladder, stairs or an escalator, all are symbols of the Path of Ascension. When you dream of climbing a ladder, it symbolizes taking up your cross and following the Master. If you dream of a broken stairway, it means breaking the process of giving up self, so you may step through and fall to the bottom. The stairway or ladder of ascension is solid only if your giving up of self is lavish and free. Declare, "Now is my ascending escalator." – Edna Lister, June 23, 1963.

You may dream while you take certain initiations on the inner. The heavy burning sands of the desert come with the first initiation for the Christos Degree to consume darkness. These dreams are usually below the Gates of Light. They build temporary places for initiation; sometimes your imagination does the erecting. You create from the invisible substance on the plane according to your thoughts. If it is a low, mundane dream, it may be just above your own bed. No one else sees your dreams. We all go through initiations like those described in Will Garver's Brother of the Third Degree. – Edna Lister, October 27, 1966.

(I dreamed of a kettle that stunk like something dead, either a fish or bird.) Any dream that is far-fetched as this one is usually always has something to do with a past incarnation. So you must look farther back than this lifetime. The stench suggests that something needs lifting, consuming, cleansing, casting into the fire. This is probably a preliminary to a general, overall opening and looking into an incarnation to clean up the spiritual debts associated with it. – Edna Lister, June 16, 1967.

(My daughter's dream: She is lying on a bed at the bottom of a wall or an enclosure made of building walls. People are flinging themselves out of the building to commit suicide and are lying dead in rows all around her bed.)

Interpretation: The people are her own creative ideas that are being allowed to "commit suicide" through her lack of interest or attention. She has access to the wisdom of the universe, but doesn't bring it through or write it down. If life bores you, if you believe that God has gone somewhere and left you, this will have something to do with your worldly affairs – you have no life and your ideas will expire. Where there is no God, there is no life either. Such walls represent closing out life, sunshine, everything, hopelessness, and what's the use? She is building walls between herself and life itself. She is closing out her mission. Pray without ceasing for her. – Edna Lister, June 16, 1967.

Dreams are symbolic. We are supposed to move up to soul vision. – Edna Lister, May 23, 1968.

(I dreamed of my own funeral, with me in an open coffin, dressed in a formal morning suit.) If you dream of being in a casket, it relates to the fire initiations you take to unfreeze all the vital centers in the desire body. The dream places you as a probationer in the second group of 33 Via Christa Degrees. – Edna Lister, November 15, 1968.

Don't just ask to remember a dream. It binds you under the most mundane vibration. Remembering your nightly travels should mean more than that. You can pray for the highest and it is just as simple to bring back something from the highest as from just your dream life. These high memories come from beyond the Gates of Light. Keep ascending. – Edna Lister, November 15, 1968.

Edna Lister on Dream Desires

Every desire of your heart shall come true. Every dream shall come true. Every vision you have had shall come to pass. Once you have seen a picture of something of need, necessity or beauty, it must come forth into manifestation. It is law, not chance. It must be brought forth by the individual who does the "seeing," sometimes in the next lifetime. Therefore, it is well to make your stand now. See that which you desire for the world, for our nation, for our state, our city, our friends, our loved ones, and then thank the Father that He fills the mold of our personal desires full with all this substance when it returns unto us. – Edna Lister, August 31, 1939.

You must cease all daydreaming at certain times to concentrate on earthly needs for action, and also at heavenly set-apart times, when you concentrate only upon heaven and God's Reality. At other times, you may dream of earth joys. Do you understand? It must be so, lest you lose the soul vision you have gained and the place you have earned with such great outer effort. – Edna Lister, November 24, 1939.

Praise always that your heart's desires shall be granted to you, for you shall have and shall accept your own desires, even though you must return again from heaven to earth to receive them. It is best to praise them through now rather than have to return again to receive. – Edna Lister, March 8, 1940.

My dreams have been with me since my first conscious thoughts. I've never let go of them, and they are coming to pass. No is thing impossible to our God. No thing we cannot envision and have come to pass, no thing of good to lift and bring God closer to earth in the fullness of his Power, that cannot be done. God's Power has not stopped; only men's ideas of that power stopping has held the world back, and why? Because of selfishness and greed.

God's love is still lifting. It is still healing. And when our hearts are clear on the subject, when our minds are fully cleansed of all silly opinions and worse prejudices, all will move forward under the Light. God and His love, His might, majesty and glory are ours. He will use us to further the work of overcoming all darkness. Therefore, I say to you now: All our visions shall be established now, for God cannot fail and those of us with enough faith unconquerable – shall win. – Edna Lister, November 29, 1940.

I'm going to win and every dream we have shall come true. You know how our plans will some day mature – all we need is to hold fast the vision. And we can do that! – Edna Lister, January 14, 1941.

If you keep your consciousness raised to God and call all people, things and conditions good, then God can melt all negative crystallization in your body and affairs. Your word, in order to stand, must be based on God as principle. You speak as a creator and God is the principle of the Logos or Word, the third Emanation. The Word is Mind because you are speaking as the white Light of the Christ. The Logos concept in God's Mind becomes the idea in your mind.

Thought becomes logic, judgment and discrimination, which are of the Father-God principle. Pondering, dreaming about and thinking about the idea is of the Mother-God principle that sustains and nourishes. Speaking the idea in words is the Son principle of Energy. God as law is the substance and energy which becomes. Law is the Holy Ghost, the Holy Breath, the substance, which becomes life wherever you find it. Substance without energy is useless. The essence of the body or any physical thing is a spiritual substance. The personality of God, the Father, Mother, and Son is your only means of vitalizing substance. The Holy Ghost is neutral but contains all three principles because it descends as law, Wisdom, Love and Energy. You cannot compel it, you may only accept it. – Edna Lister, January 27, 1947.

To "let go" of self and "let God" use you is your only true task now. The addition that "I" makes or unmakes of you is forgotten. Just one tiny letter – "I" – enters between you and the fulfillment of every dream of your life, your heart, and your soul. – Edna Lister, July 3, 1947.

Imagination, idealization and visualization are the creative tools that bring your dream-desires to pass. Imagination builds the mold, idealization holds it in balance, and visualization fills it with substance. – Edna Lister, Visualization, May 17, 1959.

You may feel that time has gone, lost through disappointments, broken dreams and advancing age. Aging consists of this. Where are your dreams? God takes every lost dream, every unfulfilled desire and moves them forward in time when you give up the past. Take the dollar sign off your dreams. Everything you have ever wanted to be is waiting now. It is never too late, only too soon. – Edna Lister, April 19, 1964.

Declare, "I now declare that my new truth of the Power of God is to move into action to fulfill all my dreams. I begin to transform my life. I ascend to my Mount of Transfiguration, where Power does the work, where all my projects are vitalized and quickened with the renewing, rebuilding glory of the Power of God." – Edna Lister, February 2, 1965.

The subconscious acts on your orders or lack of them. It does what you picture for it to do. Out in the world, people watch the news, imagine the battle lines, the horrors of war, fill their subconscious minds with it, then have bad dreams. How can they expect their you to rebuild a decent body at night when they feed it a diet of nightmares? You are the chief controller of your subconscious mind. You do your heaviest work at night, so never fill your subconscious mind with garbage during the nightly news. It cannot carry out healing orders if you fill it with the horrors of war crime, and perversions. – Edna Lister, December 12, 1965.

A Pioneering Mystic on Dreams

You have dreams, and they show you what you do at night. Your soul is that part of you that is closest to God, and it never goes to sleep. But when your body does, your soul is just waking up. You do just as much at night in heaven as you ever do during the days here on earth. Souls don’t need to sleep, so they work day and night, just like God does. All night long you are busy, and sometimes you remember it and think that you dreamed it. The world calls what you do at night "dreams." – Linda Mihalic, November 15, 1987.

A dream that something fearsome or horrible is chasing you, say a monster, or an old or unwashed person is cursing you — any such figure symbolizes your dweller on the threshold of consciousness, seeking to be redeemed. When you awaken, frozen and horrified, you have come face to face with the remnant of your dweller. You give the dweller the face of your pet aversion or fear, so no two people will see their dweller the same way; it is your creation, unique to you. You cannot outrun it or escape it because it is part of you.

The dweller belongs to you and knows that you are the only master strong enough to redeem it to the kingdom. Everyone eventually comes to a dark night of the soul. You may slide down the greased pole in self-pity and may wallow in it for days, during which you help to build this dweller into something even bigger and nastier.

Use this treatment on the dweller: “Father, I now gather together all of my misused soul substance and ascend it unto Thee for cleansing and purification on Thy high altars of fire. Let it be returned to my Oversoul Star for investment in Thy perfect works.” – Linda Mihalic, Generic Healing, October 18, 1988.

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Dreams and Dream Visions in the Old Testament

And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife. But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this. And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine. Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid. Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done. And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing? And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife's sake. And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother. And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and men servants, and women servants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife. And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee: dwell where it pleaseth thee. And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that are with thee, and with all other: thus she was reproved. So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children. For the Lord had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech, because of Sarah Abraham's wife. – Genesis 20.

Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. – Genesis 28:10-17.

And [Jacob] heard the words of Laban's sons, saying, Jacob hath taken away all that was our father's; and of that which was our father's hath he gotten all this glory. And Jacob beheld the countenance of Laban, and, behold, it was not toward him as before. And the Lord said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee. And Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah to the field unto his flock, and said unto them, I see your father's countenance, that it is not toward me as before; but the God of my father hath been with me. And ye know that with all my power I have served your father. And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me. If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the cattle bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstraked shall be thy hire; then bare all the cattle ringstraked. Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me. And it came to pass at the time that the cattle conceived, that I lifted up mine eyes, and saw in a dream, and, behold, the rams which leaped upon the cattle were ringstraked, speckled, and grisled. And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob: And I said, Here am I. And he said, Lift up now thine eyes, and see, all the rams which leap upon the cattle are ringstraked, speckled, and grisled: for I have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee. I am the God of Bethel, where thou anointedst the pillar, and where thou vowedst a vow unto me: now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred. And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house? Are we not counted of him strangers? for he hath sold us, and hath quite devoured also our money. For all the riches which God hath taken from our father, that is ours, and our children's: now then, whatsoever God hath said unto thee, do. Then Jacob rose up, and set his sons and his wives upon camels; and he carried away all his cattle, and all his goods which he had gotten, the cattle of his getting, which he had gotten in Padanaram, for to go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan. Genesis 31:1-18.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: for, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.

And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying. And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I. And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou? And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks. And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan. And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams. – Genesis 37:3-20.

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Dreams and Dream Visions in the New Testament

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name Jesus. – Matthew 1:18-25.

Pilate said unto them, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ? For he knew that for envy they had delivered him. When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. But the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas, and destroy Jesus. – Matthew 27:17-20.

Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.) And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison. And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands. And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. And he went out, and followed him; and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision. When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him. And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews. – Acts 12:1-11.

Peter thought he was asleep and only dreamed that the prison's outer gates had opened. Yet, after accompanying him one street away, the angel left, and Peter "came to himself," which means he returned to outer worldly reality. – Edna Lister, Faith Freed from Materiality, March 17, 1935.