Our Dream Universe

Let me begin here with a question. Have you ever had a dream that was so real, that you had no idea that you were in a dream until you woke up? The next question will distinguish whether or not you have had such a dream. How do you know that you’re not in a dream right now? If you answered anything other than “I don’t know”, then you haven’t had such a dream. To those of you who have had such a dream, what follows will probably make more sense than to those who have not. For those of you who have not had that kind of a dream, I will tell you that a dream can be as real to the dream character as anything ever experienced in this reality: three-dimensional, solid, full color, and “real”. You don’t need to take my word for this as considerable research has been done in this area. A good source for information on dreams is found in the writings of Dr. Stephen LaBerge who acquired his PhD at Stanford University in lucid dream research. Additional information on lucid dreaming and Dr. LaBerge’s work is available at www.lucidity.com.

Why did I bring this subject up? One truth that became clear to me a while ago that explained many spiritual questions was the idea that we actually exist; not in a physical universe as we have come to believe, but in a dream universe created and comprised of a thought projection of God’s, created in exactly the same way we create a universe in our dreams at night when we sleep! God doesn’t have to be sleeping in order to create this universe. In fact, not all people have to be sleeping in order to create a dream universe since it is simply a state of consciousness. Some people get a little concerned when I tell them this because they think that the “Dreamer” may “wake up” and we will all instantly cease to exist. In the case of God’s “dream”, this will not happen – at least not until the “dream” is no longer necessary for our purposes, i.e. we have all ascended.

I know that some feel that when we dream, we actually enter into an alternate plane of reality. While dreaming, we may be able to enter a spiritual plane since we are in an altered state of consciousness; however, this is not what we normally do. When we dream, we actually create a universe within our own consciousness, (see the passage below). As well, some Masters will enter into a person’s dream in order to speak with them within the dream for whatever reason they deem it necessary.

First of all, this is not my original idea. This has been taught by Masters since ancient times. The following excerpt from chapter 34, of the 1946 edition of, “Autobiography of a Yogi”, by Paramhansa Yogananda, is a response by one of Babaji’s disciples to a question by Lahiri Mahasaya regarding the materialization of a magnificent palace in the Himalaya Mountains by Babaji:

"'I will gladly enlighten you.' My companion's dark eyes sparkled with wisdom. 'In reality there is nothing inexplicable about this materialization. The whole cosmos is a materialized thought of the Creator. This heavy, earthly clod, floating in space, is a dream of God. He made all things out of His consciousness, even as man in his dream consciousness reproduces and vivifies a creation with its creatures.

"'God first created the earth as an idea. Then He quickened it; energy atoms came into being. He coordinated the atoms into this solid sphere. All its molecules are held together by the will of God. When He withdraws His will, the earth again will disintegrate into energy. Energy will dissolve into consciousness; the earth-idea will disappear from objectivity.

"'The substance of a dream is held in materialization by the subconscious thought of the dreamer. When that cohesive thought is withdrawn in wakefulness, the dream and its elements dissolve. A man closes his eyes and erects a dream-creation which, on awakening, he effortlessly dematerializes. He follows the divine archetypal pattern. Similarly, when he awakens in cosmic consciousness, he will effortlessly dematerialize the illusions of the cosmic dream. (emphasis added)

I highly recommend reading the Autobiography of a Yogi if you haven’t done so already. The entire first edition is reproduced online, and can be read free of charge at:

http://www.crystalclarity.com/yogananda/contents.asp

There are several reasons why understanding the dream nature of this universe is important. For starters, many difficult questions can be answered by the understanding of this simple truth.

Why is there only one God in this universe?

God just didn’t happen to be here in an empty void by Himself. Instead, He exists outside of this universe, and the universe exists within His consciousness (He created the vacuous space as well). Since the entire universe is His creation, He must therefore be the only Creator here.

How can God be omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient?

It goes without saying that the Creator of a dream universe is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient within that universe. Since we create a universe in our own consciousness when we dream, we are also omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient within our dreams.

A note is in order here:

Many people are quite offended by the idea that God simply “thought” the universe into existence. After all, we create a universe in our dreams; does that also make us Gods? In response to this let me ask you, where do you think we acquired this ability to create objectivity from mere thought in the first place? Secondly, God’s “dream” is stable, while our dreams have a tendency to be quite volatile. In our dreams, the laws of physics may suddenly change and you find yourself walking on the ceiling or some other equally bizarre activity. In contrast, God’s “dream” is by conscious design with very specific rules by which it is governed. These rules encompass both physical and spiritual laws. The last point is very important because it will be addressed in the future to illustrate how we can learn these spiritual laws in order to improve our lives in the physical world. Thirdly, God created this whole thing, we merely emulate – big difference.

How do Masters perform miracles at will?

A true Master (or Avatar) has become truly aware that this reality is just a dream, and we are spiritual beings created in the image of God, not the physical dream characters we think we are. For a Master, the dream has become more than academic knowledge; they truly know it is a dream, and that they are eternal spiritual beings, not physical. This is what “Self-realization” is – realizing the true Self. When Paramhansa Yogananda was asked by some kids how old He was, He responded that He is ageless from before time began. When He realized that the kids wanted to know how old His physical form was, He gave them the answer they sought. His initial response was not artificial; a Master remembers all of His incarnations, and sees the present body as merely a temporary residence for the spirit within. If you are having trouble with this, try to imagine if your present consciousness could be moved into a five-year old body while retaining all of your present memories. If someone then asked you how old you were, you would probably respond with the age that you were before the transfer, not five years old. In fact, you would probably feel quite awkward saying that you were five years old because you wouldn’t completely identify with the childlike body.

Why does space and time not exist in the spiritual dimension?

In a dream, space is obviously irrelevant since all “space” occurs in the space of a thought – zero space. Time is equally non-existent. How many of us have had a dream that transpired over a considerable amount of time only to wake up and discover that only a few minutes had passed in this reality. The entire course of history can be “compressed” to an instant in a dream.

How can we truly be one with God, the universe, each other, etc?

When realizing the dream nature of the universe, it becomes clear that we are all truly One, and we only believe that we are separate from everyone and everything else. The illusion of “reality” known as maya has been responsible for feeding this erroneous belief. This delusion is what we are to strive to overcome.

In a nutshell, when one realizes that all universes, dimensions, realities, etc. are a single thought projection of God’s, it becomes clear why we are actually one with God (even if we don’t truly know it) and each other, and why what we do impacts all others in some way. There is only one reality, and that is pure Spirit – One with God – not clothed in any body of delusion (including inter-dimensional bodies, such as astral). That is perfection!

Since the universe is a thought projection of God’s emanating from His consciousness, it might be more understandable why we find God within ourselves. Simply put, our link to God is found within us, and we must find that link. This is almost always accomplished through meditation.