By blessing
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II

The mental life of a person does not stop even in a dream. Yes, it cannot stop, because the soul is immortal. Only in a dream is our will taken away in relation to the body, and instead of the usual consciousness, the so-called subconscious appears.
That the life of the soul never ceases is proved by dreams. It should be noted that during sleep there is no moment when a person would not see any images with his inner eye and would not experience certain mental sensations.
Whoever wants to check this, let him set himself the goal - at the moment of cessation of sleep, to capture the end of sleep with the mind. With some willpower, it succeeds.
So, even in a dream, the life of the soul does not stop, only it takes on other forms.
The sleepy life of the soul is peculiar: the words we perceive in a dream are not words, but thoughts that come to us from somewhere.
How can one explain the absurdity of dreams and should dreams be given meaning?
St. writes: “What the soul is busy with and what it talks about in reality, about that it dreams or philosophizes even in a dream: it spends the whole day in worries about human affairs, it also fusses about them in dreams; but if she learns all the time in things divine and celestial, then even during sleep she enters into them and manages to see visions.
The deep psychologist Fr. :
“In sleep, when our normal consciousness goes out, self-control disappears; when we are completely sincere and not ashamed of anything, then the subconscious primary foundations of our being emerge from the depths, the deepest layers of the soul are exposed, and we are more than ever ourselves. Typical for our dreams, images, visions and states of mind- there are the most faithful, nothing hidden manifestations our true identity.
Of course, here it is necessary to distinguish between purely psychological phenomena (like prayers and chants after long church services), as well as simply the influence of our physiology, to which we are so subject, for example, nightmarish visions in case of liver disease. But with a sufficiently objective and skillful assessment, the nature and essence of our dreams can help a lot in knowing ourselves and open our eyes to a lot in ourselves.
Thus, dreams to a certain extent can characterize the purity of our soul. We can notice that in reality we may be disgusted by impurity and some kind of sin. But here we are surprised to notice that in a dream we can sin with such sins that cannot be in reality. This is an indicator that the cleansing of our soul is still superficial, and sin still lurks in its depths.
The Holy Fathers say that only with perfect purification, hearts and dreams will always be pure and bright.
So, the nature of dreams corresponds to the spiritual state of a person in reality.
If a person does not live by God and does not have His Spirit in himself, then in reality he is in the power of passions, addictions, anxiety and fuss. In other words, he is in the power or under the influence of an evil spirit, which constantly instills thoughts and feelings in him.
Keeps doing the same evil spirit with a person and in a dream. Here it is even easier for him to control the soul, because the will of man is weakened. As if mocking the poor soul enslaved to him, the evil spirit makes her experience absurd, sometimes dirty situations, in accordance with the impurity of thoughts and feelings that the soul allowed in reality.
That's why St. as a general rule, the Fathers forbid attaching any significance to dreams, much less telling them to others, considering them to be revelations from the other world.
But dreams will not have the same meaning for people who live by living faith and strive always to keep in themselves the Holy Spirit of God in wakefulness.
When app. Peter spoke his first public sermon about Christ on the day of the descent of the Holy Spirit, he characterized the spiritual state of those who believed in Christ with the following words from the book of the prophet Joel:
“I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy; and your youths will see visions, and your elders will be enlightened by dreams" (; ).
Therefore, he equates the dreams of spirit-bearing people with true visions and Divine revelations.
St. (a student of St. Simeon the New Theologian) divides dreams into: 1) simple dreams, 2) "visions" and 3) "revelations".
Simple dreams happen to ordinary people, subject to passions; as mentioned above, in these dreams there is a lot of impure and deceptive. These dreams are to be despised.
Here is what Archbishop John says about the dreams of the unregenerate "outer" person:
“Through his dreams, a person can be convinced of what emptiness and worthlessness lives in his soul. The reality of people is filled with the same vanity (sometimes even more)... People do not suspect all the gracelessness of many of their desires, moods, projects and mental combinations.
“Vision” happens to people who strive to purify their spiritual qualities. The Lord sends dreams to these people so that through the visible in a dream they better comprehend the Divine will and strive for spiritual ascent.
“Revelations” happen to perfect people, filled with the Holy Spirit, who by extreme abstinence have reached the rank of prophets of God.
At the same time, it should be noted that such Christians have a dream that is no longer like our usual dream. So Rev. Barsanuphius the Great and John write: “Whoever keeps his flock like Jacob, i.e. attentive to his feelings and thoughts, sleep recedes from that (“my dream fled from my eyes”).
When he falls asleep a little, his sleep is like that of another wakefulness; for the fire of heart burning does not allow him to sink into sleep, and he sings with David: “Enlighten my eyes, so that I will not fall asleep with the sleep of death” (). Whoever has reached such faith and has already tasted its sweetness, he understands what has been said; such a person does not become intoxicated with sensual sleep, but only enjoys natural sleep.
But for us, who are still largely under the influence of the evil spirit, the aforementioned rule of St. fathers - do not attach importance to ordinary dreams.
However, since, by the grace of God, we often see and feel God’s admonishment to ourselves in reality, then we should perhaps think about some dreams and try to understand them for ourselves: does the Lord convict me in this dream of any sin, addiction or weaknesses; does He not want to reason with me or warn me against something?
Of course, we must keep all our dreams secret. Only a spiritual father or an elder, or a person experienced in spiritual life, can be told dreams in order to get an explanation of those of them for which we feel special significance.
So they once asked for the meaning of their dreams: from the righteous Joseph - the Egyptian pharaoh, and from the prophet Daniel - King Nebuchadnezzar (,).
Both in relation to the judgment of dreams - whether they are blessed or from the evil one, and in relation to all supernatural phenomena in general, the monks of Old Athos have a rule: "Do not accept or reject."
This wise rule saves a person from pride and arrogance, if he ascribes such phenomena to grace; and also save from blasphemy against grace, if there really was a manifestation of grace.

St.. On Distrust of Dreams

Demons use to disturb and damage the souls of human dreams; likewise, inexperienced monks themselves, paying attention to their dreams, harm themselves. For this reason it is necessary to make here a determination of the meaning of dreams in man, whose nature is still not updated Holy Spirit.
During human sleep, the state of a sleeping person is arranged by God in such a way that the whole person is in complete rest. This rest is so complete that a person during it loses consciousness of his existence, comes into self-forgetfulness. During sleep, all activity associated with labor and carried out voluntarily under the control of reason and will ceases: that activity remains that is necessary for existence and cannot be separated from it. In the body, the blood continues to move, the stomach cooks food, the lungs send out breath, the skin lets perspiration pass; thoughts, dreams and feelings continue to multiply in the soul, but not depending on reason and arbitrariness, but according to the action of the unconscious nature. From such dreams, accompanied by proper thinking and sensations, a dream is composed. It is often strange, as not belonging to the system of arbitrary and intentional dreams and reflections of a person, but appearing spontaneously and self-willedly according to the law and requirement of nature. Sometimes a dream bears an incoherent imprint of arbitrary thoughts and dreams, and sometimes it is the result of a moral mood. Thus the dream, by itself, cannot and should not have any meaning. It is ridiculous and completely illogical for some to see in the delusions of their dreams a prediction of their own future or the future of others, or some other meaning. What about something that has no reason to exist?
Demons, having access to our souls during our wakefulness, have it also during sleep. And during sleep they tempt us with sin, mixing their dreaming with our dreaming. Also, seeing in us attention to dreams, they try to make our dreams entertaining, and in us to arouse more attention to these nonsense, to introduce us little by little into confidence in them. Such trust is always associated with self-conceit, and self-conceit makes our mental view of ourselves false, which is why all our activity is deprived of correctness; that's what the demons need. To those who have succeeded in self-conceit, demons begin to appear in the form of angels of light, in the form of martyrs and saints, even in the form of the Mother of God and Christ Himself, they gratify their life, promise them crowns of heaven, and thereby elevate them to the height of self-conceit and pride. Such a height is at the same time a perilous abyss. We need to know and know that in our state, not yet renewed by grace, we are unable to see other dreams, except those made up by the delirium of the soul and the slander of demons. As during a state of cheerfulness, thoughts and dreams constantly and unceasingly arise in us from a fallen nature or are brought by demons, so during sleep we see only dreams through the action of a fallen nature and through the action of demons. As our consolation during our wakefulness consists of tenderness, born from the consciousness of our sins, from the remembrance of death and the judgment of God - only these thoughts arise in us from the grace of God living in us, planted by holy baptism, and are brought to us by the Angels of God, in accordance with our state of penitents, and in a dream, very rarely, in extreme need, the Angels of God present us with either our death, or hellish torment, or a formidable near-death and afterlife judgment. From such dreams we come to the fear of God, to tenderness, to weeping for ourselves. But such dreams are given very rarely to an ascetic, or even to an obvious and fierce sinner, due to the special, unknown look of God; are given very rarely, not out of stinginess of Divine grace towards us - no! For the reason that everything that happens to us outside the general order leads us to self-conceit and shakes in us humility, which is so necessary for our salvation.
The will of God, in the fulfillment of which lies the salvation of man, is depicted in Holy Scripture so clear, so strong, so detailed, that promoting the salvation of people by violating the general order becomes the most superfluous and unnecessary. To the one who asked for the resurrection of the dead man and his message to the brethren to exhort them to move from the wide path to the narrow one, it is said: They have Moses and the Prophets: let them hearken. When the one who asked said: nor! .. but if any of the dead goes to them, they will repent, - then received in response: unless they listen to Moses and the prophets, and unless someone rises from the dead, they have no faith().
Experience has shown that many who have been honored in a dream with a vision of ordeals, doomsday and other afterlife horrors, were shocked by the vision on short time, then they scattered, forgot about what they saw and led a carefree life; on the contrary, those who had no visions, but carefully studied the law of God, gradually came into the fear of God, achieved spiritual progress, and in the joy born of the announcement of salvation, passed from the earthly vale of sorrows into blessed eternity.
The saint discusses the participation of demons in monastic dreams in the following way: “When we, having left home and household for the sake of the Lord, betray ourselves to wandering for love of God, then the demons, taking revenge for this, attempt to disturb us with dreams, presenting to us our relatives or weeping, or dying, or being held prisoner and being attacked for us. A believer in dreams is like one chasing his own shadow and trying to catch it. The demons of vanity become prophets in dreams, foreseeing the future by their cunning and foretelling it to us, so that after the fulfillment of visions we would be perplexed and, as already close to the gift of foresight, exalted in thought. For those who believe the demon, he is often a prophet, but for those who despise him, he is always a liar. Being a spirit, he sees what is happening in the air space and, realizing that someone is dying, announces this in a dream to the frivolous. Demons do not know anyone's future by foreknowledge, otherwise sorcerers could predict death for us. Demons are transformed into angels of light, often taking on the form of martyrs and in dreams they show us our communion with them, and those who have awakened are immersed in joy and exaltation. Let this be a sign of delusion (demonic seduction) for you. The holy angels show torment, the essence of death, from which, when we wake up, we are filled with trembling and lamentation. If we begin to submit to demons in dreams, then they will begin to mock us in a waking state. The one who believes in dreams is completely unskilled, and the one who does not believe in any dream is truly wise. Trust only those dreams that proclaim to you torment and judgment, but if, because of them, despair begins to disturb you, then such dreams are from demons ”(Saint. Addition to Word 3).
The Monk Cassian the Roman tells of a certain monk, a native of Mesopotamia, that he led the most solitary and fasting life, but died from the seduction of demonic dreams. The demons, seeing that the monk paid little attention to his spiritual development, but focused all his attention on the bodily feat and gave him, and therefore himself, a price, began to present him with dreams that, due to demonic cunning, actually came true. When the monk established himself in confidence in his dreams and in himself, the devil presented him in a magnificent dream with Jews enjoying heavenly bliss, and Christians languishing in hellish torments. At the same time, the demon - of course, in the form of an angel or some Old Testament righteous man - gave advice to the monk to accept Judaism in order to be able to take part in the blessedness of the Jews, which the monk did without the slightest delay (Sermon on reasoning. Philokalia, part VI).
Enough has been said to explain to our beloved brethren, modern monks, how much it is reckless to listen, all the more so to trust dreams, and what terrible harm can be born from trust in them. From attention to dreams, confidence in them certainly creeps into the soul, and therefore attention itself is strictly forbidden.
The nature, renewed by the Holy Spirit, is governed by completely different laws than the nature that has fallen and stagnates in its fall. The ruler of the renewed man is the Holy Spirit. “The grace of the Divine Spirit shone upon them,” said the monk, “and settled in the depths of their minds: by this the Lord is like a soul” (Word 7, ch. 12). Both in wakefulness and in sleep they are in the Lord, outside of sin, outside of earthly and carnal thoughts and dreams.
Their thoughts and dreams, which during sleep are beyond the control of human mind and will, acting in other people unconsciously, at the request of nature, act in them under the guidance of the Spirit, and the dreams of such people have spiritual meaning. Thus righteous Joseph was taught in a dream the mystery of the incarnation of God the Word; in a dream he was commanded to flee to Egypt and return from it (Matthew, ch. 1 and 2). Dreams sent by God carry in themselves an irresistible conviction. This conviction is understandable to the saints of God and incomprehensible to those who are still in the struggle with the passions.

. On the origin of dreams

What is a dream? Aristotle had an answer to this question, but the answer is materialistic. This philosopher thought that a dream is a play of one's imagination and, moreover, occurs only during light sleep. Nothing is reflected in muddy water; objects are reflected in the flowing water, but not quite correctly, in the form of a larger or smaller one; only pure and stagnant water reflects objects in their natural size and clearly, as in a mirror. The same thing happens, says Aristotle, during sleep. When fantasy is indignant, the soul does not imagine anything, does not dream. This usually happens to children and those who sleep soundly. But as the vapors from the food digested in the stomach become thinner and lighter, the soul begins to fantasize. This usually happens during light sleep and on waking. - Bl. Augustine understands very well that with the assumption of this theory, one can meet strong objections to the dogma of spirituality and the immortality of the soul. If the mind, say the materialists, takes no part in the actions of the soul during sleep, if the soul ceases to think at the time when it ceases to feel, then it is clear that ideas are the products of sensation, and that if these sensations do not exist, then there will be no there will also be souls: somnus est simillima mortis imago (that is, sleep is the most accurate image of death).
With such considerations in mind, Bl. Augustine proves that sleep is not a paralysis of the senses and imagination, but is the rest of the former and wakefulness of the latter. A person does not see anything in a dream from the surrounding objects, but there is still light in his soul - this is necessary condition in order to see. Awakening from sleep, we remember colors, smells, sounds, in general, what is obtained through the senses; consequently, we were not entirely devoid of the faculty of feeling when we imagined such objects. We then distinguished one object from another, animate from inanimate, and, consequently, we were not deprived of the ability to understand.
“Often false visions convince the sleeper of what the waking one cannot be convinced of by true ones. Where then is the mind, which, while awake, resists seduction? Does he, too, fall asleep with his bodily feelings? No, it works even then, because in a dream we often resist passions and, remembering our determination to resist seductions, we do not show any sympathy for them. With myself,” says Bl. Augustine, “it often happened that during sleep I was aware that I was seeing dreams, and not real objects, but there was no clear consciousness in me that I was reasoning in this way during sleep, and not in a waking state.”
This is not enough; the soul can act more freely and more easily during sleep. “Although the body often has the cause of dreams, it is not the body that produces them, because the body does not have such power to form anything spiritual. But when the way is blocked for the attention of the soul, by which sensual movements are usually controlled, then it either produces in itself images similar to bodily ones, or contemplates spiritual images. In the first case there is a fantasy, and in the second there are visions (assensiones).
The object of vision can be either what is happening in the higher, heavenly world, or what is about to happen in our world, earthly. How do such visions come about, - this bl. Augustine does not undertake to explain from natural laws.
“Some want the human soul to have in itself the ability to foresee the future. But if so, why can't she always prophesy when she wants to? Is it because he does not always receive benefits? But if he receives benefits, then from whom and how? Does she not see something in herself that is not visible to her in the waking state, just as we do not always contemplate what is in memory? Or, freeing itself from obstacles, does it by its own power reveal what should be the object of vision?.. Which of these is true, I cannot say in the affirmative. I do not doubt only that the bodily images, which are contemplated by the spirit, are not always a sign of other things. We see during sleep innumerable images of things incomprehensible to the bodily senses. But who can explain how and by what power this happens? Who dares to say anything definite about these rare and extraordinary phenomena? I do not undertake to explain this, because I cannot even understand what happens to us in the waking state. When I write this letter to you, I contemplate you spiritually and at the same time I know that you are not with me. But how it happens in the soul, I can not comprehend. I am only sure that extraordinary visions really do happen, and therefore I will tell you the following case. Our brother Gennady, known to almost everyone and our most beloved physician, often asked himself the question: is there life after the death of the body? But since he did works of mercy that were pleasing to God, one day a beautiful young man appeared to him in a dream and said: follow me. When he followed the young man, he reached a certain city, from the right side of which the sounds of most pleasant singing reached his ears. To the question: "What is it?" Gennady received an answer: these are the hymns of the blessed saints. What was on the left side of the city - he did not remember it well.
Unable to explain similar phenomena from natural causes, bl. Augustine deeply believed that there are supernatural causes; he very often talks about the influence of both good and evil spirits on our soul, and even tries to prove the possibility of such an influence from the beginnings of the mind.
Once Nevridiy turned to him with a question: “How can higher powers have an influence on our dreams? What machines, tools, medicines work with? Maybe they fill our soul with their thoughts or show us what is happening in their body or in their imagination? But if we admit the first, then it will follow from this that we still have other bodily eyes inside us, with which we see what is happening in their body. If the spirits do not resort to the help of the body, but show us what is in their fantasy, then why can’t I, with my fantasy, influence your fantasy in a similar way?
Bl. Augustine answers Neuridius as follows: “Every movement of the soul leaves some imprint on the body. Although it is not always noticeable to us how a thought is imprinted in the body, but for ethereal beings, whose senses are incomparably sharper than ours, such an imprint is easily noticeable. And if the movement of our members is (for example, from the action of musical instruments) amazing, then why not allow the spirits to etheric body can produce movements in our body as they please, and by means of these movements produce certain feelings and thoughts in us? (See op. prof. : "Bl. Augustine as a Psychologist, Kiev, 1870, pp. 98-103).

Holy. How should a Christian view dreams?

Even the pagan sages judged dreams differently. One pagan sage (Protagoras) said: “Each dream has its own meaning, its own meaning, and for human life it is useful to pay attention to dreams. Another pagan sage (Xenophanes) explained that all dreams are empty and deceptive and that the one who pays attention to them and arranges his affairs on them is mistaken. Truth must be sought in the middle; those. firstly, not all dreams should be paid attention to, but, secondly, not all dreams should be despised, considered empty.
Firstly - we say - not all dreams need to be paid attention to. God Himself exhorts people through Moses "not to guess from dreams" (). “Reckless people,” says Sirach, “deceive themselves with empty and false hopes: whoever believes in dreams is like one who hugs a shadow or chases after the wind; dreaming is exactly the same as the reflection of a face in a mirror ”(34, 1-3). Most dreams are only a natural consequence of man's excited imagination. What a person thinks about during the day, what he is strongly interested in, what he passionately desires or does not desire, this is what he dreams about. St. Gregory tells of a man who foolishly believed in dreams and who was promised a long life in a dream. He collected a lot of money in order to have something to live safely long life his own, but suddenly fell ill and soon died - and thus could not make any use of his wealth, and at the same time could not take any good deeds with him into eternity. Therefore, there are many empty and deceptive dreams that mean nothing and that you should not pay attention to.
But, secondly, there are also such dreams that matter to us and which we need to pay attention to. For example, let us point to the dream of Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Patriarch Jacob. Joseph dreamed that he and his father and brothers were reaping wheat in the field: Joseph's sheaf stood straight, and the sheaves of his father and brothers surrounded him and bowed to him. This dream was definitely fulfilled: after some time, Joseph, sold by his brothers into Egypt, became the ruler of Egypt, and his father and brothers who arrived in Egypt had to bow to him and honor him. In the same way, the prophetic dream of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, came true. If the pharaoh had not paid attention to this dream and had not made large stocks of grain in the harvest years for the lean years. then he would have bitterly repented: the inhabitants of Egypt, as well as the father and brothers of Joseph, would have died of starvation.
And many of the people, and perhaps of those who are among us, have reason to repent that they did not pay attention to some of their dreams. Here is one story as an example. One dissolute young man, who did not listen to the exhortations of his best friends, who directed him to another, better road, once saw his father in a dream, who strictly commanded him to leave his dissolute and godless life and live better; but, according to the saying of Jesus Christ: “If they do not listen to the law, they will not listen to the one who would rise from the dead,” the young man paid no attention to his dream. Then he again sees the same dream: he again dreams of a father who declares to his son that if he does not change his life, then on such and such a day death will overtake him, and he will appear at the judgment of God. The young man jokingly told about his dream to comrades like him and not only did not think about correcting his life, but even as if he wanted to laugh at the threat received in a dream. Namely: on that day, on which in a dream the father threatened his son with death, he appointed a big feast with his comrades. And what? In the midst of drinking wine, the son is suddenly struck by an apoplexy, and in a few minutes he dies! From the stories cited here, “we see that not all dreams are deceptive and empty: there are dreams that actually come true in life.

1) If dreams induce us to good and keep us from evil, then consider these dreams as the finger of God, pointing you to heaven and diverting you from the road to hell.
“God speaks one day, and if it is not noticed, another time: in a dream, in a vision of the night, when sleep falls on people, while drowsing on a bed. Then He opens the ear of a person and seals His instruction in order to lead a person away from any enterprise and remove pride from him, in order to divert his soul from the abyss and his life from defeat by the sword ”().
“When you see the image of the cross in a dream, St. Barsanuphius, know that this dream is true and from God; but try to get an interpretation of its meaning from the saints and do not believe your own thought ”(“ Guide to Spiritual Life ”Barsanuphi and John, p. 368).
2) If you are not sure or have no reasonable reason to think that the dream comes from God, especially if the dream concerns unimportant, indifferent objects, then there is no need to pay attention to dreams and arrange your actions on them; be careful lest by paying attention to every dream you become superstitious and fall into the danger of sinning.
3) If, finally, a dream tempts a person to sin, then it is a consequence of our corrupted, frustrated imagination, our fantasy, or it comes from someone from whom God save us with His grace, i.e. from the devil.

St.. Can dreams be trusted?

Are you asking if dreams can be trusted? It is better not to believe, because the enemy in reality brings a lot of trifles to his head, and in a dream it is even more convenient for him. If what dreams come true, then after the event, thank the Lord for mercy. And thank you for pleasant and instructive dreams. Cleanse your soul and memory from seductive dreams upon awakening. The best way to do this is prayer and bringing to memory good events, especially from the gospel story. Then print these events more strongly in your head and keep your mental eyes on them. Keep your full attention on them. Evil thoughts will immediately begin to weaken and leave.

It is dangerous and sinful to believe all sorts of dreams

In a certain monastery there was a monk, adorned with all the virtues and respected by the brethren for that. Unfortunately, he always believed in all sorts of dreams. The tempting spirit rejoices greatly when it recognizes in a person weak side with which he can easily defeat him: the enemy of our salvation armed himself with all hellish power against the monk. Every night, as soon as the monk takes a nap after ordinary prayers, the demon began to show him dreams that were harmless at first, in order to seduce the unfortunate all the more. In whatever direction the elder interpreted them, each dream was justified by a waking event. Finally, seeing that the erring old man believed everything, the spirit of darkness, on one ill-fated night, presented the future life before him: he depicted that the apostles, martyrs, saints and all Christians were sitting in terrible darkness, tormented by despair; and on the other side, together with the prophets and ancient patriarchs, the Jewish people rejoice, and God the Father, pointing at them with his finger, announces: “Behold my children!”. The elder woke up in horror, and, without discussing anything, went to Palestine, to the dwellings of the Jews. There he was circumcised and became a zealous defender of the killers of Christ. But God, how long-suffering, is so just: after three years, He sent on him a disease so fierce that even his bones rotted; the apostate in terrible torment gave up his spirit ("Prol.", Feb. 26 days).

Archbishop. prophetic dreams

A person spends a whole third of his life in a dream. During his infancy, he sleeps for much more than half his life. Sleep is an image of death, the awakening of resurrection. “He fell asleep, calmed down,” they say about the deceased. And people pray for their shameless, peaceful death, leaving earthly life in complete peace, prayerful devotion to God.
Science is trying to decipher the nature of sleep, but it is far from explaining this phenomenon. Natural science can only tell a few things that happen during sleep. physiological changes or chemical processes in the body, psychiatry and psychotherapy try to penetrate into the psychic laws of dreams... But everything here remains shaky, unclear.
Experience Spirituality- religious experience - distinguishes three kinds of dreams, or rather, three backgrounds of dreaming. The first kind of dreams, the most common, are vain, empty, as if worthless dreams, meaning nothing either morally or speculatively. They are, apparently, a reflection in the human brain of his daily anxieties and worries. But there are dreams that are definitely spiritually colored either by some kind of restless, bad spiritual power, or pacifying the soul. There are frightening dreams that deprive the soul of peace, weigh us down or excite us in a bad way. And there are comforting dreams, foreshadowing something - “from heaven”, from God, from the forces of light. Prophetic dreams are historically attested. The Bible speaks of them repeatedly; these dreams miraculously warn a person, inspire, enlighten, teach and console. Their reality is absolutely indisputable.
The prophet Joel said several centuries before the birth of Christ about such prophetic dreams: “... and your sons and your daughters will prophesy; your elders will dream, and your young men will see visions” (ch. II, verse 28).
We see examples of prophetic bright dreams in the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Joseph, "being righteous and not wanting to announce Mary betrothed to him, wanted to secretly let her go." And so, as soon as he “thought this” (our thoughts are open to heaven), “The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said: Joseph, son of David! do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for what is born in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son and you will call His name: Jesus; for He will save His people from their sins.” The Gospel further says that through a dream it was announced to Joseph, as well as to the wise men of the East, what they were to do. And they obeyed these vivid revelations in a dream. In the Book of the Acts of the Apostles, in the 10th chapter, we read about the symbolic half-sleep-half-vision of the Apostle Peter, which is very important for understanding Christianity. When those sent from the Roman centurion Cornelius went to the Apostle Peter in Joppa and had already approached the city where the apostle was, the apostle Peter himself - "about the sixth hour", having gone up to the top of the house to pray - "sees the open sky and a certain vessel descending to it , as if a large canvas, tied at four corners and lowered to the ground; in it were all kinds of four-legged earthly beasts, reptiles and birds of the air ”... From this (and from what follows), the apostle Peter clearly understood that the pagan Romans who were looking for him were sent to him from God, and he accepted them without a doubt. After a conversation with those sent from Cornelius, the apostle Peter said significant words: “Truly I know that God is not partial, but in every nation he who fears Him and does what is right is pleasing to Him.” Here, the will of God, extremely important for the salvation of all mankind, was revealed about the apostles, that they should go with a sermon to all the peoples of the world.
Man can rise above his primary physical and psychic reality to a higher reality, to the experience of prophetic visions and dreams.
In his autobiography, published in Paris, the well-known scientist, surgeon, archbishop of Simferopol tells how, after being called to the service of the Church and consecrated to the bishopric, he was brought to the city of Yeniseisk and served there. This is what he reports: “All the priests of this city, sparkling with many churches, and all the priests regional center Krasnoyarsk were already living churchmen and renovationists. Therefore, I had to celebrate divine services with three priests accompanying me in my apartment. And then one day, when I entered the hall to begin the Liturgy, I saw a front door an elderly monk. Looking at me, he seemed to be dumbfounded and did not even bow to me. Here's why it happened to him: Orthodox people the cities of Krasnoyarsk, who did not want to pray with their unfaithful priests, chose this monk and sent him to the city of Minusinsk, south of Krasnoyarsk, to the Orthodox bishop who lived there to be ordained a hieromonk. But some unknown force drew him not to the south, but to the north, to Yeniseisk, where I lived. He told me why he was so dumbfounded when he saw me: ten years ago, when I was still living in Central Russia, he had a dream: he dreamed that an unknown bishop ordained him to the rank of hieromonk. Seeing me, he recognized this bishop. So, ten years ago, when I was only a surgeon at the Pereslavl-Zalessky hospital, I was already listed as a bishop by God.
Many such examples of personal revelations to a person in a dream could be given. Doctor of Medicine Paul Tournier, a modern Swiss thinker, author of the book “Medicine and Personality”, speaks about the nature of these phenomena in connection with the teachings of the psychologists of the Zurich School C. Jung and Mader: “Freud and his students, following a purely mechanical and causal understanding of the soul, see in dreams there is only a "pulsation of instinct" and an expression of "repressed desire". For Mader's school, on the contrary, a dream is "an expression of the state of the living personality of the one who sees dreams." Having internalized this division, Carl Jung, in his numerous works, shows that it is this approach that leads us to a true understanding of the image of the soul. “The work of the Zurich School opened up new horizons for science, and the views of the Freudians seem to us one-sided,” says Tournier. “Any dream can be considered both according to Freud's theory and according to Jung's theory.” Dr. Tournier gives this example: "Some cars are driven by the engine through the front wheels, others through the rear wheels." “The influence on the personality of our animal instincts, according to Freud's theory, is the movement of the “rear wheels” of our soul; and the spiritual aspirations that arise according to the theory of Carl Jung are the movement of the human soul through the “front wheels”.
The human soul is the motor that drives all four wheels at the same time - the soul sets in motion both the lower instincts noticed by Freud and the higher forces of the spirit that Jung points to. The instinct operating in our nature can pass into spiritual intuition and convey to man the highest moral call, teach man the will of God, the calling of immortality.

Cases of prophetic dreams

Under the name prophetic dreams in the narrow sense are understood as dreams with a foreshadowing or prediction of the future, and in a broad sense - all extraordinary truthful or meaningful dreams, as opposed to ordinary ones, as an empty play of the imagination. So, it often happens in a dream to find a solution to scientific, philosophical, and other problems that are not resolved during the day, to recall events and persons long forgotten, to receive information about lost things; even more striking, although less common, are dreams with a prediction, direct or symbolic (under the cover of images), of the future, which are: danger threatening the sleeping person or persons he knows, illness, death, and also (very rarely) especially striking dreams with a vivid image of the distant future the whole fate of man in detail.

December 14, 1895 marked the 40th anniversary of Fr John's service in the priesthood. On this day, after the late liturgy, the highly venerated hero of the day, in his speech addressed to those who were coming to the Kronstadt Andreevsky Cathedral, by the way, spoke about his prophetic dream, seen 15 years before his appointment to Kronstadt, where he was assigned in 1855. “My surprise was great,” said Fr. John, - when I saw the radiant interior of the temple renovated by that time, which had long been familiar to me from a dream in adolescence. Yes, about fifteen years before that I had had a wondrous dream in which this very interior of the temple was shown to me, with these newly made iconostases. This dream was imprinted in my soul forever, leaving unearthly joy in me. It was a sign from God to me that I would minister in this temple, for then I already saw myself entering and leaving the northern and southern gates, as if I were my own person.

Ryleeva's dream

In the January book of the Historical Bulletin for 1895, in a short article entitled: “Ryleeva’s Dream”, it is told how the mother of the executed Decembrist Kondraty Ryleev foresaw in advance the sad fate of her son on the basis of one prophetic, significant dream. Here is what she herself told (as Ms. Savina, the author of an article published in Historical News, reports), in the circle of her acquaintances about this significant dream.
“Konya was only three years old when he, my dear, beloved boy, dangerously, hopelessly fell ill. Probably it was croup or diphtheria, the doctors didn't explain to me; they, convened for a consultation, only shook their heads, realizing the impossibility of the child's recovery. “He won’t live until morning,” they said to the nanny, who was crying about Konichka. To me, seeing my complete despair, they did not dare to talk about it, but didn’t I myself notice all the danger of the poor thing’s situation. He, panting, tossed about on the bed, squeezing his thin, emaciated, pale hands, no longer recognizing me, his mother.
“Joy, happiness, my treasure, will you really leave me?! You will leave! .. No, this is impossible, unthinkable! .. How can I survive you! I whispered, shedding tears on those dear hands to me. - Is there no salvation! .. There is, there is ... Salvation is only the mercy of God ... The Savior, the Queen of Heaven will return my boy to me, return, and again he, healthy, will smile merrily at me! .. And if not? .. Oh, God , support me unfortunate! .. "
And in my terrible despair, I fell before the faces of the Savior and the Mother of God, illuminated by the flickering light of the lamp, and hotly, fervently prayed for the recovery of my baby. She prayed in a way that she could never ardently concentrate on prayer later. Then I put my whole soul into the words of an unlearned appeal to the Lord.
I don’t know how long my prayerful ecstasy lasted… I only remember that some kind of incomprehensible, bright joy, some quiet feeling of peace took possession of my whole being… It was as if something was lulling me to sleep, bringing me to sleep. My eyelids are heavy. I barely got up from my knees and, sitting down by the patient’s bed, leaning on it, immediately forgot light sleep. I still can’t give myself an account of whether it was a dream or I really heard ... Oh, how clearly I heard someone unfamiliar, but such a sweet-sounding voice, saying to me:
“Come to your senses, don’t pray to the Lord for recovery… He, the All-Knowing, knows why the child’s death is needed now… Out of His goodness, out of His mercy, He wants to save him and you from future suffering… What if I show them to you? you still pray for recovery! ..
- Yes ... yes ... I will ... I will ... everything ... everything ... I will give ... I myself will accept any suffering, if only he, the happiness of my life, remains alive! trying to see who it might belong to.
"Well then, follow me...
And I, obeying the wonderful voice, walked, not knowing where. Before me I saw only a long row of rooms. The first of them was the same in all its furnishings, where my dying child now lay.
But he was no longer dying ... No more whistling or, as it were, a death rattle was heard coming out of the throat. No, he slept quietly, sweetly, with a slight blush on his cheeks, smiling in his sleep ... My little one was completely healthy! I wanted to go to his bed, but the voice called me to another room. There is a strong, strong, frisky boy; he was already beginning to study, there were books and notebooks all around on the table.
Further, gradually, I saw him as a young man, then as an adult ... in the service ...
But this is the penultimate room. There were many faces I didn't know in it. They were animatedly conferring, arguing, noisy. My son, with visible excitement, tells them about something. But then again I hear a voice, and in the sounds, as it were, more formidable, sharp notes:
“Look, come to your senses, crazy! .. When you see what is hidden behind this curtain that separates the last room from the others, it will be too late! .. Better submit, do not ask for the life of a child, now still such an angel who does not know worldly evil ...
But I shouted: “No, no, I want him to live!” panting, she hurried to the curtain. Then he slowly got up - and I saw the gallows! ..
I screamed loudly and woke up. My first movement was to lean towards the child and, how can I express my surprise... he slept peacefully, sweetly, even, quiet breathing replaced the painful whistle in his throat; his cheeks turned pink, and soon, waking up, he stretched out his hands to me, calling his mother. I stood as if enchanted and could not understand or figure anything out... What is it?.. Is it still the same dream or a joyful reality?.. But everything is exactly as it was in the dream there, in the first room!..
Still not trusting my eyes, I called the nanny and together with her I was convinced of the miracle of healing the infant sentenced to death. The nanny gave me the doctors' decision about the impossibility of his recovery. And one should have seen the astonishment of one of these Aesculapius, who came the next day to inquire about the hour of the boy’s death, when the nanny, instead of a corpse, showed him a horse calmly sitting on the bed, healthy and cheerful.
“Why, it’s a miracle, a miracle!” he repeated.
Time passed, and my dream was fulfilled with literal accuracy in all, even the smallest details ... and his youth, and, finally, those secret gatherings.
I can’t go on anymore! .. You will understand ... this death ... the gallows ... Oh, God! .. "
It is difficult to solve with certainty the question of whether the ill-fated mother lived to the final fulfillment of her significant dream, as Ms. Savina suggests, or whether she did not wait for the completion of the tragic fate of her son and died a year or two before his execution, as is clear from notes of Mr. Mozhaev, published in the February book “Historic. Herald" about "Ryleeva's Dream". But, with this or that decision of this question, the authenticity and moral significance of the story itself remain in the same force.

Stories about the manifest revelation of the will of God through dreams

In conclusion, let us cite stories about the explicit revelation of the will of God through dreams. The Monk Pachomius had a dream, as if dew had come down from heaven into his right hand and became like honey, and at the same time he heard a voice that this means the grace that will be sent down on him (Chet.-Min. 15 May). And indeed, the grace of God poured out on him so abundantly that he worked miracles and was called the Great Church.
Before the war with Maxentius, the Holy Tsar saw in reality the sign of the cross in heaven, merged from the light, and with the inscription “By this conquer!”, And then the next night he saw in a dream the Savior Himself, Who appeared to him with the same sign of the cross and said that by this sign he will defeat the enemy. Indeed, Emperor Constantine, having erected a banner adorned with a cross, finally defeated his enemy - Maxentius.
Rev. Martha, while still living in the world, dreamed of St. John the Baptist, who predicted to her that her son Simeon would be born from her, that he would be a great and holy man. And from her, indeed, was born St. Simeon, known under the name of Divnogorets (Thurs.-Min. May 24).
The pious inhabitants of the city of Edessa, Simeon and Mary, had only one daughter, and they wanted to have a son; so, they began to pray to God about this, and one night both saw in a dream that they were in some kind of church, as if St. app. Paul and St. Great Martyr Theodore Tyron; St. Theodore seems to say to the apostle: "Here they are asking for a son, be their intercessor." After that, the apostle supposedly laid a male baby in their hands, and St. Theodore said to the great martyr: "Let his name be Theodore." And it came true: they had a son, Theodore, who later became St. Bishop of Edessa (Thurs.-Min. July 9).
One pious girl who lived in the city of Kazan, the Queen of Heaven appeared in a dream and said: “In such and such a place, in the ground, My icon is buried, announce this: let them open it and take it out.” She told, and they did not believe her. But the same dream was repeated again, and when that girl began to dig the earth in the indicated place, she, indeed, found the icon of the Mother of God there. This icon is known to us under the name of the Kazan icon (Thurs.-Min. July 8).
The Monk Daniel once saw in a dream a high pillar on which St. Simeon the Stylite with two Angels; The angels seemed to be calling him to them, and when Daniel said that he could not go up there, the angels themselves seemed to have raised him to a pillar, and St. Simeon accepted him and hugged him. And so it happened: later Daniel, like Simeon, also began to save himself on a pillar (Chet-Min. December 11).
One day, according to Bl. Augustine, his mother, St. Monica, dreamed that she was standing on a long and narrow line and immersed in deep sorrow; suddenly an angel appeared to her and with sympathy asked what she was crying about. “I weep for the death of my son’s soul,” she answered. “Calm down,” the Angel told her, “where you stand, you will see him here” (i.e., he will later share the same Christian beliefs with you).
St. Evagrius he himself reports one dream he had during a strong temptation experienced by him (a sensual inclination towards the wife of a noble citizen in Constantinople). “God took pity,” he says, “on me and sent me a dream. I saw myself in a deep and dark dungeon, and an angel appeared to me and said: “Here you will perish if you do not run away now. Swear to me by the Holy Gospel tomorrow to leave the city, and I will help you to escape!” I swore and woke up, but when I woke up, there were still the words “here you will die” in my ears. St. Evagrius fled to Jerusalem and conquered his inclination.

Foundation of St. Catherine's Convent

In the 17th century, the lands where St. Catherine's Monastery stands and where the town of Vidnoye is now located near Moscow were green with virgin groves and dense forests. These were the places of the royal favorite pastime - hunting.
On November 24, according to the old style (December 7, in a new way), 1658, the tsar with a large retinue hunted in his reserved Yermolinsky grove. On this day, he did not return, as expected, to Moscow, but stayed overnight in the forest. At night, when a quiet sleep closed the tired royal eyes, it suddenly seemed to him that his tent was lit up with an unusual radiance, and before him appeared a maiden of angelic beauty, dressed in clothes as white as snow. The God-loving Tsar recognized in her the Holy Great Martyr Catherine. She said that that night the Lord gave him a daughter. Alexei Mikhailovich, waking up, announced to his retinue about a wonderful vision. It was decided to leave immediately. On the way to Moscow, near the village of Kolomna Tsar, he was met by a messenger sent to inform him that the Tsaritsa had given birth to a daughter and that both of them were in good health. In joy and awe that the vision turned out to be truly prophetic, Alexei Mikhailovich made a vow to found a monastery on the site of the miracle, and to name the newborn Catherine.
So the saint herself chose a place for her Russian monastery.

An incident from the life of Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow

G. Listovsky in No. 10 of the "Russian Archive" of 1885 in the article "Stories from recent antiquity" cites the following interesting fact from the life of the Moscow Metropolitan Filaret.
“There were many accusations against one priest,” says Mr. Listovsky. The journal of the consistory banning him from serving was submitted to Filaret for approval. It was on Holy Week. Filaret then lived in the Miracle Monastery. He had already taken the pen to sign the magazine, but he felt a kind of heaviness in his hand, as if the pen had disobeyed him. He postponed the signing of the magazine until next day. At night, he sees a dream: in front of the windows, a crowd of people of different ranks and ages are loudly talking about something and turning to him. The Metropolitan comes to the window and asks what they need. "Leave us the priest, don't dismiss him!" the crowd asks. The impression of this dream was so strong that the metropolitan could not get rid of him upon awakening and ordered the condemned priest to be called to him. “What good deeds you have behind you, reveal to me,” he turns to him. “None, Vladyka,” replied the priest, “worthy of punishment.” But Vladyka insistently urges him to think. "Do you remember the dead?" Philaret asks. – “How, Vladyka; yes, I have such a rule: whoever submits a note once, I constantly take out particles on it at the proskomedia, so that the parishioners grumble that my proskomedia lasts longer than the liturgy, but I can’t do otherwise. Filaret limited himself to transferring this priest to another parish, explaining to him who was interceding for him. This touched the priest so much that he made every effort to correct himself and later distinguished himself by an exemplary life.

Believe only those dreams that proclaim to you torment and judgment.
St. John of the Ladder

Ordeals. From the memoirs of nun Sergius (Klymenko)

In the winter of 1923/24, I fell ill with pneumonia. For eight days the temperature was kept at 40.8 degrees. About the ninth day of my illness, I had a significant dream.
Even at the very beginning, half-forgetting, when I tried to say the Jesus Prayer, I was distracted by visions - beautiful pictures of nature, over which I seemed to float. When I listened to the music or looked at the wonderful landscapes, leaving the prayer, I was shaken from head to toe by an evil force, and I soon set to prayer. From time to time I came to my senses and saw clearly the whole environment around me.
Suddenly, my confessor, Hieromonk Stefan, appeared near my bed. He looked at me and said, "Let's go." Remembering with all my heart the teaching of the Church regarding the danger of trusting visions, I began to read the prayer “Let God rise again ...” After listening to it with a quiet smile, he said: “Amen” - and as if he took me somewhere with him.
We found ourselves as if in the bowels of the earth, in a deep dungeon. leaked in the middle torrential stream with black water. I thought about what that would mean. And in response to my thought, Father Stefan silently, mentally answered me: “This is a trial for condemnation. Condemnation is never forgiven” (Repentance forgives all sins. – Note. ed).
In a deep stream, I saw my friend, who was still alive at that time. With horror I prayed for her, and she seemed to come out dry. The meaning of what she saw was this: if she had died in the state in which she was at that time, she would have died for the sin of condemnation, not covered by repentance. (She used to say that in order to turn away from sin, children should be taught to condemn people who act badly.) But since the hour of death has not come for her, she will be able to cleanse herself with great sorrows.
We went up to the source of the stream and saw that it flows out from under huge, gloomy, heavy doors. It was felt that behind these gates - darkness and horror ... "What is it?" I thought. “There are ordeals for mortal sins,” the leader thought to me in response. There were no words between us. Thought answered thought directly.
From these terrible, tightly closed gates, we turned back and seemed to rise higher. (Unfortunately, I do not remember the entire sequence of what I saw, although I convey all the visions exactly.)
It was like we were in a ready-made dress shop. There were a lot of clothes hanging on hangers all around. It was unbearably stuffy and dusty. And then I realized that these dresses are my mental wishes for good clothes throughout my life. Here I saw my soul as if crucified, hung on a hanger, like a suit. My soul seemed to be transformed into a dress and lingered, suffocating in boredom and languor. Another image of the suffering soul was here in the form of a mannequin, planted in a cage and carefully fashionably dressed. And this soul was suffocating from the emptiness and boredom of those vain vainglorious desires that it indulged in mentally in life.
It became clear to me that in the event of my death, my soul would suffer here, languishing in the dust.
But Father Stefan took me further. I saw, as it were, a counter with clean linen. Two of my relatives (still alive at that time) endlessly shifted clean linen from place to place. It was as if this picture did not represent anything particularly terrible, but again an incredible boredom, a languor of the spirit, breathed into me. I realized that such would be the afterlife fate of my relatives if they had died by that time; they did not commit mortal sins, there were girls, but they did not care about salvation, they lived without meaning, and this aimlessness would pass along with their souls into eternity.
Then I saw what looked like a classroom filled with soldiers looking at me reproachfully. And then I remembered my unfinished work: at one time I had to work with crippled warriors. But then I left, did not answer their letters and requests, leaving them to fend for themselves in the difficult transitional period of the first years of the revolution ... Then I was surrounded by a crowd of beggars. They held out their hands to me and spoke with their minds, without words: “Give, give!” I realized that I could have helped these poor people in my lifetime, but for some reason I did not do it. An indescribable feeling of deep guilt and complete impossibility to justify myself filled my heart.
We went further. (I also saw my sin, which I never thought about - ingratitude towards the servants, precisely the fact that I took their work for granted. But the image of what I saw was forgotten, only the meaning remained in my memory.)
I must say that it is very difficult for me to convey the images I see: they are not captured by words, coarsening, fading.
Here the scales blocked the way for us. My good deeds poured into one bowl in an unceasing stream, and empty nuts fell with noise and flew around with a dry crackle around the other: it was a symbol of my vanity, self-esteem. Apparently, these feelings completely devalued everything positive, since the bowl with empty nuts outweighed. There were no good deeds without an admixture of sin. Horror and sadness seized me. But suddenly, from somewhere, a pie or a piece of cake fell onto the bowl, and Right side outweighed. (It seemed to me that someone "loaned" me his good deed.)
Here we stopped in front of a mountain, a mountain empty bottles, and I realized with horror that this was the image of my pride, empty, pompous, stupid. The host thought to me in response that if I died, then in this ordeal I would have to open every bottle, as it were, which would amount to overwork and fruitless.
But then Father Stefan waved like some kind of giant corkscrew, representing grace, and all the bottles opened at once. I, liberated, went on.
It must be added that I was walking in monastic clothes, although at that time I was only preparing for my tonsure.
I tried to follow in the footsteps of the confessor, and if I stepped past, snakes crawled out and tried to sting me.
The confessor at first was in the usual monastic attire, which later turned into a royal purple mantle.
Here we come to the raging river. Some evil humanoid creatures stood in it, throwing thick logs at each other with furious anger. Seeing me, they yelled with a kind of insatiable malice, devouring me with their eyes and trying to pounce on me. It was a ordeal of anger, manifested, unrestrained. Looking around, I noticed that saliva was crawling behind me, the size of human body, but without forms, with a woman's face. In no words can I convey the hatred that sparkled in her relentlessly looking at me eyes. It was my passion for irritability, as if identical with the demon of irritability. I must say that I felt my passions there, which I had developed and nourished in my life, as something one with the demons that aroused them.
This saliva all the time wanted to encircle and suffocate me, but the confessor rejected it, mentally saying: “She has not died yet, she can repent.” Relentlessly, looking at me with inhuman malice, she crawled after me almost until the end of the ordeal.
Then we approached the dam, or dam, in the form of a kind of shaft with complex system tubes through which water flows. It was an image of my restrained, internal anger, a symbol of many different mental evil constructions that took place only in the imagination. If I died, then I would have to squeeze through all these tubes, filter with incredible agony. Again a feeling of terrible unrequited guilt seized me. “She hasn’t died yet,” Father Stefan thought, and led me on. For a long time after me rushed cries and a frantic splash from the river - anger.
After that, we again seemed to have risen higher and ended up in some kind of room. In the corner, as if fenced off, stood some kind of monsters, ugly, having lost their human form, covered and thoroughly saturated with some kind of disgusting shame. I realized that these were ordeals for obscenity, obscene anecdotes, indecent words. I thought with relief that in this I was not sinful, and suddenly I heard these monsters speak in terrible voices: “Ours, ours!” And I remembered with amazing clarity how, as a ten-year-old high school student, I wrote some nonsense on pieces of paper in class with a friend. And again the same irresponsibility, connected with the deepest consciousness of guilt, seized me. But the host, with the same mentally uttered words: “She has not died yet,” took me away. Nearby, as if at the exit from this fenced-off nook, I saw my soul in the form of a figure enclosed in a glass jar. It was a ordeal for divination. I felt here how fortune-telling humiliates, detracts from the immortal soul, turning it into a lifeless laboratory preparation.
Further, in the opposite corner, as if through the windows leading to the next lower room, I saw an innumerable number of confectionery products arranged in rows: these were the sweets I had eaten. Although I did not see demons here, these manifestations of gluttony, carefully collected during my life, wafted with demonic malice. I would have to absorb it all again, already without pleasure, but as if under torture.
Then we passed a pool filled with an incessantly rotating red-hot, as if molten, golden liquid. It was a ordeal for mentally perverted voluptuousness. Fierce flour wafted from this molten moving liquid.
Then I saw the soul of my friend (not yet dead) in the form of a flower wonderful in color and absurd in shape. It consisted of marvelous rose petals, folded into a long tube: there was no stem or root. The confessor came up, cut off the petals and, planting them deep into the ground, said: "Now it will bear fruit."
Nearby was my soul cousin, all through and through with military ammunition, as if the soul, in fact, did not exist. This brother was very fond of military affairs for its own sake, did not recognize any other occupation for himself.
After that, we moved into another, smaller room, in which freaks stood: giants with tiny heads, dwarfs with huge heads. Right there I stood in the form of a huge dead nun, as if made of wood. All these were symbols of people who led an unauthorized ascetic life, without obedience and guidance: in some, bodily achievement prevailed, in others rationality was too developed. As for myself, I realized that there will be a time when I will leave obedience to the confessor and die spiritually. And so it happened, when in 1929, having violated the advice of Father Stefan, I went into schism, not wanting to recognize Metropolitan Sergius, the future Patriarch. Having broken off from the tree of life, I really internally dried up, became dead, and only through the intercession of the Most Holy Most Pure Lady of Our Mother of God did I return to the bosom of the Church. My feet seemed to be stuck to the floor, but after a fervent prayer to the Mother of God, I again got the opportunity to go further after Father Stefan. It was not a toll-house, but, as it were, an image of my future deviations from the right path to salvation.
Then a row of huge empty temples stretched out, along which we walked for a tiringly long time. I could barely move my legs and mentally asked Father Stefan about when this path would end. He immediately thought to me in response: “After all, these are your dreams, why did you dream so much?” The temples we passed through were very tall and beautiful, but alien to God, temples without God.
From time to time, lecterns began to meet, in front of which I, kneeling down, confessed, while the leader, waiting, stood nearby. The first priest to whom I confessed was Father Peter (our cathedral archpriest, to whom I actually confessed for the first time after this dream). Further, I did not see the confessor during the confession, but I often confessed at the lectern. All this spoke to me about my future life, about salvation through the frequent Sacrament of confession.
Suddenly we heard, as it were, a drumbeat and, looking around, saw in the wall on the right the icon of St. Theodosius of Chernigov, who seemed to remind me of himself. The saint stood in a kivot to his full height, alive. I remembered that in Lately stop praying to him.
Then, when we went further, St. Nicholas of Myra came out to meet us. He was all pink and gold, like a rose petal pierced by the golden rays of the sun. My soul shuddered at the contact with the holy thing, and I threw myself down in horror. All the sores of the soul ached painfully, as if naked and illuminated from within by this amazing intimacy with holiness. Lying on my face, meanwhile, I saw how St. Nicholas kissed the confessor on the cheek ... We went on.
Soon I felt that the Mother of God could come down to us. But my weak sin-loving soul tossed desperately from the impossibility of direct communication with the shrine.
We went and felt that the exit was close. Almost at the very exit, I saw the ordeal of one of my acquaintances, and at the exit - one nun, who seemed to be thrown up on a board. But here other people's sins did not attract my attention at all.
Then we entered the temple. The vestibule was in shadow, and the main part of the temple was flooded with light.
High in the air near the iconostasis stood slim figure a girl of extraordinary beauty and nobility, dressed in a purple robe. The saints surrounded her in an oval ring in the air. This marvelous girl seemed unusually familiar to me, dear, but I tried in vain to remember who she was: “Who are you, dear, dear, infinitely close?” And suddenly something inside told me that this was my soul, given to me by God, the soul in that virginal state in which it was from the baptismal font: the image of God in it was not yet distorted. She was surrounded by holy intercessors, I don’t remember who exactly - one, I remember, was as if in ancient hierarchial robes. From the window of the temple a wonderful light poured, illuminating everything with a gentle radiance. I stood and watched, frozen.
But then, from the twilight shadow of the porch, a terrible creature on pig legs approached me, a depraved woman, ugly, low, with a huge mouth, with black teeth across her stomach. Oh God! This monster was my soul in its present state, a soul that distorted the image of God, ugly.
I trembled in mortal despair. The monster, as it were, wanted to cling to me with malice, but the leader pushed me away with the words: “She hasn’t died yet,” and in horror I rushed after him to the exit. In the shadows, around the column, other similar freaks, other people's souls, were sitting, but I had no time for other people's sins.
Leaving, I looked back and again with longing I saw in the air, at the height of the iconostasis, that dear, close and long forgotten, lost ...
We got out and walked down the road. And then, as it were, my forthcoming earthly life began to be depicted: I saw myself among the old, snow-covered monastic buildings. I was surrounded by nuns, as if saying: “Yes, yes, it’s good that you came.” They took me to the abbot, who also welcomed my arrival. But for some reason I terribly did not want to stay there, surprising myself in a dream, since during this period of my life (before the illness) I was already striving for monasticism.
Then somehow we got out of there and found ourselves on a deserted road. Beside her sat a majestic old man with a large book in his hands. The confessor and I knelt down before him, and the elder, tearing a sheet out of the book, handed it to Father Stefan. He took it and disappeared. I understand that he died. The old man is gone too. I was left alone. At a loss, with fear, I went forward, further along the deserted sandy road. She led me to the lake. There was a sunset. From somewhere came a quiet church bell.
There was a forest on the shore of the lake. I stopped in complete bewilderment: there was no road. And suddenly, gliding above the ground, in the air in front of me appeared the figure of a confessor. He had a censer in his hands, and he looked sternly at me. Moving towards the forest facing me, he was censing and seemed to be calling me. I followed him, keeping my eyes on him, and entered the thicket of the forest. He slithered through the tree trunks like a ghost and censed all the time, staring fixedly at me. We stopped in a clearing. I knelt down and began to pray. He, silently gliding around the clearing and not taking his stern eyes off me, shook it all and disappeared - I woke up.
Several times during this dream I came to my senses, saw the room, heard the breathing of a sleeping relative. Consciously not wanting to continue the dream, I read a prayer, but again, against my will, it was as if I lost my temper.
When I finally woke up now, I clearly understood that I was dying, and then I felt my whole life as aimless, not preparing me for eternity.
“For nothing, for nothing, life has been lived,” I repeated, and with fervent prayer I clung to the Queen of Heaven, so that She would ask me time to repent. “I promise to live for Your Son,” poured out from the depths of my heart. And at the same moment, as if with fertile dew, doused me. The heat was gone. I felt lightness, a return to life.
Through the shutters, in the gap, I saw the stars, calling me to a new, renewed life... The next morning the doctor stated my recovery.

Look into the future. know your fate - these questions are of interest to every person. On Christmas week, you can make a prophetic dream that will reveal the secrets of fate and tell you the right direction in life. There are also special rituals for guessing a prophetic dream. However, prophetic dreams can come without rituals. When do you have prophetic dreams on the days of the week? Let's consider this question.

Do prophetic dreams always come true, and how to determine the nature of sleep? It is believed that during a night's rest, the soul can fly away to the other world, and after waking up, return. It is at these moments that a person sees dreams. If the soul has not flown far from the body, the usual plots associated with daytime problems are dreamed. If the soul has flown away, a prophetic dream comes.

Scientists can neither confirm nor refute this statement. Dreams are dealt with by psychologists, but the research results are more like guesswork. Esotericists do not engage in conjectures, but simply interpret the plots they see according to the images that came in a dream.

True and false visions

Prophetic dreams are true and false. A true dream is always filled with a special meaning, pictures come bright and memorable.. Such a vision is not forgotten for many years and is fulfilled exactly. It is characteristic that a true prophetic vision cannot be “drained into the water” or somehow prevented: the dream will come true exactly.

False visions are always confusing, devoid of meaning and specificity.. Usually these dreams are frightening, so after waking up, you just need to talk about what you saw flowing water. The ritual is simple to perform: you need to open the faucet in the bathroom and tell the stream of water about everything, then ask the water to take the words with you.

When prophetic dreams come

Often such visions happen during holy week when the border between the worlds becomes thin. On these days, deceased relatives can come to sleep to predict events in life.

A prophetic dream may occur for any church holiday. By folk beliefs"holiday dreams" always come true before noon. Prophetic dreams come and on the third day of any month. Dreams are also prophetic on Friday night- they come true.

Friday dreams

Dreams on Friday night are marked by a special meaning. There are 12 Good Fridays a year that bring dreams from heaven:

1. during the first week of Great Lent;
2. before the Annunciation;
3. on the eve of Palm Sunday;
4. on the eve of the Ascension;
5. on the eve of Trinity week;
6. before the birth of John the Baptist;
7. on the eve of Elijah the prophet;
8. before the Assumption of the Virgin;
9. before the Archangel Michael;
10. before the day of Cosmas and Demian;
11. on Christmas Eve;
12. before Epiphany.

Each of these name Fridays carries a special grace. Dreams these days come from heaven.

Days of the week and time of day

Also, prophetic dreams can appear on certain days of the week - this was noticed by our ancient ancestors.

1. on Monday dreams are empty;
2. empty dreams come on Tuesday;
3. on Wednesday, dreams can come true;
4. empty dreams come on Thursday;
5. prophetic dreams on Friday;
6. on Saturday - dreams do not come true;
7. on Sunday - can come true before noon.

Monday is ruled by the moon whose influence is deceptive and illusory. These dreams should not be taken seriously. However, it is on Monday that you can conduct a special rite for a prophetic dream by asking a question of interest.

Tuesday is ruled by Mars. On this day, you can get a hint to change your fate.

Wednesday is ruled by Mercury. At this time, disturbing dreams may come that call for control. emotional sphere: This is what you lack in life.

Thursday is ruled by Jupiter. At this time, you can attach importance to dreams associated with professional activity. The rest of the dreams are considered empty.

Friday is ruled by Venus. At this time, prophetic dreams come about fate and personal relationships. On Friday night, you can see a prediction about a wedding or a loved one.

Saturday is ruled by Saturn. This harsh planet is associated with fatal signs fate. Dreams do not exactly come true, but they can give a hint - what to expect in the future, good or bad?

Sunday is ruled by the Sun. If at this time an alarming plot is dreaming, take it as a warning against unwanted actions.

Times of Day

The time of day at which the dream is dreaming is important. Usually daytime dreams do not mean anything: they reflect the vanity of the mind and everyday worries.

Evening dream, like the midnight one, can also be empty. At this time, the soul did not have time to get into the other worlds.

The correct meaning is dream in the morning. It is at this time that we see prophetic dreams.

How to distinguish a prophetic dream from an ordinary one

This question worries many dreamers. How, on what grounds can this be done? It is important to understand that a prophetic dream can come on any day of the week on the eve of a fateful event. These are dreams-messages that do not depend on the time of day and day of the week. Distinguish this vision from simple dreams can:

• the dream will be vivid and memorable, will cause strong emotions;
• vision picture will have a clear storyline with a beginning and an end;
• the dream will bring specific information in the form of numbers, written or spoken words;
• sleep will be short, not tediously endless.

The dream will be so vivid and memorable that you will not be able to forget it for a long time.

How to interpret a prophetic dream

Images from a prophetic dream may correspond to images from the interpretation of dream books. For example, a rat would mean an enemy, while a bat and a spider would mean an unkind prediction.

If you did not find an explanation for the plot you saw in the interpreter, rely on your intuition. Your inner feeling will be decisive in deciphering the dream: as a rule, it does not fail.

Another criterion for true vision will be the correspondence of what is seen to reality. If in a dream you are running away from an unknown monster, while wings and a tail suddenly grow in you, feel free to classify the dream as fantasy. In prophetic visions, real, not fictional images come.

07/11/2007 at 0:05 am

In the old days, prophetic dreams were much more common than they are now. Our ancestors saw more dreams Or rather, they were better remembered. Adults recounted their dreams as vividly and distinctly as children usually do. What happened and why prophetic dreams are visited today only by the elect?

It can be assumed that in the life of our ancestors there was no such intense struggle for existence. We are not talking about the dawn of human civilization, when the very existence of the species Homo Sapiens was in question. However, before the start of the technical revolution in the West, i.e. until the middle of the 19th century, the existence of the middle classes took place in a more relaxed atmosphere. Recall at least the Russian classics. How Gogol describes the daily life of "old-world landowners". In the "encyclopedia of Russian life", in "Eugene Onegin" the measured life of the Larin family is conveyed.

In addition, in the old days, dreams were given a certain meaning, so people applied special efforts to keep them in mind. Just as children do not see the difference between dreams and reality, so adults of bygone eras did not make such a difference. It is known that the Chaldeans entered into their chronicles not only deeds, but also prophetic dreams. The same thing happens in the Icelandic sagas. The gods send prophetic dreams to people, and it is not their fault that they are sometimes misinterpreted.

Already in Antiquity, they tried to interpret dreams scientifically. A respected scientist, a friend of many famous philosophers of his time and a professional dream interpreter Artemidorus from Daldis (135-200 AD) collected quite a lot of material on his travels, which he summarized in the work Oneirokritika. Moreover, the invoice is processed quite rationally. He definitely says that if one dream has come true, then one cannot yet draw any conclusions from this about the meaning of this or that image, but one must compare several identical dreams that have come true and only then can one draw a conclusion. In another place, he writes that although the way in which the dreams were fulfilled, one can conclude about their meaning and prophetic meaning, but why exactly they predicted such and not another event, we do not know this: this must be decided by the interpreter himself, on the basis of his own inspiration.

Here are a few examples from Artemidor's dream book: “Someone brought his son to the Olympic Games as a discus thrower, and then saw in a dream that his son was killed on the lists and buried. The young man returned as a winner and his name was immortalized on a marble slab, as they do on the monuments of the dead. “Someone saw that he was eating bread, dipping it in honey. After that, he took up philosophy, became wise and thus acquired great wealth. Honey meant the sweetness of knowledge, bread - wealth and abundance.

Homer said that Zeus sends dreams to mortals. Prophetic dreams are described in the Bible. The dream revealed to Joseph his future power over his brothers. King Nebuchadnezzar not only demanded that dreams be explained to him, but even reminded of those that he forgot. Reasonable Aristotle believed in them, considering them to be the result of some divine cause. Wise Plato looked at dreams as a happy connection between heaven and earth. Most of the ancient doctors treated according to the dreams of the patient. Hippocrates was convinced of the influence of dreams and their relationship with our physical condition that he prescribed in his writings various means to prevent their harmful effects. The same point of view was held by far from the mystic physician and naturalist Galen. By the way, this does not contradict the views of modern scientists.

By the beginning of the last century, scientists came to the conclusion that dreams have a starting point of irritation of nerve fibers. It was believed that the internal state of the body has the strongest influence on the brain of a sleeping person: free or difficult breathing, blood circulation, chemical changes in blood and tissues, muscle condition, body position, hunger and thirst, overflow Bladder, any pain and many other factors. And yet, the then researchers shrugged helplessly - it is impossible to find the starting point of dreams in each specific case.

It is known that on the eve of the execution of five Decembrists, Pushkin dreamed that five of his teeth had fallen out. The idea of ​​the Bronze Horseman came to our genius as a result of a story that Prince M.Yu. Velegorsky. In 1812, when the danger of invasion threatened Petersburg, Tsar Alexander Pavlovich proposed to take away the statue of Peter the Great. Major Baturin, a freemason and visionary, sought the highest audience. The tsar's friend, Prince Golitsyn, himself a dreamer, listened to him. Major said that

haunted by the same dream. He sees himself in Senate Square. Peter's face turns. The horseman rides off the cliff and gallops through the streets to Kamenny Island. There, a worried sovereign comes out of the palace to him. “Young man, what have you brought my Russia to? Peter the Great tells him. “But as long as I’m here, my city has nothing to fear!” The dream was handed over to the sovereign. Values ​​and institutions were transported to the depths of Russia, and the statue was left in place. Later, a wonderful poem appeared.

Cases are repeatedly described when relatives saw their loved ones dying in a dream. Comparing the day and hour, they were amazed at the incredible coincidence. Voltaire wrote a quatrain in a dream, Mendeleev came up with his famous system of elements, difficult questions were solved by the restless spirit of the Arab doctor Avicenna. There are a great many examples.

If the feeling of falling from a height depends on the relaxation of the muscles of the legs, and the tightness of breathing leads to the appearance of monsters and nightmares, then very much still remains a mystery. Dream researchers recommend that you write down your dreams as soon as you wake up or have them dictated to you on a tape recorder. Within an hour after waking up, most cannot remember at all what they dreamed about. The accumulation and analysis of our dreams may someday lead humanity to a great solution.

There is an opinion that see prophetic dreams most often possible on a full moon. If during sleep the sky is all in clouds, there is bad weather - a prophetic dream may not work. Therefore, choose a time when the sky is clear and starry. To see a prophetic, prophetic dream, before going to bed you need to take aromatic bath. Add a few drops of lavender, rosemary or mint oil, as well as poppy powder, to the water. In the bedroom, light an aromatic or wax candle. Fumigate the room with a light haze of ivy. Before going to bed, do not talk to anyone, sleep alone, put on clean clothes and lay fresh linen. State your question clearly and say it out loud three times. Then write on paper, read it out loud again and put it under the pillow. In the morning, recall the dream. Consider major and minor events and details.

Beautiful colorful dreams show your connection with the Higher world. Especially the feeling of connection with the spiritual world is observed during flights in a dream. If you watch color dreams often enough, you can transfer your desires to higher realms for better resolution or faster fulfillment. The most important thing is to formulate everything that you want to see in your dreams at the very moment when you go to sleep, that is, in the very last seconds, when wakefulness gives way to sleep. Sending your desire by instance to the "Hierarchy higher powers”, you must be very sincere and observe the following rules:

1. Your desire to learn something through sleep must be sincere.
2. The question is sent mentally and only once.
3. It doesn't repeat the next night.
4. The question is stated briefly and has a real basis.
5. It should not contain the particle "not".
6. Your question should only be personal.
7. It should not have specific deadlines.

If you are guessing information for a week, do such a ritual at the beginning of the week, if for a month - at the beginning of the month, if for a year - at the beginning of the year. Desires for the acquisition of something are made for the growing moon, for getting rid of something - for the outgoing one. Sometimes the answers to your questions in a dream appear literally, sometimes (and most often) - in the form of symbols. Your task is to correctly understand and interpret these symbols. If dreamed good dream and you want its fulfillment, when you wake up, cross yourself and say: "Everything that I saw in a dream, I took it for myself (took it)." If you had a bad, disturbing dream, then throw a pinch of salt into a glass of water, and while stirring it, say: “My dream will melt like this salt.” Or, immediately waking up (before having time to look out the window), say: “Where the night is, there is a dream.”

According to signs, a bad dream should not be told before dinner. If a child had a very good dream and told you, keep it secret so as not to interrupt his good performance.

Dreams that dream within twelve days after the date of birth are also considered prophetic. The dream of each night may reflect the events of a certain month following the birthday. For example, the date of birth is May 23. This means that on the night of the 23rd to the 24th, a dream will mean events that may occur before June 23, the next night - until August 23, and so on. All such dreams are usually written down, and then compared with those events that occurred during each month.

In youth, we easily stay up until morning, and in old age we get used to going to bed and getting up early. Starting from the age of 25-30, the ability of people to restructure their sleep and wakefulness patterns is noticeably disturbed.

What awaits you in the near future:

Find out what's in store for you in the near future.

What dreams are prophetic - signs of a prophetic dream

To put it simply, prophetic dreams are dreams that portend (from where common root"thing") upcoming events. That is, a person sees in a dream what will actually happen in the near future. On the other hand, every night we have at least 3-4 dreams, how to understand which dreams are prophetic?

Signs of a prophetic dream

The main distinguishing feature prophetic dream - unusual brightness and memorable details. You seemed to really see the event in reality. Actually, the way it is. After all, what is a prophetic dream? This is a real event, which is somewhat delayed in reality and will happen in the future.

Second sign- the reality of events occurring in a dream. That is, if you see in a dream how the Martians flew to Earth, and all this is in bright colors, you should not at all count on the fact that such a dream will come true. Most likely, you watched something from science fiction films, scientific programs or read a thematic book, against which the brain generated an alternative reality. But if real characters are present in a dream and events occur that may well take place in life, then the dream may well turn out to be prophetic. Provided that the first sign is present - brightness and memorability.

Third sign- your attitude to sleep, the emotions that arise after awakening. Usually a person intuitively understands that a prophetic dream will come true sooner or later. It is remembered for a long time, and you will be able to reproduce the picture you see even after many years.

Fourth sign- the logical completeness of sleep. That is, it is a fragment that has a beginning and a logical conclusion. Prophetic dreams never end in the middle, after them there is a feeling of completeness and integrity of the picture.

Fifth sign - high quality the picture you saw, as movie buffs would say. A prophetic dream is usually in color, with clear images, many memorable details.

Is it possible to make sure that a prophetic dream does not come true?

The answer to this question is more negative than positive. But this raises the question of whether you really saw a prophetic dream. Let's say if you dreamed that you were falling from a high mountain, this does not necessarily mean that the dream was prophetic, and you can avoid danger if you never leave the plain in life. Falling down a mountain in a dream is usually a symbolic warning of some kind of failure in life, financial or career collapse, and not real threat die while climbing a mountain peak.

However, everything is in your hands. If the events that you saw in a dream are not very desirable for you, take various measures to prevent them, and the chances that they will not happen in life, and the dream will grow from the category of “prophetic” into ordinary ones, will increase dramatically.

Interpretation depending on the day and hour:

Do you want to know if your dream will come true today, how accurate is its interpretation on a given day of the week or month? Select the desired date and find out whether to trust what you saw in a dream.

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