I have had numerous mystical experiences, in and out of the dreaming state. The truth is that I cannot explain them at all in terms of the little I understand of the operation of my own brain and its relation to the outside world. However, to reject them as meaningless on this account, I feel would be a grave mistake. For better or worse they exist, no doubt about that, and so far I have not had one whose experience and memory has been anything but good. I posted a typical example on another forum and reproduce it here.
In June 1978, midway through my correspondence with my pen-friend, later my wife, I experienced a colossus of a dream; a dream so vivid, so utterly overwhelming that even now its beneficent power has still not dissipated. It began as one of those flying, "out of the body", experiences. I flew a great distance to a tall tower. I entered a glass dome at the top. By my side was a being of light to which I felt greatly attracted. The interior was coloured yellow and white. I sat down with the being and peered out through the glass dome. Below I could see hundreds of shanty-like dwellings and people moving about. A portal opened and an immaculately dressed Oriental man radiating great serenity appeared. He took me by the hand and said, "I am the controller." I seemed to spend a long time in this place of visionary light, at length "flying" back to my bed and waking in a state of profound ecstasy.
In January 1979 I spent my annual leave with my friend and her family in Dagupan. One night the women shouted me dinner at the McAdore hotel, which had only just been built. It was (still is as far as I know) a tall, roughly circular building with a glass enclosed revolving restaurant at the top. I entered the restaurant with my friend at my side and we sat down together. The decor comprised yellow and white panels. I looked through the glass and saw a myriad of poor dwellings below, with many people moving among them. At the request of the women I played the piano. When I had finished, a door at the rear opened and a Chinese gentleman in a fine suit appeared. He took my hand and said, "I am the manager."
At that stage I ordered a double brandy fairly quickly ! I still cannot explain this dream in rational terms. The hotel wasn't constructed at the time of the dream, and even if it had been I wouldn't have known what it was like.
Unfortunately (fortunately ?) this sort of thing has happened to me many times. Being a strongly sceptical person I kept dream diaries for ages. This only succeeded in uncovering other instances of so called "precognition" and other inexplicable phenomena. The thing about these visionary states, either waking or in dreams, is that they "feel" entirely different to the helpful but prosaic visions and fantasies our unconscious dishes us up each night in dreams. The best of them feel as though the whole universe were rolled into a ball of kind light. As Carl Jung said, ignoring a dream is like not opening a letter addressed to you.
I am completely at a loss regarding my own dream experiences. Whatever they are though, I do not think they are "just" or "nothing but" anything, and therefore I shall continue to pay careful attention to them.
Topic: It's just a dream