The Orthodox faith interprets the dreams of a person for the most part as a temptation that demonic creatures send to a sleeping person to show him how righteous and sinless he is, or by drawing him into useless dreams. They distract the believer from working on himself and assure him that he has already reached such heights that the Lord himself sends him prophetic visions in a dream.
Dreams can be dangerous
The Holy Fathers warn the laity, pointing out that unclean spirits can enter dreams and use them as a weapon against God. The Orthodox saint Ignatius Brianchaninov, who lived in the 19th century, believed that demons tempt a person in a dream with sins, mixing their own thoughts with a person, and at the same time trying to give dreams a fascination and believability, so that the awakened person would not leave the dream with his attention, but think about it, would fall into the sin of dreaming or even despondency.
Reverend. Isaac the Syrian warned believers that often under the guise of angels or saints in a dream a demon may appear to a person in order to convince him of his righteousness and force him to sin. Even entertaining, similar to long colorful stories and seemingly safe dreams can be dangerous to the human soul if a person in reality pays too much attention to them. Experienced elders urged that during the day not to remember the night dreams, not to ponder them, and even more so not to imagine their continuation of the stories, so that in no case would defile oneself awake.
Where is the night - there is a dream
Most Orthodox priests treat dreams even more prosaically, following the principle: "where the night is, there is sleep," and most dreams are considered a product of the human mind.
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The same Ignatius Brianchanino wrote that in a dream a person is “in complete rest” and for some period of time loses awareness of himself, is forgotten, his mind and will weaken. Meanwhile, in the human soul, unconscious thoughts and dreams continue to "proliferate", from which dreams are composed.
Saint Gregory of Nyssa, who lived in Asia Minor in the 4th century, wrote that the state of the person himself influences the content of sleep: a thirsty person dreams of a stream, and a hungry person dreams of a feast. Sleep is also influenced by the morality of the sleeping person - an incontinent sinner has completely different dreams than a chaste person, and a timid person cannot dream of what a courageous person dreams of. But the main thing that the saint speaks of is that a person's dreams are a reflection of his habits and thoughts.
Modern priests echo the holy fathers: Archpriest Andrei Efanov believes that you should neither think about nor worry about dreams about them. You just need to pray to God and ask him for support and help. And Archpriest Igor Fomin warns that in no case should you believe in dreams, and even more so look for their dream books in dream books - this is superstition and occultism, causing irreparable harm to the soul. And even if you dreamed of something that struck you, for example, an angel or a saint, you should wake up, turn to the Lord in prayer and ask him to get rid of such a dream.
It should be remembered that the Lord did not give dreams to an Orthodox person for spiritual guidance, but the Word of God and the Church. In a difficult life situation, one should seek advice from an experienced confessor, and not trust dreams.
A dream is just a dream
An enlightened person can object to all this: but did not God speak with some saints or with prophets in a dream?
This can be answered with lines from the Old Testament: “The prophet who had a dream, let him tell it like a dream; but whoever has my word, let him speak my word rightly”(Jer.23: 28).
Trusting dreams is easy to fall into daydreaming or unhealthy daydreaming - many of the Church's fathers and teachers have warned of this.
Sometimes they come true
At the same time, believers do not deny that there are prophetic dreams, for example St. Nicholas of Serbia wrote that occasionally God really sends people signs - for example, warns that they should not do any things. So, to some Serbian women who prayed hard for the granting of children to them, the Lord sent signs in a dream that they should not strive at all costs to acquire offspring. It happens even more often that in a dream a person receives a sign that he will soon die.
John Damascene, regarding material dreams, said that they are generated by the person himself: in a dream, the mind continues to work and carries out its activity by judging and analyzing what happened in reality, which can be the cause of dreams that come true.
Are there dreams from God?
St. Theophan the Recluse (XIX century) believed that there are different dreams - some are sent by the Lord, others are His enemy, but at the same time it is impossible for a person to figure out where which ones. The saint advised to completely reject dreams hostile to Orthodoxy and urged not to follow dreams, pointing out that dreams "from God" are sent repeatedly.
Dreams “from God” do not inspire fear, their images are unchanging, they do not cause sudden mood changes - laughter or despair, but fill the soul with quiet joy or (sometimes) the same quiet sadness.
If a person is filled with pride or complains about something after a dream, or falls into despair, this is considered a sure sign that the dream is not from God.
Venerable John Climacus wrote that those people who unquestioningly believe in dreams are not skilled in faith, and urged to believe only those dreams that prophesy to man eternal torment and God's judgment. And St. The great Barsanuphius said that that dream is from God, in which the image of the Cross of the Lord is clearly present, since the demons are not able to portray it. But even in this case, the saint considered it necessary not to interpret the dream in any way, and if it was appropriate, then turn to the Orthodox elders, wise in faith in Christ, for this.
Maya Novik
