Journal of Sacred Work

   But we are awake, aren't we? Maybe not. 

   One day Plato appeared in my high school to advise our class: "All of life is a dream." Ever since, I've wondered if he was right. 

   Dreams always seem real when you are in them even if you have some awareness that you are dreaming. Yet, they are always fantastical – inconsistent with what we think of as the reality of our everyday world.

   We cannot act otherwise. Indeed, our ability to discern the difference between dream & reality is one way our sanity is determined. 

   But is reality truly more "real" than a dream? Doesn't much of what happens in the world seem unbelievable?

   Of course, if we actually went about our days thinking we were in a dream we might be removed from society – perhaps institutionalized.

   Anesthesia & other drugs place patients in the strangest kinds of states. Even a dose of nitrous oxide in the dentist's office can send us to another world – or certainly to a different consciousness. Mental illness can further redefine our reality in ways that cry out for compassion from caregivers.

   Life "hurts" enough so that we seem to spend much of our waking lives trying to anesthetize ourselves from reality one way or another. The bored nurse, the worn-out board member, the exhausted doctor, the burned out caregiver facing the same intractable patient every day – each one wishes reality were different.

   Our dream state, like life itself, can be a refuge or a nightmare. 

   But, dreams can inform our existence in remarkable & enriching ways. The problem is that most of us discount our dreams so quickly the dream never has a chance to tell us anything.

   A dear friend lost her brother in an accident at sea. She and her mother fretted over the death for a year. One night, our friend dreamed that she was flying. She looked over and there was her brother flying next to her. Then she saw her mother further off in the distance.

   Her brother told her he was fine & that she needed to let him go.

   That morning, she called her mother. "You'll never believe what I dreamed." Her mother cut her off. "Wait, you will never believed what I dreamed. I was flying & you were too & your brother flew next to us & told us not to worry."

   Dreams carry their own wisdom. Perhaps, we should listen.

-Erie Chapman 

The above column was originally published September, 2012

Photograph from the film "Alex Dreaming" created by Erie Chapman

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