Dear Joshua,

I understand that when we sleep we return to the non-physical; heaven. So then why do we sometimes encounter nightmares? Surely they couldn’t exist in heaven?

Thanks,
Samantha

Dear Samantha,

Nightmares do not exist in heaven because there is no wrong anywhere in the universe and nightmares are not wrong either. You might prefer not to have nightmares, but your judgment that they are bad does not serve you. There is nothing wrong with the nightmare itself, only how you perceive the events within the nightmare as wrong or bad. The nightmare is neutral and can contain information if you choose to analyze your fears, beliefs, and why you think it was a bad dream.

If you could, would you eliminate every negative experience from your life for the rest of your life? Would you choose to eliminate every negative experience from the lives of those you love? Would you choose to eliminate every negative experience from the lives of everyone? Of course not. You understand that growth occurs as a result of experience and you further realize that it is only you who decides what is negative or positive. You have complete control over the way in which you interpret anything. Your perception of reality is left completely in your control. You have been given free will and you can choose how you judge anything. You can see the benefit in every event or the limitations. It is all up to you.

Now, is a nightmare really a bad thing? Does it have any real power over you? Does it really need to affect your morning or the rest of the day? Isn’t it usually gone from your mind as soon as your attention is given to something else? As long as you do not perpetuate it by talking about it, it will fade from your memory and even when you try to recall it later on, it will not have the same effect on you.

The nightmare is not wrong and when you begin to acknowledge that everything is for your benefit, then you can understand that the dream is a message and that message is a gift that is being given to you by your nonphysical inner self.

When you sleep you return to the nonphysical. This occurs not because you need physical rest, but because you need to realign yourself with the nonphysical realm. Physical reality is a very dense and intense experience and your consciousness can only absorb it for short periods of time. You are not meant to be awake, experiencing reality for more than a few hours at a time. You are meant to have fun, be easy, enjoy reality and then return for a recharge. You would not ride a roller coaster for hours on end. This is what it’s like for a light and free nonphysical being to experience reality. Reality is a fun and exciting roller coaster that can become exhausting.

When you were a child you slept often. Animals sleep often. Every life form returns to the nonphysical often. But, because of your societal demands in this modern time, you believe that it is not advantageous to sleep more frequently. You do not need longer hours of sleep, you need more frequent sleep.

The nightmare, as you call it, is the result of so much exposure to physical reality that the process of realignment is more involved. As the events of the nonphysical are downloaded to your consciousness in the space between nonphysical and physical, you call this a dream. You cannot perceive the events or activities that occurred in the nonphysical while you were asleep because you have no reference points. So your brain tries to interpret this information and translates it into the closest Earthly representation. Most of the time it will not make sense.

If you lived in pure freedom without fear, you would not have unpleasant-feeling dreams. You would sleep more often and be awake for shorter durations. You would realign yourself easily and be ready for the next burst of physical reality. Your dreamy interpretations of the time you spent realigning yourself in nonphysical would be very pleasant.

It is not beneficial to try an interpret the precise meaning of a dream, but rather think about the overall feeling of the dream. If it is unpleasant then maybe you are biting off a little more reality than you can chew. It might be time to ease up a little. Take more naps. Don’t worry so much. Do less stuff. Do more fun stuff. Release the pressure. Nothing (and we literally mean nothing) is that important. You are here to have fun.

Joshua