By Gilles Donada
“Jesus came to find me in a dream,” confided Claude Milandou-Mvoula. The singing teacher in Beauvais, a member of the duo Noces, had started the process toward Baptism but had interrupted it because she was “afraid to trust.” A few years later, she had a significant dream. She found herself in her father’s kitchen and heard an “intense and irresistible” song from the landing. Through the peephole of the front door, she saw a visitor knocking on the neighbors’ doors before returning to hers. Claude opened the door, and her entrance was suddenly filled with white and blue light, “both soft and intense.” She heard these words three times: “Jesus is in you.” Claude woke up with mixed feelings: the visitor’s insistence annoyed her, but she realized that fear prevented her from lowering her “barriers” and “trusting.”
On her mother’s advice, she went to the nearest church, where Mass was to begin in 20 minutes. “It was the feast of the Ascension!” she recalled. Claude reconnected with the priest who had accompanied her and told him about her dream. After listening to her at length, he shared what it evoked for him: a passage from the Book of Revelation (3:20) where it is written: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with that person, and they with me.” Claude resumed her journey toward Baptism, Communion, and Confirmation, which she received in 2016.
Dreams that set things in motion
Claude’s case is not exceptional. “A good third of catechumens mention dreams in their spiritual journey. I observed this both in my former diocese in Yvelines, which is highly urbanized and diverse, and here in Aude, a rural area,” said Bishop Bruno Valentin of Carcassonne. These dreams have in common the ability to set people “in motion,” leading them to a “new life,” he noted. Feeling “powerless” in the face of this phenomenon, he researched spiritual theology and discussed it with fellow bishops. One advised him not to dwell on these “parasitic elements.” But for Bishop Valentin, it is often a “genuinely mystical experience” that must be “taken seriously”: “The Lord has sought these people out; He entrusts them to us so that we may accompany them.”
Dreams, visions… But what exactly are we talking about? Dreams are a psychic process that helps us live our daily reality by freeing us from unconscious tensions and desires and facilitating the elaboration of our existential questions, explained psychoanalyst Geneviève de Taisne in a KTO program dedicated to this theme. A vision, however, occurs in a modified state of consciousness, not necessarily related to sleep. It has a particular clarity and uses images “like a parable”; it speaks to our “heart.” “A dream is a presence to oneself,” she summarized, “and a vision is a presence to God.”
Visions that guide and comfort
Since ancient times, visions have been a means of connecting with the divine world. In the Old Testament, they enlightened the recipients (patriarchs, kings, prophets) about God’s plans for His people and revealed the announcement of salvation. Visions were intelligible when addressed to the Hebrews but remained veiled for the pagans, who then had to rely on the sons of Israel—the “servants of the true God”—to understand their meaning. In the New Testament, visions led Joseph to take pregnant Mary into his home and flee to Egypt to protect Jesus. In the Acts of the Apostles, Paul’s visions guided him in his mission and comforted him in his trials.
What about today? God has a thousand and one ways to address humans: through encounters, events, and, of course, the Bible, sacraments, saints, or visions. “Visions should be received like letters in our mailbox: to be unsealed, listened to, understood, and interpreted,” advised Orthodox Father François Esperet.
It is difficult to distinguish a vision from God from a dream, which can come from our subconscious or malicious spirits. This work of interpretation is not done alone, emphasized Cenacle Sister Marielle. She discovered the significant place dreams can occupy in spiritual life when she immersed herself in the Togolese context, where she has been on mission for three years. The people she meets are attentive to any sign that could guide them daily. “The world of spirits often manifests in dreams,” she noted. People talk to her about warning dreams concerning malicious individuals who may have consulted a witch or cast a spell. Hence, discernment is important to understand the origin of these dreams.
Distinguishing the ‘good spirit’ from the ‘bad spirit’
Her first question is to know what traces the dream has left in the person. “If it’s fear, anxiety, or self-closure, it is often a sign that it does not come from the good spirit, as Saint Ignatius of Loyola says. I help the person identify the source of this fear. Once it is named, it has less power over them. It is important for the person to regain power over their fear and not immediately see demons or malevolent forces at work in their life.”
The nun has learned to detect signs of the “good spirit.” “When I see the face light up, trust return, a life force manifest, I do not doubt that God is at work.” She remembered a young woman from a poor family who wanted to pursue studies against all odds. One night, she dreamed that a luminous hand touched her head, giving her “absolute confidence.” A year later, she updated Sister Marielle: she had been admitted to university, passed her exams, and even found a job to finance her studies. “She was convinced that on that night, she received the necessary strength to pursue what she carried within her. I could hear all her joy, confidence, and gratitude. We recognize the tree by its fruit.”
However, beware of hasty interpretations. Given the thin line between psychic and spiritual life, some types of dreams may draw a health professional’s attention to potential psychological disorders. The appearance of spiritual beings speaking to us in dreams raises questions, noted Laurent Lemoine, a psychoanalyst and Dominican religious. Vigilance should increase when someone claims that God, an angel, or a demon commands them to undertake a mission they cannot refuse. God never forces our freedom.
Symbols with different meanings for each
In this consideration of dreams in spiritual life, what can Carl G. Jung‘s contribution be, a psychoanalyst who explored the spiritual dimension of the subconscious? Jungian psychoanalyst Sophie Delavis Setton said no single interpretation of a dream exists. The personal, familial, or collective subconscious influences its symbolism. The same symbol can thus have different meanings depending on the person. “A patient told me about a dream where a wolf appears, with a fear of predation. She later discovered that she was abused in her childhood. The dream acted as an opener, bringing to light a buried memory. Another case involved a white wolf that a patient encountered in her kitchen. Here, there is no feeling of danger. When she learns that, in collective symbolic language, the wolf can represent a guide or inner master, then her whole dream becomes clear.”
Sometimes, some visions are like pure gifts. When she had already decided to enter apostolic religious life, Sister Marielle found herself in a dream in a meadow where Christ descended from His cross to invite her to dance. “This dream dates back to about 20 years, yet I remember it very clearly. It came to leave a seal on me. It expressed my desire to dance all my life in the heart of the world. It was a huge gift that plunged me into joy and gratitude.”
Excerpt: Pope Francis: “The dream symbolizes spiritual life”
Excerpt from the catechesis Saint Joseph, a man who “dreams,” Wednesday general audience – Jan 26, 2022.
“The dream symbolizes the spiritual life of each of us, that inner space that each of us is called to cultivate and guard, where God manifests himself and often speaks to us. But we must also say that within each of us, there is not only the voice of God; there are many other voices. For example, the voices of our fears, the voices of past experiences, the voices of hopes; and there is also the voice of the evil one who wants to deceive and confuse us. It is therefore important to be able to recognize the voice of God in the midst of other voices.”
Why we did it
The idea for this topic came from interviews we conducted about the new Easter baptisms. Many mentioned that dreams had played a role in their personal journey. This piqued our curiosity.
What does a spiritually significant dream mean? What sense can be made of it? And where does it come from: God, our subconscious, an evil spirit? It is difficult to answer these questions alone. And that’s fortunate: we need guidance in this exploration, “using everything the sacred texts have bequeathed to us on this subject,” said Orthodox Father François Esperet. “By seeking the advice of a priest, a wise person, or any benevolent and clear-sighted person.”
Every man and woman, believer or not, can have a spiritually significant dream. Carl G Jung, one of the founders of psychoanalysis, taught this. Jung uses the term “numinous” to describe these experiences that put us in touch with something “good, sacred, indescribable, which transcends us,” recalled psychoanalyst Sophie Delavis Setton.
According to biblical tradition, we call visions these dreams where God manifests Himself clearly. “For God does speak—now one way, now another—though no one perceives it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds, He may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings,” says the Book of Job (33:14-16).
Taking them seriously can lead to astonishing discoveries. In the 1950s, residents of the island of Lesbos in Greece began having the same dream in which Orthodox martyrs of the 15th century revealed the circumstances and location of their death. Faced with the scale of the phenomenon, the authorities decided to undertake excavations. Thus, on Jul 3, 1959, the tombs of Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene of Mytilene were discovered and now the two are venerated as saints. – La Croix International
