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THE DREAM STATE SERVES AS A BRIDGE BETWEEN SLEEP AND WAKING

Meher Baba

 
Although the most important work of consciousness is always done during the waking-state, dreams also play their part in helping consciousness through the maze of problems which beset it. As a rule, consciousness passes through the dream-state during the transition from waking to sleep and while returning from sleep to waking. The dream-state serves as a bridge between sleep and waking, but it is not an inevitable phase. The mind may swing between quiescence and waking without subconsciously passing through the dream phase.

In the dream-state, consciousness is not completely dormant as in sleep, nor is it fully active as in waking. The dream-state is midway between these two phases and it marks a transition from latent consciousness to active consciousness. The unique virtue of the ordinary dream-state is that experiences in it are relatively free from the act of willing as well as from the rigid social demands which prevail in conscious life.

 

DISCOURSES, 6th ed, vol 3, p. 122
1967 © Avatar Meher Baba Perpetual Public Charitable Trust

               

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