What are dreams, to you? Are they just stories your mind creates for entertainment? Do they contain symbols and messages from your higher mind? The spirit realm? Are they actual alternative realities that exist somewhere in the “alternatives space”? Are you astral traveling? I would love for you guys to discuss what you think is happening when we dream. Reason for posting is I just woke up from a sort of terrifying dream that felt like an alternate reality. I felt like I was awake but some things weren’t quite normal. For example; I looked at my phone in the dream and the Snapchat icon was green & white, not yellow & white, so I knew at that moment that I wasn’t in my primary reality. 95% of the time my dreams are not like this, so it’s really affected me and got me wondering.

For a long time, I believed magic was something distant and unreal. Shamans, witches on broomsticks, magicians making things disappear or appear out of thin air. Fantasy. Stories. Not something connected to what we call real life. At some point, however, a different understanding began to reveal itself to me. An understanding of what magic truly is — and how deeply it influences our path toward God. I began to see that magic, in a much broader and quieter sense, is something humans practice every day, often without realizing it. For me, magic is not about rituals or spells. It is about the inner desire to exert power over matter, over others, or over reality itself. In that sense, I began to recognize magic in things like: - Speaking badly about others — condemning, judging, hating - Asking/praying for material outcomes (material wishes), even for things like health - Trying to influence others mentally — imagining conversations, arguments, or outcomes in which we subtly try to shape another person - Creating alternative realities in the mind — imagining how others should feel or react because of something we did All of these arise, often unconsciously, from a desire to rule over creation rather than surrender to God. For me, they originate in our animal nature, in the hunger for control, certainty, and power within the material world. Seen from this perspective, these acts are not neutral. They are sins. And when I look back at my own life and recognize how often I lived this way, I can say nothing else but: O Lord, have mercy on me — a sinner. Amen.