What does it really mean to dream?

What does it really mean to dream?

If we cut open the brain, can we actually find where dreams live? We might be able to point to areas responsible for REM sleep or imagination, but we can’t physically extract a dream, hold it in our hands or measure its meaning. It exists… but not in a way we can prove in the traditional sense.

I’ve always been secretly fascinated by dreams and what happens to our subconscious, and maybe even our soul, when we fall asleep. How often do we say, “I had the weirdest dream…”. I know I’ve said it thousands of times. I’ve been a vivid dreamer for as long as I can remember. From about 8 years old, I’ve been telling my mum my dreams… and honestly, I still do.

And then there are people who rarely remember their dreams. Do they just forget them or do they not dream at all? What makes one person recall every tiny detail, while another wakes up with nothing? And what about the intensity? Some dreams feel like they’re just processing the day, while others leave a lingering feeling, uneasy, emotional and even scared.

Are those the dreams that mean something more? I have so many questions!!

Over the past few years, I’ve had a couple of dreams that felt, let’s just say - different. Not just dreams, but experiences. The kind that stay with you, clear as day.

One was around 2021 or 2022. At the time, I was still running my photography business and working closely with my mindset coach, Johl. I had my usual 1:1 zoom call with Johl this particular day, and I had the most incredible dream that previous night to the point I was still a bit shaken by it.

I was in a nursing home visiting my great grandmother, who passed away in 1992 mind you! My mum and Aunty were there, and we were waiting for her in a room that looked like an old RSL lounge. While sitting there waiting for Grandma to arrive, I looked across the room and in the corner there was hospital bed with an old man hooked up to all the machines and monitors.

I had this deep knowing that I needed to go to him. He was an elderly man, quite frail probably in his mid to late 80's.

There were no spoken words but we communicated telepathically, he asked me for a drink. There was a juice box next to him and he lifted slightly so he could sit up and I held the juice box and straw to his mouth as he took a sip.  He thanked me and I told him (again telepathically) “it's ok to go now, it's time to go now.” He still resisted only so slightly, and next thing I put my hand to his chest, over his heart, and told him “it's time to go”, and with that he let go and passed.

That was the end of the "dream".

I've always remembered every detail clear as day, and when I was relaying the story, I said, 'Johl, I think I helped someone pass over last night" and his reply, "I think you did too!!".

At the time, I hadn’t stepped into any kind of healing work yet. I wasn’t consciously aware of energy, frequency or any of what I do now. But looking back, it feels like my soul already was.

~

The second dream was in 2024, just before I went to Bali for a spiritual and abundance retreat.

In this dream, I was outside in a field of some sort.  There were heaps of other random people around, and I saw these two massive space ships flying overhead - it actually looked just like the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars!  I pulled out my phone and started recording a video as it was going over my head. In this dream there was no talking but again, just a knowing.

They were from the year 2806.

And they were here to repair what humanity had done to the Earth.

It sounds wild, I know. But the clarity, the detail, the certainty, it didn’t feel imagined.

~

Last night’s dream felt like another one of those moments.

Standing on shore of the ocean, the stars met with the horizon.  Looking up, the sky was full of stars and colours, but there was this circular shape, like a portal but not a portal - the only way to describe it is like those paper-cut cards, where you open it and it has layers of card to create the image. It was a magnificent sight. 

And again… it felt like a place. Not something imagined, but somewhere I had been.

And that’s where I keep coming back to this question… if I’ve never seen something like that before, if it wasn’t pulled from a movie or a memory then where did it come from?

Is it imagination… or is it something else? I don’t have the answers. I’m not here to convince anyone of anything.

But I do know this… dreams don’t always feel random.

Sometimes they feel like messages.
Sometimes they feel like experiences.
And sometimes… they feel like memories you can’t quite place.

So I’ll leave you with this.

Have you ever had a dream that stayed with you? One you couldn’t shake, one that felt too real to just be “a dream”, and if so, what do you think it was really trying to show you? I’d love to hear!

Lauren

x

Ai creation of the scene in my “dream”