Ghosts

Dream By Elif – Hi, lately I have read many dream posts in forums on nightmares about ghosts or being chased by ghosts. Can someone explain more about the subject of ghosts in dreams? Do you believe in them? or if they really exist can they be as terrifying as in the movies? Can anyone explain the subject of ghosts in a simple language that I can understand?…

For me, I never believed in ghosts but rather see them as souls of our ‘lost’ ones passd over. And if they really exist  I wander how they can be so terrifying if they are the souls of those passed over (loved ones). They can only want to help us. Why are people afraid of them so much and how do they relate to our nightmares?

Reply By Sowelu – Hi Elif! Ghosts are often symbolic of hidden, unknown or feared parts of self that a person has been afraid to face. When they begin to appear in dreams, it’s often indicative of a time in a person’s life when they are having to address long-feared and pushed away thoughts, past traumas, ideas that imply fearful things, etc.

So, with compassion, I would say that people who fear ghosts do so with “good reason” in their lives, and until they know themselves fully, they will continue to fear them. Knowing the self in all its dark recesses is not an “easy” thing, and certainly not common in our human population.

You have a basic understanding of how to perceive what we encounter, imo. There are many, many ways to understand though, believe it or not. In my experiences I’ve come to an understanding that physical life is a temporary portion of an Eternal Being’s existence. Just an excursion of the Essential Being, into a material reality, for the experience and learning it provides.

You have somewhat expressed a similar understanding. But there are many who cannot yet see things from this type of perspective, or may not ever do so in this lifetime. It helps to bear this in mind. They are not “wrong” about how they understand things, nor are you “right” about how you understand things, it’s just that each is at a different level of understanding. When it’s time to know, we know. Until then, we have experiences that accumulate to eventually bring us to knowledge.

Those who dream of ghosts – which can be actual souls-without-bodies or any number of OTHER manifestations, btw – and feel fear, are being shown through the dream that there is something that exists that they still do not truly know, and because it is hidden from their understanding, they fear it. Once they come to know what that ghost truly is, they will no longer feel fear.

The process of life is the process of revealing all that is hidden, until the person Knows. This is a very long and intricate process of unfoldment. No need to rush.

What you labeled “bad”, for instance, is something I no longer see that way. I see the negative expressions (stealing, harming, killing, etc.) as true expressions of how greatly that self does not realize who it is. Not “bad” but simply a self in denial, negation and suppression of its truth. And struggling to gain because it feels it lacks, though this isn’t actually truth. All for lessons.

The progression of your questions reveals a growth in understanding, and adds to the Whole greatly, imo, so please feel free to continue exploring “out loud”.

Namasté, Sowelu