Why We Have Dreams about the Future

I am going to focus in this post on why we have dreams that relate to the future. They may be dreams about some person we meet in the future, an illness not yet visible, an opportunity not yet seen, or a global event such as climate change. First, I want to repeat something I stated in an earlier post, which is the relative infrequency of dreams of global events. Most of our dreams relate to our personal lives in some way and do not extend beyond the sphere of family, friends, and coworkers. Very few of the psychic readings of the even famous psychic Edgar Cayce, who is often regarded as a prophet, related to global events. Most related to the individual for whom the reading was given.

I believe we have certain dreams about the future for several reasons. First, during the course of the day, and especially right before falling asleep, we may be thinking about some aspect of our future or the broader future such as for the economy. Our conscious focus triggers a subconscious response in the way of a dream, which may provide an answer to our concerns. As an example, if I am single, I may despair about ever meeting someone with whom I can share my life. If you have spent the day obsessing about this, you might have a dream that shows you with someone you do not now know, but will later meet as your future partner.

The subconscious is part of a universal consciousness and can receive information from an unlimited number of sources. It is not restricted by time or space. Your subconscious filters out most of the information it receives and does not pass it to your conscious mind through a dream. However, if you consciously seek some answer related to the future, the subconscious will reveal the answer based on current conditions and pass it to your conscious mind in a dream. Your conscious desire is the trigger for the dream. This applies to your personal life as well as for global events.

Another reason for a dream about a future event relates to the unconscious mind and its purpose. You have entered this life with a purpose, and your conscious choices may be taking you in the wrong direction. The subconscious creates a dream with a message that is intended to steer you into a direction consistent with your soul’s purpose. Sometimes the message is subtle, and other times it comes as a stern reprimand.

Still other reasons for dreams of the future involve warnings and missed opportunities. If something in the future is a threat or danger, your subconscious sees the threat and creates a dream containing a warning. If dreams of warning are ignored, catastrophic results can occur. Also, sometimes we are shown the future we could experience, but are not experiencing, if we lived up to our potential. The dreams are provided as encouragement to more fully utilize abilities we possess.

Anything the unconscious mind thinks we need to know about the future will find its way into a dream, if the unconscious thinks that is the right way to inform us. However, the dream may not be remembered upon awakening, so the message may be lost. If the subconscious considers it important enough, the message is repeated in different ways in further dreams until we do remember them and get the message.

Dreams of the future can relate to the next day, or they can concern an event many years into the future. When I was thirteen or fourteen, I had an extremely vivid, powerful dream that showed me the entire course my life would take. Now in retirement, I realize that my life has evolved exactly as depicted in the dream. However, most of my dreams about the future relate to the next day. 

When interpreting your dreams, you may have a tendency to see events depicted in the future as happening soon—within days or weeks at the most. Often this is the case, but time to the subconscious mind is not the same as to the conscious mind. The subconscious may see an event as a certainty and show it as occurring in a dream, but in our material word, the event may be years or even decades away. 

Precognitive Dreams and Time

In precognitive dreams, time can be an elusive element. If you dream about something happening as a future event, often no date for the occurrence is provided. However, sometimes a specific time may be provided such as when a voice says something like the following: this will happen in thirty days or by the end of the month. The event can also be linked to another event, and the event of concern may occur shortly after the other event occurs. 

The lack of a predicted time can be a frustrating thing to experience. I have had dreams where a specific date was provided for the predicted event, and I have had dreams in which no date was provided for the predicted event. Once I dreamed a health-related event would occur in ninety days, and it happened in exactly ninety days. Another time I dreamed about food shortages beginning in China in three years (the dream occurred in April of 2015), a date that is fast approaching. However, when I dreamed about major storms hitting South Carolina, a date was not provided. The actual storms occurred a little over five months after my dream. 

Last year in July, almost one year ago, I dreamed the stock market would crash. A date for this event was not provided. Obviously, this has not yet happened yet. Also, in my posted dream about seeing a graph of the unemployment rate, no time scale was shown for the graph. I could only see the steady decline, which has occurred, followed by a steep increase from the bottom, which has not yet occurred. 

Over the years, I have had many dreams about future personal events, and usually I will experience their occurrence within a few weeks. However, this may only be my perception. Perhaps, other events that will not occur until years into the future were forgotten because nothing occurred within a few weeks or months. I know that some of the events shown in my precognitive dreams about future personal events did not occur for several years. 

I believe we are shown things in dreams a certain way for a reason. When time is not provided, perhaps it is not yet known. Or maybe the higher mind wants the dreamer to spend some time exploring the possibilities along with potential ramifications. I have spent considerable time contemplating the possibilities for my dreams about the stock market and the graph of the unemployment rate. At the time of the dreams, I believe the events indicated were likely events. Whether or not they actually occur is still an open question. However, I do not think we will have to wait much longer for an answer.