Spiritual Dreaming: A Cross-Cultural and Historical Journey

The author’s areas of specialization are spirituality (he has a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago’s Divinity School and a Master’s in theological studies from Harvard) and dreams (he has written at least 4 books on dreams and spirituality, including this one). A major focus of this book is on how we can benefit from others’ accounts of their dreams. Bulkeley demonstrates this, in its broadest sense, by providing over 200 accounts of spiritual dreams recorded throughout history and from many cultures. Reading about the spiritual dreams of others can help us to better recognize our own. This compendium, in effect, is a collection of dreams that are exceptional experiences or exceptional human experiences.

It stands to reason that the spiritual dreams of others can speak to all people, based on what I have learned from studying a broad range of exceptional human experiences (EHEs). Listening to or reading about another person’s EHE can be very enlightening and can assist people in potentiating the meaning of their own EHEs, dreams, visions, synchronicities, mystical experiences, or those of whatever other type. I suggest this is so because the part of ourselves from which EHEs originate is not our individual space-bound self but what William James called our "germinal higher part," which is common to all humans and is also continuous with the divine. As we awaken, educate, and live from this part of ourselves, we become transformed.

Bulkeley defines spiritual dreams as those "that reveal an aspect of the sacred,…something of the ultimate powers, truths, and values of reality…they are numinous dreams, dreams that are experienced as mysterious encounters with ‘the wholly other,’…such potent dreams address the basic existential questions that lie at the heart of all religious and spiritual traditions.…People’s beliefs regarding these questions are often deepened and revitalized by their dream experiences. On occasion, a person’s entire spiritual worldview may be transformed by a dream encounter with the sacred" (pp. 2-3). And so I suggest it is with any type of EHE.