What Are Dreams?

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In Edgar Cayce’s readings, a dream is an experience that forms while the ordinary conscious mind is quiet and becomes available to the waking mind through an impression or memory. In answer to the question “What is a dream?”, Cayce said that when the body has “laid aside the conscious” in sleep, impressions may be “brought back to the conscious mind”; when this happens, “it is termed a dream” (3744-5).

Cayce described dreams as coming through several channels. Some are connected with the physical body. He said that bodily conditions, including digestion, may influence dreams: “Such manifestations are termed or called nightmares” (3744-5). In another reading he described dreams “of the purely physical,” where conditions are “magnified through the action of the digestive system” (2218-1). A disturbing or confused dream, then, may reflect what is happening in the body rather than carry a deeper message.

Other dreams reflect the mind’s thoughts and feelings. Cayce said that thoughts from waking life can pass into the subconscious and reappear in dreams. “The conscious forces feed the subconscious,” he explained, and thoughts carried in the mind may return “through dreams” (136-7). He also described some dreams as the self trying to communicate with the everyday mind: “the self, or the ENTITY—the soul of self—attempts to reason with the purely mental mind” (2218-1).

In this view, dreams can bring together the body, the conscious mind, and the subconscious. Cayce called them “experiences of correlation” between mental and physical conditions and the subconscious (302-3). He also described dreams as “the speech of the conditions in the mental, physical, or sub-conscious self” (900-8). A dream may therefore reflect what a person is thinking about, what they are feeling, what the body is experiencing, or several of these at once.

Cayce often said that the subconscious presents ideas through symbols. In one reading, he described dreams as “symbolic conditions, each representing a various phase to the mental development of the entity” (136-54). He also said that the inner forces present “emblematical conditions” for a person’s “study and for its good” (140-6). A house, mountain, journey, or other image may therefore represent an inner condition or a stage of personal development, rather than having one fixed meaning for everyone.

For this reason, Cayce advised people to look at their own lives when considering a dream. “Dreams are presented in symbols, in signs,” he said, and advised the dreamer to interpret them “in thyself,” rather than depend on a dream book or on what others say (1968-10). The meaning may be found by asking what the dream connects with in one’s thoughts, relationships, choices, worries, hopes, or physical condition.

Cayce also described dreams as a way to review experience and learn from it. He said dreams may bring “the more perfect understanding” of the forces at work in a person’s life (140-6). Another reading says they can make experiences “applicable to the mental, material, or physical conditions” of a person’s life (195-37). In a later reading, he described dreams as showing lessons that may be used “in the daily life” (900-269). The dream matters, in this sense, when its meaning helps a person understand or improve their waking life.

Some readings describe dreams as reaching beyond ordinary thought. Cayce said that dreams may begin in the body, the mind, or “the realm of activity without the body through the desires and purposes of the soul itself” (262-64). He also spoke of dreams that may bring “warnings, or knowledge, or understanding” (2218-1). In another reading, he described the possibility of “visions of the past, visions of the present, visions of the future,” adding that to the subconscious “there is no past or future—all present” (136-54).

Cayce did not treat every dream as having the same origin or meaning. He described “dreams of many natures,” including physical reactions, mental impressions, symbolic lessons, and experiences he associated with the soul (281-27; 2218-1). Some dreams may be confused or shaped by bodily conditions; others may reveal recurring thoughts or feelings; and still others may feel like guidance or a warning.

Taken together, the readings describe dreams as impressions formed through the body, mind, subconscious, and, at times, the soul. They may reflect what is already active within a person, express it in symbols, and offer insight that can be applied in daily life. As Cayce put it, dreams are “for the interpretation and use of the body,” with “each giving their lesson” (900-312).

A few readings connect dreams with planetary sojourns—the soul’s experiences in planetary spheres—and with the mental tendencies or longings associated with those experiences.

In Reading 1992-1, Cayce says: “In the astrological aspects we find Venus, Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn a part of the entity’s experiences… And thus we have innate or manifested urges according to the dreams or visions of the entity.” The reading continues: “Then as the physical consciousness is laid aside, there may come dreams or visions…”

In Reading 2409-1, Cayce speaks more directly about planetary sojourns: “These come from sojourns in Jupiter, Uranus, Venus. Hence sentiment, the mental, the vision of power and activity in varied spheres of material expression will be the dreams of the body…”

Here, the passage links those planetary experiences with qualities such as sentiment, thought, and a vision of power or activity, which may show themselves in dreams.

Reading 259-8 also connects planetary influences with inner experience: “As to the astrological influences and the sojourns of the entity in those environs about the earth, only as mental influences may these be seen in the experience of the mental developments in the present sojourn.” It then adds: “Hence sentiment, the mental, the vision of power and activity in varied spheres of material expression will be the dreams of the body…”

Taken together, these readings describe planetary sojourns as influences that may appear through a person’s mental development, natural urges, hopes, and dreams. They do not necessarily say that every dream is a literal memory of visiting a planet; the emphasis is on planetary experiences expressing themselves as mental influences in the present life.

Cayce also cautions against treating astrology as fixed destiny. Reading 2409-1 says: “An entity is not thus influenced because of being born under a certain star…”

The passage instead stresses the soul’s choices and development: how a person uses their will and expresses qualities such as “mercy, justice and right.”