Sleeping and dreams  

We present in this issue the topic #119 from the Systematized Study of the Spiritist Doctrine, that is being presented weekly, according to the programme elaborated by the Brazilian Spiritist Federation (FEB), structured in 6 modules and 147 topics.

If the reader uses this program for a study group, we suggest that questions proposed be discussed freely before the reading of the text that follows. If you would like to study alone, we ask you to try to answer the questions at first and only then read the text that follows. The answer key can be found at the end of the lesson. 

Questions

1. What can we understand as emancipation of the soul?

2. What is the main goal of sleeping?

3. Which another main factor of sleeping benefits people?

4. What are dreams?

5.Why don’t we dream every day?

Text

Sleeping is necessary to renew our physical energy

1. The momentarily detachment of the incarnated spirit from its body is called emancipation of the soul. It’s necessary to understand that, during the spirit’s incarnation, the soul is never completely separated from the body. It exists something called perispirit which is the bond between the soul and the body. It is through the perispirit that the spirit knows when his presence is necessary back to the body, no matter how distant the spirit is from the body. The return to the spirit’s body happens immediately.

2. The emancipation of the soul can happen in many different situations during the existence. Sleeping is one of these situations, which is for the majority, only to rest their physical bodies.

3. If the activities of the spirit were nonstop, the body would be lead to exhaustion causing death. That’s why God, in his immense wisdom, established the night time for our rest, when the body can rest and our energies can be renewed.   

4. Sleeping has a bigger significance to our lives than we give it credits for and bigger consequences also. While the body is resting, not needing the spirit to command its physical or mental activities, the spirit frees himself for some time and regain his/hers spiritual perceptions. It’s common for spirits to seek the company of other spirits who they get along with or even morally superior to them, to talk, plan and learn.

During sleep, the spirit doesn’t rest like the body does  

5. Evidently, there are many spirits that, during sleep while the body rests, go to spiritual inferior areas even on Earth to meet other spirits that synchronise with them to enjoy situations that are many times worse than the ones we see on Earth.

6. Thanks to sleeping, the incarnated spirits have contact with the spiritual world, and this is one of the reasons for the morally superior spirits to agree in incarnating amongst us. God wanted the good spirits, while incarnated, to have the opportunity to renew their spiritual energies to not fail themselves in their path, since they also have contact with temptations and moral difficulties while on Earth. Sleeping is the door that God opens for them to enjoy the company of their spiritual friends and guardian angels. It’s similar to a break after work, while these incarnated spirits wait for the death of the body, which will give them the freedom and send them back to their natural environment.

7. Let’s not forget then that the spirit doesn’t rest with the body while we sleep. The spirit is never inactive. With the bond between the body and the spirit less tight during sleep time, the incarnated spirit will seek the company of the ones who he/she synchronises with. They can be their relatives, friends or colleagues. And we have proof of these activities through dreams, which many people experience.

8. If the body sleeps, how can we feel alive, move, perceive different environments and have contact with disincarnated spirits? What are dreams if not the result of our spiritual activities while sleeping?

Dreams are relative proves that our soul emancipates from our body during sleep

9. Answering directly to a question formulated by Allan Kardec about this subject, the good spirits teach us that is through dreams that we can evaluate the freedom of the spirit during sleep. Dreams are memories of what the spirit saw during sleep, which can be something he saw from the past to something that it’s going to happen in this existence in the future.

10. Not always we remember what happens during our sleep because of the primitive matter that forms our body, which rarely preserves the spiritual impressions. This happens because these spiritual impressions didn’t come from the organs of the body, it comes from the perispirit.

11. It is not difficult to understand this process. While we are awake, perceptions are dependent on the organs of our body. Impressions are selected by organs which transmit everything through the nervous system to our brain where they are stored. This storage is available to us every time we want to remember something. During sleep, nothing comes from the organs of our body and the impressions don’t go through our brain. But because of the connection between spirit and body, occasionally, information can go through the brain and the spirit can remember what he/she saw or heard during sleep. This person will say they had a dream.

12. It is a proof also of encounters between incarnated spirits during sleep and there are many articles about especially in the classic books of Spiritism.

Answer Key