In this recording, Archimandrite Athanasios Mytilinaios (1927-2006), answers the question: “Should we confess our sinful dreams or ignore them?” He speaks about the spiritual significance of dreams, their connection to our subconscious, and how to approach them with discernment from an Eastern Orthodox Christian perspective.
Audio source: “Answers to Catechism questions“, no. 975 (in Greek), December 8, 1996 https://arnion.gr/index.php/diafora-uemata/pantiseis-pori-n-katixitiko
Fr. Athanasios:
Should we confess our sinful dreams or is it better not to give them much importance since they are just dreams? Right, yes. The dream is not the same as performing an action. Only that which constitutes an action, that is a sinful one, is considered a sin. Therefore, a sinful dream is not a sin, but it is indicative of the state of a person’s subconscious. The condition in which our subconscious lies. As a result, if we have an impure subconscious, it emits dirty dreams like fumes. Yes, sometimes people who confess to me, tell me: “I had a dream, you know. Can I tell you about it?” In the end, I will of course say, “Do not believe in dreams,” but I still want to hear it. I want to hear it because, as I told you, it is indicative of people’s internal emotions and feelings and is useful. From a Christian perspective that is all we can learn from a dream.
Now, if this goes deeper into psychology and those things that Freud or other people wrote and said, I have nothing else to tell you, except that the road ahead is slippery. It is lubricious and dangerous. It is incredibly dangerous to start making various interpretations of dreams. Nothing else. We can only perceive the psychological state of the person. Desires, wishes, inclinations, and the like.
And of course, it is very difficult to heal and cleanse the subconscious. Not impossible of course, but extremely difficult. Because we carry inside us all the ancestral tendencies. I repeat, the ancestral tendencies. And since I am the child of my father and my mother, that is, of Adam and Eve, generations upon generations have passed through me, and so I have accumulated all those elements that define the human race. As a result, it is very natural for everyone to possess many unclean personality traits. That is all we can discuss about dreams. I would advise you that as soon as you wake up, try not to remember the dream. If you do this for a week, you will see that even though you have had vivid dreams, as soon as you wake up, they are forgotten. If you try it, you will understand my advice.
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