{"id":3647,"date":"2011-11-29T00:15:10","date_gmt":"2011-11-29T05:15:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/?p=3647"},"modified":"2011-11-29T00:36:12","modified_gmt":"2011-11-29T05:36:12","slug":"how-dreams-and-visions-made-christianity-the-religion-of-the-west","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/11\/how-dreams-and-visions-made-christianity-the-religion-of-the-west.html","title":{"rendered":"How dreams and visions made Christianity the religion of the West"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Piero della Francesca, "Dream of Constantine"<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Father, Son and Holy Ghost,” said the burly man who approached me after one of my lectures. “That’s it. I was raised Irish Catholic, and there’s no need for dreams in my religion.”<\/p>\n

I did not argue, but remarked gently that he might want to look at the role of dreams in the Bible, and in the early church.<\/p>\n

I had a similar exchange with a Protestant fundamentalist on a plane, a seemingly mild and thoughtful woman with whom I enjoyed a pleasant conversation until I asked if she remembered her dreams. She immediately froze. “I don’t dream<\/em>,” she said, gritting her teeth. “I’m a Christian.”<\/p>\n

Ironic, because on the evidence of both scripture and history, it can be said that there might be no Christianity without dreams and visions, and that it was a vision followed by a dream that made Christianity the religion of the West.<\/p>\n

Through dreams and visions, according to the Bible, \u00a0Mary and Joseph learned the identity of the extraordinary being who was coming to join the family. Without a visitation from the archangel of dreams, Joseph might have believed the rumors that Mary had had sex with another man (the favorite suspect being a Roman soldier called Pantera) and cast her out, giving the world a different story.<\/p>\n

The vision of a star guided the Magi toBethlehem, and their dreams persuaded them not to return to Herod with the location of the wonder child, enabling the holy family to escape into Egypt and thus saving the life of baby Jesus.<\/p>\n

A no less famous vision, on the road to Tarsus, turned a Jewish tax collector who was hostile to the Jesus cult into a passionate and effective proselytizer for the new faith. Saul (who now became Paul) was caught up into the \u201cthird heaven\u201d and could not say whether he was \u201cin the body or out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three days after his execution, the vision of Jesus, radiantly alive at the place of his burial, provided evidence of his promise of life beyond death. Only the women could see him at first. Then the sight and senses of the men were opened.<\/p>\n

The interlocking dreams and visions of the Roman centurion Cornelius and of the apostle Peter turned a Jewish sect into a world religion. A dream inspired Cornelius to send for Peter and offer to join the Christians. In the moment that Cornelius was reaching to him, a vision persuaded Peter to make the gentile welcome. A vision of a banquet of non-kosher food convinced Peter that non-Jews should be permitted to become Christians.<\/p>\n

Three centuries later, the vision of a Roman emperor, unfolded in a dream, made Christianity the religion of the West.<\/p>\n

Constantine had his vision in 312, on the eve of battle with the army of Maxentius, his rival for the throne. As church historian Eusebius told it, claiming the Emperor as his direct source, Constantine was feeling the need for divine support as his enemies in Rome mounted psychic attacks and offered blood sacrifices to the old gods to bring about his defeat.<\/p>\n

Constantine prayed to the supreme deity to reveal himself and \u201cstretch forth his hand\u201d. On their march,Constantine and \u201call the troops\u201d saw a \u201csign of the cross\u201d in the noonday sky, inscribed with the words, \u201cBy this, conquer.\u201dConstantine went to bed wondering what the sign meant. That night he was visited by a numinous being bearing the same symbol who ordered him to \u201cuse its likeness in his engagements with the enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Constantine ordered the manufacture of the sign he has been given, as a standard with the Greek letters \u201cchi-ro\u201d at the top of a cross.\u00a0Under the new sign, Constantine\u2019s army routed Maxentius\u2019s forces on the banks of theTiber. Maxentius drowned in the river near the Milvian bridge.<\/p>\n

It is possible that Christian intent \u2013 through focused prayer and even the group practice of dream-sending \u2013 generated the Emperor\u2019s visionary experiences. Certainly such things were believed possible at the time. Commenting on the effects of focused group intention, the early church father Origen suggested that \u201cif the Romans ever pray with complete agreement, they will be able to subdue many more pursuing armies than were destroyed by the power of Moses.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a Roman proverb that \u201cthe proof of a god is best found in his protection\u201d. The lord of battles believed by Constantineto have given him a sign and then a victory became the Lord of the Roman Empire.<\/p>\n

Scholars are divided over how Constantine viewed and understood his God. He delayed Christian baptism until he was on his deathbed. Some historians suggest that he was vague about the distinction between the Christian God and Helios, the old sun-god, though in Pagans and Christians<\/em> Robin Lane Fox maintains that Constantine personally worked up a sermon delivered on Good Friday in 324.<\/p>\n

Either way, the vision and the dream of an Emperor transformed the West into Christendom.<\/p>\n

adapted from The Secret History of Dreaming<\/a><\/em> by Robert Moss. Published by New World Library.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Father, Son and Holy Ghost,” said the burly man who approached me after one of my lectures. “That’s it. I was raised Irish Catholic, and there’s no need for dreams in my religion.” I did not argue, but remarked gently that he might want to look at the role of dreams in the Bible, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,35,20],"tags":[802,803,799,805,801,804,800],"class_list":["post-3647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancient-religions","category-dreaming-in-religion","category-history-of-dreaming","tag-battle-of-milvian-bridge","tag-chi-ro","tag-constantine","tag-cornelius","tag-dreams-in-christianity","tag-magi","tag-visions"],"yoast_head":"\nHow dreams and visions made Christianity the religion of the West - Dream Gates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/11\/how-dreams-and-visions-made-christianity-the-religion-of-the-west.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How dreams and visions made Christianity the religion of the West - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“Father, Son and Holy Ghost,” said the burly man who approached me after one of my lectures. “That’s it. I was raised Irish Catholic, and there’s no need for dreams in my religion.” I did not argue, but remarked gently that he might want to look at the role of dreams in the Bible, and…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/11\/how-dreams-and-visions-made-christianity-the-religion-of-the-west.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-29T05:15:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-11-29T05:36:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/2011\/11\/Dream_of_Constantine-Piero-della-Francesca-164x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Moss\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How dreams and visions made Christianity the religion of the West - Dream Gates","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/11\/how-dreams-and-visions-made-christianity-the-religion-of-the-west.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How dreams and visions made Christianity the religion of the West - Dream Gates","og_description":"“Father, Son and Holy Ghost,” said the burly man who approached me after one of my lectures. “That’s it. I was raised Irish Catholic, and there’s no need for dreams in my religion.” I did not argue, but remarked gently that he might want to look at the role of dreams in the Bible, and…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/11\/how-dreams-and-visions-made-christianity-the-religion-of-the-west.html","og_site_name":"Dream Gates","article_published_time":"2011-11-29T05:15:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-11-29T05:36:12+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/2011\/11\/Dream_of_Constantine-Piero-della-Francesca-164x300.jpg"}],"author":"Robert Moss","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/11\/how-dreams-and-visions-made-christianity-the-religion-of-the-west.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/11\/how-dreams-and-visions-made-christianity-the-religion-of-the-west.html","name":"How dreams and visions made Christianity the religion of the West - Dream Gates","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/11\/how-dreams-and-visions-made-christianity-the-religion-of-the-west.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/11\/how-dreams-and-visions-made-christianity-the-religion-of-the-west.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/2011\/11\/Dream_of_Constantine-Piero-della-Francesca-164x300.jpg","datePublished":"2011-11-29T05:15:10+00:00","dateModified":"2011-11-29T05:36:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/#\/schema\/person\/941740e4115cce34706832d06aa76b6b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/11\/how-dreams-and-visions-made-christianity-the-religion-of-the-west.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/11\/how-dreams-and-visions-made-christianity-the-religion-of-the-west.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/11\/how-dreams-and-visions-made-christianity-the-religion-of-the-west.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/2011\/11\/Dream_of_Constantine-Piero-della-Francesca-164x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/2011\/11\/Dream_of_Constantine-Piero-della-Francesca-164x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2011\/11\/how-dreams-and-visions-made-christianity-the-religion-of-the-west.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How dreams and visions made Christianity the religion of the West"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/","name":"Dream Gates","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Robert Moss","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/#\/schema\/person\/941740e4115cce34706832d06aa76b6b","name":"Robert Moss","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/777\/7770e3a2cde4458084d9a31237336b92x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/777\/7770e3a2cde4458084d9a31237336b92x96.jpg","caption":"Robert Moss"},"description":"Robert Moss describes himself as a dream teacher, on a path for which there has been no career track in our culture. He is the creator of Active Dreaming, an original synthesis of dreamwork and shamanism. Born in Australia, he survived three near-death experiences in childhood. He leads popular seminars all over the world, including a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. A former lecturer in ancient history at the Australian National University, he is a best-selling novelist, journalist and independent scholar. His nine books on dreaming, shamanism and imagination include Conscious Dreaming, Dreamways of the Iroquois, The Dreamer's Book of the Dead, The Three \"\"Only\"\" Things, The Secret History of Dreaming, Dreamgates, Active Dreaming and Dreaming the Soul Back Home: Shamanic Dreaming for Healing and Becoming Whole. His most recent book is The Boy Who Died and Came Back: Adventures of a Dream Archaeologist in the Multiverse. Over the past 20 years, he has led seminars at the Esalen Institute, Kripalu, the Omega Institute, the New York Open Center, Bastyr University, John F. Kennedy University, Meriter Hospital, and many other centers and institutions. He has taught depth workshops in Active Dreaming in the UK, Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Romania, Brazil and Austria and leads a three-year training for teachers of Active Dreaming. He hosts the \"\"Way of the Dreamer\"\" radio show at www.healthylife.net. He has appeared on many TV and radio shows, ranging from Charlie Rose and the Today show to Coast to Coast and the Diane Rehm show on NPR. His articles on dreaming have been published in media ranging from Parade to Shaman's Drum.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.mossdreams.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/author\/rmoss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3647"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3664,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3647\/revisions\/3664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}