{"id":3700,"date":"2015-04-03T17:17:18","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T21:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/?p=3700"},"modified":"2015-04-03T17:48:35","modified_gmt":"2015-04-03T21:48:35","slug":"lucid-dreaming-and-astral-travel-in-the-early-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2015\/04\/lucid-dreaming-and-astral-travel-in-the-early-church.html","title":{"rendered":"Lucid dreaming and astral travel in the early Church"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
St.John of Lycopolis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Early fathers of the Christian church were in favor of active dreaming and astral travel. Tertullian, who famously observed that\u00a0\u00a0\u201cmost people derive their knowledge of God from dreams\u201d urged Christians who found themselves in captivity, perhaps on the way to martyrdom, to get out and about in their astral bodies:<\/p>\n

Though the body is shut in, though the flesh is confined, all things are open to the spirit. In spirit, then, roam abroad; in spirit walk about, not setting before you shady paths or long colonnades, but the way which leads to God. As often as in spirit your footsteps are there, so often you will not be in bonds. The leg does not feel the chain when the mind is in the heavens<\/em>. [Tertullian, Ad Maryras,<\/em> 197 CE]<\/p>\n

Athanasius explained in Contra Gentes<\/em> that “when\u00a0the body is still, at rest and sleeping, a man is in inner movement \u2013 he contemplates what is outside himself, he traverses foreign lands, he meets friends and often through them [dreams] he divines and learns in advance his daily actions. What else could this be [that travels] but a rational soul [psyche logike<\/em>]?”<\/p>\n

St.\u00a0Augustine described travels of the \u201cphantom\u201d who can visit another person in dreams.<\/p>\n

John of Lycopolis (d. 394), one of the Desert Fathers, became famous for his ability to travel in his dream body. A saint of the Coptic church, John was well-known during his life as a hermit for his \u00a0austerities; he lived in a cave and ate only fruit consumed after sundown. He was believed to have great psychic gifts. Emperors and generals consulted him, as a seer, on the outcome of future battles and political conflicts. He was attributed \u201cmighty works\u201d of healing and prophecy.<\/p>\n

He was fully aware of the ways in which psychic energy can work outside \u2013 and on \u2013 the physical body, and of the reality of dream travel and dream visitations.<\/p>\n

John was about ninety when a Roman tribune implored him to see his wife. She was anxious about a possibly dangerous journey by river and wanted the holy man\u2019s blessing. John had not seen a woman in forty years, and refused to see this one. The tribune\u2019s wife was persistent, swearing that she would not embark on her journey without John\u2019s blessing. When the tribune reported this to John, the desert father said, \u201cI shall appear tonight to her in a dream, and then she must not still be determined to see my face in the flesh.\u201d The tribune reported this to his wife.<\/p>\n

That night, John came to her in a dream. He told her modestly, \u201cI am a sinful man and of like passions with you.\u201d He added \u201cNevertheless I have prayed for you and for your husband\u2019s household, \u00a0that you may walk in peace according to your faith.\u201d The tribune\u2019s wife woke up and related the dream to her husband, who confirmed John\u2019s appearance as she had perceived him. She sent her husband to thank him, convinced she had received a real blessing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Wepwawet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is significant that this account of a dream visitation by an early Christian father involves a former cult center of one of the Egyptian deities most closely associated with astral travel. In Greek, Lycopolis means \u201cCity of the Wolf\u201d. The \u201cwolf\u201d in question is the jackal- (or dog-) headed god Wepwawet, whose name means \u201cOpener of the Ways\u201d.<\/p>\n

Wepwawet is similar to Anubis in both attributes and functions. Both are divine gatekeepers and psychomps \u2013 soul-guides \u2013 for both the living and the dead. In early times, Wepwawet was a god of Upper (or southern) Egypt while Anubis was worshipped in Lower (or northern) Egypt; later, they became syncretized. Special to Wepwawet is the function of serving as a scout and bodyguard for the pharaoh and his generals. His image appears on the shedshed<\/em>, the battle standard of Upper Egypt, and he is often depicted in battle gear carrying a mace and a bow. So it is interesting that John of Lycopolis was valued by generals as a battle seer and is said to have provided accurate forecasts of the outcome of the Emperor Theodosius\u2019 struggles with opposing armies and rebels.<\/p>\n

The primary source on John of Lycopolis and his dream visitation is The History of the Monks of Egypt, <\/em>an anonymous account of a journey by a group of seven brothers from a monastery on the Mount of Olives to the desert fathers in Egypt in the 380s. The author does not expound on the past history of Lycopolis, whose former residents included the great experiential philosopher Plotinus as well as a jackal-headed god. But the world of the Monks of Egypt <\/em>is a magical landscape where ascetic superheroes work miracles, do battle with evil spirits \u2013 and operate on the astral as well as the physical plane. The desert holy men live in a separate reality. \u201cSome of them do not even know that another world exists on earth or that evil is found in cities.\u201d Yet \u201cit is clear to all who dwell there that through them, the world is kept in being.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Early fathers of the Christian church were in favor of active dreaming and astral travel. Tertullian, who famously observed that\u00a0\u00a0\u201cmost people derive their knowledge of God from dreams\u201d urged Christians who found themselves in captivity, perhaps on the way to martyrdom, to get out and about in their astral bodies: Though the body is shut…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,10,35,20,7],"tags":[335,263,926,1071,1075,1077,1076,1074,1069,927,1072,1070,1073],"class_list":["post-3700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancient-religions","category-conscious-dreaming","category-dreaming-in-religion","category-history-of-dreaming","category-lucid-dreaming","tag-astral-body","tag-astral-projection","tag-astral-travel","tag-athanasius","tag-dream-doubles","tag-dreams-in-late-antiquity","tag-early-christian-church","tag-egypt-dreams","tag-john-of-lycopolis","tag-obe","tag-st-augustine","tag-tertullian","tag-wepwawet"],"yoast_head":"\nLucid dreaming and astral travel in the early Church - 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\/2015\/04\/lucid-dreaming-and-astral-travel-in-the-early-church.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lucid dreaming and astral travel in the early Church - Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Early fathers of the Christian church were in favor of active dreaming and astral travel. Tertullian, who famously observed that\u00a0\u00a0\u201cmost people derive their knowledge of God from dreams\u201d urged Christians who found themselves in captivity, perhaps on the way to martyrdom, to get out and about in their astral bodies: Though the body is shut…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2015\/04\/lucid-dreaming-and-astral-travel-in-the-early-church.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dream Gates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-03T21:17:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-04-03T21:48:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/2012\/02\/John-of-Lycopolis-300x300.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":"Lucid dreaming and astral travel in the early Church - 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\/2015\/04\/lucid-dreaming-and-astral-travel-in-the-early-church.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Lucid dreaming and astral travel in the early Church - Dream Gates","og_description":"Early fathers of the Christian church were in favor of active dreaming and astral travel. Tertullian, who famously observed that\u00a0\u00a0\u201cmost people derive their knowledge of God from dreams\u201d urged Christians who found themselves in captivity, perhaps on the way to martyrdom, to get out and about in their astral bodies: Though the body is shut…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2015\/04\/lucid-dreaming-and-astral-travel-in-the-early-church.html","og_site_name":"Dream Gates","article_published_time":"2015-04-03T21:17:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-04-03T21:48:35+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/2012\/02\/John-of-Lycopolis-300x300.jpg"}],"author":"Robert Moss","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2015\/04\/lucid-dreaming-and-astral-travel-in-the-early-church.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2015\/04\/lucid-dreaming-and-astral-travel-in-the-early-church.html","name":"Lucid dreaming and astral travel in the early Church - Dream Gates","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2015\/04\/lucid-dreaming-and-astral-travel-in-the-early-church.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2015\/04\/lucid-dreaming-and-astral-travel-in-the-early-church.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/2012\/02\/John-of-Lycopolis-300x300.jpg","datePublished":"2015-04-03T21:17:18+00:00","dateModified":"2015-04-03T21:48:35+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/#\/schema\/person\/941740e4115cce34706832d06aa76b6b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2015\/04\/lucid-dreaming-and-astral-travel-in-the-early-church.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2015\/04\/lucid-dreaming-and-astral-travel-in-the-early-church.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2015\/04\/lucid-dreaming-and-astral-travel-in-the-early-church.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/2012\/02\/John-of-Lycopolis-300x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/dreamgates\/files\/2012\/02\/John-of-Lycopolis-300x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/2015\/04\/lucid-dreaming-and-astral-travel-in-the-early-church.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lucid dreaming and astral travel in the early Church"}]},{"@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\/3700","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=3700"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6204,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3700\/revisions\/6204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dreamgates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}