Historically, what has been referred to as the 'unconscious mind' related primarily to repressed or suppressed emotions or attitudes that the watchful ego could not allow into everyday awareness. However, this is a limited perception of this sphere of activity, for in addition to suppression, the function of the unconscious mind is one of integration, understanding, and healing, each of which can result in new experiences for the psyche as well as old. Many of these new experiences occur during the dream state.

The unconscious mind includes thoughts and emotions that have not crossed over into daytime awareness, but it also includes perceptions and intuitions that have been barely noticed that are not yet held as valid by waking consciousness. Such perceptions run the gamut from subtle observations of things having to do with others that the waking self may not register – things such as the meaning of the body language that others display, the energetic and emotional effect of things people say, the interpretation of hidden motivations that one may witness - to intuitions that partake of a different reality altogether whose questioned validity has placed them in the realm of the unconscious rather than in the realm of everyday awareness. In this category are:

- perceptions of energies of different kinds

- messages from another aspect of the self

- guidance from beings from other realms,

- altered perceptions of reality that pierce through the outer layer of separation between objects and people, and

- a sense of the holy or sacred that may not yet be available to waking experience.

Also included in this category are 'bleed-throughs' or remembrances from other lifetimes and premonitions of things yet to come.

While many of these aspects of the unconscious mind remain hidden from daytime knowing, during sleep they are given greater permission to emerge since at this time the ego is less vigilant. Then, such things as guarded emotions or emotions that seem much stronger than what we are actually aware of feeling, appear, as do ideas and perceptions that may not have been given attention during the day. Furthermore, because of the greater relaxation of mental control during sleep, new experiences can occur that further the growth of the self and that create linkages with the soul and higher self. These experiences are not precisely dreams. Rather, they are events of a spiritual nature which open the doors to a multidimensional reality in which both self and outer reality can be perceived in a different way.

For example, there may be an experience that seems quite real of being in a foreign or unfamiliar environment and of meeting someone and receiving a message of instruction. Though the landscape of such an environment may be ordinary, the message that is received may not be. This can be an example of a translation of an other-dimensional experience of receiving guidance into the physical realm in a way that permits the embodied self to receive it. The meaning of the message remains, placed in a context that waking consciousness can hold and relate to. Such experiences of other-dimensional realities are more common today than previously, produced by the enhancement of light and the increased closeness of dimensions of a higher vibration to the one of physical reality.

In the end, the unconscious mind may be viewed as a river whose flow is connected to both the emotions that are felt during daily experience, and to the movement of learning that is part of the orchestration of the soul-level of our being. From this level, the soul continually seeks to bring its wisdom, knowledge, and love into the embodied state of our life. The movement toward growth initiated from the soul-level can result in dreams that are teaching tools as well as new experiences. When treated with respect and with an openness to learn from them that befits their sacred origin, we accelerate the emotional and spiritual growth that is central to our reason for being. We also move past more limited concepts of personal identity that may have been acquired in the past, into an open-ended, ever-expanding view of who we are and a greater awareness of the flow of life.

For additional writings by Julie Redstone and Messages by Request, see Pathways of Light. For more about the meaning of dreams see "The Nature of Dreaming: A Doorway into Multidimensional Realities" within the Light Omega Reader.