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Question Title	Posted By	Question Date
Dreams/sin	Michael	Saturday, January 26, 2013
Question: Bro. Ignatius Mary, In a recent post you stated: "No matter what your dream, it is not sin. We have no control over our dreams. Sin requires free consent. We do not consent to our dreams. Dreams just happen. Thus, there is no sin of any kind no matter the content of a dream." I feel I have experienced this is not entirely true when it comes to lucid dreams, in which one does have control over their actions in varying degrees. I have confessed sexual sins in lucid dreaming many times, and no priest has ever said it is not a sin, but rather seemed to know what I was talking about. I will give you my most significant example of why I feel one can sin in lucid dreams: I felt guilty every time after choosing to have sex and molest "people" in my dreams with full control of what I was doing. I confessed and tried to stop with some success, but then fail back into the habit. During this time I was praying very hard to get close to God and pull away from a sinful lifestyle. In a lucid dream... I had sexual desire and I could have resisted it but chose not to, even though I knew it was wrong. As you know spiritual warfare can take place in lucid dreaming as well, and I have cast them out inside dreams many times with full control. I doesn't happen anymore, but I think to say that dreams "just happen" without making the distinction between lucid dreaming could lead a few people astray, especially if they feel the guilt of sin after waking up. You know better than I what you should say or not say on here and God leads you, but this has been my experience. God bless you, Mike
Question Answered by Dear Michael: There is no conscious control of positive volition is regular or lucid dreams (with one exception I will get to in a minute). Even if one makes a "choice" to sin in a dream, this is not a genuine exercise of deliberate and intentional positive volition. Thus, there is no culpability for anything that happens in those dreams, whether they be regular or lucid. The only exception is when one intentionally, on purpose, with deliberation attempts to manipulate lucid dreams. There are techniques for doing this. For this to be culpable the person must intend the manipulation of the dreams for sinful purposes. Some people state that 98% those who do this usually do it for pornographic reasons. This is not something that happens in lucid dreams in-and-of-itself. The control of these lucid dreams must be deliberately and consciously chosen when awake. One has to train himself to accomplish this. When a person does train himself to have sexual lucid dreaming the sin committed is that of lust. It is no different than lusting after someone in the waking state, or lusting at pornography. But, as I said, the culpability of sexual lucid dreams can only exist if the person has trained himself to control these dreams and deliberately chooses to do so in the waking state. The solution? Do no train oneself to control dreams in the first place. If one has already done that, then stop doing the exercises that facilitate this phenomenon. As a last resort, if needed, train yourself to not have sexual dreams but dreams of something proper. Then once that is accomplished stop manipulating dreams altogether. In addition, in addition to confession, which requires repentance (which means turning away from the sin) renounce these dreams and ask God to give you the strength to stop your dream manipulations. There are prayers in our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog, linked below, that are useful for this. Even though you may have gotten yourself into this mess all by yourself, do not underestimate the desire of the devil to exploit your stupidity. Demons love to hitchhike on problems that already exist. Thus, do not forget the spiritual warfare aspect of this. God Bless, Bro. Ignatius Mary For information on how to receive help see our Help page. We suggest that before contacting us directly for help you try the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance. These self-help steps will often resolve the problem. Also our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog contains many prayers that may be helpful. If needed you can ask for a Personal Consultation.

Question Title

Posted By

Question Date

Dreams/sin

Michael

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Question:

Bro. Ignatius Mary,

In a recent post you stated: "No matter what your dream, it is not sin. We have no control over our dreams. Sin requires free consent. We do not consent to our dreams. Dreams just happen. Thus, there is no sin of any kind no matter the content of a dream."

I feel I have experienced this is not entirely true when it comes to lucid dreams, in which one does have control over their actions in varying degrees. I have confessed sexual sins in lucid dreaming many times, and no priest has ever said it is not a sin, but rather seemed to know what I was talking about.

I will give you my most significant example of why I feel one can sin in lucid dreams:

I felt guilty every time after choosing to have sex and molest "people" in my dreams with full control of what I was doing. I confessed and tried to stop with some success, but then fail back into the habit. During this time I was praying very hard to get close to God and pull away from a sinful lifestyle. In a lucid dream... I had sexual desire and I could have resisted it but chose not to, even though I knew it was wrong.

As you know spiritual warfare can take place in lucid dreaming as well, and I have cast them out inside dreams many times with full control. I doesn't happen anymore, but I think to say that dreams "just happen" without making the distinction between lucid dreaming could lead a few people astray, especially if they feel the guilt of sin after waking up. You know better than I what you should say or not say on here and God leads you, but this has been my experience.

God bless you,
Mike

Question Answered by

Dear Michael:

There is no conscious control of positive volition is regular or lucid dreams (with one exception I will get to in a minute). Even if one makes a "choice" to sin in a dream, this is not a genuine exercise of deliberate and intentional positive volition. Thus, there is no culpability for anything that happens in those dreams, whether they be regular or lucid.

The only exception is when one intentionally, on purpose, with deliberation attempts to manipulate lucid dreams. There are techniques for doing this. For this to be culpable the person must intend the manipulation of the dreams for sinful purposes. Some people state that 98% those who do this usually do it for pornographic reasons.

This is not something that happens in lucid dreams in-and-of-itself. The control of these lucid dreams must be deliberately and consciously chosen when awake. One has to train himself to accomplish this.

When a person does train himself to have sexual lucid dreaming the sin committed is that of lust. It is no different than lusting after someone in the waking state, or lusting at pornography. But, as I said, the culpability of sexual lucid dreams can only exist if the person has trained himself to control these dreams and deliberately chooses to do so in the waking state.

The solution? Do no train oneself to control dreams in the first place. If one has already done that, then stop doing the exercises that facilitate this phenomenon. As a last resort, if needed, train yourself to not have sexual dreams but dreams of something proper. Then once that is accomplished stop manipulating dreams altogether.

In addition, in addition to confession, which requires repentance (which means turning away from the sin) renounce these dreams and ask God to give you the strength to stop your dream manipulations. There are prayers in our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog, linked below, that are useful for this.

Even though you may have gotten yourself into this mess all by yourself, do not underestimate the desire of the devil to exploit your stupidity. Demons love to hitchhike on problems that already exist. Thus, do not forget the spiritual warfare aspect of this.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

For information on how to receive help see our Help page. We suggest that before contacting us directly for help you try the Seven Steps to Self-Deliverance. These self-help steps will often resolve the problem. Also our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog contains many prayers that may be helpful. If needed you can ask for a Personal Consultation.