4. The Actual Astral experience of the Ego or Soul in the Astral
region.

Physical Stimulus may be the direct cause of impressing certain ideas
on the physical brain which may appear to be a reality. The falling of
a book, picture or any article in the room may cause the sleeper to
dream of firearms; a soldier may dream of a battlefield; a sensitive
female may dream it is a burglar; a person who throws the bed clothes
off him on a cold night may dream of snow and ice; the continual
dropping of water from a faucet in the room of the sleeper has been
the direct cause of a friend of mine dreaming of a passenger train;
the steady tramping of footsteps overhead may be the cause of dreaming
of thunder storms, etc. We must also take into consideration the
physical and mental environments of the sleeper.



THE SUBCONSCIOUS MEMORY

The subconscious memory may be the direct cause of certain dreams.
When the mind is centered on certain things, the sleeper goes over his
life again and again in phantom fashion. He lives over the experiences
of his daily life. Very often the ego enlightens the sleeper of some
material thing for his own benefit, which he may use advantageously in
his waking state, but as he generally looks at the phenomena of dreams
as an hallucination of the brain, he allows many a golden opportunity
to slip through his fingers because the materialist's brain cannot
grasp things of the spirit.

All the knowledge and rubbish of our past lives is stored up in the