Let us consider now how the dreams that we dream every night are formed. Our mind is made of vibrations, or call them "atoms", if you will. These have the property of receiving impressions. They are just like a photographic plate. They are continually receiving impressions, impressions of heat, of cold, of friends, of enemies. These impressions are stocked in the storehouse of the mind, so many thousands, so many millions of impressions, more than can be counted. When you are asleep, and your body is resting, but your mind is active, these pictures come before you just like the moving pictures on the curtain. Then when your mind is fully exhausted, deep sleep comes.

There are some pictures that we develop very much, by keeping them much before us, the pictures of the enemies, for instance, or of the friends of whom we often think. Some pictures are very little developed. They just come and go. That is why, in the dream, sometimes we see the faces of our friends, just as they are, sometimes we see forms that seem familiar, but we do not recognize them, sometimes we see pictures that seem quite strange. Two or three of the pictures that are little developed join and form one picture, which seems familiar.

When we ask, "Can we dream of what we have never seen?" I will say, "No." All that we dream, we have seen. The Jinns, who have never manifested on earth cannot form the picture of the things of this world. The imagination is just the same as the dream.

The dreams that we dream every night are of three sorts. There is a fourth sort of dream, but that is more a vision.

There is Khwabi Khayali, when a person sees in the night what he has been doing in the day. When your mind is so much engaged in all the thoughts, the occupations, the cares of the day, that these appear before you in the dream. This dream has not much effect upon the mind, because it is not very deep.
The second sort of dream is Khwabi Ghalti. In this you see the opposite of the real happening. Your friend may be ill, and you may see him well, but when you see him ill, he will be well. We see someone dead and that person recovers from his illness, or we see that someone is our enemy who in reality is our friend. When the mirror of the mind is distorted then the image falling upon it is distorted also, just as there are some mirrors in which a thin person appears very fat, a tall person appears short, everything appears reversed.
The third sort is Khwabi Ruhi, vision. In this the happening is shown exactly as it is. This dream is seen by the pious persons, by the pure minds. It comes only to the few, to the chosen ones. But we should all remember that the soul is the same in all of us. It is only its covering that is different. It is the same pure essence, and so we may all, at times dream this dream. Khwabi Ruhi is seen either in the dream, or in a half-waking condition. If there is something lacking in his piety, he may see something reversed in the dream. He may see the death of the father when it is the death of the mother, or the illness of the daughter when it is the illness of the son. But if he is absolutely pious he sees the exact event.

Many years before Muhammad came forward as a Master, a Prophet, his wife knew of his being a Prophet, because every morning he used to tell her what he had dreamt in the night, and it was always that which happened the next day. Whilst he himself was not yet sure of his Message, she believed that he was the chosen one, and she encouraged him. So that, if there was a first disciple of Muhammad, it was his wife.

We can help the fulfillment of the dream ourselves. If we see something bad, some misfortune, we can take it as a warning. If we see a success in some country, we should go to that country, because it was there that the success was shown. The effect is shown first in the dream, because that is the first world, then it is produced here.

As to the time when the event shown will happen.

The dream seen in the early part of the night will take long for its accomplishment, a year or more.
The dream of the midnight will take a few months.
The dream before sunrise will be accomplished very soon.

The reason is simply this, that

the effect upon the mind of the dream of the early part of the night is taken away by the sleep, and its result is not accomplished so soon.
The impression of midnight is fresher and it is fulfilled sooner,
and the impression of the dream of early morning has nothing to take away its effect, and so it happens soonest.

We may dream of what is going to happen, or we may dream of a friend, and then receive a letter from him, or we may dream of a friend whom we have not seen for a long time, and the next day we may see him.

Q. Is there any means of keeping away an undesirable dream?
A. There are a thousand ways of keeping away an undesirable dream, but if it is a warning, then it will be very difficult to keep it away, or, if one particular dream is kept away, another unpleasant dream will come. The first thing that happens in the spiritual development of a person is that his dreams change.

He dreams a thing, and the contrary happens.
Then he dreams a thing, and that thing happens exactly as he dreamt it.
Then God gives him warning in pictures, just as the first writings were picture-writings.
Then, when his soul discloses more, he hears a voice, and he sees angelic beings.
Then, when his soul opens still more, he realizes the true being of God.

When the true being of God is realized in the waking condition, then he is a saint.

Dreams go by affinity, that means, like attracts like. If at the beginning of the night, we have a sad dream, then all night sad dreams come. If, at the beginning of the night, we dream a joyful dream, all night pleasant dreams come. If there is one tragic dream, then all night tragedy goes on. If there is one comic dream, then all night there is the comedy going on.

In the physical world, you are here, and everything else is without you. You are contained in the space. In the dream, all that you see is contained within you. You may dream that you are in Paris, but if you were really in Paris, the Parisians must know that you are there. If they know nothing of it, then you were not in Paris. Paris and everything else in dream, is within you. In that state, you are so great, but you call it dream, an imagination. Imagination is nothing.

Q. Is it better to be always in the dream or always awake? A. This is a very interesting question and one that should be asked of great people. If a person wishes to be always in the dream, then he should go to the caves of mountains, to the wilderness, because in the world people will not only take all from him, but they will eat his bones, his skin, and his flesh. By being always awake, we see to what point people have come. If such a person wishes to eat, the thought, "What can I gain? What business can I do?" comes and will not let him eat. If he wishes to sleep, the thought, "What benefit can I have?" will not let him sleep. The politician who is always thinking, "What office can we do? What territory can we gain? How can we get more than the others?" can never have any rest.

The best course for those who are seeking the truth, not for everybody, but for those who are on the way of truth, is: Be just so much awake as is needed to carry out your responsibilities in life, and not to allow yourself to be quite trodden upon, and so much in the dream as you can without neglecting your life's responsibilities.

God lost in the manifestation is the state which we call waking. The manifestation lost in God is realization. In my language I would call that awakening and this a dream.