Listening to God via dreams

Young Chang

Victoria Dendinger and others have discovered an unexpected place

where God dwells. It’s not a church. It’s not a temple. It’s not in a

remote spot, high atop a mountain.

It’s inside their subconscious. In dreams.

Dendinger and her fellow Our Lady Queen of Angels congregants don’t

ignore the scenes, stories, characters and emotions that appear in their

shut-eye world. It’s how some of their most subtle questions get

answered, how some of their problems get solved.

“When we’re asleep, sometimes we’re able to hear God better than when

we’re awake and talking all day long,” Dendinger said. “If we can assume

God is everywhere, then God can speak to us through the unconscious.”

She and a group of about 15 -- the numbers have varied anywhere from

50 to eight -- share the stories of their dreams every Sunday afternoon

and analyze the meaning together.

The group, called “Dreams: A Way to Listen To God,” has been meeting

for more than 10 years but resumed last week after being dark for much of

the summer.

The Catholic doctrine doesn’t specifically teach that believers should

pursue dreams to hear the voice of God, Dendinger said. Her theory is

simply that God can answer spiritual needs through dreams, and

considering he is everywhere, why wouldn’t he tap into the subconscious?

The Old and New Testaments of the Bible also share stories of how God

communicated to people through dreams, Dendinger added.

“And if there’s something we think about during the day, and we have a

prayerful attitude during the day, then we can have dreams of a more

spiritual nature,” she said.

Kathleen Allison, a Newport Beach resident and member of the church,

has been a part of the dream analysis group for a decade. She doesn’t

dream more than anyone else, she explains, but she’s interested in the

messages that summon when she’s most honest with herself.

“I think, when you dream, that’s when you’re the most vulnerable,” the

60-year-old said. “It’s probably when you’re really yourself, with no way

to guard what you’re thinking or doing, a way for God to talk to you.”

She recalls a dream from about nine years ago. In the scene, Allison

was 5 or 6 and going around and around on a carousel. Her father suddenly

appeared on the horse in front of hers and turned around.

“He died when I wasn’t present, about nine years ago. I did not get to

talk to him or anything,” Allison said. “It was my father’s way of saying

that he was OK. I guess I had felt left out.”

The spiritual connection to the dream? After her father’s death,

Allison said she had prayed about issues that hadn’t been resolved. She

wasn’t sure if matters had been left “OK,” simply put. The dream

answered, “Yes.”

“They get us in touch with our most intelligent self,” Dendinger said

of dreams. But they “aren’t to be taken literally, and the dreamer is

ultimately the best judge of what the dream means.”

FYI

WHAT: “Dreams: A Way to Listen to God”

WHEN: 1 to 4 p.m. Sundays

WHERE: Our Lady Queen of Angels, 2046 Mar Vista, Newport Beach

COST: Free

CALL: (949) 219-1408