Never just a 'dream'?

[Jem]

This is probably a very basic question. Is it true that if you dream of having sexual interactions with another person in your sleep that it's actually happening? And does that mean that the other person is also conscious of these interactions and is also complicit in them, even if this is a person who you have not been in contact with for many years?

[Jem]

Sorry I meant to add - even if the male involved is gay and has no sexual interest in women in waking life?

[Courtney]

Hey Jem, my understanding is that dreams often not a literal representation of what happens in our sleep state, though sometimes they can be very close to what happened. For example, I've heard people dream of Jesus and Mary doing or saying unloving things, which is obviously not the truth of what would actually happen in the sleep state. I have had dreams about dragons destroying cities--also not literal.

It's more about what the feeling you have in the dream is than what the circumstances are. Sexual dreams I think can be sometimes with people you may have had actual sleep state interactions with, and it seems sometimes the dreams are definitely not with people you have had the interactions with, but could rather be a representation of who you are sexually projecting at/with. For example, I sometimes have sexual dreams about very famous celebrities, and I doubt that's a literal thing, but it matters what I feel and what my soul is using the dream to tell me about my emotional denial.

[Courtney]

whoops, I meant "often are not"

[Jem]

Thank you, Courtney. I think it perhaps wish-fulfilment, as you say. The person is my childhood sweetheart/first love. The relationship began at 12 and ended at 16 and I was besotted. We never had sexual intercourse and I found that later in life I regretted that as the boy I did eventually lose my virginity to didn't really mean that much to me whereas the childhood sweetheart would have. I'm aware this is another one to add to my list of issues to work and feel through. It just gets longer and longer.