Question: In what plane of consciousness are our dreams?

Sri Chinmoy: Dreams are on many different planes; it depends on the dream. There are various kinds of dreams. Some dreams take place in the vital plane. These dreams are very often confusing, because there is not much light in the vital, which is the world of enjoyment. In dreams from the vital world there are many sensations and great excitement. When we have dreams in the vital world, very often they soon take form in the physical world because it is the closest to the vital world. We may also have dreams in the world of the mind, the heart or the soul. In the higher worlds the dreams are luminous, but they have no sensations in them. When we have dreams in the higher regions, in the soul's world, they usually take a long time to manifest here in the gross physical.

If you tell me what kind of dreams you have, I will be able to tell you what plane of consciousness these dreams are from. Sometimes you will dream that you are flying like a bird or an aeroplane at your sweet will. You are dropping from rooftops and touching the earth, then rising up again. You may think that this dream is coming from the highest world, for if you are able to fly and others are not, this must mean that you are on a very high level. But these dreams are taking place only in the vital world. If you have dreams of peace and light, if your whole consciousness is inundated with Peace or Light or Beauty and you do not know where it is coming from — it just exists and you are existing inside it — then you have to know that this dream is taking place in the soul's region and not in the vital. Like this all dreams have their own plane.