Julie Hughes maybe some trauma blocks memories? I am not a specialist, just saying. In my case, I had a blood poisoning (sepsis) in my youth due to doctor misdiagnosis and wrong treatment. After that I lost much of my childhood memories. With time, they started to come back though. But people would say, remember this or that, and I would stare at them, like who are you talking about, are you sure that was me?  But things started to come back over the years.

Julie Hughes interesting. I dream as soon as I close my eyes, many times even before I am fully asleep. Those are interesting dreams because I am still partially awake, and I can influence what the dream should be like, if I want.  My mom was like that too. A very heavy dreamer :-)

I am learning that we are all born with certain gifts that stay with us throughout our lives. Living a clean life and growing spiritually can cultivate those gifts to fuller manifestation. I was told that all can reach the heights that people like Elijah reached.  Elijah became Elijah because he did what was necessary to reach those levels. Otherwise, he was no different than any of us. Religious people tend to assign them mystical roles and powers, as if that is something that is not available to regular mortals. That's incorrect, I was told. If we really want to be, say an Elijah we can be indeed.

I wonder though if it speaks of tents here. People even to this day in some parts of Middle East live in tents. Maybe the bigger tent you had the higher the social status. So maybe, in poetic language, it talks about having the means to afford larger tents, higher social status, more abundance?

Interesting!

I was born in a Communist country, and atheism was pushed on us since the first years of life. Atheism was the state religion. What you are told as a kid has very strong influence on you, as you believe everything the adults tell you. Many are born in families that have Atheism as their family religion. I know many examples of people who believed that false religion for part of their life and then managed to get themselves out of its grip. I suppose Ray refers to people who willingly embrace atheism as adult thinking persons and not to those who were brainwashed into it since ever. I was once told by a very thoughtful old lady, I embrace atheism not because I believe it can be true, but just because it fits my lifestyle.  We can so easily hide ourselves behind a finger, like little kids, sometimes. (As a youngster with hormones ranging, she was trying to corrupt me and convince me to go sleep with her)

David in the Hebrew Bible prays: "Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you, Lord, are good." In our youths we do many terrible things without realizing the gravity of what we are doing.

Maybe some of those kind dreams are warning dreams to change our paths, as to not end up in the Land of Darkness, that Ray talks about? Just wondering, I had those dreams too in my youth.

Ritu The people I am around are "heavy" dreamers. They could talk on and on forever about all kinds of dreams. I could write many books just with the dreams I had. I inclined to believe some of those were prophetic dreams about the future.  But I have to admit there is also a lot of noise dreams that don't seem to make any sense at all. I believe the kinds of foods we eat influence a lot the kind of dreams we have. When I switched to a mostly plant-based diet my dreams changed, and I could also more easily remember them. A heavy meal can give you night long nightmares. 

I inclined to believe there is strong correlation between our spiritual life and the kind of dreams we usually dream. At least that's what my experience has been. When you are in communion with God, you enter some kind of rest where you don't strive any longer, and the dreams follow that kind of restfulness and serene peace and joy. 

I also find the if there is a recurring theme in the dreams, those kinds of dreams are usually God and his army of holy beings trying to instruct us, protect us from peril, etc. The scenery may be different, but the theme is the same.

You see this idea in the Hebrew Scriptures too. The Egyptian Pharao has 2 dreams with the same theme. 7 ugly, gaunt cows eat 7 well feed beautiful cow. In the second dream 7 thin and scorched ears of grain swallow 7 full and healthy ears of grain. Same theme but the imagery is not necessarily the same. You can see this idea in other parts of Hebrew Bible and the New Testament too.

"For God may speak in one way, or in another,  Yet man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, When deep sleep falls upon men, While slumbering on their beds, Then He opens the ears of men, And seals their instruction"

That's a quote from the Hebrew Bible, Job 33:14-16. The way I understand that is that God speaks to everybody (man used in generic way meaning humankind) - everybody dreams. Yet not everybody pays attention/perceive/remembers and acts accordingly.