According to Osho, visions are also dreams, subtler, higher dreams about inner phenomena. They may be uplifting and helpful, yet clinging to them traps you in experience. Treat everything perceived, even sacred images, as dreamlike; only the seer is real. Go beyond all sights and sensations to naked awareness, the host without guests; there the real happening occurs.
Even beautiful holy visions are like dreams—let them pass, because what truly matters is the quiet you who is watching, not the pictures that appear.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Are visions also dreams?
Yes, they are dreams not of this world but of the other world; they are higher dreams. They are concerned not with things, but your inner phenomena. But still they are dreams so don't cling to them. One has to go beyond them also. If you see a Buddha in your vision, remember that this Buddha is also part of the dream -- of course, beautiful, spiritual, very, very helpful in your search -- but don't cling to it. Zen Masters have been saying for centuries that if you meet a Buddha kill him immediately! Don't wait for a single moment. If you don't kill him, he will kill you. And they are right. Visions are beautiful, but if you start enjoying them too much they can be dangerous. Then you are again stuck with some experience. And when you see Buddha it is really beautiful and it looks more…
Another friend has asked: Osho, what is the relationship between the method of meditation and jati-smaran (recollection of past lives)?
But the one who becomes skilled in this—who can fully awaken any day’s memory up to the age of five—will find that the memories begin to awaken completely. And you should test it. As today passes, note down some events and lock them up. After two years, try to recall today. Most of it will have been forgotten. Then remember—and after remembering, break the lock and compare whether what you recalled matches what you had written. You will be amazed—astonished—that besides what you wrote, many more details have come back which you did not even note at the time. They will all be there in memory. Buddha called this alaya-vijnana. There is a corner of the human mind he called the storehouse of consciousness. Like a junk room in the house where we keep all the odds and ends, there is a storehouse that collects memories—where everything from birth after…
Question: BELOVED OSHO, RECENTLY IT HAS STARTED HAPPENING THAT AS I BEGIN TO OPEN MY EYES FIRST THING IN THE MORNING I CAN SEE A VISION, LIKE A SCENE FROM A MOVIE -- AND THAT SCENE HAPPENS DAYS AFTER IN REALITY, JUST LIKE A REPETITION. BEFORE I ARRIVED HERE IN BOMBAY, I HAD A VISION OF THE GOLDEN MANOR HOTEL -- THE SETTING, THE GARDEN, THE PEOPLE -- AND WHEN I ARRIVED HERE, IT WAS EXACTLY THE SAME AS MY VISION. I WROTE YOU A LETTER ABOUT THIS EARLIER, BUT DID NOT HAVE THE COURAGE TO DELIVER IT. NOW IT HAS BEEN HAPPENING OFTEN, AND I DON'T KNOW IF IT IS GOOD OR BAD. ALSO, WHEN YOU WERE IN URUQUAY AND I WAS IN BRAZIL, I HAD THE SUDDEN COMPULSION TO GO TO MY ROOM, TO SIT ON THE FLOOR AND CLOSE MY EYES.
Beloved Osho, sitting silently, suddenly, softly, slowly, soundlessly, peacefully, something peeled off which I could see was my illusion for a better world and good people. Beloved Osho, can you say something about the difference between a vision and an illusion?
The difference between a vision and an illusion is very delicate and fragile, but the difference is very big. The dream is a mind phenomenon; it happens in your mind. It happens because you repress, and whatever is repressed comes up in the night when the conscious represser is asleep. Then the unconscious releases itself in dreams. Dream is the language of the unconscious. Through the dream, the unconscious is doing many things: one is catharsis, second is giving messages to the conscious. If you don't hear, the same dream will be repeated again. It has happened in very rare cases that a dream was repeated almost every night for years. And it happened to a very intelligent, great creator -- Leo Tolstoy. He used to have a dream -- which was a nightmare, although there was no violence, no torture -- but the set-up of the dream was such…
Osho, devotees have had visions of God. And if we do not take His name, then how will we have the vision? If we do not visualize His form, then how will the vision happen?
If no vision happens, that is auspicious. Because there is no benefit in falling into any delusion or any imagination. Yes, it may be that the dream is very sweet and feels very good. But still, a dream is a dream. Imagination is imagination, no matter how much happiness it seems to give. And the imagination that gives pleasure is more dangerous than the one that gives pain. Why? Because it is easier to wake up from a painful imagination, whereas a pleasurable imagination makes you want to sleep even more; the desire to wake does not arise. Blessed are those who see painful dreams, because in them the urge will arise to break the dream. And unfortunate are those who see very pleasant dreams, because then the desire to awaken from those dreams does not arise. It becomes a very fatal, very poisonous, very intoxicating state. I am not…