The Baha’i teachings ask humankind to end its incessant wars—but that core Baha’i principle is no mere hope. In fact, the Baha’i teachings go far beyond any other religion in…

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We spend nearly one-third of our lives sleeping and we can’t function physically without it. But I’ve often wondered if there is also a spiritual reason we need to sleep — and dream. 

Does our need for sleep coincide with a desire to enter a world where the spirit can roam free without the limitations of the physical body? Dreams are one of the most fascinating phenomena that we experience in our lives, and the Baha’i writings have an answer for every question I’ve ever had about this subject.

Baha’u’llah, the prophet and founder of the Baha’i Faith, wrote that “God embraceth worlds besides this world, and creatures apart from these creatures.” He explained that the world we live in while we’re awake is completely different and separate from the dream world, which is within us and has “neither beginning nor end.”

Baha’u’llah wrote that when our spirits transcend “the limitations of sleep” and detach from “all earthly attachment,” God lets us travel throughout “a realm which lieth hidden in the innermost reality of this world.” In this dream realm, there may be messages to meditate on and secrets to discover.

It’s fascinating to think of what traveling looks like without physical means. When we are awake, there is a limit to how fast we can travel on public transportation, but, according to the Baha’i writings, we can travel throughout the planet “in sleep, in the twinkling of an eye.” In the early 1900s, Abdu’l-Baha, the son of Baha’u’llah and his designated successor and interpreter of the Baha’i writings, called this “spiritual traveling.”

Abdu’l-Baha explained, “In the time of sleep this body is as though dead; it does not see nor hear; it does not feel; it has no consciousness, no perception—that is to say, the powers of man have become inactive, but the spirit lives and subsists. Nay, its penetration is increased, its flight is higher, and its intelligence is greater.”

It seems like our spiritual powers and abilities are limitless when we dream. To help us understand this freedom we have when our physical bodies are not in charge, Abdu’l-Baha used the analogy of a bird in a cage: “Our body is like the cage, and the spirit is like the bird. We see that without the cage this bird flies in the world of sleep; therefore, if the cage becomes broken, the bird will continue and exist. Its feelings will be even more powerful, its perceptions greater, and its happiness increased.”

Abdu’l-Baha further explained the powers and freedoms our spirits have in the dream world. He said, “in the state of sleep without eyes it sees; without an ear it hears; without a tongue it speaks; without feet it runs.” 

So, how much importance should we place on the events that take place in our dreams? If our perceptions and intelligence are greater in this state, can our dreams provide us with worthy insight into the future?

When asked about the immortality of the spirit, Abdul-Baha referenced dreams. He said: 

“How often it happens that it [the spirit] sees a dream in the world of sleep, and its signification becomes apparent two years afterward in corresponding events. In the same way, how many times it happens that a question which one cannot solve in the world of wakefulness is solved in the world of dreams. In wakefulness the eye sees only for a short distance, but in dreams he who is in the East sees the West. Awake he sees the present; in sleep he sees the future.”

I know I’ve had dreams that predicted my father’s health scare, and other dreams that predicted the birth of some of my nieces and nephews. Dreams can serve as warnings, reminders, or exciting glimpses into the future. But how can we know which dreams will come true and which won’t? I know I go through times when many of my dreams seem like they could have a lot of merit, and other times, it feels like everything I’m dreaming is complete nonsense. So, is it something we are doing wrong? Do we have control over the accuracy of our dreams?

The Baha’i writings tell us there is no doubt that “truth is often imparted through dreams” but at the same time, dreams and visions are always “influenced more or less by the mind of the dreamer and we must beware of attaching too much importance to them.”

In a letter written in 1925 on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith, he wrote, “The purer and more free from prejudice and desire our hearts and minds become, the more likely is it that our dreams will convey reliable truth, but if we have strong prejudices, personal likings and aversions, bad feelings or evil motives, these will warp and distort any inspirational impression that comes to us.”

So, he advised us to strive to “become pure in heart” and detached from everything that is not good and godly. Then, he wrote, “our dreams as well as our waking thoughts will become pure and true.”

Just because some dreams won’t come true, it doesn’t mean they can’t be coherent, relaxing, or exciting. But, sometimes we have delusions or nightmares — bad dreams that are uncomfortable, scary, or stressful. After speaking with Abdu’l-Baha about dreams, Mrs. May Maxwell, an early American Baha’i, said her conversation with him led her to understand that these dreams result from “various influences like fatigue, fear, etc.” These confusing dreams are created when our bodies influence our souls‚ as opposed to our souls influencing our bodies.

Abdu’l-Baha said that we have three kinds of dreams, and the confused dream is the one type of dream that has no truth or significance. For example, Abdu’l-Baha said, “during the day a man becomes engaged in a quarrel and dispute. Later, in the world of the dream, these same circumstances appear to him. This is a confused dream. It has no interpretation and contains no discoveries. Before the person dreamed, he was overcome with delusions. It is clear that this kind of dream bears no interpretation and is confused.”

As a Baha’i, it gives me so much solace and comfort to know that, as Abdu’l-Baha explained, although “Those who have ascended have different attributes from those who are still on earth, yet there is no real separation.” Since time is an illusion while we are in this earthly realm, what we know of as time does not exist in the afterlife. In addition, prayer helps our spirits transcend the physical limitations we have and connect to our angels and ancestors while we are still here.

Abdu’l-Baha said, “In prayer there is a mingling of station, a mingling of condition. Pray for them as they pray for you! When you do not know it, and are in a receptive attitude, they are able to make suggestions to you, if you are in difficulty. This sometimes happens in sleep.” So, if we pray before we go to bed and are receptive to the wisdom of those who have come before us, we just may meet them and receive guidance in the world of dreams.

Indeed, Abdu’l-Baha wrote, “When thou desirest and yearnest for meeting in the world of vision; at the time when thou art in perfect fragrance and spirituality, wash thy hands and face, clothe thyself in clean robes, turn toward the court of the Peerless One, offer prayer to Him and lay thy head upon the pillow. When sleep cometh, the doors of revelation shall be opened and all thy desires shall become revealed.”

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“Sometimes, things between a player, a club and a manager don’t work, that’s football,” says Chelsea’s new No 1 Robert Sanchez.

The rise, fall and rise again of one of the Premier League’s most sought-after young goalkeepers has been fairly remarkable over the past 12 months.

Not so long ago Sanchez was talked about as one of the top-flight’s rising stars, a giant of a man with an excellent command of his box, a strong shot stopper and comfortable with the ball at his feet. The all-round modern goalkeeper.

But a poor spell at the Amex last season, tied in closely with the ultra-prescriptive style of incoming manager Roberto De Zerbi, brought everything tumbling down. Memories are short in football and within months, after losing his place to Jason Steele in March, the 25-year-old’s stock had collapsed.

The £25m offer Brighton accepted from Chelsea in August would have never been countenanced a year earlier. Bayern Munich were said to be stunned by the price tag and also sounded out a move.

Now thrust back into the spotlight under Mauricio Pochettino and surrounded by £1bn worth of players, it has given Sanchez a chance to rebuild the reputation he worked so hard to develop.

Between his first and his last Premier League appearance for Brighton, only seven goalkeepers kept more clean sheets. Only Alisson and Ederson completed more passes, and only Nick Pope and Emi Martinez made more catches.

Those aren’t the statistics of a bad goalkeeper. Others’ confidence in him dropped off, but Sanchez has long talked about the sense of self-belief which first helped him oust fan favourite Mat Ryan as Brighton No 1, and has now seen him through the other side of a tough few months before his London move.

“If you don’t believe in yourself, who else will?” He asks Sky Sports, half smiling, at Chelsea’s Cobham training base. “I think I did well last season.

“He [De Zerbi] had a view of the team, for one reason or another he didn’t count on me for the specifics of the kind of goalkeeper he wanted and decided to go with another [Jason Steele].

“He suited what he wanted to do better, and I’m happy for him, because he’d been supporting me for the two and a half years I’d been the goalkeeper and now he’s got his chance.”

De Zerbi hinted at similar when he first dropped Sanchez in March. Though the Italian never expanded on the details, Steele’s success on the ball in his press-baiting style made it clear.

Sunday 17th September 1:00pm

Sanchez’s form had suffered too before he lost his place. He conceded more than five goals over his expected tally last season, but he didn’t become a poor player overnight.

“I was pretty relaxed,” he adds. “I know my level as a goalkeeper. I know I’d play one way or another somewhere, so I relaxed and waited for my opportunity to come round.”

Could he have imagined sitting here as Chelsea’s No 1 at the start of the summer, though? “I probably couldn’t have seen that coming,” he laughs.

“You hear things as the transfer window goes on, and when Chelsea got in touch I couldn’t say no. What they presented for me, the plan that they had, it was unbelievable.”

It helped that Levi Colwill, a stalwart in the Brighton backline last season, had already returned to his parent club Chelsea and would be a familiar face waiting for him at Cobham.

He wasn’t the only one. Ben Roberts, Sanchez’s goalkeeping coach for his entire Brighton career, moved to Stamford Bridge with Graham Potter last year and stayed on after the head coach’s short-lived tenure. There was the lure of working under Mauricio Pochettino, too.

Image:
Sanchez and Levi Colwill have been reunited at Stamford Bridge after playing together at Brighton last season

“The whole thing just looked like a real family environment here,” he says. “There was Ben [Roberts] and the relationship I used to have with him, Moises Caicedo, [Marc] Cucurella, Levi [Colwill], a couple of Spanish talkers.

“Ben knows my level, he always thinks I’m one of the best and he helped with the move – he put a good word in and helped to get me to Chelsea. I love him, I’ve had an amazing relationship with him for seven years, and I wanted to come here and work with him.

“I’d played against a lot of the boys for a few years – and I also had a couple of chats with the manager, I know what kind of manager he is.

“He knows when to tell you that you need to do better, when to give you a hug, put his arm around you. He’s a great manager tactically, but especially managing players, he gets to know each player individually and everyone’s different, and he gets the best out of us.”

The rebuild of Sanchez’s reputation as one of the Premier League’s best will take longer than his return to first-team football. It is not helped by the expectation levels on a squad still finding its feet in front of the world’s glare and a line-up still being tinkered by Pochettino.

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Sanchez’s new side Chelsea were shocked by Nottm Forest in their last game before the international break

He has witnessed first hand the virtues of time and patience under Potter at the Amex though he knows, as the head coach found out for himself in April, those qualities are not often in great supply at Stamford Bridge.

“We’ve got a great manager, great staff, wonderful individual players, but it’s a young team,” he says. “People have heard this a lot of times but players have come in from a lot of different situations, it’s new to them, and we need time.

“We’re improving as quick as we can, we know we want to win but it does take time. Winning is the most important thing, it gives us the best feeling, but we’ll get there.”

An much-needed shot in the arm could come at the Vitality Stadium this Sunday, live on Sky Sports, against a Bournemouth side still without a win this season.

Whatever the outcome there, for Sanchez at least, it won’t be for a lack of belief.

Watch Bournemouth vs Chelsea live on Sky Sports Premier League from 1pm on Sunday, kick-off 2pm

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Lydia Stevens, the U.S. acquisitions editor for Urano Publishing, at her office in Gardiner. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

GARDINER — Lydia Stevens spends her days in front of twin computer monitors at her small office, editing, emailing and doing the dozens of tasks required of an acquisition editor at an international publishing company.

Behind her, sitting face out on one of the many bookshelves that line the small room, are the first fruits of the labors of Stevens and her colleagues as they launch the U.S. branch of the Spain-based Urano World Publishing this week.

Four books — “How to be a Grown Up,” by Daisy Buchanan; “This Working Life: How to Navigate Your Career in Uncertain Times,” by Lisa Leong and Monique Ross; “Grief and Renewal: Finding Beauty and Balance in Loss,” by Hector Miguel Ruiz and Barbara Emrys; and “She Who Wins: Ditch Your Inner ‘Good Girl,’ Overcome Uncertainty and Win at Your Life,” by Renee Bauer  —  are the debut titles for U.S. branch of the company and represent the result of some of the work Stevens has done since she was hired nearly two years ago.

“She Who Wins,” is to be released Tuesday, and “Grief and Renewal” on Sept. 25.

And that marks the official start of Stevens’ dream career.

“It’s taken 10 years to get here,” Stevens said recently.

It has actually been longer than that, if you count back to the days of Stevens’ childhood, when she wrote in journals and snuck out of bed to sit at the top of the stairs to read by the light from the hallway. And when her parents caught her at it and sent her back to bed, she would retreat to the back of the closet with a flashlight.

“I used to think nobody knew it about it, but, yeah, they knew I did it,” she said. “My mom was like: Why do you think I give you an hour before I tell you to go to bed?”

After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English and creative writing at Southern New Hampshire University, the Gardiner native worked as a ghostwriter before switching to developmental editing, helping writers with issues like structure, form and plot.

She also served an internship for Paige Wheeler, founder of Creative Media Agency, and for Anthem Press in London. Among her other experiences, she returned to Creative Media Agency as a freelance editor.

When the position at Urano World Publishing was announced, Stevens applied. With her hiring, the U.S. branch and seventh branch of the publishing company outside of Spain would be launched. And with her location in Gardiner, it would join about a dozen other publishers based in Maine.

The plan is to release two titles a month for the first year as the business progresses.

And it appears there is room in the marketplace for more titles, because demand for books remains resilient, despite fears about the economy, COVID-19 and changes in consumer demand, according to Statista, a global data and business intelligence platform.

Book publishing in the United States has topped $25 billion in revenue, which includes the growing digital audiobook sector.

Stevens spends her days reviewing nonfiction, self-help and inspirational proposals and manuscripts that come by an author query or through a literary agency. Manuscripts that pass that screening will be reviewed by the editorial board, which considers the merits and marketability of the proposals. If a deal can be struck, that begins the editing process, which can include making sure the manuscript is in good shape, and the author’s claims are appropriately supported.

Even as Stevens works on the words of other authors, she has written some of her own. She is a self-published author of four books and has a manuscript with a literary agent. On top of all of that, she is now enrolled in a doctoral program for humanities and culture, with a specialty in women and gender studies and creative writing at Union Institute & University in Ohio. Her creative dissertation is titled “Beautiful Souls,” to encourage women to pursue their creative mediums and look at how that contributes to the arts and humanity and helps women with their mental and emotional well-being.

“What could women do for society if we said to ourselves that we don’t have to put these creative ideas on the back burner because we’re busy with a career or a family or a spouse?” Stevens said.

The completion of the manuscript is still months away. In the meantime, Stevens said she will continue working with authors on their manuscripts and on public relations and marketing, working with cover designers and copy editors and setting up distribution and production — essentially, building the infrastructure that will support the pipeline of ideas that are waiting to see the light of day.

Stevens does not rely solely on queries. She often gets into discussions about books, especially if she is at the Gardiner Public Library. When she is wearing one of her Union Institute T-shirts, a conversation might start with a question about what she is studying and slide right into a book idea.

Stevens also works on outreach and making contacts more formally by attending conferences, including the Writer’s Digest conference in New York she attended in her first year working for Urano.

“I was pitched in the bathroom through a stall door. Please,” she said, “just email me.”

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