I'm sure this has probably been discussed before, but what are dreams to you?

[shadowknows69]

Simple manifestations of the subconscious? I think it can be argued they are definitely that at times, but do you also believe that you are actually going somewhere. Another, sometimes even parallel dimension, or even the land of restless dead? Maybe even past life versions of yourself? My personal dream scape has become almost boringly consistent in recent years, where in younger days it was a more fantastical, chaotic experience. A stable and mostly self contained universe populated mostly by strangers and a few old friends from time to time, but they only seem to show up when something really bizarre is about to take place. I don't know. Just wanted some feedback. Thanks in advance.

[Chemisse]

1. I am pretty sure that some of my dreams are premonitions

I think perhaps dreams transcend time, go into the past and the future as well as the present, helping you work out issues or even mundane happenings.

In addition I think I have gone to other 'places' during dreams, other levels of reality, possibly via out-of-body mechanisms.

[winyanstaz]

3. you are correct...

there is no "time" on the inner-planes..time is of the physical plane.
Pre-cognitive dreaming is common for many as we awaken in consciousness. :)

[winyanstaz]

2. Dreams are very important to me and yes..It is another plane/dimension we "travel" on/at...

It also depends on what "level" of the astral/dreaming plane we find ourselves at/on/in.
We learn to tell "where" we are in Lucid dreaming by the "scenery". Some people like to divide up the astral/dreaming plane to a lot more levels but I find that a waste of time and energy..when all you need is lucidity and to look around to know exactly what level you are at.
For example:
If you are having a nightmare..you are on the lower "levels"/vibration rate..of the astral/dreaming plane. Because on the astral/dreaming plane we are actually creating the scenery with our thought-forms..but are inside the universal mind..we don't realize at first that we are creating those thought forms. In other words..we are seeing the thought forms before we are conscious of thinking them in the first place.
This means the more frightened we become on the lower planes..the worse the nightmare becomes. Once we are Lucid/conscious of dreaming...we can change or stop the nightmare by thinking it away/changed..or just raise our vibration rate and leave that level all together.
A little higher "up"/spiritual vibration rate...and you will find yourself in the areas of the middle part of the astral/dreaming plane..and this is a confusing area as we see all kinds of symbols and things moving past as we are in the area where everything the sub-conscious and the conscious mind have registered seeing (and the sub-conscious sees far more than we realize consciously) is being "filed"/stored for future retrieval or use.
A bit higher on the astral/dreaming plane is one of my most favorite places to explore and play. This we call the "House of the Never-ending rooms."
This "house" is not always a house...it can take ANY form..the way you can tell it is the "house" is that there will ALWAYS be another room if you look for it.
For example..it can take the form of a gas-station, your own house, a castle, a cave, the Mall, whatever....
On/at this level you will run into other dreamers..sometimes Lucid, sometimes not and you can tell with a little practice if they are lucid or not. If they are Lucid they can inter-act with you of course but if not..they will be dragging pieces and parts of their own "scenery" around with them in that you may find yourself in their dream scenery..and they will act someone zombie-like in that they are focused on their own mental images and may or may not be able to communicate with you..usually only in ways that relate to their own dream/scenery.
You will also meet teachers, groups of lucid dreamers and other entities at this level..such as your totem spirit helper.
At this level you can also change whatever place you want to "go"/be at behind the doors you open. Meaning anything you want to see you can go see by opening a door. There are other techniques for moving on to a different area..like diving into a pool, going into a cave or anything that enters into the earth too..myself I find opening a door the easiest way.
You will also have lessons at this level.
Once you gain some control in Lucid dreaming..the sky is the limit so to speak.
You can shift gravity, shoot energy out of the palms of your hands, fly or levitate at will or walk through walls. You can shift your form...not only on the astral/dreaming plane but you can go play on the physical plane as well..and walk through physical objects there.
It is a very funny feeling as you will feel the atoms of your astral/dreaming body pass through the spaces between the physical object..and there is a slight "sucking" feeling when you pop out the other side.
I once spent a whole night walking back and fourth through my front room door..it was the first time I had tried to pass through a physical object and let me tell you...getting the courage to stick my head and face through that door was the hardest part. I first stuck my hands and feet through and pulled them back and they seemed fine but it was scary sticking my face through. However once I did it..it was tons of fun.
If you are still lucid and project to the next plane/dimension you will find yourself on the energy plane.
This happens anytime you find yourself watching your astral dreaming body doing anything on the astral dreaming plane.
In other words...if you are projected to your energy body..you can watch yourself in a dream. We can often bring back the memory of this to our physical self even if we are not lucid at the moment we are watching ourselves in a dream.
If you had enough personal power at that moment you could stop watching your astral/dreaming body and send it off to do whatever you wish and report back to you later...and go explore the energy plane.
This is a very beautiful plane but I find it boring after a while because while the bubbles of energy are very beautiful to behold...you will soon grow tired at looking at bubbles of energy and patterns of that energy moving..and that is all there is to that plane if you look around.
In other words, you are no longer seeing the astral/dreaming form or even a physical form..but just a form/pattern of energy which makes up those forms.
If you are lucid enough to project any further, you will no longer be projecting into a vehicle for your consciousness as you will be in the planes of pure thought/consciousness and beyond that of course is pure spirit.
Every single night..every single one of us..when we dream..travels ( unconsciously or consciously..depending on our rate of vibration and spiritual power) all the way back to pure spirit/The Light.
It is one of the ways of the 4-ways of energy.
We get our energy from the air we breath, the food we eat, the water we drink and from every single night re-charging our spiritual batteries so to speak by returning to Spirit.
Without any one of the 4 ways of power...we will die to the physical plane.