I have been a Christian for a long time. During that time, I have read the Bible straight through only once, although I've certainly read portions of it several times. I don't see myself sitting down and reading it straight through again, but what I think I'd like to do is to play it on CD while I am sleeping. I have seen how listening to old Art Bell shows at night have affected my dreams so I think I'd like to see what the Bible can do. While you are sleeping, your ears are still working and your brain is still processing what it hears. While I was in paramedic school, I was working full time at a paper bag plant and volunteering with a volunteer ambulance service, so I didn't have a lot of time to sit down and study such things as formulas and algorithms. What I did was to read them all into a tape recorder, which I played on a loop while I was sleeping. Between the act of reading them into the tape recorder and the repetitive hearing them while asleep, I learned them. Has anyone here done that with the Bible?
I mentioned in another thread (I think about listening to audio books) that I have the NKJV Bible on CD's and that I often put my head phones on at night and listen to the Bible being read to me while I'm going to sleep. I also do this in the early morning often so as not to disturb my husband while he is still sleeping. While I have not gone through the whole Bible yet this way...I do find that when I do this my sleep seems deeper and more peaceful without a lot of the tossing and turning and waking up as often as is pretty normal for me these days. Plus on the nights I do this I wake up with peace in my soul too and like I'm filled up with spiritual nourishment for the day. I didn't notice this difference right off, but the more consistent I was in listening to my audio Bible before going to sleep...the more I came to notice these things. Lately since my daughter and grandkids moved back here from Texas and I have been busier helping them...I have not been consistent in my nighttime ritual and I do notice a difference here too. I am back to restless sleep and waking up with anxiety and feel I am missing my nourishment for the day. Thanks for starting this Thread @Ken Anderson and reminding me to get back on track with something that has been very helpful to me. With all the changes in our lives these past few years...some that are overwhelming to me at times...I think listening to my Bible CD's before going to sleep at night consistently will be a big help in keeping me balanced no matter what changes come our way. I will begin again tonight.
I know I have fallen asleep listening but I don't think it had time to come into my dreams because if I turn in my sleep the strangeness of still having the head phones on would wake me up by startling me. But I have some ear bud ones that I will see if I can use for this and I am going to try listening on a more regular basis and I'll let you know what happens then Ken. I definitely think it will help me memorize more of the Bible.
I think I'd have trouble sleeping with earbuds on too, which is why I am going to wait until Michelle is gone. She is going to housesit for her sister for a couple of weeks in Connecticut at the end of this month, leaving me alone here. It will be kind of a vacation... for me.
Well @Ken Anderson tomorrow will be a week that I have been listening to the Bible on CD as I go to sleep. It's not following me into my dreams yet...at least not any I can remember. Yet after 3 days of listening to the New Testament before falling asleep I have woken up to a desire to hear more of God's Word...so I have been listening to the Old Testament in the Morning...and the New at night for the past 3 days. I also noticed that after a few days I wanted to read along in my Bible while listening to the audio CD so I have been doing some of that too. Although I am not noticing any dreams about what I am listening too...I am noticing that my sleep is much more peaceful and I am not waking up as many times as I usually do. Which is a blessing just in itself.
It is. I haven't tried it yet but I do have the audio Bible now and will be doing so while Michelle is away in Connecticut later this month. I will be surprised if it doesn't come into my dreams because I frequently dream about the stuff that is being discussed on reruns of the Art Bell show that we listen to.
Okay, my first experiment was last night. I started at the beginning and it was somewhere in Leviticus when I woke up, but I didn't recall any dreams. I could remember having dreamed but couldn't remember anything about them. Tonight, I'll start where I left off.
https://www.christianbook.com/nlt-video-bible/9781598567120/pd/567120?event=CARTPERS I'm still listening going to sleep every night listening to the Bible on CD and still no dreams on any of it...but it sure makes me want to wake up listening to the Word some more and so almost every morning I am still listening to it again before I get up. For my Birthday I ordered the above Bible translation on DVD and I'm really enjoying listening to this while reading along with it. My soul feels refreshed...and this is just what I have needed.
When I awoke, I was learning about the rules for dealing with leprosy. It's just as well that I didn't dream about that one, I guess. It was a lot longer than I had remembered.
I often found when I would open my Bible and start to read it to myself...so many things would often distract me away from what I was reading...even if it was just things knocking around in my head. But since I've been listening through my head phones to the Word being read to me, my mind concentrates on what is being read to me and I'm hardly ever distracted. This same concentration is happening while I listen to the DVD and read the verses on my TV screen while they are being read to me. I also find that some verses "pop out" at me...and when I'm finished listening to the CD or DVD I will go reread these verses that I have jotted down on a note pad I keep next to me. Even though I'm not having any dreams about any of what I am hearing, my spirit being refreshed and renewed on a daily basis again is just wonderful. Another thing I've added to my ritual now is some Praise and Worship songs before I turn the CD or DVD on. This seems to help the Word "saturate" every part of me. I'm glad you started this topic @Ken Anderson. It's helped to stir up the fire again.
A few nights now, and I am halfway through the Psalms. I woke up this morning with a hymn on my mind, one that came from one of the Psalms. I remembered which one earlier but no longer do. The Night before last, I woke up during the night aware that I had had a Bible-inspired dream, but then I went back to sleep, and couldn't remember the dream in the morning, only that I had recalled having it.
I am in the Gospels now. I have definitely been having dreams based on the audible Bible text. I don't remember enough about any of them to be able to give you any clear examples but I have had a couple of dreams that were based on one or more of the prophets who were yelling at me while I was asleep, predicting all sorts of horrible things that would be in store for me, which my sleeping brain took, twisted around, and made it about me. I wish I could remember it, but I have had one dream on the Gospels, and I think I am only in Mark, so it was probably from Matthew. I think I was awake through Mark.
I have finished the audio Bible in the NKJV version. One odd thing about the audio version that I have is that "Lord" was always pronounced with two L's, as L-Lord. Tonight, I am going to begin again, this time in the KJV. I thought about going with the James Earl Jones version but that seemed a bit overly dramatic. Maybe I'll do that on my third time through. It's interesting how we spend most of our Christian lives in the New Testament, although that does make sense, yet the NT is such a small part of the Bible. The NT was over in less than two nights.