Catholic Teaching on Dreams

Question from BM on 2/29/2008:

Hello,

I did a search in the EWTN and Catholic Answers forums but cannot find an answer. Are you able to expand on Church Teaching about dreams, specifically, prophetic (or precognitive or clairvoyant, whichever term you like) ones?

I am reading a book about someone, an average person and it is not an Occult book, who had the same dream each night about something, a car crash, that hadn't happened yet. A few weeks later, they were in the car crash exactly as they had dreamed. A voice in the dream told them to wake up and drive, and they did, and their life was spared.

Could this simply be God or an angel giving them advanced warning?

Thanks for your time!

Answer by David Gregson on 4/23/2008:
In the case you describe, it is possible an Angel spoke to them. As we know from Scripture, God has spoken to people in dreams. However, Scripture doesn't tell us how many people thought their dreams were from God, and were wrong. Since dreams usually have a purely natural origin, it's best not to rely on them. If a dream seems particularly vivid and contains a warning, it would do no harm to be on the alert, but I wouldn't expect to see the dream fulfilled. Better to be skeptical and careful at the same time.