One of the things that has distinguished the dreams that I tend to privilege over other dreams is my own behavior and self-perception when in the dream. Three examples.
Many years ago, I was in a bitter court fight with a NYC landlord. One night I dreamed of an adjudication in a higher court. Everyone seemed to be speaking a language that sounded like Welsh to my (non-Welsh-knowing) mind. But at the end, when the verdict was favorable for me, my reaction was an immature, childish glee, almost embarrassingly so in that place. Like a small child or an animal.
Next, when leaving Bosnia most recently, and knowing it to be my last visit on that journey, I had a dream in which I saw the fellow who had rented me my rooms on my first visit there -- he was ex-military, now consulting for banks in the Netherlands. Apparently well-connected, decent fellow. He was standing on a mountain, and there were many men standing beside and behind him on the mountain. There was possibly an angel there as well. I was taking leave of them, and was filled with fury at the prospect of having to leave, and ended by berating the fellow who I knew, saying that he would have to leave as well some day. Ludicrous, and embarrassing, but only in the elevated place of the dream. As with the prior one, the sense of being human seemed animal-like.
Finally, one dream that I've recounted in this space before -- in an apartment across from St. Mark's church in the center of Belgrade, one night I dreamed that a large angel tossed salt in my face. I turned litigious, and demanded to know who was in charge there. With a visible sentiment that I think I will never forget, he shrugged and pointed to folks far below, in liturgical garments, very small in comparison, presumably members of the national church. Then I realized how enormous the face of the angel was.
In all of these (and a few others rooted in these three places), unusually for my dreams (and perhaps for others as well, I have no idea), my own being wasn't the grounding of the reality. My own being was the ludicrously insufficient animal in a place that made humanity seem like a primitive condition. People make mistakes in dreams, yes, but in the same manner that the protagonist of a play might make a mistake. My own mind didn't set the feeling or tone of the encounter, but proved to be primitive, untrained, not up to the task.
This is actually the principal reason for my relatively high levels of personal discipline. Even though times have been a bit difficult, and discipline has proved necessary to survive the event, it would have been possible to relax a bit more, if the earthly question was the end of the problem. But our spirits are less trained, and perhaps less noble than we might think. If the fight in the world is the be-all and end-all, then the notion that our fleshy actions change and refine the spirit can get lost.
"Behold, I tell you a great mystery. We shall all be changed in a moment."