Dreams (IMO) are as powerful as we allow them to be. I'm sure that dreaming is a vital part of being human and that concious appreciation of dream content can be helpful - but being overly concerned with dreams can impair our non dreaming life - a bit like looking down and getting vertigo after a long climb - the adrenalin buzz is OK but who wants the nausea ?.

Although I have no means to quantify it, I'm certain that for some of us at least,  intense meditation, particularly when coupled with the cult environment, led to a 'thinning' of the barriers between what would otherwise be distinct psychological states. It leaves us open to 'exploit' our own suggestibility - giving value to experience without making critical judgement of that experience or looking for different and less dramatic perspectives about what goes on 'inside us'. Sometimes we really do have freaky dreams just because we ate cheese too late at night !

Nik