The Australian Aboriginal belief is that commonly understood dreams are the wisdom and lessons imparted by the Forces or Dreamtime Spirits that originally caused Earth's creation and of their direct ancestors joining with the ancient ones after death. Holy Men used their Dreamtime trances to invoke ran when desperate in times of drought. Innovations such as the invention of the boomerang and using animal fat to disguise human odour to more effectively hunt animals were given to the people in Dreamtime consciousness.

Hawaiian and Polynesian tribes' literal translation of the word dream is 'soul sleep'. Dreams represented the communication between the human world and the realm of the Deities. The Hawaiians believed that the immortal soul left the body through the 'spirit pit' which was identified as being the tear duct in the corner of the eye.