Throughout history, dreams have fascinated, terrified, foretold, and perhaps assisted the development of the human condition. It is a huge and deep rabbit hole. I’m going to limit this post to a discussion that is fascinating technique/skill wise. The other day Ann Tucker posted a video up about her program called “Soul Convergence.” It’s her new program that uses dreams to work through issues and as a way for feedback on your progress. To access her video on YouTube search “Anne Tucker Soul Convergence” it is about 90 minutes.
The Dream
The following is a recent dream, a preliminary outline of a technique and a general discussion.
I’ve always wondered what my dreams are about. For all my adult life, I rarely have nightmares; maybe once every 5-6 years. And when it happens it’s exciting and whoa what is that about? By far, my dreams are mundane and sometimes the terrain or environment changes. Often these are wondering around in some city, on some adventure trying to figure out how to do another epic snowboarding run or flying about astral projecting to visit some place or someone. Anyway, a recent dream was working out some run-of-the-mill relationship issues.
The Outline of a Technique
Having worked odd hours and night shift for many years, my development of sleep hygiene became a matter of health. And now, going on 3 years after crazy work hours, my sleep patterns have stabilized into a predictable schedule and pattern. In bed between 9-10pm, awakening between 4-5am and then out the door to walk the dog between 5:30-6:30am.
The significant point is the 4-5am early mornings. Many artists, entrepreneurs, writers, monks, yogi, etc. note the early morning hours are a sweet time for inspiration and insight. It is a muted time while most are still sleeping, and the world has not yet woken up. Being able to see the early morning light and colors, waiting for the birds to awaken, breathing fresh air, and seeing the last of the stars and planets before the sun peeks above the horizon and the din of the day begins. Having spent decades working night shift, truly between 3:30-5 am is a magical and mystical time of the day where insights, thoughts, inspiration, and creativity are clear and articulate.
Dreaming and taking advantage of time between the night’s dreaming and before the din of the day. Often the dreams shortly before the alarm clock starts its incessant clanging are the dreams that are more easily remembered. Thus, taking advantage of the ability to remember dreams and of the above noted sweet time.
Lucid Dreaming
Lucid dreaming is another rabbit hole. If I remember correctly, I first heard of the concept back in the 1970s during my forays into astral projection. Back then astral projection came out of the spiritualist movement. And the lucid dreaming, remote viewing concepts were emerging as was the modern academic sleep research. The basic idea was to wake up or become conscious while still in a dream state. Thus, have a modicum of control or direction of both the dream and your responses in the dream.
Over the past 2-3 years as my sleep hygiene has recovered from working nights, wanting to find a time of inspiration and creativity, especially in writing post for this blog. I figured out:
Setting my internal (intentional) alarm clock to awaken about 4-4:30 am.
When awakening, keeping my conscious awareness in a twilight state between sleeping and awakening. I do this by NOT opening my eyes, lying quietly snuggled under blankets. And letting my mind/thoughts just wonder. At some point, inspiration or inspirational thoughts form, link, and connect. I continue in this twilight state until I feel that I have a firm grasp of the thoughts and concepts. Then grab my cell phone and dictate the thoughts into the “note” app.
Side Note: Just for reference, pen and paper was cumbersome to catch fleeting thoughts. A voice recorder is cumbersome to get the recording into a document that could be edited. However, using the cell phone to dictate notes, and moving it to computer to edit is easy. Better would be to download my thoughts to a hologram presentation like Princess Leia in Star Wars. Or better yet as a Vulcan mind meld like Spock in Star Trek. But best would be remotely via telepathy. Thus, my current Luddite work around is to make a few posts and hopefully you get the idea.
Back to the topic at hand. The other morning, I had a dream about another person and there were difficulties in communicating in this relationship. I awoke at my usual time; the dream being fresh; but remained in the twilight state, wondering about this dream. I then dropped or slipped back into the dream. But was lucid and able to work within the dream. I re-worked, re-interpreted, rewrote the interaction/relationship to a more mutually beneficial outcome.
It is interesting this is a similar process of therapy, hypnosis, re-interpretation of trauma, life reviews, etc. But you can do this yourself with a wee bit of wits, some routine, and your own protocol. But here is the best thing, this relationship in real life (IRL) also became better. In a sense, you have the potential for real-time feedback. Of course, if the relationship continued to be troublesome and/or your dreams of said relationship continued to be nightmarish, that is also feedback; in that you have some more work to do. By-the-way, the above dream was a one-off experience of rewriting a relationship. Though I’ve had numerous spontaneous lucid dreams. There is potential for exploring and developing protocols.
Disclaimer: I am not suggesting to just wing it. It requires and is helpful to do your own research, due diligence and consult with a therapist, dream analyst, and/or keep a dream journal, etc. What resonates or rings true for you? Use your own discernment and judgement. If you feel lost or need some help, consult with a professional.
Dreams and the Dreamer
The age-long discussion is a butterfly is dreaming it’s a human or a human dreaming it’s a butterfly? From one aspect, the question is it a dream, or the dreamer? There is a huge rabbit hole of religious, philosophical, metaphysical, and psychological diatribe of what is real. What is illusion? And how to determine, define, and derive reality versus illusion? Does it matter and why? It’s a paradigm of dualism. Inherent in dualism is that it is merely a tool to compare, a differentiation, individualization, and definition that enables awareness and learning about light and dark, good, and bad, etc. We are now entering an elevated level of reality that transcends the paradigm of duality. We have learned about the duality of self and other. And now recognize the need to move beyond the hellish duality mess.
The Question Is How?
How do we move beyond the self and other dualism? From a linguistic, phenomenological perspective, it’s merely a slight change in the narrative. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/phenomenology/
It’s changing our vocabulary, the words and names that reference original experiences. Instead of the I, you, them, they, mx, non-binary, etc. change referent to us, we, and wego (beyond individual egos to a unity of egos… wego) to denote a state of being, to note a state of existence that is beyond the dualistic self/other, or division. There is no dream or dreamer, only a state or existence of being.
BUT!
But the state of existence or being now has awareness of BOTH self AND other that is inclusive, mutually interdependent and exists as a unit at a transcendent level. A recognition that self and other can exist in the same space and time without division yet maintain their self-referent definition. Perhaps the current best linguistic reference is “being,” a state of mutually interdependent existence. This is nothing new. Perhaps the modern-day reference was first made famous by Ram Das; “Be here now!” If we are now at the “be here” now what? Do we get to define ourselves? Is now the statement of “I am” AND “we are” a statement of being in unity?
I wonder if we are at the last vestiges of the dualistic battle. The us versus them… politically, economics, religious, etc. Is this the dying gasps of the duality narrative and the birth or drive to expand into a unity narrative/reality of “all of us” and wego? If so, are we in the winter of discontent and a winter wonderland? A time of introspection and evaluation of what went well, what went wrong and what to do now? An opportunity to evaluate what no longer serve us. Deciding old notions to be left, decompose, and become the nutrients for the new growing season. It’s time to dive deep into OURSELVES to discover who WE are? And then search for the germinating seeds that WE… “will” to become OUR new garden? Let it be sown, grown and to BE!
Back to Dreaming
You have the dream and kind of wake up, but you don’t wake up. Realizing you had a dream, and keep yourself in twilight, a state between sleeping and being awake. It helps to note the dream is interesting; neither good nor bad. Just suspend your judgement or evaluation. Isn’t this interesting?” Like vipassana meditation or mindfulness. Wondering what is this dream telling me? Then, while in twilight, just slip down or surrender or let go; aware of entering back into your dream. You are aware/mindful of slipping back into your dream. (Don’t strive to make it happen.) “Relax and let go. Breath and relax, now you are back in your dream; relaxed and aware. What is my dream telling me? I can rework this dream to reveal insight and understanding? Being in a state of lucid dreaming, I can rework this dream because I am this dream. Repeat, “I’m dreaming… I have influence on this dream and can rework this dream to benefit all.” Basically, you’re prescribing/instructing a different narrative and interpretation; a different understanding. You are imprinting a different story of your dream; and this is the work. In a sense, you’re doing an autohypnotic induction, i.e., self-hypnosis. We self-hypnotize ourselves all the time by attending to and becoming absorbed in one thing and letting our subconscious do all the niggly other parts. For example, driving to work. You become absorbed thinking about some work issue. Twenty minutes later you safely arrive at work but cannot recall the specifics of the driving to get there… because you have been absorbed in creatively and intuitively reworking the issue.
Side Note: What if, instead of using our subconscious, we use our higher-ordered consciousness or even a third type of super consciousness to get us where we are to be? Is this how manifestation occurs? Is this the notion of synchronicity? Is this the flow? In much of the consciousness discussions, the subconscious and higher conscious are not clearly distinguished or delineated. It is helpful to distinguish subconsciousness as programing or a data operating system of a lower order that processes the physical, social, emotional, proprioceptive processes that we are mostly not aware of. Verses the higher conscious processes in which we are consciousness and can use contemplative or self-reflective processes at the cognitive and psychic levels. Yet I wonder if emerging is a third super-consciousness of a universal, galactic, gnostic consciousness of the metaphysical and spiritual levels. It’s not that the super-consciousness is new; but that we are gaining access, knowledge, and experience with this super experience. Anyway, we live in interesting times.
IRL, Dream and Maya
Work can be done in a dream. This may sound preposterous and unreal. But what if we come from the perspective that we are swimming around in the maya (illusion) and the endless cycle of samsara (suffering endless cycles of death and rebirth)? What if we notice this illusion? The Maya is an illusionary state and like a dream, a state where one is not aware nor awake. That we are lost in our own illusion. By waking up or becoming lucid in our dreams… and aware “in real life” (IRL), we notice the illusion of Maya. That we can awaken and become lucid in the dream state. And likewise, to awaken to the illusions of our reality (IRL)… of our normal reality”
Myriad of Illusions
The essential Buddhist teaching is the “Four Noble Truths.” Which is: 1) The truth of suffering. 2) The truth of the cause of suffering. 3) The truth of the end of suffering. And 4) The truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering. For this discussion, both the waking state, i.e., IRL and the dream state are illusionary states. But in realizing these two states are illusionary, can we learn to play with and use illusions to create new illusionary IRL realities? By using our sovereignty, imagination, intention, and knowledge/awareness, can we rewrite our dream and the illusional IRL reality? Using the concept of spiritual/metaphysical reciprocity. The tip is the knowledge to go inside and change. And external reality will reflect our internal changes. We also know the reverse is true. Which is the external reality can affect a person’s internal state… when one mistakenly believes the illusion. They are a victim of the illusion and suffer greatly.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead, WY Evans-Wentz, 1927 can be viewed as a treatise on the myriad of illusions and the path that leads to the end of suffering. Whether awake IRL or in dreaming. Consciousness is the tool and awareness the technique to pierce through illusions and understand their false nature. Consciousness being the tool and awareness is a technique of realization and change. Realizing that you are in an illusion (whether in a dream and IRL). You can learn to change while asleep or awake via your consciousness and awareness.
The fundamental problem is that we have forgotten that we are divinely awake. In this forgetful state, we mistakenly think that we are awake. Failing to realize that we are in an illusion. Thus, unable to escape from this illusionary IRL; trapped in the Maya of illusions. Another metaphor is that we watch a theatrical play. But we project ourselves on to the stage, become the actors and think the play is reality/IRL. The hell of it is that every night when the curtain rises, we repeat the same old play and occasionally change roles. We cannot recognize that we are also the unseen divine audience and director (transpersonal witness); “The Divine Play of Divinity Being Divine.”
The Hell
We spend a portion of our lives in the polite or rude (lol) reality of IRL. An illusion of kids, spouses, the cat/dog, and work hovering around us. It seems we are locked into a reality of our karma and choice. We lock ourselves into this reality by failing to realize that we may choose other reality. Many cannot realize that they even have this choice. And many do not even consider they are worthy of having a choice! They become sick and tired of being sick and tired of their reality. Are these folks the “ignorant and the sinners?” A self-prescribed lot and reinforced by the oppressive rituals of having “to beg for mercy.” It is fortunate to learn to use their awareness of suffering toward realizing they can choose. Or is this awareness born out of a hell of suffering… becoming exhausted, surrendering, and the cracks let in the light of awareness? Where does this light come from? What is it? The awareness that you might be divine.
Responsibility
Then, with a bit of knowledge and where-with-all (the ability) you become responsible. There are two forms of responsibility. The first is the required precursor or antecedent, i.e., the awareness of heaven and hell and them both being illusions. Followed by the dawning awareness that you are both the creator and destroyer of these illusions. And this is the divine play. The entertainment of expansion and contraction that we often note as intention, will and action. The reality, IRL comes into existence. The second form of responsibility is of the outcomes, consequences, or derivatives (the fruit). That becomes the cycles of creation, existence, and destruction. However, little is said about the ineffable “creator” that creates and drives these cycles. The creator is you. You are the one that must recognize, choose, and drive change… and deal with the outcomes or consequences. And if you don’t like the outcomes, you are the one, free to change your attention/focus to create something different via your sovereignty.
Consciousness and Awareness Revisited
Consciousnesses is the state and awareness the action. We use our consciousness and awareness to evaluate and determine our desire and ability to imagine, intend and realize a different reality, i.e., to change. Whether lucid dreaming or lucid reality. Knowing your divinity, use it to change your imagination, intention via will creating a better working dream or reality. In realizing we can change; we have the weight (responsibility) of awakening from the dream to reality… which results in “to BE.” When we realize we are part of a multi-dimensional spectrum of realities. We touch our divine self, and we can access the entire multi-dimensional spectrum. It only takes a moment to touch the divine and that moment will stay with you for the rest of your earthy life. Because you have now experienced (have the knowledge) that you are truly divine. And you can create and be. We do not have to be a slave to another one’s reality… nor even to your own self-imposed reality. The challenge is not to become lost in these multi-dimensional realities, but realize that they are opportunities to discover, work through, recognize, and to become and be you… and then become and be another you. You are in your own self-generated simulated reality. You have created your own virtual “role playing game” (RPG). You can a pop out or red pill yourself. The only difference between the red pill of self-determinism (sovereignty) and the blue pill is what you believe (know and experience. Do you believe you are blind, unable to step outside of another person‘s or your reality? Many folks feel and believe they are oppressed, a slave to the reality of others. Yet many of these folks are awakening, throwing off the chains of oppression. It is your choice of being internally motivated; to Be! You are free to be who are, i.e., your sovereignty. This is essentially the puzzle (maze) that we are navigating through. The challenge is to step out of someone else’s reality and become… BE your reality. You can play with this. Learn about your sovereignty and dreams. Learn how you imagine, think, feel, and behave creates your experience. “Act as if…” is the practice of becoming your creator of your IRL. When you understand and know (experience) this, you have dominion over heaven and hell. It just takes figure out a few little mindset tweaks, a bit of skillful mindfulness and basically you can have lucidity and choose to change your dreams and realities. Claim your “I am!”
Is It Really That Difficult?
These are a few simple things. One, realize that all is an illusion. An illusion of both pain and suffering AND of joy and bliss. Second, realize that you are the divine dreaming the divine and being able to dwell, explore and delight in the infinite realms of heavens and hells… which are illusionary. The third, realize you are the divine, divinely dreaming the dream. And in any space and time you can become lucid in your dream and your waking state (IRL)… or not. It’s your sovereignty, free-will and choice on this planet. In a blink of an I, one sleeps and awakens.
Blessings,
Tim.
https://www.lionsroar.com/waking-up-from-the-dream-of-a-lifetime/
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