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Electric Dreams Volume 12 Issue 07
E.l.e.c.t.r.i.c D.r.e.a.m.s
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E.l.e.c.t.r.i.c D.r.e.a.m.s
Volume #12 Issue #7
July 2005
ISSN# 1089 4284
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http://www.dreamgate.com/electric-dreams
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Download a cover for this issue:
http://tinyurl.com/bd7zb
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C O N T E N T S
++ Editor's Notes - Richard Wilkerson
++ Global Dreaming News
Editor on vacation
++ Cover Artist Bio
Hannah Maxwell
++ Column: An Excerpt From the Lucid Dream Exchange
Multiple Awareness in Simultaneous Dreaming
Editor, Lucy Gillis
++ Dream: "Lines Of Distribution"
Stan Kulikowski II
++ Column: The View From the Bridge
London, Auctions and DaFuMu
Jean Campbell
++ Article: The DreamTime: What is it Really?
Shamai Currim
++ Article: Awakening Within The Dream
Will Parfitt
++ DREAM SECTION: Dreams from June, 2005
Host Kat Peters-Midland
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D E A D L I N E :
July 20th deadline for August 2005 submissions
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Post Dreams and Comments on Dreams to:
http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/temple
Send news, events, workshops, conferences& reviews to
Harry Bosma <ed-news@alquinte.com>
Send Articles, news and other items to:
Richard Wilkerson: <rcwilk@dreamgate.com>
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Editor's Notes
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Welcome to the July 2005 issue of Electric Dreams, your portal to dreams and dreamwork online.
If you are new to dreams and dreamwork, there are a few e-lists where Electric Dreams people seems to congregate that might interest you. One is
dreamchatters@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe by going here and registering
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dreamchatters/
.. and another is the IASD bulletin board hosted by Ed Kellogg, Ph.D.
Please, no dreams interpreted here, just discussion of dreaming and dreamwork topics.
http://www.asdreams.org/subidxdiscussionsbboard.htm
The ED staff extend prayers and concerns to our London readers and we hope that you are all safe. There will be more about this in Jean Campbell's The View, below.
Many of the us are still in recovery from the wonderful 2005 IASD Annual Dream Conference that was in Berkeley earlier this month, and so this editorial will be short. I just wanted to say it was a very successful conference and people are now sending pictures in which you can view at the conference site asdreams.org/2005
This month in Electric Dreams:
Have you ever had two dreams occurring at the same time? How about three or four? Lucid Dream Exchange editor Lucy Gillis offer ED readers a excerpt from her Lucid Dream Exchange, this month exploring the extreme dreaming world of simultaneous dreaming. This excerpt is both an exploration of the topic and a call for others who have similar experiences. Be sure to read "Multiple Awareness in Simultaneous Dreaming"
As you might expect, the on-top-of-world-events dream group, the World Dreams Peace Bridge quickly responded to the 7-7 London bombings. After securing that the WDPB members in London were ok, they began a wider project to address the events. Jean Campbell will give you an update in this month's The View.
Stan Kulikowski II returns with a new dream recorded in his unique style,
called "Lines Of Distribution"
What is the difference between the dream state and the meditative state? What is the process of consciously moving through the dream loops, or many different levels of the dream state? Is there more of an opening into the dreamtime state now that we, as a paradigm, are moving towards consciousness? These and other questions are explored by Shamai Currim in "The DreamTime: What is it Really? "
What is the role of the dream in psychosynthesis? How did Assiogoli see the dream in transpersonal development? What connections and what differences exist between the dream in Jungian analysis and in Psychosynthesis? These are a few of the topics that
Will Parfitt takes up in "Awakening Within The Dream," an excerpt from his book Psychosynthesis: The Elements and Beyond.
Fortunately for Electric Dreams readers, Janet Garrett puts the articles from past issues online in an easy-to-access format. These articles contain a wide range of information for dreamers and dreamworkers. You can see her work progress and view hundreds of article on dreams at: http://www.improverse.com/ed-articles/index.htm
Harry Bosma is busy traveling around the world, but will be back next month with the Global Dreaming News. If you have any dream news, conferences, books, workshops, and especially any online meetings or events, be sure to send that information to Harry by the 15th of each month at ed-news@alquinte.com
Visitation from the dead, a Leprechaun, a masked burglar, and a phantom stapler...what else could it be? Another dreams section of the Electric Dreams Magazine!!
Kat Peters-Midland has collected the finest from the month to read.
Be sure to read all of these dreams and more.
If you want to send in dreams, please enter them at http://www.dreamgate.com/dream/temple
or join the dream flow at dreamflow@yahoogroups.com
(dreamflow-subscribe@yahoogroups.com)
Cover this month by Hannah Maxwell
More on the cover and the artist below.
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For those of you who are new to dreams and dreaming,
be sure to stop by one of the many resources:
http://dreamgate.com/electric-dreams
http://dreamgate.com/dream/library
http://dreamunit.net/news-en/
http://www.dreamtree.com
Electric Dreams in PDF: (thanks to Nick Cumbo)
http://electric.dreamofpeace.net/
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From Planet Dream,
-Richard Wilkerson
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Quick News for July:
-- Deadline for Online Dream Show July 30th, 05
http://www.asdreams.org/2005/idx_art.htm
-- Dream Institute offers CEU for Berkeley Therapists
http://dreamtalk.hypermart.net/bb2005/viewtopic.php?t=160
-- IASD PsiberDreaming Conference 4 coming September 18, 05
http://www.asdreams.org/psi2005/index.htm
-- Call for Papers - IASD 2006 in Bridgewater, MA
http://www.asdreams.org/2006/index.htm
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Cover Artist, Hannah Maxwell
http://tinyurl.com/bd7zb
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Artist Statement / Bio: Hannah Maxwell
I studied fine art in college and after graduating 4 years ago I moved to a rural part of Tennessee and work as a freelance artist and art teacher. I have always had intense dreams and my artwork is inspired by these dreams and visions.
This painting is called "Signs of Light", and it is about growth and discovery. When I start a painting, I never know what the final result will be. I try to let the imagery be my guide rather than dictating what I think it should be. Often, like a dream, I don't imediately understand the content as it is presenting itself, but as I work on the piece, the messages become clearer. Often there are multiple layers of meaning and I understand different things about the work at different times. I love the idea of art as a means of self -discovery. I think that artwork can be healing and transformative for both the artist and the viewer. I do like to work with some ambiguity, so the viewer can bring their own interpretation.
My website address is www.hannahmaxwell.com and I can be reached via e-mail at hmaxwell1111@hotmail.com
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An Excerpt From The Lucid Dream Exchange
By Lucy Gillis
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Multiple Awareness in Simultaneous Dreaming
(c) 2005 Lucy Gillis
"Have you ever had simultaneous dreams?"
Almost twenty years ago I had my first lucid dream. From that day on I began to have many new and exciting dream experiences and was eager to learn all I could about consciousness and dreaming. During this time I was fortunate to have met, through the Lucidity Institute, many other enthusiastic lucid dreamers. I was corresponding with several of them at the time and was enjoying the advice and suggestions I was receiving, not to mention the invaluable examples of lucid dream reports that everyone was sharing with me.
In April of 1988, I had an unusual experience with dreaming consciousness that I had not experienced before, nor had I ever heard about:
April 24 1988
[I think I experienced two dreams simultaneously.] In one dream, JI, someone else, and I go to some place like the Holiday Inn for a Sunday Service. It is dark out. The "someone else" could be M or L. We are all dressed up. JI has brought something to smoke. We begin to smoke outside a doorway. JMK shows up, stands in the doorway, and watches us. I try to not let him know about the smoking.
In the parallel dream I am in my apartment in Halifax. I am rushing around doing things; small household chores. The apartment is dimly lit. I go to the kitchen to replace a roll of toilet paper, which goes on a holder (which is on the wall) above the garbage [this is obviously not a reflection of the real life kitchen]. I see a "dot" on the holder so I say to any invisible helpers that may be around, "There, you hold it, that's your job."
Apparently, the dot indicates that it is their job. I turn my head as I say this. In this moment, I also become aware that I am in my bed. A strong "force" pulls my head back into place. It feels very strongly, physically like someone is slapping my head, rapidly and repeatedly, across what is sometimes called the crown chakra area, and like my head is being forced into my neck. It feels so real.
All the while, I am also, AT THE SAME TIME experiencing the smoking scene with JI and JMK. Several thoughts go rushing at super speed through my mind like "Well, I did want stronger contact with my spirituality, I guess I asked for too much, etc."
I also became frightened and said mentally "White Light! White Light!" in an effort to wake up out of the dreams. I then woke fully, in bed; the force and slapping ceased.
This was a strange and unique event and I wondered if others had experienced anything like this. I turned to my network of lucid dreamers and asked the question, "Have you ever had simultaneous dreams?"
I soon realized that I needed to clarify what I meant by simultaneous dreams. I recall receiving a letter from one dreamer who kindly answered my question. But as I read through her letter, I became disappointed. Yes, she said, she had simultaneous dreams all the time, just like in waking reality where she could (for instance) wash dishes, look out the window, hum a tune, and think about what to make for dinner - all at the same time.
She misinterpreted what I had meant. I obviously had not explained the question very well. Yes, I can hum, wash the dishes, think about dinner, and look out a window all at the same time too. But doing things simultaneously was not what I meant by simultaneous dreaming.
The next time I asked the question I tried to explain the question a little better. I used phrases like "at the exact same time" or "two places at once".
Some dreamers thought I referred to a dual awareness that is sometimes felt between the sleeping body and the dreaming body; when sensations in the physical body are felt in the dreamstate. I knew what they meant, I had experienced what I believe was an out-of-body experience in which I momentarily felt my dream hip move while I was standing in a hallway, while at the same time I felt my physical hip of my sleeping body in the bed move slightly. But I didn't mean two places, as in being in bed and being in a dream at the same time.
Others thought I was talking about dreams within dreams, where you wake up from one dream to find yourself in another. I had experienced that too, (false awakenings would be a similar event) but that wasn't what I meant either, those events happened one after the other, not all at the same time.
What I meant was more like being in Alaska, out for a walk, while also being in Calcutta, having lunch, AT THE SAME TIME, being aware of being fully focused in both places at once. In other words, no switching between awareness from one place then the other.
The few that I think grasped what I meant, said that no, they didn't think they'd ever experienced anything like that. So I gave up, and stopped asking the question.
However, by a happy "coincidence" (if you believe in "coincidences") I eventually came across the idea of simultaneous dreaming in two Seth books by Jane Roberts. In the first book, The "Unknown" Reality Volume One, Jane Roberts' husband Robert Butts mentioned that he believed he experienced two dreams at once. He too, became curious about them and wondered if others had experienced them, but he had better luck than I did in finding others who had had these "double" or "triple" dreams as he called them. As I continued to read, I discovered that he had later heard of nine people who had had two or more dreams at once, and judging by the descriptions of a few, I knew that he and I defined simultaneous dreaming in the same way.
I was delighted and relieved to discover that others were indeed experiencing this too. I was now also curious to see what Seth had to say on the subject. In The Nature of the Psyche, Seth explained:
"Many people are aware of double or triple dreams, when they seem to have two or three simultaneous dreams. Usually upon the point of awakening, such dreams suddenly telescope into one that is predominant, with the others taking subordinate positions, though the dreamer is certain that in the moment before, the dreams were equal in intensity. Such dreams are representative of the great creativity of consciousness, and hint at its ability to carry on more than one line of experience at one time without losing track of itself....
"In double dreams and triple dreams consciousness shows its transparent, simultaneous nature. Several lines of dream experience can be encountered at the same time, each complete in itself, but when the dreamer wakes to the fact, the experience cannot be neurologically translated; so one dream usually predominates, with the others more like ghost images."(1)
It wasn't until a year later, in April of 1989 that I experienced another simultaneous awareness event, but this one was a little different:
April 28 1989
[I can't remember my dreams specifically, but I remember seeing three separate scenes and then coming into my body and waking. I feel I must have come back to my body after experiencing three simultaneous dreams at a more conscious level. I was three separate points of consciousness, then I (all three "me's") merged into one and lowered into my body:]
I can see three scenes beyond three doorways that hang in a black void. The scenes/doorways seem to be receding into the distance, from my "main" point of view. (I don't seem to have a body, I am a point of consciousness.) Yet at the very same instant I am also three bodiless points of consciousness, each feeling wholly and completely "me", moving away from each of the three doorways. The three me's merge into one at the "point" that was/is my main point of view (I guess that means there were really four me's in total.) Then the now "one me" point of consciousness lowers into my sleeping body into my forehead area. I feel myself "filling out" my body as I open my physical eyes, now fully wakened into physical reality.
This dream (or whatever it was) was not like previous dreams in which I have seen a probable or, if you will, "parallel universe" version of myself.
Although I recognize other Lucy's as probable me's, they are separate consciousnesses - I am not aware of what they are thinking. But in the experience above, I (the I that I know intimately as my ego self) was aware of each of the me's as being the same ego-self, yet as three separate
(bodiless) points of awareness.
Confused? Sorry, it's not easy to describe this sort of thing. I don't think the English language has invented the appropriate words yet. But I think Seth was able to at least introduce the idea when he wrote in The Nature of the Psyche:
"There are too many varieties of such dreams to discuss here, but they all involve consciousness dispersing, yet retaining its identity, consciousness making loops with itself. Such dreams involve other sequences than the ones with which you are familiar. They hint at the true dimensions of consciousness that are usually unavailable to you...."(2)
His description certainly fit. My consciousness was indeed dispersed, and yet, I did maintain a sense of identity, and a sense of awareness that I was not awake in usual terms. Although this experience, (and the one previously
described) was not like a "typical" lucid dream, there was the awareness that I was not in ordinary waking physical reality.
Over the years of keeping a dream journal I began to notice some subtle things that were happening just on the edge of waking. For instance, I once caught myself censoring a dream. At the point of waking, while still more in the dreamstate than awake, I distinctly heard myself say/think "Oh no. No. I don't want to remember that dream," and as I heard that, I knew that I (I?
Or some part of me?) was arranging for me to forget the dream, so I focused as hard as I could and did manage to retain details of the dream. But I'll never know if I retained it all or if I did indeed succeed in censoring out some possibly disturbing or frightening imagery.
I've also noticed that very often as I'm waking I'll be able to hold, just for the briefest second, more than one dream each with equal intensity and clarity in my mind, as I awaken from both of them at the same time. But as I become more awake, I can almost "feel" the dream images "rearrange"
themselves in my mind until I end up recording one dream, but one with a lot of "this happened, yet that happened too, " the images "feeling" like they are somehow mixed up. Yet I'm convinced that what I experienced were two (or
more) simultaneous dreams, but upon waking, the dreams - or more accurately, the memories of the dreams - "telescoped into one" as Seth put it, to accommodate my linear based physical reality thinking.
Now sometimes the reason may be more simple. Perhaps I had two dreams in a row, very close in time to each other, and upon waking, I'm getting them mixed up. Or maybe I had one dream earlier in the night and I'm recalling events from it, but with respect to a more recent dream, and am getting those mixed up. Or maybe I had nested dreams, one occurring inside the other, but I don't recognize them as such.
But maybe, just maybe, simultaneous dreaming is far more common and natural than we might at first think. Maybe, as Seth implies above, we often have many dreams at once, and maybe to do so is a more natural state of dreaming consciousness and waking up simply puts us in a more limited, linear time based reality where we tend to order our focus of consciousness (and our
memories) in a sequential fashion.
Maybe.
It's been many years since I had these two experiences, and though I believe I can "feel" traces of similar events as I wake, I have not experienced any as intense as those two mentioned above. But simultaneous awareness in dreaming (or in any other states of consciousness) still intrigues me, and so far I have only my own experiences and those mentioned in the Seth books to draw ideas from. (I won't say "draw conclusions" from, because I know my ideas on the topic are far from complete.) I still want to know if other people are experiencing simultaneous dreams and what they think of them. So, I'm going to ask the question again.
"Have you ever had simultaneous dreams?"
If so, I'd love to hear from you and I'm sure other LDE readers would too.
Drop us a line at LDE and tell us all about your simultaneous dreams!
(1)Roberts, Jane, The "Unknown" Reality Volume One, Session 692, Bantam Books, New York, NY, 1988,
(2)Roberts, Jane, The Nature of the Psyche, Session 794, Amber-Allen Publishing, San Rafael, CA, 1995
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The Lucid Dream Exchange is a quarterly newsletter featuring lucid dreams
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THE VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE
July 2005
London, Auctions and DaFuMu
Jean Campbell
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On the day of the London subway bombings, July 7, The World Dreams Peace Bridge went into action like a well-oiled machine. By the time I awoke in Virginia, Peace Bridge members in other time zones were asking concerned questions about the safety of Bridge members in England. I learned about the bombings online, before I had ever looked at the newspaper or turned on the t.v.
Soon after I woke, Brenda reported that her daughter, at school in London, was safe; and Kay sent links to the British media coverage. By evening, we had agreed to light candles around the world, and dream together for the safety of the people in London.
The next day, as it happened, Jeremy was traveling to London with his daughter, Eloisa, and he could report that their travels by bus and subway had been on time and uneventful, a paean of praise to the British people.
This interconnectedness is one of the key elements of the Peace Bridge, whether the connections are made while waking or sleeping. Interestingly, they reflect a story that Olivia had sent from England just the day before terrorists bombed the London subway:
His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to
make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He
dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.
The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings.
An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of
the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.
"I want to repay you," said the nobleman. "You saved my son's life."
"No, I can't accept payment for what I did," the Scottish farmer replied waving off the
offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel.
"Is that your son?" the nobleman asked.
"Yes," the farmer replied proudly.
"I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will
enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both
will be proud of." And that he did.
Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from
St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known
throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of
Penicillin.
Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was
stricken with pneumonia.
What saved his life this time? Penicillin.
The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill. His son's name?
Sir Winston Churchill.
DaFuMu for World Peace on July 15
Shortly before the bombings, the conversation in the Peace Bridge discussion group had turned to the subject of PR and Spin. From Australia, Kathy pointed out:
It is very very hard to fight PR lies - they are so seductive - they speak to our deepest
desires (we want to be good, we want to help everyone, we are willing to suffer to
bring about good). This is what seems to me make their lies and manipulation so
powerful. So how to counter them? One way is to speak the TRUTH BUT that
does not have as much power in such a situation.
The other way, perhaps the only way, is to become more aware of our desires and
fears. BUT that is such a task! How can we help ourselves and others move in
that direction?
We can do this for ourselves BUT how to open up this possibility more widely????
Maybe we can think on this in our 15th dreaming DaFuMu this month.
Olivia responded:
Dear Kathy, Jean and All,
I will go with this (Kathy's suggestion). I also want to share a text I came across about 14 years ago - it seems to answer some of your questions, Kathy. At least to me...
Also, I can't quite agree about what you call our deepest desires - I for one do not wish to suffer to bring about good, partly for entirely selfish (!) reasons, but more because I often (but not always) question the value of something brought about through suffering. I mean, sacrifice may have its place, but suffering? It may sound like semantics, it certainly has a lot to do with awareness, or conscious attitude, what one calls it.
I think the biggest problem with PR lies, lies with the distortion of fact, especially when these 'facts' fall into the category of 'protected information'. A lot of the time, ordinary human beings simply don't stand a chance to accurately discern what, if anything, resembles the 'truth'. How does one get such information, the 'real' facts (a lot of 'facts' I would classify as opinion) to the general public, the voters of any one nation?
Anyway, the text...
On Integrity
"We are going to visit the arena of Profound Humanness called "Integrity". Sometimes "integrity" is reduced to mean a kind of moral uprightness and steadfastness, in the sense of saying, "He has too much integrity to ever take a bribe".
"But profound integrity goes far beyond this. Sometimes, in order to distinguish it from the more limited popular usage, it is called "secondary integrity". This is the integrity which is not constrained by limited moralities, however well-intentioned. The integrity that is profound living is the singularity of thrust of a life committed and ordering every dimension of the self towards that commitment. Thus the self is in fact shaped by the self, and focused towards that commitment. You can say that an audacious creation of the self takes place in integrity, without which you are simply the creation of various forces impacting you in your society.
"Thus the basis of integrity is a destinal resolve - a resolve that chooses and sets your destiny and out of which your whole life is ordered. The object of that resolve is the ultimate decision of each person, and each person makes that choice, consciously or unconsciously. To do so with awareness is the height of responsibility. It is incarnate freedom. It is what real freedom looks like. When man has thus exercised his freedom he realizes that to be true to himself ever thereafter he has a unique position to look at the values of his society. He is no longer bound by the opinions and codes of his fellow-man, but re-evaluates them on the basis of their impact on his destinal resolve.
"Thus the man of integrity is continuously engaged in societal transvaluation, a moving across the values of society and reinterpreting them in line with his life's thrust. It does not give him the liberty of ignoring his society, but his obligation transcends the conformity of living within the codes and mores of his society. Thus the man of profound integrity always seems to not quite fit with his fellow-men but his actions always are appropriate for him, even to those who oppose him."
(Attributed to the Maliwada Human Development Training School)
After the bombings, Kathy replied:
One of the things that worries me about the London bombings is the way it enables those who want to be at war to do so. English people, by and large, disapproved of what Blair was doing, English people, by and large, it seemed to me, could see through Blair's incredible control of rhetoric. What has happened now?
Now we see this bombing spoken of as being the act of barbaric terrorists (YES it was) but it is always placed side by side, most evident in both Bush's and Blair's responses - no doubt produced by their spin doctors, with the necessity to replace this barbaric world with the world of freedom and safety that they are offering (NO - surely the deaths of so many Iraqis from bombings, the deaths of so many Iraqi children from cancer created by exposure to Depleted Uranium, the killing of so many Iraqis who just happened to driving in the presence of an armed vehicle, the deaths and destructions in Falluja and elsewhere, the creation of a context where suicide bombers can kill almost everyday, the total disruption to society in terms of water, food, health, education, hope, planning, work - all this is allowed to appear on the side as "good" a "necessity" - as NOT terrorism - partly because it is the action of a State, mostly because it is "our" action).
How many will be swayed by the spin of Blair and Bush?
How can we open up the view? How can the spin have less control over how people think?
The SPIN partly works because we agree that YES these bombings in London ARE an act of terror. How can we stop it FALLING immediately into support for State terrorism?
What would happen if we just said YES they are an act of terror. THEN deliberately left our MINDS OPEN rather than let them fall down the path to acceptance of State terrorism?
What if we could OPEN a SPACE OF PEACE AFTER the acceptance that this is an act of terrorism.
What would follow?
Though members of the Peace Bridge agree that admirable efforts have been made in England to point out to everyone that the Muslim minority is part of the community, and not responsible for acts of terror, there is also an agreement that on July 15, we will dream together in a DaFuMu Dream for World Peace (see http://worlddreamspeacebridge.org/dafumu.htm ) and individually attempt to address Kathy's question about dealing with PR and Spin.
We hope that you will join us.
Aid for Traumatized Iraqi Children Silent Auction Huge Success
Recently, when the World Dreams Peace Bridge took its work for the children of Iraq to the conference of the International Association for the Study of Dreams in Berkeley, we discovered that more people had been DaFuMu dreaming with us each month than we had ever suspected. Several people mentioned they have been joining the DaFuMu, and one Chicago-area woman said that she and several members of a group she is involved with join together on the DaFuMu Dreaming for World Peace.
If you are one of these people, could you let us know? It would be nice to hear that the practice of a monthly group dream for peace has been growing. You don't need to join the discussion group, but a post to the World Dreams site will work just fine ( www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org ).
In addition to this delightful information about the DaFuMu, the Silent Auction/International Bazaar was an enormous success. Auction items, the raffle of two Dream Baskets created by Kat Peters-Midland, and the sale of Peace Train place mats brought in over $3,000. We would like to thank and congratulate any of the participants in the event who might be reading this article, either donors or bidders.
Many people commented on what a beautiful silent auction it was, with items from literally all over the globe. And the "battle of the pens" during the last minutes of the auction demonstrated just how much people were enjoying themselves.
Dreaming the world into Peace may be possible, and it may even be fun.
Here is a definition of Peace created by Bridge member Ron Adams from Colorado, one of the few definitions of Peace as compared with the many definitions of Violence or Nonviolence:
"Peace is the cultural maturity to seek forgiveness and compromise
for all parties involved, rather than lash out in hurt and pain,
creating struggle, fighting and war (Peace opposites)."~Ron L. Adams
June 14, 2005 (c)
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Dream: Lines Of Distribution
Stan Kulikowski II
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DATE : 1 may 2005 08:23
DREAM
=( yesterday was saturday. it rained a lot this morning but cleared up by late afternoon. mother did not feel well, so we did not go out to eat at barnhills buffet like we usually do. she just wanted a bowl of tomato soup for dinner and i had leftover pizza from the end of term class party of the night before. i did run out to blockbuster to get three films to watch in the evening. my end of term grading is almost done and it went easier this time since my exams were all on monday and tuesday, giving me the whole week to grade the final web page projects. i got to sleep around 01:20 after reading a little while in a dull scifi fantasy book i have been slowly reading. )=
the bell just rang and i have just come into this classroom a little late, but not so much that the teacher complains about me being tardy. i take my seat in the desk and put my books in the box area underneath. she is going around the room, stopping every few students to give each a question for the test. it is her practice to give exam questions orally so every five or six students get a different question. this is to prevent the spread of cheating.
when she gets to my area of the classroom she pauses for a moment to think up a new question. "if you were the manager of a store in cuba, what would you have to do to sell a new brand of some product?"
i open my notebook to write down this question, but i can not find a clean sheet of paper. i turn and turn through many pages but they all have notes on them or are printed handouts from various classes i take. eventually i find some pages of scrap paper, but these are mostly spirit masters and the deep purple ink has bled through so that even the back side of the paper have only small areas where my pencil can be seen. i pick the sheet that has the least bleed through and start to write the question in the odd areas that remain white. the result is very hard to read as a few words are here then you have to track down the page to find another oddly shaped space where i can write.
i give up on the first scrap and try another then another. i know the answer to the question concerns the fact that cuba is a communist country with a controlled economy so product lines of commodities have to be state approved. the store manager will have to apply for licenses to sell whatever few products are available and so too will the producers and distributors of the goods. in our so-called laisse faire countries, lines of production and distribution are relatively free of state regulation, so the store manager is allowed to purchase any product available. within the companies that produce and sell goods, the lines of materials are strictly controlled, but the lines of distribution between them are supposed to be open. cuba is a model of closed distribution strictly regulated by central authority, and is probably one of the more successful communist economies, largely because of the small size of the island and the natural isolation of its borders.
that is what i want to write for the answer on this test, but i can not find space on the scrap papers to do it. i am worried that i will fail this test.
the teacher comes around to give us another question, but i have not even gotten the first question written, let alone my answer. "do you have any paper i can write on?" i ask her. "i was expecting to get a blue book like you gave out last time and did not bring any blank paper with me."
she just shakes her head and i look around to see if i can get some paper from some other student sitting nearby.
=( i wake around 05:50, needing to go take a piss. afterwards i get right back to sleep. )=
it is christmas time and the mall is just closing. the music on the loudspeakers is interrupted for a moment as a voice comes on to tell us that mall employees are invited to an after hours santa claus party in the main concourse when the doors are closed. i need to get back to my store. i am supposed to dress up like one of santa's elves for this party.
i duck back into my store only to discover that we still have a lot of last minute customers. one is waiting at the cash register just inside the door. "can i help you?" i ask her as i step behind the counter.
"yes, can you wrap these for me?" the woman hands over pair of sheep skin slippers, brown leather outside with the wooly side turned in.
i put each slipper in a separate brown paper sack then bag them both in a plastic bag. "no, we do not have wrapping papers here, but the mall concourse have wrapping stations every few stores if you hurry."
she pays me with a credit card and hurries out of the store. i want to go to the back to get into my elf costume but another customer is heading for the counter with an item in her hands. i wave to another employee of the store nearby and try to get him to relieve me at the cash register.
it occurs to me that inside the store we have very strict lines of products that are selected and managed by the company. we do not allow street vendors or local producers to sell their goods within the mall like at a farmer's market. indeed, the economic laws of supply and demand only work freely on a very small scale in which the producers and consumers can interact directly. once third party distribution intervenes between them, the likelihood of monopoly price setting increases directly with distance. when the lines of distribution get above two thousand kilometers, monopolistic marketing becomes a certainty.
now i have to go put on my pointy elf shoes and silly fringe hat.
=( awake again at 07:55. the themes of macroeconomics obviously carry over in both of these dreams. i do not understand why i was concerned about this last night. it is far from any commercial holiday that requires buying or selling. the classroom i was in was obviously high school with the bells and separate desk seating. it has been a long time since i have actually been in a classroom like that since all of my teaching for many years involves computers with bolted down table rows or auditorium seating with raked floor rows and folding desktops. i have never worked in retail sales, and maybe go in a mall every couple months at best, mainly to buy DVDs or maybe a book at waldens. the santa claus content works in well with my thoughts about economics but i am puzzled as to why these economic issues have any importance to my life. is there any deeper significance to this kind of academic thought or is it pretty much surface material like it seems here? )=
--
. although fate may defeat the efforts of virtue to avert misfortune,
=== it cannot deprive us of the power to endure it with equanimity.
| | -- plutarch, gaius gracchus 19
--- stankuli@etherways.com
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The Dreamtime: What is it Really?
Shamai Currim
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Preface: In this article Shamai Currim takes us on a journey through some of the Dreamtime material currently available. While she is able to pose some of the questions, and walk us through some of her journey, she does not posit that she has any of the answers. That is for you, the reader, to find.
Shamai Currim is a Therapist, Educator, and Educational Consultant and Trainer .She holds a BA in Applied Social Science, an MS in Education, and a PhD in Transpersonal Psychology. She is an Early Childhood and Family Life Educator, a Massotherapist, Aromatherapist, and Reflexologist. She has Certified Polarity Educator/Registered Polarity Practitioner status with the American Polarity Therapy Association and has advanced training in Cranio Sacral and Myofascial work. As a Psychosynthesist, she works with Deep Trauma. She is capable of working eclectically, has been trained to use the Energy Psychologies (EMDR, EFT) and is a Colour/light and Sound Therapist.
Shamai has worked with children and families with special needs, has been active in working with the AIDS and Prison communities, was the Director of a Senior Citizen's Summer Residence and Children's Day Camp for 17 years, believes in being active in reform and has sat on the Steering Committee of the Association for the Advancement of Psychosynthesis, the board of the International Organization of the Helen Prize for Women, the board of the Association of Early Childhood Educators, and as the Executive Director of Eduporta International Education Agency. She was a chosen attendee at the Leadership Training Course at the Canadian Jewish Congress and the first recipient of the Ross-Seaman Memorial Leadership Award at Concordia University.
Shamai is an accomplice with Oh Shinnah FastWolf , a Shishindi elder, and is an initiate of Sant Mat/Surat Shabd Yoga and a disciple of the current living master, Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj.
The Dreamtime: What is it really?
My first thought on entering into and researching material for writing this paper on working with the Dreamtime was that I would be reviewing material that spoke to the dream space. In my naiveté I didn't include the dreaming wish, the other worlds, or the steps beyond. While I have done much inner growth, have practiced mediation for many years, and have worked over the years with Shamans, Elders, Traditional Dreamers, Mystics and Saints, I had not been aware of the multitude of information that had in the past, and now in the present been revealed, with accuracy and with determination of spirit, to provide the physical provings so necessary in today's concrete world. I had moved well beyond the symbolic language, journals, and lucid practices. I was eager to find, put into words, the experiences I have been living.
Malcolm Godwin takes us into the world of lucid dreaming. He suggests that we become active participants in the dream world, encouraging us to find the true reality. Wolf, when referring to the stages of self-awareness, tells us that the 'observer' is actually a more advanced stage of consciousness. Godwin goes on to say that we should move beyond the assumption that the observer is outside of the observed, but is, in actuality, an affecter of its observations. Of course we know that lucid dreaming actually means taking responsibility for ones own actions/life, choosing reflection over reaction. When the restlessness of change brings with it greater responsibility for choice of action/non action, the dreamer must choose between devotion and devouration. Godwin suggests that the role of sleep is biological as well as psychological, carrying the significance of practicing our waking environment, and he reminds us that "lucidity, or alert attentiveness is closest to the original state of witnessing consciousness". (Godwin, P.77).
Dreams can be used as a tool to empower or disempower. Through the act of visualization or the action of Gestalt, a therapist can move the client from believed helplessness to a felt sense of empowerment, from a loss of self to a strengthened sense of ego. The dreamtime state can also be used to take power away from those that are most vulnerable. Much of my work over the past few years has dealt with the Dissociative state, another form of dreaming. Fred Wolf's introduction of Libet's work and the importance of the perception /time marker signal could be compared to the programming procedures done on Satanic Ritual Abuse survivors. If the abuse is done quickly, and at a very young age, and the stimulus does not reach the brain's perceptive understanding, then, in fact, the abused will feel like he is in a dreamlike state, unable to differentiate physical fact from fiction (dissociation). "They separated their bodies into parts in their minds" (Wolf, P.99) Since, as Wolf says, the ability to consciously veto an action is not the same mechanism as the ability to become aware of the intention to act, and, because inhibitory mechanisms delimit the spread of activity in the cortex, we can understand the use of psychoactive drug induced awareness which depresses inhibition (the cults use of inhibitory and analgesic drugs). He further goes on to speculate that, with electrical activity, or sensory cortex manipulation, the same type of imagery could be experienced by different people, giving possible proof of collective consciousness. Since unification and consolidation form the concept of an "I", largely through the activities of the dreaming brain, the cult keeps the mind of its members in a fantasy reality where they can direct and exploit the victim's inability to reason within moral inhibitions. Wolf also refers to the work of Crick and Mitchison, proposing that since brain neurons are excitory rather than inhibitory, they have the capacity for associative memory. He refers to using memory overload to create memory extinction, leaving certain memories stronger and easier to access, the dream of a person seeking mind control over another.
Wolf, when he refers to the aboriginal people, states that the dream world is considered to be the real time, or real world, while the physical world is considered to be the dreaming. He refers to the objective component (the action) and the subjective component (the awareness of the self in the observation).
He also talks about REM sleep giving us easier access to our waking state, an aid for primitive cultures, and he refers to hypnagogic dreaming, the space between awake and asleep, and the images which can also occur when a person is left in a darkened room for extended periods of time.
When Wolf talks about the essence of time, he suggests that the chronological time line on which we put the events of our lives does not apply to the dreaming. They are not historical-time based. "That doesn't mean they are not real or that they didn't happen or for that matter are not happening now" (Wolf, P.150). This reminds me of the experiences of working with past lives, which don't always follow a logical sequence, or may appear to have overlaps of time. He also states that "Duration is not governed by the clock but by the business at hand" (Wolf, P.151), which in past life language means that it is not important whether the work is, in reality, connected to another space and time. We need to just the work that is presented to us, in the present moment, and is to be dealt with, in the present moment.
I loved hearing the aboriginal story of creation, where each part dreams the next, with the human being last. The basic driving force of the universe is seen as the capacity to dream, to bring into existence, to use the ability to go beyond that which is, to dream. From here we awaken the consciousness that we are more than our existence, and so, have a larger responsibility in the creation and caretaking of life.
In speaking to the quantum wave theory of transactional interpretation, one sees the stream/counter stream that is dependant on the observer for interpretation. In this reinforcement of self and other "they then cancel each other out in the space outside these events and before the initial or offering event and after the final or echoing event" (Wolf, P.163). While this refers to the understanding that there must be two before there can be one (the reality of consciousness), it also reverberates to the loss of boundaries when doing balance/counterbalance exercises. In my experience this form of movement, which goes from the physical to the transpersonal, helps to eliminate physical barriers, aiding the healer to see beyond and within the structure of the physical form. This would help to explain the experiences of the Intuitive Healer or the abilities of the psychic persona.
Whether dreams are replays of daily events, chances for expansion, soul travel, experiences from other dimensions, re-tells, pre-tells, post-tells, or psychic prophecy or intuition, dreams can be worked with, encouraged, cajoled, and understood symbolically or perceptually. We can be observers, active participants, or find ourselves somewhere in between, and we can even 'dream storm' in order to find an answer. We can be catalyst, pacifist, or reactionary. We can set intention through prayer and bring potential forward.
We can be believer, or nonbeliever, and still find ourselves falling into the dream state.
We can believe that the dreaming is our reality, or that our reality falls somewhere between the dreaming and the waking, or that the only true reality lives only in the physical. The dreaming may be our potential, our unconscious, or even guidance from our superconscious. It may be from our state of Id or Ego, I or not I, and can be seen as guidance, repression, or denial from our multi-faceted self. Dreams can be objective or subjective, observed or experienced, group oriented or soliloquy, orderly or in disarray, full of possibilities or actualities, correlated or separated, pre, post or present process, communal or self oriented, telepathic, conceptive, existential, gestalt, precognitive, paranormal, prophetic, or species connected, controlling or controlled, related or unrelated, and may have nothing to do with any of this. Dream theory is still rather speculative and is best understood through experience. We have proof of some theories, perceptions of others, direct experience with others. I like Wolf's idea that ego is constructing causality while Id is synchronizing events and meaning that deal with feeling and intuition, that the future is directing and correcting our actions and always leading us forward, and that the need to see the beyond is a result of early childhood trauma.
Now, if we add in the work of Wilder Penfield, we move into the speculation that certain areas of the brain hold memory, and produce a dreamlike state when electrically stimulated. The question arises, then, whether the memory state is produced by stimulation, or whether the memory produces the stimulation, through the induced fear.
The question that Wolf brings forward, and then answers, is the one that states that children that have been abused, who have the capacity for dissociation or alternate reality experiences, who have the physical ability to suppress the self and effect the change, may be the majority of reported cases of NDE and UFO experiences. He appears to state that this is a physical phenomenon, capable of being induced. Perhaps this gives us another reason for the efficacy of the EMDR work that is being accomplished in therapeutic settings today. It is important for me to note here, as well, that the meditative practice of Surat Shabd Yoga can produce the same experience as NDEs, and that not all practitioners have been abused as children.
Wolf refers to the five levels in the dream. I believe it takes us five levels just to be able to come to a level of conscious awareness. From here, it is said, we travel the five dream loops and the 24 levels of dreaming (Tardiff, 2003) and, with more self-consciousness, we can work with and from the worlds beyond. The Kalacakra system refers to thirty-one realms. The Yogacara didn't work with anything except the inner world. The Cuna Indians descended vertically through eight levels of Kalus and ascended progressively higher through eight aerial levels. My sense is that this opening to other depends on how easily we are able to move out of illusion and beyond the self. I have enjoyed watching my dreamtime move from black and white, two dimensionality, to full colour, multi dimensionality, ethnicity, and otherworldly. I also wish to mention here that age is of no consequence. I have met children who are natural dreamers, able to work and travel in the dreamtime at will. With support they do not lose this ability, but rather, are capable of bringing this forward into their everyday lives. The dreaming and awake states become one.
The questions I came into this paper with were: what is the difference between the dream state and the meditative state? What is the process of consciously moving through the dream loops, or many different levels of the dream state? Is there more of an opening into the dreamtime state now that we, as a paradigm, are moving towards consciousness? Or will that mean that we will no longer have use for/ need of the dream state? I come out of this writing with questions around Quantum Mechanics and the model of waves/particles. I am intrigued by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and its fixed law of imperfection. It amazes me to see the copious amount of dream work that goes on in our society. When I think of the dream state, I think of a state of being/becoming. Our scientifically oriented society seems to have the need to create the provings. If one would move with Wolf's holographic ideal of real and virtual images, one could concede that in order to reach a higher level of dreaming, one would need more clear light, and yet it is this light that creates the alternative action of the electrons. Perhaps when one becomes fully conscious then there will no longer be a need to retain the dream state. I would, to the contrary, like to propose that, when we have reached a full state of consciousness, we would no longer have a need for the body. We will become, reawaken, return to the dream. As Wolf said "Matter Dreams".
What I especially liked, when the material began to come together, is the fact that in all the work, in all the studies, in all the different facets of the sciences, the reality of all of this research really comes down to the one question we all continuously ask ourselves "where do we come from?" For it is in this search for the knowing of self/Self that we begin the journey, lucid or asleep. It is within these travels, this life journey, that that we find our true reason for being/becoming, matter enfolding and unfolding, present in the finding and returning to the nature of our true authentic selves.
References:
Godwin, Malcolm (1994), The Lucid Dreamer: A Waking Guide for the Traveler Between Worlds, NY, Labrinthe
Tardiff, Lisa (2003), Rattling the Bones, unpublished
Van de Castle, Robert (1994), Our Dreaming Mind: A Sweeping Exploration of the Role that Dreams Have Played in Politics, Art, Religion, and Psychology, From Ancient Civilizations to the Present Day, NY, Ballantine
Varela, J.(1997), Sleeping, Dreaming, and Dying: An Exploration of Consciousness with The Dalai Lama, Boston, Wisdom
Wolf, Fred Alan (1994), The Dreaming Universe: A Mind Expanding Journey into the Realm Where Psyche and Physics Meet, NY, Simon & Schuster
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Awakening Within The Dream
Will Parfitt
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(extracted from Chapter 18 of Psychosynthesis:
The Elements and Beyond
(PS Avalon, U.K., 2003 ISBN 0-9544764-0-9)
Reprinted by permission of the author.
Whilst Psychosynthesis practitioners may work with dreams in the more usual ways, including dream recall and interpretation, they also may include the cultural relevance of the dreaming, the investigation of lucid dreaming, and dreaming as a spiritual practice. As well as exploring the dreams we have whilst asleep, Psychosynthesis also focuses on how to awaken ourselves within 'the dream of everyday life'. Rather than awakening from a dream, we can learn to awaken within the dream so we are awake to the beauty and meaning within our lives. To wake up from a dream suggests a movement from 'being asleep and dreaming' to 'being awake.' To awaken within suggests something quite different, where we can be fully ourselves, here and now, whether we are physically awake or asleep.
Assagioli's attitude to dreams is found in Psychosynthesis: '... although dreams do give access to the unconscious of the subject ... [they] often only give access to one part of it - only one part of the unconscious is able or cares to express itself through dreams.' After stating that there are many types of dreams, differing in quality and meaning, Assagioli continues: ' in our practice [we] point out dream interpretation is only one of the techniques and not the chief one.' Jung, who worked extensively with dream interpretation, wrote: 'I share all your prejudices against dream interpretation as the quintessence of uncertainty and arbitrariness. On the other hand, I know that if we meditate on a dream sufficiently long and thoroughly, if we carry it round and turn it over and over, something almost always comes of it.' Assagioli seems to be suggesting something just like this, and not just interpretation but also other dream practices. He only gives one direct clue in his books, however, to what he is referring.
Assagioli asserts that there are two major limitations to dream analysis. One is the potential for passive dependence on the uncontrolled appearance of dreams. Clearly Jung would not have agreed with this as he relished 'the uncontrolled appearance' of dreams. This is a good example of the different emphasis between the two men, which Assagioli would have ascribed to their differing 'rays'. Assagioli emphasized the importance of the will more than Jung, who, following the more 'feminine' track, worked more with what emerges spontaneously.
The other limitation to dream analysis, according to Assagioli, is the impossibility of fully understanding 'the forgotten language' of dreams. Jung agreed: '... it is obvious we lack the sense and ingenuity to read the enigmatic message from the nocturnal realm of the psyche.' Jung proposes, as a way forward a systematic study of dreams, to which, of course, he devoted much of his life. Assagioli, on the other hand, proposes 'symbol projection' as a better alternative. By this, Assagioli means the visualization of specific items to induce fuller imagery. It involves being aware or awake whilst at the same time being in 'dream state', that is a state where the unconscious can speak to us in its language. Thus the proposal to practitioners, at the outset of most Psychosynthesis meditation and visualization techniques, that they relax and centres themselves, and follow their breath into a still, undisturbed space.
Jung wrote: 'In sleep, fantasy takes the form of dreams. But in waking life, too, we continue to dream beneath the threshold of consciousness, especially when under the influence of repressed or other unconscious complexes.' Of course, as Jung was well aware, we live our lives under these influences, continuously in a socializing and restricting trance produced by such complexes and repressed material. Jung's methods of working included his own version of symbol projection, which he termed active imagination. More than Assagioli, Jung used a wide variety of other techniques, including dance and movement, to explore the edges of the unconscious, the 'borderlands' of consciousness. Jung clearly placed greater importance on dream interpretation than did Assagioli, who through working with imagery had found what he felt was a more readily useful method.
William James, who was greatly admired by Assagioli, wrote: 'Our normal waking consciousness is but one special type of consciousness, while all about it parted by the filmiest of screens there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different... Apply the requisite stimulus and at a touch they are there in all their completeness.' Perhaps Psychosynthesis offers us our best chance for finding and applying this 'requisite stimulus'. Assagioli certainly felt that, and may well have known the famous quote from Thoreau: 'Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.' This conveys something similar to the difference between freedom from something, which moves us away, somewhere else, and freedom to, which moves us towards doing what is right for us in any specific moment. Freedom, one of Assagioli's beloved 'qualities', brings responsibility, and the need to use the will, to not shy away from making choices. Thus the relevance of will as the compliment to imagination, both of which are the key components to personal and spiritual development in the Western mystery traditions. The correct use of will and imagination wakens the higher centers in the human system that bring responsibilities of a deeper nature.
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Whilst Psychosynthesis borrows dream work methods as appropriate, it also has some of its own particular approaches that can be applied to dream work. For instance, a Gestalt therapist may ask a dreamer to play, enact or describe themselves as the different items in a dream, not only play the obvious central character. The dreamer might, for instance, be asked to speak as an animal that appears in their imagery. 'I am a dog; I have shaggy fur and am always running round on the spot. My life is ruled by my obsession with food...' Simply talking as a dream character often reveals interesting and useful insights into the workings of that dreamer's psyche. A Psychosynthesis practitioner will use the same approach, but take it a step further by exploring which part of the psyche was following these instructions and playing a part. This might be accomplished through a timely asking of suitable questions: who is it that is playing this animal? How do you know? Who experiences all this? This is intended to accomplish an awakening, however brief, of the 'I' experience, central to the work of Psychosynthesis.
We may use amplification techniques for working with a dream. Amplification involves working with a small image or sense from a dream to bring out its richness and depth. This can include items that are beyond the personal realms, or just of the middle unconscious. For the personal level of symbology and to explore the immediate realms of the middle unconscious, a practitioner may use free association around dream images and check what thoughts and feelings this brings us, both for the client and for him- or her-self, being aware of possible projective and reactive identifications. Working with social and cultural imagery is more complex for it involves finding items that are common as signs or signals to us all - a red light meaning 'stop', for instance. This involves delving deeper into the lower unconscious where such signals are lodged, which will then inevitably involve analysis of any other more shadowy unconscious material that is evoked. It is important however to allow for something being only what it obviously is: a book in a dream, for instance, might simply be something to read (and not, for example, a mysterious edible missile that wants to devour the dreamer!)
The archetypal level of imagery transcends the individual psyche but is experienced in each
individual in a variety of idiosyncratic ways. However idiosyncratic an individual may be, there are common archetypal figures that tend to appear, including the fool, the wise person, the mother, and the lover. Assagioli loved to include what he termed 'the wise old man' archetype (that modern Psychosynthesis practitioners have renamed 'the wise old person'.) Archetypal imagery also includes events such as birth, marriage and death.
Archetypal figures have to be distinguished from subpersonalities that may have similar characteristics. Indeed, Psychosynthesis stresses that at their heart subpersonalities have the same archetypal qualities. But when these archetypal figures appear in dreams they bring us messages from the higher unconscious. These messages can include important insights, precognition, telepathy, prophecy, and forward-relating imagery. Jung felt that time-wise we live somewhere 'behind' all our dreams. Subpersonalities are more obviously figures who are caught up in the past, either the more recent past (where the dream may be playing out and perhaps re-configuring recent events,) or the more distant past of repressed psychic material and complexes. In Psychosynthesis it is important to work with both directions. The depth work is to enable a subpersonality to descend into its true inner quality and express it. The height work is to learn to co-operate with archetypes to help clarify issues for subpersonalities.
To amplify images on an archetypal level we have to be familiar with myths, folklore and fairy tales to provide a base for understanding such imagery. Assagioli discovered that whilst it is important to have a wide spectrum of such knowledge, to focus on a few central mythical events, such as found in Dante, for instance, allows close investigation of all archetypes. He realized that any and all archetypes can be recognized in each and every story. He was also aware of the usefulness of the Tree of Life, as we discussed in an earlier chapter, and utilized his 'hidden' knowledge of the deeper model behind the simplified egg diagram to help understand the different levels of dreams.
Psychosynthesis also suggests dream and imagery work as spiritual practice. For instance, if we are going to awaken ourselves to the fact that in our everyday life we are also living within a dream, central to 'dream work' in the Psychosynthesis sense, we have to find ways to 'check out reality' and see if we are dreaming or not. The famous 'pinch me to see if I am dreaming' is not so silly: if you check yourself out that way, if the pinch doesn't hurt, you know you are in a dream. This opens up the possibility of becoming lucid - that is, awakening within a dream. In our so-called 'waking' life we can perform many such 'reality checks' throughout the day, thus reminding ourselves that we are in a dream: thus, we may awaken within 'this dream' too. This is the famous 'waking state' in many of the mystery schools of both the East and West. Such reality checks include asking: 'Am I dreaming?' and 'Who is dreaming?' then to do something to check if it is so or not. If you try to fly for instance, you know whether you are awake in this dream or not! Whilst requiring great will and imagination, a simple and effective practice is constantly trying to recall and remind ourselves that whatever we are doing, we are in a dream. This echoes the words of Chuang-Tzu, the Taoist: 'Only when they are awake do they begin to know they dreamed. Then comes the great awakening, when we find out that life itself is a great dream.'
Will Parfitt, the director of PS Avalon, trained in Psychosynthesis and has more than thirty years experience of working with personal and spiritual development. He is a registered psychotherapist and leads training courses in England and Europe. Will is author of several books including 'The Complete Guide to the Kabbalah' and 'Psychosynthesis: The Elements and Beyond'.
His website at www.willparfitt.com includes details of all his books, courses, artwork, plus articles and journals free to download.
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** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS ** DREAMS
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The Dream Section is edited by Kat Peters-Midland
Visitation from the dead, a Leprechaun, a masked burglar, and a phantom stapler...what else could it be? Another dreams section of the Electric Dreams Magazine!!
Dream title: alon
Dream date: 05/13/05
Dreamer name: anonymous
Dream : I am in the ocean all alone and I am on a little floaty toy. Everything just passes by me - boats, sharks, etc. No matter how close I get to an island I can't reach them. I am in the ocean and can't reach anything no matter how close I get to it and no one even notices me
Dream comments: : I have this dream a lot.
Dream title: husband
Dream date: 6/21/05
Dreamer name: AK
Dream: I had a fight with my husband and I left house and started leaving with one of my friends.
Dream comments: We fight daily and before going to sleep I was thinking of leaving him
Dream title:
Dream date:
Dreamer name: lozer
Dream: I am on a bus in the seat with someone I had a crush on but I never think of this person anymore. He was actually sweet to me and he was just a friend. We started holding hands and that's all I can remember.
Dream comments: I thought it was odd in a way.
Dream title: Leprechaun Dream
Dream date: June 19, 2005
Dreamer name: LL
Dream: I saw a Leprechaun up in the window floating in the air and then he flew over to the door. I was trying to close the door on him but I couldn't. My boyfriend was in the bed with me and he caught him and was holding him by his two hands. I was telling by boyfriend not to let him go.
Dream comments: none
Dream title: dream of relative that passed away 25 years ago
Dream date: April 2005
Dreamer name: Sun
Dream: I dreamt of my Uncle "mom's brother" who passed away 25 years ago. We have all aged since then but he still seemed the same in my dream - no grey hair, no wrinkles. I was in a meeting in a school with a Principal of the school and saw my uncle across the room . I am not able to talk to him right away but after the meeting I tried to talk to him but he had already left the place. I got his phone number, call him, and talk to him over the phone. I introduced myself and mention that I was not able to talk to him at school. He said that he was happy with everything except with what his 2nd son is doing right now.
Dream comments: One month after my dream my mom passed away. I have this feeling that my uncle came in my dream to give me a sign that my mom had few more days left but at the time I did not realize it. Later when I talked to my aunt my mom's sister about my dream, she mentioned that my uncle's second son, trashed all his old clothing and some old pictures from the house, saying that was old stuff and did not want to keep them in the house anymore. Could he be trying to tell me some thing in my dream?
Dream title: No one heard
Dream date: 6/6/05
Dreamer name: anonymous
Dream: I was on vacation with my new husband but I cold not make out his face. My ex-husband and his new wife were there along with my cousin and her husband. The location was unknown; however we all were having a great time together. When we returned home, everyone went to different locations in the house. I was in the kitchen and a masked burglar came in and started attacking me. I screamed and fought back, but no one heard me screaming for help nor did they hear me fighting this masked man.
Dream comments: In the middle of the fight my home phone rang and I was awakened so I was unable to complete the dream.
Dream title: Subconsciously Confused
Dream date: June 18, 2005
Dreamer name: anonymous
Dream: I was at a local grocery store when all of a sudden I started to black out and fall into slow motion. All of a sudden a rescue team dressed in blue race car suits started to help me up, check my pulse and everything. I came out of my black out and I was fine. So I got in my car and blacked out and fell on the ground again. Once getting up from my black out again and going to my car, I found I had left my car on. Two of my friends, who were in their car next to mine, started to make fun of me and tease me. So, I got in my car started to drive off and I got into an accident. It wasn't bad so I kept driving. I blacked out and ended up at a party. I felt drugged throughout the whole thing. When I woke up at the party, I started to freak out. I ran outside and called my mom and told her how I felt. I asked what was happening, and then she and the guy I have been dating for 21/2 years (but currently having troubles with) got into a accident. I cried harder and asked if he was ok and she said no.
Dream comments: I woke up in tears totally confused on the situation
Dream title: Anyone For Shrimp
Dream date: 06/17/2005
Dreamer name: SH
Dream: I was on a ship....maybe or perhaps in a building. Two men walked up to me. One was sort of hostile because I really wasn't speaking to him and the other gentleman was polite. Both at the same time reached out to me to give me a few pieces of really huge shrimp and a business card. The gentleman who was sort of hostile kept repeating (in a very low tone) that I was not attractive. The other gentleman got upset with him and kept repeating I was attractive then pushed him and kicked him. He kept asking why he was being disrespectful....
Dream comments: I guess I'm really confused as to why I was given a few pieces of shrimp along with a business card?
Dream title: pregnant at work?
Dream date: 6/ 4/05
Dreamer name: anonymous
Dream: I work at a bank and instead of giving random drug tests they gave random pregnancy tests. I went and found a cop that I had dated years ago and cussed at him and told him it was his entire fault.
Dream comments: what does this mean?
Dream title: The phantom stapler
Dream date: 6/12/05
Dreamer name: MM
Dream: Someone is double-stapling papers together under my bed. When I awake and confront them, I see an inverted "v" (peace sign). When they show me the sign, I immediately stop asking them to cease. The weird thing is they have no faces.
Dream comments: recent bouts with insomnia.
Dream title: corn fields
Dream date: 06/02
Dreamer name: Gem
Dream: I was in a cornfield around a fire with 3 of my best friends. I asked "what's going on?"
And my friend said "we're about to be initiated into a coven!" So we all started chanting something weird, and then I saw this huge blue ball (glowing)! Then something swept over me like a surge of power. Then I woke up.
Dream comments: It was sooooooo freaky - almost as if I were actually doing it!
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