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Everything- chill out. Don't put so much pressure on yourself to perform. You're giving yourself performance anxiety, and are messing yourself up. Then you're messing yourself up for messing yourself up, and causing a downward spiral. Chill out. Ever hear that story about the student who asked the teacher how long it'd take for him to be enlightened if he meditated for an hour a day, and the master said "ten years", then the student says what if I meditate for two hours every day, and the teacher goes "twenty years", and the student goes "three hours?" and the teacher says "thirty years"? It's like that. The more you freak yourself out about it, the further away it's going to get. The more you try and tighten your fist around it, the more it's going to escape. It's dreams for fuck's sake, they're ephemeral Try to ham fist your way through it and you'll never get anywhere. thelerner- I know what you mean about the tiredness and stuff. I think it's nerves, really. B.K. Frantzis talks about nerve stress in his book "The Great Stillness". He talks about it in terms of sex, where back in the day even farmers working 12 hours a day could still have sex all night, but in the modern world of 9 to 5 people have ED or can't go on for as long because even though they are working less, everything combined has literally fried their nerves. Same thing happens with sleep. If you fry your nerves through the day, and then on top of that stress yourself out over dream recall, you aren't going to get your rest, and the rest of the next day you'll be tired, even if you objectively got 6 or 8 or 10 hours of sleep. So take it easy. Don't freak out too much about dream recall. To all involved, enjoy the experience Dreams are fun. They're natural. Enjoy it. Play with it. If it happens, great. If not, whatever. Move on. There's a lot of pressure to perform, because if you fail one night, that night is gone, so you really want to make each night count. But when you do that, you set yourself up for failure.

I'm so left brained on the natch that lucid dreaming is nearly impossible for me - I've tried over and over for years, since I first started Castaneda maybe 8 years ago. First of all, I've discovered that I'm just not capable of doing it right before I go to sleep. I've tried and tried, I've looked for my hands in my dreams, just like Castaneda. I've not been able to get it. Except recently, I've discovered that it also happens in the morning! I've recently been able to catch myself before opening my eyes in the morning, and I catch myself and make myself stay right there. I find that if I crack open my eyes just a tiny bit, just to let a tiny bit of light in, that the lucid dreams will start! I'm thrilled to have discovered this. I have to tell you what I lucid dreamed this morning, only for a few seconds. It's like my face was looking down at the ground, about 2 feet away from it. The ground, as you can imagine, was as real as can be, since this was a lucid dream. I was moving along the ground, almost floating, when suddenly I went over a cliff which appeared to be about 1000 feet down. It was like in a cartoon for a moment, I stayed up in the air just like the Roadrunner before he looks down. Then it became like a slow motion bungee jump down to the trees and rocks below, which I could see getting closer and closer. Then I 'willed' myself to come back up on the bungee cord. The funny thing is, there wasn't a drop of fear attached to the huge bungee jump. In my particular left brain case, this is real progress! Castaneda's chore was to learn to control and investigate these dreams at will, taking off from one lucid dream-bubble to another, to another; and then coming back on the same path. I would love to do the same.

Where am I ? How do I know it ? What should I do ? Is this what you are asking ? You want to be in bliss, but then I don't. I don't subscribe to it, don't look for it or want it. It looks awfully like the somatic lifestyle from Aldous Huxley, the hippy dream. Turn on, tune in, drop out. For a long while I wanted that, but it looks like evasion now. I wouldn't want it even if I could have it.

*excuse me, I ment to post this on general discussions* It seems that our whole system in this world is designed like a mousewheel. The good guys are naïve and are kept busy by running in the mousewheel, but they have no freedom to actually run for them selves, into freedom, or for others, by aiding the people to evolve. I once owned a two mice that ran on the mousewheel allot. They fought often over who could run on it. Today I had a dream of these mice and woke up dropping a tear. In the dream the mice where running on the wheel and getting out to see if they arrived somewhere else all the time. Never did they give up. I saw this and became real angry and tried to break the cage to set them free, but the cage woulden't break and it hurt my hand. I screamed to the mice to tell them to get out of the cage, expecting them to hear me, but they did not hear me somehow, being so occupied in the illusion that they were going somewhere else by running in that wheel. It is hard to even point out to naïve people how they're enslaved. Their decision space is so small, we cannot easily increase it. I can not even increase my own decision space, I´m more on the naïve side myself. If the depression causes mania and the mania causes depression, I'm the depressed guy. It seems that depressed people and maniacs hate eachother, yet they need eachother to form a balance. Even though it seems like a horrible thing to say, the majority of the people are worthless units of controllable intent. Only by enslaving many can you create value for yourself. Thus, you have to rule out allot of competition. And so the slave managed prison was created to use the power of the slaves to lock up potential competition for these maniacs who rule all of the world. We can try our whole lives to help people evolve and you will receive nothing in return. In fact, you will be punished for it indirectly. Think out of the box will bring along a life full of hardship, where you'll have to make allot of difficult decisions. In this whole journey, I wonder no longer why so many people have become the bad guy, as in maniacs. I wonder where all the maniacs actually are! I think most of them are in prison, a matter of bad luck. This system has been designed by the maniacs like a game similar to that of gambling with social aspects. Considering how low the average wisdom of the people are and how naïve the average person is, we need allot more maniacs running free out there to balance things out! This game has become unfair. The maniacs with most freedom are in minority, thus they gain allot of power on their own and they have more reasons to walk that road. All the maniacs or bad guys are few and they're supressing the naïve and good guys all for them selves! Have you ever seen a depressed person in one room with a maniac? Its hilarious. Have you ever seen 5 depressed people in a room with 1 maniac? The maniac goes frenzy and seems to be on the verge of exploding. Too much power in one body. In nature, another maniac would come along and take some of the belongings of this almighty maniac. This natural competition would rule out all the irresponsible maniacs and leave the wise maniacs in charge. In our society, our nature has been emprisoned. The criminals are being put in jails, by the enslaved police. Yes, enslaved police! This is enslavement with self managing capabilities. The police work to pay their own bills and they function as an anti-virus program to rule out all the potential competition for minority maniacs and lock them up in jail. That leaves only few maniacs who proffit from the lack of maniacs running around in this world. The emprisoned are the key to liberation of all the people. With all maniacs having equal competition and all depressed sad faces having a personal opressor, the worlds balance would be restored. There would be no more depressed people and no more maniacs. With a constant wheeding out of "bad guys" there is no balance in the archetypal population of this human civilization. Too many good people is not balanced. To few bad at the same time makes for even more disharmony. Now tell me, why and when did we actually start calling the maniacs "bad guys" and the depressed people "good guys"? They both have their part in nature. Currently, maniacs are few, thus they thrive and we are jealous of them. No need to be, because there is actually allot of maniacs in prison that can restore the balance. Who put them there? The good guys did. They are indirectly contributing to their own enslavement. Who's going to release them? "Not me! I'm the good guy!" everyone says. If only they knew... What most people see as good, is only bad. What most people see as bad, is only good. This is ment literally and still applies to our modern world.

T C (the meditator formerly known as Tao Cow) or someone made a comment somewhere I can't remember that got me intrigued in Lucid Dreaming. I practiced awhile back when I was in college, and it was trippy, but never in any depth, such as dream yoga or whatever it's called. If anyone has some good info regarding Lucid Dreaming, could you shoot it this way. I'd like to hear some other people's experiences regarding lucid dreaming as well, my only experience is being aware that I'm dreaming, I've never actually been able to change the outcome of a dream, but the idea that it's possible is interesting, so is the idea that one can learn more about themselves by delving and molding their subconscious mind. Aaron

I am a trained hypnotist and have been hypnotised many times from light to deep trance. DM (as practiced by AYP) is identical to a deep trance state, but only up until the point where consciousness is lost-and it is lost, despite what AYP says about it. This is very different from high awareness styles of meditation-here I have no experience of taught methods of specific styles as I created my own when I became disillusioned with the sleep state style of AYP DM. AYP does say to specifically ignore the scenery from DM, but never the less, flying, clairvoyance, visions, demons, Angels and crytal cities are all typical of hypnotic hallucinatory states. It's even possible to embed an exact practice time without reference to an external timer. To get someone into a relaxed trance state only requires a repetition of what the subject is feeling without adding specifics. The effect is to reinforce trust in the hypnotist and create a self reinforcing feedback loop. It's like all hynotism, or persuasion, in that it is a pace/lead/pace communication technique. The subject is doing the work themselves with a little help and reassurance and then accept the suggestion -worked out in advance with specific knowledge of what they want to achieve. Repeating a mantra is very similar particularly as-in AYP-the auto suggestion of 'letting it go-easily come back to it" (easily, safely, gently are all examples of hypnotic trigger words). Self hypnosis is easiest if you buy one of the CDs, the other method is binaural beats which are very effective, but, you need a script if you are trying to change something, it's not so easy to do that unless trained to do so. If you are interested I suggest Milton Ericksons -my voice will go with you. It's also possible, to create a mild trance state through hypnotic writing, but it requires some co-operation from the reader as they must use the pace/lead method. To some extent this is how all good fiction works, although authors are unaware of it, but the writer needs to pick up every day things that the reader is familiar with and then gradually take them deeper into the imagining state, which is almost a dream state. Anyone who has watched a good film, or read an absorbing book will know how it feels impossible not to keep watching, or turning the pages and that feeling, very similar to waking up, when reaching the end-watch people yawning and stretching at the cinema :-)

I've been working towards it for sometime... spurned on by the wise words of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche who said (paraphrasing) "If you can't become aware during sleep, how can you possibly hope to become aware while awake.." .. I found the comparison of the dream that most of us live and never wake from to being asleep and not realizing that we were dreaming to be pretty compelling.... but alas, I continue to simply enjoy the unusual beauty of my dreams instead of waking to the revelation that I am dreaming ... All in good time.... This is Wangyals book ( http://www.amazon.com/Tibetan-Yogas-Dream-Sleep/dp/1559391014/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320204414&sr=8-1)... I found it to be tremendously informative... But the only success I really gained from the practices within the book was to have dreams that reflected the areas in which my mind was placed before drifting off (you rotate your intent throughout the night by waking periodically to reset).... These days I use the kunlun dreaming practices, but my experiences have been similar. The quality of the dreams change, but I still find myself unable to bring awareness into the dreaming.

One technique is to force yourself to go to sleep in a specific position. You should choose something comfortable but not one of your usual positions. Resist the urge to get comfortable or roll over. It's not about falling asleep as you normally do when you're tired. You adopt the position and then stay as still and peaceful as you can. Do not give in and try a 'new' position. Try to stay alert and peaceful. Eventually your body will become so still that you will almost forget it is there. If you can do this for long enough you may suddenly realize you are dreaming. Do not panic or try too hard. Lucid dreaming is a difficult balance of give and take. If you accidently wake up you will be in the same posistion. Resist the urge to move. Stay completely still and you can reenter into the lucid dreaming state rather easily. This technique of waking-to-lucid state is good practice for intentional lucid dreaming. It teaches you the correct amount of 'letting go' and 'alertness' mind-balance required to enter into the lucid dream. It seems to be about intending. If you want to lucid dream you have to try. Going to sleep without preparation/intention only rarely results in lucidity. Also don't be surprised if you experience many dreams within dreams and a loss of reality while in the midst of using this technique. Ommmmmm.

How do you know if you have momentarily open the 3rd eye? What kind of experiences would validate that the 3rd eye was opened for a period of time. The reason I ask is, I had a weird experience. Its usually after sleeping in the morning. This morning, I looked into my 3rd eye or what I thought was the 3rd eye. It was like tunnel vision, shaped like an eye. Everything outside the eye border was dark, but inside I saw beautiful colors moving about. It was like creatures swimming or floating about zipping from one direction to the next. At first I was in ah, thinking this is cool, just watching the events. It wasn't very clear at first. Then I focused harder to look and the eye opened up and everything was crystal clear. The images were very vibrant and colorful. I looked at what looked like colorful vibrant fish swimming about and it almost appeared like they saw me too. After about a few minutes of this, the eye closed. I tried to open it up, but couldn't, then I just opened my eyes. I don't think this was a dream, as it was so crystal clear and just in the 3rd eye area. Maybe I'm wrong. Lucid dreaming? I had a dream before this event and I remember that also, but feels different.

These are good questions, and no definitive answer, primarily because people do not agree on what is the meaning of hypnosis, and also "meditation." There are large areas of overlap obviously. But here are my answers: I think that deep meditation differs from deep trance hypnosis in that the general intent of meditation is to keep a single-pointed focus, whether it be repetitive mantra, noting, or breath etc. This tends to "clear the slate" of the mind until it becomes automatic, and when a person goes deeper into subconscious mind, towards alaya (deeper level) mind, this automatic slate clearing programming continues as a sort of auto-pilot. At certain points a person can experience special spiritual altered states, such as velvet blackness, blue, some kind of samadhi state, etc, and maintain a fairly good degree of consciousness, so you can experience these states as if you were there in an alternate world. In summary, the key to meditation is that ongoing repetition (of noting, breath, etc.) and intent to continue that meditation even as you start to move to the edge of your consciousness. Because normally, when we move to the edge of consciousness, a kind of babbling dreamscape comes along: words, pictures, (known as vritti) scenarios drag us into dream or unconsciousness. Only by relaxing, surrendering and a thin mental tenaciousness, letting go, but still holding onto the meditation can you proceed deeper. In contrast, hypnosis does not emphasize being conscious. Hypnosis is a quicker access to deep states because your intent is to allow yourself to let go and go deeply as possible, you don't have to maintain any one-pointed focus as you arrive at the gates of subconscious and dreaming. But you do have to have an external voice guiding you, and they must know what will work. In ultra depth, or even in a fairly good state of hypnosis, you can just zonk out, and will not have recollection of any deep states that you experienced, similar to not remembering what went on in dreams or other states of sleep. I hope you do find some more references and people working with deep states of hypnosis. I took the ultradepth course with James Ramey (RIP), but I haven't checked lately to see if anyone has been working on this.

Hey y'all, I have joined this forum because I'm curious to learn about qigong and other forms that promote health and longevity. I need a physical practice that's both simple, holistic and that can compliment or possibly replace my other practices. Also keeping an eye open for any method that compliments my aims. I suppose my ultimate aims would be immortality and enlightenment. For now I will settle for less bodily discomfort, any physical means to cultivate physical, emotional and mental balance along with greater energy. Unusual abilities and psychic faculties are something that I have an interest in developing. In my view, the development of supramundane ability is something which would come with being highly realized in terms of balanced enlightenment. From what little I know about Daoist immortals, they are said to have various beyond-common abilities too. I'm not terribly attached to the outcomes. Been through the power-seeking rigmarole when I was a youngster. Blocked up my throat that way, doing western esoteric stuff. Went pretty looney. Spent more than 6 years sorting it out. If I do become wiser and can maintain some degree of health as I age, I will be very happy. I haven't really investigated Taoism. I have spent a multiple year measure of time investigating and learning Buddhist practices. Prior to that I was involved in what might be considered western esoteric thought and practices, along with investigating yoga and tantrism. I'm male, and almost 28, if I recall correctly. Maybe that matters to someone. Maybe it's relevant to what I practice. I don't know much at this stage. I'm also left handed, and that seems to be a factor with some of the energy practices I've been investigating and practicing. What brought me here (mostly) was my investigation of Falun Gong. See a few months back I was looking for some way to help alleviate some of the problems I've had with my spine and internal energy system that new age yoga teachers haven't been able to help with. Instead they were like "you were injured because the universe is trying to tell you to practice yoga." Which I find absurd, since I was practicing yoga prior to having a serious accident and injury.... I digress. I have to say, I firmly believe accidents happen. Anyways, having tried the five exercises of falun gong, I said "wow this stuff is doing something profound, I can really feel something happening." So I started to read the literature. I read The Falun Gong book, I listened to the 9 lectures a whole bunch of times. I ordered the Zhuan Falun book. Much to my chagrin, I found Mr. Li Hongzhi says a whole bunch of things which don't fit with Buddhist doctrine. I hesitate to investigate how Taoist his ideas are. He makes a bunch of baseless statements which I could neither verify nor ascribe credulity to. But at the same time, I did get a falun implanted before he mentioned it being a thing, and when he mentioned falun, mine was really energized. He has some powers, or is linked into a power system of some kind. It's exact nature I can't discern. But he's no Buddhist, as he doesn't seem to know what nibbana is or what it means to be an arahant. He does seem to think he's an enlightened being of some variety or another. But at one point or another he claims an arahant can regress to become an ordinary being, unintentionally! He says in more than one place that infinite planes are limited. he claims to explain higher dimensions and then utterly fails to. He says he will make remarks about going beyond the five elements and three spheres, and fails to clarify anything. Also he makes statements about the space in Amida Buddha and other pureland paradises being limited to a certain umber of individuals (in the hundred thousands.) Part of Amida Buddha's vow is that his paradise would accommodate countless beings. Not to mention the whole apocalyptic aliens and technology conspiracy ideas... which appear to be in the process of being sanitized. Also the way he makes certain statements, sounding uncertain and then clears his throat. If he was a westerner I would be absolutely sure he was knowingly full of shit. But I find I don't well grok people from asian cultures. At least not quite as well as I grok people from the culture into which I was born. So maybe I'm way off about the tone of voice and body language. I won't mention that I'm attached to sutras, tantrism, and practice mantra recitation. So giving that up to practice his looney religion simply won't happen. He says you can't accomplish anything by doing his exercises and practicing anything else. Apparently it's too delicate for the separate Taos and Buddhas to sort out. He says Buddhas are separate from each other! I do like how Falun Gong is given away freely. That really appeals to the Buddhist values I have bought into. I also like it's simplicity. It's quite effective at energizing the body. I like to drink and curse and smoke though. Plus the whole "give up cultivating Buddhism and follow only Dafa or fail at both" ultimatum. I'd like to continue to practice Falun Gong. But I'm concerned with the fact of the leader being not what he says he is. I mean, I could throw away the books, and just do the exercise. But the fact is that practicing the forms seems (to my mind) to imply being influenced on an emotional and mental level by the mental and astral gestalt of Falun Dafa. Not to mention the implant! I feel this might impede my progress, and moreover, limit my future possibilities. Heck, it might cause me to descend. I wonder if anyone can point me in the right direction...! I need a simple exercise regime that will gel with my hermetic Buddhist view and practice. I'd like to continue with Falun Gong. But the matter of it being tied to a group whose ideas I reject seems to pose a few problems to which I haven't a sure remedy (aside from emptiness.) I'm very open to doing Daoist exercises, as I've done Hindu ones before. The Buddhist exercise systems I'm aware of are relatively inaccessible to me, and seem at least as complicated as their Hindu counterparts. I'm looking for simplicity with efficacy. Also if anyone has a simple method for immortality or extreme longevity.... ping me a few times, and I'll make myself as receptive as I can to dream and trance transmissions. Holy wall of text! How often do I repeat myself? Enough blather I suppose. With sincerity, Mud

I don't know the official rules of whatever religious discipline is in focus. So I can't speak to that. But as a casual self-motivated western mystic of sorts, I can give my perspective on the question. This is just from a "practical" plus experience (both good and bad) angle, not because anybody is telling me so or it's written somewhere, as I don't follow any specific path. (I use a variety of models as tools, off and on, when I feel like it, but that's all.) * Energy has no boundaries, and even speaking or writing it for others exposes and complicates it: the moment anybody else is part of something, you now have your own stuff plus theirs too, intertwined with it. I find often it's best to keep things "close to the vest" as they say and let it be something between you and the divine and the reality you project/interact with. I think this is especially important if whatever you are working on has certain goals, whether they are goals that make a change in you or your habits, or goals such as in business for example where 'success' is a measuring factor. Basically all change is resisted. It's enough work dealing with our own resistance. You don't need to energetically deal with others' too. * Information has different 'time' to development inside us. Let us say you have an experience one evening. Maybe it is something a sensei said, or maybe it is a dream or a meditative experience you had. You will absorb that, unfurl a lot more of it, integrate it, at varying speeds. Just because you understand the topography of it the next morning doesn't mean that the whole thing has worked itself out with you yet. So what you share fairly soon is inherently going to make it something it's not, as if forcing this into verbal communication is actually going to force you to take all that energy, whatever incomplete degree of development it might be, and toss it into cement as fast as you can, into a fixed this-means-that form of logical words. I feel this can interfere with the development within you, and with your own understanding, which may "attempt to come to conclusions and resolution" before things are ready. * Energy is a resource and if you talk out something you may be releasing some of it in that way, rather than keeping it for concrete action or intent. So 1) I don't entangle other peoples' energy, intent or resistance with mine; 2) I give the experiences time to develop and integrate within me, before articulating them, and 3) I focus the energy for effort-X into X and not into talking-about-X. But on the other hand.... Once you have something worked out somewhat in your head, it can be good to talk with someone about your ideas, since articulating them may actually cause you to bring the energy into focus, into shape, and that can be good. They may actually contribute to, not harm or merely 'complicate', your energetic direction and path of success. Bringing your emotion into your intent can make a powerful difference, and often it's sharing with someone that brings forth more of that emotion, and enthusiasm, and so on. Not to mention... Nearly every opportunity I have had manifest in my life came through other people. If I had never talked to them about things I was doing, or interested in doing, I would have had no close relationships about topics that really touched me, and I would not have ended up with the many generous gifts -- of time, self, love and sometimes money or other material assistance, that such interactions brought. Also: There is a thing... I don't know a name for it. But basically it happens when you articulate something to someone else and they hear you; and you know they hear you; it's like a... like a circuit connecting. Win Wenger talks about this but others have as well. It makes a difference in the brain. Most people have to actually talk to a person to do this. Some people, say some inner advisors to me once, can do it in writing if they have a very high awareness of and connection to people in the future reading it, as they do so. I think sometimes that can be a good thing -- perhaps it depends on the situation. Lastly, there are other reasons for recording your experience, which you may or may not choose to share with others, at least at that time. For example, when I'm working on stuff that is new to me, I have severe memory problems. I don't just mean that I can do a meditation, write it down in detail, and then forget I did it. I reread what I wrote and it's still new. I reread what I wrote for the 8th time eventually, knowing that I not only had the experience, and wrote it down, and read it 7 times before, and it is still totally new to me. And then finally I break through whatever kind of memory or denial issues are going on and I start remembering, a little better all the time, until eventually I remember all those experiences, and I remember the new ones also, and it's ok. But if I didn't record them and constantly re-expose myself to them they would be gone to me. And as a secondary but related thing to the above, for me, documenting my inner life is a great deal of how I validate my experiences, which I'm otherwise prone to forget in denial or dismiss in invalidation if it's not logical. I often intellectually see that I am avoiding a certain topic or energy by the fact that I'm not getting around to recording it. But usually if I record it, I need to share it with at least one person, it forces me to own up to it in a way. These elements are really a completely different consideration than just the "keep the energy close" for so many good reasons that I was talking about at the top. I have meditations where I'm told not to record certain parts or that afternoon, it's simply not appropriate to share (and these are not anything offbeat, they seem like just another meditation as far as their content, context or experience goes) so I don't, but I assume there is some decent reason my innerself-aspects are telling me that. As far as sharing certain goal-oriented things in particular, all I can say is that I prefer to share things with people who already have the energy in place for what I am doing or feeling. For example if I am working on something for business I would prefer to talk to someone who is successful in business and who expects and welcomes me to be, prior to me talking to anybody about it who may be much closer to me, but who is not evidencing that kind of energy, since I feel the first person might be energetically helpful to me even if nearly a stranger, while the second person might complicate or burden my chance at success no matter how much we love each other. If the topic is more like spiritual development, it's the same theory for me, I would ideally only talk with people who already accept the paradigms I'm working on learning to accept, who already embody the energy I'm working on integrating and embodying. Otherwise I feel like a marathon runner and that person I love but who isn't really there with me spiritually just took off their heavy yoke of doubt and confusion and resistance and dropped it around my neck, and now I have to get down the path for me AND them, because I involved them in it. So... who I share with is selective and what I share -- and when -- is selective. But unless I have a driving need for the documentation, I think it's best to err on the side of quiet. :-) RC

Actually, the same question raised to my spiritual master will get a reply that "Avoid result orientation". Nobody can define the state of Self realization since it is not an experience that can be defined, but a transcendence to a different state of consciousness beyond the normal three states of Waking, Dream and deep sleep that the individual Jeeva goes through. In Self Realization, Jeeva recognizes its unity with the Paramathma and merges one with Paramathma, leaving its identity with the material aspects of body, mind, intellect and ego fully.

i have not received the dvd yet, cool that you ordered it too i will keep you updated, i am excited about it. She was in my dream last night again, i was trapped, kidnapped by some nondescript cabal of evil chinese people who wore red and black and had me in their compound. There were egyptian style pyramids there and a lot of hitech stuff, and a general feeling of corruption and negativity throughout. They wouldnt let me go, but i kept hiding from them so they couldnt find me. After a couple days i found a small door in the back of a bathroom and as i was about to go through it, Sifu Jenny was there. I was scared cause i thought at first she was evil and they ahd finally found me but she just watched me. I went through the door and there was a crawlspace and she came through after me. In the peace of that safe place i realized i had a cell phone and as i texted my friend to say "i am kidnapped, help, tell the authorities" i woke up. It was a really long dream, it was like it wouldn't end until i gave it permission to end. btw for those interested, i am not thinking that these manifestations of Sifu Jenny are actually Sifu Jenny as she might dreamwalk or manifest according to her own free will. But i do think that they are patterns of energy that contain information that the universe is telling me, so i listen to them as such. good omens

I´m not sure where should I post this comment. In Chaoism and Thelema there are practices to change mental patterns, like metamorphosis (changing habits) in Liber MMM, or paradigm shifting in Chaoism (changing your worldview), or a practice that Crowley did to have one personality when he was wearing a ring in one hand, and another personality when he was wearing it in another. There are also Buddhist and Bon practices that can be used this way, such as Tibetan dream yoga and Chöd. Do Taoists use these practices? What practices do they use?

I just came here with the purpose of posting this excellent comment made on the subject and I saw your comment. I hope it clears some of your doubts: Why Is Astral Projection So Hard? If you're wondering why Astral Projection is so hard, you are not alone. You must be thinking, "If this was so natural, why do we struggle so?!" I tell people it IS natural. How can it not be? You are not your body, you are your soul. So to travel about and experience that condition is no more unnatural than sleeping. But why is it so hard then? It is difficult because of our self-inflicted concepts and lifestyles. This starts at the society level, and then works its way down to us at a personal level. If you review your typical life (American or otherwise), during our most formative years, we are taught how to socially behave, left brained topics like math and science (with art as an "elective"), fear based religion, and physical survival. We dismiss all metaphysical things with great vehemence and skepticism. Then, after our formative years, we plunge into the electronic and physical lifestyles, which leads us even farther away from inner self. Everything from cell phones, beepers, televisions, traffic, jobs, and surface relationships keep us from seeking inner truths. I just got an e-mail this week from a 14 year old that had her dream journal taken away from her at her religious school because it was a "sin"! How a dream journal (keeping records of soul and astral activity) can be a sin, boggles my mind. It is no surprise to me that we can't project! Instead, it's a miracle any of us can project at all! But then again, is this surprising since this type of oppression goes back even before the Christians imprisoned Galileo for promoting the simple theory that the earth goes round the sun and not vice-versa? Ignorance, established and held by fear, means control to the controllers and as long as we stay ignorant and let fear rule us, our growth will be stunted in this area as well as all others. So here we are, conditioned and programmed to be the worst astral projectors possible. We're ignorant and afraid. Will we ever be able to flex these astral muscles? How do we undo this? It is my opinion, that with our current pace and attitude of life, this is not possible to any great degree for the general public. It will always be a struggle, and it will take extraordinary efforts to master this natural ability. However, I strongly believe, as with all things, we have yet to uncover an astral projection AID (or tool) that will help us all. This was the purpose of my Science page. We already have tools for projection (hemi-sync, meditation tapes, herbs, etc.) but if any of these worked with great success, we'd all be projecting. You can go to the Monroe Institute for one week (for a hefty sum of $1,600.00) and probably project, as you're in a sealed, soundproof booth for days on end, with hemi-sync playing till all hours. But what happens when you get home and are back to your daily life? Probably nothing! No, the tools we need are yet to be discovered. Of all my years of research and projection, there is one fundamental truth that I think is an important clue, and that is that our physical body has a magnetic hold on the astral body. Only through intense meditation, illness, mastery of the body asleep/mind awake state, assorted deprivation, do we reduce the magnetic pull enough to allow for separation. Source: http://www.astralvoyage.com/projection/hard.html By the way, Tibetan Buddhists and mountain dwelling Daoists include astral travel as part of their spiritual practices that is how they came across knowledge such as the Bardo states, Yi Jing/I Ching, the Five Phases, etc. Indian yogis know more about the higher planes than what we Westerners do.

I don't remember how long I lasted as mod here... It wasn't terribly pleasant or interesting most of the time but it was useful to help me grow. Thanks for your service, Michael. I know nothing of the issues under discussion but it's always good to move on when the time is right. Peace PS - edited at mod's request... Everybody needs to lighten up... it's all a dream

Hi Marblehead, Just a quick one, i'll be back later.... when you say sub conscious mind, how do you see this, apart from being outside of our awareness? is it like a bank of automations, or is it more like the dream world, where we become aware in our dreams, the flip side of everyday waking awareness? If it's the flip side, where is it? does it reside in the brain tissue as a function, or is it another plane of awareness? If another plane of awareness, where is this plane? Are you this plane, or are you in this plane? Like i said just a quick one, i'll check back later... of course i'm guessing your answers on each question... so will be intersting to see what you say.. peace

Despite being a reincarnation of an ancient Egyptian . Clarke seems to have a bit a of a cult following , international school and all that. Thing is she fills the gaps with pretty modern stuff, oh well, gotta fill them with something. However , if going 'neo-Egyptian' I prefer Normandy Ellis ( ignored her for years after checking out her 'ancient Egyptian' cards then re found her via her 'Awakening Osiris' book - very interesting transliterations ; " In seafoam, in swirlings and imaginings I am fish, tadpole, crocodile. I am an urge, an idea, a portent of impossible dreams. I lie between heaven and earth, between goodness and evil, patience and explosion. I am innocent and rosy as dawn. I sleep with my finger in my mouth, the cord of life curled beside my ear. Like a child in its mother's belly, I am with you but not among you. I know no ending for I have no beginning. I have always been here, a child in the silence of things, ready to wake at any moment. I am possibility. What I hate is ignorance, smallness of imagination, the eye that sees no farther than its own lashes. All things are possible. When we speak in love and live by love, truth in love will be our comfort. Who you are is limited only by who you think you are. I am the word before its utterance. I am thought and desire. I am a child in the throat of god. Things are possible--joy and sorrow, men and women, children. Someday I'll imagine myself a different man, build bone and make flesh around him. I am with you but a moment for an eternity. I am the name of everything. I've dreamed the nightmare a hundred times, that old revulsion of bone and flesh, waking in sweat, in a headlong rush toward the world, into the cool certainty of fires that burn in sudden stars, the heat in the body. That I am precludes my never having been. What I know was given to me to say. There is more. There are words that exist only in the mind of heaven, a bright knowing, a clear moment of being. When you know it, you know yourself well enough. You will not speak. I am a child resting in love, the pleasure of clouds. I read the book of the river. I hold the magic of stones and trees. I find god in my fingers and in the wings of birds. I am my delight, creator of my destiny. It is not vanity. There are those who live in the boundaries of guilt and fear, the limits of imagination. They believe limitation is the world. You can not change them. There is work of your own to do. You will never reach the end of your own becoming, the madness of creation, the joy of existence. Dance in the moment. Reach down and pull up song. Spin and chant and forget the sorrow that we are flesh on bone. I return to the rhythm of water, to the dark song I was in my mother's belly. We were gods then and we knew it. We are gods now dancing in whirling darkness, spitting flame like stars in the night. In the womb before the world began, I was a child among other gods and children who were, or may be, or might have been. There in the dark when we could not see each other's faces, we agreed with one mind to be born, to separate, to forget the pact we made that we might learn the secrets of our fraternity. We agreed to know sorrow in exchange for joy, to know death in exchange for life. We were dark seeds of possibility whispering. Then one by one we entered alone. We walked on our legs, and as we had said, we passed in well-lit streets without recognizing each other; yet we were gods sheathed in flesh, the multitude of a single spirit. Gods live even in darkness, in the world above your heads, in the crevices of rocks, in the open palms of strangers. I am a child, the seed in everything, the rhythm of flowers, the old story that lingers. Among cattle and fruit sellers, I am air. I am love hidden in a shy maiden's gown. I am the name of things. I am the dream changing before your eyes. I am my body, a house for blood and breath. I am a man on earth and a god in heaven. While I travel the deserts in frail form, while I grow old and weep and die, I live always as a child inside the body of truth, a blue egg that rocks in the storm but never breaks. I sleep in peace in my mother's lap, a child mesmerized by sunlight on the river. My soul is swallowed up by god. Out of chaos came the light. Out of the will came life.

Orion, I woke up with you fresh on my mind this morning, so I must have had a dream about your situation that I'm not remembering. But I did receive clarity. Please realize that nobody is really "doing" anything to you. We all act out of self interest, including the person you think is torturing you. They are not torturing you because they are thinking of you first, as though their sole purpose in life is to torture you. They are acting out of a dynamic that they can't help, a dynamic of an old imprint of theirs. They are acting out of self interest from their past conditioning, and there is no other way they can be because of this. We are not victims. We are volunteers for all these things that we think are happening to us in life. You know that rich inner life that you have? Please recognize that your counterpart has an equally rich inner life, and they are acting out of some old fear and behavior pattern. They are acting from their own needs. The answer here, as horrible as it may seem, is to pray for them. I don't say this in a godly sense, other than you speaking to your own higher self. What you want to do is clear your heart of resentment, of separation, of fear. In some contorted way, you are seeing this pattern as a requirement for Love, which no doubt stems from your background. The answer is to Forgive It. Pray for the other person. Pray for the very best for them, and really mean it. Pray until you feel actual empathy for them, until tears run down your face. This is for two reasons: it will give you empathy into their situation, therefore releasing your need to remain in the situation; it will remove your victimhood and this tendency in your heart to be a victim and place yourself in situations where you are badly treated. And it will change your own heart to the tendency to love without conditions, to give without any expectation of anything in return. The hardest person for us to love is ourselves. There is a child within you that is hurt badly - not from this particular situation, but from an old situation, and it is creating the illusion that there must be pain with love. This must be reversed, so that you can truly find an equal partner in the future. But right now you are in an unfortunate jigsaw-piece type of love, where you are both hooked into each other because of a particular symbiotic configuration. That's not love. That's a lesson, for both parties to work out so they can continue on to true loving capability. And until we learn to love ourselves first, we are unable to truly love another. Such a Catch-22 life puts us in. But this is our condition, and this is truly your opportunity. It takes much courage to confront inner demons and come out the other side. But you can do it, and you must do it. But do it through much forgiveness - of the other person, of your parents (if that's the onset of the dynamic), and of yourself. Love is the answer. Always.

Hari Om, These two verses are the first two mantras in the Kenopanishad. Let us first see the background of the question. A spiritual aspirant or an advanced spiritual seeker who is at the verge of Self Realization asks this to the enlightened spiritual master. That spiritual aspirant or seeker has put the question to know about what actually drives our perceptions, actions, thinking, feelings and life perse. For such a seeker who has put in all the efforts to know the truth, this question is raised only out of humility to confirm the truth of his findings through prior reflection, contemplation and meditation. From the question itself the master recognizes the level of spiritual evolution or spiritual growth of the seeker and promptly gives the answer that can instantly take the questioning seeker to Self Realization (enlightenment). The spiritual seeker is asking about the Truth behind our experiences in life. The Sanskrit term 'Deva' implies the force or the functioning principle that is behind life and our life experiences. Let us now proceed to the answer. This answer which says that it is the Ear of the ear, Mind of the mind, Speech of the speech, Prana of the prana: it is the Eye of the eye and thus detatching from his mortal material aspects of body, mind, intellect and ego, the spiritual seeker attains immortality. As explained by our fellow member dwai, those who lead a worldly life or extroverted life of sensuality, materialism, selfishness, egoistic and desire ridden life, die moment after moment with each different experience. While the enlightened crosses the identification with their material aspects namely body, mind intellect and ego and achieves the transcendent state of God consciousness called self Realization which is beyond the cycle of birth and death. Immortality is achieved by transcending the limited experiences of the life called actions, perceptions, thinking and feeling experienced in the waking dream and deep sleep states, upon achieving oneness with the very subtlest enlivening principle within the core of our personality called God or Supreme Self. Spiritual practices of Karma, Bhakthi and Gnana Yogas help in getting rid of egoism and desires of the mind enabling the individual to freely and easily meditate on the Supreme Self or Brahman or God and ultimately achieve Self Realization. As opposed to the most commonly practiced worldly life of extroversion wherein the individual seeks to know the Reality through the experiences of body, mind, intellect and ego, the spiritual aspirant tries introversion to the seek the truth and Realities of life. In introversion, the spiritual aspirant progresses step step by step to gradually transcend the grosser material layers of food sheath, Vital air / breath sheath, mental sheath. intellectual sheath and the final bliss sheath to finally achieve identification or oneness with the subtlest enlivening principle called the Supreme Self or Brahman or God. This is Self Realization.

there is a doing and a not doing the world is following their mind--of course the mind is a tool for understanding but we all live in the traps of our mind but I can see the simplicity that- one could pound rice and be happy- that is a very miniscule statement but one that says to me even in mundane circumstances----the outer circumstances the business of the world and which by the way sometimes looks very similar to my own thought patterns in a very scary manner---- I have to correspond please. I have to ask. just like this and then I go get my quiet on-as best I can. what is being asked here- ok the narration is my doing but I am to avoid the narrative OR not. either way is ok by me-if I have that say so. because I understand the no thing but I am not sure on the other front in its simplicity I am not making it up that I am painting in the home of sapna and vivekanand that is too funny her name translates to dream and his name translates to someone who also brought the teachings to the west...vivekenanda- what does this all mean to me? it is fascinating -- see today that I went and picked up a check for part of the work in the bathroom and that there is a shrine in that room with lots of stuff...water bowl maybe flowers-- I know that I do not have to be hindu-- but I have fascinating interest and intrigue-- I would ask her when I return for more work- lots on the exterior and more in the bathroom-- I cannot read here today. eventually when I get situated I will check out the gospel of st thomas or whatever is here to read I am a scribbler- so I need to settle with a notebook-several so I can attend to the amount of time to really see what is being said. track it and put it in my mind. going back to the pages of the breathing- recent I get very lost in here I feel that you think that based on my lack of where I am that you are not where you should be. that is a very heavy load. and then I keep saying that I am to stop the narration. and I just don't know REALLY if I am to communicate or not. you could say no-and then I don't give a choice or I could just shut the computer off- but what is the point of that. the war is in my head do you feel like I am ungreatful? I read what you share and I can respond what part needed left I cannot see that. the stamp? do I need to fully let go of any creative idea and ONLY watch the breath as prudent as possible. and then I might not- but I am asking. creativity is here and this is not meant to be the bullshit inc. I wrote a poem in elementary and I think you would like it. it is about a famous day and the spookful night. the famous day will always be the meeting in seattle to me. but then again-maybe the bank teller has vital things for me to learn? maybe this is incorrect in the big picture. I am willing to SEE what IS. I want to close down and not talk but at the same time- I can't. but certainly out of respect. I will stop. overall I feel like that what you continually point at is that everything about me is not true. all along- and I am not going to be ok with that overall- I do not accept parts of this even if it appears such. please show me. and I work hard at the discipline and the serenity and movement I am listening. how I have lived my years is radically different than yours-of course. make changes-yes forgive them for they do not know what they do---- I hear you say. and I am listening. I can't pretend to know to know when to add words to aid in the silence... except= what does ALL of this mean?

Your final proposal is a complex theory to a profoundly simple experience. What makes you think death will release you from this dream? What makes you think this illusionary life cannot be a source toward truth in itself? Now that you are here, do not be afraid to live. It takes an honest and courageous heart to awaken into truth. The first step is to surrender the mental chatter that is this post. It is this cognitive deliberation that drives the conundrums within the inquiry that will obscure you from perceiving the totality of truth in its many forms, including the form you call 'dream'. You are allowing the ideas of life and death- you are allowing these semantics to conjure a sensation, another 'illusion', and an allusion to a potential that you do not yet fully understand and yet also fear to experience in its totality. So sit, relax. What is the true nature of this totality? You will understand once you have awakened. The process of Awakening is neither/both one of life or death- it transcends this, although it is possible for us to use that terminology to discuss. But since this language has been confounding to you, let me put it more simply: Awakening is a shift in consciousness. That consciousness is found in stillness and in silence because as pervasive and profound as it is, it is also subtle and transcendent. And it takes an equally subtle presence, in harmony, to recognize this state of Truth. In this life, you will only find this form of silence through the vessel of your body (this is a form of living). What must be surrendered is your idea (this is a form of death) of what that potential is or is not, what it might be or not be, and how it can be obtained. Have the faith to let go, the patience to be still, the courage to release the grasp towards death, life or even Awakening itself.

Speaking of a system choosing you, I had a dream a few nights ago where I met with GM Doo Wai and he told me to learn the first 3 meditations. I have since been doing just that and feeling much better, but that dream still struck me as kind of odd. What do you guys think? Am I going nuts here or what? I'll also add the sitting ones as Sifu Terry has suggested as soon as I can. Warmest Regards, Shen

Ever had a very vivid dream, and while in the dream you were convinced it was real? That's all it is. For some reason, people are ok with "dream states" while sleeping, where they perceive they have no control; but not ok with dreams states while awake, where they perceive they should have control. The true scary thing is that people actually believe they have control, and haven't learned that control is only a perceived thing - not real. Two of our most limiting fears are the fear of the unknown and the fear of loss of control; because to know and to be in control are purely context based perceptions. First you have to create an artificial framework wherein the knowing or control has anchor points. Remove the framework, remove the fear, accept. Peace,