Search the Community

It could be your energy body that needs clearing , I have seen my blockages in the past in just before waking state as black cloud like formation ... Have you investigated relation with your sexuality or are you trying to introduce some change in that field , becouse your dream is pregnant with meaning and is it possible connected with the orb hoovering over your chest ? Just asking these questions for you to answer yourself rather than wanting an answer as this stuff can be very personal .

Lower dan tien is 'working'. Do you meditate/focus on your lower dan tien? If this was in a dream, this is most likely your subtle body letting you know it is there. Usually one can open up the energy channels by rotating one way and then close them off by rotating the other way. The high pitch noise your hearing is astral hearing. You can actually hear Higher Beings when they are around you as well as when energy is transforming to a higher frequency. Usually this high pitch noise can be considered a good thing because it wards off disembodied spirits who may be in the vicinity. It is sort of like a force field as well as an attunement. Ever wonder why some monasteries have those huge gongs? hahaha. As well as some mantras. I remember when I first met the Goddess the KwanYin she greeted me with a deep resounding OOMMMMMMMMMMMMM. That vibrated my whole body. It was great.

stillness it ponders searching for itself, it seems, or lost in a dream?

When I have flying dreams and dreams with vivid color and then when I see light around peoples' heads and have precognitive experiences from previous dreams then life becomes more like a dream and then when I control my dreams more and then when I am awake maybe I can control my waking dream more also. So then spending more of my awake time in a dream vision state -- and this is done through meditation -- but meditating while talking to people or listening to people usually requires doing mental concentration as a japa and this then slows down my breathing naturally -- emptying out the conceptual mind as I notice emotional energy of others. I just sit in full lotus at the computer while watching movies or discussing qigong and offtopics or talking on the phone. All in full lotus. Then eating I try not to overeat but anyway then working is manual physical labor using a pick axe or saw or shovel or hauling things with wheel barrow or carrying, etc. Squatting. So emotional blockages are the number one energy depletion but by emptying out the conceptual mind then the emotional blockages of the physical realm are surrended to the Emptiness. Submission to the Emptiness as God or the heart love. Or as I like to say: I don't need to do anything because Mother Nature will take revenge. But then when I do things it should be like a dream as a playfulness - not required but intense since it is fun that way and so then the relationship to the Emptiness is deepened and the dream waking state is more relaxed yet evernew and ever-fresh. The energy is changing all the time and so who am I to say what I will do or not do or what will happen? haha.

In case there is a misunderstanding I'm not dismissing Castaneda. To explain, there's no doubt in me that you can make techniques work that are in the books(I've done the "hands" for awaking in dream). Back when I read JTI I was reminded about things I'd learnt or read from Mexican tradition as well as western esoterics. Many things felt authentic but like I said I was into other things back then that I was trying not to mix practices with each other. The controversies are a different thing. Who knows what happened in there? It's possible my friend freaked out from hearing about these things and eventually got turned off to the whole thing.

Well, I am having similar situation. Kind of. My grandmother on my father side is recently diagnosed with cancer. She is in her 86. She was never a kind person. She has caused many great karmas in her life time. When I do see her, which is rarely, I have to put up a wall in front of me so that her karmas does not affect me. We, my family, aren't that close to her. She does not have a lot of times to live. I am hoping she would make peace with herself at one point. Not with me but at least with those she hurts in her life time. In another notes, my grand mother on my mother side, of who I have attachment too, she began to practice Buddhism after she was diagnosed with a serious stage of diabete. She passed away in her 60s. I dream of her many times and I hope in her next life she would be reborn again and living in a more better social situation. She was brought up during the Japanese occupation in Hong Kong, during WWII. As a little girl, she used to constantly seeing dead bodies on the streets. That what she used to tell us. In your case, are you attached to this person in anyway. Is there a good reason for you to become attached to them. If not, don't cling on that feeling. Just let them be. If the prospect of dying isn't enough incentives to reflect and to re-evaluate one's life habits, these people are hopeless. The only thing you can do is to hope that there is some slight wisdom in them to see that it is bad karma to die without changing one's life bad habits.

A Buddhist might respond,...look at everything you perceive as a dream. Lao Tzu said, "Recognize that eveything you see and think (6 senses) is a falsehood, an illusion, a veil over the truth...the ego is a monkey catapulting through the jungle; totally fascinated by the realm of the senses....if anyone threaten it, it actually fears for its life. Let this monkey go. Let the senses go." Did not René Descartes, concerning the senses, articulate, “All that I have tried to understand to the present time has been affected by my senses; now I know these senses are deceivers, and it is prudent to be distrustful after one has been deceived once.”

I'm not accepting students,...nor am an expert in the dream of perceived life,...thus your beliefs far surpass all my relative knowledge. I will offer this,...be a perfect student to your mundane pursuits, and perhaps next lifetime, you'll recognize an interest beyond clinging to dishonesty to make what you don't understand more palatable..

Lloyd, There is no need to do exercises to enhance lucid dreaming unless one feels a natural compulsion to develop that skill. I quite naturally fell into it in my mid-20's while I was training in Tao Tan Pai neikung and experiencing the altered/higher states of consciousness that that system facilitated. If one is remembering one's dreams and wants to actively participate in them. There are a variety of traditions and means to practice lucid dreaming. I just happened to be have been reading Castaneda's books (Journey to Ixtlan, Tales of Power, and Second Ring of Power) during a summer that I spent in Taiwan and I was able to immediately practice the dream methods I found in them. I would not worry about encountering "negative energies" through lucid dreaming that one isn't already encountering in "non-lucid" dreams. For in general, all entities and characters in one's dreams come from one's own mind--and therefore one's own experiences. The exception is the situation where a very high-level (and probably black) magician is intruding into your mind while you are asleep. My advice is to just leave it alone if you have doubts or trepidation. If you find yourself remembering a lot of your dreams, and then feeling the urge to actively participate in them, and sense the potential to tap the power of your dreams, then you can start practicing techniques of lucid dreaming. Best, Sifu Terry www.taichimania.com/chikung_catalog.html

Most of the times, I go to bed late, around 11 pm or 12 am. The problem is usually that I would be busy with the computer and message boards. And my mind won't be mindful enough to meditate. I meditate before I go to bed but it is usually not as productive. Now, however, I wake up around 4 am to 5 am every morning, either because I have to go to the bathroom or from a dream. Usually, at this time, my dream is ridiculously lucid. My chi channels would become extremely active, hot feeling in body from the head to toes, intense chakras vibrations which I could hear internally, and seeing the chi pearl with my third eye.

Hi Steve, Being aware of one's surroundings while deep asleep is akin to lucid dreaming. Dreaming one's "double" as described in Castaneda's books is part of his-- if not the Yaqui-- art of dreaming. Another way of describing it is being aware of one's astral body while it is traveling outside of one's body. Starting in the late 70's, while practicing Tan Tan Pai neikung and using Castaneda's prescribed methods, I developed some degree of skyring (visiting and seeing people at long distances that I had focussed on as I was falling asleep) and lucid dreaming, which included the ability to stop a dream once I felt enough work was done, and then finding my sleeping body again and re-entering it. The dreambody lucidly re-entering the physical body was at first a big, deep, soft jolt of an experience. Lucid dreaming is brought on by doing things to make it happen, --Yes, one can practice at it until one becomes adept at it. And yes, cosmic consciousness is a state of being attained by meditation, or accident, or genetic gift or highly evolved good karma and spiritual calling and has nothing to do with lucid dreaming. My alchemy mentor is my best friend and yes, he is alive. He also happens to be 10 years younger than me...and several incarnations wiser. Best, Sifu Terry

I've also heard of the K energy being somewhat of a dream machine, then why can't I have my creative energy back? Why do I feel like I've been drowning this sorrow for a time. I want my old life back. Music was the only thing I wanted from life, now that that's "gone" I don't really want anything anymore from life now. Lack of passion has made existence a sad thing for me. I feel like I can't even talk to people as well, it feels like my minds focus closes up on its own accord. My vocabulary is getting rusty, it's hard for me to fabricate a falsehood (tell a joke), I'm having less intellectual things to say in general and I can't tell anyone because they don't understand what's happening. This can't be how my life is going to be.

Riding - regarding Don Juan Matus, I believe it's been established that his learning in sorcery was not in the tradition of the Yaqui. He was taught his craft independently. Similar to you and I practice qigong, though it is not in any American/European tradition. As far as FP allowing you to keep up with your grandson....that's good news because I'll have my first grand daughter come September. ;-). Also I am delighted to hear updates from your 100 day practice. As you probably know I did one of those about 18 months ago and it was very trying, but also awesome and extremely healing. I'm considering starting another 100 consecutive day FP journey, and our posts motivate me. And finally, I wish I shared your experience of mundane dreams. Without going into details, mine are too much on the other end of the spectrum and I have had to deploy some techniques to protect my dream state peace. Again, please keep us posted on your 100 days. Lloyd

i did read Carlos Castaneda years ago. Then I met a Quaker (I am one) who had done a good deal of work with and practical service for Yaqi indians a long discussion with him led me to understand that many Yaqi considered CC to be less interested in them and more interested in advancing a white agenda. I can not really support this idea at this time since that was 25 years ago at a Friends Conference. It is true that many anglo's mis represent native american society for their own purposes. As to the dream world, mine are mostly un-exciting mundane sort of things especially when i am stressed or anxious. So I have limited 'experience' that is interesting sigh ...

There are some pretty unambiguous statements in Wisdom Nectar by Dudjom Rinpoche. If you want me to PM them to you, let me know. Again, you are confusing view with practice. How would you know how to do dream yoga or dark retreat without more concepts? The 5 elements, eight examples of illusion etc. are important for the practice side, not the view side.

Sifu - regarding lucid dreaming I have always been hesitant because I am not sure what I may encounter. I have had to deal with enough "negative energies" while in an awake state (or while in meditation) and I'm not sure how I would handle them if encountered in a lucid dream state. Can you please shed a little light on this? Perhaps dealing with these negative energies goes with the territory, but I would like to understand this before consideration of proceeding. I have CC's book on this, but haven't yet read it. As a result of this thread discussion that will be next on my list. Thanks in advance for any comments you can share.

That's a tricky subject for most,...because the "heart" they think they receive from, is in the thinking that they are intouch with the Heart. right where it belongs See the animal in his cage that you built Are you sure what side you're on? Better not look him too closely in the eye Are you sure what side of the glass you are on? See the safety of the life you have built Everything where it belongs Feel the hollowness inside of your heart And it's all right where it belongs What if everything around you Isn't quite as it seems What if all the world you think know Is an elaborate dream? And if you look at your reflection Is that all you want it to be? What if you could look right through the cracks would you find yourself - find yourself afraid to see? What if all the world's inside of your head Just creations of your own? Your devils and your gods all the living and the dead And you're really all alone? You can live in this illusion You can choose to believe You keep looking but you can't find the woods While you're hiding in the trees What if everything around you Isn't quite as it seems What if all the world you used to know Is an elaborate dream? And if you look at your reflection Is that all you want to be? What if you could look right through the cracks Would you find yourself - find yourself afraid to see? Trent Reznor I'd love having lunch with Trent Reznor. How does he come up with such lyrics? “Inside your heart, it is black, and it’s hollow, and it’s cold. . . . What if this whole crusade is a charade in the name of the holy and the divine. . . Are you brave enough to see . . . or so naive you keep holding on to what you want to believe?” from Trent Reznor 'The Hand that Feeds You.' Those are surely some upsetting lyrics for those in denial and without the courage to stand consciously in the presence of reality. The author Jim Hightower suggested, “The opposite of courage is not cowardice; it is conformity.” That is where most get "heart" from,...conformity. The conformity of perception that they have nothing,...thus they must get it from those they perceive have it.

As I've stated early on in this thread, I highly recommend Carlos Castaneda's books as an excellent supplementary roadmap for Taoist training. I do everything to recommend developing one's ability to dream lucidly. The benefits are inestimable. Castaneda, of course, describes very effective exercises to develop lucid dreaming--from basic to advanced. I used them in the late 70's to great effect and they were pivotal in my development of dream consciousness--especially when coupled with the Tao Tan Pai neikung that I was learning at that time. I use Castaneda's lucid dreaming exercises and teach them to this day to my students who want to expand their consciousness in that manner. I don't know what Taoists in particular or Taoist tradition you are referring to as to the one that says lucid dreaming disperses much jing. (And please cite the reference if you care to.) I have never experienced this to be the case. Whenever I did/do lucid dreaming, my sleep quality was/is not diminished one bit. In fact, I was/am almost always more rested and more empowered in every way upon rising from a lucid dream. In all seriousness, the only time a male would disperse much jing during sleep would be as result of a wet dream. And such a dream for the vast majority of adult males would not be lucid. I suppose one could engage in sexual congress with a dreamed entity while lucidly dreaming, but I can conceive of that only as ultra-ultra-rare situation--a near-impossibility--where that might occur. But even then, such a high-level tantric operation in the dream-state would not be enervating, but rather empowering. At any rate, your statement has caused me to meditate on this rare potential (the dispersion of jing while lucidly dreaming), and my experience tells me that that is not very likely to happen. In fact, I would come down on the side that holds such dispersion is almost impossible. Remember that in Castaneda's terms, and the theme pervading all his works that of a warrior hunting power. The art of dreaming, which is such a big part of the Yaqui sorcery tradition, is by all of his accounts all lucid dreaming. Thus developing luicidity and dream powers cannot be enervating in my mind--and that is also my gut feeling based on experience. Chen Hsi-I, or Chen Tuan, the sage monk and a patron saint of Huashan Taoism, to whom is attributed several great arts such is Liu He Ba Fa, the Tai Chi Ruler, and and a "sleeping yoga", was know as the "sleeping Taoist"--i.e., Chen Tuan slept in a somnabulist state where he was fully lucid doing dream operations. I know this to be true because my current mentor in all things supramundane "sleeps" in the same manner. His bodily energies seem totally at rest and there is pure calm in the room for hours on end, but his Mind is one with the Ever-Conscious and can "see" and touch anyone and everyone near or far as needed for the particular dreamwork. The beneficient energy of the dreamwork also stays and lingers on his place of rest and profoundly heals and has an enlightening effect on whoever sits or sleeps in that same place followingly--even days afterwards. Chuang Tzu's dream that he was a butterfly and then wondering if it was the butterfly dreaming that it was Chuang Tzu is simply his charming celebratory ode to lucid dreaming. Thus I don't think Chuang Tzu would disavow lucid dreaming as a Taoist practice. Thanks for your stimulating comment, Eugene. Sifu Terry

I know I know it baffles me lol. In fact it was martial arts that got me interested in qigong in the first place. I saw Dr. Yang's book about Qigong and Martial arts and I was like everyone else who as a kid saw a Kung fu movie and was like "oh that's the secret stuff they train that makes them so good" lol. So I got the book and started and lo and behold I got way better at marital arts fast! I didn't anticipate all the other stuff that came with it though. I eventually even changed styles from mostly stand up striking to Brazilian jujitsu grappling because with grappling you could stop an opponent with out hurting them (if you wanted to). But yea it was cool cause if I did qigong before practice it was like during sparing it was much easier to pick up on the subtle signs that the opponent would telegraph before they made a move and you could be a couple steps ahead of them. It also seemed to improve my speed and made taking a hit a little easier. But yea that's pretty cool about Joe Rogan. I don't know how many countless UFC matches I've listened to him announce lol. Ah that was my dream for a while there in Alaska, I trained hard, but as my MMA friends say now I got "soft" on them haha. I didn't enjoy hurting people anymore, but they all seemed to get off on it.

Yeah at night the heart spirit then goes to the liver to become subconscious but then manifesting in our dreams. So when we meditate we increase the kidney energy which then changes the liver subconscious energy into wisdom so that then goes to the heart so then we become aware of what previously had been subconscious. Then when we go to sleep at night our spirit travel is more peaceful as Chunyi Lin says when we sleep then our spirit does leave our body. So Chunyi Lin described how even when he was young he had dreams that were much more vivid than normal and so he knew those dreams had special power and they were precognitive and so he dad told him not to tell anyone as he could get in trouble. But then Chunyi Lin had a dream about healing his friend and -- his school friend - was then miraculous healed. So Chunyi Lin knew even at a young age that dreams are actually spirit travel if the heart energy is strong enough - and so -- I had this happen also where I had a precognitive dream that came true three years later. When I had the dream I wrote it down since the dream was way more vivid than even being awake!! I wrote I thought the dream would come true. I forgot about writing it down until three years later I got this strange feeling when experiencing something that was exactly the dream! And so I drove up to my parents and I paged through my old journal - sure enough. So it's not just past lives but also the future - the spirit if it goes deep enough into the soul then it predicts our subconscious desires that get played out into the future. So the soul is somehow holographically interwoven in space and time - both the past and future together and also spread out in space. So it would seem that the higher astral levels as angels, etc. are actually higher frequency energy but that means on a holographically more deeper micro-level of the body's energy. So quantum physics says the same thing - as Chunyi said that each color has a different energy and so purple is the highest frequency color from quantum physics but it's also the highest healing energy. So then Chunyi said when a person dies it's best to do the rainbow meditation and so this is the deep bone energy healing - but so that would also seem to balance out their energy. Maybe the golden aura is then the rainbow astral energy combined together.

In many Ancestor centred cultures, hungry or angry ghosts are seen as beings who were not honoured or elevated by their children or who did not receive the appropriate rites, and so did not join the ancestor line... Ancestor cults felt that we have a responsibility to our dead, and some have suggested that we 'add' something to them that they may have lost when they went through the division... Allowing them deeper intelligence and rationality than many ghosts normally exhibit, such as the confusion many ghosts display... their spirit has departed. Spirit of course being cognitive and rational awareness. Soul being memory and feeling based awareness, or dream logic.

What a fortunate place to be,...those with "something" seldom if ever become self actualized, let alone transcend. Of course,...for someone with nothing, your questions appear to about getting deeper into the dream,...not waking up from it. Questions like: These are not the questions of someone wishing to awake in anyway. What are you seeking exactly? If your desire is for phenomenal success, why hang out on a Taoist forum? If you want to realize truth,...you need diffrent questions,...wouldn't you say?. The above youtube should give you an idea as to whether you are a serious seeker, or not. If not, why spend even another minutes on this forum? Learn how to be a day trader, be a landlord, get out and sell something,...watch CNBC throughout the day,...go dumpster diving, especially after estate sales, and sell the stuff as unique items on craigslist,...steal out-of-state front licence plates and sell them them on e-bay,...collect urine from pregnant women and sell it as a hair growth tonic,...go out into the woods and be an exotic mushroom supplier,...collect herbs and make herbal cigarettes,.... trap squirrels, dye them purple, and get a government grant to study them. The key is to burn with passion, 24/7.

I would look into Jungian and kabbalastic/gnostic theory on the number 4. I believe it represents a sort of perfect completion, and evolution from 3 (the egoic self). 4 is important in sacred geometry - see tetrahedron. And the name of God in hebrew is known as the tetragrammaton. My experience with 4 is positive. Also back to Jung, he has good stuff for dream interpretation, which sounds like it could help for this one, especially. with the numerology thing. He uses mandalas (4 components) to represent the personality, where a complete male or female personality has 4 developed archetypes each. The capstone for the male is the old wise man...really don't remember about the rest. Also, jungian theory has variations of ideas on similar topics, so look around.

Ok, I will try to pay close to attention if the number 4 is associated with the Tao or the teaching of the Dharma... One thing I read about is that a person who is stuck in his life, he tends to see and dream about the number 4 a lot. Yeah, I am stuck in my life. More like trying to make sense with my cultivation path and making good use of my fruits in this world. So far, I am not able to make the connection.

Cool story. Most of these things I know as I lived a fairly isolated life on a vegetarian/pescatarian diet, meditating and abstaining from all subatances. I simply stopped caring. The fire went out. One night I swear I was being followed by a large entity as I heard loud booming following me at night from about 150 meters away, then I quit doing everything "right"if because I wanted out of everything that involved the path. Now I feel as if I'm going crazy sometimes because I constantly awake to a life that I want nothing to do with. I am fairly unhappy with things but that isn't the biggest issue, it's that I feel as though I've already lived/died and have nothing else to live for. Not much concerns me currently and that's a bit scary. I simply can't find the passion within myself right now. I'm so fucking fed up with everything. I'm living a life that doesn't even feel like it's mine, it all feels like a bad dream now. People always say to hold on, why bother. I don't even know if any of this legitimately happened to me