Search the Community

Recognizing realization should resurrect a feeling within you, similar to the awakening from a dream. I let go of all the trivial manifestations, pre-conceptually rooted in the distorted continuous, misguided interpretations of our mere world. What I was left with is comparrible to being amongst tiny ants, attempting to escape the calamity of a great flood, by hopelessly clinging to the remaining bits of land; preparing for the end. Whereas, I begin to set sail aboard my vessel, afloat on the infinite sea of vast emptiness. It is there that I find indescribable equanimity. Even while awake, we are all just dreamers, dreaming in a dream. Whether you are freed to your dream, or trapped in your nightmare; I will come to visit you there, however, only for a moment; for my appointment is in the cloudy starlight of yet another dream

My limited understanding based on Taoist Yoga of this thus far is: The goal is essentially to reverse the clock back to your prenatal state (as before you were born). This method involves cultivating both xin (for "Buddhist enlightenment") & ming (for "Taoist immortality"). Celibate cultivation is used to replenish "yang qi & jing" that is steadily lost starting from puberty at age 16. Men age in 8-year cycles (women in 7-year cycles), and every 100 days of celibate cultivation can supposedly restore 8 years of lost yang qi. Keep in mind that this includes several hours of cultivation per day, ideally on a split schedule. So, we're really talking a few hundred hours per cycle - although overall I'm sure these are just ballpark figures. Mileage may still vary with each individual. Anyhow, the older you are, the more 100-day cycles you will have to do to refill your jing & dantian to rebuild your foundation. That's where it all begins. You must first accumulate a critical mass to work with further. The basic meditation method is absolute stillness while ideally sitting in full lotus. So, that's a very loose interpretation & synopsis. Just keep in mind that I am no authority on the subject and have basically zero street cred, though. So, don't take my word for it! Yea, I dunno about this? It's based on the idea that the yang part of the day basically starts at around midnight & the yin part at around noon. So, you can best refine yang qi from yang qi-induced "night wood" at this hour. But, I've also heard that the yang part of the day starts at dawn (hence morning wood) & the yin part at dusk...so I'm not really sure which version is really correct here? Interesting, I sorta started doing this recently myself. I call the upper dantian your "dreamscreen." Because to me, it is the "plane" in your head where you see everything when you dream. That's how I find it (well, assuming I found the right thing, lol). I'm not too good at locating my dantian yet, though. Still need to work on that... Keep in mind though that you're born with a xiatian, but must form your dantian there. And until you do, you will likely not have much to feel there. *Batteries not included*

This is very interesting my current partner took video of me holding my arms in various positions during sleep that I am not consciously aware of but she took video. I am doing these brushing movements up and down my arms and along all these spiral lines up my neck and head. She says I will hold either arm up for long periods holding the universe and will mould and wrap and entertwine my way through her casual movements in bed. While I am sleepng I seem to dream futre and past but between is this vibration field awareness that is navagatable I am not aware of her but in the vibratoru realm it feels significant to continuously keep the pressures in the ma moving. Other times she says I'm dead like norly stirring no matter what. Any person on this thread that has experenced the slingshot effect when being 'rubber banded' back to reality, has the future potential to not only enter vibratory stAte but also pass through that state to the mind realm, this is the Lland of Taoist sage brush teaching.

So, when you dream in color at night in the dark...where does that light come from?

Interesting thread. I have recieved shaktipat 3 times so far in this life. Once in the SY tradition, and twice in dreams. The SY shaktipat I received was very "mild' in comparison to the two transmissions I received via dreams. I did not feel much in the way of energy movements during or after my SY transmission, but I did have some "perception changes" which have stayed with me to this day. The second shaktipat I recieved was during a dream I had while doing a one month Hatha teacher training intensive. I was given shaktipat by my unborn (at the time) daughter (my wife was only 2.5 months pregnant at the time of the dream so we did not know it was going to be a girl yet) in the dream and was told what I was to name her Amrita Grace (which we did...she is now 1 month old). This shaktipat experience DRAMATICALLY changed the flow of energy here and I have not been the same since (in a very good way ). The third time I received shaktipat (also via a dream) it was from a yoga master who I choose not to name for personal reasons. During this dream I was touched on the back at the anahata chakra and on the crown chakra (simultaneously) and it caused an unshakable inner silence I have yet to lose touch with to this day (this happened several months ago now). This experience also changed the way the energy flows in the body here, but the most dramatic change from this dream would be the unshakeable inner silence it produced. Personally, I find shaktipat to be magical and life changing. BUT, that said, there is an element of "Grace" involved in recieving shakti that I think is very often overlooked. Shaktipat did not "work" for me when I went looking for it......it happened only when the Universe saw fit to grace me with the experience of it (for whatever reason). I know that a lot of people seek shaktipat because they see it as a "shortcut" to energetic or enlightenment experiences.....and in my experience, there are no shortcuts. Everyone must put in the individual effort required to drop the illusion of seperation. Just the perspective from here Love!

I was recently told that Robert Bruce had some good work out there, and when I read through "Astral Dynamics" I started to see a lot of things that had come up with me in my own dream work that I couldn't explain- so I have some respect for it because, well, I've validated it with my own practice beforehand, then again, everyone is different. Rawn Clark has great work, it's too bad he doesn't like Robert Bruce's stuff As far as methods, I really don't like the "set alarm, wake up, go back to sleep" method. Maybe it's cause I'm lazy and I don't want to get up before I have to I've never actually tried the method though, maybe it has fast results. For me the stuff that works is examining your dreams and trying to find recurring themes and elements, really focus on recognizing them, as well as increasing your awareness of various situations in real life, and fairly quickly you'll see some element in your dream and you'll realize it's a dream. Recently though for me, I've become lucid without any dream signs. I'll just suddenly go "whoa, dream." It might have to do with general awareness that I cultivate through meditation, or it might be because of energy work. However, I DO suggest that training to get a continuous, fully engaged awareness at all moments will get you into lucid dreams fast (though admittedly it's hard to do with the monotony of life). For me recently I've started to have a lucid dream in my first set of dreams, then in later REM stages gone into "regular" dreams, though there is some back and forth when it comes to when during sleep I have them. It just comes down to practice, and attitude. Try to have fun

Dream work is fascinating, I try to tackle it seriously every few years, but it ends up exacerbating my insomnia. There is an interesting schism in dream study. There is a Western Technique oriented approach which looks at it as a skill and more traditional approach that sees it as the result of deep cultivation and mature practice. Rawn Clark's written about meetings with other high level people on the astral plane, later they'd call each other to confirm what was discussed and how it was interpreted. Rawn is a pretty mellow guy, but he seemed angry when people compared Bruce Roberts dream work with his. He considered Roberts work to be shallow (I don't agree). Undoubtedly he'd consider Stephen LaBerge's material even more so, since LaBerge is all about practicality. Like Ya Mu and others, he sees a sacredness in dream work that shouldn't be done lightly. Here's what I think works best in the Western quickie model; meditate before sleep 30 to 60 minutes. Clarify the intent to be awake in the dream. Then set an alarm or telling yourself strictly to wake up 90 minutes early. When you wake up, go to the washroom, walk around a little, then set a strong intent to be aware within your dream. With fresh intent in mind go to sleep, preferably in another room. The dreams done in the last REM cycle are easier to recall. Michael

Yes, I've heard of looking at hands both as a way of "reality checking" in wake time and dream time, as well as enhancing lucidity and stability of the dream once you've become lucid. I've also heard rubbing your dream hands together, or spinning your dream body helps to stay lucid if you feel like you are using it. Looking at my hands has led to some of my most tactile and realistic dreams I've ever had, so there may be something to it

A taoist sage who has retired up to mountains no longer has any need for the restrictions of free will... Go figure By retiring to the mountains, it is a symbol of returning to the source from whence the sage came. He or she comes out of the universe, and in leaving all cares behind, returns to the Mother/Womb of Creation. Its a symbolic journey undertaken by all 'warriors of the heart' who seek re-union with their true face. Funnily though, the masses often use the common phrase, "I came into existence, or, I came into this world..." - how about saying "I came out of existence?" After all, the universe is governed by blind energy, and it is from this blind energy that all things are formed, and will forever continue to be re-formed. In many ways, the human race has evolved not by order, but from chaos. Things just happened the way it happened - a very astounding fluke shot, very often seen in a game of snooker or pool, a similar principle in action. In this view, it is difficult to say with conviction that Man has absolute free will. He may want to believe He does, but that does not alter the very real limits of His choices. Alan Watts said, "Humans grow out of the universe in exactly the same fashion that apples grow out of apple trees". That is the degree of one's relatively restricted Free Will. It is free within constraints and boundaries, only as far as the limits of our human-ness would allow. In that we find the limitations of Free Will. It is when the boundary walls that hold us captive within this 'humanhood' collapses, that both Free Will and its horrible twin becomes totally meaningless, and we become like the sage who has gone up the mountain. What is astonishing and reassuring to know is that, even though some remove themselves physically to an inner sanctum, mentally they are still caught up in, as Ninpo puts it nicely, the mores of human-ness, while on the other hand, there are those who are shackled to the mores physically, yet mentally and spiritually their inner being moves unrestricted in those places that we can only dream or philosophize about (like i am doing now - shame on me!) It may serve us well to remember that Free Will and the lack thereof are both notions created as a kind of convenience, for in truth, they are both Chains that bind - one made of gold, the other of iron. Those that want to believe they possess Free Will (as though we can really possess anything by choice) are merely enmeshed by a shinier, glossier fetter. My 2 pence piece.

Certainly not so from my point of experience. I was told to look & consentrate on my handsbefore I fell asleep and make a mental note/descision/intent to recontact my hands when dreaming. I woke up in my dream as I was washing my hands. And could recollect the dream afterwards remembering the astonishment of keeping and succeeding with my intent of lucid dreaming. My hands were the first thing I looked at when I woke up the next morning and they were glowing with a fine red hue. Later I was told that C. Castaneda knew of this way. shrug but I aint selling nothing Ah, One last thing. You make the intent then place it in your heart

Stilling the mind at first (by primary observation of consciousness ) observed first stillness as it occurs naturally in humans as sleep and as rest (resting postures; observe ushiba sitting) for example after activity passive stretching that cools down body or after the day sleep.... before sleep elongating the breathing pattern and lengthing the cross over times and cognition in sleep states resembling in experience hypnotic forms of regressive rythmic body pararraliss wave riding. If the veils of the physical are not immediately passed through the chance of choice in lucidity enables passage. Even daily routine enters dream anyone doing anything repetitive knows this, how much more then something you love, something you do.... Something you feel, something you've looked for .... And found! Something you've remembered. Walk through walls. Teleport. Jump a Mile. Just remember after that last breath before the fall.,,,, I love the feeling of falling backwards.... I love the feeling of falling backwards, into a nice ... Soft .... Fluffy.... Vibration Station The stillness in the motion of tai chi movement : Steel in Fluffy Cotton The first active meditations that involved placing a thumbtack on the wall and fixing the gaze aiming at complete zero point stillness on the center of the tack. This could be done sitting or standing in wUji or other stance. The task is to simple fix the gaze in absolute stillness upon the tack. Any wavering of your eye is failure, continual unbroken relaxed fixed gaze is the goal. The unfettered mind? The profundities presented are unique it seems to each individual but the end results of a unity and foci of awareness into a rather elusive obvious of the center which encompasesses all centers the one and all the one to three to ten thousand the interconnected web of all interacting life forces. The Flower I have reflections on the minds relationship to time at this crucial juncture in the journey, the first steps in my path to stillness seemed to involve at first not allowing the mind to fixate by letting go of passing thought, then accepting new ones as they came up which slowed down everything relaxed what is happening naturally anyways then continuing to let go and accept and release. The space between thoughts dialate, the awareness bandwidth expands as the language thought slows and gives a window to other informational sources of brain activity, the consciousness carrying nerves, and other sensory carrying organs. When your mind travels from thought to thought and you've been taught that intelligence is based on what can be put into words, what exists between thoughts the emotions the layers the motions and motives the mind and mother of all things produces, poetic justice is served with speechless detail. Like looking at the code of the matrix and not knowing binary.... The student knows to listen the disciple talks w the forest the master knows the forest and all it's paths the grandmaster knows all the paths and all the forest. It may be difficult to integrate into lingual terms the psycho physical passages involved in the removal of pain from the body but it is best said we are sacks of meat on sticks that need shaking in the wind to air condition the most advanced piece of biological evolution for a diameter of eight trillion light years. Sacred geometry and the symbolism associated are not just representations but metatative overlays that produce specific energetic fields.... Fields in the sense that a snowflake is a representation of earlier vibration fields its water was exposed to... The frame work of physical reality itself. The very perceptible poly synthenasiatic cross associative awarenesses of Genius schizofrenics mystics shamans and madmen alike. It is not so subjective the objective world of shared mystical experience when you don't talk about it. Silence is Bliss

The most powerful dreams I've experienced were betweeen dream and the curls of reality, it is the daily window we open and close. In the most powerful examples of meditations effects on daily transitions of consiousness in my own journey it seems the opportunity for oobe's and lucid dream work is not so much to control te content of dreams ( self centered use of lucidity) but to aid in non attached observation and navigation of the dreamscape mind into deeper or surface levels of consciousness. Vibratoru state exists just as deep dreamless sleep exists. It is very very very interestig to meditate next to someone in rem... I actually enjoy meditating next to a dreaming dog. Sirius!

No reading material. The system I teach and practice is the basis for the dream practice. The Gift of the Tao movements I have on DVD are results of dreaming qigong practice. And I am releasing Gift of the Tao 2 this summer. You can read about some of the dream practice experiences in my book but the book doesn't tell you how to - it would be impossible.

How can we explain where all these extra souls are coming from…? World Population Growth Year Population 1 200 million 1000 275 million 1500 450 million 1650 500 million 1750 700 million 1804 1 billion 1850 1.2 billion 1900 1.6 billion 1927 2 billion 1950 2.55 billion 1955 2.8 billion 1960 3 billion 1965 3.3 billion 1970 3.7 billion 1975 4 billion 1980 4.5 billion 1985 4.85 billion 1990 5.3 billion 1995 5.7 billion 1999 6 billion 2006 6.5 billion 2009 6.8 billion 2011 7 billion 2025 8 billion 2050 9.4 billion I think that there is one cosmic conscience that sort of loans us a soul for the duration of our time as a human… And past life experiences are us reading into that cosmic conscience, and the past that some experience are not even necessarily our own… If our souls are eternal then a “life” is like a one nights dream… to probably as quickly forgotten, it’s probably are egos at work giving importants to our lives needing to believe what we did here was special and meriting remembering… One soul said to another soul after a looong life here on earth… hey I just had the funniest dream, but I can’t quite remember all of it…

P.S i thought it be interesting to write that last year when i moved into new area i saw the house from my vision in a dream as i cycled on my way to work.Cold sweat run down. We really have to love so much ourselves and all and let whatever comes along be that is the most beutiful way to exist otherwise it is like punishment.

I don't think everyone must have a spirit guide. Do spirit guides have their own spirit guides? Probably not. However, I do believe that anyone who is sincerely interested in a spirit guide and/or sincerely believes in such a possibility has a spirit guide. To contact one during waking, you must have a mind that's flexible enough to accept hearing voices and seeing visions that other people can't see. If other people can also see it, then it's no longer a spirit, but a being like any other. If hearing things and seeing things that others can't hear or see is disturbing, that means you are probably not going to contact your spirit guide during waking in that manner. You can still feel something though. So given this, the most reliable way to contact a spirit guide, if you have one, is in a lucid dream. If you know how to lucid dream, you can call for a spirit guide as soon as you become lucid. A word of warning: an incorporeal being is not necessarily wiser than a flesh-bearing one. Being of the spirit is not a guarantee of anything per se, it's just a different way of being and living compared to the fleshly ways. Spirit guides can have great wisdom, but at the same time, I don't think they are inherently infallible just because they are spirits. I don't have a spirit guide, but my wife does. Her guide tells her some very interesting things (mostly in dreams, as far as I know), but at the same time, when I hear those things, while I agree they are worthy, to my mind, they're not so excellent that I would feel envious of not having a guide. None of us are completely without a guide. If you know how to use it, your own mind is the best guide. If you don't know how to use it, your own mind is the worst enemy. I wish you luck and success and if you really want a spirit guide, I hope you find yours soon.

I suggest you peruse this older thread to get some ideas. There are some valuable gems of wisdom in there that I have found valuable and that I have discovered ring true for me in that thread. There are also people who claim you can meet spirit guides in dreams, normal dreams and lucid dreams. I have tried without what I initially considered to be success, but upon further review of my dream experiences I think that perhaps the discovery of something is possible, so perhaps you could try that avenue as well. As you are able to reach deeper and deeper levels of meditation you will also discover some interesting things, perhaps guides in that form as well, so keep up some kind of meditation practice. To that extent, I have found qigong helps to energize the body to keep it healthy for meditation practice, so you might want to look into that. For starters, I recommend B.K. Frantzis' "Dragon and Tiger Medical Qigong" system. The instruction manual is kind of pricey, but it is top notch inf. "Opening The Energy Gates Of Your Body" as well as "Relaxing Into Your Being" and "The Great Stillness" also teach good energy work + meditation techniques that let you go as deep into yourself as you are willing to go.

One of the things I do is keep a pretty detailed dream journal. Occasionally I'll go back and read old dream entries. At the beginning of an entry, I'll remember the dream, then as I go through it in my head, I think, "then this happened, then this other thing." But as I read I notice that those "memories" are completely wrong. I write these entries as soon as I wake up so the events are fresh in my mind. So I know that what I have on paper is what really happened. But my "memories" of the event still tell me something else. Hm.

I really appreciate this point. Thanks More Pie. If you think about it, memory has to have a limit. Even if you remember 10,000,000 years worth of material, you can't remember 10,000,000+1. Or if you remember +1, then not +2, and so on. At some point remembering more stuff will seem to have no meaning. It seems to me that with that much memory, the situation approaches simply not remembering anything at all, due to the dilution of the specificity of context. The more you remember, the less specific your operating context is. Also, memory is an object of awareness. So remembering an infinite amount seems impossible from that perspective, since objects can't be infinite. Objects are known by their boundaries, by finitude. Another way to look at this, is suppose we start to have a perfect recall from now on. We still can't remember what happened before this life. So even if we could gain the ability of a perfect recall starting now, still have a memory with a starting point, and thus not an infinite one. But suppose it's possible to unlock past memories. In this case you must wonder how is remembering different from constructing new memories? At some point, remembering becomes no different from making new memories out of thin air. And in fact, that's how consciousness operates in dreams. In dreams you seem to remember dream-related context out of thin air. You don't set out to set up your dreams before you go to bed. You shut your eyes and in a moment an entire new context appear, with its own history, with it's own past. So just from 10 minutes of shut eye you can have a dream with a 100 year worth of past events represented in it. So memory is both visionary, empty, and finite because it's only an object of awareness. While memories can be arbitrarily many, and of arbitrarily high quality, they are still finite. Thus no matter how much you remembered, there would still be a point beyond which you couldn't remember. And thus if you only use your memory as a guide and not other higher principle, you'd call yourself a "mortal" based on the limited memory. I guess I've said too much.

It's definitely possible, but unlikely. Death, as an event, for most people, is a tragedy and a trauma. Ever heard of post-trauma amnesia? Why does that happen? People forget what they don't enjoy. But knowledge doesn't exist as an series of islands. Everything is connected. So let's say you got into a car wreck that you'd like to forget. You can't just forget the wreck. You must forget sitting in the car 2 seconds ago before the wreck as well. What about 5 seconds? Yes, this has to go too. What about even entering the car? What about everything that happened on that day? In other words, you must forget not just the traumatic event, but some amount of context associated with it, so that there is no nagging hint left in the mind. Furthermore, intention has different levels. Most things we do proceeds from the most superficial level of intent. But at a deep level we actually want things different from what we would admit to ourselves. From our level right here, it looks like all the memories of life events are precious. But at a deep level, we might know that lives are endless and life events are countless, and to try to hang on to those memories is like hanging on to the grains of sand in a vast desert filled with sand -- it makes no sense at all. So what seems to make sense to us on a superficial level, doesn't necessarily make any sense to same us on a deeper level. So here you have at least two reasons for why we shouldn't remember much, if anything, from past lives. Is it possible? Sure it is. Is it possible to remember the contents of your dreams when you wake up? Yes. But do you remember every dream and every detail therein? You'll remember more if you specifically intend to remember, and this is also true with dreams. Once you intend to remember dreams more, you do remember them more.

play it for me, Sam this kaleidoscopic dream wonder of wonders...

After death you fall into a confused dream, where you do not even know that you are dead. Actually you might be dead right now.

Hello Mikaelz, It is possible to wake up in a dream totally lucid ,and this does not refer to astral travel,but waking up in own reality where one exists as a sort of vacuum reality from where sounds and light is coming and making us up as we are,shaping us. So i suppose im interested to learn to traverse mindscape more regulary,efficiantley.Its like mind tricking its self out of its self. I feel lucid dreaming has potential to be a good mental excersise ,but maybe i could be wrong too.

Have a lucid dream. ld4all.com Get to it! Or have really, really vivid daydreams. But once you get to a point where you have all your senses in a lucid dream.....

It depends on what you do. Also, there are different levels of lucidity. In some low level lucid dreams, you are merely aware of your actions, but have little ability to control yourself or change the outcome of events. In some, you have complete control. To a certain extent, it just comes with practice- first realizing you're lucid, not freaking out, knowing what you want to do before hand or reacting appropriately to the situation. However, I also think that your level of control depends on where you are or how far out you decide to go. "Lucid dreaming", by definition, does not prescribe a set of actions- you can use it for spiritual cultivation or as a fantasy land amusement park. In my opinion though, the fantasy land tour is rather shallow.... literally, I mean it is a relatively easy thing to do in lucid dreams, it does not involve accessing parts of your consciousness that you don't normally have access to. It's pretty much a daydream on steroids. Depending on how many senses you have in a lucid dream, it could be as tangible as full blown waking reality, or it could be only slightly more vivid than a daydream. But in either sense, in my humble opinion, there's no real "work" necessary. I've tried a few more.... intense things in lucid dreams- exploring states of consciousness, trying to access parts of my mind that normally aren't readily available, testing ways to enhance memory or learning, among other things. I've been in situations when even though I was fully lucid I had absolutely NO control over the surroundings or the people/things I was interacting with. I could only control myself and my responses. Maybe they were strong aspects of myself, maybe they were foreign entities- as of now, I have no confirmed answers. However, at the moment it is my belief that these are deeper/higher levels of lucid dreams that go beyond just the "daydream fantasy". To really master these areas like you would the more shallow areas requires real work. It's far from a fantasy land. Though thankfully I've never gotten to a point where I couldn't wake up. When things get too hot, it's nice to have an out! I don't know how long this post will run, because I have a lot of thoughts based on experience, as well as stuff I've read from other systems, but here we go: B.K. Frantzis talks about the different bodies we posses- physical, qi, emotional, mental, psychic, causal, etc. Each of these are subtler. We have all of them at all times, we just don't necessarily feel them and they aren't always energized optimally- all kinds of energetic and psychological residue has built up which prevents clear communication and control of the bodies. I think that part of what dreams do is they throw up whatever is there. For the average person, it's stuff that's swishing around in their head from stuff that happens in the day, from stuff they are stuck on in the past, worries they have about the future, etc etc. Many dreams involve this "sorting" process. But let's say that through, say, meditation, you are able to clear some of this process. If you were to go into a deep meditative state, or go to sleep, and maintain awareness, then not only would you encounter this stuff, but you would CONSCIOUSLY encounter this stuff. And if you had already cleared away stuff from one layer, you could see through to the next layer. But it doesn't always happen in that order, and it doesn't always happen consistently (at least not without training). Assuming this model is correct, we are receiving psychic info all the time- we just don't always realize it. Now let's say a strong bit of psychic info comes along- we might be able to pick it up. If you practice meditation or some kind of dreaming techniques, then you could get access to this stuff more easily. If you're untrained though, then it's an on again off again thing. On some days you can do it, and on some days you can't. Maybe you have a good day where you feel very positive and confident and are very "clear" in terms of your mind or emotions- might lead to clear perceptions of something deep. But if you had a rough day or something is troubling you, it might prevent you from seeing something that's more than just your own thoughts. And that's why it's good to practice a holistic system, like Ya Mu's, for example, that incorporates training so that you reach a point where it's NOT just an "on again off again" type of thing. Where you have a framework for dealing with problems not only in dream states, but in waking realms as well. So when you're in a dream state, or a deep meditative state, you don't have to file through all the paper work before you get to go out and do new stuff. Like I said, most of this is from my own experience and thinking on it. It's how I see the situation at my point currently. I might be wrong, I might change my view of this further down the road, but for me it accounts for (almost) everything I've come across (and I'm working with that "almost" right now )