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I was thinking this same thing today, hehe. I guess I agree. There isn't much to say about the subject. Though I did enjoy your post Dream on

I like this technique. Many of the best techniques are very simple and do not depend on strenuous effort or concentration of any kind. What's there to say that hasn't been said yet? A common error about mind is to assume that mind is only that which is flighty and very changeable. Mind can also be very stable and harder to change than moving a mountain. People take their experiences and draw a line through them. On one side of the line they group all the flighty and non-obviously-public phenomena, on the other side the put all the phenomena that are effortless and spontaneous and that have a good degree of durability. They call one side of this "mind" and the other side of this "physical". I believe that in reality it's all mind. Mind is a smooth range that covers the entire phenomenal spectrum and not just a section of that spectrum that seems/feels close to our head or whatnot. Then if you understand mind in this way, it becomes obvious how you can develop a new way of being in the world. The world no longer has to be something you merely follow. You can create upon it now. You now have more options. People observe some constraints in daily life. For example, if you release a cup from your hand, it falls downward and not up. That's an example of a constraint. When you begin to understand that life is a dream, what changes is how you think about these constraints. In the first case you think they are solid, unchangeable, built-in, pre-existing, absolute, self-existing, independent of you, permanent, etc. In the second case you see constraints as something that is optional (but may have a lot of inertia to overcome), that is dependent (on you), that is temporary, that is instantiated anew every second, and so forth. This changes your relationship to the perceived constraints. You no longer feel victimized by constraints, and you feel that constraints are more like paints that you can paints with, or if you like, you can just observe what is already painted without actively repainting what you see, you have options. To make this powerful, you should keep it honest. If something has inertia, admit it, don't lie to yourself. Some people think that if everything is mind, everything is flighty, and that's not true, or at least, not always true, or often false, etc. Honesty will give you real power because you'll neither overestimate constraints nor underestimate them and your creativity and authority with regard to them will be genuine and effective.

Last year I taught middle school Latin, so I hear these types of arguments all the time from both students and parents. "It is a waste of time," "it is not useful for anything," "it has no practical application," "why don't you teach them Spanish instead?" I have heard it all. And in truth there are some practical benefits for learning Latin, such as an increased English vocabulary, ease learning any later romance language, etc. But in the end, the real reason behind teaching it goes beyond all of that and into the ineffable. As with any part of a liberal arts education, it is just good to be a well rounded person who has been educated in a wide variety of topics and who understands his cultural roots. On the same token, spiritual pursuits may have some minor practical benefits (clarity of mind, increased memory, equanimity, better health, dream control, etc.), but the real reason is much more difficult to pin down. No matter how much science or math you study, there is still always going to be more. No matter how much TV you watch or alcohol you drink, you will still crave for more (some times even when you are still watching one show or currently drunk). Even the study of philosophy and the faith in religion does necessarily quench this feeling that things are not quiet right, that you are not quiet right. You may drink and screw and read and try your damnedest to try to hide from it, but in the end it is still there. Boredom. Disquiet. Suffering. The unsatisfactory quality of our lives. All of those practical peaces of advice that you offered are just distractions from this fact of life. There are people, but from antiquity and modernity, from the East and the West, who claim that meditation, that understanding the inner process of the mind and the body's energy, can lead to a different mode of operating in the world. To a free, liberated state of existence. A state of effortless effort, where one is able to perceive and operate in the universe in a radically different way. If this was true, would it not be worth the investment of some of our free time? Even if it might not be true, does that mean we should not try? If you do not experiment to learn the truth for yourself, then you are not a scientist or a rationalist. You are just an evangelical missionary in the Church of Materialism. Have fun preaching your blind faith.

Well the last dream that happend where I actually got owned I was free and getting away but turned around and my best friend was there. We were in trees I was climbing away and he was sitting in one crying <.<.. The thing that was in the trees got sight of him and I noticed.. I was paralyzed with fear but knew what I had to do and felt the energy circulating.. So I went in between the both and then got Finished off lol.. I guessed I had to know myself that I could do that.. Im not sure though.

I believe that these energies reveal what we need to be dealing with in our lives. If we don't face a certain aspect of ourselves, then that energy will manifest in our dreams and cause all sorts of symbolism to occur...the deep mind trying to unravel the lessons. But if you feel terror after a dream, then contemplate that feeling all day. It may show you what part you are hiding away. Or maybe I'm wrong.

Lol I've always known how brutal they can be.. There killing machines that demand respect.. Like other animals that dont eat meat kill people sometimes too.. I've known this.. lol. Eviander.. Thats the thing I've been reasonably concious and Able to choose and such what to do, im not just observing.. Even though running and watching sorta've is. Plus if it was lucid would'nt that defeat the purpose? lol @ Scotty im not going to sugar code it the last dream was extremely intense. I was Extremely scared.. and felt a massive amount of chi circulating in in my abdomen counter clockwise.. After the dream I was like amazed.. It was so real. But I did end up dieing in the dream =( lol when I realized it dident hurt I actually chuckled alittle realizing how scared I was before.

It's all on the surface here. You like polar bears, but when you see how brutal they can be, you act surprised. This is why you had this dream. You don't understand what you like and why. You need to contemplate it. This dream calls your attention to this aspect of the bear you've been ignoring. When the "but" goes away, then you understand. If you just read your own post, you can understand 75% of what you want to know. Do you ever bother to read your own posts?

Deciphering dreams is like trying to put a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle together. There are just so many pieces, some even the dreamer doesn't realize, that it may take years to dig into the depth and pull out the various causes. However, Let me give it a shot. Your favorite animal is the polar bear. There had been some form of brutality in your life (or someone you knew or know) so the brutality was transferred to the bear. Other than that - I have no idea. I rarely dream. I dreamed most of last night. Of all things I was trying to recall the name of a song I heard on the TV right before I went to bed. I never did get the answer in my dream but when I woke up one of the first things I did this morning was turn on the computer and find the title of the song. Listened to the song by about eight different artists and all was good. Happy Trails!

I usually go through cycles in my motivation in lucid dreaming. When I first found out about it, I was into it, then I slacked off, then I got into it again, then I slacked off again. Right now I'm just coming down from a super motivated time period. Like for the past two months I'd have a lucid dream about 2-4 times a week. The trick I found is just awareness. Awareness in waking life, and awareness in "sleep" life. Unfortunately, being aware like that the whole time is incredibly tiring I could never really find a time to just "shut down", and I'm far too lazy to eat healthfully or do any steady qigong routine among all the other stuff I have going on in my life right now So the past couple of days I've not been paying too much attention to my dreams. Awareness has gone down a lot (in dreams), my dream recall has been horrible.... but I have more energy when I'm awake so.... eh.

What is more interesting to me is that, the 'real' world is just as dream-like as the dream world.

The 'dream world' is just as real as this one. Stillness will help anyone see this, and their true nature.

No joke...last night I had a dream that I became a lion. I can't remember the details, though.

Not very long at all. I practiced it all of maybe 2 weeks? Then started KAP. I do get frustrated easily and posted about my "itchies" problem but looking back...actually I had quite a bit of success in those 2 weeks. First week I did Lucidology 101 I had a lucid dream. It's just that it didn't happen when I was 'trying' for it during the usual Lucidology trance techniques. But rather kind of spontaneously occurred toward early morning on it's own. The guy at Saltcube is helpful with the people who buy his courses. He'll answer questions, post on the boards occasionally and about a month ago - free of charge to people who'd already bought one or both courses - sent out a "Troubleshooting Lucid Dream/OBE" pdf doc. He answered my concerns about "the itchies" in it. So overall...I'd say I'm very glad I bought them. I just didn't spend enough time with it before KAP started up.

I haven't attempted lucid dreaming in many years, its just never interested me, I think that is because I am more interesed in teh waking lucid dream Anyhow, a very effective technique for inducing lucid dreaming that I used 7 years ago was this: When you are awake, anytime you see a light switch look at it, note whether it is up or down. Then turn your head away and look again. If it changed then you are dreaming. Also, when you are awake, and you see a clock, note the time it says, then look away, then look back. If it has changed then again... you are lucid dreaming. You do this while awake, and the habit ends up being a habit you have while asleep, and you will eventually look at a clock and have the time change wildly. Then you go, oh snap I'm asleep! And wake up. Then knowing you are asleep you can manifest things into your dreaming reality. GoldIsHeavy, I asked, because some of your posts I read int he past made me think you would agree with me that all of life is born out of the mind. I'd be very interested in a long discussion about that concept. The "life is a dream" concept, that is.

I have both Lucidology 101 and 102. I almost had success once at it as far as the trance state and heavy vibrating. I literally felt like one big giant guitar string that someone plucked very hard. When they talk about vibrations it's a real, physical thing that's felt. Not something that's just a mind game only. Every other time I fail at it because "the itchies" (aka cobwebs) sensation gets very bad. Actually I have a similar problem during meditation but don't worry about it there as much since you aren't told to not scratch if you itch during meditation. I quit after a while because I started getting into KAP and it just seemed like I already have so much on my plate with KAP I didn't want to divide my time on two different things. I posted a while back on the Lucidology boards. There was an argument as to whether sleep paralysis is necessary to have a lucid dream or OBE. Once I have a final routine to do everyday with KAP and have spent enough time with it (probably at least 6 months to a year minimum) then I'd like to see about practicing the Lucidology techniques again.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the idea of life itself being a lucid dream?

No shit? I think this is hilarious! I fucked countless women upon women in my dreams. I've never had any police. I go anywhere and the first woman that shows up is beautiful and I fuck her immediately, even in the bus or anywhere whatsoever. There may be others there or no others it doesn't matter one bit. What's interesting is that in my dreams if I want to fuck someone, they automagically want to fuck me too, so it's magically always mutual. Almost always. I think there has been one exception. I haven't dreamt of police at all. Now that you mention it though, I wouldn't be surprised if I started dreaming of some police too. I wonder how I shall cook them in my dreams? Shall I boil them? Shall I ice them? Shall I transport them into space? Embed them into my body? Embed myself into their bodies? The possibilities are endless. Good old flying away works too. I could also become a ghost/invisible, whatever. If you can imagine it, I can do it in a lucid dream.

For lucid dreaming a few things that work : Certainty - Being sure you will before you sleep. Another is imagining your in a dream already but full on and your trying to wake up (sleep).

That's hilarious! The dream police! Possibly true though, I never had that happen before, other peoples inner body is doing its own thing on that plane that physically people are not aware of down here. They do have their own will and likes and dislikes still, so it's still quite possible if they don't want to have 'naughtyness' with you they will say so, I don't know about the dream police, I never forced the issue. And I would like to make a contention with this term 'lucid dreaming' as the topic is partly called. It has always seemed to me a cop out(cop, no pun intended)for people who don't quite believe it's possible. If you wanna call stuff 'lucid dreaming' you can, but when you transfer your consciousness to your inner body it's OOB. When you sleep your inner body is out mucking about anyway, your consciousness just has not been transfered, OOBE/astral projection is simply placing it where you want it. Taoist practice includes that, as does the western esoteric tradition. Call it what you will due to shyness and worrying people will say your crazy. I highly recommend the book 'The Art and Practice Of Astral Projection' by ophiel. There are few better on the subject of 'how' to do it. A lot of other books are just talk, one well known one by Sylvan and Muldoon(2 writers), if my memory serves me correct, is an outright fake, yet it is very well know.

There's a website called ld4all and on their forum a topic of "police in lucid dreams" came up. A large number of dreamers on that board had encountered "police" in their lucid dreams. Like they would become lucid, and say, go around and have sex with people they met in their dreams. Sometimes these people would resist and the dreamer would say, "well you're part of my dream I can do what I want with you." And when they did that police came and "arrested" them. They were told they can't just go around doing stuff like that. When they tried to lucidly get away (by flying, teleportation, etc) they couldn't. Others could get away, others were told by other figures in their dreams. But generally speaking, almost everyone in the thread had run into some type of conflict with the rules because of what they were doing. Maybe it's just their own mind saying you shouldn't do it. Maybe it's spirits trying to tell you something. Maybe it's your own admission of karma. I dunno. The point I guess is that, on some level, even if it's just us doing it, we are all held responsible for stuff eventually.

Wow. A very naive attitude. If I were an astral entity, I would be smacking my lips at a naive waif such as you are presenting yourself...Entities can take on whatever form they like in order to gain access to what...? Your energies, your essence, most easily accessible through the sexual force. They can seduce you so you won't even know it. Jeez, Serene your trusting these entities?? I have heard advanced teachers even warning not to trust visions of Christ, Buddha, angels...they are almost certainly false entities. If they can, why wouldn't they take on a form to to seduce you...what could be better? They're not stupid, they feed on human energies, if they want something, they will take on a seductive form. (Didn't you see that Indiana Jones movie where the beautiful spectre turns into a hideous demon?) They like to attach themselves to human beings as parasites and possess them. What better way than as an appealing sex partner? It sounds like you are often too accommodating in your life, don't give away your spirit to some parasite who comes in a form to possess you! I advise caution...you don't yet understand what you're dealing with, so you are at their mercy...do some reading...like: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0892816120 Naive are the ones that can't see SHIT. Reading wont get you a "solution"....Only real training will. A lot of times in traditions the "visions" are shut off or repelled or ignored or the student is said not to pay attention to them..... Well then WHY THE FUCK SPEND TIME TO OPEN YOUR 3rd eye??? Funny how the Dalai Lama consults the Bonpo Oracle for his "Visions" ! Why is Shamanism Visions & Dream Yoga so important ? Entities are real. Not all are good Not all are bad Some are neutral. You have to learn to deal with what you see and FACE THE MUSIC. If you are seeing something one has to see why. Also one with the right training can know where its coming from. Yes Glenn Morris is very present to his students. There is a "Lineage"/"Ryu". Shakti is very real aswell. again you are only Naive when you can't see SHIT. Best wishes Santiago

A bit on a tangent but let me see if I can tie this in with the others' thoughts... A young guy (a friend's friend) spontaneously started having lucid dreams in his teens and had them for years, pretty much every night -- without knowing even the term, anything theoretical about the phenomenon, or being in any way spiritually inclined. All he knew was, he would be awake within a dream every night, aware of the dream being a dream, have free will to do whatever he pleased in it, and do it. Him being a standard-issue suburban kid, what pleased him was sex, drugs and rock-n-roll, and that's what he engaged in during his lucid dreaming. Fun and obligations-free and repercussions-free, and it never occurred to him that there was anything right or wrong with it, he just did it. Plenty of lucid-dream sex, mostly. Then this friend of his started getting into things weird and found out about lucid dreaming in many traditions and what this might entail, and told the dreamer guy, gee, you have this ability naturally, this is awesome, but did you know you can actually influence waking reality from inside a lucid dream? The dreamer didn't know that. The friend explained a few things, and the dreamer got thrilled and said, OK, now I'm going to try doing just that! Influence waking reality you say? I have an idea or two... ...and ideas they remained for all practical purposes, because after this conversation, he never, ever had a lucid dream ever again. The ability was removed. Completely and, from the looks of it, permanently. The point being... What's the point I wanted to make?.. Anyway... I told a true story, now I'll let someone else figure out what the point was!

this is probably an odd question. but it has been bothering me lately. actually on and off for over a decade since reading patanjali's yoga sutras. isn't every perceptual experience we have time-lagged away from the the present moment at least to some degree? every sensation, sound, feeling, thought, memory, dream, vision, 3rd eye light in the head, heart opening, kundalini stirring, or awareness itself has to take the time to fire neurons and travel our nervous system before it can processed into an experience and perceived, no? even if that time lag is best case scenario only .000000001 of a nanosecond so can the present truly be experienced in an absolute sense if it ceases to be the present by the time it becomes awareness? sure the present probably exists, and we can be doing things in it. but in the sense a unit of perception experienced via a human body, aren't we always looking into the past, whether its at a distant star that no longer exists, watching our breath, or psychically experiencing something that is ever so slightly offset due to the mechanism of our own neurology? you can be looking at a unit of perception in the present, but isn't the unit of perception to at least some degree offset from the actual present?

hello. this is my first post. i am going to be 63 and have been "searching" since i was two or three years old i swear when i "woke up" screaming in a closet because i realized i was trapped in a body again. so this understandably didn't get me off on the right foot in rural iowa society but i am still here farming and things have turned out well for me. but still i have experienced very weird stuff occasionally since then....i used to think i "leaked" or something. but whatever, i am a reasonably normal, but really private not noticed person, a long time married farmer with grown normal kids living around here too and nobody, but nobody but my wife knows about this spiritual obsession thing of mine....which she could care less about as long as it doesn't interfere with our casino jaunts a couple times a month. so basically i have spent my entire life doing all the different religions and philosophy and literature and myth i could. that is what i really do. and "How i got here" is a long story. too long. last year i was reading elaine pagels book "The Gnostic Paul" which eventually led me to Stephen A. Hoellers book "Jung and the Lost Gospels" and his other Gnostic Christian books which led me to re-exploring some Jung again for the first time in probably 30 years and that led me to buy most of the wonderful, wonderful books by Jungians Marie-Louise Von Franz and Edward F. Edinger and "Inner Work" by Robert A. Johnson about Jungian dream work and doing Active Imagination. and just today UPS delivered the books "The I Ching" by Wilhelm/Baynes and "Understanding the I Ching" by Hellmut Wilhelm and Richard Wilhelm and "The Secret of the Golden Flower" by Richard Wilhelm. i would not have bought these translations but Richard Wilhelm somehow was a jungian before there were jungians! and i am back to Taoism again....actually my favorite. and I never bought the old Wilhelm books about Taoism because they were so old. so i have "I Ching" with Concordance by Rudolf Ritsema and Stephen Karcher.....and "The Complete I Ching" by Taoist Master Alfred Huang and also "The Numerology of the I Ching"....and i know a few more on my shelves too. I also have all the Taoist translations by Thomas Cleary and all the books by Eva Wong. i must have thousands of books about this "stuff" from Douglas Harding to Richard Rose to Mirdea Eliade and Authur Avalon and innumerable Buddhist and Hindu books especially advaita vedanta and tantric yoga and theosophy and lucid dreaming and the sufi books by Cleary also and Fred Allen Wolf and the zero point field, christian science, Homer and all of the Mesopotaian Texts and shamanism and hermeticism and especially the wonderful "Science of the soul research center" in New Delhi, India. and most of the books by the original christian church fathers plus eveything re-discovered after millennia in caves in the desert after world war two. gads. i must have spent a fortune in my life on this stuff i still have three full bookcases and cabinets full of books and i gave away two truck loads of superfucial books and i burned another truck load of really disappointing books. and i don't do anything with any of it but try and learn my lessons and practice alone. and here i am. i have only posted comments to one web site in my life and i have never joined any group online or in person except for MIU transcendal meditation back a lifetime ago for awhile. and here i am. heh. carlos castaneda. i forgot carlos. and in my community, i have absolutely nobody to visit with about any of this. indeed, the congregation of my local methodist church would shun me completely if they suspected what it is i do and of course, my fellow republicans would declare me not patriotic in the least. but actually i haven't voted for anyone since the first gulf war .... and i guess i quit going regularly to church decades ago too because i didn't want to harm anyones faith in my simple little farm community church. so hello. i don't even know what i am looking for here, but we will see. thank you.

See, I also think that's valid. It's true that one can cultivate meditation while doing anything. But, to experience certain metaphysical truths, I think it's important to do conscious stillness exercise, like on a cushion with back straight and legs folded. But, some people who live their day in a meditative state, experience the jhana absorptions and experience the metaphysical truths of multidimensional experiencing when they go to bed. This is what my own Rinpoche does as his sitting practice is mostly just the chanting with mudra, which is a meditative focus, but he doesn't actually do Samatha for Jhana I don't think at least? But, he does dream yoga and gets all the meditative experiences throughout the night.