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Well one of the things that spirituality gives is a "support system" and way of dealing with stuff like this. So, for dream testing, you stop what you are doing and ask yourself seriously if you are dreaming. Now, this is good, and does give results, though from this it's clear it can lead to problems. (though if you ask me, he had other deep seated issues, pink crocodile "coming out of the closet"? Sounds like he had some homosexuality issues..... were there any women in the stargate project? ) Now what I've found in systems of spirituality, like Buddhism and Taoism, is not just "stop what you are doing and think, then keep going with life." It's "be aware of your thoughts CONSTANTLY, moment to moment, be able to observe them." So it's not just a one or two time thing you do throughout the day, but something you do continuously. It's much harder to do, IMHO, but so far I haven't had anything coming out of any closets So I wonder if this man had learned to become constantly aware of this thoughts, whether he would have realized he was dreaming a little bit sooner.

It's only enough if you do it consciously through yoga nidra or dream yoga. If that is clung to as a Self of all, there is a misunderstanding of the experience being had.

This is really interesting. The endless cycling and the multiple simultaneous dimensions according to each planes of consciousness creation... The actualization of all "probabilities" of existence...a dream with out the dreamer...argh! Can the endless cycling be broken? Or are we to only realize it in order to be free from it... Haha, I think it is leading me to insanity... .....

And now i begin this journey once more again now it's time to dream ( Sweet dreams kids!)

Samsara may be an expression of Nirvana, but so called "realizing" you speak of through a leap in view is itself a samsaric delusion and part of the cycle. But my guess is that Nirvana sees samsara only as a coin would see the other side as a probability of occurrence of which there are infinite variations. I didn't mean that the universe is destroyed, but the discriminative nature of the mind and the craving of identity must be transcended. I would like to know whether you speak of this realization from personal experience, or I must include you in with all these so called enlightened masters who talk of simply realizing the "Right View" for one to "enter" into Nirvana. And who is it that holds this vieless view? Awareness itself may become free of these concepts but itself shines by the attachments to being. Unless this awareness can be physically, mentally, and phenomenally transcended (NOT just through views), the mind stream will continue, divide, grasp, create, suffer and so on. Awesome. It is with ignorance that one grasps to form. And with that form comes consciousness and further division and grasping. Believing that the arising of form and conditions without the seer or the dooer is realization is not cutting off the very root of the matter that let's the universe manifest. The very ignorance is the attachment to being and this is NOT just regarding ideologies and views, but experience also. No the world is an illusion created by the grasping of the mind. "Seeing" appearances as dream like and illusion like is method to final realization but to be stuck at this stage is playing a silly game of pretending. It is only holding the right view which alone cannot deliver one to final Enlightenment. Yes this is to be directly experienced and not simply "viewed." This has nothing to do with what I'm saying.

The vivid appearances have arise due to ignorance. There IS no "EVERYTHING IS THE SAME" awareness that is not ignorance. I disagree that Nirvana and Samsara are one. Nirvana is a term to counter Samsara. The nearest metaphor I can think of is someone claiming that there is a fish and further stating that the non-fishness is one with the fish.... Nirvana is not a state, view, understanding, or any imaginable phenomena. David Loy has it wrong that Samsara and Nirvana are just difference of viewpoints. He is simply speaking of the end of the cyclical cycle of Samsara that is the belief in the reality of awareness. It is still dependent on being which discriminates itself from non-being. That single universe one has manifested must be transcended and destroyed. I agree. The world is the false creation of the mind. It is absolutely an illusion and a dream like phenomena that comes from the ignorant attachment to the world being a certain form one way or another. The awakening you speak of is only an attachment to the creation itself. Simply switching your views is NOT Nirvana. The final river one has to cross is the duality of being and non-being. I am not saying that the world is our thoughts. I am saying exactly what you posted in that it is the work of a ghost like mind that is neither existent or non-existent. I believe this is where the usefulness of words are ended. To see the world through the filter of discrimination is to awaken according to that view of discrimination. I could be totally wrong on my assessment of things, for mere philosophical conceptualizations are far from true understanding.

I like -O- Hindsight is 20/20, and the more I think about it the more I am beginning to believe that almost all of what we were teaching in our seminars was too much for the general public. My dream was that the world needed these practices and we were going to deliver, but the fact is one must be of a certain mindset and have a certain level of understanding before trying this stuff. That is either built in or comes from years of study. This isn't some arrogant statement I am trying to make either so spare me that misinterpretaion please. I'm simply questioning the philosophy of "putting it out there and seeing what happens". These are the practices given to the most advanced students of their respective schools and some only given to one or two select students who have proven themselves over years of training to be able to handle the ride that was in store for them. On the other hand, many who are benefitting would have never had the methods if we didn't present them as we did, so I don't know. I think perhaps it is better for most people to just do something simple like the attention practice outlined in Dan Emmons book, Life Force. It is equally powerful and effective and definitely beneficial to advanced practioners while being gentler for the beginner. (Also, I have no business arrangement with Mr. Emmons and make no financial gain by promoting his work. I am just sharing something I think people would like.)

Chicken...egg...chicken...egg... HAHA I SEE A PATTERN!! ...2 more cents... Fate has no meaning for those participating through the oceans of fate. Believing it or not believing it has absolutely no consequences if it is held to be true. Moreover, no outside agent (a non-existence/controller) can be observed independently from the phenomena of...fate... Why then, worry about the mind's useless musings? Absolute chaos and chance also have no inherent value because phenomena itself arises from the grasping of an identity (ignorance). That identification cannot observe chaos because it has automatically assumed an order by simply existing as a "point of view," a reference point. If absolute chance were to be truly understood, your experiences will be completely groundless. But this would no longer be chaos or chance, would it? How can anyone imagine this state? This is very tricky to understand in the context of our everyday lives structured by a concrete sense of "being." That you and I "are" when the reality is (IMO of course ) like that of lightening, dream, or an imagined dot on a straight line. It is like a probability, a "what if" that is entertained and from it arises everything else that is observed. This imagined existence creates, divides, suffers, destroys, unifies, purifies, on and on in cycles.... . Wow, went off track there. As for the girl, let that compassion lead you into a further investigation. Whenever you feel lazy cultivating, keep that suffering in mind. All this shouldn't be taken as simple entertainments for the intellect. It is urgent and personal!! As with this quote, You just made a claim: "There is no truly existing external reality, nor is there a truly existing internal reality" How can you claim that claim to be true if there is no external reality? The problem here is with trying to structure a state of understanding that is beyond claim. For the point of relativity to be in asserted, a ground must be taken. And that itself goes against the very idea of relativity in the first place. I say chicken and you say egg. If it was that easily intellectualized, all the philosophers would probably be Buddhas or Immortals by now.

can a dream character not realize his utterly illusory-like state of being?

How are all these things the same in the end? We need to have goals, dreams, and things to strive for. If we don't we are too yin and just live in the nothingness until we die. Some great monks might live to 150 years old but how much of it was spend with their eyes closed doing nothing but playing with qi or whatever. I don't think anyone in this forum wants to live in a cave for the rest of their lives so they live in society. Don't you want to have an opportunity to shape this society and be active. If you don't have dreams and goals you have nothing to strive for. Look at the acheivements of western yang society in the past, then look at the developing countries and where do you want to be? Soneone who thinks it doesn't matter about their environment might need to experience some different environments. Sure i accept it's possible to live happily anywhere but some places are good for healthy living and some are not. It might be a dream and hope in peoples minds that everything can be perfect and always happy (something like i hear heaven might be) but the fact is that on Earth it's not always like this. Mother nature is a hard bitch and if you dont' be proactive you will die off. Maybe in dreamworld everyone can live together happily but for the entire history on this earth it's been survival of the fittest. You need to adapt and change to our changing environment to survive, you can't just think you have everything already all day long.

Cool Surname (first character) Sun Meng lan (dream; visionary; wishful - look at, inspect; perceive)

Hahaha.....especially mine! I have had a reoccuring dream since childhood in which I am standing in front of the bathroom sink/mirror brushing my teeth when I realize I have a loose front tooth. I wiggle it and can't stop.....I end up pulling it out. Then I realize I have another loose tooth...the same happens....can't stop wiggling it and eventually pull it out. By the end of the dream I have no teeth left and am left staring into the sink which is filled with blood, teeth and hair. I am usually fairly distraught. Love, Carson

A friend of mine gave passed onto me this blog which discusses this topic: http://cattanga.typepad.com/tabby_cat_game.../not-again.html Dreams, as a topic of discussion, are a huge bore. I don't just mean some idiot telling your their fascinating dream of last night, though lordy only knows that's bad enough, but I mean the whole topic of dreams is inherently dull. Mainly because they don't go anywhere. The problem boils down to this: dreams lack teeth. And we humans can only care about stuff with teeth. It's such a boring cliche to assert that waking life is actually a dream simply not recognized as such. That was already done and dusted back in the ancient BCE time of Zhuang Zi (man v. butterfly). Yet there is something to the concept. The most interesting stuff I ever heard about dreams was at the Monroe Institute (out of body and remote viewing training venue). Skip Atwater, one of the RV coaches there, told us that one avenue of Remote Viewing explored by the (then) classified Stargate military RV program of the 70's and 80's was to have the viewers attempt to wake up inside their dreams (now called Lucid Dreaming) and then mentally shift the focus or locale of the dream to the target location of interest (some known USA location for training and testing or a Soviet missile base or what have you in a real session). As I recall Atwater's comments on it, there was only one guy who was really super good at this. Atwater showed us RV session sketches done (just after waking) by this guy, and compared them to actual target verification photos. The accuracy and detail this guy achieved was phenomenal, off the charts, far superior to the regular CRV stuff (which I learned and did with great success at the Institute, see my other posts on that topic). So then? What's the problem? Well aside from the fact that nobody else could really achieve anything close to this one guy's level using the Lucid Dreaming technique, the other issue was more serious. See, this dream-viewer guy completely lost the boundary between dream vs. real. He would be dressing in the morning to go to work, sun shining merrily through the window, wife had the coffee started downstairs, birds chirping on the trees outside, neighbors starting their cars for the daily commute - everything fine and dandy. Then he'd open his closet to get a shirt and a pink crocodile would walk out into the bedroom. And he'd think OH SHIT IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN - see, he was still caught in a dream. He literally became UNABLE to tell the difference. So he truly felt his sanity was under threat and he quit the RV program cold turkey. Atwater attributed this guy's success to both extreme inborn natural talent, coupled with rigorous application of the main LD-RV priming technique: Over a period of months: every x minutes (set a timer if necessary) stop whatever you are doing and ask yourself seriously - is it possible that I am dreaming right now? Am I absolutely SURE I'm awake? Pero. Cuidado! You have been warned (pink croc thing above). You are playing with fire here. Another interesting highpoint of the program was an invited talk given to us (RV or OBE students) by a world famous dream researcher from the nearby University of Virginia, Robert Van De Castle. The main thing I remember that this egghead had to say was just "Life is hard. It's mostly bad stuff. Similarly, the content of dreams when systematically tabulated, is mostly negative stuff." He wasn't talking nightmares mind you, just ordinary "dreams". It's mostly shit because it's reflective of real life. Such an obvious point! But I hadn't ever exactly consciously noticed that, later I realized - he's right. Your average nightly dream is rarely anything pleasant. It's mostly generalized anxiety or futile search or evasion of some threat, etc. Am I a man dreaming I am a butterfly or a butterfly dreaming I am a man? We are just here reflecting our true selves in the Yang side of reality working towards (ones fast, others slow and majority in a limbo state) the final awakening.

I can tell my dreams from reality now, when I dream I can do anything. When I was a boy, I could not, but I had a series of nightmares that repeated for years, I then found myself knowing I was dreaming because I had been there before, and then I began to be able to change the dream. In reality I cannot fly or travel a thousand miles in an instant, yet in dreams these things are easy and natural. I know of the illusion of reality, but it is not the same as the illusion of dream for me. The dream is like an illusion in an illusion, reality is like an illusion. My breakthroughs have been interesting. I recall when I learned that I had been seeing auras my whole life but did not know I was seeing them. I realized that the extraordinary is the ordinary. I recall having every prayer I ever made in earnest need or sincerity being answered, often immediately. I realize that the power is not my own, but I am free to use it as needed, when needed, if I but ask. I recall realizing that I cannot know, and that conviction of knowledge was my greatest delusion. When I let go of that I had the clarity to see what I did know, it made me feel at peace in a way I cannot possibly describe. It was at once the acceptance of both the limitations of perception and the limitless nature of being itself.

Yes, I've read Thomas Aquinas and enjoy him. The Buddha said his Bodhisattvas would manifest in different traditions in order to apply clarity through that cultural paradigm of teaching. That's fine and good. But, it's still clear that on earth, in all practical senses, it's Buddhism from the first turning to Dzogchen that has the most clarity, availability of methodology, vastness of available written down wisdom teachings. Skipping of vague parables that can be understood in so many different ways and going straight for the jugular of what the actual issue's are and the way to alleviate them. Try to find through Thomas Aquinas some real methodology that leads to the Jalus. Try to find some real teachings on the stages of the path to realization of the nature of all things as being without inherent identity? It's not that other teachings aren't good, but that other teachings just are not as clear from beginning to end. Also the methodology generally is not there or available anymore, etc. Yes, I know. I've had this very discussion many times many years ago. Yes, I've been hugged by Amma a few times. She's deep, most likely a long lived God born into flesh. She serves a good purpose on Earth that's worthy of many love tears. I wouldn't make her my root Guru though, as she doesn't have methodology that leads to how to integrate Love into Jalus. Unless your getting some sort of secret teachings in Dream Yoga? She also teaches of some "Divine Will" (cosmic movement with one purpose) behind everything that we can all rely on and surrender to. She believes and teaches that all things come from one source, or one essential substance that is beyond concepts. Some non-conceptual ultimate, which of course Nagarjuna warns us the pitfalls of. This subtle seed concept will just end up re-absorbing you blissfully at the end of a cosmic eon. Thinking you are going back to the, "one", but merely to be re-expressed ignorantly according to your karmic potentialities in the next cosmic eon, that you have hidden in this non-conceptual "basis of all" that you think is the absolute Truth, and Source of all existence. In the next cosmic eon, maybe if your karmas are aligned as such because of intense identity with a God in this cosmic eon, you will be as a long lived God that comes to people in blissful dreams and starts Theistic religions telling the person that your love is the way and the light, and that you are in and through all beings, the supreme source of all things. Maybe you'll even incarnate physically from time to time to tell people how much you are the source of all beings and that you love all beings, and that you are the consciousness of all consciousness'. I do have many memories.

Samantabhadra is not Paratman. first of all, because Samantabhadra is merely an enlightened Buddha who had the merit to not be born into this cosmic kalpa with knowledge afflictions. There is no Paratman in Buddhism or Dzogchen. Your not even understanding the teachings of the system you are trying to practice. You speak of God some universal static, essence that exists from it's own side? Oh boy... Second of all, I have received guidence on the subtler aspects through dream yoga experience. I have experienced kundalini (one of my kundalini referenced experiences) as my Rinpoche, Chogyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche riding a Wind horse up my spine that was like a long cave, slapping with a stick my different chakra points then baking me like bread in an oven in my crown chakra and his eyes were blazing with bliss and I was in a state of bliss, but felt tight in an oven on the crown. The dream was deeply lucid and powerful. The Wing Horse is a Tibetan symbol for Kundalini. I've received many of these types of guidance's on subtler dimensions than the physical from different Rinpoche's, including the Dalai Lama and as well the current Karmapa who I feel very connected to, though haven't seen in this lifetime. You've got many assumptions that are merely based upon your karmic baggage being reflected right back at you.

This : - speaking with a friend who learned tibetan, se said that someday she was speaking with a Rinpoche, and she asked him if tibetans knew about kundalini. He said "yes, but we don't want to speak of it". - one day my former lama said that he couldn't say what was death because of course he was alive, and alive is not dead. So I told publicly that I didn't believe him, because he said that he had realized the real meaning of rigpa, which meant he was dead for some time (I didn't add my reasons because people would not understand, not knowing what I was speaking about. I was speaking about meaning clear light, complete dissolution of the winds, which is equal of being clinically totally dead. My purpose was to make him teach about clear light for other people, something he never did, yet he is giving extensive teachings about dzogchen, emptiness, clarity... ). His answer was :"Are you saying that I am dead and came back ? mwahahaha !". He was just making a fool of me (and displaying his low consideration for others). I was OK with that, but this day, I knew he would keep holding back for a long time. It was a retreat, during which I tried to make him speak about clear light, winds dissolution etc. He always skipped. Anyway, half of his followers believe they've realized the true meaning of rigpa, just because he never went into the details, example clear lights, meaning clear light etc... he sometimes mentions things, but refuses to be clearer when asked. One other day I was telling that I was capable of being lucid during some dreams and asking a master for direct transmission of rigpa, within the dream. He said that someone capable of this would be rather advanced and could easily reach clear light of dream. When I asked for a definition of clear light of dream, he refused. When I asked for a method (in private), he refused. All these skillfull means are nonsense. But in some way I have no doubt he has a great realization. I just know he messed up things with me. Probably because he doesn't want me to be around and tell others how much he is holding back.

I know a man who is former Air Force and was a part of the project back in the 80's. They recruited him because he occasionally had prophetic dreams. They trained him to increase the frequency and duration of these dreams and recorded all of the results. They also had him working on a project to achieve lucid awareness while in the prophetic dream state. The idea was for him (and the others in the project) to try and consciously alter the outcome of the prophetic dream and see if the alteration effected the real world outcome. He never learned the results of the experiments as the funding was cut before the study was finished.

And what is preventing you from trying on your own ? Why do you believe other people ? All gurus have hidden agendas (a quote from Dzongsar Khyentse), and anyway they're not in your place, you cannot be sure of anything unless you try it. That's something I learned from practice, at least. Someone with strong will and real desire will try, no matter what gurus say. All these practices are available in public books. I began practicing tummo without any transmission, 3 hours a day. 9 months later, a 1 week retreat didn't change anything in my practice. I don't say that anyone has to do like me. I just say that nothing can stop a serious practicioner. And if you really need a transmission, you will get it in a dream, it is aknowledged in tibetan tradition. Now the question is : who really wants to practice ? It is much easier to do nothing because others say we shouldn't do this or that, than taking one's own decisions and be responsible for our failures. If we had a proper transmission, maybe we think we can blame the guru. But anyway, even with proper transmission, people don't practice (I'm speaking of tantras and dzogchen). So the problem is not the transmission, it is the practice.

Some things that havent been mentioned: 1.Use an egg timer, (I downloaded a timer for windows) and time meditations. 2.Do a certain amount of one meditation, then switch. Like some mantra for 15 minutes, then go to microcosmic orbit, then stillness. 3. Detoxing, like herbal detox or fasting is another way to cleanse ones body and hasten spiritual progress. 4. Yoga, or try Scott Sonnon's flow-fit excercises DVD. My roommate got some energetic results from that, and she's not into any of this spiritual stuff. It was recommended by Bodri and in Trunk's site, so I gave it a try. Killer workout, 15 minutes a day. 5. Deep trance hypnosis. I used a mp3 called "ultra-depth relaxation" for ONE YEAR every day. Its 45 minutes long and zonks you out so far down you dont know what happened until the end when he's counting you up. I mean to make a seperate post on this, because its THAT stupendous. I'd add: drowsiness is not counterproductive to meditation if one doesnt nod off. It's the Zen people who like to stay relatively alert, but the Yogi's are well known to go into very deep sleep-like states. Personally I go for the latter, sleeplike state, and get more energetic phenomena at that near-dream image state.

Agree about "symbolic" and "actual," Trunk, though "actual" ones liberally use symbolism and "symbolic" ones refer to "actual" events of one's life... but somehow one always knows the difference. "Actual" are real events taking place in nonordinary reality, or dreamtime, or another dimension, or another level of self, or what have you. I have these from time to time, and remember them vividly for a lifetime, in minute detail. The first one of these, I wasn't yet four years old, was a massive foreshadowing of my life-to-be, and I'm still working with its material. They typically affect the future. "Symbolic" are also real events having taken place in this-here life, usually in the long-forgotten, early, ever-unconscious past. They are the most common variety, and mean there's things to process that won't leave you alone until you've processed them. Nightmares and PTSD dreams are almost invariably of this variety. Convoluted dreams are of this variety. Recurring dreams are of this variety. Dreams accompanied by strong feelings in general (without clear meanings though) are of this variety. I don't have these anymore, since little of my past (even the earliest part) is unconscious anymore. There's also the here-now "right meow" dreams that reflect what's going on in the non-dream world interfering with the dream. Example: an alarm clock in the non-dream room gets included into the sounds of the dream and interpreted as the mooing of the cow or the voice of god or whatever. Or you dream of eating a pickle and wake up to your cat licking your lips (true story ). But then there's dreams within dreams, you can go to sleep and have an "actual" dream where you might go to sleep and hey presto, have an "actual" dream from meta-dreamtime, revealing meta-nonordinary reality... Taoist classics are fond of these stories. I know many. I don't think I ever had one of these. Then there's the no-dream deep reality dreams, my favorite. They are the battery-recharging absolute dark nonexistence of True Yin full of all potentials, actualizing none. This form of dreaming is the healthiest. It is very different from merely "not remembering your dreams." This one you remember -- for what it was -- dark nonexistence. You know you've been there because you feel happy before you feel awake, that's the sequence: happiness first, consciousness later. Sages dream like that always I'm told, and that's how some of them (taoist classics again) can sleep for years, even centuries, without getting bored... I have these occasionally when I'm very, very good.

As for the 'actual' drem being a person who could help me, its kind of serendipitous that you'd type that (I assume you meant to include my dream in that statement). See, When I woke up, or rather, as the dream was ending, I got the sense that I was being pointed in the right direction. I was given the feeling that I needed to look inside, in the internal practices, meditation and chi gung--on a level more profound than I am currently able to. I got the 'Understanding qi gong' series by Dr. Yang, Jwing Ming. It provided some clarity, but does not really give a schedule or specific practice to go by. Several things since the time around that dream have pushed me in the same direction. I ordered a book, 'The Essence of Internal Martial Arts, vol. 1' by Jerry Alan Johnson. When the book arrived, I realized that I had gotten Volume 2 instead. I was after the Palm training/vibrational training material in volume 1, so I went ahead and ordered it. In my opinion, these 2 books are some of the greatest books I've ever bought in regards to martial arts. The 2 volumes go together/sort of inseparably. Anyway, they contain some energy practices that I just dont feel capable of doing for sure, as I've never really had a teacher for stuff like small circulation. I was inspired by what I read though, and realized I needed a more solid, deeper foundation before attempting some of the stuff in the book. So, I checked out this place, and low and behold, I found the KAP class-which I can do from home! Too bad I missed the free KAP sponsorship the other day by about 5 minutes. So as soon as I can afford it, I'll be signing up!! Its funny to me--whether it was my mind, or someone guiding me from elsewhere, I have been moving in this direction, and here I am. Pretty cool if you ask me. N-

When I was a boy I had dreams of men wearing white robes teaching me. One of them was a black man. This was odd because where I grew up I only saw black people on TV. If I am not mistaken he told me his name and that he was Noah of the bible, but that was not his name. I was 7 or 8. This dream was but one in a series of lesson dreams where in the dream spirits came to me, that were dead, and taught me to prepare me for life. They told me I would forget most of what they taught until the time was right. Once I had a dream when I was 11 or so, a man appeared in the dream and told me his name, I looked it up later and found out he was a dead man. He told me things about my life which later came true. I had never heard of the man before that i can remember, which is interesting. I still have no idea what to think about these dreams. Given my childhood they could have easily been related to my environment. However I do not know where elements like names would have come from. I can only speak for myself and say that I do not know the answer and I accept that. If they were teaching me, why when I was so young? Why not later in life? Why with lessons i could not recall? Why would a dead man contact me to teach me? A close friend of mine has received martial arts (bagua) corrections in a dream as well. I once dreamed (4 years ago or so) that I was challenged by a guard of a woman in a dream and having fought me for some time he stopped suddenly and awarded me a sacred staff like object which he was the keeper of. One thing is for sure, I awoke with a sense of purpose. Whatever the case, do not forsake or ignore your dreams. They have a meaning, where that meaning comes from does not matter so much as the meaning itself. Besides, who wants to hear that Noah was Black with blue/grey eyes and that his name was roughly phonetically translated as: Emanuel? It certainly wasn't anything I was ever taught in waking life.

I have a lot of dreams like that. It's awesome if you remember the teachings...but who knows if it's real or just imagination. Our minds are so powerful. When things happen in day to day life that corresponds with the dream, then you know something is up...yet it's still unexplainable and almost unbelievable. But the dream guy seems to have had a good point: whacking yourself and then putting on jow will only get you so far. Good lesson.

Hello all, I know there are some folks here who read about Tibet, and other things more than I do. So I just have to ask. I had a dream a while back, at a time when I was focusing on external Iron Body conditioning (Pai Da Gung). I would do a couple of the postures/excercises I was taught for internal Iron Vest, the rub in a little jow, then whack myself, then more jow, and end with a little more standing. Well, I realized that whacking myself into 'Iron' would take forever, and likely be dangerous, as well as possibly futile. But during this time in which I realized what was wrong with my practice, I had a dream in which someone guided me, and showed me some things. Or at least I feel that someone--someone I've never met, was telling me what I needed to look for and do in order to acheive what I was looking for. Basically, in my dream, I was in a place outdoors and there was a man there- He looked like he was of Tibetan descent-with a black mustache and full head of hair. He was chanting--it made no sense, and didn't really seem to be any actual language--it sort of sounded like the way water sounds when you pour water into a half full bucket. It was like-'yodiyodi yodi odi yodl odi' like a sort of blabbering, but purposeful. It had a deep sound to it, and a slight but noticible reverberation. He held his hands in a configuration of sorts. He was communicating with me through his mind-without words. I was aware that he did not speak my language-english. He had me feel his solar plexus, which felt as hard as steel. He was telling me that in order to achieve the skills I was after with Iron Body and Iron Palm I would have to do serious internal work, refining my energy and mind. And that what I was doing was the wrong way, and would get me nowhere. He was wearing a medium toned brown long sleeve shirt and matching pants, no shoes. He then walked over to what resembled a charcoal pit made of stone-no charcoal in it though. It was about 4 feet long, 1&1/2-2 feet wide, and about the same depth. Going across it lengthwise was a central metal collumn, which had sharp spines coming out of it in all directions--they resembled huge thorns. He then hopped unto it with his bare feet, continued his chanting, and after taking a step or two in the huge spikes (each was probably 13 inches long or so) he assumed a horse stance and clasped his hands together in front of himself as if in prayer-eyes open, chanting. He was showing me his lightbody skills-which were rather unbelievable. Then the dream ended. Doe this mean anything to anyone? Have I been contacted by some master in Tibet? Was this my intuition and subconscious mind telling me I need to recconect with myself in order to regain the forgotten power of the mind? Did anything I described sound like something any of you have seen or heard of? Or was it just a cool dream? Thanks- N-