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Dream jobs. --writing articles all the live-long day --herbalism, or if someone could pay me just to sit outside --internet research type work what's stopping me? $$$$$, steep competition, thorough background checks, and the fact that i have a liberal arts degree. do you want fries with that? I also would like to work in a cafe one of these days... Maybe organizing the open mics and other events or something.

Interesting thougts Sean. Talking from experience, synchronicity is closely connected with awareness fused with intentionality. In practical reality that means, when you consiously or unconsciously are focusing your intention in some direction, your awareness is also receiving a response. Basically it's quite causal. Like karma. I'm not familiar with the magickal traditions, but - the idea that chaos is "evil" is only a very narrow ortodox Christian notion. A famous qigongmaster in China bases the success of his practice by aligning himself with chaos. He plainly states that the universe is chaos, and if you try not to be too systematic, too rigid and try to shake things up abit, energy will be abundant. Basically he feels that energy is a dynamic relationship between shifting polarities. If you try to freeze the polarities and fix them, energy dissappears. All the great spiritual traditions (including Daoism) base their understanding of the universe of the amoral relationship of chaos and cosmos. The chaotic dimension is the destructive, non-ordered, non-rational dimension. But it's not evil. Aligning with chaos is aligning with its power, which is neither good nor bad. (I start sounding like Nietzsche!) Talking about synchronicity: I remember a dream I had about 10 years ago. I was skiing down a white mountain, and when I was almost down by a dry riverbank, overlooking a big fjord, an indian was suddenly standing there out in the water, holding up a hand to signal me to stop. I stopped and went back the way I came. 5 years later, I was sitting in an IMAX theatre watching the "IMAX Extreme" film. (It's awesome btw: Surfing, climbing, skiing, etc in imax format.) Suddenly there was a scene where the camera was descending a white mountain face, down towards a riverbank by a fjord. An old indian was staning there holding up his hand, singing. It was the same indian. Ps: My girlfriend can tell the future by picking up random things from her purse. Not that's chaos theory for you!! h

By a remarkable "coincidence" I once woke up, sweating and terrified, on the morning of a day when I was going to a fusion workshop, from a dream in which I had killed my father, and had been killed for doing so. Never connected the two before. Am still scared of most people and still crap at fusion. Interesting.....

check out the song "Endless Dream" by YES. The lyrics are very in sync to this topic and I guarantee it will move you. PM me if any of you want a disc to get the listen on this one!!! The song itself is set in 3 parts (a, b, c) and is about 11 minutes long. But it is totally rockin good stuff. -M

Cool link. Thanks. He relates the dream state is connected to a larger cosmological picture which is interesting.

Here is a very well done online FREE course on Lucid Dreaming and its got a lot on the working on the twilight zone between sleeping and wakefulness. www.geocities.com/lucidmetro/coursetable.htm#TABLE%20OF Its called A Course on Consiousness. Its worth studying and printing out. I always end up w/ bad insomnia when I work too much on Lucid Dream work. That said I just found the 'Sleeping Chi Kung' CD from the chi Nei Tsang Institute. I ordered it, and I don't know if I ever listened to it. It has an interesting 9 Turns and Sleeping Loop directed practice that guarantees sleep. Something about twirling your tonque around your mouth and 'feeling' the same circling at your tan tien. I'll try it tonight Michael

Buddha said: `I consider the positions of kings and rulers as that of dust motes. I observe treasures of gold and gems as so many bricks and pebbles. I look upon the finest silken robes as tattered rags. I see myriad worlds of the universe as small seeds of fruit, and the greatest lake in India as a drop of oil on my foot. I perceive the teachings of the world to be the illusion of magicians. I discern the highest conception of emancipation as a golden brocade in a dream, and view the holy path of the illuminated ones as flowers appearing in one's eyes. I see meditation as a pillar of a mountain, Nirvana as a nightmare of daytime. I look upon the judgement of right and wrong as the serpentine dance of a dragon, and the rise and fall of beliefs as but traces left by the four seasons.'

B6 is supposed to produce vivid dreams according to durk pearson. In my experience it hasn't helped much with lucid dreaming. I've had success using melatonin to induce a lucid dreams from the beginning of the night, but most come after a full night sleep. I believe in castaneda's theory that dreaming ability is based on your sexual energy. When I was in college I had lucid dreams alot but I was able to always sleep late. Now I'm sleep deprived, I never get to sleep in so I rarely have them. Lucid dreaming is simply amazing. I never looked at the Winn dream practice stuff. I would like to talk about this stuff as I don't know anyone who is into it. Thaddeus

B vitamins huh? Maybe I'll try that, can the b vitamins help induce lucid dreaming as well as boost dream recall? Also, I'm interested in that mysterious gap bettween sleep and awakeness, any thoughts on how to navigate that terrain?

Spiritual Teachings that you could Never Imagine, The Gravity, that would be known as the End of Creation, And we ask ourselfs... We believe... That all this Chaos, And Autrocity, Can All be traced back, To One Single Event... Of known??? And Silence was upon you, I whispered in your Soul. Then I kissed your mind, For all Eternity... We melted away, In an Erotic Dream... Suddenly... a Flash of Light, Within me, As I merge into your Love, There is No Place, Nor Time... But for me, In you... I find Peace.

The course happened to be from Friday until Tuesday. I missed Alchemical Monkey. I think he had mentioned to come... but maybe I just overlooked him/her... or made it up in a dream... I want to share an amazing experience with you. To many of you it might be just some boring little one with all of your talking to Shens and other fascinating stuff, but to me it was most important especially as I learned the main difference between being aware OF a point and concentrating ON a point. I worked with that beautiful woman I name T for privacy reasons. She was laying on her back and we did the main procedure working on the abdominal area. At one point I was holding my right hand ina distance to her lower Dan Tian and then it happened (note: in 4 dimensional body healing it is not you yourself sending your energy into the body of the other, but you get into your Inner space and simply let happen what has to happen): While in my own practice I knew what it means to concentrate on the Dan Tian, thereby getting a distinct feeling of the point, I never had a feeling of the "point" expanding. But in this case it happened naturally. The moment T'S abodminal area and her back raised fron the ground my Dan Tian area felt like expanding. It is hard to describe. It was like getting less dense inside and widening... I asked T later and she reported a similar happening in her Dan Tian area. Amazing. This happening I realized that "concentrating" on a point might only lead to it getting it dense, but being lightly aware allows for the "real" process to happen... does that make sense? Inner Smiles Harry

"Have you noticed how much they look like orchids? Lovely!" Lazarus Long "I conceal my amazement..." Wish I could remember "Brought to you by your Department of Redundancy Department, and the Natural Guard" Firesign Theater "It's never too late to have a happy childhood" button in my drawer "And the ship went out into the high sea, and passed on into the West, until at last on a night of rain Frodo smelled a sweet fragrance on the air and heard the sound of singing that came over the water. And then it seemed to him that as in his dream in the house of Bombadil, the grey rain-curtain turned all to silver glass and was rolled back, and he beheld white shores and beyond them a far green country under a swift sunrise. --- But Sam turned to Bywater, and so came back up the Hill, as day was ending once more. And he went on, and there was yellow light, and fire within; and the evening meal was ready, and he was expected. And Rose drew him in, and set him in his chair, and put little Elanor upon his lap. He drew a deep breath. 'Well, I'm back,' he said." J R R Tolkien

I think it is interesting that quite a few Dzogchen masters and other lamas are also shamans. Tenzin Wangyal rinpoche comes to mind first. So the space element is practiced and fully realized but the other elements are worked on as well. Tenzin Wangyals approach to Zhine in Tibetan Yogas of Sleep and Dream is very much like Bardons first step mental exercises. What I meant by a Dzogchen view in regard to Bardon is in the approach to the exericies where there is more of a letting go of thought trains rather than forceful control. Also that true magical or yogic power is manifested from the akasha not by the ego, and that power is a skilful means whether in serving others or in a way of a pointing intruction. One Bardon adept has said to me that just because we develop powers in this path doest mean we have to "use" them. The steps bring about a transformation in the practitioner in his world view and his relation to the greater world, and prepare us for the next step until we reach out goal or realize it.

haha i like to refer to myself as a bum... i don't consider it degrading at all. to be a bum to me is to have little cares or worries about externalities. anyways in your essay you speak about god. you speak about god as if it is something seperate from you.... someone/thing to be worshipped, feared, whatever. what is god to you? god to me is the giant superbeing of which we are all a part of. just like our bodies are made up of trillions of self-functioning and conscious (although not conscious perhaps in quite the same way we think) cells and organisms collected together to make up a one... such are we the cells and organisms within the body of god. we make it up. we are a part of it. at night we go to sleep and we have dreams. we have dreams that exist as another level in our own reality, that exist within our own minds and are personal to us. i believe that the reality we share is actually just the dream of god. perhaps there is more than one god even yet we would never know just like a cell living within our body would never know that another body existed..... ------ just like you i feel the desire to seek love. to love and be loved, yet they are both the same are they not? can you be loved without loving? can you love without being loved? love is really all that exists... there is nothing else but divine, unconditional, unending love. i have been thinking more and more about love. i was in a relationship with a girl for 3 years and i believed i loved and still love her. but when i think about it, the feeling i thought of as love was just a lie. it was not real. i do not believe love can exist exclusively between just two people, that is only biochemical, hormonal. its not real. sure love can be shared by two people, but to be real love both people will love all as equals. for everything is equal. nothing is seperate from or more important than anything else and to love everything as an equal is the truth. i go to search for that love.... i'm not sure how to approach it other than by experimenting with love. letting myself feel love for as many people as i can. letting that love be the same, and not different, for every person.... whether the relationship is friends, sexual, or otherwise. (i leave on friday so i am around till then...)

peter falk, you probably mentioned this before but I am spacing, where did you learn wuji qigong from? Is that a Winn form? cameron, it's all part of some strange detour I'm trying to take through my self to my Self neimad, you are probably gone by now but full body baby stretches, that's a good tip, thanks. Yoda, thanks! In all fairness after I posted this I realized this is actually almost my whole routine, not just morning. The only other thing I do is the IAM after work. freeform, conscious eating. I like it. Throwing energy balls, reminds me a bit of the intention behind Vizzinni's "smurfing" (I think he called it). Lozen, dream practice! Ahhh.... that's cool that you do that. I used to do that years and years ago and always wanted to start up again. Hmmm... adding to "someday maybe" list. bobd, check out AYP. He has such a simple approach you might dig. You just start with 20 minutes in the morning, 20 minutes in the evening and build on that. hagar, I know what you mean about not waking up until late. That's actually why I have to do all this stuff, or else I'll drag my feet all day then won't wake up until after sunset but then I'll be wired and up until dawn. this sets me in motion early so I can keep somewhat stable sleep patterns. rex, how do you find meditating first thing getting out of bed? I need to move around, shake a bit, get some blood and chi flowing or I fall back asleep trying to meditate right out of bed. It's cool you can do it like that. Sean.

i wouldn't know of any real benefits for humans other than time awake when things are a bit quieter. you miss out on your hormone synthesis time.... melatonin or something or other. especially if you are entirely nocturnal and thus sleep all day, thus getting no sunshine at all..... i doubt anything good could come from that. our circadian clocks are programmed for daylight, it is the way we have 'evolved' to function. all around mess i think to become nocturanl. however i always wanted to be able to sleep a lot less. say like 2-3 hours of real deep sleep a night. i mean thats about the maximum amount of time of deep sleep you actually even get even if you sleep 11 hours! the rest of the time is spent in shallow sleep areas which provide little deep healing benefits, i think, and also spent descending down into the deepest sleep cycle. if you could go instantly to the deepest cycle.... think about all the time you could save! or instead can learn about dreaming and use the dream time to exist in your virtual world which is as real as this world is anyway.

I guess my biggest problem with so-called emptiness meditation, especially as presented by the "Bodri school" is that I personally believe emptiness/suchness is already the ground of all phenomena/experience; ever present, ever penetrating, fully present in The One/Nothing and also in all apparent parts, like Indra's Net. This is why, to me, saying "I'm going to go to some emptiness meditation" sounds like "I'm going to go do some God meditation". IMO anything can be an emptiness meditation if we have, to use Buddhist terminology, Right View. And conversely, nothing can really be an emptiness meditation because it's like the ocean doing a "water meditation". The ultimate goal of "Taoism" and "Buddhism" are the same IMO because the ultimate goal of all beings IMO is the same, even the most apparently ignorant, convoluted or misguided, namely, to be free of suffering and be in bliss. All these mystical paths, in a sense, are just attempts at more highly sophisticated long-range hedonism (cheers Yoda). All the debate is just "which way is quicker, more ethical, etc." ... I think the magickal/esoteric/alchemical/left-hand path/setian schools have a cool point, that maybe collapsing the whole universe into one big empty zero (see: big sections of Hinduism/Buddhism/Christianity,etc) is not really the point because unconsciousness isn't really ultimate bliss. In other words, if you become the Primordial Oneness, maybe it's boring as shit because you already know the punch line to all the jokes in existence and you are already all of the hot girls so you can't even have sex with them. So you are like, bored out of your mind and you reincarnate into this fun crazy dream again through a mysterious paradox we can't even comprehend. But then of course the Buddhist/Advaita/Hindu/Sufi/Philosophical Taoist, ie: Chan, etc.etc. schools have a cool point too. Maybe you are not happy going out every night to shows and getting drunk and chasing girls because you've gotten so lost in the illusion of separateness and just really feel like something is seriously wrong. So you seek. Back and forth, pulsing. Hoping to find a resolution to even this wierd duality of Onenness vs. Many. Inner Smile = Vibrating Substance that is Empty Sitting in Silence = Aligning with Emptiness that is All Substance One is only more skillful means depending on your viewpoint. "Before enlightenment, you chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, you chop wood and carry water." My two cents. Sean.

I think I've seen this story mentioned w/ the same names in both Jewish and Zen mystical stories. The student Joshu is told he is enlightened. Others students gather around Joshu and ask, "How do you feel?" "Miserable as ever". Matt says taoist enlightenment is stripped off all trappings. Thats good. You don't see Jesus, or Buddha or Blue Skinned 6 armed women. You see .. I don't know? whats in front of you? Hmmmn, Winn in his dream tape series has an affirmation something like to see, bravely, what ever just is. No fudge factor, no heaven or hell, no coloration. Just see what is. If tao is just path, then we just walk, step by step, no heaven, hell, nothing special. Just step by step, walk smoothly with no projections as the future arrives all by itself. Michael

Looks great! I tend to shy away from original and scholastic type sources as they aren't fast paced enough for me. But I hope you get a copy and put up a report. It looks like it focuses on the universe that third eye vision siddhis reveal which needs dream practice as a prereq and that in turn needs sex practice as a prereq, so it's a bit out of my league for the time being. -Yoda

Trunk, I'll be the first to admit that your knowledge base is deeper than mine... But, is there really a danger here? If the taoboy overdoes it, won't he just have a wet dream to even out? I've heard some Hindu retention teachers say that wet dreams are the natural safety valve for the practice--that it's self regulating that way. Like with other powerful practices like standing and sungazing, I think it's a good idea to be respectful of them--if you overdo it, you can overload your circuits and get into serious psychological and physical trouble. That doesn't mean that standing is bad or even that hours of standing a day is bad, but that level of practice will destroy a normal person. If you want to advance, you have to turn up the heat. Just do so slowly. If it doesn't feel good, don't do it. Thanks for stepping into the debate! -Yoda

I guess you have a point although I wasn't presenting the quantity of his believers as proof of his attainment, just more as support for the idea that it's not impossible for individuals to awaken early. My statement just wouldn't have been the same if I said "spyrelx you would have to ignore this guy down my street who is like 17 and I'm pretty sure is enlightened." Anyway, if you haven't already you should read up on Ramana Maharshi, his words are way more powerful than statistics on how widely acknolwedged he is. (In fact, PM me if you are interested and I will lend you one of my favorite spiritual texts, Talks With Ramana Maharshi.) ... Staying on topic, I think it's really interesting how most of us, most of the time myself included, are convinced of the near absolute truth of semen retention as pre-requisite for spiritual growth. And there seems to be a lot of evidence for this, from our own direct experiences with lowered energy and diminishing results in our practice, to the extremely common injunctions against against it in many mystical-religious texts, and even the scientific evidence supporting the significant physiological drain on the body produced by ejaculation. Still I'd like to crack this subject open as much as possible. First off, we should all be personally clear on what we mean when we say "spiritual progress"? What are we trying to achieve here? There are probably more answers than members since each of us has many layers of desires for why we approach this Work. I think it's important though, to be reminded every now and then to stop and clarify our highest intentions. Are we seeking Wisdom? Health? Freedom? Sex? Selflessness? Power? Love? Happiness? A less bumpy ride through life? Next, how does avoiding ejaculation fit into our primary intention(s)? To me it seems obvious that semen retention without proper cultivation is either pointless or dangerous. Most Catholic priests don't strike me as the pinnacle of spiritual awakening and frankly neither do any of the die-hard Taoist/Buddhist "retentionists" I see online. Maybe I am being too judgemental, but I am at least twice as judgemental of my self. Is it possible that we are just seriously deluding ourselves? Maybe even dangerously? Do we really have access to authentic cultivation teachings concerning sexually active retention? Is it possible that, like many ancient beliefs, retention teachings are at least partially rooted in superstition. And that we, the sexually confused West, have latched on to as dogma? Is it a requirement or not? And if so, what is it a requirement for? I think these are serious questions that may be taken for granted despite how deeply the way we answer, and the attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that arise from the way we answer, impact our lives and relationships. IMO spiritual progress is marked by the search for and acceptance of experiences that awaken us from the self-imposed dream of separation. Separation from what? I don't know how to word it, so I say One, Tao, God, True Self, Being, Now, Love. The impulse for physical sexual union can be thought of, metaphysically, as an impulse toward spiritual Oneness. I think the process of safely learning to experience sexual pleasure without ejaculation is a useful tool for teaching men a lesson (that they probably need more than women, especially in bed), namely the value of the Now. The value of goal-less Love. Action within Being and without lust for result. Qualities I believe are at the heart of awakening. I think the main idea is to stimulate spiritual experience, not save our load so we can be tough and maybe live 10 extra years. So at this point I'm not sure I buy the idea that ejaculation, regardless of context, and intrinsically in and of itself leads to lessened energy and spiritual regression. Maybe a lot of this draining effect has to do with our beliefs and our practice. But I'm also not quite ready to jump into Guy Johnson's experiment either. I think I'll stick with my latest jing refinement practice and also my search for the elusive Heartgasm. If you've made it this far, thanks for reading ... Sean.

winn's inner smile... the one in his free e-book, goes into every part of the body... into the bones, muscles, cells, blood, into the hair, etc. letting the smile really pervade you until you becoming one just vibrating smiling blob. really cool i enjoyed that. while mantak chia's seems to be a bit more of a 'quick i gotta get this smile done rapidly'. maybe it was just my approach. also i used to practice winns lying down, and chia's sitting up. might have had a difference too. the meditation i do now is better for me, i'm not saying it's better. i think the inner smile can definately be profound, as can all meditations. i guess it's better for me because it's so simple and not complicated. i used to have a lot of trouble with some of the taoist meditations because you had to think so much, had to try and do all kinds of things with your mind, etc. so what do i think about? well..... i don't think. the meditation i do has a kind of multi-effect. firstly i concentrate on a particular chakra point (belly, heart or third-eye) and just leave my concentration there allowing energy to flow in, while at the same time stilling my mind and allowing words to slip away. i listen to music to distract the monkey mind. it's suprising how effective this is. about 25 minutes, twice a day. sometimes a little longer when i feel like it. but everytime i get up from the meditation feeling great. feeling warm/cool (it's kinda warm but also kinda cool) currents going through my shoulders arms and chest. the buzz usually lasts a couple of hours too. also had some very interesting experiences while meditating. i never miss a day, and never want to miss a day. i also notice when i don't smoke weed that i actually manage to dream again.

I haven't listened to this recording, but I'm familiar with Tibetan death dissolution meditations. It takes you through the stages of a death that assumes a gradual and conscious transition. It's only moderately useful, in my opinion. The elements dissolve in certain stages which creates unusual feeling and sensations. But the actual experience of it is rather weird and even for Rinpoches. It's good to know that there are peculiar sensations and that these can be relaxed into and accepted as a normal part of making a transition to non-physical. The important point is to make peace with the transition to non-physical in the first place. Get it out of your head that death is a "penalty." If you do that, then your vibration towards your future transition will be cleaned up considerably thus paving the way to have a rather nice, fast transition experience and not get stuck in long draw out dramas in hospital limbo land. The Tibetan's believe in samsara and awful things happening in the bardo where any meat eating animal gets reborn to long lasting hell realms. If that's where tweety the songbird goes, you don't want to fuck with it. I believe that they are wrong about samsara. The hell realms that they are describing are also part of the transition experience, just the same way that dream visions are part of the process one goes through as one lets go in order to sleep. And these can be happy, sad, whatever. But once you are through, you are through. The ghosts that people see aren't the spirits on the other side, they are trace energy patterns left behind--so there aren't shackled motherfuckers moaning "Ebenezer" on the other side or anything like that. If you don't like the prospect of returning to the non-physical realm, you ain't going to like the sensations involved in the process. If you are looking forward and excited about returning to the non-phys realm, then you'll find the whole thing greatly abbreviated and exciting. -Yoda

Okay Grasshopper, you too can be a sperm stud like me and master Ron. I've been 100% since mid May with no runs, drips, or errors. I got drunk and forgetful on that occasion and couldn't find my million dollar spot in time, but no use crying over spilled milk. Ron's the pro, but he's too busy cultivating to reply in depth, so I'll do the talking: Exercise is the key to retention--it both builds and circulates sperm. I'm not doing any of the microcosmic stuff, but haven't needed to as long as I'm exercising almost daily. Without exercise, I wouldn't recommend retention as things would get too stagnant. Also, my recent green tea discovery has been helpful with regard to the circulation aspect. Horniness is the goal of the practice, grasshopper. It's not always easy, particularly when the wife needs her sleep, but we all have our cross to bear. With enough exercise and green tea, the basic energy should be able to spill over into other activities like googling incessantly, researching chemtrails, yet more exercise, and maybe even some artistic creativity or genuine love if you are into that sort of thing. Whatever you want, you want more. It's like your own fantasy island! You have more energy to play with and it just takes some practice how to channel the psychological components of it in a way that feels invigorating rather than lackful. It's a change of perspective. Osho says to view ejaculation not as "satisfying" but as numbing and dumbing of one's lifegiving desire and compassion. To view the state of horniness not as uncomfortable but as invigorating and lifegiving. Makes you feel like a Chinese Emporer. Nee-how! I'm not doing dream practices yet, but the energy for that is gathering. In the last year or so, I've had the nagging awareness that I was loosing my energy through sex, but I failed to make a consistent practice out of it. I believe that sungazing gave me surplus energy to get into running and the running gave me a platform from which I could take on retention with no stagnancy issues. Then I just followed Ron's guidelines which I took to almost without a hitch. It's been easier than I would have guessed. -Yoda

Ron, Which resources do you recomend for the learning of dream yoga or is it more a matter of intent? Bill