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I do recognize the photo above. this is what I have translated. I have dreamed my whole life...as far as sleeping dreams. just recently digested term lucid, although I have a few recalls in my memory that seemed just as lucid. I think it is just mental art. abstract and then not getting too busy into the meaning. If I begin to think I can dig into meaning than it gets bumped into psychological matter-of which I have had the thought processes my whole life to sift. what concerned me was the deeper UNDERLYING message----for the cosmic dream makers. what I want to convey here, albeit not so clearly(las vegas) translate in Spanish and then translate in vagus nerve.... is that I do get scary moments, embarrassing, spiritually I was concerned and am concerned about the stuck quality------ and what baggage I have brought if any------and I do not mean that I am not responsible for what my actions are--- but that the dream matter first struck me as(even though I see myself in the dream--I was glad to wake up .... lay there for a minute and process how I give meaning to that. I first thought that this was me representing where someone else is sleeping...as in someone from my past who has now moved on and married and that I maybe carrying her----but the image was not her.... it seems trivial and a bit tricky. the other unsettling things is my own mind... I begin to hyper connect vortex matter-----inside my own processing... my computer helper T-projectile vomitting my uncomfortableness in the outrageous intricacies of dragonfly's faces-- the video of the leaves blowing---just seeing that for a few and the harnessing---- In facing my own version of wrong doing and squeezing and insisting--- I think T was hijacking kmart system and that I am having evil lurking in and on me. and that I am this I have done this and that---- and who knows what you know and all of the good intentions in life and all the not so good. the swallowing and the movie of what my life has contained... in the pretend world of my mind--- it is like going to a circus...it is overwhelming and there are plenty of scary faces and places-and I have plenty of my own work to do...sometimes just sitting still and not reaching for anybody... sometimes laughing now at my own delusional meltdown--- my son witnessed my mental emotion fear...I would not want to steal from people... by the end of my meltdown he hugged me and teased me that my sister had texted him from the bank and that she was hijacking the bank....we both laughed ourselves silly....that I could see my own goofy crap and so could he--- the underlying lessons here for me we to just step carefully---and the runaway mind has to settle down and it can't figure all of it out. and the fundamental true matter here as best I can put forth is that I am thankful to be able to say thank you for a very difficult lessons it is from a place I do not know- so in swinging from one pendulum way to the other is odd. to say the least.

Hello All, This is my second post here. My first was May of last year asking for assistance on how to cure my intense and debilitating Kundalini Syndrome developed from practicing Kundalini Yoga and focusing far too much on my 3rd eye. I was practicing Kriya for about 5 months, two hours a day with little guidance, and completely destroyed my mental stability. I've had panic attacks weekly and sometimes daily for 15 months straight because I was so ungrounded. Kundalini Syndrome is a very real and serious condition and I would never wish it upon any of my worst enemies. When it first started I had so much pressure in my head, I literally felt like I was going to fly out of my body into the heavens. It all started when one day I was driving in my car to grab some food and everything around me suddenly looked completely surreal and dream-like. It was derealization. I had the first panic attack of hundreds. I immediately drove home to my house I was staying at for college, as I am only 24. After I arrived at home, I thought something was very wrong, but ignored it thinking I would be fine the next morning, so I forced myself to bed at around 5 PM. The next morning I arose with a constant onslaught of panic attacks that continued for several days, until I decided I had to go to the ER, so they could check me out because I had no idea what was happening to me. I was petrified this would be the rest of my life. My parents lived two hours away, so they had to come pick me up afterI had been given a very strong medicine to calm me down at the ER. The next 6 months of my life were filled with daily terror and constant fear that I would die at any moment. I had realized what caused the mental breakdown a few days after the Kundalini episode started when I did some googling on the dangers of Kundalini Yoga and realized I had developed Kundalini Syndrome, so this gave me some relaxation knowing what the issue was caused by, but I didn't know how to stop it. After doing more googling, I stumbled across the Microcosmic Orbit practice as taught by Mantak Chia. I understood the basic practice, but couldn't seem to figure out how to consolidate the chi in my brain into my lower dan tien without getting it stuck in my heart causing my heart rate to constantly exceed 120 bpm 24/7. I had to go to a cardiologist and be prescribed beta blockers for this. After dealing with unbelievable fear and heart palpitations until December, I finally cleared most of the energy out of my head and heart, but still had no chi in my lower dan tien. This is when I finally sought the help of Taoist Master Michael Winn. I owe him so much thanks. He taught me the practice of reverse breathing to heal my kidney yang energy and also circulating chi along the yin pathway of the microcosmic orbit in my lower dan tien. This practice has cured me, along with conserving jing, so I could convert it to chi in my lower dan tien. For reverse breathing, I focus on the point between my kidneys near the door of life and breathe in, while also sucking the lower abdomen into my lower back and then hold for a count of 9 seconds or as long as I want. This sucks the chi into the door of life and greatly increases Kidney yang strength and heated my body, which was always ice cold from panic attacks. Then I will push out my lower abdomen or dan tien on the exhale fully, while remaining focused on the kidney point. This sucks more yin chi into the lower dan tien and heals kidney yin. After holding for as long as comfortable, I rotate the chi starting at the point a little lower than the navel and move it backwards into the ming men, then down to my perineum and bring it back up into the area below my navel. I do that 9 times, and it stores the Yin energy in the lower dan tien and really cools down the organs. I do simple reverse breathing 9 times and then finish with circulating the jing 9 times on the 5th breath. I do this maybe 20 times per day, and this has cured me and then some. Storing Jing and not masturbating is vital to this practice, as you use that energy for healing. It's taken me 25 days without masturbating to fully heal myself, but I plan on never losing seed again unless I am trying to conceive a child. There is far more to my story then this, I just don't want to make things too long and complicated. I will probably write a book some day detailing this whole experience, as I think it could really help other suffering from Kundalini Syndrome. I know some people go a lifetime without finding a cure. So I am posting this in hopes it will be seen by others suffering from Kundalini Syndrome, so that they know there is a way out and it can be 100% cured. I never thought I would be cured, but through tireless effort and Michael Winn's help my mental powers have returned and with continued practice I am sure that I will strengthen my internal organs to an incredibly high degree and chase immortality, after practicing Fusion of the Five Elements, Kan and Li, and Sealing of the Five Senses.

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

Hi Bums! I have been planning to write a review for a while of my experience of 'No self' [so far], so here goes. Back a bit Xabir posted his Ruthless Truth post, and I got Interested. I was already very familiar with the teachings around No self, thanks to the epic postings and debates with Vaj, Xabir and CowTao here at the Bums. [thanks by the way] But the Idea was purely intellectual for me. I thought what the heck, I'll give RT a shot. It took a long time to get accepted as a member but when I did, I entered straight into dialogue, and did my best to just follow their prompts, and look at the nature [if present] of Self. It circled round and round a bit, I think because I cooperated and didn't try to argue or debate them, it didn't descend [much] into name calling, as It often can over there. I had done quite a bit of the Mahamudra style of meditation, where you question "who is thinking, seeing..." as thinking or seeing itself is actually happening, and in meditation could easily see that when you look to see - who is thinking, there is no one actually there - but this never really carried over into daily life. Anyway, someone suggested shifting focus, and lying in bed one night, contemplating the days discussions I suddenly 'saw' as clear as day that I have never seen the slightest evidence for this 'alleged self' and there is quite clearly - No self! Never has been, never will be. Now this realisation has had quite an impact on me. Before I get to that, I will give you a little history. I grew up in an intensely abusive religious cult. I had been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and possible Bipolar disorder, both of which I managed myself over the years with meditation, mindfulness practices and healing modalities. I worked on everything I was able to, but I knew that 'underneath' I had stuff I could not reach. Now at the moment I am studying Transpersonal Counselling. A few months before my realisation, I stepped into class [a dream module] one morning, and the teacher asked who had a dream. I put my hand up, so she chose me to demo the process we were learning. I shared a quite innocent sounding dream and we began the process, when she suddenly backed out, saying she was caught between being a teacher and a therapist, and that we had hit serious developmental flags, and could not continue publicly. I thought 'how strange' as I felt fine and did not know what what she was worried about. She kept checking in with me during the day, but I was fine, till going home. I started to feel very heavy and dense. I wrote it off as fatigue, and went to bed. That night I woke up thinking I was having a heart attack. I held my pulse and it was fine, so no heart attack. I was having a serious panic attack. I barely made it to school the next day, and the teacher ran up and said "are you alright?" She had thought more about my dream when she got home, and then got really worried. She organised counsellors for me, and I finally got to start plumbing the depths in a way that I had never been able to do before. Unfortunately It was going well but very slowly, but my panic attacks were getting worse and more and more overwhelming. Till I was forced to take medication. That was an extremely hard decision because I have refused medication my whole life. But this shit was real deep and utterly terrifying to my core. Any way they put me on a light dose of Diazapam which is a valium based medication. It took enough of the edge off things to be able to still work on my problems. Caffine, and driving would still trigger strong panic, as well as physical fatigue, and when doing these things I would have to increase my dose... Back to realisation Land. After realising No self I had a very strange next day. All the things that make up Seth were still there, but they were no longer 'held together' by a false story or a set of Ideas with a false claim to self hood. I didn't take my medication. Panic arose, but so did blissful spaciousness, and a sense freedom without boundaries... Everything that arose passed easily. The next day I really tested it. I drank a can of V and drove an hour and a half {which alone would have had me lying fetal and gasping for breath only two days earlier} and then spent the next 8 hours digging deep trenches for a friend. I was fine. Its been a month, [today i think] since I got it, and what an interesting time. I feel like I do not have to worry about the stuff inside me. It just comes up by it self and unravels or falls apart by it self. The Counselling course has me actively looking at stuff also, and that is good too. I have never been so relaxed and laid back. I also seem to be more of a Lady magnet as well. Mind you I can still loose my shit over stuff, but it passes much more quickly, and usually is far less Intense. I have been reading a book on Nagajuna's teachings, that CowTao recommended to me, called the Sun Of Wisdom. Deep thanks Cow, its amazing. Everything I read is just sliding Into place. It makes total sense as soon as I read it. I am not just understanding It mentally I am seeing it directly. These understandings are helping me understand Longchenpa who is also blowing me away. The world is simply empty appearance. All phenomena at any level is floating and dream like, empty in its nature. If it sounds like I am dissociated guess again. While I feel like I am becoming free from the Influence of the world, as its loosing its power over me, for I am seeing its ultimately unreal nature, and thus attachments are falling off me like flies, I feel more connected to the people I meet than ever. I have more Time for everyone I meet. And I feel a great sense of love or Compassion often just rising up for everyone. It's not some emotion I am generating, It's just naturally arising. So that's my story so far. I do not really care whether people think No self is just another belief system, for if it is, it is astonishing in the internal psychological revolution that it brings about. For me It's value speaks for itself. I Hope many people are Inspired to look for them selves... Great Blessings! OM Ah Hum! Seth Ananda.

Because of our everyday experiences we assume that the waking body is the "real" one, the dream body only in our imagination and the body rests (mind hibernates) in deep sleep. But what if there is a deep sleep body (Causal body) that is merged into nescience, and from it arises a subtle body (dream world) and subsequently it solidifies further into a physical body (waking world)? What if what we consider to be the primary envelope of living/experiencing is actually just a side-effect of a larger envelope of reality in a much vaster dimension?

In my experience, the shielding has been in my dream state. I was given a Mantra by a Yogi in my dream many years ago. I used that Mantra to "evaporate" negative elements (again in my dream state) several times. I have also used it to generate a shield (a force field like you see in a sci-fi movie) around myself, my home, my neighborhood, etc. A technique used in India even till date is using a conch (called Shankha in indian languages) at regular times of the day. http://bharathkidilse.blogspot.com/2009/10/shankham-conch.html Another I've seen done as a kid is the burning of what we call dhunachi (coconut husk burned and sprinkled with some sort fragrant resins like frankincense etc).

Have you given similar consideration to thoughts? Why do they come up? Why a particular thought or memory at a given time? Sometimes one can trace patterns and connections, often there is no explanation. They just pop up, hang around, and vanish. Emotions are like that for me as well and I treat them similarly. In the Tibetan paradigm it is a matter of the various winds (movements of subtle energy) interacting with our external circumstances or our internal milieu (the chakras). This is also the explanation for dreams. When the wind of our awareness encounters the energetic content of a particular chakra, a particular thought, emotion, or dream will be stirred and come into our awareness. That’s one explanation.

Its not a dumb question as most people can not answer it . Usually you get a list of them when asking what they are - That is , they answer the question 'what are the emotions', not 'what are emotions ' . Emotions are states of feelings triggered by chemicals released in response to stimulus . Mostly they drive behaviour ( which can also result in physical sensation , eg. fear - cold , anger - heat .) but can also be not manifested physically and only effect states of consciousness . They work like a chemical nervous system , relaying input, reaction and response . Managing their output is important , eg. Various types of stimulus (danger , excitement ... ) the body may need to function faster or overcome fatigue so it produces adrenaline ( which has side effects as well ) , if the adrenalin isn't 'burnt off' in output it 'stagnates' and transforms into other substances that cause stress ( mentally and on parts of the physical system ). Emotions are also the 'Second Regulator' - 1st is the self having an idea, inspiration, insight , 2nd is the emotional body , where we run things through to see how we feel about them ( also in this realm is dreaming - we may choose 'to sleep on it' when making a decision ) , it is also a gateway into the unconscious ( so we get messages via it without having to 'think them through' ) . This can also make emotions 'confusing' as they can message responses in the physical body triggered by the unconscious without the ' conscious mind ' realising it or being able to identify source or reason . 3rd is 'mind' or the intellect where we reason assess practicality and method, etc . 4th is Body and physical where we put all the above together into output . Without 1 we are uninspired and unoriginal, without 2 our 'heart will not be in it' , we will not feel an affinity with the thing or have a deep understanding of it. Without 3 we might be doing something crazy, impossible or harmful and without 4 all the above might be good but its just a pipe dream. Unfortunately, like mind and intellect, many have confused and unbalanced emotions . Actually, probably more people have their mind more together than their emotions . Emotional conditioning is more subtle and insidious than mental conditioning. We have seen how smart intelligent people can get sucked into cults, bad relationships etc. I have cited this a few times : L. Ron Hubbard's son being interviewed and asked why all these smart and intelligent people where in something like Scientology with its crazy beliefs ? He said "They where intellectually smart , but they where not emotionally smart . " And we have also seen that many practitioners or even 'masters' of various paths can 'loose it' or 'revert' when their emotions are subtly pushed . I have found I can communicate excellently with very young children and 'special others' (like my niece who has severe autism ) by communicating emotionally ; using facial expressions, gestures and ESP . Especially if I exaggerate it , they seem to love that . They will even get a joke communicated this way . Another version of this communication is with the indigenous , who seem to have made an art of using it in a toned down , near invisible manner ... just the slightest hint of a trace of the expressions . The more subtle you are at it the better. Usually sitting down around the fire at night or relaxing in a group talking .... there is an element of unspoken communication between some . It carries over to other activities and is evident in sign language as well ; hunting sign language (where silence is essential) , casual sign language ( just because they sometimes don't like to make a lot of 'chatter' , or someone might not have language ) and secret sign language ( between brothers of an inner clan , secret initiatory society , etc . )

I wouldn't be surprised if everyone at some point stumbled onto this, but never made it into a habit. Course how many questions can we come up with? <as always with dream/sleep practices comes sleepless nights, or less sleep. It tends to set up a bad mental feedback for me. But I'll keep trying>

I think that human beings are born with a particle in their body that connects them to some Divine machinery that we can interact with through meditation and chanting and prayer. I believe I have accessed some point, be it in a body, or an atom, or a box- and that this point is connected to a world in my head, and in all our heads, and can infinitely be cloned and duplicated so that we can all have our own personal Universe that is reflected of the Universe at large, but wont interfere with the Universe itself- that is how we dream of other people- its not them, it is a clone of them. I believe this point is in a world where the ascended Gods reside, and that when we call on them, they attend to us. Their intellect is infinitely more aware and advanced than ours, and their thoughts immediately affect the device that is within us.

He did admit to not being certain which one was the dreamer and which the dream. Who wakes from the waking dream?

I do agree with you, it is often easier for humans to just look at what is in front of them and create more of what is in front. Instead of focusing on what they actually want to create in life. Being a regurgetator of reality. However, you have to understand, the only reason you live what you live right now, is because people have been focusing on that truth, long enough, for that energy to become powerful, gain momentum, and become a real physical reality that you see around you and are able to live right now. If I told you you had the ability to create your own reality, you would laugh, ahahaha, sure thing, crazy person you. But the truth is, this means, that you are choosing to create the reality which is in front of you. So nothing changes for you. You still create your own reality, but it looks so similar, that you don't even know you're doing it. And allot of that is ok. But much of it, has not always got allot to do with you, and who you really actually are, as an eternal soul being, and the actual reason why you chose this life in the first place. The essence of who you are, exists here, along with you, side by side in a heartfelt sense. And it knows, that it is eternal, and it never has a thought that causes a seperation between it and you. You on the other hand can feel when you deviate your mind from its perspective, that is why emotions are so useful. And why you can never truely be disconnected from your eternal conscious awareness. Limited, but not truely disconnected. And the idea of eternal hell, meaning the pain in your heart, would make sure of that. The idea is not to end up in hell, but to be repelled by it so violently, that you have no choice but to arrive at your destination, which is heaven. Don't all trees reach for the sky? And you dont even have to fly to space, but the stars can still remind you that you are in heaven and what that can truely mean for you. You are the one who is blocking that energy from coming to you, untill you die, in which case, resistance falls apart, and you become not just one with it, but you expand and become more as a consequence of the life you have lived here. You can still however, enjoy this life, before you die, but that is a choice, that allot of people say is crazy. And it is up to you to decide how much you care about what other people think. Especially if you know, that the future is one where you will be considered crazy for caring about what other people think, even tho you are an adult. A child depends on their parents, and needs to care about what their parents thinks. An adult does not. Atleast, not in the future, where all humans are free, and yet, live in peace and harmony, not just with eachother, but with all life on the planet and beyond. Faith, fed by imagined, groundbreaking, future creating, powerful high frequencies with fast moving momentum, inspiration, is what has led to your "real world" and I know it seems much easier to just look at reality and say that that is what always have been and always will be. And in a sense, you are correct. Each moment exists eternally. But what you also have to know, that all moments in time, exists right now, side by side to your current reality. Then why would you choose to eternally experience the same reality? You cant, and you wouldent. That is what happens when you "resist" just like when people die, and they freeze in time itseems, untill they realise, that they are the ones who has frozen time, because they are the ones who had created the illusion of time in the first place! They just did it with such great ease, that they literally forgot that they were doing it. So totally immersed into the story of their life they created for themselves. But if you die, you remember who you are as an eternal being, a consciousness that is all that exists, and there is nothing outside of you. You are all that exists. And from this state of being, you simply are free to create a new reflection of yourself, focusing on new ideas, vibrations ,even create new dimensions of experience or universes to explore. Whatever you wish. And from that point of view, this life that you are living right now seems like a vague dream, cause it was just an illusionary experience you created for yourself, for the fun of it (even tho you forgot that you created it for the fun of it) you have left many breadcrums for yourself to remind yourself of you are, such as me writing this right now, and many many more people, who are actually your creations, infact, actually, literally your consciousness, telling yourself to wake up. Remind you when the story is over, and a new one is overdue. The most influential people in history, were also often, almost always, considered the most crazy by all those people around them, during their life. It takes people often decades to catch up on a stream of consciousness that is so powerful and fast moving in momentum. As a consciousness, you do not care about that what other people think of you, if you yourself have acces to the knowledge of God. You feel no vulnerability, nor do you depend on the people around you for support, in order to feel the need to care about their opinions. unless ofcourse you are interacting with them, in which case you do care atleast to some degree and would like to have an interaction with them. But the word god is often used to describe powerful physical beings, who may or may not have been connected to their original source of being. And those people, have absolute 0 control in your life, unless you invite them to have control in your life by conscious decision and choice. Which is what co-creating is, which is what we're doing here in this life. But that doesnt mean you have to go to scary movies if you dont want to. Cause we all have the same Source of Being, and yet, that means, we all have individual, highly individualised, purely specifically uniquely to us specialised, connection with that eternal and infinite Source of Existance, specific guidance specifically individually for each individual consciousness that is focused here in this physical experience. All guided along the everlasting path of life, emotionally. Explore, create new preferences, expand as a result, guided and reminded to all that we are, always, without faulter, via our heart. For we know, we find truth, by how it feels. if it hurts, it does not harmonise with our nature, and thus would deviate you from existance itself, which is not possible, and would lead to only more pain. Often we just ignore, reality, because we cannot imagine a better one, and then feel better while in denial. Thus we think that happy people are ignorant, but nothing is further from the truth. For the stage of denial is just a coping mechanism, for already having chosen to co create with a reality that has got nothing to do with you are. And when you remember that and release that decision, which is extremely intentional and very connsciously habbitually re creating itself over and over, by powerful resistance to who you really are, then you just fall in love. Let go, and be, and all falls back into perfect harmony. Because life is ment to go well for you. Well being abounds. And when you realise you are free, you can imagine what you want to live, and find with great ease and joy, and satisfaction, that the more you enjoy, the more reality will show you of what is truely capable in terms of reality. Bringing unto you all that you desire and more, where the greatest dream you can imagine is but the lowest possible joy that reality is capable of conjuring for you.

In regards to my own personal thoughts and experiences. There a few types of measures i use. One is how the supernatural becomes involved in your experience along with physical reality. For example, 2 days after Notre Dame burned down, I feel asleep for 10 seconds. During those 10 seconds, i dreamt that the crown of thorns was in smoke (not in flames), and melting away. At the time, i was completely, aware that the crown of thorns existed or was even kept at the Notre Dame Church. Only after the dream did i look it up and find that out. Another way is being guided to find physical evidence in something let's say 500 years ago and you find it on yourself and as a result find other specific relations to it. These are only a couple, there are many more that just need to remain private, just as anyone should keep them private as they don't matter for others to know. What's interesting is that supernatural or Godly intervention is always created, but in the most subtle of ways. When ones gets to a specific point, and requires physical proof for our physical monkey brains, God/supernatural provides it when necessary. And much less, will the supernatural reveal itself to the masses. When one gets to a certain level of understanding, experience, and maturity, i believe one is not only allowed but allow themselves to prove and show to a few. It comes full circle. God guided and showed you in a specific way. Then one experiences, learns, and understands why one too would teach and show in the same way to others. More proof that it is not for everyone to experience these things is that this duty/purpose exists even prior to or during your birth. So it's also hard for a person on a physical earthly ego level to take credit for any of it. care, love, duty, purpose. Maybe God will show up if we try.

I would agree that those realms may exist as mental projections of their inhabitants. Some kind of dream worlds as it were. Then again, even physical experience is our own creation, at least from a certain perspective. However, there must be certain universal principles behind it all. For instance, whether I am subject to reincarnation cannot depend on me being a Buddhist or a Hindu. I have heard that individuals tend not to stay too long in the more hellish realms, whereas indulgence in heavenly worlds might last quite a bit longer... Being 'foolish' is not necessarily a bad thing... The innocent and child-like nature of a fool is essential to many spiritual paths, from Daoism and Zen Buddhism to esoteric Christianity and Tarot.

Oh, don´t get me wrong. I´m not in favor of mandatory vitamin D testing or supplementation. I might dream about a world in which people have to prove they eat grass-fed beef and get two hours of sun exposure daily in order to board a plane, but far be it from me to impose my views on vegetarian shut-ins. No, what I´d like to see is education. Yes, it does take time and effort to turn around obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. I don´t blame anybody who has trouble with it including yours truly. But it´s doable in most cases and eminently worth doing. I´m on board with your "just the facts" approach. It´s just that sometimes things are presented as facts for purposes that have more to do with profit than public health. Can I have my wingnut certificate now?

That’s very interesting. I haven’t heard of that method. Just to clarify, when I say the light was turned around, I don’t refer to light appearing inside visually, but rather the light refers to awareness itself, and the turning around refers to instead of awareness being constantly directed outwardly, it becomes looped back on itself, through paying attention to things like the breath, thoughts, etc. after a while, it has a sense of itself, then, this sense of self seems to detach from the sense of normal identity with the body and thoughts, so that they become more as objects without any real meaning, the world seems to be dream like. A spacious detached awareness seems to unfold, and a constant sense of presence of awareness, like a shadow hanging there always, which seems to be awareness feeding back onto itself. This is is how I understand turning the light around, though it is my interpretation. I have seen other interpretations leaning more towards the microcosmic orbit, of flowing energies, etc. I have no experience with these kind of sensations or practice, my interpretation is purely awareness based. The further methods describing golden elixirs and practices to achieve immortality seem very esoteric and likely unless one learns directly from someone initiated in the practice you are bound to go down the wrong path. What the aim actually is, I am not sure, the extension of life, and longevity, improved health etc. I’m currently reading a book called “Opening the Dragon Gate: The Making of a Modern Taoist Wizard” by Kaiguo, Chen, which goes into the Taoist teachings of the dragon’s gate school of complete reality, which the golden flower was supposedly based on. Some of the practices and claims of attainment are pretty extraordinary, likely much of it embellished, but it’s a fun read. I just want to get to the bottom of this internal alchemy thing, what exactly is possible, what’s fantasy, and what one should be aiming for.

I think one of the most useful ways of working with a dream is to see everything and everybody in it as aspects of yourself. What particularly struck me reading through your dream was the beautiful image of the bird.... "strange multicolored bird in the sky by a tree, with multiple layers of different colored feathers" What a beautiful image! And yet for some reason (might be worth doing a little more work into what the reason might be) you are mad at the bird and try to hurt it. And then the dream switches to a scene where surgeons are trying to repair your own gashed heart. Do you think the strange multicolored bird could be your own tender inner self? And if so, what happened to make you so angry with yourself? Can you find compassion for the "strange multicolored bird"? Perhaps the source of some of your anger can be found in the earlier part of the dream. "I told him I was pissed at him for buying black magick candles and using them against his own family, and then making up lies to hurt his own family." Here again I suggest looking at all the characters as different aspects of yourself. So you are you, the man you are mad at is you, and your family as a whole is you. Seen this way, it boils down to betrayal of the self. A part of you has bought black candles to try to hurt another part of you. Hope this doesn't sound too harsh. I don't mean it that way. We all have many different "parts," and it's super common that they don't all have the same agenda and point of view. If you can use the dream to open up a dialogue of sorts among the different characters perhaps everybody can have a chance to be heard and can come to a common understanding of how to proceed. I'm betting that if you can get your different inner aspects to treat each other with compassion, you're outer life will start to reflect this harmony as well.These are just my impressions. It's fun for me to think about dreams, but if these ideas don't resonate with you just let them go. Liminal

I notice that when I wake up after a dream, remembering it, that dream influences my spirit for the day. If I had an unpleasant dream (like dreaming about daily chores and such - horrifingly dull!) the whole day feels like crap, while when I had a pleasant dream, it can have as powerful an effect on my spirit as if it actually happened. My theory is that it's because there isn't enough happening in my waking life to dilute those effects, combined with being relatively sensitive.

Hi ilumairen, An irresponsible press is into the business of "printing" money as sellable news? We as responsible individuals should be in a capacity/position to express a different "stop press"...? A halt to... ] We must be careful not to store up STOP PRESS! . We must be careful not to store up the teachings as only conceptual understanding lest that conceptual understanding becomes a block to wisdom. The teachings are not ideas to be collected, but a path to be followed. - TWR The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep - Anand

Hypnagog, yes I have only found myself in a library once. I was shown books by who I believe to be was a minion. I was also shown a certain form of divination by two witches it seems. They took a newspaper and then a piece of cloth and sewed them together and this would some how divine the future. I don't exactly remember how or why, because I don't practice divination. I also remember in this dream session. I also found myself surrounded by angels who were going in and out of caves to help others. The universe is a vast place. I definitely want to go back to the light ship. A very amazing expierence in first person view. I also wanted to make a note about 'predators'. There are people who are very skilled at psionics and energy work. People who have invested the time to study and know they have spiritual 'gifts'. I remember when I began to notice my level of increased awareness allowed me to know that some of these people who I use to accompany would find their ways into my dreams, dream weaving without me knowing. It was how I became aware of other people's conniving nature, especially over the internet where you don't get to meet people face to face. I would highly suggest not practicing magick or anything spiritual with individuals you have met over the internet, unless you acquire the chance to know this person personally for a extended period of time. There are people who will take advantage of a neophite concerning esoteric arts, sad but it is reality for some. If this life ever permits me, I would love to study with monks as they make excellent teachers (of course) and tend to NOT have subliminal motives, like acquiring money and such from their students. An example of a predator would be an individual who is seeking to know many personal things about yourself, which is obvious. Who may come off very innocent and benign, but are really a wolf in sheeps clothing to say the least. There is actually a whole genre of psionics on 'vampirism' and techniques one can use for energy work. But I wouldn't suggest developing such traits, as most of these people who take this path have a low sense of self-esteem and tend to hate everything about themselves and also developed addictive personalities and demonic chartacteristics that one can see and feel if one has the eye's to see and the ears to hear. Grounding all that negativity aside, I have also had plenty of benevelont expierences with monks and higher beings who I have encoutnered in my dream scape at some point in time. I remember having a dream with a bald monk who had shown me a form of meditation in which the energy around my head became very serene and peaceful. If I could describe it, it seemed like the ultimate state of nothingness, or nirvana perhaps. I remember going to work that day, being highly content for no reason at all, with this force field around my head. In the dream I went OOB in my room and had witnessed the monk levitating over me while he meditated in full lotus posture. A very interesting person who I never saw again. I guess having these dreams is a perk of keeping a highly open mind. Cat, where would you suggest I copy this too?

I have met once an architect on a beach in Dominican Republic. He was Serbian and he was doing henna tattoos to the tourists there and he was doing that for 5 years and he said he would never go back to architecture. He was changing the hotels or resorts every year and he has been in most of the Caribbean countries, basically he was living in paradise. So totally depends on your dream, if you have a dream pursue it. If you don't have it, explore around and find your dream. Don't do anything you don't like, do only what you like.

Reality - what is it? We all likely have at least some concept in our mind about what 'reality' is, even if we might not be able to articulate well this concept or concepts that we hold about 'reality'. So what is reality actually? Is there 'really' even such a clear cut thing? It seems to me that 'in reality', it is not an easy topic at all to address, all things considered. A dictionary definition of the word reality will probably give something along these lines: re·al·i·ty rēˈalədē/ noun noun: reality 1. the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them. 2. the state or quality of having existence or substance. Also, for consideration, I don't think anyone can deny that wacking your thumb with a heavy steel hammer will probably do some damage to your thumb, and will probably hurt a lot unless you have some paralysis in that area, whether a person 'believes' or not in the reality of heavy steel hammers and their properties. Generally though when referring to reality, at least in a modern Western view, a widely held view is that it is something that can be *physically* confirmed to 'exist' whether people may believe in it or not, but there is maybe some room in there to at least allow that some 'things' might possibly be real which are not physically observable or physically confirm-able. In modern physics, I believe there are theories of other dimensions beyond what we consider to be the three physical dimensions and time. However, I don't think the concept of reality necessarily needs to be limited to the concept of dimensions. If a person has some sort of an experience that has a noticeable impact on them to any degree, then does that experience hold 'reality' no matter what the nature of the experience was? For example, a person can have a dream or vision of some sort and potentially be very noticeably influenced by the dream or vision to some degree or other. If something does not hold any 'reality', then how could it influence a person in any way? The clear lines of what 'reality' is may begin to break down a little bit if viewed in this way. A dream or vision may not at all be part of 'consensus reality' in any way, but it can still potentially have strong impact on the individual having the experience. Another example is a given person may focus on something or some activity that is important to them and which has a lot of influence or meaning for them personally, and which can potentially elicit strong change in that person, but which to someone else seems pointless and meaningless and empty. So, what then is 'reality'? Even within the concept of 'consensus reality' there can be seeming 'cracks' that appear from time to time if a person is paying attention, so even the concept of 'consensus reality' is maybe not so clear cut as we might like to think. Related to this, it seems to me that as long as we are inside a particular 'reality bubble' of some type or other, whether we are talking about 'physical reality' or something on a smaller scale, it can seem very 'real' and consistent; but, if a person pays close attention, they may sometimes notice things occurring that just don't quite fit the 'mold'. A bit of a 'crack' may have formed on the surface of the reality 'bubble', at least momentarily. I believe all people have built-in mental 'protection mechanisms' that help us to block out or dismiss these inconsistencies which we may encounter from time to time, which helps us maintain a more stable sense of 'reality', but we can learn to bypass or at least reduce the influence of these mental 'protection mechanisms' with observation and intent. Certain types of 'cultivation' practices may focus on or make use of similar observation approaches to help us observe or temporarily bypass or reduce the influence of some of our mental filters. Such approaches can potentially help us to see that 'reality' is possibly not what we may think it is. The question may then begin to arise in a person's mind, if reality is not exactly what we think it is, then what is reality? Is there really even some clear cut 'thing' out there called reality? Personally, I don't think the question can be easily answered, if it can even be answered satisfactorily at all in logical or rational terms, so I am not really expecting answers to such questions. Really I am just expressing some of my own current thoughts and ideas and personal observations on the matter here for consideration, in case anyone might be interested. :-) Some notable thoughts by some others on the matter: Descartes said to the effect, "I think, therefore I am." Robin Williams said, "Reality. What a concept!" Popeye said, "I am what I am." I think these are all views equally worthy of consideration as well, and much more aptly said.

Something dangerous? I would say no. Distracting and annoying is a more accurate depiction of the scene. If the network were one of meditators and each meditator had some sort of valid input then I would probably not be posting about it. It’s nice to dream that we are connected but I am striving to prove it real. It used to be real. When we were younger we would converse about a series of topics in a discussion ranging from science to drugs. That discussion could range over 5 different topics for a whole hour and never have a dull moment. We would then meet up later and the conversation was still running in our subconscious. We would pick up not where we left off but literally where we were, somehow all still discussing a new topic together. Unfortunately the distance between face-time has grown and left this enlightened discussion behind. It was an invigorating experience when it was happening but I just can’t seem to get an honest dialogue of this level going in my life again. Anything that lofty would pull me out of the doubt.

If you are thinking about "what's good for the world" ... then you are anyway lying because you are not present to the situation at hand, you are speaking, but in your head you are planning plotting and have an agenda - even if it is a good agenda. Therefore you are lying. When you read the papers, you can say "oh he's a f******* a******e" and get angry at many people. But if you are in front of those people are you really going to say the same thing. Looking into their eyes, seeing that they are just crazy monkeys, all wanting to be happy, trying to deal with a difficult world. Is it really honest to shout at them ? Or is it an indulgence in your own fantasy. You want to shout at people, so you can continue to be not present and indulge in the dream of hatred in your head. Likewise if you are really nice and compassionate and want to save the world .... when speaking to people. Are you present ? Or is this a different dream ? Are you present to yourself, and are you looking into the eyes of the person in front ? Or do you look to the side to allow you to keep dreaming and get your agenda out ? Life is not painful or hurtful if you are there. Just be there. Be honest right here. Again and again.

I’m certainly not planning to develop a rainbow body why should I end something which is going to end on its own anyway (sooner or later)? Is that how little you value life? Truth be told, I’d been in a withdrawal mode for a few years, but that’s beside the point. How would you or anyone else on an Internet forum know anything about anyone else if you don’t interact with them on a regular basis? As far as merit is concerned — Why just me? Everyone is immeasurably meritorious already. Just need to drop the pretense of being separate beings in samsara. I’m not a Buddhist, so don’t buy into their mythology. Most of this stuff is basically just mythology. How many Arhants have you or anyone else on this forum met? I’ve met a few good and compassionate teachers, who’ve given me the directions to step out of delusion. For me, they are more valuable than unknown arhants and bodhisattvas. Wake up! Stop perpetrating the dream. If you don’t, “thank you, come again!”