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Regarding lucid dreams, I have had many. Usually the trigger (what 'wakes me up') is observing something written. For example, a street sign, a shop sign, or maybe even a book. I will read the words then turn away. When I return the words are never the same. When I see that, it's like a sign post saying 'Hey, you are dreaming!'. Waking up in a lucid dream is always a fun experience. Usually I start to fly, or jump really (and I mean really) high. This was not a lucid dream though. I'm grateful for that, since it helped expose aspects of my core being: love, curiosity, and faith. I had not realized the extent to which Christianity affects me, but since the Lord's prayer was my go-to last-thought-on-earth prayer that must mean something.

Dreams can provide clues and insight about the life in the waking state. The experience can also become valuable if we become lucid in such dreams -- some lucid dreams I had were valuable experiences to me. I have had dreams where there was imminent harm or death as you have described before. I haven't had these kinds of dreams in a while. At the moment where it gets pretty intense, I used to wake up. But, this changed subsequently. Later, when I got dreams where there was imminent danger, the realization struck I am in a dream right away. The dream became lucid almost always in such cases. When it becomes lucid, it gets very interesting. I can watch it without getting affected, or I can transform the entire scene. For instance, once I was in a dream similar to the one that you described, my car was about to crash in a bad accident in moments. It is amazing, how fast the realization that it is a dream can strike and how quickly the entire scene can be transformed. In the next moment, I was on a beautiful open green field just enjoying the bliss and aliveness of it all. I think it is wonderful that you were able to stay in the dream despite the imminent danger and observe it, and later be able to reflect upon it. If such dreams have not already become lucid for you (bringing out your presence and be able to see yourself apart from the dream), then I would say you are very close.

I was under the impression that it was a jellyfish. That UFO dream I mentioned had a live jellyfish UFO -- I subsequently researched and apparently there's people who claim they've seen them in real life, though I never heard of it prior to the dream. The dream was one hundred percent realistic, basically nothing in it that had a dream-like "feel" or appearance despite the fantastic plot. OK, I feel I can tell it, but anyone who can't stand people tell their dreams should stop reading right here, because, like I said, it was a dream. In the dream, the house I used to live in, on a quiet residential street, suddenly is assaulted by a cacophony of police sirens and flashing lights -- one car wooshes by, two, half a dozen, more. Then back again. Erratic. A whole lot of police cars are rushing up and down the street at full speed, and I step out to investigate, look up, and say to no one in particular, "Oh... and there's the UFO." For some reason I say it with the satisfaction of someone in the know and feel a bit amused by the frantic police activity. "Well, good luck catching it." Michael, the picture of the lymphocyte you posted is also the right color, the edges especially, the jellyfish wasn't grey like in the pic I posted -- it was purple, lavender, with some iridescent play going -- it also had tentacles, long ones. I stood there looking at it for a while, not only unafraid but feeling very smug, for reasons the dream me knows but the waking me doesn't. Then it got a bit chilly so I went inside, and three people -- I knew they were not really people, they were "aliens" but looked like ordinary people -- walk out of my bedroom as I walk in the living-room, the one in front is a woman, looking African-American though I know she's really an "alien," and she beams at me and exclaims, "Here you are! And we were looking for you in Guangzhou!" "You kidding me? I've been at Guangzhou airport for, like, three hours, and it was a year ago!" Again I feel mighty amused. The black woman gives me a hug, I hug her back the way you hug someone you know, a friend, very familiar. And then everything dissolves and I wake up. Needless to say I check for "Jellyfish UFOs" from time to time since that dream.

Had a strange dream last night. Learned something new about myself. I was in an airplane while it was falling. Pilot struggling to keep control. When it became obvious we would crash, I did three things: 1) looked at my wife and thought about how much I love her. 2) thought to myself "I wonder if I'll know when it happens?" 3) began reciting the Lord's prayer. I awoke before completing it. The third item surprised me. I did not expect that. I need to dig deeper into this...

I only know very old school photography, my dad taught me when I was a kid -- we also processed and printed the photographs at home (temporarily turning the kitchen into a photo lab), that was long ago, far away. Clueless about modern tech, but I was under the impression it can do better than what I did at the age of 10 or 11 with my USSR-made FED (no joke, that's what the camera was called, after Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky), rather than worse. If it takes pictures of its own dirty lens instead... I dunno. What can it be? Doesn't remind me of anything I've ever seen in real life. Does remind me of a UFO dream I had a few years ago, one of those dreams that I get a few years apart now and then that are absolutely extraordinary, you wake up and think, OK, now I'm dreaming -- and that which I just woke up from, that was reality. Which is why the picture intrigued me. But, like you, I have no idea what it "really" is.

Maybe the long version is- take your desires and opinions less seriously. No need for the dramas and ping ponging between happy and sad depending on outcomes in an uncertain world. Occasionally I'll work with the paradigm 'Take your dreams seriously and consider your life as dream'. Which I take to me look for meaning and direction from your dreams, honor them by taking action according to your interpretation. Lifewise it means looking at life happenings symbolically, as if you're just a character floating through the story, enjoy the show and look for the archetypes and hidden meanings. You can only such saying so far, but it's nice to change up ones point of view every now and then.

ok i am off but i think it is fine, i think it is brain what colors, does those things. Mind is what body isn't but is dependable still on body, like recalling the path to person x home, we reflect momentarily at least once to the forehead region and even eyes usually point that direction of brain, can be verified by watching person who thinks meanwhile when explaining a route or what happened in the past, recreating a past footage of a scene. A mind what doesn't depend on creating or forming manually a picture from a real life event anymore is after we get a feeling: the feeling originally is gotten through a dream and then in waking reality can recall that feeling. So that feeling doesn't rise from a world where body is in, but now it will be seen as a sensation from a belly instead. Its also how it is annoying when a person starts explain a scenery, while i already got a feeling i know i know i say to him, and just get to the point already, skip the politics and manners. The feeling gotten so hard because its what we avoid, because its the thing we keep in closet hidden and we get a feeling what rises when the closet is discovered and opened, that feeling of nakedness. If to do it faster we need participate in circumstances what support that opening towards being having less and less things in closet, but its actually a certain feeling what we can't face yet, but when we get the feeling through a dream then we can because we see it is not real world it is in body and ours.

Reading and thinking about this ,I get the idea that the consciouses is a construction made out of many parts of the mind. That would explain why it can alter its perception, as in dreaming and hypnosis the parts making up contentiousness is altered, one part that is tuned out its the reality check so things in the dream state is perceived as real.

My perspective - In the waking dream, perception is related to stimulation of the sense organs which in turn results in activation of the associated regions of the brain which is where the experience "exists." In the sleeping dream, the sense organs are bypassed but the associated brain regions are similarly active. In terms of what is real, it is all a matter of perspective. During the non-lucid, sleeping dream the experience is considered to be real. When we awaken from sleep, the dream experience is reframed as an illusion. During the waking dream, the experience is similarly considered to be real. When we awaken from life (whether into a higher level of consciousness during this life or into the bardo and beyond), the waking dream experience is similarly reframed as illusion. All of these things, and more, are in the purview of dream and sleep practices. One of the methods is to constantly remind oneself throughout the day that "this is a dream" at a very deep level. Over time the distinction between sleeping and waking dreams becomes less rigid. Marvelous practices with enormous benefits!

In summary, yes, dreams are not only a perception of reality, they are actually a reality. And, reality is not real. To expound... The state of dreaming is the process of perceiving various dimensions of realities simultaneously interacting on a single plane, of which none of the realities are 'real'. This is also true of the 'awoken-dream' state which superficially appears to have a more singular and linear dimension of 'reality'. In the awoken state our consciousness's perceptual access is altered to a different frequency that operates on a similarly parralel plane of reality as in dream, but that makes things appear more finite or discrete . Thus, most are incapable of perceiving the various, simultaneous interacting dimensions in their daily wakeful life, though it is nonetheless fundamentally occuring, even if in a different configuration of time-space. However, all states of formed reality are actually qualities of mirage, so existentially speaking, there is essentially no difference between the types of illusions. And yet, the properties of each dimension of consciousness have different principles that govern specific effects, all of which are still palpably perceivable and appear to have different laws of tangibly perceived consequence. Thus, it is that dream states, like wakefulness, are also realities in effect. I realize this is a complex topic regarding dimensions of consciousness, dimensions of realities, their interactions and also their entire illusions as reality; but I hope this little summary of clarification helps illuminate not only the condition people are 'consciously' experiencing but also indirectly provides clarity to otherwise poetic seeming spiritual terminology that is too often misunderstood (ie. such as the concepts of reality and non-reality).

if you purify, that means you don't do the things you would do, next time its a feeling or urge, next time it is more of a feeling etc. You can start know things and do the things in mind so in real life there won't be the gross connection happen. -- biological 2-3.. path fetter model is possible to achieve. Real life bodhisatva skill or what world the subtle doings are done before things appear in this world. So Buddha is done lot of things already long time before. but this is just half the story, since enlightened being can become sentient being but they actually not become, sentient beings are just a matter of time when they disappear like a dream or false seeing. -- i assume that enlightened being get to know the mechanics like a clockwork, that after 1 comes 2, so there is predictions not extrasensory perceptions. ------- hmmm sentience will disappear when get to know abc mechanical logic. I wonder if that means emptiness, that there is no sentience, so also therefore there can't be any sensory perception.

I thought it was there... ? now I dont see it either. ??? Well, there are some things which seem invalidating . I had an odd dream about an oval coin with an elk head on it which this person palmed and wouldnt return. Inexplicable it was.

Is not the "waking up" within a dream, a figment of the dream itself? Mind is the host of ghosts, a graveyard of ideas. When sleep is deep, without dreaming, where has this mind gone? From where does it arise?

WoW! You dream a lot.

Aside from OBEs and Lucid Dreams, I am also often aware that I am dreaming. Sometimes I am aware that the world is a dream; sometimes I am also aware that 'this' world is also a dream; sometimes I am aware that all worlds are dreams. RC

Another very intriguing aspect to the perception of dreams and 'reality', I've also been marking how becoming aware in 'real life' as a child exactly mirrors my experiences becoming lucid in a dreams. I do not become lucid before my dreams start. I've heard some folks do, I haven't experienced this myself. When lucidity arises in the dream state, the dream is already in process and something within the dream environment triggers my awareness to become conscious that I am participating in a dream. It was the same way in my 'waking life' childhood. I don't recall the start of this life. Somewhere between the ages of 2 and 4 I became aware of my life in what feels like the exact same manner I become lucid in dreams. This conversation has reminded me of a film I love on this topic. Waking Life. Time to pull that off the shelf and revisit it.

Waking life and dreaming seem to mirror each other and seem inexoribly linked to me. My earliest memory is of a dream. Before I knew what dreams were, as a toddler, I had a dream so horrific, so real, it caused my awareness to snap out of my body in my desperate desire to escape the scenario. That laid a foundation for always having a suspicion that 'waking life' is not awake at all most of the time. Our lives are rounded with a sleep and we sleep through our waking. This is why certain moments of life stand out so much... when clarity and awareness pierce the slumber and we experience that 'aha!' of true wakefulness. Humans seem prewired to drop into trance and hypnosis as their default state. Waking life and Dreaming mirror each other, to me it's like when I am in the water and my eyes are above the water, or below the water. I also find myself wondering... when in a dream of climbing a tree... what is the tree made of that I can so clearly feel under my fingers as I climb... in fact... what are my fingers made of in the dream? Also, I have moments of clarity that arise seemingly spontaneously in waking life, where in midstep while walking down the street, my awareness will suddenly 'come awake' and I look around rather stunned at the reality of the world... where before my body was walking about, yet awareness and mind were not in the body. Really intriguing topic.

Dreams are perception to me. So, is the external world that we see during the waking time. From the standpoint of the perceiver, these two seem to be the same. Then comes the question, what is the difference between the dream and the waking state? Here are the differences, I perceive. The experience in the waking state seems to have more clarity and detail compared to the dream state. For instance, I don't know if people can eat, taste or smell in dreams the same way as we do in the waking state. I can't. The big difference, I would say is the perceived continuity, we have different dreams every night, the waking state seems to continue from where it left off before sleep. I wonder if we have only one dream if we go to sleep every night, that continues where it left off like the waking state. What would really be the difference between a dream and the waking state? Which one would we call dream and which one as reality??

your post made me think about what happened over the last few years. less questions to people and less books bought trying to find the answer. now i am at the point where i think that life is the answer. all the higher and lower realms and the energy work need to be actualized here. there is no magical place that we can stay forever or a realization that will make everything stay alright. this is a place for learning and as such will provide us the challenges we need for growth. dream big and grow hard or ask the universe for a lesson and put your gloves on.

Interesting. Can one dream being the dreamer? A dream within a dream? Is the mind capable of that?

I believe dreams were the key to the rise of non-duality, an understanding that perception doesn't necessarily equate to reality and that reality may be something greater than what our physical senses can perceive. To say that dreams are not perception is like saying there is no sound because you are deaf and can not hear it. If you're deaf that may be true for you, but the majority will tell you otherwise, just as the dreamer will tell you that while they were dreaming it was quite real, even if it was all but a dream. In the end perception is the key, when we can escape perception and live in the moment, then the necessity of perception as a means to understand what is, is left behind and we can finally become free. Eternity exists within each moment.

In that context I was making Preparation 501 for a commercial market Good quality quartz rods are pulverised, mortarted to a 'sand' then ground between glass plates to make a powder. This is packed inside a hollow cows horn (alembic ) and buried in earth ( the athanor) over summer. Then tipped intop a glass jar and stored in sunlight. Used , usually, at a rate of 1 gm in 12 lt of water (but being a kind of 'homeopathic solution' can be a lot less and more water. ' Stirred into the water in the proper manner ( and one might notice the water changes after this stirring, as you described water changes above ) . The solution is sprayed early morning as the mist rises to take it up into the atmosphere. It is basically mediating the other prep 500 which is based on the growth cycle (501 is the archetypal cycle ) , that is it encourages growth without it being 'rampant' - not too quick, hence weak and watery (so helps with fungus and mildew dispersion), the archetypal cycle is to do with changes that cause flowering and fruiting. If you like 501 is 'heaven' and 500 is 'earth' . Usually it is used at the beginning of the plant's development, and then again shortly before maturity or harvest. It has been found to improve the quality of the plant in regard to taste, nutritional value, and shelf life. It is best sprayed when the Moon and Saturn are in opposition which occurs once each month. Other uses are : many underground 'travel paths ' (ie, in 'dream body' ) follow quartz seams. Where they come close to the surface .... 'interesting ' things occur . Then there is piezoelectricity ... fascinating stuff quartz ; http://www.explainthatstuff.com/piezoelectricity.html It basically works as an amplifier and organiser . Totally OT but .... ruby ! WOW !

"The dreamer can be dreamed, the dreaming and what can be dreamed, but who can dream the dreamer?" ~"Echoes of Silence - Avadhut Gita Revisited" by Karl Renz.

all my life the unshakable sense that one moment I will awaken within 'reality' in a similar manner lucid to how I have become within the dream state lucid on a multitude of occasions.

It is my understanding that in many cultures dreams come to us from the spirit world. So yes, a dream came to me would be correct for these cultures.