Dream Work: Cultivation in the Dream State

[silent thunder]

Had my first lucid dream when I was four.

Lucid dreaming has been one of the cornerstones of my life.

 

I'll go long periods without remembering a dream or not being lucid, but I've had tens of thousands of lucid and semi-lucid dreams. Some of my dreams have been more vivid than anything I've experienced in waking life with my real body. I distinguish between lucid and semi-lucid as this: lucid is full control or near full control, decision making and environment shaping; semi-lucid is aware but not influencing.

 

So about a year or so after starting daily qigong and cultivation I had the impulse to start working in my dream state with energy cultivation as well.

 

My intention was to work the Micro-cosmic orbit in the dream state. I would just hold the intention in my mind as I lay down. I did this daily for a few weeks and had this experience:

 

 

I became lucid in the middle of a dream.

I became aware that I was a medium sized tree, maybe 3ft diameter and 40 ft tall.

A moment after becoming lucid, my perspective changed and I could see myself from about 10 ft away. I could see the whole tree, but I could also see my human form, sitting inside the trunk. Everything but my face was misty and foggy and undefined, but my whole 'body' was there and surrounding me was an ellipsoidal energy egg.

The egg was completely contained within the trunk, just above ground level and I was cycling energy around this egg in the MCO, up the Du down the Ren and also running energy along the belt meridian. The feeling was distinct and funky as I could feel the sensation as the entity in the tree and feel the sensations of the tree (roots, branches) and was still observing both from another perspective several feet away.

 

 

The oddness of that multi-layered sensation sort of overloaded me and I lost the dream state and woke up smiling at the 'success'.

 

Forward now to last Monday. I'm not working and I decide to take a nap in the middle of the day. I'm now at the age where I want to have back all the naps I didn't want when I was my son's age. So I drop off and as I'll do occasionally now, I set the intention to work with energy in my dream. Had a very unique experience.

 

Now I've experienced sleep paralysis and full hypnagogic visions, but never had a physical manifestation on my 'real body' from a dream state sensation. Until this time.

 

 

I was with my teacher, standing in front of him and off to his right probably 10-12 ft away. He appeared younger, mid 30's.

He was manipulating energy, interacting with a point in space out in front of him at a right angle to me. The point was the hypotenuse in an equilateral triangle formed by he, myself and the point being manipulated.

 

He was manipulating the point using a move called 'extracting suffering' from form two and the point he was manipulating was being warped. The best way to describe it is like a small 2-3 inch diameter invisible sphere around which the air was being warped much like heat radiation warping vision on a road. Invisible but warped.

At this point I became lucid.

Instinctively, I reached out with my right hand to interact with this point too, using the same move. The moment my intention connected to this point my hand exploded in a shocking, crackling, pulsating magnetic energy that drove my dream self back a step or two.

This triggered me to wake up. However, having worked steadily for some time now at remaining motionless upon first waking (intention for inducing OOB experiences, I did not move a muscle, just became aware with eyes closed and made a physical check.

While asleep on my back on the sofa, I had brought my hands up into energy ball stance in front of my Middle Dan Tien.

As my waking realization touched this fact, my physical hands exploded with the same shocking, vibrant energy identical to the feeling in the dream state.

I lay there for another few minutes, amazed.

 

 

Really makes me wiggle inside to think just how far this rabbit hole goes...

Edited October 8, 2013 by silent thunder

[Infinity]

Very interesting with exciting possibilities. I guess its your etheric energy body(?) your interacting with in dreams and if you manipulate the energy in a dream and are sensitive enough you would feel this on waking?

 

Some times I do a middle of the night cultivating session and when I eventually go back to sleep I usually have lucid dreams and have been wondering what to do with them.

 

I want to train my dream attention and do some kind of energy work.

 

I would say that rabbit hole leads to a very large warren which is all part of the play of consciousness!

 

Very interesting possibilities, thanks for your post.

 

NowHere ∞

Edited October 8, 2013 by NowHere ∞

[Infinity]

The Bums have discussed this:

 

http://thetaobums.com/topic/16691-interesting-article-on-lucid-dreaming-energy-work-dream-yoga-etc/

 

Sunya posted this:

 

Within the Buddhist Tantric tradition there is great emphasis on using the dream state of being for developmental ends. There exists a special practice called "dream yoga," which in the West has been presented as one of the "Six Doctrines of Naropa." The dream yoga is a high meditation practice which is performed by the practitioner within the so-called lucid dream state. Sunya posted this

However, working directly and consciously in the lucid dream state is not ac-cessible to very many people. As the dream yoga methods are very strong and direct methods for development, I have committed myself to developing ways of dealing with dreams, which on the one hand provide training towards actual dream yoga practice—the practicing within the lucid dream state—and on the other hand can fruitfully be used to confront and dissolve problematic psychological structures more effectively than by dealing with these in the ordinary waking state. Therefore, it is appropriate to talk about two different levels of purposes, a surface level of psychological observance, and a more subtle level of spiritual observance.

Psychologically-oriented practices are concerned mainly with changing our general psychological structures with the purpose of decreasing our everyday prob-lems in relation to self and others. In contrast, the spiritual observance level is a practice level mainly concerned with changing our existential existence, with the purpose of decreasing the distance between, and thus uniting, our rational and non-rational abilities, or our feminine and masculine energies, or our body and mind or substance and consciousness. By healing the gaps and finally uniting subject and object we break the dualistic determination and entrapment of our existence, thus entering into the nature of existence, the essential nature of the universe.

It should be noted that distinguishing these two practice levels is provisional. The two levels follow each other sequentially. One must solve one’s major problems on a psychological level before being able to successfully enter the more subtle spir-itual level where changing one’s existential structures in relation to reality occurs.

 

Thanks Sunya :-)

 

There are books on dream alchemy too. 'The Inner Guide to meditation' by Edwin Steinbrecher uses Jung's active imagination to enter this state and work with archetypes. He says you 'feel' the changes when you work in the dream state. I suppose you could work directly with energy centres / organs in a symbolic dream way too. Talking to them and asking how they are, assessing what they need and healing trauma? How ever it's done it should be done with love!

 

NowHere ∞

Edited October 8, 2013 by NowHere ∞

[silent thunder]

Nice. Thanks for finding that post by Sunya.

Great point about sequential operation moving from psychological to the spiritual.

Sort of like energy cultivation in waking life... first remove blockages, then begin to run energy in a clear system.

 

I'll check out Steinbrecher.

I recently checked out this book on Tibetan Dream Yoga.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Tibetan-Yogas-Dream-Sleep/dp/1559391014/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1381245408&sr=1-2&keywords=dream+yoga

 

I really like the idea of working with specific organs/chakras.

[Infinity]

Thanks for that book recommendation looks very very good, have placed that in my 'saved for later' category and will buy it on my next spending spree.

There are so many ways one could work in dreams as it is such a creative environment.

Years ago I did some 'past life' regression with a woman called Denise Linn which I found to be pretty powerful.

In a guided meditation I went through a visual time tunnel into a 'past life' to pull something from the past life to use in the present, did not know where I was going or what I was getting. I went back to the African savana where I was part of nomadic tribe, my ego told me maybe I was here to learn how to be a hunter? I asked my spirit guide Musafa who we were guided by Denise to meet at the entrance to the time tunnel. After some evaluating who I was I asked him why I was there and he showed me a skull and told me I was there to learn peace. Out of nowhere from deep down I felt a big release and cried like a baby. In another session I went back to see my self as a child (again emotional but ultimately healing).

What ever I do in dreams I will do it with love as it is all me and thinking about it this is how I should act in the world too :-)

Read today that Tibetans say this all a dream: http://www.spiritofmaat.com/archive/may3/gateways.htm

If you can imagine it, you can do it.

Many thanks

NowHere ∞

Edited October 8, 2013 by NowHere ∞

[silent thunder]

Everything I pursue in cultivation and exploration of consciousness is tempered with the intent to become lucid in waking life.

[traveler]

Hmmm ... does self-hypnotism or meditation where you enter a dream-state, experiencing visions and so forth, count as some type of lucid dream? If so, how does this experience fit in with the "dream science"?

[silent thunder]

The visions I've seen in meditation share many qualities of the dreamscape.

[Infinity]

In my view it does not matter how you enter the lucid dreamstate via sleep or hypnosis or active imagination or visualisation or indeed drugs. I think it is the same state.

 

And from my understanding is the landscape of the ethetic body(?) just as earth is the landscape of our physical. Again from what I have read I understand that this vibrates at a higher rate to the physical. And to enter this dreamscape fully we have to leave awareness of our physical body behind. To conciously do this we need energy to vibrate higher, we need concious attention. Jung apparently used to let himself fall into dreams fully concious from waking conciousness. I managed to do this for a while years ago by being as Silent Thunder says lucid in my waking hours. I scared my self shitless though, as in dreams you feel the world and I was not emotionally very balanced at the time. I think it's a good way to experience yourself. Other people in dreamstates also contact spirit guides as Jung and Edwin Steinbrecher did. Would be interested to here others experiences. Edwin saw archetypes as energies and guides as seperate individual being like us.

 

Not sure what you mean by 'dream science'

[BaguaKicksAss]

I did some MCO's in my dreams last night, it was pretty neat .

 

I've had Bagua circle walking dreams before where I woke up with sore legs lol, haven't had one in ages though.

 

I really need to write every dream down, I have found that this brings about far more lucid dreams.

[suninmyeyes]

...

I really like the idea of working with specific organs/chakras.

Here is a link for Robert Waggoner s Lucid dreaming emagazine . On the page 10 is an interesting story about a woman healing herself in the lucid dream and not having to undergo operation as a concenquence . There are many such

testemonies .

http://dreaminglucid.com/issues/LDE58.pdf

 

I did some MCO's in my dreams last night, it was pretty neat .

 

I've had Bagua circle walking dreams before where I woke up with sore legs lol, haven't had one in ages though.

 

I really need to write every dream down, I have found that this brings about far more lucid dreams.

It is interesting how interconnected dream /sleep and waking states are ! So much more depth than to popular common belief of what dreams are .

What we take for unshakable reality is a joke .

Edited October 9, 2013 by suninmyeyes

[Ish]

Yeah energy perception is particularly strong in dreams. Whether MCO or energy blasts () the feeling of it is certainly amped up

[traveler]

About entering the "dream-state" during meditation, here is a device that I used a number of years ago called the Mirror by some. After quieting the mind, you simply reach out and open a door that is right in front of you and walk through it. Then you travel until you are surrounded by a Nothingness. At that point, almost anything can happen. Sometimes I would put on a cone-shaped hat which would then sprout wings (like the wings of Hermes), and fly through the Mirror into the unknown, visiting strange worlds or beings.

 

Another way I used was to give a ThetaHealing command to take me into a past life, then I'd either push through something like a cloth veil or travel through a tunnel and find myself observing scenes from the "past". You can enter someone else's past life in this way too. Recounting what I saw was almost always a healing experience for the person whose past I had observed.

 

I ran into a device not too long ago which proved to be very effective for entering this other reality. First, you quiet the mind with Autogenic Therapy, ending with "I am at peace" and envisioning a place that brings you peace. The place is called your Peace Image. When you get good at this Autogeninc Therapy, you can move into the "Autogenic State" very quickly and skip the need for lengthy meditation to become quiet. Next, you shrink the image down until it is gone, leaving you with a blank screen. The mind is empty at this point.

 

This is all stuff that I played with a number of years ago, but here is the new part that I just read and tried out. You put an edge on the "blank mind" like a TV screen, then press your fingers together like turning on a TV with a remote control. The "blank mind" screen turns on and you are taken into the world of vision. Affirmations will direct you to where you want to go, be it a past life, or another dimension, or an understanding of something, or the clearing of a blockage. Whatever you choose.

 

Notice the finger pressing which is a Hermetic technique to trigger the opening of your vision. Once you establish this finger pressing as a valid "mudra" to take you into the vision state, you can skip all the other stuff; after a moment of meditation, press your fingers together and off you go into the unknown.

 

There are numerous ways to enter the unknown: Mantras, affirmations, focusing on various energy centers in and around your body, various doorways such as a cave like the Cave of Da Mo, or ... too many to think about.

 

Why do this?

 

NOTE: 'dream science' is a term I made up on the spot to refer to anything you might do consciously or subconsciously to encourage dreams and their interpretation.

Edited October 9, 2013 by traveler

[Infinity]

Why do it indeed, why do anything?

 

For me it is another part of my being I wish to explore with a view to maybe understand my greater reality. I may one day get bored of it or it may open my mind up to new knowledge and understanding which will alllow me to appreciate and accept myself and others more. Either way if I have lucid dreams I may as well do something with the time.