Dreams as the path

[Apech]

I'm starting this thread because I'm looking for information - I'm not an expert in this.  

 

But I just want to distinguish what I'm asking about and what I'mm not.  There are two areas I'm not really wanting to focus on, i.e.:

 

1.  Lucid Dreaming and Dream Yoga - I think these have been covered elsewhere and I see them as particular techniques for achieving something (worldly or not).

2. Jungian or Freudian dream analysis - while I can see the advantage in understanding the content of dreams I find the intellectual constructs around dream interpretation unhelpful (even though you can get some clues from here).

 

What I'm really interested in is unlocking the information and energy in dreams through feeling and using this specifically as a path.  I know some on here do this and I wondered how they go about it.

 

I've had a mixed history of success in this area - but mostly as a result of trying lucid dream techniques like dream diaries and so on.  In the end I found this unhelpful - it seems to me that through dreams our 'minds' or possibly our spirit is telling us things about ourselves and our situation.  Quite often I wake from a dream which seems significant - and that feeling stays for a short while but then, quite quickly afterwards I can't remember the dream at all or only parts of it.  I wish I could recapture more information from the dream.  I also have similar recurring dreams which seem to be about my state of health (or otherwise).

 

Anyway I would be interested in what people have to say about this.

 

 

[Summer]

Edited January 28 by Summer

[Apech]

29 minutes ago, Summer said:

There are many different types of dream. You have wish fulfillment or venting of desires, daily event pastiches, long term storage, associative recall, premonitions and hints of events as well as parallel life experiences, other dimension or plane trips. The entire field is fascinating and the word "dream" simply lacks the nuance to map this area of life.

 

If you want to increase your recall of dreams when you wake stay perfectly still. The "trails" of the dream are like fine silk threads. Too much moving snaps their connections because they are generated in an altered state of consciousness. Crystalize the memory points then move to make notes.

That’s very interesting can you expand a bit on the ‘trails’?

[Summer]

Edited January 28 by Summer

[oak]

5 hours ago, Apech said:

I'm starting this thread because I'm looking for information - I'm not an expert in this.  

 

But I just want to distinguish what I'm asking about and what I'mm not.  There are two areas I'm not really wanting to focus on, i.e.:

 

1.  Lucid Dreaming and Dream Yoga - I think these have been covered elsewhere and I see them as particular techniques for achieving something (worldly or not).

2. Jungian or Freudian dream analysis - while I can see the advantage in understanding the content of dreams I find the intellectual constructs around dream interpretation unhelpful (even though you can get some clues from here).

 

What I'm really interested in is unlocking the information and energy in dreams through feeling and using this specifically as a path.  I know some on here do this and I wondered how they go about it.

 

I've had a mixed history of success in this area - but mostly as a result of trying lucid dream techniques like dream diaries and so on.  In the end I found this unhelpful - it seems to me that through dreams our 'minds' or possibly our spirit is telling us things about ourselves and our situation.  Quite often I wake from a dream which seems significant - and that feeling stays for a short while but then, quite quickly afterwards I can't remember the dream at all or only parts of it.  I wish I could recapture more information from the dream.  I also have similar recurring dreams which seem to be about my state of health (or otherwise).

 

Anyway I would be interested in what people have to say about this.

 

 

 

On this matter I would advise anyone to start by first reading Carl Jungs autobiography, "Memories, Dreams, Reflections". It explains very well the process he went through discovering the alchemical symbology in his own dreams as well as other sacred symbology.

The works of Mircea Eliade are fascinating on this matter as well. They will make you realize that there are symbols willing to speak to you that were always present in your life and that you never noticed  🙂

So, if you're willing to sacrifice your sleep for some time and have a dream journal at your bedside table you will learn alot about yourself and mostly that what's sacred  and you feel is so far is indeed so near and so aware of you.

Some twenty years ago I've kept a dream journal for about two years and don't regret the investment.

 

 

[oak]

 

Edited October 30, 2023 by oak

[Partez]

I experience both lucid dreaming and astral projection.

 

The experiences are most certainly real and can be developed.

 

Keeping a dream diary, and attempting to recall dreams each morning was probably the most helpful advice to achieve lucid dreaming.

 

There are a few theories on dreams.  Some say they are visions of significance, and maybe even into the future, others that it's just a brain dump of useless things that happened during the day. Bi tend to think it's a mixture of both.

 

Most of it is rubbish, but every once in a while you get a representation of some aspect of your subconscious mind, and it feels more profound since you are experiencing it.  Definitely a tool worth cultivating for anyone on a spiritual path.

[oak]

I think that an interesting thing to explore is the information regarding the future that dreams bring us. I would say that at least 70% percent of our dreams are premonitory. What can be a positive aspect of experiencing this is an increase of detachment and concern towards our personal life and  future. You realize that if events are somehow pre-written it makes no sense to "tense and struggle" that much.  Paradoxically this releases more energy to be applied in a positive way. You even get more tolerant regarding your personal imperfections. An example to ilustrate this: one morning, some 20 years ago,  I wake up and the last dream image that was on my mind was of a Capoeira group performing their acrobatic martial art. I remember that it was a tense morning with my at the time girlfriend. We're having a quarrel that gets worse and worse untill we start shouting at each other. To avoid things to escalate I leave the appartment furious and decide to take a bus to a park of my preference which is calm and soothing. During the bus ride I'm feeling bad for what had happened and especially that circumstances made me lose my self control and explode in rage. I get to the park... there on the lawned open apace what do I see? A group of Capoeira people performing their acrobatic martial art...

Spent quite some time, untill this day probably, 🙂 thinking of what had happened. One thing for sure, it was easier to forgive "my" (?)  bad temper after this experience.

[Mark Foote]

On 10/15/2023 at 5:06 AM, Apech said:

 

Anyway I would be interested in what people have to say about this.

 

I've mostly taken reassurance from some of the dreams I've had.  

Lost a friend back in the early days, and yet she was there in a dream, as a waitress, offering me a meal--then everyone was there, all my family and friends, a celebration of something.  Now so many decades later, I see that the dream was about love absent "doing something", or "going somewhere", and that I can practice the same.

A dream from a few days ago, as I wrote to two friends of mine:  "I dreamt we three were about to have dinner, a mid-afternoon affair like Thanksgiving.  I was putting on a good shirt, and slacks.  I realized the things in my visual field seemed to be a bit more patterned than usual, and figured that we must have ingested an entheogen of some kind, although the patterning was still just subtle."

Never  had a dream like that before, as far as the patterning,  in my life!

I went to the dentist that day in my waking life, and I realized that the patterning was my latest writing playing out.  Hope you've read it, Apech--you know I value your opinion, and find it inspiring (the piece is in the signature, the one with "Shunryu Suzuki").

As usual, the dreams I describe above were the last ones before I woke up.  Those tend to be the most organized for me.  I wonder, is that the same for you?

I always search for parallels in my daily (and spiritual) life that may be represented in these dreams, and I usually find them. 

 

Edited October 31, 2023 by Mark Foote

[oak]

On 15/10/2023 at 1:06 PM, Apech said:

 

What I'm really interested in is unlocking the information and energy in dreams through feeling and using this specifically as a path.  I know some on here do this and I wondered how they go about it.

 

I'm having difficulty in understanding what you mean by this... 

[Apech]

12 hours ago, oak said:

 

I'm having difficulty in understanding what you mean by this... 

 

Santinhos!  Tenhas doces para mim?

 

The way I was thinking was this.  While Dream Yoga etc. concentrate on realising the dream state - that is the nature of mind as revealed in the state of dreaming - the actual content of dreams are information which we could use to unlock energy and also as a guide on what to concentrate on - or which direction to develop in.  This does happen a little haphazardly in many traditions where the mystic has a dream which causes them to change their path - but you don't hear much about using it consistently as a main practice.  I think potentially any dream, but particularly recurring or very luminous or vivid dreams can be important.

 

I have had, at one time in my life, numerous precognitive dreams, very accurate and specific.  These too seem to point to some kind of significance - although it may be simply they demonstrate a connections to non-linear time (which was an idea I was going to talk about in the Khonsu-mes thread but haven't got round to it yet).

 

 

[Nintendao]

Just last night I had a dream about riding a bus. I can’t remember ever having a dream that I was riding a bus, despite having ridden the school bus during my entire public schooling. Immediately before going to sleep I was a little bummed out about something. I had randomly run into a video related to Authenticneigong.com on Youtube, and went and checked on the site. There is a 2-day workshop coming up in just a couple weeks! My automotive insurance payment is due at the end of the year, and it is almost the exact same amount as the entry fee for the training. I don’t have enough money right now to pay for both. I’m at a point in my life where I only use my car a few times per week. First this morning I pulled up the local transit routes and see stops right at most of the places I drive to. Plus whatever extra walking or skateboarding for the last mile to and from the house is surely worth the exercise. Might be time to finally shake up my transportation paradigm. I am stubborn as hell though, so even there’s room for procrastinating until the February work shop.

[oak]

10 hours ago, Apech said:

 

Santinhos!  Tenhas doces para mim?

 

 

Portuguese sweets you mean... the conventual kind? They could be too much for you, remember that they were created by women who didn't have orgasms...however they found their way to "get there" somehow!

 

10 hours ago, Apech said:

 

 

 the actual content of dreams are information which we could use to unlock energy and also as a guide on what to concentrate on - or which direction to develop in.  

 

 

 

This could be a quote by Carl Jung!

 

10 hours ago, Apech said:

  These too seem to point to some kind of significance - although it may be simply they demonstrate a connections to non-linear time (which was an idea I was going to talk about in the Khonsu-mes thread but haven't got round to it yet).

 

 

 

I'm sure it will be interesting.

[Apech]

13 hours ago, oak said:

 

Portuguese sweets you mean... the conventual kind? They could be too much for you, remember that they were created by women who didn't have orgasms...however they found their way to "get there" somehow!

 

 

This could be a quote by Carl Jung!

 

 

I'm sure it will be interesting.

 

Sorry to confuse you - in this village and around it is the tradition on Nov 1st (All Souls Day) for the kids to knock on the door and shout 'santinhos' so that you give them sweets.  We bought big bags of sweets but only three children actually came!  So we have lots left over

 

[Sahaja]

Dreams seem a little like zi fa gong when I think about it. Yang chi triggered in sleep to clear out blockages of qi in the heart/mind to restore balance and function lost through the challenges of daily living.

 

 

[oak]

3 hours ago, Apech said:

 

 So we have lots left over

 

 

Isn't little Apech happy about that ? 

 

 

[Nungali]

8 hours ago, Apech said:

 

Sorry to confuse you - in this village and around it is the tradition on Nov 1st (All Souls Day) for the kids to knock on the door and shout 'santinhos' so that you give them sweets.  We bought big bags of sweets but only three children actually came!  So we have lots left over

 

 

Aha !   I see .

 

After this comment ....

 

22 hours ago, oak said:

 

Portuguese sweets you mean... the conventual kind? They could be too much for you, remember that they were created by women who didn't have orgasms...however they found their way to "get there" somehow!

 

 

 

I thought it was those women  ^    that where coming around knocking on your door .

[Nungali]

5 hours ago, oak said:

 

Isn't little Apech happy about that ? 

 

 

 

Yes, but he is too little for food like that .... he cant even stand up by himself yet .

 

[Mark Foote]

Meanwhile, over on the "meaning/purpose of life" thread:

 

6 hours ago, silent thunder said:

"I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams."  ~Hamlet (by way of Shakespeare)