Acting On Your Dream

A dream image is, in many ways, like an icon on your computer desktop. It just sits there, you can think about it till you are red in the face, but it doesn’t come alive until you click on it. A dream is a product of the miracle we do not understand – LIFE. As such each dream image is alive with intelligence and information, and links not simply with ideas we read in a book or website, but with the workings and wonders of our body, the depths of our mind and even beyond.

Remember that dreams occur in animals, and have been a feature of living creatures long before humans arose. So dreams come from a part of us prior to the arrival of human language. Therefore it might be useless to think about dreams. My poor attempts to communicate this in words as a dictionary are at the best useful – it is best if you actually explore your dreams as explained below. You can then ‘click’ on your dream images using the following ways in.

Below are different tool or approaches you can use – click on to quickly go to them – Peer Dream Work – Talking as the character or thing – Walk On Part – This Is How It Was – Being the Person or Thing – Stand in the Role of Character  or Object – Key Words 

The Dream Image

A quick way of understanding your dream is to realise that the images in our dreams are just emotions, thoughts, fears. traumas, ideas and feeling projecting out of you and appearing as images, people or scenes outside you on the screen of your mind. If you take away the images of the dream, or draw them back to be a part of you that they really are,  you might then discover what they represent about you. This is so simple that many people fail to try it, and instead try ‘thinking’ about their dream’. This may be because many people do not like to meet or deal with their real feelings and emotions. So please take time with it.

If it is difficult to get rid of the image, then take the image into you again – after all it was projected out of you, so taking it back into you  introduces you to whatever caused it. Imagine yourself becoming the image. For more information about doing this see Being the Person or Thing

Whenever we dream its images are not like real life, because a dream is nothing like outer life where things could hurt you, but is an image like on a cinema screen that even if a gun is pointed at you and fired it can do no damage – except if you run in fear; so all the things that scare you are simply your own fears projected onto the screen of your sleeping mind.

So after you take the image away and feel the feeling underneath it, ask yourself, “When have I felt this before – even years ago? What is the feeling about and what part does it play in my  life?”

Talking as the character or thing

This is a technique I have used myself and with groups of people. People arrive at understanding very quickly. But for some people this takes a little practice because instead of – if we dream of a dog – saying, “The dog is only a puppy and is adorable” you need to talk as if you are the dog, person or place. So say “I am a little puppy and the person thinks I am adorable”.

The idea is to really describe in detail what it is you are dealing with, and also what you are feeling as the dream object. The more you use this the richer the experience gets and you allow yourself to really be the dream object or person – and do not make the mistake if it is a person you know by describing them as an outside person. Stick with them exactly as they are in the dream. But it is not something you can rush, because the dream comes from deep within you and has to gather information and transform into our conscious thought life – remember dreams are a VERY old process. The originated at a time before human language and thought. To understand this please read How it Flows

Here is an example: I dreamt I arrived at a railway station, but instead of a platform it was at the top of an old castle keep. I had to walk down through the castle and then out to a street.

So I said: “I am an old castle keep. In the past I was used as a defence, but now people are easily passing through and allowing people to enter me and leave.” As soon as I said that I could see what it meant. I had suffered a lot of shyness and was defended not allowing people near me. I had built impregnable emotional walls to keep people away. Now I was finding it easier to let people come and go.

Here is another example: I dreamt I entered my living room and things had been thrown everywhere. It was a mess. I realised that it was my wife who had done it.

This is a tricky one because the wife was not in the dream, so if he sticks with the dream and not his actual wife here is what was said. “I am an invisible presence in my husband life, a presence he feels tears his living space to bits. Yet I am invisible and so could not have done this. But I am a feeling in his life that assures him that I am an awful intrusion. You see, I am just a feeling he has, and that makes him irritated with me.” The dreamer admitted that it wasn’t his wife that was messing up his ‘living space’ but his own feelings about her.

So try it and see what you find. But take time with yourself and ask the person, castle wall, dog, or object questions to clear things up. If you say whatever comes to mind you will be amazed how well it works.

Walk On Part

This is the simplest of the methods. It requires you to play with your imagination a little and go along with a fantasy, the sort of talent we all develop as children. If you have a sympathetic audience it helps, but only if you feel okay in front of others. It is fine alone as well. Stand with your eyes closed in the middle of enough space to move around. About two or three square metres is usually plenty.

Imagine you are standing on the edge of your dream, like a film set, and you are going to walk into it. Before you actually step into your dream be aware of what you are feeling in your body and emotions. Your body and feelings are a screen upon which subtle changes and shifts will occur. It is this screen of body and emotions that will act as your monitor showing what responses your dream produces.

Now step into your dream. Literally step forward. Walk about in the ‘film set’ of your dream, watching what you feel, what memories come and what your fantasies are. Talk with the characters, even step into their body and register what feelings and intuitions they produce on your screen of body and feelings. This also includes objects such a car, tree, or animals. Literally get into their shape. This is important because all the images we use in dreams are like the icons on computer screens. The front object is only a small indication of what lies hidden underneath.

WakeDreams

Speak what you feel and find to your helpers or to a tape recorder. You can enter into anything in this way, whether it is an animal, a tree, the sea or a house. As you explore your dream in this way you can ask questions and your intuition will play its responses on the monitor of your body and emotions. The possibilities are that you enter the dream and explore its different places and people, or you relive the dream by acting it out.

 

This Is How It Was

In many dreams you the dreamer or one of the characters expresses something dramatic or ordinary that can be used as a doorway to insight. As an example ‘Kelly’ had the following dream:

I am in an exotic foreign shop and the owner doesn’t understand me. Then he speaks English and I laugh and start jumping around saying, ‘You can understand me’.

Kelly could take up the posture she had in the dream and act it by saying out aloud, “You don’t understand me!” This would need to be repeated a few times with as much of the feeling of frustration or attitudes connected with being misunderstood as appeared in or were suggested by the dream. What this can do is to involve more of yourself in expression than you usually do. This brings to the surface feelings that may be difficult to be aware of otherwise. Once felt they can be recognised for what they are. Often what happens is that the acting out carries on from the dream and may even involve some life situation you have been in. In other words you act or feel something more than was in the dream. Kelly could also try ‘jumping around’ shouting “You can understand me!”

The aim is to dramatise what the dream is expressing to see if we can find what part of your history or emotions it is depicting. This often ‘hooks’ memories or feelings that would otherwise not be discovered.

Being the Person or Thing

All the images, people, animals, places we see in our dreams, are simply your own feelings, fears, hopes and wonder projected onto the screen of your sleeping mind as images. So, it makes sense to take the image of your dream person, thing or animal back into you and own it. In that way, you are actually meeting and dealing with the things about yourself you are not owning or conscious of. That is why dreams are often difficult to understand, because we are hiding things from ourselves.

One of the most important things about actually understanding your dream rather that interpreting it is to become the dream person or object – to actually completely identify with it. This needs to be practiced as most people feel the dream person or object is something other than themselves and are often hesitant to become it. For instance the Devil in a dream is simply your own emotions and fears given an exterior image. Also a teacher or Mentor is in a dream the highest wisdom in us. In doing this you can step beyond the imagery of the dream into direct experience of yourself in all its variety and wonder.

So to do this the dreamer next chooses one of the characters, images or objects in the dream to explore. The character can be themselves as they appear in the dream, or any of the other people or things. It is important to realise that it does not matter if the character is someone known or not, or whether they are young or old. The character needs to be treated as an aspect of their dream, and not as  if they were the living person exterior to the dream. So do not attempt to describe them an outside person, but the dream character.

In choosing an image to work with, such as a person, a tree, cat, place, or an environment like the street in the example dream above, it must again be treated as it appears in the dream, not as it may appear in real life.  One can take any image from the dream to work with. But do not start thinking about the person or thing, imagine yourself as them or it – step into their body. Then wait for any feelings to arise and describe them, avoid trying to understand it by thinking about it – dreams arise from a level that preexists thinking.

Below is an example of how this can work.

Example: I dreamt I arrived at a railway station, but instead of a platform it was at the top of an old castle keep. I had to walk down through the castle and then out to a street.

In being the castle I felt a change of feeling, instead of feeling that I needed to defend myself I described myself and the castle by saying, “I am an old castle keep. In the past I was used as a defence, but now people are easily passing through and allowing people to enter me and leave.” As soon as I said that I could see what it meant. I had suffered a lot of shyness and was defended, not allowing people near me. I had built impregnable emotional walls to keep people away. Now I was finding it easier to let people come and go.

Example: I dreamt I entered my living room and things had been thrown everywhere. It was a mess. I realised that it was my wife who had done it.

This is a tricky one because the wife was not in the dream, so if he sticks with the dream character  and not his actual wife here is what he felt when being his wife. “I feel I am invisible presence in my husband life, a presence he feels tears his living space to bits. Yet I am invisible and so could not have done this. So I am a feeling in his life that assures him that I am an awful intrusion. You see, I am just a feeling he has, and that makes him irritated with me.” The dreamer admitted that it wasn’t his wife that was messing up his ‘living space’ but his own feelings about her.

Example: And then one day we discovered our “selves.” We had been talking about vulnerability and Hal suggested that I (Sidra) move over to another part of the room and become the vulnerable child instead of talking about it. I trusted Hal and so I left the couch I’d been sitting on, sat on the floor next to the coffee table, put my head down on it and suddenly everything changed. I became absolutely quiet and experienced the world around me differently. Sounds, colors and feelings were more intense than before.

The sophisticated, rational, articulate woman with all the answers was gone and in her place was a very young child. I was extremely quiet and very sensitive to everything in my surroundings. I responded to energies rather than thoughts. I felt things I had not felt in decades, and knew things that were not known by my everyday mind. I knew, without question, the realities of my soul. After about an hour, Hal asked me to move to my original seat on the couch and I returned to my previous way of being in the world… but my little girl was still with me and I would never lose her completely again. Quoted from http://delos-inc.com/articles/Voice_Dialogue-_Discovering_Our_Selves.htm

A psychiatrist writes that, “The very small child runs round the room saying: “I am a lion.” He or she does not clearly distinguish between the fact that he is a child and the feeling that he or she is a lion. The older child can make such a distinction, unless it is emotionally disturbed, but it will still play fantasy games “let’s pretend.” The adult has not wholly lost this quality, but by the time adolescence is over his personality has struck a balance between reality and fantasy between his outer and his inner environment”. We all have this ability to enter more fully into our inner dream life – but we need to be a little more childlike.

Stand in the Role of Character  or Object

The dreamer stands in the role of the character or image they are using. So if they chose to be a person they would close their eyes, imagine themselves as stepping into the body of the dream character and describe him or herself as the person they now are – from the feelings not thoughts. Dreams arise from the processes of life in us. Life is very ancient and was active long before words – associations with sounds – arrived, and dreams uses an older method than thinking with words, and uses feelings and associations we may with everything we see. See Associations–Working With 

To do this it usually changes the way your body or feelings are experienced. As this is done notice any changes in how you feel as that person – or object – speak as them in the first person. Do not say, “I feel as if this person is …” but say, “I feel I am and am doing ..” As this happens watch any realisations or insights that arise and explore the person or thing. Ask question of this dream character or thing until you feel you have realised what is is of you that is being revealed.

I know it is difficult for some people to say ‘I’ instead of talking as if the dream character is someone else. But if you start claiming the dream image as your own in this way by saying such things as, “I am a tree” you will quickly realise you are talking about yourself. Seeing that all images of our dreams are productions of our self, in being an object or person we are tuning into aspects of oneself usually unconscious.

Example: It was something like a semi detached and sited on a slope. I was outdoors and I think felt or knew that we had just taken over this house. But I felt uneasy as if something from the past was linked with it.

Then I was at the back of the house, on the part sloping down from the back wall of the house. I noticed things covering what turned out to be a big hole dug against the back wall, deep into the soil. This was where I felt most ill at ease about the place.  The hole had been covered with bits of board and other odd pieces of junk. I lifted these at the left of the hole and looked in. Sticking out from the side of the hole, about three feet down was the dead body of a young man. I could see the back of his skull had been smashed in. But although he had obviously been under the soil for some time, and had now been uncovered, the body was still in good condition, being slightly dried out or mummified.

I felt really guilty and connected with the body, as if I had been part of his murder, and was wondering frantically what I could do to hide or get rid of the body. Part of the problem was that pulling it out risked being seen with it.

In ‘being’ the body in the dream the man said, “But it wasn’t until I got into the role of the dead body that any depth of feelings emerged.  Almost as soon as I was in the role of the dead body I began to think about and feel things connected with the way I had killed my sexuality as a teenager.  Gradually these feelings deepened and I was describing my feeling hatred in regard to sexuality and how the masses were pulled along by their genitals into some sort of conformity and performance.  I felt anger and loathing for what I felt at the time were the cattle human beings were.

I despised and hated them.  I also felt repugnance at the way people talked about sex or appeared to enjoy it.  It has to be understood that in that period in history in the UK, most of sex was depicted in terms of smut, dirt, animal desire, hidden pornography, or loveless fucking.   I wept deeply, at times hardly able to breathe, with the pain of seeing what I had done to myself.  I said sorry over and over.  I saw that I need not have killed my love and sexuality, but could have expressed it in a tender and loving way.  Some of this I expressed to a friend when I wrote to her about the experience.  Below is the content of the email.

I explored it and met the pain of killing my sexuality utterly, as well as all the attendant feelings about the common herd who are dragged by their genitals into ‘fucking’ and loveless relationships – exactly what I was dragged into by the fact I had utterly killed all genital sensation for all those years.  I was able to follow the tracks back – once again – to my own actions, killing any contact with my mother. But then being treated like an alien in my own home town, and seeing my peers treat incoming refuges from the war in Europe like shit. As an ‘Iti’ I identified with them and felt ‘different’. Apart from which I seemed to be carrying this desire never to be like the ‘herd’ from the long past.

The body in the hole was that of the me I would have grown into if I had not murdered that beautiful part of me. In the UK at the time, and in my youth, sex was nearly always about dirt, smut, a quick fuck, and hidden but rampant pornography and homosexuality. I wanted nothing to do with it. I wanted nothing to do with the manipulation via sexual desire that was going on around me. But of course, it need not have been like that, but I had no other role model at the time, so I did a terrible thing to myself. Also I lost all respect for my elders as in none of them could I see that gentleness of love. My schoolteachers were thrashing children with rods. The world was killing each other in tens of thousands. My mother had castrated me, and my father hardly ever even spoke to me. So I divorced the world, and of course lost that wonderful quality of compassion for the human struggle. In the process I threw myself into the volcano of fighting the forces of life itself. I fought God and won, but was mortally wounded in the combat.

Here I stand, a wiser and hopefully gentler man.

 Key Words

The most immediate way to gain insight into your dream is to take the keywords and fill in the gaps.

To illustrate this we can use the following dream:

I meet an acquaintance who tells me she is sick. I suggest ways that might help her. As I speak I become aware that others are listening and coming nearer. I apologise and say that I appear to be preaching, but they say, ‘Please go on we want to listen.’ As I continue I find that a rostrum has formed and lifted me two steps higher.

To use the technique of ‘keywords’ on this dream you would need to write down the most important words in the dream. Doing this you might arrive at the words – meet – acquaintance – sick – help – speak – listening – apologise – preaching – rostrum.

For the next step you ask yourself what you have recently met with in yourself or in life? It is something you are acquainted with, and that has to do with not feeling well, whole or satisfied with your life. So you would ask yourself what you are acquainted with to do with not feeling at your best?

The word ‘help’ suggests you have information that will be useful. What is it?

You apologise for yourself, suggesting degrading what you know. How are you doing that in your life?

Preaching comes next. Have you been giving advice? If so, what is it, and is it relevant to you too?

And lastly, can you listen to your own advice given from a rostrum – higher level of viewpoint?

Having arrived at some associations with the major words in the dream, you next put them together in a way that explains some of the insights or ideas you arrived at. Filling in the gaps between the words you might therefore arrive at something like this:

I have lately become aware of the feeling that I am ill at ease with myself. This connects with my lack of confidence about how I feel when talking with other people. The strange thing is that I know how to help myself with this. I was talking with a friend the other day, and the advice I gave them about something similar really applies to me. What I need to do is to stop apologising for myself and positively use what I know will help. I can see from the dream that I have a lot to share with other people, so I don’t need to feel I am preaching.

What you arrive at using this keyword method will give you an excellent overview of your dream. It will take some practice, but persist and you will get very useful results.

Other examples are in Talking As

Dealing  with Anger and great Emotions

Being  the person who is angry, or  being yourself being angry is one of the safest ways of allowing and healing the causes of anger. Anger is a natural feeling, and when we repress it, as we are usually taught to do in our society, it becomes pressurised and sick or dangerous.

You can do this by standing in the role, and sometimes it can help to act out anger by hitting cushions or an armchair  with a rolled up newspaper. Acting it our can often lead to a real  release and then you can see where it all started.

What Posture or Movement?

Another approach is to take up the posture or movement in the dream. I was a helper once with Dave who dreamt of a cop sitting astride a powerful motorbike. Dave had failed to understand this part of the dream using other methods. So we built a pile of cushions for him to sit astride. He sat there for a while and when we asked how he felt he said, “Powerful.” Dave had been feeling a lack of power to do things or to accomplish anything. As he acted out the posture and feeling of being on the bike he could feel the power in his body and the confidence in himself to do what he wanted. It wasn’t simply the dream confidence, it was Dave’s own strength that he could now experience.

As is suggested with Dave, this acting out can be a group action. Non of us actually got in on the act with Dave, but sometimes it helps to get other people involved in the drama, as when you want someone to resist, or someone to hold. A memorable example was with Olive. A dream scene in which she was sitting opposite a woman in a café puzzled her. Latent in the scene was something to do with love, but Olive couldn’t ‘get it’. So I imagined myself in her dream and felt something, and suggested to Olive that she sit opposite Hy, a woman partner, and I asked Olive to repeatedly say to Hy, “Please love me”. The effect was enormous. All the feelings Olive had buried about wanting love from her mother surfaced and were felt. It was a very healing experience for Olive.

And Then What?

A technique that is occasionally very helpful is to carry the dream forward.  As it is so useful a bit more information will be given about it.

It is particularly relevant when the end of the dream is not satisfying or does not resolve the feelings or issue expressed in the dream. The method is simple. Imagine yourself in the dream and continue it as a fantasy or daydream. You can alter the dream in any way you want. Continue the plot forward to some sort of conclusion or resolve. But it is important to watch your feelings to see whether what you do is actually satisfying and feels right. It might be a defensive change you make instead of a creative one. Be aware if there is any anger or hostility in the dream that is not fully expressed. If so, let yourself imagine a full expression of the anger. Look for the feeling of satisfaction. Satisfaction occurs only as you learn to acknowledge and integrate resistances and anxieties regarding what you express. It will not arise if you fail to face your fears or deal with the feelings that are trying to resolve in the dream.

This is a very important method. Moving the dream forward like this changes habits that trap you in lack of satisfaction, poor creativity or inability to resolve problems. Using it you can turn to face the things you have been running from. You can get hold of the elusive dream lover who has always before eluded you. You can catch that train, open that door, get to the top of the stairs, and do all the things that anxiety, habit or low self esteem were holding you back from. This can change your life. But to achieve it you must face, feel and admit what has been holding you back.

Comments

-Katie 2018-04-30 2:47:07

Hello Tony,
I’m glad I found your website. Yours is the first one that discusses “being the person or thing”. In my case it is three dreams that I had in the past where I was a bird, flying. Very vivid dreams, I still recall them years later. The first dream I was a Hawk; the second a Great Blue Heron; the third a Raven. My feelings in the dream were positive, and the sensation of flying and looking down at things was wonderful.
Thanks for such an informative website.

    -Tony Crisp 2018-04-30 8:46:01

    Katie – You are the first telling me about “being the person or thing”. Thanks!

    I guess you read the bird entry, but birds are, as you said, are introductions to wonder.

    “As this happened I had a vision of migrating birds, of the whole flow of living creatures through the seasons. I felt the urge of life in its move towards mating, towards building a nest, having young, caring for them. I experienced this from the sense of the mystery of life that is in the Earth, and in the waves I had felt part of. This was the initiation into what we call death, another dimension of living, and other possibilities. I also knew myself to be standing on the other side of that point of transition. I knew I had already faced much of that change and stood with love. I was already partly absorbed back into the wonderful energy and love of the Earth.

    These experiences were deeply moving. I cried. I called out to Life, “My Darling!” I wept like a child because what I was experiencing was something immense and beautiful.”

    Tony

-Zohreh 2018-04-20 19:56:08

Dear Tony,
Thank you very much for this amazing website!
Lately I’m having a lot of dreams and Im practicing the methods you describe here to understand and feel my dreams! I see the difference now between “thinking” about a dream and “feeling” it!
Last night I had a dream that I was with my boyfriend in bed, making love, suddenly I realized I have a runny nose. So I get up to go get a tissue, when I clean my nose I see a green/yellow liquid on the tissue which is flowing out of my nose and I cant stop it! So i try to clean it with the tissue in my hand until it stops and there is nothing on the tissue any more! Im relieved! I turn to go back to bed, I see my boyfriend looks at me disappointed and with gestures shows me the floor! I see the green liquid had dropped on the floor when I went to get tissue! He tells me to clean it! I feel ashamed and I start cleaning it!

When I tried to feel how I was feeling in the dream I felt shame, fear of being exposed or judged! I wanted to hide what was coming out of my nose from my BF. The room we were in, wasn’t my room! It was larger but almost empty! I think there was even no bed but just a mattress on the floor! It almost felt like an abounded building, dark and sad!

My boyfriend break up with me couple of months ago because he didn’t want to commit to a serious relationship but after two months he came back saying he realizes it was fear that made him leave and he wants to work on it! I agreed to give it another chance but I have some doubts if I can again feel the same about us and also fear of getting hurt again! Im also afraid of loosing myself and forget about my own needs and just try to be what he wants (this is something i think I have done in the past and I try to be more aware of it now. I read also the article about love on your website, very helpful)
Is it this fear that is projected in this dream? Is the room representing the relationship?

    -Tony Crisp 2018-04-23 11:26:01

    Zohreh – Good to hear from you again, and thanks for the feedback.

    I feel your dream is about that you are “afraid of losing myself and forget about my own needs and just try to be what he wants.”

    I don’t know of this applies but poison darts/words are aimed at you. It is what I have named verbal battle. This is the thoughtless, downright critical or poisonous remarks parents or others hurl at us in childhood.

    These can kill us in the sense of destroying our emerging confidence and self expression. So to survive we often hide, meaning we don’t let our parents know what’s going on inside us, or what we’re doing. A more extreme tactic is to express feelings of anger or repulsion toward them. This helps us to become emotionally independent or distant. Lots of us have taken this road.

    I tried to teach this to one of my sons, and called it ‘verbal battle’. I would say such things as, “What’s up with your legs, they don’t look right.” Or, “You’re stupid, you can’t get it right.” Then as soon as he reacted I would say, “Verbal battle,” in an attempt to make him aware of how others could get at him.

    If you watch yourself you will notice that whatever you think about you have a feeling reaction to. Obviously it is noticeable in regard to frightening film or dream images. And dreams are only your feeling reactions put into images and drama. If you watch a horror movie you may feel fear or even terror, yet they are simply images on a screen. Dreams too are simply images on the screen of your sleeping mind.

    We all have a keyboard of feelings that when the buttons are pressed can cause us to feel all manner of things. It is usually outside things that cause the reactions, so we may feel fear, sexy, hope, confidence, terror, wonder, curiosity, lost or courageous; so in a way we are victims of what other people and the world do to us. Dreams are a way of showing us what victims we are – it means all your buttons were pressed.

    Stuff comes out of your nose because something has got ‘up your nose’, maybe an irritant of some sort. Do you find your boyfriend is ever irritating and you fall into the trap of being victimised? Just a guess; but it probably started in your childhood – feeling of shame, and fear of being exposed or judged!

    When in your life were such feelings put into you?

    In 1985 I helped a woman, Marilyn, to use LifeStream in regard to the pain and anxiety she was experiencing about her impending divorce. Marilyn had dreamt of see¬ing a dinosaur standing in her path, devouring all who approached it. So we explored it by having Marilyn find a body posture and movements which for her expressed the feel¬ing of the dinosaur.

    In her experiment with posture and feelings, Marilyn did not sense anger or aggression, but she did feel like a predator which always had to TAKE to gain her own needs. This feeling immediately reminded her of her family life as a child. She remembered one time when she was sent shopping as a very young child of three or four, and as well as buying what she had been asked, she purchased some sweets for herself. When she arrived home she was treated as if she had done a terrible thing, and that was when she began to feel like a predator. It seemed to her as if her own needs were always gained at the expense of someone else.

    With this awareness, she could now see that the dino¬saur standing in her path clearly related to her present situ¬ation. Bargaining to gain a realistic share of the house and property jointly owned by her husband and herself, felt to her as if she were gaining her needs at his expense, like a predator. That made her feel so awful, she was almost ready to allow her husband to take all, leaving her without a house or money to start again. Her awareness of where the feelings arose from however, and the unrealistic part they played in her life, allowed her to relate to the situation with less pain and more wisdom.

      -Zohreh 2018-04-23 23:22:29

      Dear Tony,
      Thank you! Im so great-full for your explanation! Yes, a lot if it makes sense and as you said its coming from my childhood and I know this! Still its so difficult to be aware of it all the time! I try to meditate every day and Keep awareness of how I feel and what I think but its so easy to loose that when I become too involved with my daily life!
      I have read some articles on your website about the “LifeStream” and became very interested in it! I did the practices (not all of them) and two days ago I tried the “water” exercise! In my mind I was thinking the first time nothing will happen probably and my mind will be in control and I will end up standing there doing nothing! But surprisingly after couple of minutes my arms started moving, than my body! It was moving slowly and I was fully aware of the movements! I was also scared because it felt like somebody is moving my body and I don’t have control! There were moments I was thinking of moving in a certain way but than something els was happening!
      What was very interesting is that the movements were showing me exact points in my body were I have tension and normally I’m not feeling it! However I didn’t do 30 minutes, my fear stopped me! But Im going to try it again!
      Do you know if there are any places in the Netherlands where you can do this with group or with a coach? I couldn’t find anything on Internet!

      Thanks again for the reply and this great website!

        -Tony Crisp 2018-04-24 10:41:01

        Zehra – There is so much to learn about our inner world. I will try to explain your feeling, “I was scared because it felt like somebody is moving my body and I don’t have control!”

        It is so strange that many people feel that. Strange because we are not in control of our breathing, our heart beat, or the thousands of inner movements our body makes. But of course people are used to those movement, and people believe their body is a type of automatic machine that only moves when we make it, to experience it dance and move and deeply experience all by itself is beyond their belief – they are scared they are not in control or that something or someone else is. Thus their belief in being possessed.

        But in life and sleep we have two powerful actions working in us. The first is our waking experience based on having a body, its limitations, vulnerabilities and a particular gender.

        While we sleep our conscious self is largely or totally unconscious, and while we dream our voluntary muscles are paralysed – therefore another will or motivating force moves our body. So we have a Conscious Will, and what I will call a Life Will.

        This second motivator is the power that gave us life and continues to express as dreams, in our breathing and heartbeat – our life. This I have given the description as the Life Will.
        The first one we have experience of as we can move our arm or speak in everyday activities; but the second will takes over when we sleep.

        This Life will can move us to speak, to move our body, and in fact do things that we cannot do with our Conscious Will. See https://dreamhawk.com/interesting-people/edgar-cayce-and-the-cosmic-mind-superminds/

        What most people in today’s world don’t realise that is when we drop our control and allow spontaneous body expression our Life Will breaks through and expresses. This was recognised and used, even venerated, in past ages. Today I have tried to explain it in terms hopefully understood by people today. Control and letting go of control also relate very fully to what we know about ourselves. This is because with too tight a control on what we allow ourselves to feel or experience we build a barrier against the re-experiencing and healing of old painful events, and also for the arising of new aspects of our potential to emerge, for the Life Will is so wonderfully trying to clear such blocked emotions, and as it clears them it leads us to a life of wonder. See https://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/opening-to-life/ – https://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/the-waking-lucid-dream/

        As to whether there are any places in the Netherlands where you can do this with group? Groups seem to need people who have confidently used the approach and others feel safe. But in my case I have never managed be someone who manages to stay in one place long enough. Also many people are scared, as you were, by experience of surrendering your will to Life/God, and so it is difficult to get groups started. One group I tried to get going in a Quaker meeting, the man said, “Why should I surrender, because if I do the Devil will possess me.” He was obviously already possessed by fear. Another woman who had real spontaneous movements suddenly stood up and said, “This is against my religion!” The strange this was it WAS her religion, because Christianity started with Pentecost, where the participants experienced spontaneous movements and acted almost like they were drunk. I had so many experiences like that I gave up trying – except explaining it on my site.

          -Zohreh 2018-04-24 19:51:51

          Hi Tony,
          I tried it again today! This time it was much more strong! I don’t even know how to explain it! Before I started I had cold because my room was cold but when I started to move I was very hot! I felt heat coming out of my skin! I tried to not think about the movements or judge them, but does the movements say something about whats going on inside?!
          I started making big circles with my upper body! My legs were fixed but from waist it was moving in a circle! Like my head was drawing a wide circle on horizontal plan! My arms going up and down, like dancing with it! It started slow but than it got faster, I tried to focus on how I feel, I felt overwheled, confused, very hot! Than suddenly I got so dizzy that I was falling down! I oppened my eyes to get my balance back and sitted on the bed and tried to focus on my breathing! But my body started again doing the same movement while I was sitting! After couple of minutes it got slower and I felt tired and felt like crying! The feeling was like Im being pulled to different directions and Im tired! Than my face and upper lip moved, almost like the expression of being discussed but not exactly the same! Than I was calmer and stopped!
          Should I care, or analyze what’s happening during the session? Should I be focused on the movements of the body or the emotions if/that comes up?
          This is so interesting! and I have so many questions!

          -Tony Crisp 2018-04-25 9:30:34

          Zohreh – It gives me a good feeling to see you are not a ‘scary cat’ who retreats at the first sign of meeting the great unknown that is the Mystery of Life.

          So, you need to understand that until you started being ready for Life to make its own movements through you, you were inwardly asleep to this other force within you. In a sense you had never moved before, never felt or spoke or sang or even woken up mentally before to your inner world. So at first you have to be woken up slowly, and the movements have no other meaning except making your body ready to move and express itself.

          Another way of expressing it is to say that a spring of water has opened in dry land, and as the spring flows more strongly it become a small river. Of course the river has flowed in the long past, for it is the river of Life energy flowing through your body that causes you to be alive and aware. But because its flow is increasing the river will push any obstacles it meets out of its way; so a cleansing experience is met and also a waking energy which slowly brings to life every part of your being. So you will be woken up to movement, to your emotions, to your voice and your mind. So be patient.

          A sunrise has brought a new day.

          Tony

-Luna 2018-03-07 18:07:34

Dear Toni

I had a dream that my cousin and I had been attacked by a grizzly, both of us had been swipped by his claws, we both knew better than to run from an already angry bear, so when we fell we scampered vack and we used the undergrowth to hide beneath so that it could not crush us or deal us anymore pain. In the dream there were others who came to help us and my father went after and killed the bear. It’s teeth or claws were given to us to wear in a necklace.

-J.A 2018-02-18 17:00:35

This website somehow helped. Last night i decided to sleep by thinking nothing, or feeling or imagine nothing, just sleep. That night, i had a dream, 1st time about something falling on earth from space, while me, my parents, my pet and others are as usual having time in their respective houses. Then so many one by one something falling at different places with green light and enoromous dust same time coming out. People are in panic and cannot move but only hide inside so me too got scared and searching safe place with parents and my pet. Slowly more than 2, 3 those type of things started falling and one was so near to us…. and i got half woke up. But within dream again i saw myself as protector, gathered some other people too. These people including me are realized as enlightened beings but my parents and nobody else knew it, but finally i dared to come out in an open space, and started meditating, though i felt difficult but finally we stopped the falling things and again all trees, houses again got build up by themselves. I felt as if i became the very earth and its atmosphere all around and dealt it successfully…. and before that night, 1 week before, a movie yet to realeased, on space movie with same theme. So exactly i am unable to understand, as if it is something about my consciousness or something which i desired to see that movie, but yet not released hence came in my dreams vividly ???… i even never thought about such movies, but it came and i definitely don’t like to have any destruction but still it gave me sone attention..(by fear or/ by curiosity??) hoping of reply. Thanking you… 🙂

    -Tony Crisp 2018-02-19 13:04:10

    Hi – It would help you to understand your dreams, if you would read – http://dreamhawk.com/news/summing-up/ and also http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/features-found-on-site/ which has so much information in.

    Nothing can replace your own ability to understand your dream. With a little effort you can do this by practising what is described in – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson or http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/getting-at-your-dreams-meaning/

    Tony

    JA – I believe that because you are thinking about your dream as if it were an event or events happening in the waking world, you miss understanding the immense importance of it.

    Dreams are reporting on a completely different reality or dimension. In this wider dimension you leave the limited view of the three dimensional world most of us are trapped in, and enter a world beyond time and space. Beyond time we are aware of all time, past, present and future – all at once. So we do not look into the future, but are it. Our body life is to learn important lessons by being locked in time, space and our body, with its gender and limitations. These were teachings of the great minds if Asia that the west is just rediscovering.

    Things falling from space are symbols representing something that was beyond the comprehension of your body mind/brain that is entering, or trying to, your awareness. This was brought about by you giving up thinking or meditating – without seed.

    The human personality – the You that you call yourself, with a name, is only a tiny thing. Many people as their awareness reaches beyond what they feel are their normal self feel scared. Such resistances cause us to create awful dreams and fears as a means of avoiding our own inner world and its wonders. We feel that we will be swallowed up and we will die. It is important to say that when we meet the experience of powerlessness through becoming aware of the hugeness of your Life, which we are usually unaware if, it feels like something alien or attacking and it is a shock.

    So, you opened to the hugeness you are and instead of accepting it you tried to protect yourself against it. Then you started meditating. By using relaxation techniques such as dropping the tension of the voluntary muscles or meditating on positive things your inner tensions caused by past traumas were being pushed back into the unconscious – undealt with. When left at that point, relaxation and meditation were a method of suppression and control, not of healing.

    But if you want to carry on in your awareness of the Huge you are you could use http://dreamhawk.com/body-and-mind/the-arm-circling-meditation/ or http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/opening-to-life/

-Sarah 2018-02-05 14:19:41

I had a dream where my home was invaded by dirty cave man looking people all ages from teen to adult and both men and women. I opened the door and they just shoved in. They were hanging out in my house and i wanted them gone. I kept telling my husband to do something and his attempt wasnt helpful. At times in the dream, we were able to get them out but would come back inside. But i noticed when i would try to make them leave they would start doing sexual acts. Mostly on themselves. Which made me want to call the cops but i didn’t. I felt helpless and scared in my dream.

Please help!

-Jessica 2018-01-27 22:34:15

I had a dream where I found myself in a middle of a gathering. I walked astray and looked at my feet and there was dark hair on my feet. I thought it look so gross and so I started pulling the hair out and when I did it was a lot of stuff that would come out, like broken plastic silverware, bag ties, in large amounts per hair. I was trying to hide so no one would see, but I also wanted it all out. I woke up shortly after that, but I woke up before getting a chance of pulling the hair of my right foot.

-Jennifer 2017-08-24 3:59:28

I had a dream that a large angry brown bear ripped a hole in my privacy fence I yelled at him and he walked away. With the hole in the fence I saw many small dogs run into s swimming pool and the owyof he pool yelling at us to get our dogs,

-Kim 2017-07-19 17:14:47

Last night I dreamt that I was having sex with my dead husband, however I was unable to see his face but I know it was him, the place is abit hard to described as its like a dingy place, very small but have a lot of rooms with families occupying them. It felt so real so I got up n rushed to the bathroom and I can honestly say, I felt like it happened for real. Please can you tell me what this means. Also about a week ago I dreamt of him again but he was texting me as whenever I dream of him I never see his face either text or his back his turned, however in the text he said why didn’t your family attend my funeral I told him his mother was giving me a fight, I then told him to te me where he is so I can come and see him but he didn’t, instead he said something bad was gonna happen.

-Water Granny 2017-06-19 13:51:31

Hi Tony, I had almost the same dream a couple nights in a row.
I am Native, Ojibway so I try an look for answers in my dreams.
I had this dream its really scarry, my youngest daughter was there an my grandchild,
I was trying to save them but I dreamt the devil was holding me down , i was fighting him so he wont hurt my babies. When I woke up my arms were so sore like I was.actually fighting someone. Even still now my arm hurts. Then he just disappeared an I got the child with my daughter who was wrapped tightly in a blanket the child was about 6 yrs old an was hiding behind a bed.
Then I woke up! Holy man I was scared.
If you can please helo me or offer some guidance I appreciate it!
Meegwetch
Watwr Granny

    -Tony Crisp 2017-06-23 10:24:28

    Water Granny – Dreaming of the devil symbolises you being held back, or made helpless by a fear.

    Obviously you believe or feel the fear intensely, otherwise it wouldn’t affect you. As human women we tend to bottle up our enormous anxiety for our child, or are frightened by it. Your love and care for your baby can trigger your mothering instincts with a vengeance. Being female and a mother holds with it an enormously increased anxiety about the baby. They see all manner of things that might be a threat, and I believe that is what such dreams shows. Your imagination for such dangers is enormously increased. This is natural in all mammals.

    Also whenever we dream its images are not like real life, because a dream is nothing like outer life where things could hurt you, but is an image like on a cinema screen that even if a gun is pointed at you and fired it can do no damage – except if you run in fear; so all the things that scare you are simply your own fears projected onto the screen of your sleeping mind.

    If you carry on living in fear for your child in an excessive way you will continue to have such dreams. But if you learn to trust that nothing can hurt your child in your dreams, they change.

    Example: I dreamt that I was being approached by a tiger. I was in fear believing that the tiger would attack me. I decided not to fight or run but instead do nothing. When the tiger reached me, it was friendly. I could hear it communicating to me that if I did not fear it, it would not attack.

    Tony

-Vanesa 2017-04-13 7:36:04

So I had this dream or nightmare and I was panicking because I lost part of my life or apart of myself. Till I came across a snake that had me trapped. It’s whole body was wrapped up around mine and then this man in my dream came and saved my life. Which really he would always be in my dreams when I’m having a nightmare. Then I see myself hitting a snake for going after a lizard to kill in cold blood. What does this mean… I’m afraid to go back to sleep. I even turned the light on to expel the dream from my mind.

    -Tony Crisp 2017-04-14 8:13:41

    Hi – I am stopping from answering your posts fully – but will try to give hints; sometimes long ones because I quote from masses I have already put online. Also, I need to take time to update the site – dreamhawk.

    It would help you to understand your dreams, if you would read – http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/questions-2/#Summing and also http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/features-found-on-site/ which has so much information in.

    Nothing can replace your own ability to understand your dream. With a little effort you can do this by practising what is described in – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson or http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/getting-at-your-dreams-meaning/

    Tony

    Vanessa – You need to realise that the dram world is totally different to the world of your body. Whenever we dream its images are not like real life, because a dream is nothing like outer life where things could hurt you, but is an image like on a cinema screen, so that even if a gun is pointed at you and fired it can do no damage – except if you run in fear; so, all the things that scare you are simply your own fears projected onto the screen of your sleeping mind.

    It is also important to realise that every image, every scary or terrifying thing, is taken place inside you, in your mind, as you sleep. This means that every awful animal, every scary thing, or person, is created out of your own fears and must not be seen as outside you as happens in waking awareness. The problem is that we are often scared of or frightened of experiencing our emotions and so they confront us in our dreams. Avoiding them or controlling them is like running away from oneself – there is no escape.

    And what do you mean by cold blooded killing? Every living thing on our planet evolved from the same single celled creature. So everything, plants, reptiles, are all a part of ourselves. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/brain-levels-and-dreams/

    We kill everything we eat – plants, vegetables, animals. Death is the ground we stand on and even the rocks we see, for it was the death of living things the bodies of which created the fertile earth.

    The snake in dreams is your life force, so killing it is repressing your life. Also. nightmares are a way of making you face your fears – usually from childhood, so the man in your dreams is not doing you any favours. Please read http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/lifes-little-secrets/

-damoun 2017-01-14 15:53:52

Dear toni
I had a dream that I attending one of my best friends wedding , the wedding was occupying a large area as if it was in a village , all the village to be exact ,I was very happy and maybe a bit naive but then a large pelican came down from the sky and plunged into a group of people swimming in a lake , the first thing that I thought is that maybe it could have killed somebody , but that didn’t happen ! Then a large bull also descending from the sky also plunged into the people
I have trouble deciphering the pelican symbol !!!!
Ps: I am 35 years old , single and still living with my parents but moving to a house on my own in a couple of weeks

-Dathon 2016-10-29 9:25:16

I had a dream that I was suppose to meet my girlfriend out for a night of partying. While out she never called for us to meet up but I knew she was with her friends I ended up getting hammered and I was angry. While leaving a bar I passed her and her friends. I acted as if I didn’t see them and waited to see if she would call bc I over heard one of her friends say there is your boyfriend. When she never called I called her. I was clearly upset but she remained nonchalant. I was driving during our phone conversation and ended up losing control of the car and it begin to slide backward. I tried applying the breaks but the car wouldn’t stop sliding as if the roads were wet.

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