Flow – Up and Down

Apart from the flow of things like electricity, water, blood or urine, many dreams are particularly illustrating an up or down flow. Modern medicine doesn’t recognise this connection with mind and body, but ancient systems of health such as Acupuncture and Yoga particularly mention these energy flows. The flow upward is the unfolding of personal awareness from the basic levels of physical sensation up through the levels of awareness such as mutual attraction in sex; absorption of something other than self as in digestion; sympathy and empathy in emotions; communication of self in speech; understanding in mental activity; transcendence in going beyond the limitations of identity with your body.

The down flow is the entrance of an influence beyond the physical into your experience. The New Testament describes this in the image of the flame or light touching the head at Pentecost, of the dove descending. This touches, cleanses and enlivens the levels mentioned in the up flow.

Down flow and up flow: Are often shown in dreams when people are working on improving their inner life. There are two flows of energy in our being; the upflow is released potential from our physical body. The down flow is an opening to the universal existence and can bring new realisations, healing or speeded up evolution. See river

This nearly always deal with energy and how it is being dealt with – whether moving easily or blocked – or what it is doing in terms of creating or destroying. The flow may relate to emotions, sexual feelings, ideas, creativity, or any of the other things we connect with expressing or experiencing in life. This is where the phrase, ‘going with the flow’ originates from.

Below are some examples of this. 

 Example: I dreamt I am in a landscape and notice that everything is brown; the whole world is brown and lifeless. There is also a feeling of solemnity or dullness. I have enough lucidity to wonder why the world of my dream is so brown and dull. As I ask this I become more aware of what feeling the brownness expresses. It is seriousness – with no room for humour or fun. The feeling deepens, real enough and clear enough to look at and understand. I see it is my father’s attitude to life that I have unconsciously inherited. I realise how anxious he always felt about life, and how I took this in. That is how I became a ‘brown’ person. I see too that I do not need to be either brown or serious anymore.

Then the landscape changes. There are trees, plants and animals in brilliant colour. I wonder what this means, and the landscape begins to spin until the colours blend and shimmer. Suddenly my body seems to open to them, as if they are spinning inside of me, and with a most glorious feeling, a sensation of vibrating energy flows up my trunk to my head. With this comes realisation. I see how stupid I have been in my brown, anxious existence, how much life I have held back. The animals and plants are the different forces in my being that blend into energy and awareness. I feel I am capable of doing almost anything, like loving, writing a song, painting, telepathy, or speaking with the dead. This sparkling vibrating energy is life itself and can, if I learn to work with it, grow into any ability or direction I choose. I wake with a wonderful sense of my possibilities.

Example: I was in a house. I believe other people were in it too. From beyond sight in the sky a thin crystal clear column descended into the house. It looked like water but it had the consistency of a gel. Also it did not flow down in a torrent as water would, but flow slowly downward into the house. I felt it was the descent of some special influence or substance coming from dimension beyond our own, and connected with non physical beings. It was about three inches across and I stood underneath it at one point.

In exploring the dream I started by spontaneously calling out, “I am saying to the universe – I am open to you and I love you. I love you on and on.

This is a very powerful experience and I am very moved as this happens. I can feel this touching my life. It is touching my life. But I don’t know what it is. I don’t know.

Now I actually experience something touching my consciousness. It moves my feelings. “I struggled all my life. I struggled all my life to be open to the spiritual. Now my life is touched. And that is what is happening. I love you so much Life.” Now I cry out with incredible strength and fervour with the pleasure of what I feel.

Now a most extraordinary thing happened. I experience feelings of being made love to, but not through the genitals, but through my head right the way through my being down into my genitals. For a long time it felt as if I didn’t need to breathe, and in fact I seemed to exist without breathing for quite a long time. There was a feeling of tremendous quietness. Inside something gently moving through the openness in my head down my being, flowing to my genitals. Once there it was like it opened something. It changed something.”

Example: I dreamt the corridor comes out to my own front yard. My grandfather draws my attention to a cloud through which shines a beautiful golden sunbeam. My grandfather tells me that the sunbeam represents love, the greatest power in the Universe, and that I have to learn to love and accept the circumstances of my life, forgiving and understanding those who I feel short-changed me. If I can do this, he tells me, I can use this power to help others and I myself would develop more rapidly. His grandfather had died, but Herb had dearly loved and admired him. In reviewing this part of his dream, it was clear to Herb that his grandfather represented his higher self, his teacher and guide, and that he was indeed guiding Herb to the best that meditation could offer. “In my dream I was aware of my body in bed. The sunbeam came through the roof and hovered over me. I could let it enter my body if I wished. I allowed the beam to enter my being, and it did so at the base of my spine and moved up my back and came out the top of my head in a shower of sparkling golden light. I felt the soothing warmth of it and allowed it to enter again. I felt inspiration and joy and awakened with tears of happiness streaming down my cheeks.” Herb felt that he had experienced in his dream what he could obtain in meditation by applying the precepts in his dream to his everyday life.

Useful questions and hints:

Have I noticed any blockages in the movement of the flow?

The flow can also include things like a belt from a machine?

Have I felt any good feelings from the flow?

See Life’s Little Secrets – Edgar Cayce – Secrets of Power Dreaming – Avoid Being Victims