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WHAT IS WHAT IS PSYCHIC DEVELOPMENT?

WHAT IS PSYCHIC DEVELOPMENT ?

THERE are many sincere students of mysticism and occultism today who suffer an necessary frustration and sense of failure through a misunderstanding of what physic development is.  Having been privileged to watch and encourage the progress of a number of people, I have been able to observe at first hand their psychic unfoldment.  In doing this, what strikes me so forcibly is that they make considerable progress without realising that they have done so.  The result of this non-realisation is they feel their efforts have been made in vain.  Subsequently their desire for further efforts along the same lines is greatly reduced. Therefore further insight into this problem would help many.

WHAT THEN IS PSYCHIC DEVELOPMENT?

If we consider the word psychic, it will take us a long way towards an understanding.  As a generalisation, we can say that the word refers to that in us which is non-material, beyond the physical; that which relates to a persons mind and emotions, or which forms a link between his spiritual or Cosmic  nature  and  his physical  being  and  consciousness. In particular the word psyche refers to ones personal experiences and memories as they are felt mentally and emotionally. But it also includes the unconscious mental or spiritual processes influencing conscious life.

It will be obvious to any thinking person, from even the short definition above, that if indeed we are dealing with a part of our being which is, in part at least, beyond the ken of our normal consciousness, then it must follow that the effects of our efforts to unfold this part of ourselves will remain, perhaps in large part, unknown to us at present.  In other words, we are, through our exercises and   disciplines,   stimulating something within us which at the moment is invisible to us, we therefore cannot expect to know all that transpires through our efforts.

As Dr. H. Spencer Lewis has written, we are not conscious of food digestion, blood circulation or more of the inner physical activities, we should not, then, expect to be infinitely aware of all that goes on in the part of us far more subtle than the physical. So the student should not feel that what he or she is doing is having no affect. Rather, they should realise that the many changes within that are being brought about remain unknown at present because of their subtlety. This is rather  negative  information though, and we will pass on to a more positive aspect.

If most of the responses to our efforts take place beyond the level of our normal awareness, if it is true that the higher nature influences the lower, then progress can be judged by what takes place in our personality after the original efforts.

The affects of occult development, are very subtle, even when they are effecting the conscious level of our mind and personality. The student who is continually looking outward for these changes will only find discouragement.  We should not expect the sensational worldly effects so often depicted in fiction. No tall Eastern stranger is going to suddenly introduce himself and initiate us into weird mystic rites. Neither will we find the way suddenly open for us to live without our daily toil and other human contacts.

Even the fiction writers realise that the events and characters they portray are usually just

different aspects, or levels, of the student’s own mind.  What will happen then? Usually that which the student will overlook as being of no importance. The whole strange drama takes place within us, in the arena of our own mind, and only by self analysis can we see the story of our own unfoldment take place.

Would it shatter some dreams if I said that under normal circumstances no sensational visions,  experiences  or  events occur. Sometimes at the outset these do appear, but as the progress really gets under way, these  usually  disappear, at least for a while. In other cases they never happen at all. One day a student came to me after a period of meditation and said:

“Do you know, I suddenly realised that my body is not me. All of a sudden it came to me that it just doesn’t matter if my body is destroyed, I will still exist.”

Here is real psychic development, the unfoldment of understanding,  the  expansion  of

awareness.  He had not read about somebody else’s thoughts upon such things, he had personally experienced such a realisation within himself. From that point on, there was no doubt in his mind, he KNEW what he was.  When we hear or read another’s  opinion, we  may believe  it to be true, but we do not necessarily know it from personal experience.

Psychic  development  is  a growth in KNOWING.  Slowly, the things we may have read become real through intimately contacting them.

Even reading a book can be a psychic experience. The ideas within it may pull back a veil

within us, and with an emotional thrill we have a new realisation, a new insight into ourselves and the world. When our conscious mind has this new understanding of life, surely it is psychic growth? Surely we now see (understand) things we never saw before, things that were not obvious by merely looking at them with our physical eyes.  If we see in life something we could not see before, and that is not physically obvious to others, then we are definitely using a type of psychic sight or sense. If we can now see more beauty in nature, music or art, then we have developed psychically.

Alchemy of The Self  

ACTUALLY, psychic development is not a very good term to use. ‘Alchemy of the Self’ is probably more accurate.  Just as the alchemist purifies metals by bringing the dross, or impurities, to the surface, to be removed, so do we in the process of inner unfoldment. This is something that very few students realise, and thus they are not armed to face the disquieting results of their own labours.  The term,  Alchemy  of  Self, really explains many of the trying circumstances in the life of the mystical aspirant.

As we have said, and this is very important, it is in the arena of the conscious mind, that strange conflicts and dramas are being enacted. Here also does the alchemical process work out.

The methods of development used in the west all revolve around concentration, meditation, visualisation and sometimes in harnessing the imagination. These methods, when used correctly, are the cause of the alchemical  process. What happens is that slowly, the part of our mind or being that is usually hidden, begins to rise to our view.

The student should earnestly thank God that this doesn’t happen quickly, for he/she could not face it.  Not only does unusual understanding, new insight and greater personal abilities come with this unveiling, but also ones inner fears, conflicts,  doubts, weaknesses, temptations and lusts rise like ancient spectres to haunt us.

The story of Pandora’s box is a very apt example of this. Through our efforts to unlock our psychic abilities, we open our unconscious doorway, behind which we have repressed all the little demons that have tried to hurt us in life. Psychic growth is not an easy task, but the hardest  anyone can achieve, for one really comes to know oneself as never before. Even the Master Jesus, after Baptism, was sorely tempted by the  Devil, and  eventually suffered trial and Crucifixion. We as lower degree Initiates into Life’s Mysteries, can only expect to follow in the Master’s footsteps, for they were indeed trodden to show us the way.

The two aspects of ourselves we call in to view by our discipline, the negative and positive, have a definite name. Occult traditions have grouped them together and called it “The Dweller on The Threshold”.   Tradition  and modern experience, say that this astral being, which is the sum total of all our past karma, has to be faced and passed before we can know the deepest truth. Because of this it is sometimes called “The Guardian of The Threshold”, for it holds back those who cannot face it and understand it.

The actual outworkings of facing the Guardian manifest in certain seemingly ordinary ways. As mentioned in the very beginning, unless the student is under guidance, he or she will probably not associate the events that come to pass with their development. The events  that the Guardian evokes are often taken as signs of failure instead of progress.  I will give you some examples of the negative aspect first to illustrate this point.

Meeting the Guardian of the Threshold

THE DWELLER ON THE THRESHOLD – This is a concept which was originally defined in the Esoteric study of Freemasonry. It is that which  has to be faced before any candidate can become an “Entered Apprentice” on the path of Initiation. The student can only manage this task to see the TRUTH of all his personalities under the supervision of a master Mason.

A young student, after allowing himself greater freedom to express his inner life, found that a an old and frightening habit of his adolescent years – nocturnal masturbation while asleep – reappeared.  He had, in his youth, overcome the habit, and thought it out of his life forever.  However, he had conquered it because he was frightened of it, and not because he outgrew it.  Being thus repressed, now the doors to his inner life were opened, it reappeared.

Because it occurred out of our conscious control, while asleep, he felt fear, as if his own conscious decision was disregarded and overwhelmed by some other force.  The student in fact was frightened, because he didn’t know how to control it.  The fear of it prompted him to adopt certain clothing  which  prevented  it. After further thought however, he realised that he had not conquered it, only prevented it happening by wearing tight clothing at night, which forced him to awake as the attempted masturbation was under way.  From within he was urged to discard the special clothing and face the urge unafraid.

His teacher had assured him that the unconscious follows a fear as if it were a command. So he must face it and learn not to fear it. After this realisation of what was going on, he discarded his preventative measures, but he was now inwardly confident of success.  He faced this aspect of his Dweller, and although at first it frightened him, he replaced fear with confidence. Needless to say, he was successful. It must be said though, that he was by nature a positive confident person, and so the ordeal was easier.

For those with a nervous disposition, or who lack self confidence, the issue is usually far more difficult and prolonged. To give an example of the latter type, I will mention the struggle of a young woman student that is still in progress.

Before she entered on the Path she had lived for long spells completely alone in a detached house on the edge of a wood, and never felt nervous. Later, she started her occult studies, married, had two children, and moved to a far more densely populated area. Shortly after taking up the studies, a nervous fear of being indoors, and especially of being in the room used for occult studies, developed.  So intense was the discomfort that often she had to leave the house.  Some occult students might think that it was the aura of the particular house. But this was thought of, and it was realised that the same things had happened in another house she had lived in a few months previous. (Not the one by the wood.)

I know it is easy for me to write, but here is a student who is facing an obscure Karmic affect which she had called upon herself by her efforts on the Path. At the moment she refuses to fully face it, but is doing it in degrees. Those who try to pass the Guardian, and thrust themselves into the psychic world by forced methods are greatly endangering themselves.

Learning to control, or face, the Dweller, gives us strength to face the dark forces. If we enter the arena without this  strength, as some do, it may lead to great confusion of mind and personal  unbalance.   We must all face what we are. We must wrestle with ourselves until we are changed, and the Dark Dweller becomes a  Being of Light. Then we have free access to the halls of Light also.

So much for the negative aspect of development. What about the positive unfoldment and inspirational abilities?  The appearance of this other side of personal alchemy is often to be noted within a few weeks of seeking development.  That is, noted by the trained occultist – the student may overlook these signs.

Steps to the Mountain Peak

THE  process  of  occult training, as we have already said, opens the doors of the mind to the content of our inner self, and our inner world.  One might say that it helps us to become conscious of the many impressions playing upon our sympathetic nervous system from the  psychic  and  Cosmic Planes.

Becoming aware of the ideas, impressions, feelings and impact of our psychic nature, opens up huge new avenues of experience. In a way it is like walking along a dark narrow alley, and then suddenly stepping out on to a sunlit beach.  Our horizon has suddenly expanded, and our world enlarged.

The new horizons of thought, feeling and experience that open to us as we practice with the occult principles, bring us in touch with much of practical use. Those  creative  artists, musicians, business men, designers and writers who lead the way in their field, are unconsciously tapping finer psychic nature for information.  As the student advances, he or she also find themselves becoming more creative in their particular field.

Creativity is not limited to the arts or sciences.  One can be a creative housewife, mother, husband, employee or employer. What it means is that we receive ideas and impressions that others do not, and that through the occult training of mind, personality and will, we are able to express, these ideas. This we do by making new things, events, situations in our daily life.  I have only generalised here, because the thoughtful student will be able to apply these principles to their personal life themselves

It might be interesting to note some of the sources of these new abilities and ideas. The person who reads this will not need a detailed explanation  of such sources as telepathy, attunement with the unconscious memory, or psychic contact with other persons in or out of the body. Regarding the latter, most of such contacts, in the beginning, arc made without the student being aware of it. This usually happens while asleep or in meditation. This can even apply to contact with a Master.

Although until one has definite proof of such contact it must be assumed that it has not been made.   This  is simply to avoid becoming too imaginative, and assuming things we do not KNOW!  The evidence of such contacts is quite definite in some cases. The information received, seemingly coming from our own mind, is later found to have never been known by the receiver. Thus we obtain information that we could never have received through mere reasoning.  Although again we must realise that our own inner Master could have been the source.

Sometimes the information is personal instruction to aid our own development.  Other times it pertains to our occult work, or to people we have contacted.

Meeting his Karma

THROUGH sincere attempts to advance on the path, the student evokes the Dweller. He or she is also unconsciously, or consciously, calling up the negative aspect of their karma from previous incarnations.  To achieve our goal of adeptship we must first work out our bad karma.  When this dark cloud, which stands between us and the Sun, is dispersed, we can bathe in the Divine Light.  In facing our Dweller, we draw the poison element out of our past lives.

As this is gradually achieved, we are left with the positive experience of past incarnations. We have learnt to resist the evil, and now we have achieved the good. This will manifest in our life as the seeping through of past powers, abilities and knowledge.  We often do not know just how much this is true until we come to some emergency or crisis in life. Then, to our great surprise, knowledge, power and ability flow through us to a degree  we  never  realised  we possessed.

It has often been noted that with those who take to the Path with sincere effort, at the outset they seem  to lose whatever psychic abilities they had in regard to clairvoyance, clairaudience etc.  I know this is not true of every student, but it certainly seems to be true of those  in  whom  the  psychic abilities manifest spasmodically and out of conscious control.

This loss of ability is a good sign, for it shows that the inner life is becoming marshalled and directed. No longer do psychic experiences occur spontaneously without conscious control. This period is certainly a frustrating one, for it seems as if even the little we had has been lost. What is happening is that we are learning to tap the psychic awareness at will, and when desired.  This is a great step forward on the previous uncontrolled phenomena, and it takes time.

During this period of blankness it is certainly an effort to be patient, but we must. Any attempt at forcing the development at this stage will only throw us back to the previous level. We may indeed have psychic  experiences through these forced methods, but without being able to consciously direct the process, we still have not grown spiritually?  I know several people who have spasmodic visions and experiences of a very vivid type. These persons feel very important because of these events, but when they attempt to understand what the vision’s message or meaning is, they are at a loss to know.

The developed occultist is certainly not one who receives information that he cannot understand or use. His contact with the psychic world is such that he learns to receive definite answers to questions, and what he sees has meaning to him. Therefore be patient, for it is worth the frustration to get to the next stage.

The advancement to the next level of unfoldment is a gentle process, it may take many years, and at first we will not realise that we have begun to reach it. It is characterised by the growth of the faculty of intuition. Through the growth of this ability we begin to receive from within definite information concerning questions that are troubling us.  For instance, a student is thinking about the progress of a fellow student on the Path, and is wondering how best they can be helped.  As he thinks,  suddenly  a  flash  of understanding comes to him, and he sees exactly what the student has to do, why he had to do it, and what the outcome will be. He will also probably find that on talking to the person concerned, he will say that he had in fact felt an urge to do the very same thing for some time, but wondered if it were worthwhile, but this confirmation has really encouraged him to try.

On the other hand, a businessman may be considering a difficult decision.  He can either follow his usual course, or take a new departure that might not work. Suddenly he receives the impression, very strongly, that if he takes a difficult course, unknown persons will come to his aid as he proceeds, and although the beginning of the prospect will be tortuous, it will quickly become a success. His reasoning warns him against chancing it, but he takes the plunge, and finds that events unfold exactly as foreseen.

Darkness into Light

AS we  proceed,  the faculty of intuition becomes a more and more regular ability.  From this point onwards, the student’s contacts  with  the  inner world are definitely enlarging. Eventually, this ability will become such that he will be able to consult it at any time, and get an immediate response.

This, then, is the beginning of real development, and slowly the other psychic faculties will unfold to be used at will. It  must  be  remembered though, that these stages of progress tie in with the facing of the Dweller, and the greater unfoldment of psychic faculties will not occur until we have dispersed this karmic cloud. Some students have so much negative karma that this is indeed a lengthy process, to be counted not in years but incarnations. But this will not bar them entirely from psychic contact, just from the complete unfoldment of Adeptship.  However, many are being born and reaching maturity now who have worked off a great deal of their Karma already. These young students may well be those who are now ready to take the higher stages of the Path.

How much Karma we have worked off in our past incarnations we can only tell from the response we receive from the efforts we give to our studies and spiritual exercises.  If the response is a very rapid unfoldment of understanding and ability, then the spiritual picture is certainly a bright one if we persevere with our efforts. The student  who  finds  the  way slower and harder, need not despair, for each step on the Path that is carved out is theirs forever unless they choose to retrace their steps.

These steps that we carve on the Path to the Mountain Peak, are changes in ourselves, for the Path is within us.  Each step takes us nearer the goal, which is Cosmic Consciousness and Mastership. Our efforts on the Path develop intuition. Intuition becomes psychic awareness,  and psychic awareness enlarges into Cosmic Consciousness.

This, then, is the Heaven we are told is within, and enthroned in this Heaven within is the Timeless Centre of our being.  From the Holy Throne radiates the Inner Light, which is the Light that Lighteth every man that cometh into the world. And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not.

Everyone is seeking this Light and the happiness it brings, but few realise it.  Some seek it in sensual gratification, but find it not there.  Others seek it in worldly power, but only discover the perpetual turmoil of sexual impulse, aggression and competitiveness.

The happiness of the Light can be ours, and will be ours, for it is our home from whence we came, and to where we shall return. In the darkness we experience many things, and we learn to long for the Light, which, if we seek it we shall find.

Meanwhile, let us remember that we have been sent into the darkness to learn its lessons. Let us study it, and face it, for it is one with the Dweller.  When we understand it, and overcome it, then will its darkness become Light, and we will be HOME.

Body Awareness

Some years ago I attended a ten day Buddhist meditation course. It was basically aimed at remaining aware of one’s body and maintaining it for hours. I was told that this was the original Buddhist meditation passed on as a tradition. I thought it was strange as when I was fifteen I took a postal course taught by a man Willian Ousby, his book Self Hypnotism explains some of it, but it was actually advanced body awareness he taught. I practised every day for three months, taking my awareness over my body, and passing my awareness over and over my body for twenty of thirty minutes each day.

Ousby had spent time learning the ancient African disciplines of mind. But I slightly altered it by just being aware of my body, but also whole personality. So with the sexual organs I relaxed any sexual urges – with the abdomen I let go temporarily of hunger – with the chest the enormous emotions and urge to activity that torment people was let go of – with the throat it was letting go of any conscious desire to speak, sing or groan; and with the face letting go of all the enormous sense we have of personal ideas and feelings. It led to this experience.

“I was awake, had not taken any drug and had come home late from spending time eating with friends. I thought I would leave my daily practice but decided to do it anyway. After going over my body several times I suddenly lost my right arm. I had no sensation of it other than space, hugeness. Then I lost awareness of my left arm, and then – my whole body. It was like falling through a trapdoor into space. I had no sense of having a body. Thoughts had ceased, except for a murmur apparently a thousand miles away. Yet in blackness, in immensity, in absence of thought I existed vitally as bodiless awareness. We think that we are our body because we have no other experience of our existence. So, we identify with our body and so are terrified of dying – which in a sense is what we do every time we go to sleep and leave our sense of a body or our personality behind. That experience changed my view of what I am enormously, for I now knew that one could never die, for our very core is awareness beyond the body.”

So, what do such experiences do that changes lives so radically? For a start they remove the fear of death. This is so obvious because most of those who experienced this change say so. But there are other such alterations in people lives, these people do not feel lonely: do not suffer from grief because they feel they have no death except their physical body: they relate differently to time, because they have touched the life of eternity, which has nothing to do with experiencing physical life forever: they often feel they have a direction in life other than ambition, they do not suffer anxiety, also they are often incredibly creative: in fact they are a different type of human being.

I realised it wasn’t relaxation I had used those years ago it was body awareness. For I found what I called Life’s Little Secrets.

In searching for relief from misery I tried many different things, relaxation, yoga, meditation, fasting, and diet among them. They promised to be helpful, but something was missing that I only began to uncover when I started teaching relaxation/surrender. Some of those yoga classes I taught were huge back in the sixties and seventies. To help people I would wander around the class and lift an arm or leg of some of those lying quietly relaxed. I lifted the limb to let the person have an enhanced awareness of their relaxed condition. What amazed me was that often the arm or leg was so rigid with tension it was hard to move. If I let go the limb would remain suspended. On asking the person how they felt they would say, ‘Fine. Really relaxed.’ They didn’t know they were carrying enormous tensions.

It took me a while to realise what that indicated. You could relax surface muscles and feelings, but a mass of tensions were unconscious. Later I learned that such tensions had often arisen from difficult or traumatic past experiences, still locked in the body and emotions. By using relaxation techniques such as dropping the tension of the voluntary muscles or meditating on positive things, those inner tensions 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.

With shock I realised this was true of many things that were supposed to be helpful, such as meditation and positive thinking. What they often did was to calm surface feelings by controlling thoughts and body. They did not deal with the real difficulties that had been pushed into the unconscious. Their purpose was to quieten the conscious mind and the voluntary movements of the body, not release unconscious tensions.

I went on an almost fanatical search for what could be done to change that – to release the unconscious problems. The clue was, as Richet says, that ‘the slight instability is the necessary condition for the true stability of the organism.’ I gradually realised that to really adjust to the many knocks and changes we meet in life, our body and mind need to be capable of a type of ‘instability’. It needs to be able to move, to express freely, and to respond automatically or spontaneously. Yet all our cultural training and habits are about control and suppression. Governments also sometimes give huge threats to the people if they do not conform. All in all, we have in many ways been trained to be sick – as I was myself. And, amazingly, my doctor, to deal with depression and physical but undiagnosble pains, was telling me to take a drug, a tranquiliser, to maintain the status quo.

To deal with it is something we need to experience, not something we are taught. The simplest way of describing it is to say it is a process of allowing parts of ourselves to express that in everyday life may never have had opportunity to declare themselves. It is about surrendering our personal egoistic control, and trusting that our Life Process knows how to bring us to wholeness once we yield to It.

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” — T.S. Eliot

“Do nothing, but let things happen.” Carl Jung

When I managed to do that, what happened was incredible. My body and my emotions discharged the whole experience of having my tonsils out as a six year old. My head pulled back, my mouth clamped open, and my arms were in the position of being strapped to my side. Perhaps I had not been fully anaesthetised – I don’t know. What I do know is that I had carried that enormous tension and shock inside me from six until I was thirty five.

Up until that day I had experienced a powerful neck tension that I had tried again and again to ‘relax’ away. My being didn’t need to relax, it needed to discharge in powerful tension, physical struggles and emotion. After this ’shaking’ experience there was never again a tension in my neck, a tension that had been caused by trying to pull away from the surgeon cutting my throat. However, it was not simply a physical tension it released. Powerful emotions were also discharged, ones that had created difficult responses to everyday life.

That was an amazing experience, and from there on I could allow the process to continue its work on me. Gradually it ‘discharged’ the other things from childhood, and another medical operation, that had thrown my body and mind out of balance. But it didn’t stop at clearing out difficult past experiences, its process went on to expansion of awareness and growth – it moved toward making me more than I had been. All of that came about by allowing my being to express spontaneously without my conscious intervention, by allowing spontaneous movement and sounds, by surrendering or offering my body, sexual self, me emotions and mind to the life that had brought me forth; to the unknown of myself and trusting it.

I continue using this ‘opening’ weekly, as I felt it was, for twelve years. And for those years I experienced unconscious traumas being healed, and the the meeting with what I called ‘Blue Skies’ – an enlarged awareness of everything.

Consi8dering my bad birth –  I was two months premature and born dead – not breathing – the doctor threw my lifeless body aside and told my mother that I would be a weak child and she could have more children. However, my grandmother witnessed this and carried my body off and bathed me in hot and cold water and got me breathing. I owe her my life, she was my resurrection. The name of that resurrection was love.

It took ages to realise that I was born a runt – a small or weak person – that could not function as normal healthy people can. I didn’t realise the extent of its influence until I journeyed to Australia and had to have  a full medical examination to enter. The woman doctor, a very efficient and straight-out person, asked me did I know I was born prematurely? I said I did and asked her how she knew. She said, look at the roof of your mouth, it shows your body never completed its growth.

Consider also that I was thrown out of school for not keeping up with the others – for example we had do running as an exercise, and had to run across Regents Park. I had the build of a runner but try as I might I was always last to finish along with two companions, fatty Atkinson and skinny Arkle.

The experience as a fifteen year old must have done something, because creativity flowered in me – because during my life I have worked as a shop assistant – photographer – parent – kitchen porter – trained nurse – telephone exchange operator – van driver – builder decorator – plumber – electrician – television aerial erector – radio and TV broadcaster – journalist – author 40 books – poet – group leader teaching LifeStream, dream work and self help groups starting one of the first self help centres in the UK – psychotherapist using dreams and LifeStream – a bee keeper – newspaper columnist – cook – what next!!!. There are just too many things in life to enjoy and taste. See Criticisms – A 1000 Features 

 

 

Did You Know About This?

What Is The Trance Mediums Secret?

THE SILVER HAIRED OLD LADY – settled back in her armchair, took a drink of  water, and said, “Now whatever you do, don’t touch me. Do you understand? Don’t touch me “

My friend and I assured her we wouldn’t and she relaxed and closed her eyes. Then  followed much deep breathing, clicking sounds from her throat and movements of the face. Eventually, with a voice somewhat changed and deepened, she spoke as one who introduced himself as a Red Indian. Straightaway, several intimate experiences of my own were discussed. I was also told of several things I was doing or planning to do. These included the writing of a book, and one that I was thinking about. She correctly explained what I had in mind for the future book, what its theme was to be, and predicted its future.

After this, with different voices, followed several famous personalities, but all the time I had the uncomfortable feeling that it was still the same little lady talking to me. She was definitely psychic; that was proved from the information she gave. But as for her being taken over by other personalities, something within me could not accept that.

I felt that what she did was to make a personality, more positive than her own, through which she found it easier to express her own psychic impressions. None of this, I felt, was being done purposely. It was just that she could do, say, and be, in this state what she could not in her normal conscious condition.

After this experience I was able to describe in detail to my wife the conscious personality of a woman who was developing trance mediumship in a circle she attended. She was a shy, retiring person who wouldn’t say “Boo” to a goose, yet she had within her a great deal that she wanted to express. For her, trance was a natural means of overcoming shyness and being able to express, through a personality she it unconsciously assuming, her inner feelings.

Phoebe Payne, the famous clairvoyant, makes a similar observation in her book, Man’s Latent Abilities. She explains how she has clairvoyantly seen trance mediums take on other personalities from materials in their own auras. But an understanding of trance mediumship is not so simple as that. I have seen other mediums who are truly baffling, the personalities by which they appear to be taken over distinct and having qualities, information and abilities that do not seem to come from the mediums themselves.

It is difficult to understand the contradictions so evident in a medium’s explanation of what takes place. For instance, it is often said that a spirit actually enters the medium’s physical body, much as one dons clothes.

But Sylvan Muldoon, in his book Astral Projection, tells how his astral body had no impact at all with physical bodies. He simply passed through them with no sensation.

Some authorities contend that the soul, or spirit, can never have a local habitation as we know it. Using the analogy of radio waves, they give voice to my wireless, my next door neighbour’s, and my friend’s wireless a thousand miles sway, all at the same moment. But radio waves are grosser and slower than light, and light is still a physical manifestation. If we think way beyond the speed and quality of light, we may have an idea of the spaceless, timeless existence of the soul. To enter a body, the soul would have to be physical, like water, located through inertia in a limited portion of space. This would seem to discount any idea of an actual entering. It would be rather-again like the radio matter of attune- ment or coming into an harmonious relationship. Two personalities in their different conditions would have to come into alignment and harmony, just as one tunes in a wireless to a particular wavelength. Also, a radio signal does not actually enter the wireless and flow through it. It sets upon a very sensitive part of the wireless and the response is then translated and amplified into sound. So, too, would it seem to be with trance mediumship.

There also seems to be some woolly thinking on the question of the information being expressed. It is often said that a medium cannot give all the information that the spirit wishes, because certain words or knowledge are not part of the medium’s brain cells and present learning. To dispel this idea, we can consider any of the great mediums, such as Andrew Jackson Davies and Edgar Cayce. They were able to give information which they did not consciously possess. Edgar Cayce was able to speak foreign languages while in trance, ones he had never learnt, so they can, also able to convey medical, scientific and geological messages. If there is any barrier to the expression of messages, it is due to an inadequate or incomplete ability and faculty of expression and has no connection with education. Or it may simply mean that the medium is drawing from no other mind but their own.

Another interesting idea in regard to the personalities expressed during trance is prevalent in occult teachings. This is the belief that the psychic `self of each of us holds the complete memory of our every thought, feeling and act. This memory is said to include also the previous lives of the individual. Therefore, by delving into our psychic self, these past memories can be revived.

The Past Revived

If, for example, one had been a priest in the past, an unusual knowledge of religious’ principles could be expressed. In actual life we have the case of Meri, which was reported in the journal Litteraire in 1864. While visiting the Vatican Library in Rome, Meri was received by the young novice”. As was the custom of these girls, they spoke to him in pure Latin. As they did so, it was as if a veil fell from him and he found himself conversing with them in a language he had never spoken in this life. Meri himself describes this as memory of a past existence.

These memories of a past life within the psychic self, when contacted, will usually express themselves as distinct and living personalities. It would thus be difficult at times to associate them with the present self, especially if one had conditioned oneself to look upon every psychic contact as a dead personality. Naturally, the trance condition is an ideal state for these past selves to express again. Occultism states it is possible that many spiritualist guides may be past incarnations of the present medium, expressing their particular knowledge and psychic contacts.

A Tibetan Mystic

Another interesting sidelight on trance mediumship is given by Alexandra David-Neal in one of her books about Tibet. She .and a Tibetan nobleman were in conversation with a learned mystic, and the nobleman asked the mystic a question to which he could not reply. He said that his Master, who lived a great distance away, could have answered it. The nobleman naturally asked if this Master could be interviewed, but the reply was a definite “No”. The mystic became quiet and seemed to withdraw within himself. Suddenly, before their eyes, it was as if he became another person entirely, and in a strange voice, he answered the question which had been put to him. This answer was in fact a prophecy which later proved correct. The mystic then reverted to his normal self and, looking rather shaken, told them that his Master had spoken through him. He then retired immediately.

I have, in fact, met another trance medium who claims that a living Tibetan Lama talks through him. I have heard that this claim has been verified by a Tibetan Lama in this country who knows the aforementioned Lama. But I cannot properly report on this through lack of information.

Trance mediumship, then, leaves us with a number of possibilities to be considered. Expressions of living personalities expressions of one’s past selves; expression of the universal mind, or even one s own unconscious constructions, may be just a few, There are undoubtedly other, more subtle, considerations that research and experience will uncover. But whatever form it takes, I have no doubt myself that, in some cases, it is of extreme practical and inspirational value. Whatever we may care to think, we cannot deny that it is an extremely interesting subject.

I leave you with the thought that `She’ left with Holly in one of Rider Haggard’s wonderful books “The soul dear Holly is not in the body – the body is in the soul.”

Edgar Cayce – His 7 Prophecies

Will our lifespan, as human beings, be extended?

We know that humans are now living longer than at the time of Edgar Cayce, but his readings seem to indicate that a healthy human lifespan would extend years beyond that which we are currently living.

“Now, we find there are many changes in the body since we have had this – many for good. Many of the organs and the conditions show the changes as come about by the natural, or so called natural conditions in changes as the body succumbs to the effects of age or usage in the system. Much of this may be overcome. (Man should live much longer than has been ordinarily given – and will!)”
—  Edgar Cayce reading 244-2

Will we discover the design for a self-fueling perpetual-motion machine?

Perhaps with the current focus on renewable resources and energy conservation, we will see this next prophecy come to pass in our lifetimes.

“You will have before you the gasless motor invented by [4666].

“Edgar Cayce: Yes, we have the body and enquiring mind of [4666], also the associations and those conditions surrounding the perfection of motor which will develop power in its own action. As has been given, the idea and the plans as have been worked out in part along those lines that pull more of the power as produced in compression in drum, with the leads made in these forms that gather vibrations from the air as is forced through drum, are, as we find, the better application of the created energy. In the cams [as] have been used too much slack or play is allowed in their rotation. This is in the drum’s head action that these must be shortened in play.

“The connection of [195] and [900] with same – best that these have [4666]’s operations closer under their observations when the completed product is near attained.

“(Q) How may we bring him under our observation? (A) Bring him to … Ohio or N.Y.

“(Q) Is this machine the same as brought to Washington now by Lindbergh? [Charles A. Lindbergh] (A) No. As is here, the [4666] machine would operate on stationary conditions impelling forces; even for now that in gas motors – for, as tested by others, has more to do with that thrown in air and gaining its impelling force from that source. (Q) Would it operate perpetually if perfected? (A) Not perpetually, but once started could be kept in motion by created energy of its own source. Other has to have some source of impellation.”
—  Edgar Cayce reading 4665-1

Conflict in the Persian Gulf

“…As is understood by many, in the earth manifestation and the cycle of time much repeats itself …

There are still influences indicated in the lives of groups banded as nations, banded as peoples, still influenced by those happenings.

What then, ye ask, is the influence that makes for this great change that may be expected?

The powers of light and darkness, as then, as sixteen hundred (1600) years before. As in those periods, so today – we find nation against nation; the powers of death, destruction, the wrecking of that which has been and is held near and dear to the hearts of those who have through one form or another set ideals.

These are not to be questioned, in that as may be a helpful force; but what is coming to pass? And how may ye as individuals help? …

Strifes will arise through the period. Watch for them near Davis Strait in the attempts there for the keeping of the life line to a land open. Watch for them in Libya and in Egypt, in Ankara and in Syria, through the straits about those areas above Australia, in the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf.”
—  Edgar Cayce reading 3976-26

Is a New “Root Race” Evolving?

The Edgar Cayce information suggests that humanity’s consciousness has evolved and expanded over time. Cayce stated that this expansion of consciousness could be viewed throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. From the readings perspective the next great evolution would be tied to the development of what Cayce termed “the fifth root race.” An evolutionary occurrence that would mark a New Age and a new understanding of humanity’s relationship to God:

When a 52-year-old construction engineer asked about this expanding consciousness in 1942, Cayce commented that each individual had to essentially work with personal soul development in order to resonate to that new consciousness: “You expect a new root race. What are you doing to prepare for it? You must prepare food for their bodies as well as their minds and their spiritual development!”
—  Edgar Cayce reading 470-35

Ten years earlier, during a reading on the Great Pyramid in Egypt, Cayce suggested that an ancient “Hall of Records” would be discovered at a time signifying the manifestation of this new level of consciousness.
—  Edgar Cayce reading 5748-6

Will the Three Halls of Records Be Discovered?  

According to the readings, the people of Atlantis became aware of the fact that their civilization was about to be destroyed. As a result, they hid identical records of the Atlantean civilization in Bimini, in Egypt and in the Yucatan. Numerous readings contend that this Hall of Records will be discovered, including:

(Q) Give in detail what the sealed room contains

(A) A record of Atlantis from the beginnings of those periods when the Spirit took form or began the encasements in that land, and the developments of the peoples throughout their sojourn, with the record of the first destruction and the changes that took place in the land…

This in position lies, as the sun rises from the waters, the line of the shadow (or light) falls between the paws of the Sphinx, that was later set as the sentinel or guard, and which may not be entered from the connecting chambers from the Sphinx’s paw (right paw) until the TIME has been fulfilled when the changes must be active in this sphere of man’s experience.

Between, then, the Sphinx and the river.”      —  Edgar Cayce reading 378-16

(Q) In which pyramid or temple are the records mentioned in the readings given through this channel on Atlantis, in April, 1932?

(A) As given, that temple was destroyed at the time there was the last destruction in Atlantis.

Yet, as time draws nigh when changes are to come about, there may be the opening of those three places where the records are one, to those that are the initiates in the knowledge of the One God:

The temple by Iltar will then rise again. Also there will be the opening of the temple or hall of records in Egypt, and those records that were put into the heart of the Atlantean land may also be found there – that have been kept, for those that are of that group.

The RECORDS are ONE.      —  Edgar Cayce reading 5750-1

What is the shape of the world to come?  

Decades before the rest of the world was thinking about the enormous impact that China would have upon the global stage, Edgar Cayce predicted great things for China and its people. On one occasion, Cayce told a group of people that eventually China would become “the cradle of Christianity, as applied in the lives of men.”
—  Edgar Cayce reading 3976-29

This suggests the personal application of spiritual principles would become paramount to the Chinese people. Cayce then went on to caution that it would take a long time to manifest but that it was the country’s destiny: “Yea, it is far off as man counts time, but only a day in the heart of God – for tomorrow China will awake.”

On another occasion, when a thirty-six-year-old book publisher asked about the destiny of China in 1943, just prior to his own trip to the country to serve in the capacity of a missionary, Cayce promised amazing changes in the country that would lead to more democracy and greater religious freedom. He also suggested that eventually the height of civilization would move from the West to the Chinese people: “And these will progress. For, civilization moves west.”
—  Edgar Cayce reading 2834-3

Will There Be a Second Coming?  

The Cayce readings had much to say about the life of Jesus—covering the “lost” years that were never addressed in the Bible. But Cayce also spoke of Jesus’ return and here is an excerpt on that subject:

“What is meant by “the day of the Lord is near at hand”? (A) That as has been promised through the prophets and the sages of old, the time – and half time – has been and is being fulfilled in this day and generation, and that soon there will again appear in the earth that one through whom many will be called to meet those that are preparing the way for His day in the earth. The Lord, then, will come, ‘even as ye have seen him go.’”
— Edgar Cayce reading 262-49

Edgar Cayce – His Dream Dictionary

Use this dictionary as a resource. It contains only those symbols which were clearly interpreted in one or more of the Cayce dream readings. For many of the symbols there are other possible interpretations listed as well. Based on your own personal associations, you may want to add other likely meanings for certain symbols.

This dictionary may be used as a starting point for assembling a more complete reference. one way to do this is to devote one section of your dream journal notebook to a personal dictionary. Whenever you dream of a symbol that does not appear in this dictionary of symbols from the Cayce readings, add an entry to your own, personally compiled, reference list.

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I-J | K | L | M | N | O | P-Q | R | S | T | U-V | W-X-Y-Z

A 
Ambulance help for the physical body, which can be brought into play (137-6). Other possibilities: Impending emergency.

Anchor staying in one spot in understanding (i.e., “taking up anchor” means starting to learn) (900-158, A-2). Other possibilities: 1. tied down. 2. stability. 3. power of determination and resolve from deep within. 4. desire to settle down.

Angel the light of truth (262-9). Other possibilities: 1. wisdom. 2. guidance. 3. a coming birth or death (literally or figuratively)

Armor “the armor of the Lord” that can protect a person from difficulties and temptations (294-185). Other possibilities: 1. rigidity. 2. barriers we put up to people in self-defense.

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B

Baby 1. a new venture ( 538-24). 2. a new interpersonal relationship (551-12). 3. that which appears to be small or of little account but may be of the greatest value (294-139, A-5). 4. the spiritual truth (294-159, A-6). 5. that which requires teaching, guidance, and direction (900-98, A-2). 6. the harmonious union of two people (dreamed that he and wife had triplets; Cayce Interpreted as harmonious relations between the two at physical, mental and spiritual levels) (900-183, A-2). 7. becoming open and unafraid, in the sense. that Jesus spoke. “except you become as little children…” (900-386, A-12,-13). Other possibilities: 1. undeveloped, immature. 2. something just getting started. 3. free of responsibilities. 4. something needing nurturing and encouragement.

Ball 1. the “perfect sphere”-some Ideal or concept of wholeness (900-104). 2. the forces of this world as they relate to the Universal Force (900-128, A-3). 3. a whole, or well rounded, approach to things (900-140, A-6). 4. the oneness of purpose (900-142, A-1). 5. childhood games (137-61, A-2). Other possibilities: 1. completeness. 2. competitiveness.

Bath 1. cleansing and freeing from old ideas (900-189). 2. a cleansing and strengthening of the outer self, which should not be confused with the inner strengthening that comes from God (900-110). Other possibilities: 1. physical cleansing. 2. letting go of opinions and prejudices.

Bear that which has two sides: one destructive and the other playful, caressing, and loving (294-87). Other possibilities: 1. grumpy. 2. over protectiveness. 3. failing stock prices (“bear market”). 4. hibernating, retreating.

Bed 1. sexual activity (136-4, A-2). 2. dirty conditions in the bed-care must be taken that by moral standards one’s life appears to be clean and open (294-56, A-2). 3. closeness to another or intimacy (discarnate father In bed with the dreamer Is Interpreted as actual soul-to-soul Contact) (900-159, A-2). Other possibilities: I. rest or sleep.2. unconsciousness.

Bird 1. the bearer of a message (900-37). 2. canaries- idle talk (like chirping and twittering) that is a hindrance to self (281-7). 3. an eagle-the highest elements of power and might in action (900-117). Other possibilities: 1. freedom from materials ties. 2. the soul. 3. spiritual knowledge. 4. the heart chakra.5.aspirations, thoughts, and Ideals. 6. telepathy. 7. the higher self.

Black man a truth which is submerged and still in one’s own unconscious (dreamer was a white female, age 48) (106-10, A-2).

Blanket, quilt. bed cover 1. the “cover” or mode of conduct in the home (900-142). 2. helpful attitudes to make the best of or to cover a difficult situation (900-180).

Blood 1. the physical forces of the body itself, indicative of relative level of health or Imbalance (900-262). 2. the Ideas and Ideals of a person (e.g., a blood transfusion representing their transmission) (900-271). 3. life-giving, vital force (136-83). 4. strength (i.e., as In the strength which comes to use through the blood shed by Christ) (900-327). Other possibilities: 1. kinship, as In “blood ties.” 2. the sacrifice of Christ. 3. “bad blood” meaning animosity.

Boat 1. the voyage of life (136-41). 2. a body of thought which one can enter into and travel upon (900-102, A-2). 3. something that comes from a foreign source (i.e., from across the waters) (900-142, A-7). 4. a forthcoming trip (136-67). 5. a message about spiritual truth to be carried abroad (900-267, A-4). 6. ferryboat separating from a pier-a voyage into the afterlife, the separation into a new realm (900-370).Other possibilities: 1. having common problems or challenges as those other people depicted in the boat (i.e., “in the same boat”). 2. an adventure. 3. beginning to explore the unconscious mind. 4. an opportunity (e.g., “missing the boat”).

Book 1. knowledge (900-196, A-5; 900-156,A-15). 2. lessons gained (900-217, A-1). Other possibilities: 1. memories. 2. Ideas. 3. Akashic records.

Box 1. that which holds and protects (257-130 Supplement). 2. the conditions surrounding a person’s life (900-97, A-1). 3. hedged in or boxed in (900-216, A-3; 900-17, A-3). 4. being hemmed in by the cares of the world (900-178).

Bread 1. the most basic sustaining force of life; the staff of life; that which permits development (“morally, mentally, spiritually, financially”) (136-16, A-2). 2. positive efforts invested in the present which may have future benefits (i.e., Biblical metaphor: casting bread upon the waters, and “it shall be returned to thee”) (900-257, A-2). Other possibilities: 1. that which has been learned from life. 2. money.

Bricks little words or little deeds that can slowly be built up (900-376, A-4).

Bridge 1. our way of passing through material life (900-64). 2. the foundation for a way of life (900-112). 3. a transition (288-14). Other possibilities: 1. a link between opposites. 2. a way of overcoming a difficulty.

Bull 1. hardheadedness or stubbornness (i.e., “bull- headed”) (294-36, A-2). 2. bull market (i.e., dreamer was a stock investor) (137-113).Other possibilities: 1. sexuality or sexual appetite. 2. the first chakra or spiritual center.

Bull’s-eye attuning to one’s ideals or goal (900-106, A-1).

Burglar a warning about someone who may try to take advantage of the dreamer (195-51, A-2). Other possibilities: 1. negative attitude or emotion that is stealing one’s energy or vitality. 2. guilt about having taken something (literally or metaphorically) from someone. 3. desire to take something from someone (e.g., power, prestige, etc).

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C

Cake aggrandizement of physical appetites (900-94, A-6). . Other possibilities: 1. something luxurious or not practical. 2. reward. 3. celebration.

Candle 1. singleness of purpose and heart (900-322, A-1). 2. stages of development (900-252). Other possibilities: 1. personal physical re- sources (e.g., “burning a candle at both ends”). 2. enlightenment, wisdom.

Candy 1. one’s own physical satisfaction; self-indulgence (136-23, A-7). 2.improper,indulgent eating (136-60, A-3). 3. a luxury (900-230, A-1). 4. sweets- diet reference to amount of sweets (136-21).

Cane that which provides aid or assistance (especially in a physical way) but which can be used either as mere ‘show’ or as genuine and understood help (i.e., some people carry a cane only for show, others really need It to walk) (137-63, A-4). Other possibilities: 1. support. 2. discipline. 3. male sex organ.

Captain the one in charge (e.g., boat captain) and accountable for the lives and well-being of Others (900-267, A-4). Other possibilities: 1. higher self. 2. Intellect. – 3. source of guidance. 4. authority, power.

Car/automobile 1. the vehicle or means by which we move through the journey of life (294-159, A-4). 2. automobile stock (dreamer was stockbroker) (900-209). 3. car accident-general warning about upcoming period of being accident-prone (not necessarily a car accident) (136-21, A-5). 4. speeding car-hurrying or forcing an Issue (900-115, A-1). Other possibilities: 1. physical body. 2. etheric body. 3. one’s Ideas or mind-set. 4. ambitious and driven. 5. status or social standing. 6. self- control or lack of It (who is driving?).

Carpet a subservient state; being walked on (294-36, A-2). Other possibilities: 1. Insulation against u)worldly Influences. 2. softness, comfort. 3. the handiwork of God. 4. hiding or covering up some- thing.

Cat 1. sexuality (900-308, A-8). 2. kitten-prankster (900-259, A-7). Other possibilities: 1. Independent. 2. gossipy.

Chewing gum that which must be chewed upon as a message or lesson in order to be understood (900-159, A-2).

Children 1. hope (262-8). 2. Simplicity (900-313; 900-302). 3. that which is undeveloped (i.e., “when I was a child, I thought as a child, but now…”) (136-7). 4. responsibilities (i.e., children require that adult parents assume responsibility for their well-being) (900-72). 5. those who will ask and seek to learn (900-189). Other possibilities: 1. childishness. 2. some personal endeavor that Is about the same age as the children.

Church 1. safety and security and strength in the spiritual forces (195-33). 2. conditions related to both daily life and spiritual life (341-15). Other possibilities: 1. one’s religious beliefs. 2. childhood associations with religion. 3. one’s entire being (physical, mental, and spiritual).

Clothing 1. the physical, material body as a whole (i.e., the soul “clothes” Itself in a material body) (900-18). 2. the outer personality patterns of someone (i.e., his/her attitudes and behavior) (294-136, A-5). Other possibilities: 1.your occupation, the vocational role you wear. 2. reference to a part of the physical body that piece of clothing covers. 3. the persona or face we show to the world.

Clover 1. that which grows and develops in a well rounded way (900-120, A-2). 2. four-leaf clover- seeming “good luck” that really has a spiritual cause (136-12).

Coat 1. thoughts and attitudes (137-73). 2. raincoat- recommendation regarding physical wealth: to stay dry in order to avoid a virus cold (137-24, A-8). 3. attitudes (w4th color of coat giving clue as to type of attitude) (294-136, A-3). 4. fur coat- wintertime (i.e., predictive dream about some- thing that would happen In the winter) (900-74, A-3). Other possibilities: raincoat-protection from one’s own emotional upset or that of others.

Coffin 1.the nature of the death experience (900-99, A-2). 2. a state of consciousness which is attuned to the unseen spiritual world (900-241, A-7). 3. a weakened state, total lack of vitality (294-50, A-1). 4. a deadened, dull, unawakened state of consciousness which is lacking in spiritual insight (294-50, A-1).

Colors:

Black obstructions (900-77, A-1). Other possibilities: 1. Ignorance. 2. mystery. 3. unconscious.

Blue truth (136-14). Other possibilities: 1. religious or spiritual feelings. 2. calm, contemplative, peaceful. 3. will–personal or divine. 4. healing.

Golden truth for the mind (136-15, A-1; 136-24, A-10). Other possibilities: 1. valuable. 2. powers of the soul.

Green development, growth (136-15, A-2). Other possibilities: 1. nature. 2. receptiveness. 3. envy.

Red 1. desires of the heart (900-87, A-4). 2. meaningful, important to be understood or grasped (e.g., red underlining of a written pas- sage) (900-89, A-2). 3. blood (900-166, A-10). 4. trouble or misunderstanding (487-6). S. red hat-higher attributes of mind development (900-101, A-2). Other possibilities: 1. passion. 2. anger. 3. physical desire. 4. energy. 5. stop.

White Purity (136-26, A-1). Other possibilities: 1. Innocence. . 2. the Ideal of completeness

Compass a source of guidance (294-74, A-3).Other possibilities: 1. the most fulfilling direction in life. 2. the ability to persist In the face of op- posing outer events.

Container 1. saucer-all that is currently held in the conscious mind (900-163, A-1). 2. received like a trophy cup-the attainment of a union of knowledge and understanding, which brings happiness, joy and peace (900-109). Other possibilities: 1. receptivity. 2. female sex organs. 3. all one’s Inner contents-the soul.

Court-martial/court trial criticism (from others or Self) (195-42, A-1). Other possibilities: measuring one’s own recent behavior against universal laws.

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D

Dawn (morning) the awakening of new forces (900-37). Other possibilities: 1. a healing. 2. a fresh perspec tive or new approach. 3. a breakthrough in understanding.

Death (dying) 1. birth of new thought, an awakening from the subconscious mind (136-6). 2. the coming of a condition that will test one’s abilities (294-50). 3. trials and tribulations which provide lessons in spiritual truth (900-178; 341-20). 4. death of dreamer’s brother-the death of the Christ, the Elder Brother, and Its significance to the world (900-189). 3. loss of a talent because of defects, imbalances, or weaknesses in the physical body (294-70). 6. the equalizer (i.e., that which brings all people of different social standing to one level) (136-70). 7. one’s own after- death state-the consciousness and understanding you experience In the after-death plane is available to you now as a way of under-standing and comprehending in the physical Plane (140-10). 8. the loss of a characteristic from one’s own life which is also a characteristic of the person who has died in the dream (900-189). 9. the need for more attention, sympathy, and love for the one who dies in dream (900-246). 10. transition or change (900-375, A-3)

Diamond great truth (900-280). Other possibilities: 1. the eternity of the spirit. 2. spiritual consciousness. 3. hardness. 4. something of great value. 5. money, financial security. 6. love or being loved.

Dining table 1. attention to physical food; diet (900-264, A-1). 2. what one is feeding the mind (900-170, A-16).

Dirt/dirty 1. something unbecoming or improper with oneself that needs to be corrected (900-375,A-3). 2. fear or “dirty attitudes” within oneself (900-160, A-1). 3. Improper or unclean state of mind (133-27, A-1; 137-73, A-:t). 4. warning to keep life clean” and avoid any appearance of question- able moral conduct (294-56, A-2). 5. grease soils clothes-too much grease in diet is currently harmful (294-138).

Diving jumping into a new life experience, perhaps not as carefully as It should be done (137-87, A-2; 136-22, A-1).

Dog 1. a nature or disposition that may not always be trusted (294-87). 2. that which is faithful and unfaithful (288-17). 3. that which is friendly or, if aroused, an enemy (294-97). 4. things going downhill-going “to the dogs” (294-97). Other possibilities: 1. aggressiveness. 2. Instinctive knowledge. 3. obedience.

Donkey 1.an honor (e.g., Jesus’ ride on Palm Sunday) (307-15). 2. a lowly position, indicating dishonor or, instead, humbleness (307-15). Other possibilities: 1. stubborn and unyielding. 2. bearer of a heavy load.

Door/doorway 1. openings, ways, or avenues of personal expression (137-109, A-1). 2. locking back door-wanting to avoid unpleasant conditions (294-48). 3. front door-the place of meeting that, which is newly coming into one’s life (294-46). 4. trap door-a coming and unexpected new disclosure (900-265, A-10). 5. trap door- traps or pitfalls into which one can fall (294-138). 6. closing doors-counted-on opportunities will be shut, causing consternation (900-239, A-2). Other possibilities: 1. a barrier, which potentially can be removed. 2. death.

Dragon fear (900-230, A-12). Other possibilities: 1. materialism. 2. repressed emotion. 3. the power of the unconscious.

Drama the acts of the play are phases in the dreamer’s own life being symbolically replayed (900-308).

Draperies that which covers or hides (900-156, A-15). Other possibilities: 1. adornment. 2. privacy or the desire for it.

Dress 1. (new) one being tried on, new thought, new ideals (136-15). 2. one’s appearance in the eyes of others (136-21, A-4). 3. the identity or the self- image one has adopted or is “wearing” (136-26, A-1).

Drugstore actual drugs taken by the body (900-322, A-3). Other possibilities: 1. heating. 2. reliance on phys- ical means to stimulate change.

Drum beating-undiplomatic or untactful,”beating the drum” of one’s own point of view (900-395). Other possibilities: 1. heart, pulse. 2. rhythms In one’s life.

Duel sword–verbal argumentation with another person (900-313, A-5). Other possibilities: 1. Internal fight between two sides of oneself. 2. self-criticism or self- condemnation.

Dummy 1. warning about getting involved with dim- witted individuals (137-97, A-3). 2. that which is controlled or yanked around by outside forces (900-260, A-11).

Dynamite temper (900-135, A-7). Other possibilities: 1. material force. 2. explosive emotions (including fears).

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E

Electric power line the driving force that energizes a situation (900-158, A-2).

Elephant 1. power and might combined with heightened knowledge and cunning (341-15, A-3). 2. knowledge and power (900-90, A-1). Other possibilities: 1. sexuality. 2. the great Inner power of the unconscious. 3. strength of will. 4. long memory, forgetting. 5. thick skinned.

Elevator changes, ups and downs (900-209, A-1; 900-241, A-1; 137-74, A-2). Other possibilities: altered states of consciousness.

Explosion 1. warning of turmoil or change (136-41). 2. harsh responses likely to come from others due to recent behaviors of dreamer (288-20). Other possibilities: 1. Impending health crisis. 2. something, which has been repressed coming to the surface.

Eye 1. one’s outlook or vision (900-285, A-11; 900-308, A-4). 2. large eyes–an all-seeing, clairvoyant vision of things (137-45). Other possibilities: 1. Intelligence. 2. curiosity. 3. personal identity (i.e., “I”).

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F

Falling 1. conditions (could be physical health, financial, attitudinal/emotional state, etc.) that are failing or may soon go down; can be produced by conscious life fears rather than predictive guidance (900-216, A-8). 2. disappointments in life (538-22, A-2). Other possibilities: 1. lack of support. 2. getting caught up In something (e.g., failing in love). 3. fear of not being in control. 4. fear of suffering a moral lapse. 5. fear of failing from or losing a position of prestige.

Feathers 1. flying feathers-disrupted conditions (294-36, A-3). 2. plucking feathers-things to be removed so that a new stability can emerge (137-37, A-4). Other possibilities: 1. an achievement. 2. a thought or aspiration.

Feet 1. the pathway one is on (900-37; 294-136, A-4). 2. defective feet-flawed pathway one may be following (551-12). Other possibilities: 1. understanding. 2. basic assumptions. 3. relationship to the ground, to the earth.

Fence 1. confining yourself by your own conscious, limited Interpretation (or understanding) of things (341-11, A-2). 2. an enclosure that limits or hedges in (294-87, A-1).Other possibilities: 1. undecided (i.e., “on the fence”). 2. barrier. 3. difficulty within self, barring progress or expression. 4.protection from outside threat.

Fire 1. fear, which creates a hellish experience (900-282). 2. a trial that makes things perfect (136-4). 3. ire (i.e., anger or irritation) (136-4). 4. that which can burn and reduce something (or someone) to nothing (288-15). 5. detrimental conditions in the physical body, which are consuming (900-216). 6. temper (900-143, 900-253). 7. physical conditions that would mar or cause physical distress (106-9). Other possibilities: 1. passion. 2. pain.

Fireworks public acclaim (900-53). Other possibilities: achievement and celebration. 2. dramatic, outer demonstration of one’s Inner state.

Fish 1. the Christ (294-15). 2. a geographic location near water (i.e., where fish can be caught) (294-44). 3. that achievement to which you may attain (341-13). 4. a lesson that can be drawn out (like a fish is drawn out of water) (294-34). Other possibilities: 1. something not quite right (i.e., “fishy”). 2. prenatal experience (i.e., life in the waters of the womb). 3. Ideas and feelings from the inner life. 4. dietary recommendation regarding seafood.

Flag 1. national or international affairs/issues (note what the flags are) (257-74,A-34). 2.the standard by which one judges self (900-69, A-3). Other possibilities: 1. patriotism. 2. self-identity. 3. call to greater attention toward something.

Flower 1. hope (262-8). 2. lily-spiritual development, growth, and beauty that grow out of unsightly “muck” (i.e., the lily grows in water and mud) (137-63, A-3). Other possibilities: 1. beauty. 2. something in one- self about to blossom. 3. love. 4. growth. 5. center of consciousness. 6. virginity.

Flying l.mastering physical laws and overcoming them wakening to higher, fourth-dimensional understanding (900-159, A-4). 2. traveling to be done in the waking state (2310-2). Other possibilities: 1. astral travel or precursor to becoming lucid in a dream. 2. desire to avoid something. 3. desire to rise above things. 4. idealism. 5. fantasy or wishful thinking.

Food 1. that which nourishes us spiritually (e.g., truth) (281-6). 2. anything that sustains us physically 3. that which sustains and nourishes us mentally (i.e., new ideas or knowledge) (900-294; 900-152). 4. anything, in general, that gives sustenance to the physical self (136-18,A-4). 5. that with which one feeds the mind (900-239, A-1). 6. the truth which the mind needs in order to grow (900-294, A-1).

Foundation (of a building) 1. the physical body of the dreamer (i.e., the “foundation” on which rests the capacity to get anything done) (294-10). 2. plans (i.e., on which the possible accomplishments rest) (294-72). 3. that which is trusted and gives stability to one’s life (39-3). Other possibilities: 1. ideals. 2. assumptions.

Fountain source from which greater knowledge may be obtained (195-42). Other possibilities: 1. the source of supply. 2. the water of life.

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G

Game 1. croquet-pleasure or enjoyment in a worldly way (900-120, A-1). 2. physical efforts or challenges with goals (i.e., “wickets”) to be made (900-128, A-3; 900-116, A-8).

Giant 1. people or conditions, which ridicule or are oppressive to Self (900-313). 2. conditions, which seem to be a hindrance (137-38). 3. foreboding of distressing or disagreeable conditions (137-38). 4. the forces of ridicule (i.e., what belittles one or makes one feel small) (900-313, A-1). Other possibilities: strength without wisdom.

Glasses (for eyes) that which enhances comprehension (538 -19, A-1). Other possibilities: 1. clear-sightedness. 2. mind-set (e.g., “rose-colored glasses”). 3. something, which aids inner vision.

Gloves 1. that which keeps the body warm and healthy (e.g., loss of gloves indicating need to take better care of health) (137-38). 2. protection (900-419, A-3).

Gold fabric truths being shown (137-35).

Golf 1. exercise for the physical well-being of the body (900-79; 900-85). 2. golf ball–the person or the person’s own life; the word of the spiritual forces (900-99). 3. golf club-the way one goes about life (900-99). 4. golf course-the world in which we make our way (900-99).

Gorge troublesome conditions along the way (294-159).

Gun 1. pistol-aggressiveness, harshness (288-20). 2. the source of injury (not necessarily bodily; in this case, financial) (195-27). 3. a way of defending oneself (294-101). 4. aiming a gun- keeping properly focused on target or goal (900-106, A-1). Other possibilities: 1. male sex organ. 2. fear.

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H

Hair 1. reasoning process (137-41, A-2). 2. thought (136-7, A-4; 900-99, A-4). 3. knowledge (900-156, A-3). Other possibilities: physical or spiritual strength (e.g., Biblical story of Samson).

Hammer the driving force in a situation (294-36, A-2). Other possibilities: 1. power. 2. desire to have an impact. 3. building something.

Hat 1. the active conditions (i.e., what is currently going on in the life) that exist with an individual (900-122). 2. the nature of a person’s thoughts (136-18). Other possibilities: occupation or job undertaken.

Head 1. functioning of the brain (294-56). 2. an attitude, orientation or way of approach (e.g., dream character with head on backwards means approaching things in backward fashion) (294-131, A-3). 3. headless-inability to reach that person through normal, physical, conscious means-can only be contacted through spiritual means (900-355, A-1). 4. headless – warning not to lose your head in daily duties (137-36). Other possibilities: conscious intentions.

Home/house 1. condition and effects created by one’s current work in life (294-50). 2. a specific station in the thought and action of a person (538-20). 3. the “place” in which one dwells in consciousness (i.e., one’s state of consciousness) (900-53). 4. the mental state of an individual (900, A-3). Other possibilities: 1. spiritual home. 2. domestic life. 3. the body. 4. the personality. 5. front of house-the facade shown to the world. 6. basement-unconscious or instincts.

Hornet, wasps 1. troublesome obstacles to be overcome (341-13). 2. warning about dangerous condition (i.e., may be painful) (294-67).

Horse 1. the messenger (294-136; 262-15,137-89). 2. the message and the messenger (900-98; 900-336). 3. the nature of the message may be represented in the kind of horse (e.g., a charger, a slow workhorse, a race horse, etc.) (294-85). Other possibilities: 1. making progress. 2. unbridled emotions. 3. instincts.

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I– J

Intruder 1. breaks into home-the breaking of a law, the breaking of a spiritual law (because the home represents the spiritual home) (136-60). 2. self-indulgent attitudes or behaviors (136-24, A-12). Other possibilities: 1. a threatening and avoided side of self. 2. the “shadow” or ignored side of self.

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K

Key 1. the conscious knowledge necessary to understand more of the Universal Laws (i.e., the “lock” represents the mysteries of living things in a material world) (900-84). 2. safety or that which provides safety (137-99, A-2). 3. the solution or answer to a situation (900-280, A-1).

King 1. the attainment of a high goal (900-261, A-7). 2. help, assistance, and aid that can come from beyond oneself (900-208, A-5). Other possibilities: 1. your own father. 2. what you are ruled by. 3. God. 4. the dominant idea in your mind. 5. the side of yourself you consider most majestic.

Knife 1.a “two-edged” tool that can be used for defense or to force one’s own way upon another (900-270). 2. forces exerted in the material world for destruction (900-37). Other possibilities: 1. male sex organ. 2. aggressiveness, hostility. 3. piercing mind.

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L

Ladder 1. the Way (i.e., the ladder to heaven) (281-19). 2. any kind of ascent (900-128). 3. descending a ladder-doing something in life that is a “step down” from what was previously done (900-314, A-6). 4. missing rung of ladder – a hardship along the way of life (281-19, A-7). Other possibilities: 1. success. 2. improvement which comes through a series of separate events or efforts. 3. elevated social prestige.

Lake peace and tranquility (262-8). Other possibilities: 1. a haven. 2. pool–that which reflects or mirrors.

Leaves dead leaves on ground that which is sloughed off or ejected (like drosses from the physical body) (294-136). Other possibilities: 1. life, growth. 2. easily blown about or separated from one’s origins.

Letter 1. information which comes (900-242). 2. messages of truth (538-19, A-1). Other possibilities: 1. a realization. 2. telepathic contact.

Light 1. great lessons and great truths 2. knowledge and its application which brings understanding (341-22). 3. the throne of (God’s Presence (136-26). 4. the rays of God’s love, peace, and happiness (900-216). 5. a higher force and power (900-315). 6.that directing force as would show the way to gain more perfect knowledge (900-159). 7. hope (137-46). Other possibilities: 1. one’s conscious awareness of individuality. 2. conscious intellect. 3. conscious attention.

Light bulb 1.that which brings the light of understanding (900-366). 2.one’sown intuition (900-278, A-7).

Lightning 1. the higher forces, which rnay be destructive to rnany people, but can be a life-giving flow (900-79). 2. fear (i.e., struck by lightning) (136-45). Other possibilities: 1. sudden realization. 2. revenge. 3. sudden discharge of tension. 4. instant karma.

Liquor 1. laying aside physical consciousness (136-60). 2. literally, about drinking habits (137-97; 900-264). Other possibilities: 1. dissolved inhibitions. 2. intoxication, ecstasy. 3. the spirit (pun). 4. temporary relaxation. 5. desire to escape reality.

Luggage 1. that which you “have in hand” in your life (294-100, A-1). 2. that which is at hand and is “tried and true” (294-39, A-1). Other possibilities: burdens, psychological or physical.

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M 
Marriage 1. an Inner union with the higher forces that opens creativity (900-362, A-4). 2. commitments to be honored in regard to another person (not necessarily just the spouse) (136-62, A-1). 3. duty to be kept (900-156, A-4). 4. close relations with another person, which bring goodness and happiness (but not necessarily a literal marriage) (900-202, A-1). 5. the inner marriage with the Christ (900-258, A-3; 262-69). 6. a business deal, a joining of commercial interests (538-15, A-1). Other possibilities: 1. a unifying of two aspects of one’s own personality or temperament. 2. initiation.

Maze confusion in the face of many turning points or options (900-308, A-12). Other possibilities: emotionally disorganized.

Mirror how one is seen by others (900-332). Other possibilities: 1. self-examination. 2. self- reflectiveness, self-consciousness of one’s own individuality. 3. narcissism. 4. Mayan–illusion, that which isn’t real but only a reflection.

Money 1. benefits or returns from efforts (294-89, A-1). 2.the vehicle (or channel) for making exchange (137-99, A-2). 3. borrowed money–favorable conditions which have strings attached (i.e., obligations) (900 – 134, A-1). 4. that which is of value and truth (900-109, A-3, 900-69, A-1). 5. sign of appreciation for services rendered (136-26, A-18). 6. a criterion or a way of indicating success (900-109, A-3, 136-26, A-18). 7. an opportunity to make money (literally) (195-33, A-2). 8. necessity to raise considerable money – warning about becoming extravagant (341-14, A-3). 9. worthless paper money – warning about gambling (341-14, A-3). 10. the material world and its values (900-303, A-5). 11. million dollars–promise that whatever resources (not just money) are required will be supplied as the need arises (900-202, A-5). Other possibilities: 1. power, authority, strength. 2. time and/or energy. 3. counterfeit – phoniness, cheating, insincerity. 4. love.

Moon carnal romance, the impulse to earthly passion (900-268, A-5). Other possibilities: 1. sentimentality. 2. the irrational realm of feelings. 3. feminine. 4. Intuition. 5. the unconscious soul. 6. madness (i.e., “lunacy”). 7. menstrual cycle. 8. desire, yearning.

Mountain 1. reaching higher and higher in mental development (262-64). 2. a place from which there is a more perfect understanding of the physical world (341-15). 3. a place where an understanding of truth is gained (900-34). 4. gaining the full height or the full concept of a matter (900-305). 5. the rise to the spiritual forces (195-33). Other possibilities: 1. highly idealistic, but still with one’s feet on the ground. 2. obstacles and difficulties ( if one is atop the mountain, then these are overcome). 3. exaggerations (e.g., making a mountain out of a molehill ). 4. ambitions. 5. climbing mountain—first half of life; descending mountain–second half of life.

Movies mass consciousness; the attitudes of the populace at large (136-26, A-18). Other possibilities: the story of one’s own life.

Mud that which makes for a hindrance (294-159, A-4). Other possibilities: 1. the retarding aspect of one’s own hesitations and fears. 2. that which, despite appearances, can contain a treasure or can aid heating (e.g., Jesus sometimes used it). 3. stuck or caught up in something. 4. excrement. 5. the womb, one’s own origins. 6. neglect. 7. abuse of the body.

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N

Newspaper comics-encouragement to use one’s sense of humor and laugh more often (900-159). Other possibilities: 1. public attention. 2. common knowledge. 3. new realization, new information. 4. prophecy.

Nudity 1. fleshly desires (294-67). 2. the uncovering or exposure of something intended to be kept hidden (294-67). 3. ignorance or not understanding (i.e., “that bareness … to which (one) is reduced, by not opening self to an understanding…”) (341-11, A-2). 4. feeling one is laid bare to criticism, vulnerable in this fashion (1 36-1 5, A- 1). Other possibilities: 1. stripped of the “masks” one wears in relating to the world. 2. a desire for others to know one’s real feelings. 3. humility. 4. the refusal to keep playing a role in life.

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O

Old man/old woman 1. wisdom through many experiences, the seer or sage (900-156, A-1). 2.Christ symbol (136, A-3). 3. old lesson learned which now needs new application in a new way (900-185). Other possibilities: 1. one’s past. 2. karma. 3. worries about growing old.

Orchestra the forces of one’s life in harmony (900-89). Other possibilities: 1. the importance of music in one’s life. 2. one’s emotional nature.

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P

Pants changing – changing one’s personal philosophy of life (900-202, A-4). Other possibilities: 1. sexual feelings and desires (i.e., to cover the lower part of the body). 2. authority, leadership (e.g., who wears the pants in the family?).

Parents those who are available to give aid and assistance (900-91, A-4). Other possibilities: 1. father-one’s own father or feelings toward him. 2. father-the energetic, protective side of God. 3. mother-one’s own mother or feelings toward her. 4. mother-the receptive, nurturant side of God.

Party 1. one’s social life (900-159, A-3, 900-171, A-1; 341-12, A-2). 2. a special development in one’s education or mental growth (136-27, A-1). 3. the physical diet when too many sweets are being consumed (900-234, A-1). Other possibilities: 1. gaiety. 2. lack of depth or meaning.

Pawn shop trading off in a way that wastes valuable resources (900-132, A-5).

Pen a way of thinking (137-73, A-1). Other possibilities: 1. what one has been writing or encouragement to write. 2. male sex organ.

Perfume a person’s particular, unique attitudes and ways of expression in the world (136-24, A-7). Other possibilities: 1. emotional reactions. 2. attempts to cover up or present in a better light. 3. psychic influence.

Pig 1.sexual desires (294-67). 2. “hogs” the whole show (294-50). Other possibilities: 1. greedy. 2. stubborn (i.e., pigheaded). 3. gluttony.

Platform shaky and unstable-the condition of one’s physical body is weakened or imbalanced (136-22). Other possibilities: one’s appearance before others (e.g., “on stage” or “on your soapbox”).

Pocket something kept for self rather than distributed (137-99). Other possibilities: 1. memory. 2. inner reserves (e.g., of vitality, abilities, money, etc.). 3. possession. 4. receptivity. 5. the female sex organs.

Poison danger, detrimental conditions warned of (137-17). Other possibilities: 1. improper diet that is toxic to the body. 2. problems with one’s own physical eliminations that are creating toxicity. 3. attitudes or emotions that are harming oneself and/or another.

Police 1. the law, especially universal or spiritual laws (136-29, A-6). 2. that which tries to bring disorder under control (136-18, A-3). 3. uniformed- spiritual law, plainclothes policeman-laws as interpreted from just a human level, God’s laws (900-115, A-1; 900-220, A-3). Other possibilities: 1. inhibitions. 2. conscience. 3. higher, protective forces. 4. karmic law.

Priest safety, security, and strength in the spiritual forces (195-33). Other possibilities: 1. minister or rabbi-personal feelings toward such spiritual leaders, including associations from childhood. 2. one’s own inner spiritual authority. 3. conscience. 4. the desire to be virtuous.

Prisoner 1. being controlled by outside conditions (341-18, A-6). 2. trapped in efforts to justify oneself (misusing the mind In this way) (900-91, A-2). 3. prison-trapped by lazily letting one’s life be too centered in one direction (i.e., imbalanced) (341-26, A-2). Other possibilities: 1. a side of oneself trapped by a sense of inadequacy, fear, or guilt. 2. someone else in the dreamer’s life who is trapped by conditions.

Pulling pulling self up-raising one’s own position to a more advantageous one (900-134, A-1). Other possibilities. 1. strong emotional attraction. 2. strong influence (i.e., a pun on having “pull”).

Pulpit leadership, teaching aptitude (900-285). Other possibilities: spiritual authority

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R

Radio 1. one’s own capacity to attune or tune in to better understandings (even to higher forces or psychic forces) (900-231). 2. the way in which the Father can “hear at a distance” our needs (900-231). 3. our capacity to attune to the Infinite and receive a power that manifests in physical life (900-231). 4.force and power that can radiate a far distance (900-231; 900-301) 5. the capacity to attune to truth (900-230, A-3). Other possibilities: 1. entertainment. 2. the body’s own sense of hearing. 3. communication with others. 4. public knowledge. 5. telepathy.

Rain 1. blessings, benefits (900-98, A-1). 2. conditions that are coming down (e.g., dreamer is stockbroker; rain coming down signified lower market) (900-266, A-6). Other possibilities: 1. emotions and the release of feelings. 2. sadness or grief. 3. obstacles. 4. cleansing process. 5. deliverance from a dry spell. 6. need to drink more water.

Restaurant 1. food for the physical needs of a body (900-85, A-1; 900-95, A-2). 2. a place of seeking the higher foods of spiritual truth (i.e., “feed at the table of the Giver of all good and perfect gifts”) (900-220, A-7). Other possibilities; sociability.

River 1. the way of life (900-64). 2. stream – a dividing line (294-62, A-2). Other possibilities; 1. the source of fertility. 2. the current of one’s energies. 3. the passage of time.

Road/path/street 1.the journey of life one is on (195-42, A-1). 2. rough, poor roadbed-troublesome conditions to be encountered (900-158, A-2). 3.junction, crossroad-choices in life about how to use resources (900-224, A-2); a time in life of especially needing guidance (900-232, A-1). Other possibilities: 1. the direction one is pursuing. 2. one’s destiny.

Rocks 1. large ones in a road-troublesome conditions along the way (294-159). 2. difficulties to overcome (538-25). Other possibilities: 1. boulders-sturdiness and stability. 2. latent strength. 3. emotional sterility (e.g., “heart of stone” or “stony silence”). 4. earthiness.

Roof 1. the top or pinnacle of thought and understanding (900-105, A-1). 2. hanging from edge of roof – getting oneself into precarious situations or circumstances (900-398). Other possibilities: protection, security, shelter, nurturance.

Rubbish/trash disorder and laxness in the life (262-8). Other possibilities: 1. ideas of little value or meaning. 2. Toxins or waste products of the physical body needing elimination.

Runner that force through which the individual may gain strength to go alone (538-16). Other possibilities: 1. a need for more exercise. 2. a part of oneself trying to avoid something. 3. feeling hurried. 4. strong commitment and desire to get to a goal.

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S

Scar 1. a deficiency resulting from a past condition (900-207, A-5). 2. from operation-reminder of how it is sometimes necessary to have something removed (i.e., particularly from the mind) (900-296, A-9). Other possibilities: 1. memory of a painful experience. 2. lasting impact on the mind.

School 1. the issues of daily life (900-270; 900-106; 136-23;136-24). 2. the lessons or training to which the mind may attain (900-139; 900-261). 3. one’s own teaching of others (900-142). 4. higher learning -learning about universal laws (294-67).Other possibilities: 1. unresolved issues from one’s own school years. 2. the desire to team.

Scissors seeming opposites that, when applied for truth, ran accomplish much (900-17, A-3). Other possibilities;1. the desire to cut loose from something. 2. cutting remarks, cynicism. 3. feeling cut off from someone else or a part of oneself. 4. hostility.

Scorpion that which is dangerous or poisonous (900-318, A-7). Other possibilities: 1. bitterness, 2. stinging, hurtful attitudes or remarks.

Seed 1. that which is able to bring forth into manifestation something of its own kind (e.g., like begets like) (136-18, A-1). 2. the word of truth. (900-308, A-12). Other possibilities: 1. the stored experience of the past that leads to new possibilities. 2. ideal. 3. offspring (physical or nonphysical). 4. new beginnings.

Servant the reminder to be of service (i.e., as in” He who would be greatest or master must be servant to all”) (900-231, A-1). Other possibilities: those qualities in self that are fully under control and able to be purposefully directed.

Shanty/shack humility, lowly estate (900-175, A-5). Other possibilities: 1. physical body out of balance. 2. impoverished state of mind.

Shells 1. the many different forms or physical manifestations that come from the original oneness (i.e., the sea) (538-13). 2. individuals who may be helped or missed in the passage of daily life (i.e., just as one may notice or miss a seashell on the beach) (538-14). 3. great truths that have been gathered (538-16). Other possibilities; 1. one’s tendency to crawl inward for self-protection. 2. hardness. 3. beauty.

Shepherd the leader (136-36, A-1). Other possibilities: 1. nurturance. 2. the Christ.

Shirt 1. the thouth or intent taken toward others (195-60). 2. the attitudes and understandings of life that one “wears” (900-160, A-15). Other possibilities: 1. feeling, emotions, passions. 2. financial resources (e.g., “losing your shirt”).

Shoemaker the source of assistance in formulating a foundation (shoes) for one’s life (l06-6).

Shoes an individual’s foundation (106-6). Other possibilities: 1. basic principles. 2. protection from physical life. 3. sole of shoes-pun on the word “soul. ” 4. a person’s role in life or identity (e.g., “to be in his shoes”).

Silhouette looking at things with a one-sided, limited view (137-50, A-2).

Snake 1. the wisdom of all things (294-136). 2. temptations (294-136). 3. that which threatens harm (294-159). 4. those who would harm in an under- handed manner (900-81). 5. monstrous and hissing – self’s own condemnation of self (900-217). Other possibilities: 1. kundalini, pure creative energy. 2. self-transcendence (i.e., sheds its own skin). 3. paradox (e.g., good evil, wisdom temptation).

Spider menacing-warning about a threat from certain other people who would attempt to take things from the dreamer (i.e., perhaps, in the sense of being caught in their web) (2671-.5). Other possibilities: entrapping, smothering behavior (often but not always associated with a mother or other feminine figure).

Spoon do things in small doses (281-6, A-4). Other possibilities: 1. one’s station in life (e.g., “born with a silver spoon in her mouth”). 2. calling attention to diet.

Stage to make something public, to allow the outside world to see (900-114, A-4). Other possibilities: 1. the desire to be in the limelight. 2. a point of development (i.e., a pun on “stage of development”). 3. the center of one’s present attention or interest.

Statue 1. a part of self that is lifeless but which may awaken and come to life (262-8). 2. the physical product of that which is created first as a mental image (900-294). 3. an Image to show the “formulative spirit” or spirit that emanates (e.g., Statue of Liberty represents the spirit of a nation (262-2). Other possibilities: 1. how one aspect of self has been molded by someone else. 2. unfeeling, unresponsive. 3. someone who has been “put on a pedestal. ” 4. a wish to keep alive the memory of a deceased person.

Stick 1. represents the rod or staff of life (294-136). 2. sign of authority of the leader (294-136). Other possibilities:1. discipline. 2. male sex organ.

Stripes something subject to change (i.e., as opposed to solid color that shows a consistency) (137-61). Other possibilities: 1. level of achievement (e.g., stripes on a military uniform). 2. feeling trapped (e.g., prisoners traditionally wear striped clothing). 3. variety.

Sun 1. the spiritual force which presents lessons or knowledge (i.e., the sunshine) (900-111). 2. the Father’s love to all (900-96). Other possibilities: life and energy. 2. happiness and success. 3. need to get outside in the sun more often. 4. the source. 5. intellect, nationality. 6. the masculine. 7. the Christ.

Swan peace and serenity (262-8). Other possibilities: the soul.

Swim 1. submerged in or attuned to universal forces (136-54, A-4). 2. making headway in some endeavor (900-79, A-9). Other possibilities: 1. coping with one’s feeling nature. 2. feeling buoyed up, confident. 3. sexuality.

Sword 1.the Spirit (like a two-edged sword that can cut either way) (900-224, A-2,-3). 2. power and authority (900-224, A-2). Other possibilities: 1. war, antagonism. 2. discrimination, discernment, 3. strength of character. 4. protection. 5. masculine sexuality.

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T

Teacher anything that aids the development of the mind (900-261, A-6:). Other possibilities: 1. authority figure. 2. one’s own talent to teach. 3. the conscience within. 4. someone who is critical, demanding, or testing.

Teeth 1. spoken words (136-49), 2. false teeth-sharp words recently spoken (136-7). 3. false teeth that shone like pearls and gold-these unreasonable – appearing teeth represent speech which is only “show” and takes the place of real application (288-15). Other possibilities: 1. the maturing process (e.g., one’s teeth fall out and are replaced at certain stages of childhood). 2. eating, diet. 3. getting involved with something or someone (e.g., “getting your teeth into it”). 4. effectiveness, potency (e.g., “toothless” means ineffective, impotent).

Telephone 1. away of gaining information (900-128, A-1). 2. a coming message (136-24, A-9). Other possibilities: 1. communicating with others. 2. telepathy. 3. one’s own Intuition.

Telescope the capacity to perceive things far off (i.e., the future) (900-128, A-1). Other possibilities: 1. clearer insight. 2. sensitivity to the nature of seemingly small things (i.e., small incidents). 3. making something big out of something small.

Temple 1. assistance in understanding one’s own spiritual welfare (900-85). 2. past-life memory of an incarnation working in a temple (172-3). 3. the spiritual forces that come into play with the conscious mind in studying any subject (136-8).

Tent an insecure dwelling (i.e., a place in consciousness that is not fixed, secure, stable) (137-31). Other possibilities: attitude of changeability.

Thermometer measurements or judgments made using a physical world standard (900-305, A-5). Other possibilities: 1. measurement of one’s emotional state. 2. warning about possibility of future III health.

Train 1. train ride – the journey of life (900-296, A-4). 2. taking a trip (literally) (294-100, A-1, -5). 3. engineer of train – the directing, controlling force in some life situation (294-36, A-3). 4. stock exchange trading of train Stocks (294-39, A-1; 900-128, A-3). 5. the necessity to get moving, to grow and change (900-1 10, A-4). Other possibilities: 1. train tracks-orthodoxy, the accepted way of doing things. 2. an opportunity (e.g., “missing the train”). 3. a series of thoughts. 4. vitality. 5. following the proper course (i.e., “on track”). 6. victimized, punished unfairly (i.e., “railroaded”).

Trip 1. changes that will come (136-41). 2. actual trip to be taken soon (341-18). 3. mental changes happening (i.e., in attitudes) (341-26, A-1). Other Possibilities: 1. the journey through life. 2. one’s destiny.

Turban that which is mysterious to the mind (136-15, A-1).

Turtle the strength of new life, longevity (341-18, A-6). Other possibilities: 1. methodical. 2. introverted, tending to withdraw into a “shell.” 3. encouragement to move slowly.

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U-V

Uniform 1. dressed in a uniform-one’s duty (137-36). 2. a shared or common trend of thought (i.e., among all who wear the same uniform) (136-14). Other possibilities: 1. vocation or profession. 2. conformity, orthodoxy. 3. authority and power (e.g., a policeman in uniform has authority). 4. subservience (e.g., when one wears a military uniform he must serve his superiors)

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W-X-Y-Z
Wading taking on a new experience little by little and with prudence (137-84, A-2). Other possibilities: 1. childhood, childishness. 2. timidness.

Wall 1.an obstacle to be overcome (climbed) before the goal/ideal can be attained). (294-62, A-2). 2. the challenge to apply a truth; the moment of truth (e.g., “up against a wall” where one must do something that makes or breaks a situation) (106-10, A-2). Other possibilities: 1. confinement. 2. protection and shelter.

Water 1. the mother of all living organisms (538-16). 2. the source of physical creation; Mother Sea (538-14). 3. the cleansing force as one moves from one experience to another (I 36-83). 4. the mother of life (136-83). 5. the source of life and understanding (294-136). 6. the beginning or source of all forces (136-54). 7. life or the living way (294-15). 8. the source of life and understanding (294-136). 9. clear water-clearness of understanding, purity of purpose (294-159). 10. dirty meter-imperfect understanding and knowledge (137-28). 11. the water of Life as found in Christ (294-50). 12. the first element of life (900-109). Other possibilities: 1. feelings, moods, and desires. 2. need for more water to be drunk. 3. the soul. 4. the unconscious. 5. the realm of the feminine. 6. birth and/or death.

Wave (sea) conditions that are wavering (900-205, A-4). Other possibilities: waves of emotion.

Weeds neglect (294-66, A- 1). Other possibilities: that which chokes out desired growth.

Wild man the emotional upset of oneself (e.g., uncontrolled anger) (136-18, A-2). Other possibilities: 1. fears. 2. an ignored or repressed side of oneself.

Woods/forest a mental place where one can easily get lost or confused, such as in the maze (of trees) (136-16). Other possibilities: the unconscious mind.

 

 

Online Database of Past Dream Interpretations: Dreams About Animals Here’s my dream…alligator I am a girl, and another girl whom I have a crush on are in the rainforest and we live in a hut. In the dream we’re crossing a bridge and I get over it fine but my friend starts to get threatened by an alligator, and she is screaming to me for help. But there’s nothing I can do. Dear Dreamer, One possibility suggested by the dream is that your friend may be hypersensitive to the biting remarks and comments that some might have if she discussed being in a lesbian relationship. Whereas you seem to be fine with the situation and your relationship, she might be much more cautious than you. In any event, this might be a topic that the two of you could discuss.   Here’s my dream…bear I have been in the largest jumble of depression and confusion lately. I am a quiet person that is concerned in finding a soulmate. At the same time, it’s hard for me to talk to most people around me. A friend and I are very close to God and have very strong spiritual beliefs. The average person usually shuns me for being different. I dreampt that I was in my room. I was very tired and just wanted to lie around in my bed. At one point, I got up and stood by my window. Shocked and frightened to see a giant black bear out on the roof. Immediately upon seeing me, the bear burst in through the window. I am in terror, got so scared that I don’t know how I got out of the mess! Each time I would lay back down on my bed hopping to get some sleep. But if I wiggled and squirmed the bear always saw me and would bother me again. This happened several times. The bear never mauled or hurt me, rather it was just always curious of me. The only thing is it terrified me to death each time! Finally after one of the encounters, I jumped and wedged myself as close to the wall and the edge of my bed as I possibly could. I could feel the warmth and comfort of my bed, but I just froze. My plan was to not move no matter what happened. Assuming correctly, the bear entered again, jumped up on my bed and stalled. I couldn’t move an inch. I could have sworn that I was holding my breath but I heard this breathing. I could feel my face, and my entire body becoming hot in fear. Yet I was afraid to open my eyes in concern of what the breathing noise I heard was all about! I couldn’t figure it out. Finally in fear, and the fact that I knew logically these things couldn’t happen. I decided to make myself wake up. The only thing that scared me the most was what really is making that breathing noise? I concluded that the breathing was actually me. Please help me! Dear Dreamer, The black bear is a symbol of your depression. It might also suggest that part of your depression is somehow connected to anger. The fact that the bear first appears on the roof suggests that this depression is often on your mind, and you may often wonder, How am I going to get out of this? The fact that your plan is to not move in the dream suggests that you haven’t yet gotten a handle on your depression or really been able to do what you need to do to change it. The fact that you realize that the breathing is actually you could indicate that your depression is connected to your own thought processes (or alternatively your physical body). Since the dream is showing you that you survive each time, I think it is an indicator that ultimately you will be okay but that you really need to find a way to help yourself in the present. If your present counselor isn’t being helpful, find another one. Let me also recommend that you have a chemical test to see if your body chemistry is somehow contributing to the depression. In terms of finding a relationship, continue to work on healing your depression (and anger, if there is any). Let me also recommend the book, Edgar Cayce on Soul Mates, by Kevin Todeschi. Good luck to you.   Here’s my dream…bird (dove) My 12-year-old daughter dreamed about doves twice in one week on two different nights. On the first night in the first dream she said God was walking through a garden, when he got to the lake there was a basket he opened the basket and lots of white doves flew from the basket. In the second dream (a different night) both God and myself (the mother of the dreamer) were walking towards a basket by the lake this time both God and I opened the basket filled with white doves and the doves flew from the basket. Please interpret this dream for my daughter to give her some understanding what it may mean. Thank you in advance. Dear Dreamer, Doves can have many meanings, some of which are dependent upon how the dreamer feels or thinks about doves. Generally, a dove can symbolize peace, love, freedom or even spirituality (as in the Holy Spirit). With this in mind, the dream seems to be one of reassurance or encouragement for your daughter, either suggesting that she has some sort of spiritual connection with the Divine, or perhaps suggesting the love, peace, or freedom she craves is within her grasp. Regardless of the personal meaning, it appears to be a very positive sign. You might ask her what doves mean to her and then get to the heart of the dream from that approach.   Here’s my dream…bird (eagle) I was taking a nap this afternoon and I had a dream that I was at a house (not mine) and the next door neighbors had a bunch of children outside playing when the man started to yell, “Look it’s a bird, a great big bird.” At first I thought he said bear but I could not see a bear. Then when I looked up I saw a huge eagle. He was beautiful and he was flying so gracefully. The lady gave me what I thought were binoculars but it was a movie cam. I could not see the eagle with the cam, yet when I looked with my naked eye, I could see him just as clear as can be. I couldn’t believe how big he was, and it was a bald eagle also. I could see his snow-white head and beautiful black feathers. I was so excited! He filled me with a sense awe, and peace. What does it mean? Dear Dreamer, An eagle is an archetypal symbol for the thymus or heart center. It is also a symbol for love. My sense is that the sense of awe and peace you felt is associated with some kind of “love” that has or is about to enter your life. This could be love associated with a relationship, love associated with doing what is really important to you, or love that is connected to some kind of personal spiritual search. Here’s my dream…bird (vulture and crow) I was sitting in my family room that leads to our pool. I looked out the window and there on the pool rail was a crow. He looked hurt and wasn’t moving too much. When I looked up again there was a vulture right next to the crow. The vulture seemed as if he was trying to peak and eat the crow. I ran outside and tried to shoo the vulture away but instead of him leaving he came and started to attack me. But after fighting with the bird he finally left. When I turned back around I noticed that the crow wasn’t there anymore. The crow fell into my pool and was sinking to the bottom. I went to get a bucket to save the crow but when I came back the poor crow died. Please tell me what my dream means. I don’t think having crows and vultures in a dream is a good thing. Dear Dreamer, Oftentimes in dreams birds are symbols for messengers of some kind. For example, a sparrow is a symbol of spring, a rooster can be symbolic of a new day (or a new beginning), doves can be symbolic of love, a relationship or peace, and so forth. Both crows and vultures are symbolic of a “death” or the ending of something. It is not that someone is literally dying; instead it can suggest that something is coming to an end. With this in mind, the imagery in the dream suggests that something associated with your household may be coming to an end and you don’t really want it to come to an end but there doesn’t appear to be much that you can do about it. Examples might be: the end of a relationship (e.g. a divorce), having to change jobs or schools, or the end of your present living situation (e.g. a move). I hope that helps.   Here’s my dream…buffalo I have looked in several dream interpretation books and websites with no luck for this dream. I dreamed that I was a buffalo and was with a herd of buffalo. We were all searching for food and especially water because where we were had none of this. I instinctively knew to go over a very steep mountain to get to some water and led some of the buffalo towards there. I looked back and noticed that several had decided to go a different way-across some very arid and dry desert. I told them they were going the wrong way, but they wouldn’t listen to me. As my group and I continued over the mountain I knew we would make it to water and plenty of grass and that the several that broke off across the desert would die. Then I woke up. Please tell me what this means. Thank you so much! Dear Dreamer, Buffaloes can be a symbol of such things as abundance, the past, stubbornness, and even intimidation (as in to “buffalo” someone). However, because of the dream imagery you described it appears that the dream has more to do with some kind of a group with which you are involved (e.g. a work group, a social group, a family group, or a church group). Using the possibility of a work group, the dream suggests that there may be some financial problems at your company or at least problems in terms of what the company should pursue or where they should be headed. From this perspective, it seems that you have some ideas that could be helpful to your company but there are a number of people who stubbornly pursue the way things use to be done, which is going to entail additional hardship and them going nowhere. Overall, the dream is about being involved in some kind of a group in which your ideas may be more helpful than those of some of the others. Here’s my dream…bugs (insects) I am from Scotland. I dreamt that I had a couple of worms attached to me. One was on my arm. They seemed to originate from tiny insects (maybe ants). Someone said I had to get rid of them as they would attach to my face and I felt a little anxious about that. My husband pulled them off and said not to worry, as they were easy to get rid off, “Just get rid off them.” The rest of my dream was about teaching (I am a teacher and will be starting a new job in a different school after the holidays). The rest of the dream was okay I think and quite calm. Because I remember this dream quite well I think it is quite significant. I hope you can help. Dear Dreamer:  Bugs or insects can often be symbolic of something bothering or “bugging” the dreamer. The fact that they originated from tiny insects suggests that you may have allowed tiny worries to grow into bigger issues and problems. Your husband telling you not to worry could be literal in terms of his approach to something you are concerned about. I think the dream is related to your worrying about your new job and is simply showing you that it is not as big of a problem as you are making it into. I hope that helps. Here’s my dream…dog I’m a 15-year-old girl. A couple months ago my dog sweetie died when I was at school (she died at my house) and when I came home from track practice she was already gone. I was a little disturbed by this but I went to sleep with her on my mind…that same night I had a dream. I was wearing my holey pants (there’s one hole on the left knee) my shirt that has a kitten on it saying ‘have a nice day somewhere else’, and my good ol’ boys car club hat on. I was watching myself enter my living room where I found her on my living room table, she lifted her paw up in a sort of begging matter, (she used to stand on her hind legs as her trademark thing) and immediately ran up to her crying my eyes out saying things like ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry…’ When I picked her up she felt a little cold but she leaned into me like she was basking into my touch one last time. Dear Dreamer, In the same way that we can have real communication with deceased individuals (see dream archives), we can have the same experience with our pets who have passed on. My sense is that your dog came to see you, just to reassure you that he was fine. Here’s my dream…elephant I have checked the archives and have not seen anything that speaks of elephants. In my dream, I am walking along and two baby elephants come walking up to me. I have no idea where they came from, or why they are not afraid of me. Nor do I know where their mother is. After I process all of this information, and have decided that I need to tend to these little ones, I begin walking, with them following me, to go get whatever supplies I need to feed baby elephants, when here come two more babies, younger that the first two. I pat them down, check them to make sure they are okay, and then again begin my walk to get supplies for 4 elephants. And you guessed it, here come two more that are younger than the others. They are so small/young that I am amazed they can even walk. I find myself wondering how did these elephants pass the word so quickly that they had found someone to take care of them. My dream ends with me in the feed store trying to buy bottles and nipples to fee d them. Dear Dreamer, In western culture and elephant is often symbolic of memory or something that one should not forget. Since these are baby elephants, they may be suggestive of small projects or ideas that you have sometimes “nurtured” in your mind but not necessarily followed through on taking care of in real life. In other words, these elephants seem to be things that you have considered doing and now your dream is suggesting that the time has come to take care of these projects and follow-through with them. Just as an aside, in Hinduism the elephant is symbolic of wisdom and enlightenment, because the god Ganesh is often portrayed as an elephant. I hope that helps.–   Here’s my dream…llamas I am a 47-year-old female and had this dream in Greece. I dreamt that I was dressed as a soldier in army fatigues with a group of other soldiers with backpacks. We boarded a ferryboat to cross the river – a big river. When I saw on our ferryboat it had two llamas on it and one was trying to jump overboard. The commander told me I must go and try to calm my llama down. I remember it was screaming, I started to go to the animal when I woke up. I am very confused about this dream. Dear Dreamer, Because of their hump and protective coat of hair, a llama can be symbolic of someone that is holding his or her emotions inside or that is trying to be protected from the outside world. The river can also be symbolic of some kind of emotional journey. From the rest of the dream’s imagery, and the fact there are two llamas, I think the dream is suggesting that there may have been some kind of a relationship problem or argument (symbolized by the army fatigues) that has caused someone a great deal of anxiety and unhappiness (symbolized by the screaming llama), and that you have been trying to “fall in line” and get on with your life. An alternate interpretation is that external events have caused a couple to undertake some kind of activity or journey that they really don’t want to do. I hope that helps.   Here’s my dream…fish Here’s my dream…fishFirst of all I would like to say thank you. My background is that I have a boyfriend and we are getting engaged. The dream is my boyfriend caught a gray fish and put a red ribbon on it and put it back in the pond. At that time, I did not see the fish and so I wanted to see that fish and I could not see it. I asked him where did he drop the fish and he said that it did not matter because he will always show up when he comes. And it did as soon as he came the fish jumped out of the water with the same red ribbon on the fish. The fish was also jumping with other fish. What does that mean? Dear Dreamer, One strong possibility is that the dream suggests your boyfriend has strong spiritual and/or religious beliefs, and he has set these beliefs aside for the time being (perhaps feeling as if you were not ready or willing to hear them). The dream suggests that he is going to present these beliefs when he feels the time is right. With this in mind, the two of you need to sit down and share your religious and spiritual beliefs – perhaps discussing what kind of role they will play in raising a family. I hope that helps. Here’s my dream…lion I dreamt of my husband who was attacked by a lion. He was sitting in the car and I saw a lion approaching him. I tried to warn him to close the car but it was too late. The lion attacked him on his shoulders and he was naked after that. I ran to the mountain and as I ran I saw my brother-in-law killing the lion and they opened the inside of it. Dear Dreamer, A lion is generally a symbol for personal power, anger or aggression. The fact that your husband is attacked and then killed by this symbol may suggest that he is in danger of being overcome by anger (e.g. his own or someone else toward him). The fact that he is in a car when this occurs, suggests that the attack is associated with his life’s direction (e.g. work or home). Overall, I think the dream is suggesting that he needs to be very careful of anger or else it may have very serious ramifications in his home or worklife or both. If your husband has a problem with anger, he may wish to see a counselor. The presence of your brother-in-law has several possibilities. It may indicate that your brother-in-law has a similar problem with anger, or your husband once vented his anger towards his brother, or your husband’s brother-in-law has some positive personality traits that you wish your husband would adopt instead of his anger. Here’s my dream…monkey and grasshopper I am an A.R.E. member and dreamt that I was driving to work on my usual route. It is a pretty road through fields in an affluent area. I looked-up and saw hundreds of small young monkeys parachuting to the ground. Each one was holding a large green grasshopper. I did not know if the grasshopper was going to be their first meal when they landed, or what they were for. My mother asked me if she should let my sister (who is retarded) go for a walk back at home and I said no, they better not go out. I have no idea what this means, but I don’t think it is good. Dear Dreamer, The dream has many possible meanings but I think that the fact you were headed to work might indicate that the dream is work-related. Monkeys are often seen as a symbol for chaos or humor or wild, unbridled energy. The fact that they are holding a grasshopper could be a timing indicator suggesting the late spring or the summer. The fact that they are parachuting from the sky suggests that their arrival has already been determined in someone’s head. [Things in the air can often be associated with ideas and plans.] Taken together, I think that the dream may be suggesting that some kind of major change is going to occur at your work. This change may entail some kind of arrival of younger, new executives who are going to create chaos, or it might suggest that “monkey-business” in terms of plans or ideas are about to rain down havoc on your work life. Overall, the sense is that something chaotic or just unbridled foolishness may be headed your way at work. Here’s my dream…snake I had a dream where my daughter was eaten by a snake. My daughter is 7years old. Dear Dreamer, Since your daughter is too young for puberty, the dream may be suggesting one of two things: either your relationship with a male is taking time away from your daughter (e.g. “eating it all up), or there may be a male who is excessively controlling or verbally criticizing your daughter. You are probably best able to judge what the real situation is about. Here’s my dream…snake (python) As background information, I am currently suffering a health problem that scares me. In the dream, I’m swimming in a swimming pool. I’m scared and anxious about something. I raise my right hand above the water and I am alarmed to discover a large green python has bitten my right hand and was still holding on biting it. I had to work hard to extricate its fangs from me but I managed to. It wasn’t a poisonous snake. Dear Dreamer, There are a number of options, here’s one that appears likely. In the dream the emotion you feel about being scared and anxious is probably a similar emotion to how you feel in terms of your health situation. With this in mind, the dream may be about your health. Fangs biting into a person are often associated with words spoken or biting criticism. A snake can be symbolic of a number of things, such as the caduceus (and healing), temptation, the energy of kundalini, and oftentimes a male energy. With all of this in mind, the dream might be indicating that part of your health care problem is associated with ongoing criticism from a controlling male, and you may need to extricate yourself from the situation in order to heal it. Here’s my dream…spiders   I’ve had a fear of spiders for as long as I can remember but they never were subjects in my dreams until this year. Usually twice a month I have a nightmare involving a spider. It is crawling on the ceiling, heading straight for me at a quick pace. As it approaches I am frozen with fear and cannot move. Once it gets right above my head I am once again able to move and I jump out of bed, which is the point where I wake up. Only in real life I have jumped out of my bed and I have to turn my light on and check for spiders. In the dream it is always the same ugly black spider except he seems to get bigger with every dream. Please help me understand this nightmare. Dear Dreamer, For many people, a spider can be a symbol of something that is “bugging or biting” them. Because culturally we are familiar with Black Widow spiders, a spider can also be a symbol of an aggressive or cruel female. However, in your case you told us that for you spiders are something you fear. In the dream imagery the spider is overhead getting closer and closer to you – looming ever larger in the process. With this in mind, I think the spider is associated with something you have been worrying about that is appearing to become a happening in your life (e.g. a problem at work, at home, or in your personal life). Whatever you are worrying about is manifesting as the spider dream. If this is the case, as soon as the issue has passed or been solved, the spider dreams will most likely disappear. Here’s my dream…spiders I have written to you before about this dream and I am having it again. I need help in understanding it. I am dreaming about spiders, but these spiders are jeweled spiders. In one dream, a spider was coming down from the ceiling heading for my forehead. It was composed of Rubies and diamonds and I was afraid of it at first but then as it got closer its beauty mesmerized me. It did not seem to act in a mechanical way. The Rubies and Diamonds seemed fluid and the spider moved naturally. I woke before it touched my forehead. Later in the same month, I dreamed of hundreds of spiders running around in my bedroom. They were composed of pearls of all sizes. Again they moved in a fluid natural way, and I was again afraid of getting out of bed because I did not want to be bitten. As I watched them, I noticed they were sensitive to me and my movements and I become more confident about getting out of bed. I woke up before my foot touched the floor. In the third dream, the spiders are composed of Amethysts, Rubies and Diamonds, fluid and natural, and are coming at me down the walls. Fear is first, then fascination. I always wake up before contact. Can you help me understand what this means? Thanks so much. Dear Dreamer, Spiders can be associated with such things as something irritating or “biting.” They can also be connected to female energy. Sometimes they might be symbolic of intrigue or secrecy. With the above in mind, it appears that something that once looked scary and threatening has become more intriguing and appealing. The preponderance of jewels in the dream could by symbolic of personal talents or a relationship. If I had to guess, I would say that the dream is suggesting that a relationship or a talent that once frightened you now appears appealing. I hope that helps. Here’s my dream…spiders (tarantula)   My 5-year-old daughter has been having these recurring dreams about tarantula spiders. Since my daughter and I live alone, we still sleep in the same bed together. Almost on a weekly basis, she wakes up in the middle of the night trying to brush the tarantulas off her pillow or the bed. She tells me, in her sleep, that they are on her pillow or on her side of the bed. She has even tried to lie on top of me, saying that she can’t sleep on her side because there are too many tarantulas. I’ve questioned her many times about these dreams, trying to figure out if they are really tarantulas or just big spiders and she is sure that they are not just big spiders. I looked in the dream dictionary on this site and it mentioned that one possible interpretation is being smothered by a mother. I hate to admit this, but being that I am the only family member she has, and she is my one and only child, it is safe to say that I probably do smother her sometimes. I have also read in other dictionaries that dreaming of tarantulas can portend coming illness or worries about health. From the time she was born, she has suffered from asthma, recurring colds, and other respiratory ailments. What could these dreams mean? She has them so often, I know they mean something and I’m very worried about that Dear Dreamer, In addition to some of the things you have cited, spiders can also represent criticism or (in a child’s mind) a bully of some kind. If this is the case, the dream could suggest that she was either being challenged by someone always correcting her or perhaps she is afraid of another child at preschool. Of course, you can help her by getting her to describe what goes on in her day when you are not around. In addition, it might work for you to give her paper and crayons and ask her to draw the spiders and, once they’ve been drawn, ask her to describe where they came from or how they got there. You can also work with pre-sleep suggestion, which was frequently suggested by the Edgar Cayce material: as your daughter is drifting off to sleep, speak reassuring words, tell her that she is safe in her own home, tell her what a good girl she is, and so forth.Finally, information on asthma is also available from the Cayce files on the Web site:www.edgarcayce.org. However, you might be interested to known that “being smothered” by something can also facilitate asthma. It may really be a good time to get your daughter her own bedroom and her own room. Good luck to you both. Here’s my dream…turtles In my dream I am in an apartment that is small and cluttered. I open a door and I find a room that I didn’t know existed. The room was larger and it opened up into a nice pool. I was about to go swimming in this pool and I noticed large turtles swimming in the pool. Well I thought to myself, I can’t go in now and then I woke up. What do the turtles represent? I couldn’t find anything in the archives about turtles. Thank you. Dear Dreamer, A turtle can be symbolic of longevity, the subconscious, something that is slow and methodical, or personal insecurity. The image of the small and cluttered apartment suggests that you may have a very confined viewpoint about yourself, your talents, your direction, etc. This could be about low self-esteem or it might be the image of a cluttered mind. The previously unexplored room is suggesting that there much more to you that you have heretofore given yourself credit for. Here’s my dream…unicorn Before going to sleep one night, I asked the question, “What is my purpose in life?” I had a dream in which my mother was telling me of a dream she had before I was born. She said she dreamt of seven white unicorns with red eyes that were lacking a heart. Recently, I had been looking up some dream interpretations and came across unicorns, so maybe that was why I dreamed of them. Otherwise I would be taking this dream very seriously. Do archetypal symbols like unicorns just pop into dreams if they had passed through the conscious mind recently? Dear Dreamer, First of all, as background information, dreams have a meaning regardless of whether or not the same information was on the conscious mind of the dreamer before falling asleep. For example, if you are watching a scary movie about mummies and them dream about mummies, the dream still has a relevant meaning – your subconscious mind just has to filter what it is trying to bring to your awareness through the imagery of mummies. With that in mind, unicorns are often symbolic of innocence, purity, virginity, or metaphysical topics. White is also suggestive of innocence or purity. The number seven can correspond to spirituality or personal transformation. The heart is obviously connected to personal emotions. With this as the relevant symbolism, I think your dream may be suggesting that one of your purposes in life is to open up emotionally and to work on your own spiritual purification and transformation. Good luck to you. Here’s my dream…wolf As a young man I frequently had the following recurring dream: I dreamt that a vicious wolf was following me, trying to nip at my feet and legs. In order to stay out of harms way, somehow I was able to float just above the ground, like I was in a cloud of some kind. Repeatedly I dreamt that the wolf was trying to bite me and somehow I was able to avoid getting bitten. Any help you could provide as to what this dream might have meat would be greatly appreciated. Dear Dreamer, One possibility suggested by the dream is that as a young person you were frequently in a situation in which you felt belittled, criticized or condemned by someone around you (e.g. a parent, a teacher, an authority figure). The snapping jaws of the wolf would correspond to this overly critical individual. In order to cope with this situation, the imagery suggests that you spent a lot of time in your head (e.g. floating above the ground). I hope this helps.

 

Online Database of Past Dream Interpretations: Dreams About Babies, Children, and Families

Here’s my dream…

I am 4 months pregnant and I recently found out I am having a baby boy. I had a dream that he was born but he was a girl. What does this mean?

There are several possibilities. One is that you are going to have a second child, and that child will be a girl. Another possibility is that your son will be very empathetic and sensitive. A third possibility might be that the dream is letting you know that your son may questions about his own sexuality.

Here’s my dream…

My husband and I have been trying to get pregnant for over two years now without success. My doctor has put me on Clomid to help me ovulate (both my husband and I are 41 years old). Trying to get pregnant has been very emotionally trying, since we both want a baby very badly and have not gotten pregnant yet. It is hard to see other women pregnant or to see mothers with babies or going to baby showers when I want a baby so bad and cannot seem to get pregnant; it usually brings me to tears. It is especially trying when other people keep asking, “When are we going to have a baby.” Last night, I had a dream that my husband and I attended a funeral of a family who we did not know; all of my relatives and other acquaintances were there too. At the very end of the service, one of the family members who died was a baby. I could not take it and asked my husband if we could leave because seeing the passed away baby was pushing me over the edge emotionally. We left the funeral but went to a gathering after the funeral; people were eating and socializing. I felt very sad in this dream, and the people in my dream seemed to not even accept my sadness over this family who died. In real life, no one seems to understand my overwhelming emotions about trying to conceive. My husband tries to help, but he is more accepting that we may not have a baby. We cannot afford IVF. Is my dream telling me to give up hope of having a child?

Dear Dreamer, According to Edgar Cayce, most often dreams simply contrast and correlate the events of the day – providing emotional images and pictures that correspond with what the dreamer is experiencing in waking life. In other words, the emotion you felt at the funeral is similar to the emotion you have been feeling over not being able to conceive. The “dead” baby you didn’t want to have to deal with is the same “death” (e.g. giving up the possibility of having a baby) that you don’t want to have to deal with in waking life. I don’t think the dream is necessarily precognitive, it is simply reflecting back what you have been experiencing. With this in mind, let me suggest that you and your husband consider dreaming on specific questions to get “next step” answers. For example, consider writing out the question, “What should we do to be able to conceive a child.” Both you and your husband should read the question before going to bed and upon waking, write down whatever dreams you remember. Also, just for the experience, write out the question. “Should we adopt a baby?” dream on it and see what happens. As you begin to watch your dreams, you will gain — in all likelihood — guidance and direction over this question. Good luck to you both.

Here’s my dream…

I am in my early 60’s, never married and no children due to earlier mental health disabilities and problems in my life. I have come full circle. Sometimes I wish I were younger so that I could create solid relationships with men and perhaps find one who could be my partner and father to children. I love children and have taught them for 12 years effectively. Last night I had a dream that a lady in her mid 80’s came into our building lobby and announced she had a baby. Others came in and out with the same message. Then I went out and returned with the good news that I also had a baby. The baby looked just like my baby pictures.

Dear Dreamer, The dream suggests that there is something creative you really desire to do in life but part of you may be preventing you from pursuing that dream, perhaps by thinking “I’m too old,” however, the elderly lady in the dream in indicating that you are never too old. The fact that she has a baby and then you discover one as well suggests that you still have a baby to nurture in your own life (e.g. a new beginning, a new project, a new pursuit, etc.). Good luck to you.

Here’s my dream…

I am two months pregnant and my partner is scared how the baby will change his life as he is 53, never had a child and never thought he would. We are keeping the baby, although he is scared. I dreamt that blood flowed out of me and I shouted, “I’m losing my baby.” I looked on the ground and the floor was covered in birdseed. I looked outside and saw hundreds of boats and people all around having a great time and happy. I asked my partner to take me to the hospital but he was in no rush. I asked my sister to take me, again no rush. Why didn’t they understand, I was losing my baby and if I got to the hospital I might be able to save my baby. I was in great panic but everyone around me was so calm and in no rush. My partner ended up driving me though he was acting like we were going for a pleasant drive and there was no rush to get anywhere. When I got to the hospital I woke up and don’t know if I lost my precious baby. I woke and told my partner about my dream. In the morning he told me about his dream. He dreamt that he had loaned his body to a friend – almost like putting on a suit. The next scene (his body had been returned to him at this point), he saw some rubbish on the ground, picked it up and through it in what he thought was a bin. This bin ended up being an oven and the rubbish was being cooked. He looked down at his nails and they were dirty. He and his family were sitting down at the table ready for dinner including his mother who passed away about 5 years ago (it was always her dream for him to have a baby). I was not at the dinner and he was missing me and wondered where I was. His mother than told him I had died. Please help me, as I am worried.

Dear Dreamer, In brief, your dream may simply be presenting some of your fears that you may have to do this alone and fearing that you could end up all alone in the process. Your boyfriend’s dream could simply be presenting the fact that he is concerned that he is having to make the best of a “bad” situation. However, the presence of his friend might indicate the results of this pregnancy. In other words, if his friend recently had a child (or had an unexpected child late in life) and that child is now very important to his friend, that would be an extremely positive symbol. There is a chance that this baby could be a wonderful experience for both of you.

Here’s my dream…

I dreamed that my brother-in-law (whom I don’t care too much about) was just getting home from prison. My sister who was and still is cheating on him got caught. He beat her to death in front of his six kids. In the dream I showed up and killed him for what he had done. I don’t think I would do this in real life so if you could please help me out. This isn’t the first time I’ve had a dream were my sister’s husband is hitting her. He’s in prison now and is scheduled to get out in several years.

Dear Dreamer, Again, as is often the case, dreams can have a metaphorical (symbolical) as well as a literal meaning. If the dream is literal, it may be suggesting that in spite of the fact that your brother-in-law is in prison, he may still be a threat to your family. If this is the case, your sister should probably pursue getting help, both legally as well as from a counselor. However, since we generally do not dream “for” other people, a metaphorical interpretation could suggest that your opinion of your brother-in-law and/or your sister is “killing” the relationship between the two of you. It might be good for several family members (including the children) to receive counseling before your brother-in-law’s release. Good luck to all of you.

Here’s my dream…

Last night I had a dream about my friend who died about 3 years ago. In the dream it showed my dad who is still alive being taken away by the police for drugs, which he really does. After he was taken away, I tried to run away and I ran into my friend that died and I said you can’t be here your dead and she just stood there and said, “You’re pregnant,” and I screamed and woke up. Normally that wouldn’t bother me but there’s a big possibility that it is true. Was she trying to tell me something, I mean should I have anything to worry about? Please help. I’m only 16.

Dear Dreamer, Your deceased friend may have come to you to offer advice and counsel about what is going on in your life. As soon as possible, you need to find out if you are pregnant. Let me recommend contacting the local chapter of Planned Parenthood – they can give you free counseling and advice. Another option may be to visit this link, which is where young unwed mother’s offer advice about what they did to work through a similar situation: http://teenadvice.about.com. If the dreams are “metaphorical,” and not literal, they are simply suggesting that you need to take precautions because your choices and decisions will eventually catch up with you. Please find someone who can help you with the pregnancy possibility as soon as possible.

Here’s my dream…

About 4 years ago we lost our baby girl due to premature birth. She spent her 4-1/2 short months with us in the NICU. I’ve had dreams “about” her from time to time since her passing, but never remember having seen her in the dreams. Mind you it’s been a long while since I’ve dreamed about her and I’ve only done it a few times. This morning however I had a dream so vivid that I literally woke up sobbing. In the dream, myself, my mother and my youngest sister were sitting in what I assumed to be the NICU waiting area, waiting to see Savannah (my daughter). It was very white and sterile looking…very bare. I remember telling my mother that I didn’t know how much longer I could do this. That I couldn’t see her like this any longer. I remember thinking, but never voicing to her that I thought maybe it was time to remove her from her ventilator…that she was just suffering too much. There were mothers everywhere in the dream…all waiting to see their babies. But I don’t remember seeing any babies. Someone called us in to see Savannah and it seemed to me that they told me she was doing much better. Which made me feel much relief. We walked up on a nurse sitting in a rocking chair with her back to me…I could see she was rocking a child. As I got close I could see what I felt to be my daughter. She had no tubes, or machines hooked to her as she had before. She was smiling at me with big shining brown eyes. It was that “Hi! I know you! You’re my mommy!” kind of smile. It was as if she were never sick, never on any machines. I fell to my knees sobbing in relief. It was at this point that I woke up crying. But I don’t have the same feeling in my waking that I had in my dream. In the dream I was crying from joy but the dream has left me very sad, and almost grieving as much as I did soon after her passing. I feel like maybe she was trying to tell me she was okay but I’m not sure. My husband seems to think that it has to do with my hormones, as I’m due to give birth in just a few weeks. Any insight you could give me would helpful. Thank you.

Dear Dreamer, In brief, the dream is trying to tell you that you need to release Savannah and prepare for the arrival of your baby. You even recognize this fact in the dream: “I didn’t know how much longer I could do this,” and “I couldn’t see her like this any longer.” However, the dream is also suggesting that the soul that had been Savannah may be coming back to you in this new birth: “As I got close I could see what I felt to be my daughter. She had no tubes, or machines hooked to her as she had before. She was smiling at me with big shining brown eyes. It was that ‘Hi! I know you! You’re my mommy!’ kind of smile. It was as if she were never sick.” I would like to suggest that your deceased child is returning to you. Good luck to you and your husband – and tell your husband the dream is about much more than hormones. : )

Here’s my dream…

I’m a 15-year-old girl. A couple months ago my dog sweetie died when I was at school (she died at my house) and when I came home from track practice she was already gone. I was a little disturbed by this but I went to sleep with her on my mind…that same night I had a dream. I was wearing my holey pants (there’s one hole on the left knee) my shirt that has a kitten on it saying ‘have a nice day somewhere else’, and my good ol’ boys car club hat on. I was watching myself enter my living room where I found her on my living room table, she lifted her paw up in a sort of begging matter, (she used to stand on her hind legs as her trademark thing) and immediately ran up to her crying my eyes out saying things like ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry…’ When I picked her up she felt a little cold but she leaned into me like she was basking into my touch one last time.

Dear Dreamer, In the same way that we can have real communication with deceased individuals (see dream archives), we can have the same experience with our pets who have passed on. My sense is that your dog came to see you, just to reassure you that he was fine.

Here’s my dream…

I dreamed last night that my 2-year-old son was dead. Throughout my dream it would flash back and forth from the funeral of where he was laying in a casket next to people having sex. I am not sure of the reason for his death in my dream. At the very end of my dream I was standing in my mother’s kitchen and completely lost control due to the fact he was dead. Now, I have lost several family members that are close to me and this morning when I woke up I was terrified. I need to know what this dream means!

Dear Dreamer, Much of the interpretation may be connected to your personal life and what is going on at this time that may be taking your time, energy, focus and attention away from your son. For example, one thing the dream may suggest is that a personal, sexual relationship you are having could be taking time and energy away from your son.

Here’s my dream…

I dreamt that my mom had another baby, a little girl, which isn’t possible because she’s too old now. I was extremely jealous of it. My parents gave all their attention to the baby and none to me. I am currently the youngest child. What does this mean?

Dear Dreamer, Oftentimes in a dream water can be symbolic of spirituality or emotion. Water that is murky, dirty or muddy generally suggests an emotional experience that is a challenge to deal with, even a mess. Driving in a car is often associated with one’s personal life journey. With these two things in mind, the dream is simply showing the status of your friend’s life with her husband – she is “stuck” in her current situation with her husband and doesn’t see a way out. I think that your friend should seriously consider seeing a counselor, as the dream suggests her current means of dealing with the situation is not helping her make any progress.

Here’s my dream…

Please help me! I am very nervous right now! I had a dream that my three-year-old niece died and then somehow she came to my house and told me “Aunt Sarah. I don’t want to die because I can’t dance then.” The next scene was at her funeral when the walls fell apart and I saw brown and black striped paneling and her face in a glass rose. When I woke up and I was literally crying. I need advice. What is going on? Is it because she is going to be my flower girl in my wedding in a few months? I love her with all my heart. How can someone dream something so horrible like this especially about a loved one that is innocent? Help

Dear Dreamer, The language of the brain is symbols, and those symbols are simply designed to bring to mind feelings, patterns, advice, etc., in our daily life. Although a literal interpretation of the dream could suggest death, a much more likely interpretation is a metaphorical one. Since you associate your niece with your wedding, one possibility suggested by the dream is that after your wedding your relationship with your niece will change, and the old relationship might die. For example, maybe your new life journey will entail a move or a new schedule that doesn’t give you the same opportunity to be around your niece. However, the love that you’ve shared will forever be a part of your lives – note in the dream how her face became a glass rose (a symbol of ideal love). I think the dream is simply about change coming into your life.

Here’s my dream…

I have had dreams on three different occasions that a baby is falling, but they really don’t hurt themselves. They cry for a little bit, but not seriously hurt. The last baby does bleed and appeared to be unconscious when I approached to aid him. At that point he regained consciousness and seemed to be okay. Can you tell me what that means and why I have been dreaming this?

Dear Dreamer, In all likelihood the dreams are about work or some kind of personal projects that you are involved in. Not dropping a baby is a metaphor for not falling down on tasks necessary for completing a project. With this in mind, I think the dream is suggesting that someone around you has been repeatedly letting you or the company down on projects and this last occasion you had to run in and take control of the situation so as to not miss out on an opportunity. I hope that helps.

Here’s my dream…

My two boys, ages 6, have been having nightmares that someone is trying to kill me and they wake up crying. We lost my husband, their father three years ago to homicide. He was killed in one of our cars in the back of our house; the kids and I were in the house asleep, when I heard him yell out for my name. My husband’s mother felt the need to explain in detail what happened to their father. Of course this was done behind my back, I didn’t think they needed to know the details at such a young age. When I use to go out with girlfriends they would say: “Mommy don’t go,” and of course I felt bad, so I only go out for birthday parties every now and then. I have them enrolled in activities and we spend a lot of time together. We play games, eat and watch television together. What can I do to stop my boys from thinking and feeling like I will be next, and they will be left with no parents?

Dear Dreamer, Certainly the trauma of losing a father at the age of three will have an impact upon your sons for the rest of their lives. Part of that impact will be a symbolic one, in that whenever they dream about a death it could suggest that their lives are about to undergo an abrupt and immediate change – one in which they may not have control. With this in mind, if you do such things as: have a change in jobs or work time, move to a new location, change schools for your sons, get engaged or married, etc., the symbolism they may dream about is your death because from now on the death of a parent might be a metaphor for personal change. All that said, I think the Edgar Cayce information would recommend pre-sleep suggestion. What this means is as they are drifting off to sleep, you need to softly and quietly reassure them with such phrases as: “You are safe and your Mommy is going to be safely with you,” “Even though your mother is ____________, everything is okay and you are not losing her,” “Mommy loves you and she is not going anywhere,” and so forth. By working with pre-sleep suggestion over a period of weeks, you should be able to greatly diminish their fears of abandonment.

Here’s my dream…

Please help! I have been through this dream many times in the last year. I dreamed that I am having sex with my father but it was similar to rape. I was not shouting but I was fighting with both hands. My screams were very low and it was dark. He was above me and all I could remember was standing over him was thought I was watching the whole thing as well as being involved. I don’t hate my father and he has never hurt me in his life or has any bad intentions. I am sure of that! What is this dream supposed to mean?

Dear Dreamer, If the dream is simply metaphorical, it could suggest that your father is “controlling” you in terms of your relationship with others. It might also suggest that he is “abusing” you mentally because of his control. Although a literal interpretation would suggest some kind of sexual abuse, it could also be abuse from a previous experience together that sometimes impacts your feelings with one another in the present. I hope that helps.

Here’s my dream…

Hello, I am 9 months pregnant and a male friend of mind had a dream about me concerning my pregnancy. He did not go into detail but he said that it was a full moon and that I said: “I can’t believe it is happening now.” He also said that the father of my child had mud on his face. I am wondering what the mud on the face means? I would appreciate anything you could offer.

Dear Dreamer, Although it’s conceivable that your coworker’s dream is a prophetic dream that you will give birth during the next cycle of the moon, the dream probably has more to do with your coworker than with you. In other words, we don’t generally dream for other people unless we are somehow emotionally connected to them. With this in mind, the dream suggests that your coworker will have some kind of a new birth or a new beginning sometime soon and that new beginning might be prompted by someone else’s behavior or embarrassment. In other words, someone else messes something up somehow, so your coworker ends up getting another project. I hope that helps.

Here’s my dream…

Every night this week I have had the same dream and it is scaring me a lot. I have been dreaming that I was abused by my father and that I am in the hospital dying. I have a lot of broken bones and bruises and I have at least 6 or 7 broken ribs. I am always dying in the hospital but I never really see the whole abusive part but I know it was my father. The first couple of times I had this dream i am always okay at the end. I go home and eventually recover from it but last night I died before I could even be considered for home. Every night I dream that my injuries just get worse and worse, and I am afraid of going to sleep. Please tell me what this means. Am I in danger?

Dear Dreamer, Part of the answer is dependent upon your father and your relationship with your father. If your father has been abusive to yourself or another members of the family, then it is a warning dream and you need to do something immediately. However, if your father has not been physically abusive, then it simply might suggest that his “control” over you may be impacting you and “killing” a part of you. For example, this could happen if you have your heart set on doing something in college and your father says no. In other words, the dream may be a metaphor for being “beaten up” in terms of being unable to do what you long to do.

Here’s my dream…

My girlfriend miscarried a few weeks ago. We were expecting a boy. I keep having dreams that the baby lived and that he is there with my girlfriend and me. I’ve seen him growing up and living his life. I’ve had dreams about his prom, wedding, first date, and all sorts of stuff. Please help!

Dear Dreamer, I think the dream is suggesting that in spite of whatever grief you and your girlfriend have been experiencing, this child is trying to comfort you by showing you that he is indeed coming in to your life at some point and that everything will be okay. Oftentimes, souls that did not have the opportunity to complete the birth process return to the very same parents the next time the opportunity presents itself – oftentimes when the situation is more conducive to raising a child (e.g. having a good job, completing college, being married, etc.). If you would like to read more about this phenomenon, let me recommend an excellent book entitled The Lightworkers Guide to Healing Grief by Tina Erwin.

Here’s my dream…

A friend dreamt that my son, Jared, called her looking for me because I had not come home and he was calling around to everyone and no one had seen me and that the police became involved and that she was the one to find me dead under a house.

Dear Dreamer, The dream has a variety of interpretations, all dependent upon what your friend thinks about in terms of your relationship with Jared. In all likelihood, the dream has nothing to do with you or Jared but is instead about your friend and her family. One possibility is that she has been having problems with her relationship with her own children – Jared symbolizing the relationship she would like to have with her own children – and that she is at a loss as to how she might recapture what she once had. If this is the case, your friend might consider writing out a question such as: “What can I do about my relationship with so and so,” dream on it for a few nights, and see if the theme of the dream can give her answers to the question. The dream probably has nothing to do with you unless you have been talking to your friend about your own problems and she is worried about you.

Here’s my dream…

I have had this dream three times now and I am not sure of the meaning. The dream is that my mother and father-in-law are in court with me and they are trying to take my kids from me. My brother and sister-in-law are right behind them. My family is behind me. Next, they bring in my daughter and put her on the stand. She tells them that I am a good mother and that they don’t go without-that I have been there for them from the time they have been born. She also tells them about the times that her grandma has been mean to her and her mother. When she gets off the stand she goes over to her grandma and yells at her and tells her that she hates her and that she will never talk to her again. I stand up and tell her that she should show her grandmother some respect and she runs out of the room. I send my sister after her and after a while she comes back with her. Then the judge starts to talk and then I wake up. The last time I had this dream my father in law was not there. Please let me know what this means. It dose worry me that this might happen. I have lost enough in my life I lost my kids father about three years ago and I know that don’t want to lose my kids also.

Dear Dreamer, A literal interpretation might be that you could be in danger of losing your kids but a metaphorical interpretation suggests instead that sometimes you may question yourself as to how good of a parent you really are. This personal questioning and perhaps lack of self-esteem is being presented to you in the form of your in-laws, who are questioning your parenting skills-perhaps as you do in waking life. An alternative interpretation could be that your in-laws (or your husband) tend to be too critical of you and the way you do things, and the dream is trying to portray the fact that you do nothing wrong. In either event, the dream suggests that there is too much criticism being directed at you-either self-directed or from other people. A literal interpretation might be that you could be in danger of losing your kids but a metaphorical interpretation suggests instead that sometimes you may question yourself as to how good of a parent you really are. This personal questioning and perhaps lack of self-esteem is being presented to you in the form of your in-laws, who are questioning your parenting skills-perhaps as you do in waking life. An alternative interpretation could be that your in-laws (or your husband) tend to be too critical of you and the way you do things, and the dream is trying to portray the fact that you do nothing wrong. In either event, the dream suggests that there is too much criticism being directed at you-either self-directed or from other people.

Here’s my dream…

My father committed suicide five years ago. My previous dreams about my father have been very pleasant. This morning I woke up from a dream where my father walked into my family room and clearly stated to me that, “The kids are staying home tomorrow, school is closed. They found out that a man is watching your daughter from across the lake and they want the kids to stay home.” I knew he meant that this man was going to try and kidnap my daughter (age 12). I was so frightened that I woke up with my heard pounding. Was my father trying to warn me?

Dear Dreamer, Although it’s possible that the dream is a warning dream, a more likely interpretation centers on your father and whatever you most recall when you think about him. For example, your father might symbolize “depression,” or “the end of something special,” and so forth-whatever most comes to mind. With this in mind, the dream could be suggesting that your daughter is depressed or experiencing something that your father once experienced. In other words, the man that is trying to “kidnap” your daughter could also be a symbol for whatever took your father away. At the very least, if you daughter has been having emotional problems lately, the dream is definitely suggesting that she needs to get out of her regular routine and find someone that she feels comfortable talking to.

Here’s my dream…

I am currently 5 months pregnant with my first child. I dreamt that I was holding my little girl as a newborn and then I was watching her play outside walking around. In the dream she was running after a butterfly and got too close to the top of a drop and before I could get to her she fell several feet to the bottom of a cement ground and died. This dream has really upset me and I would like to know what it might mean. Thank you.

Dear Dreamer, Although a literal dream might indicate some kind of a challenge with your pregnancy, a much more likely interpretation is a metaphorical one that deals specifically with you. If the dream is about having a child, then the dream could indicate that freedom as you have known it (as illustrated by the butterfly) is about to come to a complete end because of having a child. Alternately, the dream may have nothing to do with your child and could indicate that some new beginning you have been chasing after (e.g. work or a personal opportunity) is going to drop out of site and come to an end. I hope that helps.

Here’s my dream…

My husband dreamt that I was having sex with his brother and that I instigated the whole thing. What does this mean? I also have dreamt that a woman was trying to take my husband away from me.

Dear Dreamer, Your husband’s dream could indicate that he either feels very competitive with his brother, himself, or another family member in regards to something that is very important to him; or, it might suggest that he feels like his relationship with you is making him deal with family situations that he doesn’t want to deal with. Your dream could suggest that your husband has other commitments and/or obligations (work/hobbies, etc.) that you feel like sometimes takes him away from you.

Here’s my dream…

I am a person that rarely dreams or maybe I don’t pay attention to my dreams. Three days ago I attended my regular bible class on Wednesday’s and that night I had a dream about a Demon holding a woman and torturing her. It was a nightmare and I woke-up scared. Then on Friday I had a dream that my daughter went on a rafting trip with her friends at college and I received a call from the college to come and identify her body. In my dream, I walked down this narrow hallway and found a corpse drawer that had a tag on the front that said time of death. I pulled out the drawer and brushed away the long hair of a woman and saw my daughter’s face with her eyes closed. I yelled out this horrifying scream and cried and cried. As I was closing the drawer, her eyes opened and I tried to tell everyone she was alive but no one listened to me. I woke up terrified and could not go back to sleep. I am trying analyze what these dreams mean and hope I don’t have any more of them cause my sleeping habits are not good since my first nightmare on Wednesday. My daughter is in college and I have not heard from her in a week. Usually she calls twice a week and I know she is busy with her internship and studying for finals. Maybe since I am worried about my daughter’s welfare could explain why I am having these dreams. I am a single parent and have a business in my home. My son is eighteen and lives with me.

Dear Dreamer, First of all, we all dream an average of approximately ninety minutes per night. In all likelihood the demon is representative of the worries or fears you are currently wrestling with. The woman these worries are torturing is you. Your daughter on a rafting trip with friends is symbolic of her undertaking her life’s journey in a way that you are not involved (e.g. her going away to school). Dealing with your daughter’s death is probably connected with the “death” in your old relationship since she has gone away to school. For example, even though she is still alive, it still may feel like a death since she went away to school and has been busy with her new life and activities. If you’d like to learn how to work with dream, let me suggest that you return to this dream column now and again and read the dreams and the interpretations. Let me also recommend a dream book by Kevin Todeschi, Dream Images and Symbols.

Here’s my dream…

My husband and I had our first baby, a boy, die at three days old. We have been trying to conceive for 19 months now. I am currently on fertility medication. Last night I had a dream that I am with the female members of my family on a cruise. In the dream I am very pregnant and close to delivery. I walk out onto the deck where the pool is and I see my grandmother (whom I don’t have a great relationship with) sunbathing. I turn around and walk away without exchanging any words with her. The next thing I know I am in a room on this ship giving birth vaginally. Which is not possible for me. I had a c-section with my first child and will with all subsequent children. When the baby came out my aunt was holding it. The baby is crying and will not stop. I’m crying for my husband and I have no idea where he is. All of the sudden my grandmother snatches the baby out of my aunt’s arms and throws the baby (a girl, with lots of jet black curly hair and wearing a pink shirt) down on my arm. She tells my aunt very rudely, “She is just going to have to take care of it herself!” The baby is crying and crying and then my dream ends. What does this mean?

Dear Dreamer, Because of your relationship with your grandmother, her symbol in the dream could indicate your own critical and harsh thoughts about yourself. The fact that you cannot find your husband suggests that during much of this process of trying to get pregnant you have felt alone with your own thoughts. That process of being alone has also made you have to deal with some of the female (or even self) issues that have been with you for much of your life. Giving birth vaginally could symbolize that when you do have a child, you will heal some of these female (perhaps even mother-related) issues. I think the dream is suggesting you will have a child.

Here’s my dream…

Well this is not my dream but rather the dream of a friend’s son. You see my friend has been bothered by this dream her son had the other night. He dreamed she was driving along and suddenly was killed by a drunk driver. The driver fled and so her son chased after him caught him and killed him. She wants to know what this means please if you could?

Dear Dreamer, Rather than interpreting this dream literally, a more likely possibility suggests that this young man’s mother could represent his own “higher self” or the personal parental figure he has within his consciousness. With this in mind, the dream could be suggesting that the son is harming his own future and life direction by excessive drinking and/or by doing things that he knows would “kill” his mother.

 

Online Database of Past Dream Interpretations: Dreams About the Body

Here’s my dream…

I am a 15-year-old heterosexual male. I have had a recurring dream were I am rushed to a hospital and they remove all of my male organs and put in a uterus and ovaries. When I wake up my hair is long like a girl’s and my body has taken on a feminine shape with hips, female buttocks, a small waist and large breasts. My face has also changed to look like a beautiful 15-year-old girl. I have makeup on and I’m in a dress holding on to what seems to be my boyfriend’s hand. I’m kind of freaked out about this dream because I never have wanted to be a girl and I don’t like guys. I like girls. Please, I would like some answers.

Dear Dreamer, The dream has several possible meanings. One, of course, has to do with asking questions about your own sexuality but there are many other likely interpretations. One interpretation suggests that you may have been spending so much time thinking about the female anatomy that you have diminished women in general into no more than objects of sexual desire. If this is the case, your subconscious mind has simply tried to give you an experience “being” a girl so you could feel what it is like and realize that girls are people too. Another possibility is that you may be so “male” that you are somewhat out of balance and need to incorporate more feminine qualities (such as compassion, empathy, etc.) into your life. Although the dream could also be related to a past-life memory, I think it has more to do with one of the previous interpretations.

Here’s my dream…

 

I recently had a health scare that turned out all right. (I didn’t go to a doctor – happily the problem seems to have resolved on its own.) I had these dreams the night the symptoms stopped: I’m at a circus and watch as a clown does a juggling act with small puppies! I’m impressed at his skill but still shocked that he would take the risk, especially as the puppies are obviously terrified. Next, several clowns lock arms and legs and become a kind of “walking spider.” Again, I’m impressed with their skill but baffled as to why they would choose to imitate a scary spider instead of something fun and cheerful, even though I did laugh several times at their antics. Lastly, I’m with an acquaintance who says to me, “I know you think I lived in some kind of big, fancy house, but you’re wrong.” (I assume she’s referring to a childhood home.) I tell her that I’d actually always imagined it as a cute little house flanked by two tall buildings, like skyscrapers, on each side. This is also clearly wrong, judging by her face. She picks up the phone to call her mother (so that she’ll describe the house for me, I think) but I wake up at this point. Thanks for any insight you can give me.

Dear Dreamer, If I had had the dreams, I would go to see a doctor regardless of your feelings that the scare is passed. The first part is essentially questioning why you are “taking a risk.” The second is wondering why you simply dealt with the “scare” by laughter. The third is suggesting that you may not be as strong and invincible as you have imagined. Although the dream could also be about making decisions related to your life’s direction, to be on the safe side I would follow-up with a doctor just for a checkup. I hope that helps.

 

Here’s my dream..

My 32-year-old daughter has recurring and persistent cancer. I dreamed this before her last CAT scan. I felt it was a very important dream because it showed the past present and future. But as time is passing, it doesn’t seem that I have interpreted it correctly. Please help. I feel that this is a dream that shows God’s will, but I can’t understand it. The dream has 3 parts: First, I am at my daughter’s house getting ready for a party. I have brought gifts to be wrapped. My daughter says, “Here Mom, let me wrap them” and she does. My friend is there and I ask, “Are we going to the party?” She says, “Not at 1 o’clock, but at 4 o’ clock.” The second part: We do go to a party at a beautiful house in a wooded area. The large doors open. My daughter puts the wrapped gifts on an entry-type round table in front of a flaming fire in the fireplace. Third part: I want to go outside the house and see the grounds. On the side of the house is a walkway constructed of large, white bricks. It is a long sturdy and wide walkway. On the first section there have been planted a row of tall slender trees on the left side. Then the walkway stops abruptly because there is a large dead tree in the way. As I go past the dead tree, I see that there is also another kind of dead tree attached to the first one. But I get back on the walkway and look back over my left shoulder at the dead trees. Up ahead is another section of the walkway that has the identical tall slender trees planted in a row on the right. On ahead is another section of walkway with the same kind of trees planted on both sides, but they are growing tall and arching over the walkway. Finally the walkway continues into a beautiful shady forest. Is this a good hopeful dream of life or foreboding? I had a good feeling when I awakened.

Dear Dreamer, To be honest, the dream can be interpreted a number of ways. However, here is what I would consider a straightforward, logical approach: The first part regarding the time of the party suggests that the time of “celebration” is going to occur later than you originally thought. In other words, this healing process might be longer in duration. The second part, related to your daughter giving a gift suggests that your daughter has a very important role to play in terms of “releasing something,” “giving something away,” or perhaps even “expressing her own thanks.” Two ways of looking at this might be, is there something your daughter needs to tune loose of for her own health and wellbeing? Because of the presence of the hearth, that might be connected to something related to home and family. Another approach might be to ask your daughter, “What is one GOOD THING about yourself or your life that this process has brought to your attention that you could share with others?” The last part might suggest two surgeries or that the cancer that was removed still had another root. However, up ahead is a lot of very positive growth and greenery. The end result appears positive. I hope this helps. God bless you both at this time.

Here’s my dream…

For the past year and several months I’ve had a recurring dream at least 10 times pertaining to my menstrual cycle and bowel movements. These dreams have always been embarrassing. Either my period has came down unexpected while I’m sitting on the toilet and/or I am catching a bowel movement in my hand and trying to hide it from people around me. I have been thinking of what possible meaning this could be.

Dear Dreamer, Overall, the dream is about feeling exposed or vulnerable in front of other people. In addition to that, however, it suggests the process of elimination – especially eliminating something toxic from your life. There are a number of reasons why this might occur. For example, perhaps you are having to expose something personal about yourself as a means of moving beyond a toxic situation. A dream like this could also occur, for example, if someone was in a relationship that they were not happy about, was actually “toxic” for them, and was something he or she needed to leave but rather than leaving the individual was constantly complaining about the other person in inappropriate ways to others. In other words, airing your dirty laundry. As stated, it’s essentially about exposing something private about your self in front of others.

Here’s my dream…

I am a three-month breast cancer survivor. I had some unusual dreams prior to my diagnosis, and my doctor said always listen to your dreams; they could be a warning. The other night I dreamed an intruder came in my house and shot me with a long barrel gun. I felt the shots go into my body and I lie down to die. The last two nights the same man with the same gun chased me and was shooting at me. I tried to call 911 on my cell since one of the times I was in my car. I have never seen this mans face before. I awake terrified and cannot go back to sleep. Last night I dreamed an intruder was coming in my house and I awoke screaming. This in not like me. Can you please help?

Dear Dreamer, It is possible to have a “warning” dream about cancer that is meant to be helpful, getting you to follow-up on treatment so that there is a positive outcome. With this in mind, one interpretation of men with guns is renegade cancer cells that are trying to do the body harm. Another possibility is the subconscious awareness that someone is “shooting you down” (e.g. saying bad things about you), and the dreams are trying to bring this to your awareness. Along the same lines, you may have been overly critical of yourself. Just to be on the safe side, I would see your doctor for a checkup.

Here’s my dream…

About three years ago I had a cancerous brain tumor that was successfully removed. Last night, I had a pretty vivid dream about going in for a checkup and them finding a new tumor and being devastated. I remember the worst part was calling my mom and telling her that the tumor was back and not as operable. I really freaking out about this, because I am feeling like I need to go get a check up even though I just had one a couple months ago. I am hoping this means something else. Can you help?

Dear Dreamer, Hair is often symbolic of ideas or thoughts. Pulling your hair out an expression related to stress and anxiety. Therefore, the dream is suggesting that you are worrying too much about something. If this is the case, you would benefit from learning how to meditate. You can take advantage of our free online meditation course.

Here’s my dream…

What does it mean when you dream you are pulling your hair and you see that the more you pull, more hair falls off?

Dear Dreamer, Hair is often symbolic of ideas or thoughts. Pulling your hair out an expression related to stress and anxiety. Therefore, the dream is suggesting that you are worrying too much about something. If this is the case, you would benefit from learning how to meditate. You can take advantage of our free online meditation course.

Here’s my dream…

The other night I dreamt I was in the bathroom urinating and suddenly I noticed my urine was changing color. It was like dirty water from a mop pail. I called my mom and she looked at the toilet and she noticed that the water in the toilet looked dirty. Then we looked closer and I noticed that I was urinating worms! I am a 50-year-old male, my mom is deceased and I am confused about this dream.

Dear Dreamer, If the dream is literal, it is suggesting that you need to see as doctor regarding a possible problem, such as a urinary tract infection or a problem with your prostate. This may especially be indicated if your mother died of some cancer-related problem. If the dream is metaphorical, it may be suggesting that there is something “eating you up” that needs to be eliminated, probably in reference to some kind of a family situation. In any event, it is always a good idea to see a doctor whenever an individual dreams about a possible health issue because these dreams can often be preventative in nature. I hope that helps.

Here’s my dream…

Dear A.R.E.: Although the details of my dream are foggy, here is the general description: I am at home and company arrives. I am interacting with them, talking, even looking at craft items that they brought to me. The entire time they are there, I feel very awkward because I am either completely naked or just have my top exposed (I am not sure) I just remember my chest exposed. Yet my company, although they don’t say anything and also seem to feel somewhat awkward, don’t leave or comment. I felt very anxious and wanted the visit to end. Please explain.

Dear Dreamer, If the dream is literal, it is suggesting that you need to “clean up your act” and start taking care of yourself because you are about to get pregnant. If the dream is metaphorical, it may be suggesting that some new beginning you have (e.g. a new relationship, a new job, a new focus, etc.) might be negatively impacted if you don’t take care of it and yourself and give it the appropriate attention it deserves.

Here’s my dream…

Although the details of my dream are foggy, here is the general description: I am at home and company arrives. I am interacting with them, talking, even looking at craft items that they brought to me. The entire time they are there, I feel very awkward because I am either completely naked or just have my top exposed (I am not sure) I just remember my chest exposed. Yet my company, although they don’t say anything and also seem to feel somewhat awkward, don’t leave or comment. I felt very anxious and wanted the visit to end. Please explain.

Dear Dreamer, If the dream is literal, it is suggesting that you need to “clean up your act” and start taking care of yourself because you are about to get pregnant. If the dream is metaphorical, it may be suggesting that some new beginning you have (e.g. a new relationship, a new job, a new focus, etc.) might be negatively impacted if you don’t take care of it and yourself and give it the appropriate attention it deserves. In case the dream is literal, let me also suggest that you read the book, Edgar Cayce’s Keys to Health by Eric Mein.

Here’s my dream…

In my dream I am talking to a friend and then suddenly start coughing and spitting up maggots. My friend ignores this and then tells me that she has cancer. Then she disappears. I’ve been having this dream for a couple days now, and was curious as to what it could mean?

Dear Dreamer, Because maggots are associated with things that are rotting, the most likely interpretation is that you have been eating “garbage.” Another possibility could be that something is “rotting” your stomach or “eating you up” – for example, emotions that you are trying to suppress, etc. In any event, the dream suggests that you may be doing something that is ultimately harmful to you.

Here’s my dream…

I am 16 and for the last two weeks I have had, almost nightly, the same recurring dream. It seems simple. I am standing in a very clean kitchen, and I am dirty with mud on my clothes and feet. Then I turn and see an older lady and she pleasantly says, “Wipe your feet.” Suddenly I feel confused. Then I wake up. Please help.

Dear Dreamer, Having mud on yourself in a dream is often indicative of doing things that are “dirty” (in other words, things that aren’t good, appropriate or helpful for the individual). Since our feet are the means in which we walk life’s journey, when an individual’s feet are dirty it also suggests that the individual has been doing things that he or she shouldn’t have done. Mud can also be associated with the act of “muddying” one’s emotions. The older woman could be a symbol of your own higher self or guardian angel, and perhaps the dream is simply encouragement to “straighten up.” I hope that helps. You may also enjoy the Discover Your Mission in Life DVD by Mark Thurston. The program has proven very helpful for individuals who are trying to discover their talents, abilities – even their direction in life.

Here’s my dream…

My mother has had the same dream twice now that she is in her bathroom and looks up at the mirror to find that the mirror has disappeared – it is just no longer there and instead is just a bare wall. Any ideas on what this might mean as I cant find any vanishing mirror interpretations?

Dear Dreamer, The dream may suggest that at this point in your mother’s life, she feels as if she has lost her identity. In other words, whether it is because her children are growing an d no longer need her, or because a relationship and/or her job has come to an end, your mother may be in a place right now where she is asking questions, such as “Who am I, and what am I supposed to be doing with my life right now?” Because she has yet to find her answer to that question, she cannot see her image in the mirror. If this sounds relevant to your mother’s situation, she may want to look into the Discover Your Mission in Life DVD by Mark Thurston.

Here’s my dream…

I am a 26-year-old female. I have lived a rough life. To make matters worse, in 2001 I got diagnosed with Leukemia. In the last 2 years I probably have had this dream eight times, Please interpret! It is very disturbing to me. In the dream, I am surrounded by mist and a whole lot of trucks. I have NO Idea where I am but when the mist clears up, my body feels weird. I look down at one arm and then the other and suddenly black caterpillars start coming out of my veins at the wrist. The next minute I am lying in a hospital bed. The “nurses” are putting catheters up both of my legs and gave me 2 huge shots in my hips. The next thing I know was I was trying to touch one of the nurses, when I did so I realized she was a young girl with wings, and she was trying to rescue me from this place. What does this dream mean! Could this have been a guardian angel?

Dear Dreamer, Obviously, the dream could be connected to your healing process. The caterpillars are probably associated with the cancer that is in remission (e.g. they have not become butterflies). The catheters in your legs are probably connected to the fact that this illness has greatly affected your mobility. And, yes, the woman could have been an angel trying to assist you from that dimension. Let me suggest that you consider reading the book Edgar Cayce on Angels, Archangels, and the Unseen Forces, by Robert Grant. May God bless you at this time.

Here’s my dream…

My friend dreamt that I had maggots crawling all over the top of my scalp and towards the end of the dream she noticed that it appeared I was losing some of my hair from the maggots and throughout the dream she kept wondering why I didn’t wash my hair to get rid of the maggots. She did say she thought that she remembered someone else in the dream having maggots, as well (she thinks it was my son) and that she didn’t want to get too close because she thought she would get maggots. We were wondering if the dream was about me or if it related to her. Thank you for any advice.

Dear Dreamer, We rarely dream “for” other people. Other people generally symbolize something for the dreamer. Therefore, your friend needs to ask herself what you symbolize (e.g. perhaps a friend with a great job, a friend with a troubled marriage, a friend with children challenges, etc.) The symbol of maggots is related to something eating away at something. Since these are in the head and hair, they correspond to worry. Taken together, the dream suggests that your friend is very worried (perhaps even making herself sick in the process) over something in her life. That something is being symbolized in the dream by whatever she associates with you.

Here’s my dream…

This morning, I had the MOST disturbing dream of my 39 years. In real life, I’ve recently been diagnosed with osteoporosis (rare for my age). In the dream, I went back to my doctor for more blood-work; he comes to me with the results, and says I have “cardio… (a word I had never heard) – and says, “You have cancer.” I asked him how to beat it, and what steps to take. He tells me, “There are none; this is fatal. You are going to die.” Somehow, I look at his personal notes, and he has written, “Told patient he was going to die, he refuses to believe it.” I go to another doctor, a female, and she asks me to blow into something to check lung capacity. She agrees my body is in fact shutting down, and gives me a series of shots, which I am allergic to, and a red blister like rash appears on my left arm. She then starts injecting a fluid into them, and tells me that I am going to die. She looks sad. Then I walk outside, everything turns golden and I see my wife but only the times I have hurt her with angry words. Then a voice tells me, “Tell your wife, after your death, to marry again. Tell her to go on and be happy. To live.” That’s when I awoke. Can you PLEASE help me with this? I am beside myself with fear.

Dear Dreamer, First of all, anytime an individual has a dream related to a possible health problem, I recommend going to a doctor for a check-up. If the dream is literal, it suggests a health issue. However, in all likelihood the dream is more metaphorical and suggests instead “Something is eating you up inside.” That something (may be work related, may be relationship related) is causing you to lose interest in some aspect of your life (e.g. in the dream your lungs were shutting down). Although the dream indicates that part of you may have been ignoring this issue for a while, you are not going to be able to ignore it any longer. The fact that you have hurt your wife with angry words in the dream could indicate that the pressure of the situation (and not dealing with it) is having a negative impact upon your relationship. With all this in mind, if your are burned out at work and don’t know where to go next, let me recommend the Discover Your Mission in Life DVD by Mark Thurston. If you are having problems in your relationship and things are only getting worse, you may need to seek outside counseling. In addition, to be on the same side, please consider seeing a doctor for an annual check-up.

Here’s my dream..

For the past six months I’ve been having dreams, that are all different, but all have a common occurrence in them. Wherever I might be I have problems walking. I will either walk for a few seconds in pain, or won’t actually me able to move my legs and get to wherever I’m trying to go. It doesn’t appear in every night’s dreams but at least once or twice a month. Why does this keep popping into my dreams? I keep trying to look up the answer online or in books but can’t figure out the meaning. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Dear Dreamer, The dream suggests that you are having problems pursuing or continuing in your present life’s direction. In other words, it may suggest that you no longer have the stamina or the drive to remain in the same career (or perhaps relationship). If this is the case, let me suggest Discover Your Mission in Life DVD by Mark Thurston.

Here’s my dream..

In my dream, I was drinking a can of coke and I don’t remember exactly how but somehow I found a fly floating in it or something. Also, as I finished the coke at the bottom there was a dead worm. In my dream, I figured that the fly must of gotten trap and laid an egg. It has been almost a week and I can still remember this dream. Can you help me by telling me if this means something?

Dear Dreamer, The dream is essentially about your diet and suggests that you have been putting things into your body that are “garbage,” or are at the very least not healthful to you. If you drink a lot of coke or soda, the dream is definitely encouraging you to cut down.

Here’s my dream…

I’m a 32-year-old female and since childhood, I’ve been having dreams that sharp objects like knives, needles, pins, broken glass, etc, were entering my sexual organ and therewith naturally causing me pain. How would you interpret these dreams?

Dear Dreamer, In all likelihood the dreams suggest some type of pain or aversion to sexual or intimate relationships. Although some type of sexual abuse might have facilitated the dreams, it is just as likely that there deal with mental abuse. In other words, you may have some aversion to close personal relationships because of the problems you witnessed as a child between your own parents, or the aversion may have come in with you from previous incarnations. In any event, if you have a hard time in close personal relationships, I think you should seriously considering seeing a counselor. Good luck to you.

Here’s my dream…

I recently had a dream that I was lying in bed during the day and about 3-4 inches below my belly button I had a bunch of little white dots and I also had this hole too. It was about at my panty line and it was bloody. Well, I decided I’d open it up and when I did I saw something similar to a worm of some sort. This dream is bugging me and I would really like to know what it means!

Dear Dreamer, The dream is important and suggests that something is “eating you up,” either metaphorically or literally. If metaphorical, the dream could be suggesting that something is bothering you and you are not quite certain how to deal with it. If the dream is literal, it might indicate the presence of something like an ulcer or even pre-cancerous tissue. In any event, the dream is a strong indicator that you need to get a medical check-up. Oftentimes, we have warning dreams that end up being very helpful for our own health and wellbeing. Good luck to you.

Here’s my dream…

Well, this is not my dream, but my friend keeps having a recurring dream of me hanging, and it is really starting to scare me because I don’t know what it means.

Dear Dreamer, We do really not “dream for” other people. With this in mind, in all likelihood your friend’s dream is more about her than it is about you. Ask your friend what you symbolize to her. Maybe it’s someone who has a great job, or someone who has a fantastic relationship, or perhaps it’s something like someone who is having a hard time in school. Whatever it is, if the dream is using you as a symbol, than it suggests that the part of her own life that you symbolize for her is having the life choked out of it. Therefore, if you symbolize someone with a great relationship, it could suggest that her own relationship is on the verge of ending. Conversely, the dream might simply be about the relationship dynamic between the two of you. If this is the case, the neck is often a symbol of the will and it might indicate that the will of one of you is often overpowering the will of the other. It is not likely that the dream would have anything to do with you hanging yourself.

Here’s my dream…

My most recent dream involved my left index finger being internally consumed by some foreign entity. The pain was so tremendous that I smashed the tip of my index finger with a hammer to take my mind off of what was eating at the bone. After smashing the tip and exposing tissue and bone it turned out to be maggots chewing away at my flesh. I was so repulsed by the maggots that I awoke from my dream.

Dear Dreamer, Content The left side of the body can often symbolize the past, and the index fingers can be associated with things/activities/involvements that you had your “hands in.” It might also be somehow connected to free will. With this in mind, the dream suggests that something from the past that you were involved in is still “eating you up” – perhaps in terms of regrets or frustration or even anger. I think the dream is encouraging you to either turn lose of something from the past that is bothering you, or at least find a way to begin dealing with the situation so that you can work through it.

Here’s my dream…

I’m a 22-year-old mother of a 9-month-old boy. I keep having the same dream at least once a week. In my dream I’m chewing on chewing gum and go to talk to someone (and its always a different person) so as not to be rude, I try to take the chewing gum out of my mouth but the more I pull at the chewing gum the more my mouth fills with the gum. Can you please help; it’s such a strange dream?

Dear Dreamer, The dream suggests that you sometimes have a hard time with words – either in terms of what you want to say gets all stuck in your mouth, or what you say ends up unintentionally hurting someone. Although the dream might be suggesting that you chew way too much gum, I think that it is trying to portray the fact that you are somewhat self-conscious about speaking to people. If this is the case, then let me suggest that you join a group that will give you the opportunity to speak with others – anything from Gymboree with your toddler to toastmasters for yourself.

Here’s my dream…

I’ve submitted this dream before but had no response. I will try again with added expectancy: I was sitting in the woodwork room of my old school. It was after hours and no one was around – just me sitting on the floor in the darkness. I was holding a liver, a real liver, in my lap. I strummed it like a guitar while singing aloud to my self “Amazing Grace.” What could this be telling me? I am a twenty-six-year-old male; I try to keep fit and healthy; and am somewhat reclusive. I study via correspondence; and enjoy writing creatively. I actually play guitar, and at times I sing this song aloud also. What do you think? I’d appreciate your input greatly?

Dear Dreamer, Essentially, the liver is the body organ responsible for: detoxifying poisonous substances, secreting bile, and forming blood proteins in the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. Oftentimes, when individuals dream about the liver it is connected to having drunk too much (causing the body’s systems to overtax themselves). Playing it like a guitar could be associated with playing around with your health, especially as it relates to drinking. However, since you stated that you live a relatively healthful lifestyle, and since you are singing “Amazing Grace,” it may suggest that playing around with a recent personal interest in spirituality or religion has enabled you to heal some type of emotional situation (e.g. internal poison) that you had been dealing with. Depending on what has been occurring in your life, you should be able to figure out how these symbols might be appropriate for you at this time.

Here’s my dream…

I was in a big house where my sister in law was. She had surgery done on a tumor in her head and was in the hospital for eight days. The strange thing is that she looked awesome; she looked younger than ever and her teeth were white as can be. I asked her why she didn’t tell me about her tumor and she said that I had enough to worry about with my own tumor in my head. She showed me where she has to get another tumor removed and it was outside of her head. The tumor was really ugly. It was a hard shell looking thing, black in color. She had a scar on the other side of her head where she had surgery done but it was strange because even though there was this ugly tumor on her she was as radiant and beautiful as ever. The strange part about this is that my 16-year-old son does have a tumor and has seizures. Her son, my nephew, has what we think is seizures and we have been telling her for years now that we think that something is wrong but she wont take him to the doctors. My nephew is afraid that they will take his license away. I don’t understand why my sister in law and me are the ones with the tumors in my dreams.

Dear Dreamer, A tumor can often be symbolic of some kind of worry that an individual is holding inside his or her head. With this in mind, the dream may be indicating that in spite of your joint worries about your sons, both of you are leading relatively productive and happy lives. However, because all characters in a dream can be symbolic of self, the dream could be indicating that you are somewhat hesitant to take your own son back to the doctor, or take your self to the doctor for some reason. If this is the case, then the dream is suggesting that the doctor could be helpful in whatever situation is occurring. In terms of your nephew, if he is having seizures due to a problem such as epilepsy, he may be interested in researching the Cayce information on the topic. In fact, you might all benefit from looking at the Cayce Health Database.

Here’s my dream…

I had a dream last night that I had thousands of maggots in my mouth that came bursting out non stop – I was even choking on them and spitting them out as much as I could, then I woke up. What does this mean?

Dear Dreamer, Maggots are generally symbolic of garbage or filth. With this in mind, the dream suggests that your mouth is either filled with filth or disgusting things you’ve been saying that you should not say, or that you have been eatreing trash in terms of your body’s health. Either way, it suggests that you need to change something that you’ve been doing.

Here’s my dream…

I dreamt that I had a wooden leg; my friend had a bad leg also. We both used a cane. We traveled to Europe, where I learned that my other good leg needed to be amputated as well. They removed the leg and attached another wooden leg, thus I could not walk and had to crawl. My friend and I got really drunk and we were outside.

Dear Dreamer, Generally a leg can be symbolic of a life’s direction or it might indicate a person’s foundation or belief system. However, in this country we have a saying about “a wooden leg,” which suggests that an individual drinks too much. With this in mind, the dream may be telling you that you are drinking too much and causing physical problems as well as problems in your direction. Alternatively, the dream might simply be saying that something is going on in your life in which you feel unable to follow through on what you really want to do and are having to learn how to “crawl” before you can walk (e.g. take smaller steps leading you to where you want to go).

Here’s my dream…

Generally a leg can be symbolic of a life’s direction or it might indicate a person’s foundation or belief system. However, in this country we have a saying about “a wooden leg,” which suggests that an individual drinks too much. With this in mind, the dream may be telling you that you are drinking too much and causing physical problems as well as problems in your direction. Alternatively, the dream might simply be saying that something is going on in your life in which you feel unable to follow through on what you really want to do and are having to learn how to “crawl” before you can walk (e.g. take smaller steps leading you to where you want to go).

Dear Dreamer, The eyes can be symbolic of personal insight, the way the mind works, or an individual’s selfhood. The left can be associated with the past or being left brained, and the right can be connected to the future or being right-brained. Someone, for example, who dreamed that their left eye was closed but their right eye was open, might be prone to having a hard time dealing with or thinking about the past. In your case, however, since both eyes are closed it could indicate that one of your challenges in life is trying to see the perspectives and viewpoints of others.

Here’s my dream…

I had a dream last night I was in a hotel room with my best friend and I was looking in the mirror and I noticed brown stuff on my teeth. I then brushed it off and realized it was bugs. Then I began spitting big nasty bugs out of my mouth. There were so many and they kept coming out. Also, they ate my teeth. My teeth were falling out. I have nice teeth by the way. But what does this mean?

Dear Dreamer, In all likelihood the dream suggests that you have been saying things about others that you should not have said. Bugs can be associated with things that are dirty, biting, filthy, disgusting etc. The dream is showing you how these things keep coming out of your mouth. The presence of the friend suggests that this person may be instrumental in encouraging you to say things you shouldn’t, or that the two of you have this habit in common, or that you were saying bad things about this friend. In any event, the dream may simply be encouraging you to “clean up your act” in terms of how you speak about others. I hope that helps.In all likelihood the dream suggests that you have been saying things about others that you should not have said. Bugs can be associated with things that are dirty, biting, filthy, disgusting etc. The dream is showing you how these things keep coming out of your mouth. The presence of the friend suggests that this person may be instrumental in encouraging you to say things you shouldn’t, or that the two of you have this habit in common, or that you were saying bad things about this friend. In any event, the dream may simply be encouraging you to “clean up your act” in terms of how you speak about others. I hope that helps.

Here’s my dream…

I had a dream the other night that I was talking on the phone and I had a heart attack. Well, I dropped the phone and was clutching my chest. I was unable to speak. In order to get my mother’s attention I threw something and it broke against the wall. She came running in the living room where I was on the floor, with the phone still on beside me. At first she thought I was faking but she realized I wasn’t and picked up the phone and shouted. She then rushed me to the hospital. All I remember after that is that I was still alive. What does the dream mean?

Dear Dreamer, The dream has a number of possibilities but two of the most likely are as follows: If the dream is literal, it is suggesting that you are going to be okay but that you should see a doctor about your health and receive a physical. The phone is a symbol for communication and your mother can literally be your mother or your family. Conversely, if the dream is metaphorical, it is suggesting that something is hurting your feelings/attitude, almost to the point of “killing” you but that you are having a hard time communicating what is going on with you so that people around you truly understand the challenge(s) you are currently facing. In either event, the dream is suggesting that you may need help beyond yourself at this point in your life.

Here’s my dream…

Over the past week, I’ve had recurring dreams about having things in my ears. The context surrounding this changes with each dream but from what I remember I suddenly notice there is something there and try to pull it out/dig it out with my fingers. More and more comes out, sort of in a long tube and crumbles on the ground (like burnt incense sticks) and I am left feeling in one sense purged, and in another grossed out by what came out. There is also the sense that there is still stuff left in there either that I can’t reach, or that is too cemented in to be removed. It is quite an unpleasant dream and I’m wondering if it means anything?

Dear Dreamer, Since the focus is upon the ears, the dream is suggestive of a problem with listening or hearing. This problem might be associated with others – such as a difficulty in communication – or it might be connected with your feelings of not being able to hear your own “inner voice.” Overall, I think the dream is suggesting that you have been working on some kind of personal growth or healing process and that during that process you have become aware of issues that need to be cleared out or straightened, but the more you try to heal or fix them the more you have become aware of the extent of the problem. I hope that helps. Good luck to you.

Here’s my dream…

I am a recovered alcoholic and have no desire to drink in my conscious life. I often have dreams about being intoxicated and feeling very guilty about it. In many of the dreams something bad is happening that I could prevent if I was sober and that adds to the guilty feelings. Does this mean that I am in danger of a relapse?

Dear Dreamer, I don’t think the dream has anything to do with a relapse. Oftentimes, the subconscious mind will use thematic images and ideas to bring something to the consciousness of the dreamer. Since drinking in the past left you with feelings of guilt and being out of control, then the dreams may be suggesting that there is something going on in your life about which you feel guilty (or that something is out of control in your life), and your mind is simply pulling together a dream that will bring that awareness to your mind. I hope that helps.

Here’s my dream…

I am separated from my wife (not legally though) and we don’t live together. Last night I had a dream about her. She told me that her arm had been amputated because she had some disease. She was very calm about it. I was horrified and went to see her but couldn’t at first see her am. Then, next thing I was lying in bed with her, she was on her stomach and now I could see what was left of her right arm – it was amputated above the elbow. It cut was at an angle, I reached out and felt the stump. It felt terrible and I felt immense sadness. Can you tell me what this means? We are actually on good terms and see each other on a fairly regular basis although we don’t have sex (and haven’t for about 2 years). My wife told me she doesn’t love me but she hasn’t asked for a divorce either. What does all this mean? Help!

Dear Dreamer, Have you ever heard the expression, “He’s my right arm”? The expression really suggests a relationship that is extremely close to the point of being indispensable. With this in mind, the dream suggests that because of the separation you may still feel as if you have lost part of yourself. If this were the case, I would recommend that the two of you consider counseling so that you can get on with your lives. Good luck to you.

 

Online Database of Past Dream Interpretations: Dreams About Conflict Here’s my dream… Thank you for being here for us. In my dreams I often awaken calling out names of people I know, screaming, “Stop,” or “No,” or “Go Away,” or “Stop Hurting Me,” or actually punching my husband’s arm/shoulder. The dream settings always begin pleasantly, either moving into a lovely new home, or visiting a beautiful place, sometimes buying a new car, but as each dream progresses, the house is burgled, or someone is attempting to break-in, the beautiful place becomes a dark jungle, usually full of venomous snakes, or the new car is stolen. I do have a lot of stress in my work life now, and the new management (soon to be replaced) cannot be trusted, and is often abusive. But these dreams have been a part of my life much longer than the current work setting. In a dream that I was able to work through previously, I was always protecting my family from invading monsters/aliens during the night. I have been working with Christian counselors, and have achieved the wonderful release of my severe co-dependencies with my family. I value your input, and any direction, or resource will be greatly appreciated. Dear Dreamer, The dreams may be suggesting that whenever you are facing stress in everyday life, your subconscious mind goes on “overload” because of all of the stress that it is already dealing with. In other words, there still may be some unresolved issues from the past that are being held inside and part of you just can’t take any more. If this is the case, then I would recommend seeing some kind of regression therapist who can take you back to the issues and enable you to deal with them from your adult perspective. Good luck to you. Here’s my dream… I am a 23-year-old female who is in a serious relationship. My boyfriend and I live together and are talking about marriage in the future. He is very loving and attentive and an incredible boyfriend. I have been diagnosed with depression and anxiety disorder about 9 months ago and am on Zoloft (taken daily) and Valium (taken during anxiety attacks). Within the last year it seems that I don’t have any dreams except nightmares. I have them about 5 times per week and usually wake up crying or with great anxiety. Generally my entire day after one of these nightmares is consumed with the feeling that the dream actually happened. Most of the dreams are in some way or another about him. Either that he is being unfaithful or that he has abandoned me. Occasionally the dreams are of tornadoes or death/abandonment in my family. The emotions that I have with them are incredibly real and intense and last for most of the day. Is this normal? I have not been able to sleep lately because I get so nervous when I lie down knowing that I will probably be experiencing some awful feeling all night long. Then in turn when I do sleep it is restless and half awake/half dreams. What can I do to stop this? It’s making me crazy! Thanks for your help and advice. Dear Dreamer, The dreams may essentially be about your own emotional turmoil (symbolized by the tornadoes) as well as your own insecurities about your personal self-worth (symbolized be having your boyfriend repeatedly abandon you). The dreams are not happening to make you feel crazy, instead they are happening because these unresolved issues are within you and need to be healed. I would highly recommend that you visit a professional hypnotherapist and be regressed to whatever situation in your life is responsible for your feelings of anxiety and insecurity. Once the situation is healed from your adult perspective, the dreams (as well as the waking anxiety) should cease. Here’s my dream… One of my friends has a dream that continues to repeat itself but gets worse and worse each time. It’s actually of him getting crucified. I’m wondering what kind of significance this has, if any? Dear Dreamer, The dream is simply suggesting that something is occurring in the dreamer’s life that is “killing,” “crucifying,” or “harming” him in some way. In other words, there is something going on at home, at work, in a relationship, or in his mind (e.g. worries) that is causing him a great deal of pain and personal torture. Evidently, the dream will continue to repeat itself until he deals with whatever is bothering him in waking life. Here’s my dream… My stepdaughter has dreamt of being sold to a man for $1000 an hour – she reports of having to do “gross sex stuff” during these dreams. She has also talked of a needle with a yellow liquid being shot into her arm. She has been very detailed about the man and the other men involved, and how some of this takes place during a film, where they are in an orgy type situation. What is troubling is that this girl is only 10-years-old. Dear Dreamer, Obviously something is definitely bothering and even controlling this little girl. Assuming that the information really is a dream, then it suggests that she feels like she is being controlled, manipulated and perhaps even abused because she is a girl. It’s also possible that this child has experienced some kind of abuse that is filtering through her dream imagery. The yellow substance in her veins suggests that she has given a lot of thought (e.g. associated with the color yellow) to whatever it was that is bothering her. Another possibility is that the child is only saying she has had these dreams in an effort to place some distance and/or protection between herself and whatever happened to make her feel helpless, controlled and victimized. Whatever the cause of this imagery, I think you need to find a way to get this child to speak up to you and/or someone you can trust about whatever is really bothering her. Here’s my dream… Last night, I had a very long and weird dream. I was hoping you could tell me what it means. It started off at Wal-Mart. Me, my husband, and my daughter were sitting in the food area when, all of a sudden, we felt the ground shake and heard a loud noise. An announcement came over the intercom that terrorists were attacking and we should take cover immediately. So we started running through the store passing all these women who were crying. For some reason, I stop and ask a woman why she is crying and she says, “Everyone is dying.” At this point, my husband and daughter are no longer with me so I run outside looking for them. I see my cousin driving by in a jeep so I jump on the back of it. As were driving down the street, there are terrorists dressed in khaki clothes running everywhere. I become very frightened. Finally, we come to some little trailer out in the middle of this big, huge field. On my way into this trailer, I see army men dressed in camouflage, running around shooting these terrorists. Once inside, I find my husband along with Ashton Kutcher (famous actor). I become very excited to see Ashton and we start talking. Then I see my husband run up to some girl who walks in and start kissing her. I run up to him, screaming, “What are you doing?” He looks at me and tells me that he doesn’t want to be with me anymore and just walks away with this girl. I’m feeling very sad and confused when Ashton walks up and comforts me. He takes my hand and we walk outside into this tunnel. Dear Dreamer, In brief, the dream suggests that you may be in the midst of some kind of personal “earthquake” (e.g. change or unexpected happening) in your life. In all likelihood, this earthquake deals with your personal relationships, your career, or your own life’s direction. The fact that everyone is “dying” can symbolize that everything is changing. The imagery associated with your getting on the back of the jeep with your cousin could indicate that whatever your cousin has recently experienced is something you are experiencing as well – in this respect, you are following behind this individual. The army men could be associated with help you receive from an unknown or unexpected source in regards to this situation. Ashton (the actor from “That 70s Show”) can be symbolic of a new relationship or someone going out with an individual of vastly different ages. The scene with your husband suggests that the two of you may need to sit down and talk about your relationship, your hopes for the future, and even any communication issues that may be occurring in the present. I hope that helps. Here’s my dream… I used to be beat when I was younger by my boyfriends – that was like three years ago. I haven’t been beat since but I am having nightmares where one of them beats me unconscious. While unconscious, I can still see everything. I am rushed to the hospital where I eventually die. I wake up just after I hear the heart monitor flat-line. What does this mean? I usually wake up with tears and if I ever have the dream around friends they say I am impossible to wake up and say things like “I’m sorry” and “Stop!” Any help would be very appreciated. Dear Dreamer, The dreams could be indicating that there is still a tendency within you to be willing to put up with anything to have a relationship, in part because you are still having issues with self-esteem. In other words, because this experience happened to you in the past, you may really need to seek professionally therapy in order to prevent it from happening again. Therefore, please consider seeking out a counselor who might be able to give you guidance on what to do about this issue. That said, the dream could also be indicating that you essentially let yourself go unconscious and perhaps even cease to exist when you are in a relationship with others. Again, the issue seems to be one of self worth and self esteem. I hope that helps. Here’s my dream… I had a disturbing dream last night that woke me up. In my dream I was with a guy that I used to have a sexual relationship with years ago. We were together and I’m not sure if we were kissing but I noticed my throat hurt like he had stuck his finger down my throat. Then he was trying to force me to turn over like he was going to have sex with me. I was terrified and fought him. Then I woke up. I have to say that sexual abuse has been a part of my past. Can you tell me what this dream means? It was very disturbing. Dear Dreamer, In the same way that you were victimized by sexual abuse years ago, the dream seems to be suggesting that you are being “victimized” in the present. The fact that your throat hurts could be symbolic of being victimized verbally or feeling like someone is controlling your willpower. The imagery shows you having a forced relationship with someone you used to like, suggesting that something your were once attracted to has become overpowering to the extent that you are hoping to get away from it. This might apply to work, home, or another personal relationship. Here’s my dream… I have dreams about my son drowning, my mother being shot, stabbed and drowned, and also my brothers being beaten to death or shot/stabbed by gangsters. These dreams started about 4 months ago. About 6 months ago I gave my son up for adoption and my mother thinks since giving him up I feel guilty. I really want to know what they mean because I don’t get any sleep and I have to wake up early in the morning and I usually sleep at school. Please help me figure out my dreams and tell me what they mean. Dear Dreamer, Your mother is probably right. All of the dreams are suggestive of internal conflict, especially as it relates to members of your own family. Even if you are at peace with the decision to give your baby up for adoption – giving him the possibility of a great future – the dreams could be suggesting that you may not be at peace with your family OR members of your family may not be at peace with your decision. You may wish to search for support groups for birth mothers who have given their children up for adoption, such as: http://www.birthmother.com. Good luck to you. Here’s my dream… I feel the need to tell you about a series of dreams I am experiencing that are recurring and are terrifying me. I have dreams of an evil demonic entity that is trying to get me. I sometimes wonder if it really is a dream because they are so vivid and real. In the dreams, I can’t see it but I sense it. It feels like a male because of its power and meanness. I’m usually in a house and it lives in the walls. In one dream the wall moved in and out, like if it breathed. In another dream it grabbed me and tried to drag me into the sink. In the latest dream, I was talking to my sister’s husband and a couple whom I did not know and on my right hand side I saw my daughter. We were all sitting down and all of a sudden I sensed my neighbors leaving their homes and running to the street. At that moment the entity grabbed my shirt and I blocked it with my hand. Next I was lifted to the ceiling of my house and I was trying to fight it and tell it to let me go and to calm down. When these dreams happen, I am so terrified that I cannot go back to sleep for a long time and I spend the next half hour praying and asking God to protect me and my family. What do I do to get rid of this entity from appearing in my dreams? Thanks! Dear Dreamer, Let’s approach your experience from the perspective of both a dream as well as an experience in heightened consciousness. If it’s a dream, then it may be suggesting that there is some part of your self that you don’t want to deal with and you keep ignoring but is becoming harder and harder for you to ignore. This part of self might be some aspect that you don’t know how to deal with, some part that you are trying to run away from or something that has been problematic for you that you keep suppressing rather than dealing with in a straightforward manner. Therefore from the dream perspective, the way to get rid of the “entity” is to once and for all deal with the issue in waking life. On the other hand, if it’s an experience in heightened consciousness, then it is suggesting that somehow you may have inadvertently opened yourself up to a discarnate entity or influence that has found a way to interact with your consciousness in the dream state. If this is the case, then Edgar Cayce would recommend such things as a chiropractic adjustment, proper nutrition, working with prayer and surrounding yourself with a white light of protection – all ways in which you can help yourself “close down” psychically.

 

Dreams About the Deceased Here’s my dream… This has really been bothering me. Please help. Four months ago a guy named Ron that I’ve been in love with since I was 15 was killed by his step-dad by being shot in the chest; afterward his step-dad shot himself. I’ve had three dreams about Ron. In one dream, I was riding down this long dirt road and I pulled up to this huge house in the woods and got out of my car, walked up to the door and knocked. Ron opened the door and just stood there. He stared at me with blood shot eyes and I asked him about 7 times, ”Ron what are you looking at?” He said nothing just stared. Then the dream went to me, Ron and his step-dad standing in a circle talking. They were talking about fishing, something they always used to do. About 3 weeks after he died I had been wondering to myself if he loved me and I asked him out loud if he did. After, I dreamed he was talking to me (although I didn’t see him), and I heard his voice respond and say, “Yes I love you…” The other dream I had was that I was watching a video of a party and he was walking around on the video talking and all the sudden, he stopped and looked at the camera, staring once again, for maybe 30 seconds then went back to what he was doing. Please help me with this as I’ve asked everyone possible and no one can help. Dear Dreamer, Quite simply, Ron has been trying to communicate with you the fact that he is aware of you, he is aware of what has occurred, he does love you, and he may have even already made peace with his stepfather over what happened. The Edgar Cayce material suggests that our loved ones who have passed away often try to communicate in the dream state. With this in mind, the first dream (about staring) suggests that Ron has been watching over you. The second dream (where he said he loved you) was real communication. And the third dream (related to the video camera) suggests that Ron has been reviewing his own life as well as his connection to you. If you would like to read more about this kind of communication, try the book Visits from Heaven, by Josie Varga. Here’s my dream… My boyfriend died by suicide in February. I finally had a dream where he came to me. All I remember is that he was lying down, as how he looked when I last saw him in the casket. And all of the sudden he moved a bit. I told myself that I was seeing things, so I looked again and he rolled over as if he was enjoying a good night’s sleep. So I then put my fingers on his neck to check for a pulse…nothing. I became really scared and didn’t know what to do. “This isn’t happening,” I told myself. But it was so real. Then his eyes opened. He didn’t look good; he looked like a corpse. I guess because that’s how I’d seen him last. But his eyes weren’t normal. It looked as if he hadn’t opened them in awhile and he had to adjust to the light. But it scared me because he looked scary! So I ran away. But I’d look behind me and there he was chasing me. But it was weird because he was as fast as lightening. Finally I stopped running because I realized he wasn’t going to stop. And in the end of the dream we were facing each other and I was looking up at him (he was taller than me) and I could see the sky above him. I don’t know what it was but I felt something and saw a subtle light in the sky. So I asked him, “You have to go now don’t you?” He looked at me and said, “Yes I do.” And then gave me a kiss. And that’s all I remember, but it was so real and I just don’t know how to interpret it. I think he came to me in this dream. I feel like he was trying to tell me something…perhaps that he’s okay? Dear Dreamer,Yes, I think your boyfriend was trying to reassure you and to communicate that he still loves you. Edgar Cayce suggested that communication between the living and the deceased was quite common in the dream state. Let me suggest two books for you to read: Testimony of Light, by Helen Greaves, and The Place We Call Home, by Robert Grant. The reason he looked so bad in the dream may have been twofold: 1) so that you remembered the experience upon awakening; and, 2) because an individual who commits suicide generally has a harder time making the transition to the other side. He appears to be okay now. Please read the books. It will help. Here’s my dream… I am a member of A.R.E. My best friend of 50 years died a few years ago and within a couple of months I had the following dream: My doorbell rang and I ran to open the door but before I did, I heard her voice out in the hall saying, “Oh, you are the only one…” I yanked open the door and she finished saying, “Who has her Christmas decorations up!” I said: “You’re here! You made it!!” She said: “Yes, I did” and she came into my apartment. She was carrying a life-size wooden die-cut of a Victorian street lamp with an attached candle snuffer drawn on it. It was beautifully painted in shades of blue. There was snow painted on the top of the lamp and a lovely lit candle was painted on it. I tried to embrace her but she blocked my arms and handed me the board. She said: “This is a gift for you from Christopher” (Christopher is her son who turned to carpentry after being a Wall Street broker). I started to cry and woke up. I looked at my clock and it read 4:48 a.m. This friend was English and lived through the blitz in London and was terribly afraid that this material life is all there is. I spent a lot of time before she passed away of breast cancer, talking to her about the Edgar Cayce concepts of life and death so I get that she was letting me know that she was okay and in the light; I’m not sure what the significance of the lamp is. I would deeply appreciate your insights into this dream. Dear Dreamer, As you know, Edgar Cayce suggested that communication with our deceased loved ones is very possible in the dream state. With this in mind, I think you are right – your friend was trying to let you now that she was “in the light” or had found the light. I think that her comments related to you having your Christmas decorations up, suggested that she had come to understand that your faith was a year-round activity and not simply something related to the Holidays. It is interesting that Chris gave up one job to do something he really wanted. Two possibilities are that she has been “helped” in her transition through the efforts of her son (and his prayers) and/or she is trying to let you know that you need to continue to do what you really want, rather than being perhaps bogged down by material concerns. If you haven’t already done so, you might really enjoy the book Testimony of Light, by Helen Greaves. Thanks for writing. Here’s my dream… My husband told me last night that he had a dream that I died and the only thing he remembers is being distraught with grief and sobbing uncontrollably. He cannot remember much else from the dream, like how I died. Since I’m the one who died, it makes me kind of nervous of a prediction or that he has some unresolved feelings towards me or that he no longer loves me (me dying in his dream represents his love for me dying) which I really don’t believe to be the case because we are happily married. What else can I interpret from this? I searched the archives but only found dreams about death relating to those that are already deceased. Thank you for your time. Dear Dreamer, It could be a “warning dream” that is simply trying to get you to have a checkup, so that you can receive the medical treatment you need. In addition to being a literal tumor, a metaphorical tumor is associated with something that is causing a great deal of worry, frustration, depression or anxiety. In other words, is there something on your mind that you can no longer repress? Just to be on the safe side, I generally recommend that whenever an individuals dreams about a health issue they see a doctor immediately. Here’s my dream… I had two dreams on Saturday about my cousin, whom I really looked up to and was close to. He spent the past summer living up with my family and working with my uncle and I. He died in November (cause unknown). I’ve been really depressed since then and I was wondering if you could help me interpret my two dreams: In the first dream, my cousin was being submerged under boiling, dark water and he told me, “Take out your earring or you’re going to go too…” and then my alarm clock went off! I went back to sleep and had another dream about him. In this one, he was in my house and he went downstairs so I followed; he said, “Remember…I’m the one who called…” That’s all he said! I haven’t had a dream since then and have been looking forward to them. Could it really be him? I miss him so much and I don’t feel whole without him. Please help me. Thank you. Dear Dreamer,To answer your last question first, yes, in all likelihood it was him and you were having a real encounter with him. According to Edgar Cayce, communication is possible in the sleep state with our loved ones who are deceased. Let me also recommend that you read the book, Testimony of Light, by Helen Greaves, so you can see how this communication occurs, as well as what your cousin may be going through right now. The first dream suggests that your cousin was under a lot of emotional pressure and even depression at the time of his death. His reference to your earring could suggest that he thinks you are listening to someone or a group who may be a bad influence and you may need to turn lose of your attachment to those individuals. Alternatively, it could suggest that he is encouraging you to do something differently so that you have a more positive/hopefully life experience. I hope that helps. Please consider reading the Helen Greaves book as soon as you can. Here’s my dream… I’m 16 and I’m not sure about religion or spirituality and all that but in one dream I had, I talked to my dead grandmother and I knew she wasn’t suppose to be alive or whatever so I asked her “So is there really a god or not?” she replied, “Of course there isn’t, you knew that.” She said it like she was so sure.. Dear Dreamer, Let me first of all reassure you that there is a God and that countless individuals have experienced being in God’s presence. Let me recommend you read Testimony of Light, by Helen Greaves. In terms of your grandmother’s words, it’s important to know that individuals do not instantly become enlightened once they are deceased. In fact, if your grandmother didn’t believe in God while she was alive, she would not believe in God (at least for a time) after being dead. Our consciousness grows and expands throughout a series of lifetimes. It is natural for you to wonder about the existence of God – let me just assure you that as long as you try to find the Divine, the divine will reach out and try to connect with you. God bless on your search! Here’s my dream… I had a dream last night that is really disturbing to me. I dreamed that I was on a body of water canoeing with my 3-year-old daughter and my father. There was a bear swimming towards us in an angry manner. We got to the land and wound up in Greece. We go to my grandmother’s house she past away a few yrs ago she has never meet my daughter ever. She was hugging her and wouldn’t let go of us she was trying to tell me something I didn’t understand what she was telling me because she spoke Greek. But I felt like she was trying to warn me. Then my father drops dead. The next thing I’m doing is looking in a mirror crying and saying I want my daddy back over and over. While my grandmother just stood there, holding my daughter. There was more but I can’t remember. I know she was telling me my daughter was beautiful which I got in English but the rest was in Greek. Please help this is really bothering me I’m making my father go to the doctor to get checked out… Dear Dreamer, Sometimes we have “warning dreams” about possible futures, as a means of getting us to do something to change that future. For example, your getting your father to see the doctor may be exactly what he needs. Edgar Cayce would suggest that it is possible to communicate with loved ones who are deceased – you may wish to read Testimony of Light, by Helen Greaves, to see how that’s possible – and that is it also possible to dream potential futures before they happen – you may wish to read Edgar Cayce on the Akashic Records, by Kevin Todeschi, for more on that subject. The dream may also be suggesting that when it comes time for your father to leave, your mother will be right there to get him. Here’s my dream… Please help! My mother has been dead for 3 years. Last night I dreamed that she were waiting on me in a car in front of a house I stayed in when I was small. Apparently I took too long and I do remember her coming in the house but she changed clothes when she came in and she teased my son about his shoes and began laughing as she left. I asked her about my cousin, whom had died about 2 years earlier and she said she is coming in your car. When I checked my pocket in my dream, I had my keys! It is all so strange. I do not dream much at all so this one is really pressing me to dream about two deceased relatives. I cannot really bring all of it back but I think my grandmother whom has been dead for 12 years were in the car with my mother, waiting! What does this mean? Please help. Dear Dreamer, If the dream is literal, it suggests that your mother and other relatives may be waiting on your to meet them. However, in all likelihood the dream is metaphorical and suggests instead that your mother (and other relatives) are waiting on you to do with your life what you always planned to. In other words, the dream may indicate that somehow your life has gotten off track and you have postponed living the dreams you have had since being a child. I hope that helps. If this is the case, let me recommend that you consider the DVD Discover Your Mission in Life by Mark Thurston. Here’s my dream… I am a Native American, so from my perspectives dreams are often taken literally. Lately, I have been having a number of dreams about the deceased: my siblings, mother/father and now my grandfather. I feel they are telling me something, which I totally do not understand. I have been worried about my health, particularly my heart. The other night my grandfather and I were at an amusement park, and he asked me if I wanted to go for a ride on the Ferris wheel, which really frightens me. Thank you in advance; please help. Dear Dreamer, Part of the interpretation is connected to what you associate with your grandfather – especially in terms of his health and his approach to life. For example, perhaps you would describe your grandfather as an eternal optimist, or maybe someone who always tried to have fun in life. Perhaps you would describe him as someone who was extremely fearful himself, and was challenged by his fears all of his life. In any event, whatever you associate with your grandfather may be somehow connected to similar behavior within yourself, and the dream may be suggesting that you need to either overcome some of your fears and/or have more fun in life. I hope that helps. Here’s my dream… My son recently lost his very best friend by suicide. My son cannot understand why it happened and is confused and angry. There was no note. He had a dream the other night that he was sitting on one end of the couch and his friend was sitting on the other end; his friend would only look at him out of the corner of his eye and kept smiling. My son kept telling him how messed up it was what he did. His friend then looked his way but not directly at him and said something but my son could not hear it, then he woke up. My son said he felt better when he woke up only because he got to see him again. He said it was so clear and in color, he could see exactly what he was wearing. Dear Dreamer, Please tell your son that the Edgar Cayce material would suggest that your son had a literal contact from his friend. Communication and contact between the living and the deceased is actually quite common in the dream state. The dream suggests that his friend was certainly embarrassed by what he had done but was also trying to communicate his “survival.” Suggest that your son read the  book The Lightworker’s Guide to Healing Grief, by Tina Erwin, so that he can see what his friend might be experiencing right now, and how this type of communication is possible. Here’s my dream… My 20-year-old son committed suicide 6 months ago. We had an argument same day and he was upset with me. In my prayers I keep asking him to tell me how he is and if he is angry with me. I had few short dreams: In one dream, I opened the front door, saw that he was sitting in driver seat of a brand new black car and had a nice smile while looking ahead. In another dream he was going to take me, my 16 years old daughter and 13 years old son to a place that he said is like paradise. Our plane ticket was confirmed but the plane did not have room for us, the 2nd plane was full also. My son was very upset and was arguing with the Captain. Please tell me what he was trying to tell me. Thank you. Dear Dreamer, I think the dream was suggesting that your son is still your son, that he has been checking in on you from time to time, and that he is not angry with you. In fact, the argument with the captain would suggest that his personality was such that he argued when he did not get his way, with anybody – whether it was you or the “Captain” (a possible symbol of God). I would suggest that your son is not angry and that he is over whatever transpired between you. Let me recommend that your read the book Testimony of Light, by Helen Greaves, so that you can read about what your son may be experiencing at this time. Here’s my dream… PLEASE HELP! I keep having a recurring dream about my deceased father and me. And in my dream he tells me I won’t miss him long and that he loves me and that I will be with him soon. And I ask him what do you mean dad? I got to raise my kids. And he replies you will see soon – you will be with me. What does he mean about that? I have communicated with my dad since he passed. What worries me is that about a week after he died my daughter looked at me and said papa said that you were going to die. And I explained to her that papa died and he wasn’t here any more. She said no mommy he is sitting right there; can’t you see him? This is really freaking me out. I am daddy’s girl but I have 3 kids to raise – I am getting a little scared. Dear Dreamer, Dear Dreamer, Although it is possible to have foreknowledge of your own death, it is much more likely that you are either going to have a “metaphorical” death – in other words, your life is going to change – or that your father is having difficulty passing completely to the other side. I would recommend praying for him and yourself. I would also recommend reading the book,  The Place We Call Home, by Robert Grant. There is also a slight possibility that your father is going to experience a “death” in the spirit world because he is about to reincarnate into the physical world. I hope that helps. Here’s my dream… My husband has been dead for 6 years now. Last night, I dreamt I was driving my vehicle on a road. I began to hear an extremely intense, unbearable screeching noise. I looked up and saw a van sliding down an extremely steep iced over mountain road. The car then crashed into a tree and my husband (who as I stated before is already deceased in real life) flew out of the van landing face down in a creek. He was wearing a tan jacket. No one seemed to pay any attention or even care, except me. In this dream, I had no recollection of the fact that he is already dead. The most intense feeling I felt in the dream was an overwhelming sadness. The sound of the van coming down the hill was unbearable. This dream affected the mood of my whole day. I never ever remember my dreams. This is only the third time since his death that I have remembered dreaming of him. This dream has literally made my soul ache. I wish I understood the significance of this dream. I find it to be an oddity to dream of watching someone die who in reality is already dead and died of cancer. What does this mean? Please help me understand this vividly intense nightmare. Dear Dreamer, In brief, the dream is a symbolic representation of how your life has changed since your husband’s death. Essentially, the dream centers on the theme that no one around you really understand how much your life was and still continues to be impacted by this event. Note how in the dream your feeling was essentially, “No one seemed to pay any attention or even care, except me.” In other words, everyone else has gotten on with their lives and yet you continue to be affected by this experience. The van sliding down the hill is essentially symbolic of your life (with your husband) sliding out of control. Overall, I think the dream has occurred because you may be going through some process of introspection in terms of “Now what do I do with the rest of my life?” If this is the case, let me suggest that you consider the DVD Discover Your Mission in Life by Mark Thurston. Here’s my dream… I have looked everywhere for the meaning of my dream. Although I have found meanings of dreams about graves this particular dream is not analyzed. I lost a sister a year and a half ago. My dream is that she is coming up out of her grave trying to pull me in with her. Can you tell me what this means? It has me really bothered. Dear Dreamer, If the experience of your sister’s death has been traumatic for you and your family, one interpretation is that at times it “pulls you down” or even causes you to contemplate death. In other words, her death “killed” some aspect of yourself. Another interpretation may be that the dream is symbolically pointing out that your sister is trying to reach out or communicate to you from the grave – a possibility that is apparently causing you much fear. Let me recommend that you consider reading the book Testimony of Light, by Helen Greaves. I think it will be very helpful t to you at this time. Here’s my dream… I dreamed that my son died and I was talking to his spirit but I could not get to him. Then when I woke up my bathroom light, which I keep on at night just flickered out. When I awoke I was very distraught and crying uncontrollably. I felt every emotion that I felt in my dream. It felt so real. It did not feel like a dream. Please help interpret this nightmare. Dear Dreamer, Although it is possible to have a precognitive literal dream about someone’s passing, it is more likely that the dream is a “metaphor” for something occurring in you and your son’s relationship at the present time. Depending on his age and current situation, for example, maybe you have come to the realization that you can no longer protect him from life. Another option would be your own realization that he is no longer a child – your “baby” – and the metaphor is simply that the child you once knew (and that once needed you as his mother) has “died.” Here’s my dream… I recently had a dream of my grandfather that has passed away I saw him and he came up to me. He said, “I’m sorry sweetheart but I have to tell you’re going to die of an infection and it’s going to go to your head.” I remember telling him I cant my baby’s only 2 weeks old I want to see him grow up. Then the dream switched to me being in a doctor’s office and the doctor saying well we don’t know what stage it is. This dream really bothered me I woke up crying, I’m not sick that I know of and I’m only 23. Do you think it means I’m going to die soon!!! Please help me. Dear Dreamer, You’re giving the dream a literal interpretation, when a metaphorical one is much more likely. Symbolically, an infection in your head can correspond to something that is really irritating you, bothering you, or making you angry. Your emotion of being bothered as you woke up could simply be a reflection of the same level of irritation that you are experiencing around you. The fact that it is in your head may also suggest that this is something you’re thinking about but not necessarily communicating to the person causing the problem. I hope that helps. Here’s my dream… I dreamed that my son died and I was talking to his spirit but I could not get to him. Then when I woke up my bathroom light, which I keep on at night just flickered out. When I awoke I was very distraught and crying uncontrollably. I felt every emotion that I felt in my dream. It felt so real. It did not feel like a dream. Please help interpret this nightmare. Dear Dreamer, Although it is possible to have a precognitive literal dream about someone’s passing, it is more likely that the dream is a “metaphor” for something occurring in you and your son’s relationship at the present time. Depending on his age and current situation, for example, maybe you have come to the realization that you can no longer protect him from life. Another option would be your own realization that he is no longer a child – your “baby” – and the metaphor is simply that the child you once knew (and that once needed you as his mother) has “died.” Here’s my dream… I am submitting a dream that my boyfriend had. He dreamed I died from getting stabbed to death. We were at this park that we’d been to before. It was dark and I was standing on a swing and he was holding me while we kissed. He said a man in with a brown paper mask stabbed me and ran away. He said I fell to the ground and was dead. He then woke up and it freaked him out pretty bad. This is all the information he gave me and I need help understanding it. Thanks. Dear Dreamer, It is important to keep in mind that we do not generally dream FOR other people. Although it might be possible to dream about someone’s death, it is much more likely that in the dream you symbolize your boyfriend’s relationship with you and the dream is indicating the instability of that relationship. The mask man could be symbolic of something he hasn’t wanted to face or hasn’t wanted to reveal to you, or that you haven’t wanted to reveal to him. With this in mind, it might be good to have a conversation about each of your plans for the future of this relationship. Good luck to you. Here’s my dream… I need to know if this dream is telling me that I am dying, I’ve been having symptoms of something serious. My dream is of my grandmother who passed away almost eight years ago. We are sitting in a room, she is packing her bags; she says she’s going back to Florida (where we all lived). I then tell her if you go then I want to go with you. She tells me it’s fine, that I can come. The dream was very vivid and colorful. Does this mean I will join her? Dear Dreamer, First of all, if you are having “symptoms of something serious” you need to see a doctor immediately. Even the most serious health issues can be helped if they are caught in time. GO TO SEE A DOCTOR IMMEDIATELY. That said, dreams of individuals can often be associated with whatever we think about that individual – in other words, what that person symbolizes. Therefore, because you have been thinking about health challenges, one possibility suggested by the dream is that you may have an early version of whatever your grandmother had when she was in Florida. A metaphorical possibility would suggest that you are having this health challenge as a means to help you get back to your roots. Here’s my dream… My mother died at the age of 44. I have had a hard time adjusting to her death because it happened without warning. She was a healthy woman with a zeal for life. I dream of her often and it takes place at the house where my brother found her. Just recently I have been able to see her face in my dreams. I do recall one dream where she was sitting on a bench. The location was slightly dim with an old street light beside the bench. I was on a train of some type and I saw a woman with long pretty hair and a white gown sitting on the bench. As the train started to move the lady began looking at the train and I started staring harder at the woman. Then, I saw her face and man did she look younger and beautiful. She began to wave at me and then the dream was over. Several dreams in which I have of her I am not allowed to hug her. I want to hug her; however, she explains to me that she can’t. I’ll ask her to stay and she tells me that she can’t. What are these dreams trying to tell me? Dear Dreamer, The Edgar Cayce material states that it is quite common for our loved ones who have died to be able to communicate with us in the dream state. With this in mind, I think that real communication was occurring between yourself and your mother. Because your mother is in an altered state of consciousness and because you are still bounded by the limitations of a physical body, sometimes maintaining that communication is challenging. In addition, you cannot touch her because the vibration of where she is touching the vibration of where you are would cause something like an electric shock. [A similar happening occurred in the Bible when Mary Magdalene saw the resurrected Jesus and he told her, “Touch me not.”] Let me suggest that you read the book Testimony of Light, by Helen Greaves, which will explain how this kind of communication is even possible. Here’s my dream… In my dream, I am preparing food for me and my husband to be brought to our bedroom. While preparing it, I saw him cuddling/smooching a woman in our bed. Out of shame, I just told them “alright, I will just stay outside of the room,” then I brought our food outside the room. While doing it, I saw them covering themselves by a blanket and having sex. I asked myself, “Why did he have sex with her and not with me?” I felt disappointed, confused and hurt. In the next scene, I was washing clothes when my husband saw me. He walked towards me. I looked at the bed he shared with that woman. I saw only the feet of the woman and the feet of a child (both thin and black as if malnourished) both bodies were still lying on the bed covered by a blanket. He did not take a look at the woman. While walking towards my direction, I saw pain in my husband’s eyes. He just kept on looking at me until he reached a room that looks like a bathroom. His eyes were telling how sad he was and how painful he felt. Then he closed the door of the bathroom leaving a small opening so that he could still take a glimpse of me. Then I woke up. As a background, my husband died of heart attack last Oct. 1, 2004 but before he died there are rumors that he had a short-lived affair with our housekeeper. Is my husband confessing me the truth by way of this dream? Dear Dreamer, Yes, it is possible that your husband was trying to show you what happened and why. If this is the case, the young child in the bed (and the fact that both the child and the woman appeared malnourished) suggests that the affair was very “young” in duration and that your husband did not put a lot of energy or thought into the affair. It also suggests that he felt guilty and perhaps shamed about what he had done. The dream may also suggest that the affair occurred because your husband felt like you had other priorities besides your relationship. In any event, both prayer and forgiveness are probably in order. Here’s my dream… I dreamed that my son, who was murdered in January of this year, was walking toward my apartment door. He was singing a beautiful love ballad loudly and off-key, as he often did while living. Although I knew in my dream that he was deceased, I was excited to hear him approaching. I remember saying in my dream, “It can’t be him, he’s dead, maybe he really isn’t dead”! I was standing in front of my kitchen sink waiting anxiously, with a big smile on my face, for him to enter my apartment. I was so happy to hear his voice. I remember saying “how is he going to open the door, it’s locked?” I continued to wait in anticipation as he came closer and closer to my door. As he approached the front of my door his voice changed. He began to sing beautifully. He sang so sincerely. I was so excited. It seems he paused before opening the door. As he opened the door he continued to sing. He was wearing a baseball cap. The cap covered his eyes. He never looked at me. He was carrying an empty pale blue laundry basket. He walked directly toward my dryer, never once looking at me. He reached to open the dryer. Unfortunately, I awoke from my telephone ringing. Dear Dreamer, According to Edgar Cayce, it is quite common for us to have real experiences of communication with our loved ones who are deceased while in the dream state. You son was simply trying to communicate with you in the way that you could best understand him – it was not just a dream, it was a real experience. If you would like to see additional examples of this kind of experience, let me recommend reading the dream archives, as well as two books: Testimony of Light, by Helen Greaves, and Visits from Heaven, by Josie Varga. Here’s my dream… I am a 14-year-old girl, and my Uncle committed suicide about a month ago. He played a huge part in my life and was the most important person on earth to me. Last night I dreamt that he contacted me through the phone. I knew he was dead and all I remember is that I said “Is this…” and he said “yes” he told me a very important message but I can’t remember what it was now. I was for some reason afraid to say his name because I thought he might go away. I could not see his face but his voice was very clear to me and I wondered if he actually contacted me or if I was just thinking about him so perhaps I just had this odd dream. I have been having a couple of dreams lately where I contact people that I know well that are no longer living and we both know that they are dead and that its only a dream but I am very sure (in the dream) that I am communicating with them. The first dream I could see the person as I last remembered them but with my Uncle I could only talk to him through the phone. Please Help I am very confused. Dear Dreamer, Yes, the Edgar Cayce information would say that you have had real communication with your deceased loved ones. You can find additional examples of this in the archives section. Let me recommend that you read the book Testimony of Light, by Helen Greaves, to give you an examination of what your Uncle may be experiencing, as well as further examples of this type of communication. In addition to communicating with your Uncle through dreams, you can also communicate though prayer – simply send him your prayers and your thoughts. May God bless you at this time. Here’s my dream… My grandmother passed away four weeks ago. I keep having this reoccurring dream about her. We are at her funeral, and I know this sounds terrible and scary, but in the dream she is lying there and suddenly rolls over and moves. The funeral home assures us this sometimes happens and repositions her. In real life, my mom and her siblings are in much turmoil, fighting etc. I was very close to my grandmother, grew up under the same roof. Could this have any relation to those things and is she trying to communicate with me. Please help. Dear Dreamer, Haven’t you ever heard the saying that such and such would make so and so “roll over in her grave?” I think the dreams are trying to show you how disappointed your grandmother would be in how her children are behaving. In fact, it is possible that she is so unsettled by their fighting that she is having a hard time making her own transition. Maybe you can encourage everyone in your family to ask themselves, “What would grandmother want us to do?” Please see the dream archives for recommended reading and additional dreams about communication with the deceased. Here’s my dream… I am hoping you will take the time to review and answer my inquiry because I am thoroughly confused. A couple of weeks ago, a dear friend of mine passed away in a car accident. I found out just hours before I was to fly to Florida to be with my family. Since I was in a different state, I could not attend his wake or his funeral. This ate me up inside. Since then I have been thinking of him constantly and am in serious need of closure. I have visited the cemetery but could not locate his site because it has happened so recently. Two nights ago I had a dream that he was sitting alongside of me. I knew I was dreaming while I was dreaming this. He sat there looking at me and continuously smiling. I began calling his name. I was reaching out for him because I was trying to hug him, and although he was sitting next to me, I could not reach him. The more I noticed I could not reach him, the louder my screams grew. His smile continued. I became more frantic as I was trying to reach him, and with a smile he looked at me and said “It’s alright…It’s okay.” After this, he began to fade away and I slowly started awaking. Eventually he just disappeared, and I woke up with a jolt. I guess my question is: Is it possible that this is my guilt eating at me for not being able to be there for his wake/funeral, or my need for closure…or could it be him letting me know that I should not worry – that he is okay? Please respond, as I have never been so shaken and confused in my life. Dear Dreamer, Quite simply, the Edgar Cayce material would state that your friend was literally communicating to you and trying to reassure you that: 1) you have nothing to feel guilty about; and 2) although he is deceased, he is still very conscious of himself and his loved ones. If you would like to read more examples of this type of communication (as well as obtain a couple of recommended books to read about this phenomenon), please see the dream archives. Here’s my dream… I am a 35-year-old female in medical school that has recently become very interested in holistic medicine. My parents have visited the A.R.E. and told me to write in and ask about a dream I have been having for years. My parents forbade my first love at 15. This was a very turbulent time in my life. The relationship was so forbidden that my parents moved me to another state. Several years after that move, I heard that my first love had killed himself. Although I am happily married for a number of years now, I constantly have dreams where my first love is present (several times a week) and this has been going on for years. Dear Dreamer, If the dream is literally, it suggests that your deceased boyfriend is acting as a kind of “guardian angel” influence in your life – very much aware of your activities and very much wanting only the best for you. In other words, he may remain around you in spirit. If the dream is more metaphorical, it suggests that the “dream relationship” you once imagined having with your deceased boyfriend has actually manifested in terms of your relationship with your husband. In other words, you got what you once thought you wanted with your present husband. In addition, elements of both could also be true. Finally, because of your interest in holism, you may be interested in the work of medical pioneer Gladys T. McGarey. Here’s my dream… My mom passed away 4 months ago. She had Alzheimer’s. A month before she died, she told me that she thought she was going to die soon. She looked very sad when she said that and also said that she did not want to die. My father, brother and myself are struggling with sadness. I have had a number of dreams. The last dream she was sitting in a room, her hair was done, she looked beautiful; she had a glow around her. I asked her how she was and she smiled. That was it. Was she trying to communicate with me? Dear Dreamer, She was definitely trying to communicate the fact that she is doing well and not to worry about her. More examples of this type of communication are in the archives section for you to see. I would also recommend reading the book, Testimony of Light, by Helen Greaves, so that you can see what kind of experiences you mother may be going through at this point in time. Here’s my dream… Last night, I had a dream that my best friend had been killed in a car accident. It was really upsetting, as this is one of her fears of dying and I woke up crying. Apparently last week her sister had a dream that she was murdered. Is there any connection in these dreams as it has worried me now and I can’t stop thinking about her? Dear Dreamer, Since both of you had similar dream, in all likelihood the dreams are simply a symbolic representation of a change in your friend’s life that is going to effect you. Because a car is often symbolic of a life’s direction, it could suggest that your friend’s current direction is coming to an abrupt end – e.g. she is going to move, go to a different school, etc., causing you to experience somewhat of a “death” n terms of your old relationship. The same could be true for her sister’s dream – a move might impact their relationship. Another possibility is that whatever she most symbolizes to each of you is coming to an end. For example, if she symbolizes “someone who just got a new job,” then it could suggest that your job is about to come to an end. Here’s my dream… I had a dream last night that I cannot figure out and has me disturbed. I dreamt that I was coming out of grocery store and my dad was outside the store and he had someone tied to his leg and had a gun aimed at him. Someone had my mother up against the wall and was beating her with a shovel. I was screaming to my Dad to help her and to make the person stop and he wouldn’t help her and he was going to shoot the person that was tied to his leg. I started to run away and he shot me in the back and then I woke up. This was very upsetting since my Dad die last October. Please help me make sense of this dream. I have submitted one before, but did not have a response. Dear Dreamer, One possibility suggested by the dream is that your father’s death left your mother in a very challenging emotional and/or financial state. The fact that something was tied to your dad’s leg could suggest that the problem actually began before his death (e.g. drain of finances, emotional sadness, etc.), but it is only know since his burial (perhaps symbolized by the shovel) that your mother is having to face the situation straight on. If this is the case, the dream indicates that this is not a situation that you can just ignore or let pass by – you probably need to figure out how various family members can help your mother. Here’s my dream… I have looked everywhere to see if someone has had a dream like mine, and no luck. Please help. Three weeks ago I had a dream that my father came and took me out of my body and brought me to his state of mind. It was dark but I felt at peace. And I had asked him if this was heaven. My father was living at the time of this dream, but battling brain cancer. One week later he passed away. When I awoke from this dream I had felt like I really had left my body. Can you help? Dear Dreamer, In all likelihood, you did leave your body (in consciousness) and your father came and took you on a “real tour” of what was occurring in his consciousness. So yes, you really communicated with your dying father, and yes you really had an experience out of your body. Let me recommend two books to you: Return from Tomorrow, by George Ritchie, which describes a young man’s experience out of his body, and Testimony of Light, by Helen Greaves, which describes what happens to an individual when he or she dies. I think you would find both books very helpful. Here’s my dream… The dream I have is bothering me very badly. I keep having dreams about my husband who committed suicide 15 months ago. In the dream I am frantically searching for him. I am constantly calling his parents and family. They tell me he is alive and he does not want to see me. I get little messages indirectly that tells me he loves me and misses me. I have a strong sense in the dream that he does want to come home to me. However, he never does. One dream in particular, I went to one of his family’s funerals certain that he would show up there. When I got there no one would speak to me. However, they told my cousin that he was there and has no intention of coming home. Dear Dreamer, Although the dream has a number of insinuations about your relationship with your husband’s family, the dream seems to suggest that your husband wishes he had not killed himself, wishes he could come home to you, and realizes he cannot. I would recommend reading the book, Testimony of Light, by Helen Greaves. Here’s my dream… I have submitted this dream before. I know you probably get tons of submissions but if you can help me I would really appreciate it. A while ago, I had a dream that I was dead and was at my own funeral. There were flowers everywhere and the room had dark wood floors. I saw all of my relatives there crying and I realized that I only had three hours before I had to go to the afterlife. I saw my friend Andy, and realized I could talk to him, but only him. The next day, he told me he had had a dream about me, and described the exact same dream in reverse: he was dead and could only talk to me! What does this mean? It’s driving me crazy! Dear Dreamer, Dreams of death are often symbolic of the end of something. They can also indicate that the “image” that the dreamer had of self, or the image that others had of the dreamer is no longer valid (e.g. the person they thought they knew is “dead”). In terms of why you and your friend had the same dream the same night, the Edgar Cayce material suggests that it is possible to “meet” individuals in consciousness in the dream state. With this in mind, the dream might indicate that you and your friend are going through similar issues with family members, and perhaps those issues are about both them and you accepting you for choices, decisions, or a lifestyle that had not been anticipated. Here’s my dream… My 3-year-old daughter has been having dreams about my father who has passed away almost 10 years ago. She will tell me that her Grandpa says “hi” to me. In her dreams, he will take her places and give her certain foods and she will remember them. One time, I introduced a new candy to her and she had told me, her Grandpa had already given it to her in her dream. She continues to eat the candy and says it’s the same thing she had in her dreams. She has dreams of him more and more frequent now. Please tell me what this means and any suggestions on how to deal with my daughter. Dear Dreamer, Actually, there is nothing to “deal” with. Your daughter is having real experiences of communication with your deceased father. The Edgar Cayce material indicates that our deceased loved ones maintain an interest in us and our lives even after they have passed away. In addition, Cayce stated that real communication between the living and the deceased in possible while dreaming because the barriers of consciousness have been set aside. Let assure you that there is nothing dangerous or harmful about your daughter’s experiences. Accept them, and you might even tell her that the next time she dreams about Grandpa to tell him that you send your love. If you would like to know more about what happens when we die and how communication with the living is possible, I would recommend Testimony of Light, by Helen Greaves, or any of the books by James Van Praagh. Here’s my dream… I have had several dreams that my mom who died in August is still alive and despises me. I loved my mother and I know she loved me and the dreams are breaking my heart. Please help me. Dear Dreamer, You are probably trying to give the dream a literal interpretation when, in fact, it should have a metaphorical one. From a metaphorical perspective, your mother would probably symbolize your own higher self or your own internal authority figure. With this in mind, the dream may suggest that either you have done something or have considered doing something that your mother (as well as your own internal authority figure) wouldn’t approve of, or it may suggests that you tend to be extremely critical of yourself and may need to work on improving your own self-esteem. Here’s my dream… I felt an urgency to have a family reunion with both my husbands and mine sides of the family as a month ago his brother died fast and unexpectedly, and I realized we needed to get the living all together. The next night without knowing what I was thinking, my husband’s daughter told me she had a dream of a family reunion and my husband and I were on either side of Bob (now just deceased) and we were having a good time talking to him when he left our side to go sit down in a chair, closed his eyes and died. Then her uncle on her mother’s side did the same exact thing as Bob. He is already deceased also. Bob had died of a massive heart attack, after never having any sign of problems. My daughter told me she was worried about her dad (my husband dying) because he has had 2 heart attacks already. I feel that my husband is not the one who is next to die but instead that we need to get all the relatives together and Bob is confirming the necessity of living and rekindling family ties. Bob is guiding us to know that families are forever, and he will be there also. Is this what you think or do you think my husband will be the next to die of a heart attack and this is the warning. Dear Dreamer, What appears to be most important is the necessity of bringing all of the family together not only to celebrate the living but also to celebrate the lives of those who have gone before. I think that the dream could be interpreted that there is “death” visiting your family, but I think the central point is about pulling together the reunion you’ve been thinking about. In all likelihood, it appears that Bob will even attend the get together in spirit. Here’s my dream… I have been having dreams that my brother committed suicide. Is it possible that this is a wake up call that my brother is depressed? As background information, our dad committed suicide so these dreams have scared me. Dear Dreamer, Especially because of the family history, you need to make certain that your brother is seeking help if he is depressed. It could be something as simple as a chemical imbalance, which could be treated with medication. So first of all, make certain he is getting any help that he needs. That said, the dream also has additional possibilities. In addition to suggesting that your brother is depressed, another possibility could be that the two of you have been having problems in your relationship with one another that is effectively “killing” the relationship. Another possibility is that you might be a little depressed and have been having challenges dealing with your own family responsibilities. Keep in mind that all dreams can have more than one meaning. Just to be on the safe side, however, check in with your brother and see how he is doing. Here’s my dream… In real life my brother was murdered by his wife on July 7,2004. It was a Wednesday. Last Wednesday night I had a dream that my phone rang and I answered it. It was my brother. I told him he needed to come home now and he said he couldn’t that he had been shot and had been away to heal. He asked me how our Mom was doing and I told him that all of us are having a very hard time dealing with his death and that we all love him and miss him dearly. I told him again that he needed to come home where he belongs and he said that he couldn’t but that he loves me and to tell the rest of the family that he loves them and misses them also and that he will be talking to me again sometime. I met my Mom for breakfast on the Friday following my dream and I told her that I wanted to tell her about a dream I had the previous Wednesday night, she said that she also had a dream that night. Her dream was that her phone was ringing also and she didn’t make it in time to answer it but that she heard my brother’s voice on the answering machine, but when she went to hit the replay button she accidentally hit the delete button instead. Now, in her dream my brother called her but she didn’t get to talk to him and in my dream he called me also and I did talk to him. Both dreams were phone calls and in my dream I very clearly knew it was my brother. We have always been very close. He was just 30 when he was murdered. The day he died I was at work and I got a excruciating headache, I hardly ever get headaches. The pain was so intense and it came from the back of my head and radiated to the front. I remember looking at the clock to see how long it was before break – the clock said 8:12 am. That night I found out about my brother being killed. I didn’t know until 3 days later that his wife had shot him in the back of the head and they estimated the time of the shooting to be around 8:17 that morning. I hope you can put some light on what I have experienced since his death. Dear Dreamer, According to Edgar Cayce, when we dream about a loved one who is deceased real communication can take place. Your dream was a real event – your brother was talking to you. Since we all know that a phone is a symbol for communication, your subconscious mind simply pulled together the necessary elements to make real communication happen. Apparently your brother also tried to communicate with your mother the very same night. The headache was simply tied into your psychic connection. Let me recommend a couple of books that will explain how this communication takes place and what your brother may be experiencing right now: Testimony of Light, by Helen Greaves, and The Place We Call Home, by Robert Grant. Rest assured that your brother was simply trying to reassure you and, in all likelihood, he will try to connect with you again. May God bless you all at this time. Here’s my dream… I need your help very badly. I have been told by many people that I am what is called “a seer.” I have the deceased come to me in dreams and tell me or show me things – sometimes I am able to figure them out and others not. I need to know if they are really coming to me or not? In one of the many examples, I was sleeping and one of my 4 children (I couldn’t tell which one) was by the laundry room door in the kitchen and woke me. I heard my child say that this little girl was there and she stunk and was dirty and needed to leave. I got out of bed thinking my child was being mean to a guest of one of my other children. I went to the laundry room door and saw that this little girl was dead. I told my child to go play that I would handle this. I told the dead child, “I am sorry honey but you do not belong here – it is going to be okay; I am taking you back where you came from. I guided her by her shoulders back through the laundry room door to the back door of the house, which in real life we have covered with deadbolts and such. The door was cracked open only being held shut by the chain lock and the little dead girl’s dead mother was on the outside of the door scolding her – telling her to come on and that she had told her we would not understand. I told the mother it was okay and that I did not mind but I was very sad and angry with myself for not asking what I could do to help before just leading her out of the door. I woke up in real life feeling the same way. Was she real? How can I get her to come back and how can I help? This really bothers me. Dear Dreamer, In all likelihood you had an out of body experience and saw a deceased child and her mother. The best “help” you can provide for someone in that experience is to tell the individual(s) to: “Look for the light,” to reassure them that someone will come help them, and to explain that they are deceased and it is time to move on. You can also help by praying for the individuals. Keep in mind that the angelic realms are trying to help from the other side, as well. I do not think you did anything wrong – in all likelihood, the woman and her child were looking for help but their frame of mind was blocking the natural progression to the afterlife. Here’s my dream… It’s not my dream but I want to know what the dream means because I’m kind of afraid. The dream was that my girlfriend saw herself in a coffin at her funeral while her family cried over her body and her deceased grandmother and close friend were holding out their hands out to her. What does that mean? Dear Dreamer, Although literally interpreting the dream might make an individual ponder the possibility of death, a much more likely interpretation is a metaphorical one. Since it is your friend’s dream, from a metaphorical perspective it suggests that she may have done something that would so upset her family that (she might say) “I’d rather be dead then let my parents know about ___________,” or “If they knew about this it would kill them.” In other she may have done something that she knows her family wouldn’t approve of. The death she is dreaming of is the death of the “little girl” the family still thinks of when they think of her.

 

 

Online Database of Past Dream Interpretations: Dreams About Disasters or Tragedies

Here’s my dream…

I am a 21-year-old female and for the last couple years I’ve had a recurring dream. In this dream I am riding in the same blue car. Each time the car drives through a guardrail and over a cliff. As a result of the crash I am killed, but right as I wake up I see a date: 7-7! I cannot see the driver of the car. All I see is us drive over the cliff and that I have died. What could this possibly mean?

Dear Dreamer, Although it is possible to have accurate precognitive dreams about the future, a much more likely interpretation is a metaphorical one. A car generally has to do with your life’s direction. The fact that you are letting someone else drive the car could indicate that you are sometimes prone to letting other people make choices about your life and direction and that if you continue along this path, it will lead to disaster. Essentially, I think the dream is suggesting that you need to take control of your life, especially in relationships. Just to be on the safe side, however, do not go for a ride on 7-7, especially wish someone in a blue car. :)

Here’s my dream…

The dream I wish to submit is my 26-year-old son’s. He has only in the last couple of weeks begun dreaming of tornadoes. He his wife and her two children are in the middle of one tornado after another. He says these dreams are nightmares and he has never had nightmares before. The storms and tornadoes are all around them one after another. He is greatly bothered by these dreams. Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Dear Dreamer, Although it would be possible to dream about a major weather disaster before it occurred, it is much more likely that your son is dreaming about some kind of emotional turmoil occurring within his own household. In fact, oftentimes dreams of tornadoes are symbolic of ongoing verbal arguments, fighting, and emotional tension occurring in a relationship. I hope that helps.

Here’s my dream…

I keep having this dream over and over again about nuclear attacks on Colorado Springs, where I live. I’m 12 years old and lots of the dreams I have come true. I’ve been having these dreams since September 2004. It scares me. Recently, I dreamed that I was watching TV and found out that China and the Asian communist states declared war on America. These dreams deeply disturb me and are extremely realistic. In them, everyone I know is dying around me but I don’t. Please reply if your experts are truly serious about this. For all I know it could be a mater of Armageddon.

Although you could interpret your dreams literally, a much more likely interpretation is a symbolic one. In this respect, the dream would be a symbol for the “end of the world” as you know it – in other words, some kind of a personal upheaval that would completely change your life. Possibilities would include such things as: the divorce of your parents, having to move, ending your time at one school at going to another, having your best friend move, etc. Therefore, rest assured, the dream is probably NOT about the end of the world, but is instead about a big change in your world. I hope that helps.

Here’s my dream…

I have a recurring dream lately that is driving me crazy. I keep dreaming that the world is ending but somehow me and my husband survive and my two kids are never in the dreams. I never see them in the dreams but I see a lot of my other family members. In one dream I was sitting at my dad’s house and it started to rain and thunder and lightning and I went outside to get my husband and when I would push the button to open the garage door it would come open but when I would get up to it the door would slam shut before I could get out. Its like the door was trapping me and when I did get out there was the blue rays coming from the sky and when they would touch the ground whatever it touched would freeze solid. Then when I went back into my garage there were these two old ladies sitting there and they were asking me if I believe in God and if I have my life right with him and I told them that I did and they told me that was good because the world was coming to an end and then everyone started disappearing but me. I must say that this dream really scared me and I cannot figure out what it means. I would really appreciate your help in figuring this out. Thank you.

Dear Dreamer, The dream suggests that you and your husband are having some kind of problems (e.g. financial, relationship, stress, etc.) and that these problems may affect change in your life (e.g. a move, a change of jobs, counseling). However, the important thing to keep in mind is that everything will be okay – the “world” that you currently know is simply changing. In terms of the elderly ladies in the garage, they are an encouragement to bring out your spirituality that may have been stored away for some time and start working with it.

Here’s my dream…

I am in Asia and two days before the Tsunami attack I had a dream and I’m disturb badly. It was all about my daughter and water; she is five. I saw her drowning inside the pool and I stretched my had to pull her up and saved her. I was standing nearby and the others who were inside the pool did not see her drowning. When I woke up it was difficult to think about the dream because of seeing suffering, but I was happy because I had saved her life. What does this mean?

Dear Dreamer, The Edgar Cayce material suggests that it is very possible to psychically perceive elements of the future in our dreams. My sense is that part of you picked up on the possibility of a water disaster and then incorporated those images into a dream that would have personal relevance for you and your daughter. In other words, you had the dream not just because of the tsunami, but because the dream is personally relevant. I think the dream is suggesting that there is an emotional situation occurring in your daughter’s life (or in your life in relationship to your daughter) and it is up to you to try to “save” her from being overwhelmed by the experience. Because of your location, it could also relate to her fears/concerns/worries because of the tsunami. If you would like to read more about the possibility of perceiving the future, let me recommend the book Edgar Cayce on the Akashic Records, by Kevin Todeschi.

Here’s my dream…

I am a 29-year-old single parent, female with two children. This past year I have had similar recurring dreams about every 2 months of the world coming to an end and I am never near my children. In the dream I am running through meteors to find them with fear that I will be too late and somehow I do but when I do I am explaining to them that the world is ending and that they will have to go before me. I wake up traumatically. Please help me identify these dreams.

Dear Dreamer, The dreams have a couple of likely possibilities. One strong possibility is that the stress and demanding schedule you may be under due to work,for example, could be having serious ramifications on the amount of time you are able to spend with your children. If this is the case, the dream is pointing out how the relationship you once shared with them has come to an end because the “world” has changed. Another possibility could be that some kind of major life change (e.g. a move, a new relationship, etc.) will seriously impact their lives causing it to appear as if “everything has come to an end.” However,as you pointed out in the dream, ultimately these changes will make them very happy.

Here’s my dream…

I am a 37-year-old female and for the last 5 years, I have had a dream about a man that hurts children. The dream begins with me standing at the doorway of an old seemingly abandoned home. I walk into the house, and I hear the cries of children coming from the second floor. I go up the stairs, and a child runs to me, it is never the same child. I grab the child, and try to make my way up the stairs, because I still here children crying. The child in my arms tells me it’s too late, and that we must go now, I turn and start back down the stairs. At the bottom of the staircase, the man is there, he’s holding a knife, and comes towards me…I know what the man that harms the children looks like; I even know what cloths he is wearing, and it never changes. This dream has bothered me so much, that I have even tried to find him. I have the dream every fall, between August, and October, at least once a week, and then it just stops.

Dear Dreamer, If there is no abuse in your own background and the images are not connected to your own childhood trauma, then the dream could be a psychic impression of something that is literally occurring (or something that someone is giving a great deal of thought to doing). Since there is no way to track down the individual or help the authorities in any way, at the very least the dream is a call to prayer. If you receive images that can be helpful to the authorities, then pass them on. As to why you are having this experience, generally one or more of the following is true for individuals who dream about tragedies over which they have no control: 1) the experience is something similar to what the dreamer experienced at some point in his or her soul history; 2) the dreamer is a natural “empath,” but the dreamer’s normal life does not allow them to use their talent for compassion and empathy so it comes out at night as intuition; 3) the dream is a similar “thematic” story to something occurring in the dreamer’s current life (e.g., in this case being threatened by experiences over which you seem to have little or no control). Good luck to you. Let me know what happens.

Here’s my dream…

I was driving my best friend’s little 5-year-old girl to her grandmother’s house last night and she fell asleep on the way. When she awoke she said she dreamed that I was killed. It startled me, so I asked her what happened and she said first daddy was shot then you. She kept saying, “you were killed.” This really scared me. I will be moving out of the state in a couple of months and I’m really close to the family. I haven’t told the family yet; do you think she may know that I’m moving? Why did she dream that her dad was killed? Very puzzled?

Dear Dreamer, I think you are exactly right – I think the little girl’s dream is the subconscious awareness that your old relationship with the family is coming to an end. It is a symbolic death. Gunshots can also be symbolic of verbal aggression – perhaps suggesting that the way the family may “cope” with this situation is to get angry. In terms of the girl’s father being killed, it also suggests some kind of a major change, such as his having an abrupt and sudden career change or perhaps even marital problems. I hope that helps.

Here’s my dream…

I’ve been having this reoccurring dream about tornadoes. One time it was my brothers and I playing in a big open field and I was the only one to see the tornado and I ran into a glass house and tried yelling to my brothers but they weren’t listening to me. Just before the tornado hit I woke up! Another one was me my boyfriend and my boss in a store and my boss was working but he wasn’t supposed to be working there for some reason but he was anyway. When I was talking to him my boyfriend was shopping and my boss and I walked outside and we saw this tornado form and we ran inside and they had the women and the men separated so I couldn’t go back to my boyfriend and we were both worried about each other when I went into the room for the women the room next to us started leaking water and we were yelling for help but no one would come…another time I had this dream that I was with my friends from childhood and we were outside eating on the grass having a picnic and then out of nowhere two tornadoes form and we are running trying to get away from them but they are following us and then I woke up! Please tell me about my dreams!

Dear Dreamer, A tornado is often symbolic of an emotional upheaval, an argument or excessive shouting. Just as a tornado consists of wind, when an individual is yelling at someone, we might imagine that “wind” comes out of his or her mouth. Edgar Cayce often stated that dreams contrast and correlate the events of the day. With this in mind, the next time one of these “tornado” dreams occur, look at what just transpired in your waking life. Did you just have an argument with someone? Did someone have an argument with you? Overall, the presence of so many tornadoes suggests that you are an extremely emotional person and that either you (or those around you) are prone to emotional outbursts. If this is the case, someone may need to learn how to communicate her or his intense feelings in an appropriate manner. Having a depth of emotions is a wonderful thing – it often enables an individual to be sensitive to the needs of others – but sometimes communicating those intense feelings to someone else can be a challenge. I hope this helps.

Here’s my dream…

My 10-year-old daughter woke up this morning and told me that she had a scary dream. She dreamt that I had died in a car accident on the way home from work. There was an accident yesterday that shut down the road that goes to our home. Could this dream have been as a result of thinking about that accident or could it symbolize something else?

Dear Dreamer, Most dreams can have both literal and metaphorical interpretations. Although it is possible to dream about an accident involving a family member before it happens, it is much more likely that your daughter’s mind is using an external event to symbolize something that is occurring within her life or the lives of those she is concerned about. From this perspective, the question would be is there something “dangerous,” or “disastrous,” or “anxiety-provoking” about your daughter’s current home situation, her concerns about your job (e.g. you’ve been verbalizing concerns about being laid off), or your overall direction as a family that has her worried (e.g. a potential move or divorce). In all likelihood your daughter is worried about a “disaster” in her own life and her subconscious mind simply chose an external event to symbolize that problem.

Here’s my dream…

I’m on a massive ship, somewhat like the Titanic, and it’s dark and cold. The ship is in the middle of the ocean. I look down at the water and all of a sudden someone pushes me and I’m falling, but as soon as I’m about to hit the water, I wake up. This dream I dream every so often – ever since I remember.

Dear Dreamer, Dreams about a ship can be associated with one’s spiritual journey, an individual’s life course, or even a person’s work life. The dream is suggesting that something going on in your present life experience may be making you feel isolated, abandoned or on the verge of some kind of a catastrophe or tragedy. In all likelihood, this dream occurs whenever a similar thematic experience is happening in your life. If this is the case, then it might be a partial past life memory (e.g. being on a sinking ship) that is thematically connected to a possible failure of some kind in the present.

Here’s my dream…

I dreamed that a new super skyscraper was being quickly built on the site of the old World Trade Center. The metal framework was about three-quarters of the way up from completion. The building was in the landing path of an airport. A 747 jumbo jet was coming in for a landing when a small plane came across its landing path. The larger plane put full thrusters on to avoid the smaller plane and abort landing to go around again. In doing so the backwash from the 747 easily collapsed the rising skyscraper. I was left feeling impressed how easily the structure went down but with the notion that it would easily be rebuilt better and stronger.

Dear Dreamer, Oftentimes the subconscious will use cultural symbols and images to bring to mind some thematic experience or situation. From this perspective, the World Trade Center can be symbolic of a tragedy, a horrendous situation, an attack, or the destruction of one’s working environment. With this in mind, one possible meaning of the dream could be suggesting that you are in the midst of rebuilding your career and work life after some calamity (e.g. layoff, downsizing, reorganization, etc.). The big 747 that is coming in for a landing can be associated with the ideas and goals that – up to this time – have been a part of your career hopes and expectations. Everything appears on track until some small plane (which can be indicative of a new idea, thought or unexpected situation) seems to come out of nowhere. This might suggest that something unexpected will cause you to change your work plans but rather than being a horrible event it may create a new working environment that is “better and stronger” than the occupation or direction you are currently pursuing.

Here’s my dream…

I’ve been having dreams or actually more of waking up traumatically with thinking that I am choking; lots of times it is a pen that I am choking on and I wake up gasping & thinking if I literally swallow it, I could die. Once in awhile it will be something else sharp or such like a rock or something. But it becomes very frightening! What could or do you think it may be symbolizing? I also have a recurring dream about world destruction. I guess you could say, the world separates and everybody falls in this huge crack in the earth except for me. Then a huge wave of water comes gushing over them, suffocating and drowning everyone. I can feel their hurt, the pain, everything they our feeling. Then all of a sudden I see this baby girl, getting her newborn picture taken. Everything in this dream seems so real, I can fell and touch everything or so it seems. This dream is really bothering me to the point now that I cannot sleep.

Dear Dreamer, The first dream in which you are choking may suggest that there is something in waking life that is choking, strangling or squeezing the life out of you – a job, a relationship, a situation, etc. The fact that the thing that is often choking you is a pen might correspond to some kind of problem with communication. In terms of the world disaster – basically the dream suggests that in some kind of emotionally overwhelming experience that becomes a disaster for many (e.g. a layoff at work, a divorce in the family, etc.), you end up being unscathed and may even have a rebirth or a new beginning of some kind because of the experience. I hope that helps.

Here’s my dream…

This is going to sound nuts but a week before 9-1-1, I had a dream about the Moon splitting in two and crashing down to earth, the sky blacked out and tall buildings crashed all around me. People screamed and ran out of the US to Canada. Last week I had a dream I was in a desert area with my father and meteors fell to the earth; no one was hurt but it made everyone sad. I’ve been telling people that something bad was going to happen because last time I had a dream like this the two towers came down. Today the space shuttle crashed over Texas (possibly a desert area). My mom called telling me my dream came true. Has anyone else had dreams like this? Please take this seriously; I’m not making this up!

Dear Dreamer, It is not uncommon to have precognitive dreams that seem to be linked to world events, disasters or human tragedy. According to Edgar Cayce, while we are in the dream state our mind becomes open to higher states of consciousness. The highest state – which Cayce called the “superconscious mind” – is actually a connection to the universe’s Akashic Records. In addition to keeping track of the past, these records are also constantly in the process of calculating probable realities. Oftentimes the experience of déjà vu is simply remembering the fragment of a dream in which the mind had accessed one of these probable realities. In fact, Edgar Cayce suggested that nothing of significance ever happens to us without it first being foreshadowed in a dream. [If you would like to read more about how these Akashic Records work, let me recommend the book Edgar Cayce on the Akashic Records, by Kevin Todeschi. Generally, individuals who pick up on precognitive world events in their dreams are intuitive, extremely sensitive, or in the process of a personal experience that thematically corresponds to the “event” that they dreamed about. Rest assured that your experience happens to many people.

Here’s my dream…

I am having the same or similar dream repeatedly. I am traveling by plane. The plane always crashes on the return journey home from Japan. It either crashes into a field, trees or on water. Everyone on the plane survives each time. I am traveling a lot for work to Asia. My wife split up from me about a year ago. I never had the dream before this time. She told me she was leaving when I returned from a business trip from Japan. I started seeing another woman 2 months ago. Since then the dreams come more often. The relationship is going great but is quite loose, as we do not live in the same town. This month she is leaving to travel the world for basically the major part of 2003. Could it be the fear of going too deep into and failing in this new relationship?

Dear Dreamer, Certainly your interpretation is a possibility. However, since your personal past experience now contains a dream about a journey from Japan that is also associated with a break-up, another likelihood is either the fear or the reality that your relationship with this woman may also headed for a break-up.

Here’s my dream…

I am 16 years old and a senior in high school. I come from a small city in Louisiana. I have had this dream twice probably within the last month. In each dream there have been at least 5 or 6 tornados that are extremely close to hitting Plaquemine High. That is not the school I go to but I do know a lot of people that go there. It just really scares me because lately we have been having very windy weather.

Dear Dreamer, Although the dreams could be suggesting a literal tornado as you have surmised, a much more likely interpretation is a metaphorical one. In a dream, a tornado can often be symbolic of arguments or verbal yelling. A tornado is made up of wind moving very fast, just as air comes out of one’s mouth very fast during an argument. The fact that the tornadoes are in danger of hitting a High School that you personally don’t go to but you know people who do might suggest that you are aware of many arguments, rivalries, gossiping and back-stabbing that are occurring around you–perhaps because many of your friends confide in you. I think that the dreams are about arguments and fighting threatening the relationships of many of your friends and not about a literal tornado.

Here’s my dream…

Last night I was in a semi awake dream state where I “saw” a threat to a commercial airport. There was a person, a man holding a “hand held” weapon on his left shoulder where he can shoot a rocket or a rocket with nuclear power from the ground into the air. I felt this to be a real threat where I “saw” the inside of a damaged airline terminal, an air traffic control tower and that there would be several shots made at jets both taking off and landing. I saw mountains as well as a baseball park near by and I remember the number 98. I “heard” San Francisco, Chicago and Washington. I do not fly on a regular basis. As I had similar dreams of this nature last summer, where I never had such dreams before, these coming up to a week before Sept 11, I decided to not ignore this message this time. I am not a psychic. I am an artist. I had a great weekend and am in a good place spiritually. Please help me because I do not understand what I am supposed to do with these visions. Thank you.

Dear Dreamer, Most often individuals who have prophetic dreams about real events that eventually occur ask the same question you’ve asked, “What am I supposed to do?” These individuals feel like they were given the vision in order to somehow prevent what transpired. That is generally not the case. What often happens is that these dreams actually correspond thematically to the individual’s real life. As one example, an individual who dreamed about the destruction of a building that they eventually came to believe was the World Trade Center was actually on the verge of losing her job – her job was being completely annihilated. Because that individual was very sensitive/intuitive, and because part of her mind was aware of the upcoming job loss, during the dream state her consciousness found an “external event” that would correspond to a personal happening. Therefore, for most individuals one of these dreams, which is usually so general that an exact location cannot be pinned down ahead of time, the reason they are having the experience is simply for themselves. All that said, it is possible in the dream state to sometimes pick up on real events with enough specificity (city, area, timing, etc) to affect a probable outcome. When that happens, I tell individuals that since it is a warning specific enough that if followed could save lives, they need to contact someone locally like the FBI and at least relay the information. At all times, individuals can also work with the power of prayer to surround all those involved.

Here’s my dream…

I dreamt that the part of America that I live in was being destroyed by fire. In order to stay alive people were trying to make it to any islands that were around this part of the country. But the only people that were able to make it to any islands were the people that had boats, which were the people that were well off. In my dream, I did not feel afraid. As everyone tried to escape to these islands I stood and watched.

Dear Dreamer, In a dream, fire can be a purifying influence, it can relate to anger, or it might be suggestive of destruction. In any event, its appearance in your dream seems to suggest that something in your life (most likely related to work or home) is in the midst of vast change. While you are trying to deal with this change, it becomes apparent to you that the only way to survive is to have a boat. This seems to suggest that the best way to deal with whatever is occurring in your life right now is to rely upon your own spiritual resources, your spiritual direction, and your soul’s journey.

Here’s my dream…

I was at a party in Hawaii. An earthquake hit while myself and a group of other people were riding the elevator in the hotel we were staying. I lay down on my back while everyone else panicked. The ride seemed enjoyable to me.

Dear Dreamer, My sense is that this is a work dream-one place where you often stay with other people is work. The dream suggests that you may be having a good time (partying, being in Hawaii) and might even be laying down on the job. There seems to be some kind of a shake-up coming to work (the earthquake). On the other hand, rather than laying down on the job, another possibility is that regardless of what transpires at the company you might have a relatively relaxing, easy time of it. Being in an elevator can correspond with riding up the corporate ladder or trying to get ahead on some project or activity.

Here’s my dream…

I am in a house and smell a strong acid smoke odor. I then see thin wisps of smoke swirl around the room. I know I must find the source. Following the wisps leads me to an attic door, a steam of smoke is coming from the keyhole and around the door jam. The smell is stronger now. I turn the doorknob, open the door and see stairs leading up. The stairwell is filled with smoke and I hear a crackling sound but see no flames. I call out, “Oh, my God. Call 911”.

Dear Dreamer, Oftentimes, dreams can have both a literal and a metaphysical interpretation. From a literal standpoint, the dream suggests a danger of fire. If, for example, you are living in a house with old wiring, then you might wish to follow-through on having the electricity checked. However, a much more likely possibility is a metaphorical one. From this perspective, it suggests that you may be on the verge of experiencing some sort of a challenging situation at work, at home or in your life in general. Calling 911 in a dream is often symbolic of the dreamer feeling the need to call upon outside help. Another metaphorical possibility suggested by the imagery of looking for the source of smoke can be feelings of frustration, anger or irritation that may be building up inside in regards to a situation that you don’t know how to deal with on your own.

Here’s my dream…

I am standing in the middle of New York (have never been to America) I look up at the masses of skyscrapers; the sky grows dark and dense clouds form. I see a fireball coming down the main street and the buildings start to fall like dominoes. The dream ends.

Dear Dreamer, The interpretation is really connected to whatever New York (or the United States) symbolizes to you. If you think of it as a place where people can find a good job, then it symbolizes work. If you think of it as a place of personal freedoms, then it symbolizes freedom. If you think of it as a place where people are rude or aggression, it symbolizes a situation in your own life where individuals have been frustrating you. Therefore, decide what New York symbolizes to you. If it’s work, for example, it may be suggesting that some kind of an experience over which you have no control is about to befall your job.

Here’s my dream…

I have had dreams of planes crashing for the past ten years or so. I was never in the planes, but usually I was in the house I grew up in, or in the front yard. The first dream like this involved a helicopter, and graduated to planes from there. The planes would usually cross over the house, then turn around and crash either to the west or east and once to the south. I would see the planes overhead and hope they would not crash, but they always would (until the past couple of years, when a couple of them actually would not crash.). The explosions varied from just running into a tree to nuclear-type detonations. Once, a plane crashed there were injured people walking up the street. Also, the space shuttle lifted off, and then went down and crashed. My family has a history of sexual abuse by the father. I am the only person who has tried to get help, and I am also the one who “spilled the beans.” Our father died in 1991, and the dreams started soon after. I wonder if there is a connection there?

Dear Dreamer, In a dream an airplane generally corresponds to travel, spirituality, or thoughts and ideas. The dreams you experiences suggest that there are thoughts and idea that are having a traumatic impact on the perception/surrounding experience of the dreamer. For that reason, you are probably right in thinking that the dreams may have something to do with your abusive background. Note in the dream that you are often standing in your own yard, suggesting that these thoughts and ideas are connected to your personal experience of the past. Survivors of abuse do report dreams like yours. Other survivors have reported that their dreams are filled with space ships and/or aliens that seem hostile. The fact that there have been occasions lately when the planes have not crashed are suggestive of your own healing process and the fact that you have made great strides in overcoming this horrible situation.

Here’s my dream…

I dreamed that I was in NY City, but I did not recognize it at all. I saw the twin towers and they were on fire again. Everyone was screaming but I kept moving towards the towers. I wanted to be near them as the fell. When they started to fall I tried to run to a basement type room with my friend and got only to the door. When I looked at myself, I wasn’t covered in any debris, ash, or anything. Afterward, the twin towers were still standing, and they kept collapsing, but were still there when I looked at them. On the 4th time collapsing, they were both gone.

Dear Dreamer, The Twin Towers can represent a horrible tragedy or work (the towers were essentially offices). There are a number of possibilities suggested by this dream but perhaps the most logical is that you have been having an extremely difficult time at work and you have been avoiding dealing with these challenges (hiding in the basement) for fear that you cannot easily find another job at the same level. The fact that the towers have been collapsing four times may indicate that you have thought repeatedly about leaving and have only stayed because you are worried about the financial tragedy that would befall you by leaving. However, in the dream you are not affected in any way by the collapse, suggesting that you would not be harmed by leaving. Another possibility is that the company may be in financial trouble and you are staying around in order to see what happens. In the end – regardless of what happens to the company – you and your life appear unaffected.

 

 

Online Database of Past Dream Interpretations: Dreams About Famous People

Here’s my dream…

I’ve submitted a dream before but this one is different. I’m 15-years-old, and I’ve always wanted to be in the movies. As such, I’ve always imagined myself with some famous actress, but I never believed it, you know, considering most of them were older than me. But Alexa Vega, who plays Carmen Cortez in the Spy Kids series, is the same age as me. I’m not really interested in her, considering I don’t like the Spy Kids movies. But I had a dream with her. I’m standing on a set of a film, with cameras around, but no one else is there. Then Alexa walks out and approaches me; she says something but I can’t hear what she says. She keeps talking but still I hear nothing. Then she draws in the air a symbol, something like a cross, but a bit zig-zaggy. Then she goes forward and kisses me. When she backs up from the kiss, we are still in the set, but she wearing a wedding dress. Then the draws the cross-like symbol again, and then I wake up. Can you please tell me what this means?

Dear Dreamer, Whenever we dream of famous people, we have to first decide what that famous person means to us. For example, if Alexa symbolizes a movie star to you more than anything else (as opposed to the kind of girlfriend you might like or somehow who is a spy, etc.), then the dream is suggesting that you have a spiritual destiny (symbol of cross in the air) and a personal commitment (e.g. marriage) to become involved in the acting and/or motion picture profession. The zigzag direction could indicate that your dream will be fulfilled in a more roundabout way (or in a different manner) than you might presently be thinking. I hope your dream of becoming an actor comes true. Good luck to you.

Here’s my dream…

I have had a reoccurring person in my dreams since January of 1997. They are not the same dreams, but it is the same person; they all have the same “theme” and I wake up feeling the same. He is a real, actual person but I have never met him personally. He is somewhat of a celebrity, but not a superstar. The dreams always come when I least expect them. I always wake up feeling as though I have just left the best friend I never knew I had, a relationship like I’ve never known, a soul-mate, etc. – all of those deep almost fairytale like qualities people want, but always say few really have. I know I’ve never had. The part that always grabs my attention the most is this: I have had people from my dearest friends, to my mother, to people that only know me through other people (my brothers, sister-in-law, etc) that have told me in passing “I saw so & so on a clip (or read an article) – for some reason I thought of you and how you two would be perfect/you need a man like that/he said something so Stephanie/he told a story that would only happen to you…” Like I stated, they come when I least expect it, I do not follow his career, when I happen to see something about him I always think it will ‘trigger’ a dream – it doesn’t. I have even picked him a part and think he’s okay/fine, but not necessarily my “type” from what I can see or read about him. The dreams are so real – we have such a great time, and everything flows so easily. They began before my divorce in 1998 and have reoccurred several times since; during times I’ve not been dating and during a relationship I have had on and off. Sometimes they come more frequently, and then stop for a while, and then I’ll have one again. In the dreams we are doing all sorts of things, a barbecue at his family’s, walking on the beach, swimming in a pool, once we were at a stadium waiting for a ball game to start, we are just enjoying life together. I even began a dream journal in 1998 (a year after they began) to try to discern the rhyme and reason for them, to no avail – other than I have them documented now. Please give me your intuitive feelings on this.

Dear Dreamer, Famous people can represent whatever we most associate with that person. They can also represent our own higher self or a part of our self that is similar to something in that famous individual. Since the dreams often seem to happen at a time when you need a boost, they could simply be encouragement from your own higher self that someone like this person is destined to be a part of your life. [If you want to read more about soul mates, let me recommend the book, Edgar Cayce on Soul Mates, by Kevin Todeschi.] I think it is possible – although unlikely – that there is a literal element to this dream since so many of your friends and family mention the individual to you. With this in mind, let me recommend that you write a letter to the individual and just mention how you liked him whatever you last saw him in. My “intuitive” hunch, however, is that in all likelihood you will meet a person who reminds you of this individual and that is the person you will end up with.

Here’s my dream…

I’ve never had my dreams interpreted before. I usually do a good job doing my own or others but this one really bothers me. I dreamt last night that I’m in a relationship with Scott Speedman. We were at my house, but I dreamt that he had to leave for a minute. His friend and this girl stayed over, his friend tried to make a pass at me and I pulled away. I was so mad at him I nearly lost my temper and attacked him but Scott had come back. He looked so happy being back where we were that I couldn’t tell him what had happened. I don’t dream about celebs. I don’t know why I even dreamt about him. Lately I’ve been feeling like my spirit has been torn from what it’s to supposed to be with. It confuses me that I dreamt about him, everything felt so real, though. If it weren’t for the cold breeze that woke me up, I would have actually thought it was reality.

Dear Dreamer, Famous people generally symbolize whatever we most associate with that individual. Scott Speedman, the actor who appears on “Felicity,” would symbolize whatever you know about him or most associate with him. For example, as many of his fans know, in real life Scott was a swimmer who had to give up swimming because of a neck injury. He later followed his girlfriend’s advice and took a change in directions by showing up for an open interview for a movie. Although he didn’t get the movie, he did get an agent and eventually became an actor. Since you mentioned that you felt “torn” from doing what you really wanted to be doing with your life, it seems that Scott could symbolize a change in your life direction. In other words, your having a “relationship” with Scott in the dream could suggest that you are about to have a new direction in life that more closely corresponds with what it is that you really want to be doing. The friend of Scott’s that made a pass at you could symbolize something that you were not attracted to trying to form a relationship with you – for example, a job that you didn’t want. Overall, I think the dream is about discovering your mission in life. If this is the case, let me recommend the book Discovering Your Soul’s Purpose; by Mark Thurston. Alternately, the dream might be about starting a new relationship.

Here’s my dream…

I dreamed about Jay-z (a rap artist who is currently dating Boncyne of Destiny’s Child). He saw me and was smiling, holding my hand, and telling me he always liked me even before he was famous. He asked me why I didn’t get with him and if I would be with him now. I was shy but feeling the love and security he was giving me. Meanwhile, Boncyne is with someone that she was attending the party with and she left in the limo with him. I asked Jay-z about dating her and he said it was not that serious. We laughed and flirted and acted like we were in love. This is the second time I dreamed about Jay z like we were serious friends. Physical attraction is not there but his demeanor is what I may be attracted too. Help!

Dear Dreamer, The dream suggests that there is something about Jay-z that you also possess and should be having a personal relationship/experience with. In other words, if you think Jay-z is outgoing and the center of attention wherever he may be, then the dream suggests you have the same type of personality that really needs to be brought to the forefront. If Jay-z primarily represents a musical talent to you, then the dream suggests that you have some kind of talent that you really need to focus more of your time and energy upon. Overall, the dream is suggesting that whatever you find most engaging about Jay-z is something that you also possess.

Here’s my dream…

This is something I have wondered for some time. I had a dream about a celebrity I saw in an action movie. I did not think anything about it at the time of the film (not that great of a movie) but a day later I had a dream about him that I have never really been able to remember. The strange thing about it is that shortly thereafter, whenever, by chance, I would see this celebrity in a commercial or some other movie, I would feel fear, break into tears, and get the feeling that somehow I had been hurt by him physically. Years have passed and the feelings have faded but I have always been curious as to the meaning of this experience.

Generally, famous people symbolize whatever we most associate with that person. For example, an individual like Jerry Lewis might symbolize “humor” to some individuals and he might symbolize “philanthropy” or “service” to others because of his work with Muscular Dystrophy. In your example, the action figure would probably symbolize whatever you associated with that individual in the movie (e.g. able to overcome any obstacle, someone who was totally independent, someone who was picking on others, etc.). The emotional feeling you felt later is simply a remnant of your dream experience, suggesting that part of your dream was being called to mind at least emotionally. All that said, let’s imagine that the action figure you dreamed about was Mel Gibson and the movie you saw was the one in which he was picking on Joe Pesci. Your emotional response to that situation would suggest that you felt like the Joe Pesci character in some situation in your waking life and someone else was being the Mel Gibson. I hope that helps.

Here’s my dream…

I dreamt that I heard that a famous politician had been assassinated. I was then able to see a replay of the assassination. In the replay, I see two men come out into an open area each with a rifle and each carrying a small metal box of ammunition. I see them put the boxes down on the grass. I then see them shoot the politician as the individual’s limousine goes by.

Dear Dreamer, Because of the status of the world, it is certainly possible that some politician is in danger of an assassination attempt. However, that is probably not the reason you had this dream. All of our dreams generally have a personal meaning – even though they might also be connected to external events. In other words, regardless of whether or not some politician is ever really assassinated, the reason you are having the dream suggests that some part of you may feel as if it is being “killed” or “assassinated” by others. Ask yourself, what do you think of this politician and what does this individual really mean to you? Once you get a sense of what he or she symbolizes, you might be able to discern what part of you is feeling oppressed or beaten down. In all likelihood, that is why you are having this particular dream.

Here’s my dream…

I had a dream one week ago. I was in the Andes in my country, Peru, and I was with the countrymen and shamans from the town. They bring a cow and they tell me the cow represents the mother earth and the mother earth is angry with the country’s president. They said to me he made rituals with the mother earth, he promised some things to mother earth and he lied. Then, they made a circle with small stones…then the countrymen and shamans begin the ritual to end the period of our president. When the ritual began, I was looking and saw nearby an abyss.

Dear Dreamer, Since the Mother Earth probably represents sustenance and livelihood for many of your countrymen, the dream suggests that many individuals had high hopes for the improvement of their lives when your country’s president took office. However, things may not have improved and in fact for some (perhaps including yourself), things may have gotten far worse. (This could be symbolized by the abyss.) With that in mind, forces and activities may be at work by various countrymen and spiritual forces (the shaman) that in time will result in a new president for your country.

Here’s my dream…

I am standing before the actor Hume Cronyn (I do not know if he has passed on or not). He gives me a ring. It is a gold ring, like that of a college ring. The top of the ring is flat. On it, is a black circular area, with the actor’s name engraved in gold lettering. I accept the ring. I have only seen the actor in two movies, and am not sure what this dream could be telling me. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

Dear Dreamer, Since you best know Hume Cronyn as an actor, the dream suggests that you have a potential relationship (the ring) with acting or personal creativity that you may wish to become more involved in. I’ve been told that Mr. Cronyn is deceased. However, the main meaning of the dream will correspond most to whatever you associate with the actor, what you know about his work, or how you felt about this encounter in the dream.

Here’s my dream…

In my dream I see the numbers 219 and 235. They are on top of a barrel, like physical objects I could pick up. I say to myself, “I take the numbers 219 and 235.” Then I think to myself, that sounds like something Edgar Cayce would say. Upon awakening I thought this was a very odd dream, not at all like my usual kinds of dreams. I thought to check the Cayce website, thinking perhaps his cases were numbered? Maybe these numbers refer to readings that might apply to me? I don’t know, but perhaps you could shed some light on this.

Dear Dreamer, Following the literal possibility that this is a suggestion for you to investigate some aspect of the Edgar Cayce readings let me provide the background information on the two numbers you mentioned. As you surmised, all of the Cayce readings have been numbered for confidentiality. For example, reading #219-1 would correspond to the first reading given to individual #219.

In the case of 219, she was a twenty-eight-year-old woman who came to Edgar Cayce for help with a physical problem. Essentially, the problem concerned abscesses in her female organs. For her condition, Cayce recommended osteopathy, electrical stimulation, medicinal packs and suggestions for improving her eliminations. Case #235 was a sixty-year-old woman who also came to Cayce for help with a physical problem. Essentially the problem concerned a lack of coordination in the functioning of her liver as well as problems with her eliminations. Suggestions for her treatment included things that would improve her circulation and eliminations.

Just for your information, members of A.R.E. have on-line access to the complete Edgar Cayce readings in the member-only section. You can also obtain Circulating Files of verbatim topics mentioned in the readings by calling our Customer Service department, 1-800-333-4499. Many are also available in the online member-only section.

Here’s my dream…

I am from Cameroon, Africa and I am currently living in the United States. Recently I had a vivid dream in which I was being introduced to the president of my country by one of his ministers. I was in the company of one of my friends. It seem as if I was being introduced to the president of my country because I had gained some importance or something. I do not know. It’s strange because to meet the president of my country is no easy task. Does this dream mean anything?

Dear Dreamer, Because the president of your country is an important person, the dream could be suggesting that either you are becoming acquainted with your own self-worth or that the people and experiences you are currently having are putting you in touch with your own life’s importance/mission. Whatever your friend in the dream symbolizes could be an important clue. For example, does this friend make you feel good about yourself? Is this friend involved in a line of work or study that you hope to be involved with some day? The dream could suggest that you are beginning to realize who and what you are, rather than thinking “I’m nobody.”

 

 

Online Database of Past Dream Interpretations: Dreams About Home Here’s my dream… I have a recurring dream that I live in my home, but I find new rooms I never knew existed. But I can’t go into these rooms because the wood floors are so bad and I might fall through. There are holes and sometimes severe water damage so I cannot get in there. These rooms are all furnished and have a lot of old things I’d like to see because our house is over 140 years old, but I can’t get in. I have this dream several times a month. Dear Dreamer, The new rooms are probably symbolic of innate talents or aspects to your personality that you never knew existed. The bad wood floors may suggest that you need to replace your foundation (e.g. understanding or awareness or emotional foundation) before these aspects of yourself can be further explored. The severe water damage might be symbolic of the fact that you could be prone to emotional swings and those emotional swings are hampering you from accomplishing certain goals in life. Overall, the dream may be suggesting that there is much more to you than you have previously given yourself credit for and that you may need to change the way that you’ve been dealing with certain things in your life. Here’s my dream… I just had a dream this morning that my house burned down from bad electric lines. My boyfriend just bought an old 1926 fixer-upper house, which I live in with him. We have been refinishing it for about 5 months now. The dream seemed too vivid. I saw all of our things and our kitchen we are working on fixing in a black, bubbling burnt heap. I remember in my dream thinking we should have called the electrician to come fix the circuit box and plugs. I was wondering what this means and should I take it seriously since we do have old wiring in the house or is it a sign that I am burnt out on the house and all of its fixings. Dear Dreamer, Call an electrician immediately! If the dream is a warning dream you need to have the circuit box and plugs checked, just as you suggested in your dream. The dream does have a metaphorical interpretation, suggesting that you are burned out or that your communication with your boyfriend is “fried” because of all of the work on the house, but even if the dream is a metaphor to be on the safe side call an electrician. Here’s my dream… I once dreamt that there was a knock at the door. I’m not sure if I answered or dreamt I answered, but no one was there. It was approximately 3:00 am and I couldn’t go back to sleep. Then it happened the following night. This time I didn’t get out of bed. It was 3:00 am again and I lay awake, scared to sleep. Every morning last week this happened…at 3:00 am. It hasn’t happened since then but it was so strange that it was the same thing waking me at the same time! Dear Dreamer, The Edgar Cayce material suggests that sometimes when we dream about a knock on the door it is our own Higher Self (or even the Christ presence) inviting us to become more involved in our own spiritual search or in applying our spiritual beliefs. This interpretation is associated with the following reference in the Book of Revelation: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:19-21) Another possibility is that the dream could simply be symbolic of an opportunity trying to be let into your life but it is waiting for you to “open the door.” A final interpretation could be someone deceased trying to contact you, especially if you have recently experienced the loss of a close friend or relative. I hope that helps. Here’s my dream… My mother was diagnosed with a malignant tumor two years ago. For the last year she has been severely depressed refusing to let go of her depression. I think it is more than just the tumor. She is 75-years-old and all she does is have regrets about the past. She is letting go of her anger but she seems to have a hard time allowing herself to find joy. She was always a very material person but she is trying to be spiritual and praying every day. This is the dream she had the night I was explaining to her about will, mind and soul: She went up in the elevator to the 21st floor of a narrow building. Three of us, me and two other people wanted to buy this house but when we went up it was dirty and unsafe and each room had a toilet. All she could see were toilets and rickety walls. She started crying and shouting that she didn’t want to stay she wanted to leave and that, “NO NO I don’t want you to buy this. You can’t even divide it 3 ways. Now we can’t even get down the elevators are broken.” Could you please interpret the dream? This is not the first time she has dreamt of toilets and dirt and not wanting to stay there. I would like to add that she does seem to be finding more interest in life lately and she is starting to laugh. Dear Dreamer, Essentially, the dreams are suggesting that there is something your mother needs to turn loose of or eliminate but she either doesn’t know how to or is refusing to. The symbolism of the 21st floor might be associated with the age of 21 and something she did then that she regrets now. On the other hand, it might simply be connected to the time she has spent in her head (e.g. up in the air) thinking about her regrets. The dream also suggests that your mother feels like she is being forced to do something she doesn’t really want to do. Not being able to divide something three ways could be associated with not being able to find balance – physically, mentally, and spiritually. I hope that helps. – Here’s my dream… I’ve had very similar dreams that I’m hoping you can help me interpret. Basically what happens is my husband and I find ourselves visiting a house we used to live in. When we lived in it, it needed a lot of work. Other people have bought it and fixed it up, and we stop to visit the house and the new owners. So far, I’ve had three or four dreams with this theme. Dear Dreamer, Essentially, the dream suggests that you and your husband are revisiting experiences and “themes” in your marriage that correspond to a time when you were first married. That theme has something to do with reorganizing or refurbishing or redoing or repairing something in your lives, marriage, occupations, etc. Perhaps one way to look at this dream is to ask yourself, “What were my husband and I most concerned about when we were first married?” The answer to that question might give you insights into what the dream is trying to describe in the present. Here’s my dream… I am very curious to find out what these recurring dreams could mean; they aren’t exactly the same but they have a lot of similarities. They take place always in what begins as a house that is somewhat dark, not a lot of lighting, but later they are more like a boiler room or maybe a large kitchen. There are rolling metal tables, etc., where I keep ending up but the main thing that I am curious about is that there is a man with no face. It’s blurry and it’s like I can’t focus on it. He comes after me with a knife. He always gets me cornered under the metal tables that I mentioned before. For some reason I crawl under it I a kind of fetal position, and he is waiving the knife at me under the table; it never gets me, but just misses and then I wake up. Please help me. Dear Dreamer, A house can represent your current situation, your state of mind, your living condition or even your physical body. A place that is somewhat dark is suggestive of the unknown or aspects of self that you really don’t want to have to deal with. A boiler room can indicate repressed anger. A kitchen can symbolize something that nurtures or it might symbolize your mother. The unknown man who comes after you could represent a repressed part of self or something that you have to deal with that you really don’t want to. With all these things in mind, the dream may be suggesting that you have repressed anger within yourself that is trying to come up but that you keep ignoring it. If this is the case, let me recommend seeing a counselor so that you can get past this experience and get on with your life. An alternative interpretation might be that you have become aware of aggressive/angry parts of yourself that you are trying to get away from and/or ignore. Here’s my dream… My dream has been recurring for several years. I am in a sandstone house in a very nice neighborhood. It is beautifully decorated; however, when I see the bedrooms I am locking the door in each bedroom from the inside then I go around the back of the house and there are no outer walls in these bedrooms. I am worried about someone breaking into to the house and have asked others to fix the walls however no one ever does. I can’t see that there is no wall from the inside. Good luck! Dear Dreamer, One possibility suggested by the dreams is that you may have the tendency of being too emotionally distant and cut off from people– especially close personal relationships. Bedrooms can signify close personal relationships and the fact that you are essentially locking all of the doors (and there is no other entrance) could indicate that you too frequently try to “lock out” the outside world (and people) so that you don’t have to deal with it/them. If that is not the case, then the houses could symbolize your current occupation and the dreams might be associated with your fears regarding financial or staffing problems at your place of employment. I hope that helps. Here’s my dream… I’m French. Could you help me with my dreams? Often, I dream about houses. Sometimes I am looking for a house to rent (often with my mother helping me). Many times I am trying to figure out which room I want to rent. Sometimes I rent hotel rooms and find people from my past renting nearby. Sometimes I am in an old woman’s house and I keep trying to get where I am not supposed to be; or I am trying to get to my favorite room but can’t find it and wander into the forbidden rooms and I get chased out. Many times I am in a house running around shutting out the storm, or closing the windows to keep out the high tide or tidal waves (the ocean is the other main character in my dreams) or looking out the window of my beachfront property. Sometimes more recently I am somewhere and I need a place to stay for the night and I try to sneak and stay with strangers… Dear Dreamer, Houses can have a variety of meanings but generally they are associated with the dreamer’s present experience or situation and/or the dreamer’s consciousness or physical body. The act of looking for a house to rent could be symbolic of looking for some kind of temporary situation or activity that would fill the void between where you are right now and where you ultimately hope to end up (e.g. a temporary job, a temporary break from a challenging experience, etc.). People from your past can be associated with experiences, patterns and thoughts from the past resurfacing in the present. In other words, sometimes they suggest that whatever is going on in your life right now is similar to an activity or an emotional state of mind that occurred when you knew these individuals. Exploring an old woman’s house could be associated with exploring long-dormant thoughts, talents, abilities (or even negative patterns) within your own soul consciousness or memory that are the result of past-life experiences. Being chased out of rooms might correspond with being advised not to pursue various aspects of your personality or desires that are a part of your soul memory. Shutting windows or trying to keep out the storm is often connected to trying to protect self from emotional experiences or people that are overwhelming. Looking at beachfront property can symbolic of attempting to or desiring to relax. Looking for a place to stay can be symbolic of trying to discover what it is you are supposed to be doing in life. Staying with strangers might correspond with being involved with some kind of unfamiliar situation or experience. I hope that helps. Here’s my dream… I have had this dream more than once. I find myself at the house of a man that I’ve always found attractive. I have been with him or on the phone with him or waiting for him. The downstairs is a mess. Dark red brick from the fireplace is broken and all over the floor. On either side of the doorway into the kitchen there are 2 neat stacks of colorfully wrapped gifts. I spend a great deal of time going through the house as if I am looking for him and I never find him. I was with him only in the first dream. I have never been formally introduced to this man. I am married to someone else. I just don’t get it. It’s like I’m familiar with the inside of the house and I’ve never entered it. Please respond! Dear Dreamer, You may not like the answer, as it does not look good for the possibility of a relationship with this individual. Looking for the man but not finding him might suggest that the likelihood of getting together is not very realistic. Being familiar with the house but never having entered it could correspond with your fantasies of this man and his life. The messy house could indicate that he is not as suitable as you have imagined him to be or it might show the need to put your own house in order. The two beautiful unwrapped gifts may, in all likelihood, correspond to two beautiful gifts you have in your own life that have perhaps been neglected (e.g. children). If you still think you have a possible future together, ask specifically for a dream on your relationship with this individual and see what happens. All the best to you. Here’s my dream… Please help me. I dreamt that I got a new bed and stove. At first, I thought I had left the mattress out in the rain but I did not. I was told not to put the stove together because it could catch a fire. [In real life I had an old mattress and stove and then I got new ones.] I awoke feeling it was about a relationship. Thank you in advance. Dear Dreamer, The Edgar Cayce information suggests that dreams often contrast and correlate the events of the day. With this in mind, your dream is suggestive of making new changes in your life – symbolic of the new mattress and stove that you have just purchased. As you surmised, the dream is probably suggesting you are (or will be) making changes in your relationship life, as well. A mattress can be symbolic of an intimate relationship or sexuality and a stove can represent the home and family, personal nurturing or it might represent repressed feelings and emotions that can ignite or erupt. Leaving the mattress out in the rain might be suggestive of some kind of overwhelming emotional experience that you thought could have ended or ruined your relationship but the dream is suggesting it did not. The fact that you are hesitant to put the stove together because of the possibility of fire could indicate a cautionary feeling on your part in terms of following through on some kind of new life or new relationship situation because of a concern related to anger, aggression or volatility. I hope that helps. Here’s my dream… I’ve had a recurring dream for years about a house by a river that feels like home to me but each time I go there something is different and new. Sometimes the house is in disarray and cluttered, sometimes I find new rooms filled with things I haven’t seen before, it’s almost like treasure hunting. Sometimes my Mother is there (she’s deceased) and sometimes the house is scary. It’s always varied but I love going there. Does this just reflect my life? I’ve always been curious about it! Dear Dreamer, Oftentimes a house in a dream can be symbolic of an individual’s state of consciousness, his or her current life situation or even some aspect of the person’s physical body. When the house is in disarray and cluttered, it could correspond to a feeling of things being disorganized in your daily life. The appearance of new rooms in the house can correspond to new talents, abilities or discovering aspects of self that you may not have had to rely upon before. The appearance of your mother might be indicative of the watchful eye of your own Higher Self. The house being scary could be associated with different things that you may not want to face and so forth. Overall, a house in a dream generally corresponds to activities, thoughts, or feelings that are occurring in waking life. Here’s my dream… I am an architect and I have had a recurring dream for years. I am in a large, older building, possibly a mansion or some kind of institutional building. The place usually varies but I am always in the stairwell. Sometimes I am going up, sometimes down, but I am always looking for a way out of the building. I am not scared, just concerned that I need to find a way out. The stairs are all different, some steep, some with no handrails; some actually turn into steep ramps at times. Sometimes, I climb over the handrails to get to levels that have handrails, because I am afraid that if I use the stairs without handrails, I will fall. I open doors at each level, but can not seem to find a way out, because I somehow know that if I leave the stairwell, I will not find my way back. There are other people around, but I don’t know who they are, and they don’t seem concerned with me. I have never been able to find a way out of the building. I just keep searching. This time was different, I opened one of the doors and I was in a library. I decided to ask the librarian which stairwell was the one that led out. She directed me to the wrong door, and I said “No”, and found the correct one myself. As I turned to the door, I saw my Grandmother, who currently has bone cancer. She looked at me asked me for some salad dressing? Then she told me that she loved me. That was the end of the dream. Dear Dreamer, Since you are an architect and associate houses with your job, a major possibility related to these dreams is that part of your really wants to do something else with your life but you either don’t know what or you don’t know how to get out of your present entanglements (e.g. bills, obligations, etc.). Being afraid to use the stairs without handrails suggests that even when you see a way out, you are concerned that it is not a “safe” approach without some financial problems or probable pitfalls and so forth. Certainly a library can be the search for more information. In this dream, your Grandmother can be a symbol of someone who has a condition that is “eating her up.” If you are, in fact, unhappy with your job, then your Grandmother makes an appropriate symbol for the psychological experience that is occurring within you. Asking for salad dressing can correspond to not dealing with the problem and just trying to cover it up with life’s normal activities. The dream is also suggesting that no matter what you do, your family will still love you. If you are not having frustrations with your job or life’s direction, then the dream is suggesting that there is some other situation in life that you are trying to get out of because you don’t know how to deal with it. I hope this helps. Here’s my dream… I look out the window of my house and find that it is no longer in it’s usual location but is now in the middle of a construction site with large machines and no trees in sight. I am very confused and keep asking how this could happen. This dream recurred three times so far. Dear Dreamer, Houses can often be associated with one’s current life situation or experience or they might correspond to the activity within one’s physical body. From the description of your dream, it suggests that you are either considering or in the process or considering doing something different in life: a new job, a change of locations, a change in your relationship, etc. My sense is that the house is “under construction” because you have only been considering these changes on a mental level and have not yet fully followed through on whatever change(s) you are planning to make. Here’s my dream… This past year I’ve had many dreams about flooded houses as well as ceilings leaking water. Sometimes I’m looking at the house after the flood and seeing the damage done. (The houses are almost always empty of furniture, etc.) Other times I’m in the house while it’s full of water, which is never higher than my knees or waist. I don’t have the impression these are ever my own home. One time I went to sit on a bed (not my own) and discovered it was thoroughly drenched. I was worried the owner would think I was somehow responsible for it getting wet, though I knew it had to be due to a leak in the ceiling or wall. One time I was looking out a window in a house on a mountaintop and saw water gushing out of the heavens and rapidly filling the valleys below. I ran inside to pack up some food and move to a higher floor in the house before the water level rose further. Thanks for any insight you can give me. Dear Dreamer, Houses are often symbolic of our present circumstance or situations. Sometimes they can also represent our personalities or our physical body. Leaky water is generally a symbol of some type of overwhelming emotional experience that is trying to break through. Ceilings are often related to thoughts and ideas. The way you’ve described your dreams, it appears as though something really emotional (or something about which you are vulnerable or extremely sensitive) is occurring in your life. OR, you may inadvertently be causing someone in your surroundings some kind of emotional situation. Overall, the dreams seem to indicate that someone either is or needs to be having an emotional release about some situation going on in her or his life – At home? At work? At school? Here’s my dream… I have been having recurrent dreams where I am lost. I know that “home” is close but cannot seem to make my way to it. I feel extremely frustrated. In these dreams, I am at different places. It is never the same situation but the same theme of lost and frustrated and almost hopeless. Thank you! Dear Dreamer, The dream might mirror the feeling of being “lost” or “frustrated” or “hopeless” in some other area of your life. In other words, if you are in what appears to be a hopeless situation or feel somehow lost or disconnected from your job or a relationship, this dream might simply be reflecting what is occurring. If any of this is applicable to what is occurring in your life, you might want to investigate some of the Cayce-related book titles or programs that could help you address the situation (ARECatalog.com). Another possibility is to write out the question, “What can I do about __________?” before going to sleep and dream on the question. The dream you have might give you insights into how you can solve whatever issue is occurring in your life. Here’s my dream… Hi. Lately I’ve had repeated dreams involving stairs. In the dreams I’m falling, sliding, or riding up and down the steps as if on a roller coaster…sometimes alone, sometimes not. I’m usually going down the stairs (against my will) and I’ve awoken feeling concerned and a bit worried. Also (and I don’t know if this is related) I’ve been dreaming that I’m selling my house, only to move into a bigger, empty house that I really don’t like and only wish to move back to my old house with the beautiful views. Thanks in advance for your advice. Can’t get those stairs out of my mind. Dear Dreamer, Life itself is often described as being on a roller coaster. Going down the stairs in a dream can symbolize such things as being demoted, becoming involved with issues that have been repressed, or even feeling like you are really having to deal with the people and events in your life rather than simply living in the world of your thoughts. (In a dream, being in the upper levels of a house can correspond to thoughts and ideas.) Getting a bigger house could correspond to taking on more responsibility, expanding your horizons, moving beyond your level of control and comfort, etc. Overall, I think the dreams are suggesting that events in your life may be prompting you to expand your level of comfort, move beyond the structure and parameters you may have set for your life, and become aware that there is much more you are being called to do then you may have thought you desired or were comfortable with. Here’s my dream… My dream was about me trying to get in touch with a former landlord, telling him that there was a man in my apartment that I didn’t care for. Apparently, this was something the landlord said was okay. I tried desperately to dial the landlord’s number, but kept getting the number wrong. I finally had to have someone else dial it for me. In general the dream suggests that there is something going on in your present situation or living environment (apartment) that you don’t feel comfortable with or don’t really know how to deal with. In an attempt to figure out how to handle this situation, you are looking for aid from your higher self (landlord of your apartment) but have been unable to discover or understand just what the situation is all about (problems with the phone/communication). Continually getting the number wrong and asking for someone else’s help to dial may suggest that you may need outside help in coming to terms with or understanding how to deal with whatever is occurring in your life that you may be trying to avoid. Here’s my dream… I had a dream I was hired to work at a hardware store and that my job was to go to houses and fix problems they couldn’t. I had a trainer that went with me, and I caught on fast. I’m thinking houses mean our consciousness and that I am going to help people do this with the help of a person or spiritual guide? Dear Dreamer, Certainly your idea is a possibility. Houses can also represent one’s current situation, one’s physical body, or an overall activity with which the individual is involved (e.g. work, raising a family, etc.). Since we most often dream for ourselves, this type of a dream might be suggesting the possibility that the dreamer could use some assistance getting her/his own house in order. As you’ve already suggested, the dream could also be about helping others fix their problems and/or serving as some type of a psychological/ spiritual (or even health) adviser. This might sound funny but another thing to keep in mind is that “houses” in dreams can literally be houses and therefore the dream could have something to do with the need for and/or a future in home inspection. Here’s my dream… I recently moved and am not sure I made the right decision. I found out yesterday I may have to chance of moving back to a similar place soon. Cost is not involved. Last night I had two dreams. In one I was with my parents and sister in a new home – everything was right – there were clean curtains at the windows that were the right length and fitted with the decor. I remember going into the garden with my sister and saying that this was a nice place and that it had a nice feeling to it – it feels good. I was not sure if that could relate to where I am or where I could be! I had another dream about my camera. I was in a car full of people and remembered I had left my camera at home and asked if they wouldn’t mind if we went to fetch it. They did not mind and took me home. My father was curled up looking pitiful asleep on a chair. I got my camera and then lowered it through a square opening and threw it down to the level below. I was a first worried that that action might damage the lens but it rolled quietly and was fine. I decided not to follow the camera through the opening. Dear Dreamer, Since you have been wondering about whether you made the right decision, the first dream seems to suggest that you are presently in “a nice place” that has a “nice feeling to it.” Unless another move would place you closer to your parents or your family, it seems like where you are right now is your new “home.” In the second dream, being in a car with a bunch of people and then going to fetch your camera where your father is, could suggest that you might have the tendency of living and thinking about the past (camera = past memories/experiences). Not following the camera through the opening could be the act of consciously deciding to not following through on the tendency to always reflect on the past. Here’s my dream… I was standing at a kitchen sink full of dirty dishes and a bug dropped down from the faucet. I looked closely and it was a grasshopper. I had at first thought it was a centipede. The grasshopper was upside down kicking in the sink. The dream may be suggesting that there are dirty dishes and things that do not belong there clogging up the plumbing in your house. In other words, the dream might be suggesting problems with improper diet and resulting poor eliminations. If these things are not occurring in your life, it may be suggesting that you have too many half-finished activities going on in your life (dirty dishes) and that the stress of your pent-up emotions (clogged sink) is really beginning to “bug” you. Here’s my dream… I dreamed that I was walking in my house and discovering all kinds of doors that I didn’t know were there. I seemed pleased with the discovery, but I didn’t know what was behind any of them. Dear Dreamer, Oftentimes a house can represent aspects of an individual, his or her personality, body, or even a current situation. One possibility suggested by the dream is that whatever is going on in your life right now is providing you with the opportunity to see aspects of yourself (your talents and abilities) that you didn’t even know existed. It suggests that your life events are enabling you to grow and expand as an individual and that there is more to you than you have even imagined. Here’s my dream… Here’s my dream. I am in a strange house, and I can’t move around from room to room because the hallways are all filled with furniture and boxes of stuff. I’m looking down at this from above and see that all the corridors are choked with stuff. Dear Dreamer, Oftentimes a house in a dream can represent the dreamer’s physical body or her or his current life situation. The imagery in the dream suggests that for some reason your life at this point is filled with clutter and disarray. In the dream you’re looking down from above, suggesting that your spending time in your waking thoughts trying to figure out what to do with the situation in real life.

 

 

Online Database of Past Dream Interpretations: Dreams About Running/Escaping Here’s my dream… I am happily married with a four-year-old daughter and love my husband so very much it almost hurts. About one year ago a new guy started at my place of work. We instantly became friends. Then I started dreaming of him. My first dream is of me at my place of work (a pizza parlor) with him cooking. He and I are both wearing our work clothes and nothing happens but he has this smile on his face that somewhat disturbed me. He grabs a pizza paddle and swings it around and smiles at me one more time then disappears. I then see my husband (who also works there) standing behind where my co-worker was and he is also smiling a strange smile. Then another co-worker who hasn’t worked their in two years shows up and tells me I have to work that day for her and if I don’t I will get fired. I wake up right after that feeling frustrated and the rest of the day seems chaotic to me. What does this mean? My second dream involves the same co-worker. Me and some old friends of mine from another town are sitting on the back of a lake by an old library. My co-worker comes and stands next to me and a friend of mine. He asks if we are ready to go and we say yes. It then flashes to us standing in the street and it’s raining however there is snow all around us like six feet. We are all wearing heavy jackets but I’m not wearing any pants just a long t-shirt and sandals. This co-worker wraps his arm around me and pulls me close to him and we start off to his house. My friend says, “You know she’s married right?” And the co-worker gets this strange smile and says yes. We travel down this path that is still surrounded by snow to jakes house. We step inside the door and there is a couch and table and large living room area. My co-worker calls him mom and she comes in and serves us drinks (white Russians) we drink them and my friend disappears. Then the co-worker and I sit on the couch together him with his arm around me and me lying on his shoulder. Then his sisters (of which in reality he has none) come in and say. “Ooooooh, you know she’s married right? And he smiles that strange smile again and says yes. I feel so comfortable during this dream and safe and warm and happy. I don’t want it to end. I wake up to hear my husband calling to me to get up for work. Please interpret these dreams they are driving me crazy. Just briefly, the dreams are suggesting that you may have become so relaxed, comfortable, and friendly around your co-worker that he may be perceiving that there is an opportunity for a relationship between the two of you. [In spite of you suggesting that there is not.] You may need to reevaluate your playfulness with this individual without hurting your friendship because it is possible you are giving him the wrong impression. Being “safe and warm and happy” with a member of the opposite sex can easily be seen as entailing more than mere friendship. I hope this helps. Here’s my dream… I’ve dreamt that I’m horribly raped tortured and killed, and when I wake up I can feel physical pain and have panic attacks, crying, etc. I’m no longer sleeping because they’ve gotten so bad and I’m desperate to make it go away. Nothing bad is happening in my life at all but my health is going to hell from lack of sleep. I’m having a hard time closing my eyes – horrible things lie behind them. What does it mean? No one specific is hurting me in the dreams…I don’t even know who it is; half the time I can’t see the person and I cant stop shaking even when I’m awake. The dreams all suggest there is some kind of fear or trauma in your life that part of you really doesn’t want to have to deal with. That trauma may include being controlled, manipulated or even abused. If this trauma is connected to early issues from your childhood, then it is probably being set-off or reawakened due to events in your waking life, right now, in which you are also feeling controlled. If the trauma is exclusively about the present, then it suggests that you may be seriously harming yourself by remaining in the situation. If you continue to have this experience, you may need to see a talented regression hypnotherapist or a psychologist for help with the issue. Good luck to you. Here’s my dream… I had a dream the other night that really bothered me. I dreamed that my husband was sexually abusing my little boy. In my dream, my current husband was my ex-husband (biological father, whom we haven’t seen in years). In the dream, I know my son is being sexually abused even though I don’t actually see the act. Also, I am trying to get to him, and for some reason I am outside at night going through obstacles like grass or weeds that are harmful if I touch them. What does this mean? There a many possible interpretations, ranging from the horror of literal sexual abuse to simply ongoing communication disagreements between yourself and your husband regarding your son’s welfare and upbringing. The dream might also indicate concern on your part if your son seems closer to his adopted father than he does to you – a situation that would appear totally “inappropriate” to a biological parent. Since dreams often reflect an emotional feeling that we have experienced in waking life, ask yourself if there are issues between you and your husband that cause you a great deal of concern for your son. Abuse that is not seen can also be associated with emotional abuse. Walking through grass or weeds that are harmful might be symbolic of one’s own life path that is fraught with arguments or problems that occur whenever you point out something that doesn’t seem right to you. The fact that your current husband is being portrayed as your ex-husband might also suggest that there is an issue that is occurring in your second marriage that is similar to something that transpired in your first. If there are ongoing problems in your relationship regarding your son, then family counseling might be called for. Here’s my dream… I am talking to my ex-husband (who tried to murder me in real life) I am trying to be nice to him so that he will go away. As soon as I think its safe I get in my car to get away from him. I am driving in a forest and it is difficult because there are many branches in the way. He sees me leave and is right behind me. I am very fearful. Then I am on a street in my hometown and he is still chasing me. Suddenly I stop and go in the opposite direction to go to the police station. I run into him and say, “You are just as bad as Ted Bundy.” He replies, “Ted Bundy wasn’t as smart as me.” I start to try to get around him but realize it is useless because he will still get me as soon as I get out of my car. If the dream is metaphorical, it may be suggesting that it has been extremely difficult for you to turn loose of your ex-husband. This difficulty might be because of emotional issues, the presence of children or perhaps even financial matters. In this case, the dream could be suggesting the challenges of getting on with your life. Note how even the branches of trees, which can be symbolic of confusion, are getting in the way of you and your direction. At the same time, if the dream is literal, the dream could be indicating the need for real caution when dealing with this situation – do not become unprotected and vulnerable (e.g. leaving your car). In either event, I think that the dream is suggesting that you need outside help and perhaps even counseling in trying to deal with this situation. Good luck to you. Here’s my dream… In the dream I am running away from something, which always follows me. Wherever I go it follows me, and I have this mind-numbing fear of what it would do to me if it caught up with me, so I can’t even face it. I just run – different places, places I’ve been to and places I’ve never been to before in my life and it’s always there. After much ado, finally a close friend meets up with me, and teaches me to fly; she doesn’t teach me as much as she’s just and I know I can fly and I’m not afraid anymore. We zoom around the skies to distant areas and I finally face the thing I was afraid of and though it can fly too. I defeat it and then all of a sudden I fall to the ground, broken. Then I get up. What does this mean? Essentially this recurring dream suggests that there is some type of conflict or challenge in your waking life that you have perhaps tried repeatedly to avoid. The conflict might be at work, at home, in a personal relationship, or perhaps even within yourself. The dream is suggesting that in spite of the fact you have resisted this conflict previously, you may now be ready to deal with it. Your friend in the dream could literally represent your friend or the image might represent some aspect of self. In either case, this image may suggest that there is something about the way in which your friend might handle a conflict or challenge that could be helpful for you to approach in the same manner. In other words, you might decide to ask yourself, “How would my friend deal with this issue?” The fact that you can fly indicates that you can overcome the situation. The fact that you fall to the ground broken could indicate that even when you successfully overcome whatever situation is currently bothering you, in all likelihood there will still be more things to face and learn from, for that is life. The bottom line is that you have what you need within yourself to deal with any situation. Here’s my dream… I have a dream at least once a month that I kill a lot of people. I’m usually a government secret agent type as opposed to a criminal murderer type. I almost always respond to someone there after the killings that it’s my job and the dead people basically deserved it. I feel no remorse for the deaths even though I’ve killed dozens of people. The strange thing is, I don’t own or ever plan on owning a gun, but in my dreams I know everything about combat, guns, and covert operations. Depending upon your personality in waking life, the dreams could be suggesting at least a couple of possibilities. On one hand, there could be a great deal of frustration and animosity that is being suppressed during the day. For example, not feeling like you are able to speak up for yourself at home or at work. That frustration is manifesting itself outwardly in dreams as a “super government agent” that is able to deal with problematic personalities. The fact that this is a government agent suggests that the frustration could have something to do with a bureaucracy of some kind at work. On the other hand, if you are very self-assured and confident, the dreams could be showing you how you are inadvertently running over and taking complete control of others without any apparent remorse. In any event, the dreams may simply be connected to your response behaviors to others at work. Here’s my dream… I am really having a horrible time sleeping. I generally sleep soundly but for the past few days I have been having a dream that a person is coming to my house and coming near me while I am sleeping and taking his knife with the intention of killing me. I want to avoid it so I shout for help but unfortunately I am unable to utter any word. I don’t know why I am unable to shout. Then I wake up from the dream and shout very loudly. All my friends sleeping near me become fearful because of my screams. This dream is really affecting me psychologically. Please help! Oftentimes, in a dream being threatened by an individual can correspond to being afraid to deal with issues in the dreamer’s waking life. In other words, if there are challenges at work, at home, or in your personal life that you are having a hard time facing or that you are trying to ignore, those “threats” can manifest in a dream as someone trying to harm you. Not being able to speak might correspond to the fact that you don’t feel like you can speak up for yourself. Conversely, not being able to “speak” might also suggest that this is not really a dream but instead an “out of body” experience. As unusual as it may sound, the Cayce material suggests that sometimes when we sleep we leave our bodies and have no physical control over the body because we are not in it. In other words, lots of individuals have experienced what can be called “sleep paralysis” in which they become conscious but are unable to move or speak. Sometimes this process moves to the next level in which the individual becomes conscious of a threatening presence or even hands trying to touch him or her. Most often, this experience occurs when an individual is exhausted and not getting enough sleep. In order to deal with the experience when it is happening, try each of the following: begin to work with prayer and surround yourself with protection, focus your consciousness on your forehead, and repeatedly attempt to move your fingers. Rest assured that if this is actually an “out of body” experience, it is a common occurrence and you are not under any real threat. Here’s my dream… I had a somewhat disturbing dream last night. I was with a bunch of people in a school-type setting, and they decided that we were to be executed. We were lined up to be shot in the head. There were several people before me who were killed this way and I was about to be executed. The gun was put to my head but somehow they were stopped before they could shoot me. However, I whoever was executing us told me that I was to be executed the next day. I was waiting for my turn to be executed. I was scared but thought that I could not do anything about it so I was waiting, accepting my fate. However, no one came to get me, and the dream ended with me thinking that I was going to live after all. The dream is suggestive of some type of worry or fear that may be occurring in your life. For example, if there have been cut-backs at work in which individuals have been laid off and you are constantly worrying about whether or not you will be next, this type of dream would be appropriate. Overall, the dream may be suggesting that whatever it is you are worrying about related to some kind of group endeavor (work? family? etc.) may be unnecessary because everything may end up being okay after all. Here’s my dream… I’m a 19-year-old male. Currently living far away from home. I keep having this recurring dream. I am in my hometown at my friend’s beachside house. Everybody seems to be enjoying themselves. Suddenly, a panic seems to be stirring in my friend’s family. I overhear them talking about some evil way to kill me and eat me. When I overhear this I run away from the house to the neighbor’s house: two upper-middle class people I have never met before. When I do this, my friend’s family freaks out and chases me. As soon as I approach the house I see the neighbors eating dinner. I pound on the windows and they invite me in. My friend’s family quits pursuing and goes on about their business. This dream has happened almost every night for the past month. Please help. There are numerous possibilities associated with your dream. One likely possibility is that the friends and associates with whom you are currently involved with in waking life may be somewhat of a negative influence on you, perhaps even tempting you to do things that are somehow “eating you up” inside or proving dangerous to your life and your intended direction. You may have spent too much time partying and taking it easy and the time has come to get serious about life. If this is the case, then part of your mind knows that you are in danger of losing yourself and that you need to find a safe environment in which you will have some measure of protection (a stable home? your own family’s home? your hometown? etc.). In any event, the dream seems to be encouraging you to take stock of what is really important to you in life and to find the place where you really belong, in which you can become what you were truly meant to be. I hope that helps. Here’s my dream… I was injured eleven years ago rendering me a quadriplegic. I was placed, at age 38, in a nursing home. Two dreams haunt me today. The first: I am running for my life, I can feel my pursuer’s breath on my neck. I am chased trough halls and offices, college campuses. All these places are in my past experiences. First, I ran, now I don’t. The second dream is that I am floating through houses. There are no people, no children, just empty neighborhoods that I know, some I don’t. Lately, my children, now young adults, are living in my house (I think it is). I’m cleaning and walking like I used to do when they were small. I hold a psychology degree and most of this is a mystery to me. Could you help? The first dream of running from a pursuer is undoubtedly connected to trying to escape some aspect of your life or your surroundings. Generally, a dream of this type occurs whenever an individual is trying to escape something (oftentimes related to one’s self) that he or she does not know how to deal with effectively or would rather not deal with. The second dream of floating through empty houses is suggestive of spending a great deal of time living in one’s thoughts – visiting places and images from the past. Since the body is crippled and not the Self, it is quite normal to perceive yourself as able to move around as you did in the past. If the dreams are reoccurring even now, they may suggest that you are still trying to figure out how to use your talents and abilities in spite of the quadriplegia. If this is the case, I encourage you to find someone that you can talk with about your goals and/or a support group that can understand your situation and how to work through it. Here’s my dream… I had a dream that I was overlooking a bridge and on this bridge it was jammed with people. The bridge was in the state of Maryland (where I have never been). The state of Maryland has just surrendered to the Iraq army, and I was very mad at the people in the state of Maryland. There were Iraq soldiers on the bridge keeping the people from Maryland in line. One possibility suggested by the dream is that you may be seeking some way out of a current situation that seems to be challenging or you may be looking for some kind of a “bridge” to get you from where you are to where you want to be. The “state” where you have never been could represent a situation that is unusual for you or something unique in your life. The army surrounding the state could symbolize the conflict or antagonism that is facing you at work, at home, or in another situation. The people being “kept in line” could indicate the control or state of siege that is overriding the situation. Here’s my dream… I have been having some strange dreams for one or two months. I have been dreaming that I’m fighting some sort of evil every night during this time period. I used to occasionally remember dreams, but it seems that I remember them nightly now and they frighten me. As I’m dreaming, I’ll think that I’ve had the dream before. As I wake up, I’ll remember that I’ve had the dream before, but I couldn’t bring up these dreams on my own from my consciousness. Can you tell me what this means? I can’t remember specifics right now, but all of the dreams have the same theme: that I’m protecting someone I love from something evil. I would appreciate you help. The dreams suggest that you have been having some sort of conflict within yourself for the last one or two months. The conflict (e.g. fighting with evil) may be external and deal with another person about whom you are concerned or it might be internal and deal with some sort of indecision within yourself. The fact that the dream theme often repeats itself suggests that this conflict has been occurring for some time. The fact that you can’t really remember the dreams upon awakening might indicate that – although you are aware of this struggle – you may not really want to have to deal with it. Protecting someone you love from evil can be a symbolic representation of temptation. Therefore, one possibility is that part of you might be tempted to do something that another part of you is fighting against. If it is an external situation, the struggle might be one in which you are preventing yourself from forcing another person to do what you think is best for them even though it appears that the other person is making a mistake about something. The overall sense is some type of conflict. Here’s my dream… In August, my uncle was fatally stabbed by his daughter’s boyfriend at 2:30 a.m. Two weeks later to the day I had a dream that I woke up, looked at the clock and it was 2:30 in the morning. I was uneasy so I grabbed my butcher knife from under my mattress and walked into the living room. I noticed that there were two bath size towels in front of the sofa spread out flat. I instantly knew that someone had been in there. So I called the police. A policeman came and said no one was there. As I opened the front door to let him out I saw a man running down the stairs that I knew. I chased him trying to stab him but in turn he took the knife from me and stabbed me in my stomach. I could feel myself dying but there was no blood anywhere. I gained strength and was able to stab him with the knife and kill him. The police came to get me in their patrol car and I noticed television cameras outside the car window. I was dying but the blood was all inside. They took me back to my apartment and the dream ended. This dream has had me disturbed so much. It is step by step almost identical to the events leading up to my uncle’s death. He too got out of bed to answer the front door; it was early morning. He was killed by someone he knew; the incident made the news. There are just so many coincidental things in this dream. Please tell me what it means? Let’s examine at least two possibilities. The most likely possibility is connected to the fact that oftentimes the mind will use real external events or situations as a symbolic metaphor for something going on in the dreamer’s own life. With this in mind, it could suggest that part of you may feel like you are being “killed” by something in your own environment over which you don’t seem to have any control. In other words, perhaps you may feel like you are being stifled at work, or continually suppressed or criticized in a relationship, or continually being beaten down by your own thoughts about your challenges and problems. Whatever the situation, the first possibility may be that you are feeling destroyed by something going on in your life. If this is the case, then the dream suggests that part of the reason this has been so challenging for you is that you are keeping all of your feelings pent up in side (bleeding internally) and that you really need to talk to someone. The second possibility is that sometimes when we are emotionally connected or empathetic towards others, it is possible to experience what they are going through in the dream state. If this is the case, then it could be that you are so empathizing with your uncle that you actually experienced what he went through in an effort to try and understand it. Here’s my dream… I am going to begin studying for the MA at Atlantic University and am very excited about it. In my waking life I do not feel as if I am doing my life’s work. Last night, I dreamed I was with a man and a woman and we were either escaping from prison or trying to avoid getting caught, though I am not sure what we did wrong. There was a third woman who was helping us and she had an old car (get away car) for us to use. The car was very loud, and I had to get a few things and the man and woman were waiting in the car for me. I was frustrated because I couldn’t get the things I needed and I was afraid they would leave without me. I finally returned to the car, which was still running but now the man and woman were not there. The woman helping us escape (she sort of looked like a waitress as she was in a uniform) said they had to go get something. I waiting on the passenger side of the car for them but they didn’t come. So I got out and went to look for them. I was going up and down streets looking for them (it was night time in my dream), but I couldn’t find them so I returned to the car, which was still running. The woman helping us said maybe the cops got them and that I should just take the car and go alone. I got behind the wheel and I was so afraid of going alone (it was a strong feeling of fear), in my mind I thought maybe I should just turn myself in also because I was so afraid of going alone. Then I woke up. What could this dream mean? Obviously the dream suggests that part of you wants to escape or run away from something but you are not clear how to do it. The fact that the dream imagery shows you don’t want to get caught and you don’t want to go alone may suggest that you have been thinking of making some major changes to your life (work, relationships, etc.) but you haven’t necessarily told anyone else nor do you yet feel comfortable enough to make those changes on your own. The imagery of the car constantly running can indicate the fact that you are all revved up to go, but you haven’t yet put your actions into “drive.” Not getting the things you need and being hesitant to leave without them suggests that you may feel the need to obtain certain goals before you move forward with your plans. The cops may represent your sense of authority or your own higher self. The waitress can be a play on words for the act of “waiting.” Overall, I think the dream suggests an inner struggle between wanting to make big changes in your life right now versus trying to make those changes in a well-thought-out, responsible manner. All of the various characters in the dream can represent the various parts of your personality that are struggling over this issue. Here’s my dream… As a boy I had continuous dreams in which I could not run as fast as I know I could. I seemed to have some kind of paralysis of my leg muscles as if everything was put into slow motion. Not only was it while I was running but crawling…and I was always trying to get away from something. Oftentimes dreams of running away from someone or something correspond with trying to avoid or not have to deal with something in the dreamer’s present situation. Having paralysis in the leg muscles could again suggest the fact that this is something that the dreamer cannot avoid. It might also be indicative of the fact that the dreamer cannot get away from the issue because it is within him or her self. Dreams like this often suggest the dreamer needs to finally decide to face something and deal with it directly, whether it is within self or within her or his surroundings. Here’s my dream… I am constantly having dreams that I am running, trying to get away and hide from bad people (robbers), wild animals, people with special powers etc. And when I wake up I am exhausted. Could you help me understand this? Most often dreams that involve running away from someone or something are suggestive of the dreamer trying to avoid, ignore, or get away from some situation or experience in her or his life. Very often this situation can have something to do with the dreamer trying to “run away from” something within him or her self. On other occasion, it can be suggestive of the dreamer’s inability to speak up for him or herself in regards to some situation that is occurring in waking life. The next time the dream occurs, take stock of your feelings and experiences going on in your life at that time. See if you can discover what you are trying to overlook or ignore in regards to yourself and/or what you may be trying to run from in waking life. The dream suggests that the time has come to try and begin dealing with the situation/issue directly.

 

 

Online Database of Past Dream Interpretations: Dreams About Transportation

Here’s my dream…

It starts out me driving in the country there isn’t much around and it’s starting to get dark out. I’m not concerned about my location or the time although I have no idea where I’m at. After a while on the country road I end up with nowhere to go but on some train tracks. They quickly take me over a large body of water and therefore I have no way to get off the tracks safely. I’m too scared to back down the tracks cause I’m already to far down them and it’s very dark behind me and way to dangerous to drive across in reverse. On the other hand I’m worried that up ahead there will be a huge speeding train that’s gonna slam into me. Finally I see a guardrail going down and i realize that there has got to be a crossing that I can escape too. I have to leave the car on the tracks but I’m able to get out in one piece. When I finally get on the land there are people around me but none that I know. I start asking people for directions to the interstate. I really don’t have a clue where I’m at or how to backtrack since I had to get off the road i drove in on. When I question the people in the country about how to get to the interstate they look a me like I’ve lost my mind and can’t help me find my way back home. Please help me to determine the meaning of this dream! Usually when I awake from it I’m very upset and even telling people about it makes me emotional.

Dear Dreamer, Essentially, the dream is simply about you wondering what it is you should be doing in life. You feel lost in the dream because part of you may feel lost in terms of your personal direction. Being too far down the tracks and worried about making a change in direction may indicate that part of you feels as if you have pursued a career or an educational path for such a long time that it is too late to change. The approaching train is some sense of impending danger (e.g. a layoff or a breakdown). Overall, the dream is encouraging you to do something else with you life. The fact that you are surrounded by people you don’t really know and can’t seem to help you might indicate that you need outside help, such as the book Discovering Your Soul’s Purpose, by Mark Thurston.

Here’s my dream…

I have a boyfriend and he and I have been seeing each other for about 1 year and 3 months. Last night, I had a dream that he had a car accident in a black truck which he doesn’t have and I saw his dead body and the wrecked truck his body was half way in the ground and he was dead. I am really disturbed. I cried in the dream and when I woke up.

Dear Dreamer, Rather than a being a literal dream about your boyfriend’s death, the dream is more likely metaphorical. Black can be associated with “death” or the end of something. A vehicle, such as a truck, can be connected with an individual’s personal direction. With this in mind, if the dream is simply ABOUT your boyfriend, it could suggest that whatever goal he had about his life has ended/changed and become something else. If the dream is about YOUR relationship, the dream could suggest that one or both of you is having second thoughts about your future together. I hope that helps.

Here’s my dream…

I am a 40-year-old happily married lady with a very supportive and loving family. My husband has requested that I seek help for a reoccurring dream that I have not shared with anyone, due to my fears of the dream. It continues to waken me nightly, then causing my husband to awaken. I am parking a car and when I get out of the vehicle I am taken by surprise and a hand is around my throat. The person has me against a brick wall and begins beating me till I can no longer breathe. When I awaken suddenly, I feel as if I can still feel the pain. I have been prescribed Lunesta/ Sonata and Ambien, due to exhaustion and I really detest taking medications. Yet even though my husband has witnessed me taken the medicines to help me sleep, I STILL WAKE UP and still have the dream. I am tired and would love to sleep through one night. Thank you for any help you can offer.

Dear Dreamer, Obviously, if the dream is literal, it is suggesting some kind of precognitive warning, encouraging you to be careful and wary in a possible future situation. However, it is much more likely that the dream is metaphorical and has to do with your career and/or personal assessment of your life’s direction. Somehow part of you may feel trapped, stifled or even having the life choked out of you in terms of fulfilling what it is you really want to do with your life. If this sounds like what is happening to you, let me suggest the DVD Discovering Your Mission in Life. In any event, you may feel “trapped” in terms of your creativity/career/or fulfilling what your soul really hopes to accomplish in life.

Here’s my dream…

I am constantly ‘lost’ in a parking lot mostly, looking for my car, no matter what I do, I can’t find it and I panic. I have had a similar dream where I am at my old job, and can’t find my locker. I worked there for twenty years and had to go out on medical leave because of damage to my health from the chemicals. I have been fighting them for two years now trying to be able to work in the areas where there are relatively no chemicals. I don’t know if this has anything to do with it or not but thought I should say. I have been unable to find other work.

Dear Dreamer, The dreams are definitely about your inability to find work. More importantly, they suggest that you have been unable to discover your direction at this point in life. Oftentimes, a car can be symbolic of your mission in life or your life’s direction. With this in mind, let me recommend that you consider reading the book Discovering Your Soul’s Purpose, by Mark Thurston, or the DVD Discovering Your Mission in Life.

Here’s my dream…

Please help me. I have submitted this dream before. My sister and my mother have visited your Virginia Beach headquarters, and my mom spoke highly of her visit before she died. I have had recurring dreams that I believe are the keys to my present/future. In one of those, I park my car in a parking lot. The parking lot is on Stony Brook campus or at a mall. When I exit the mall, my car is missing. I am always certain of where I left it. Now when I return to my car and it’s missing, I say, “I already know, it’s not where I left it. I’m sick of this.” Once there was a new yellow VW convertible left for me as a replacement. In another dream, I am on a bus and the bus is heading west. I am sitting 2 seats away from the bus driver on the right side of the driver. I talk to a passenger. The passenger is always sitting at an angle or adjacent to me. While I am talking to the passenger, I retrieve silver coins from the creases in the seat. The passenger doesn’t know that I am retrieving the coins. Most times there is an abundance of silver coins, mostly quarters. Once I retrieve the coins, I place them in my 2 pants pockets. I retrieve as many coins as my pockets will hold. If there is not a pocket-full amount of coins in the crease, I seem surprised because there is usually an abundance of coins in the seat that I sit in. When there is not an abundance of coins, the coins are mostly dimes. The passengers are now adults and children (college bound). I never question the route or direction that the bus is headed. I seem okay with the bus driver, as he knows the route and the bus stops. Next, I go into a public bathroom to urinate. There is always blood somewhere in the bathroom. I use caution when I am urinating so that I don’t touch the blood. Sometimes there are other women in the bathroom. As I am squatting to urinate, I am able to see what’s going on in the bathroom. Now when this dream occurs, I say, “I am tired of there always being blood in these bathrooms and I tired of having to feel this way when I want to use the bathroom.” In real life, I recently earned my Master’s degree so that I will have more control over my life and my career. However, despite my being multi-talented, educated and skilled, I am not certain what I am supposed to be doing with my life. Please help this empty soul!

Dear Dreamer, The first dream about the car simply suggests that you have lost track of your “mission in life.” The fact that a replacement car was left for you, either suggests that what you are supposed to be doing is not what you are currently doing, or it suggests that life’s events have caused you to end up in an occupation where you don’t really feel you belong. The portions of the dream on a bus suggest that the next place you need to be involved with has a community of people (e.g. a bus full) and that will be a valuable and rewarding experience. If you have considered going back to college to earn a doctorate, I think the dream could be definitely telling you to do just that. Blood in the bathroom could indicate that you have been doing something (or need to eliminate something) that is draining the very life out of you. One thing you might consider is reading the book, Discovering Your Soul’s Purpose, by Mark Thurston. Good luck to you.

Here’s my dream…

I’ve had repeated dreams about ships. I understand this is a broad category and I have previously submitted these dreams before. Some dreams have to do with ships of the past, namely Titanic, while other dreams have cruise ships. Also I remember having a dream where I was on a wooden ship I believe derived from the 18th century. Perhaps most frequently I have dreams of being on ships of the armed forces, namely the Navy. Could these dreams reflect what may have been a part of my life in past lives?

Dear Dreamer, Oftentimes ships are generally symbolic of an emotional or a spiritual journey. However, a ship with another connotation would have an entirely different meaning; for example, the Titanic could be associated with a disastrous journey. In terms of past lives, it is very possible that your subconscious mind is using past-life imagery to bring to your consciousness the fact that a similar “pattern” or experience is happening to you now that once happened to you before, but the reason for the dream is connected to the present – something is happening now that is bringing these dreams to mind. Overall, the dream suggests some kind of a journey that is similar to a journey that your soul once undertook. I hope that helps.

Here’s my dream…

I live in Taiwan. I am 27 years of age and single. I have a twin sister and we are the breadwinners of our family (mother, brother, sister, and five cousins who are staying with us). My first dream was I was going to the bathroom but no matter how much I went I couldn’t stop. My second dream is that my twin sister and I were on a bus that started trembling. There is also an old lady beside us and I don’t even know and recognize her. I realized that the bus was shaking because the driver had fallen asleep, so I woke up the bus driver. When I woke him up, our trip was smooth and there was no problem anymore during our trip. Can you please interpret these?

Dear Dreamer, The first dream could suggest that there is something you want to eliminate but are having problems doing so. This could mean that there is something you want to say (perhaps to someone in your family), but don’t know how to say it. The second dream suggests that even though your current situation may seem a little “shaky” sometimes, as long as you keep your mind on your destination (e.g. getting a good job, going to school, etc.) – whatever that may be – things will work out okay for you. Good luck to you.

Here’s my dream…

What does it mean when you dream that you are driving a certain car which is a Honda Accord, either black are blue which is a 5-speed and you don’t know where you are going, you just assume that you are going out of town?

Dear Dreamer, Dreams of cars are often symbolic of the dreamer’s life direction and/or occupation. With this in mind, the dream could be indicating that you have a sense that you need to be doing something different with your life but that you’re not really certain what it is (e.g. in the dream you weren’t certain where you were going). The fact that the car is a manual transmission could indicate that you often feel that you are on your own, in terms of deciding where you need to be headed in life. The fact that the destination is out of town could either indicate that you are on the verge of a literal move, or a metaphorical interpretation could suggest that you are going to get involved in a line of work that you haven’t done previously.

Here’s my dream…

I dreamt that I won a car – a brand new red hatchback. I was excited and jumping up and down telling people about it. Please publish this on the site because I can’t find anything about winning a car on the Internet. Thanks.

Dear Dreamer, Cars can be associated with a new life direction, or sometimes they can be connected to the physical body. The color red can be symbolic of new energy, new vitality, or sexuality. With this in mind, your dream suggests that you are about to receive a new direction in life (e.g. new job opportunity). The fact that the color is red could indicate that this new direction or opportunity might be a new relationship.

Here’s my dream…

There is a dream or series of dreams that I have been having for years. I worked on the railroad as an on train employee for 42 years and a lot of the time it was long distance with a lot of time involved. I was never involved with the railroad other than at work; when I was off I did not think about it. When I retired 7 years ago almost immediately I began to have dreams about riding on the trains either in the engine or in the caboose. These dreams in the beginning were every night, even though I never went back around where I used to work or associate with the people I used to work with. The dreams have slacked off in the last year, but last night I dreamt that I was riding in the engine and getting off and on at a small town with a lot of tracks and companies and then we went to switch cars at a warehouse and I was standing there with to two fresh fish in my hands. The next thing I know I was back on the engine and this time I had a stick in my hand and was slapping the engineer that I used to work with and he was laughing. We did not always see things in the same light or get along that well. The situations are different in each dream, but the one thing is that I am always riding in the engine or in the caboose. I have wondered about this for years.

Dear Dreamer, Part of your mind associates the train with work or your life’s direction. With that in mind, whenever you have the dream it is simply suggestive of doing something with your life’s direction or perhaps getting involved with a new pursuit. Being in the caboose could be connected to being more of a “follower” in a certain situation, whereas being in the engine would symbolize “leading” whatever was going on. Your encounter with your current husband and the dream is simply portraying this thematically. Just so you know, however, oftentimes when individuals dream about an ex, the dream has some connection to the current relationship. In your case, however, I would imagine that you ex still has feelings for you.

Here’s my dream…

The last few nights I’ve been dreaming about being in an airport and trying to find my flight – getting lost in the airport, not having packed enough for the trip, and then having to take a bus in the middle of nowhere and checking to see if all my bags were with me but everything was unorganized. All I wanted to do is go home. Any input would be much appreciated.

Dear Dreamer, The two most likely possibilities are that either something is occurring in your life right now (at home, at work, in your personal relationships) in which you don’t really feel prepared, or that you have a sense of what you should be doing in your life but try as you might you have not yet been able to figure out how to get there. If it is about wondering how to fulfill your life’s mission, let me recommend the book Discovering Your Soul’s Purpose, by Mark Thurston. I hope that helps.

Here’s my dream…

This is my third request; please help! I have a recurring dream that I am in an SUV and I run over children. I seem to look up right in time to see that I am about to hit the children but it’s too late. This dream scares me and prevents me from driving an SUV. What does this mean? I am a 30-year-old single woman.

Dear Dreamer, In all likelihood the dream is simply suggesting that because of your busied life, schedule and/or work life, you may be ignoring or even endangering the things that are truly important to you. These things could literally be children or they may be projects and ideas that have long been a part of what you really want to do with you life. In any event, the dream is simply trying to tell you to slow down and focus on what is really important.

Here’s my dream…

I have strong romantic feelings for my best male friend. We’ve known each other for 25 years, our whole lives. In the dream, he’s going away for a weekend trip with his family and leaves me his car to use over the weekend. He gives me the keys and then gives me a hug, and then leaves. I drive the car all over, and like a racecar driver at that. I LOVE driving this car, and it feels exhilarating and empowering. I go home and park the car in front of my house. When I wake up the next morning, the car is gone and I’m petrified of what my friend is going to do and say.

Dear Dreamer, The dream suggests that much of your attraction to this friend is because of your attraction to the life you perceive he leads, or the direction he plans to take. In other words, you may be as much in love with what your friend hopes/wants or is doing with his life as you are in love with him. With this in mind, the dream seems to suggest that regardless of your feelings for this friend part of you really needs to discover your own mission in life. If this is the case, then let me suggest reading the book, Discovering Your Soul’s Purpose, by Mark Thurston.

Here’s my dream…

I have been having this dream about 4-5 times a week. I am in a large city. There is an ocean and hills. In my dream I know this city by heart, although I believe its one purely created in my imagination. In my dream I know all the ways in and out of traffic in the city, but inevitably I always end up getting lost. And as I become more and more lost, traffic gets worse, the streets and buildings become narrower until I find that I’m driving my car inside someone’s house. I’m totally embarrassed that I am driving in their house (actually through hallways, turning into bedrooms) and frustrated that I can’t seem to find my way…at this point the dream often changes that I’m suddenly in a large passenger airliner either just taking off or landing, and we are flying at almost ground level. Underneath power lines, following the route of interstates, just above the pavement, and their is an overwhelming concern among the passengers and myself that this isn’t safe. I’m having this dream 4-5 times a week, and I’m just wondering what it’s trying to tell me. Thanks for your help!

Dear Dreamer, The dream may be suggesting that in spite of the fact you know your way around your life (e.g. you know what you’re doing and you may even have everything organized and under control), part of you feels “lost” in terms of your real life’s direction and purpose. Being inside someone else’s house can suggest the feeling of “living someone else’s life” – in other words, just going through the motions because you are not really connected too much of what you’re doing. The large passenger airline may be connected to “ideas” you have had about what you would really like to do with your life but for some reason it just doesn’t feel “safe” to make the change. If this describes some of the thoughts that have been going through your mind, let me recommend the book, Discovering Your Soul’s Purpose, by Mark Thurston.

Here’s my dream…

I have been having the same recurring dream, which I have had at least 8 times in the past 9 months. The dream is that my truck is parked outside in my driveway and it either gets broken into and my personal things are taken, or the truck gets stolen and I try to race after it to catch it, but I am unable to as I usually wake up just after the break in or the stealing of the vehicle happens. And when this does happen, I always get up so suddenly and check my driveway to make sure my vehicle is ok. I have a hard time to fall back asleep and I am sick to my stomach with the feeling that something bad is going to happen. Any suggestions as to why I keep having this dream?

Dear Dreamer, You’ve been giving this dream a literal interpretation when it is probably symbolic. A symbolic approach suggests that your truck is a metaphor for your life’s direction or occupation. With this in mind, the dream could be indicating that you may feel like someone has taken your true calling or direction away from you, or at least somehow you are being prevented from really doing what you want to do with your life. If this is the case, let me recommend the book, Discovering Your Soul’s Purpose, by Mark Thurston. You can find the book at ARECatalog.com.

Here’s my dream…

How can someone have the same dream for 10 years? Wherever I am in the dream time, I always lose my car and can’t find it. I go back to where I park my car and it’s not there.

Dear Dreamer, We often have “memory pattern” dreams that repeatedly occur, simply to give us the same message or information. In your case, the dream is suggesting that you are often wondering about your personal life direction; in other words, “What am I supposed to be doing with my life?” If this is the case, let me recommend the book, Discovering Your Soul’s Purpose, by Mark Thurston.

Here’s my dream…

In my dream I was looking at a new car. It was an Acura and I loved it. The inside was very nice and I told the sales guy I wanted to buy it. Then it dawned on me that I don’t need a new car nor do I want one unless it is a newer version of the one I already have. I said to someone that I love my car, it’s my dream car and I canceled the order. I even told the guy in the dream, unless it’s a newer version of the one I already have, I don’t want it. I was puzzled in my dream as to why I would want a new car and why it would be something different than the one I have. (In reality, I do love my car – a VW Beetle – a and wouldn’t get a different car if I had all the money in the world, except maybe a convertible VW Beetle!) I know a car represents the physical self or journey through life. Now I’m wondering if I should have accepted the new car in the dream, hence maybe a new something in reality. Am I being offered something new that I am just too fearful of accepting?

Dear Dreamer, As you’ve suggested, a car can represent your physical body or your life’s direction. The dream imagery is suggestive of a life’s direction and may indicate that either someone else or part of your self has been stating something like, “You are not living up to your potential,” or “You need to find a better job,” or “You are not making enough money.” However, the dream is indicating that you are relatively happy with your life’s direction and really have no intention of changing it, unless, as you say, you could have a newer and improved version of what you are already doing. Overall, I think the dream is simply reassuring you that you are in the right place at this point in time regardless of what anyone else might be saying to the contrary.

Here’s my dream…

I just had a dream that I am on a plane and the next thing I know I am on the ground witnessing the plane crashing to the ground and I have to run because it is going to explode. I am safe after running. The strange thing is as the plane is crashing to the ground I say aloud that this exact plane crash was in my dreams before? I have had dreams about plane crashes but in different situations.

Dear Dreamer, A plane often symbolic of plans or ideas, suggesting that whatever you have been considering doing is not going to have the end result you are hoping for.

Here’s my dream…

I’ve submitted some dreams before but this one scares me a bit. I’m a 20-year-old female with an 18-year-old roommate. She is nice and we get along fine. Lately I have had a recurring dream about an accident involving my car and a silver car. My roommate and I are in the car going considerably fast like on a highway or interstate, and the silver car comes out from the right side as if to get across the highway on the other side and hits my car. Smashing into the car. All I hear is my roommate screaming and the sirens of police, and fire/rescue people. (Now a brief history on me.) I totaled out my silver car back in October of last year hitting something on the right side. I didn’t even know my roommate at the time. Also my dreams always come true in some way, shape, or form. I dreamed an elderly gentleman died in a car, trapped. A few weeks later my great grandfather was trapped by his seatbelt and passed on. So should I keep my roommate out of my car?? Is this my subconscious telling I am going to have another car accident? What does it all mean? And why do they come true?

Dear Dreamer, First of all, dreams can preview future events because the subconscious mind is able to access, what Edgar Cayce called the Akashic Records. (For more information on this topic, let me suggest Edgar Cayce on the Akashic Records, by Kevin Todeschi.) Secondly, a dream like this could have several likely interpretations. It may be a warning dream, suggesting the importance of watching your driving, or perhaps even giving you a preview of a literally happening for you to be forewarned about, thereby changing the outcome. It may be a metaphorical dream, suggesting that your life direction with your roommate is about to come to an end – meaning that the two of you could suddenly decide to go your separate ways. My sense is this is what the dream is actually about. In any event, I think it would be wise to become a careful, defensive driver and to perhaps begin praying for yourself, your roommate and the situation. Good luck to you.

Here’s my dream…

I have had repeating dreams on the same theme roughly once every two or three months. When I look out of the window my car has been stolen. I search through the telephone directory for the number of the police station to report the theft but can never manage to find it. The cars that are stolen and/or disappeared are usually the current ones I am driving.

Dear Dreamer, In addition to symbolizing your personal physical body, a car is often symbolic of an individual’s life’s direction or mission in life. With the second interpretation in mind, the dream suggests that in the process of reflecting upon your life (symbolized by looking out of the window) you may sometimes feel as if you have lost your direction or are no longer certain what it is you really want to do with your life. If this is the case, let me recommend the book, Discovering Your Soul’s Purpose, by Mark Thurston.

Here’s my dream…

I dreamed that I was sitting on a large camel-colored horse, which was on a boat, and we were sailing on the ocean. The boat was filled with horses and people sitting on the horses all jam-packed on the boat. We then sailed past another ship which was larger and had the same cargo (horses with people sitting on them) when I noticed that this ship we were passing was larger than the one I was on and had a huge horse but with the back of a camel all brightly adorned with red and gold blankets in the middle of the humps for the rider to sit on. However this horse/camel had no rider and I then climbed onto the bigger boat as we sailed past and climbed onto its back. The water was calm and I could see land which was very near almost as if we were coming in to dock.

Dear Dreamer, The camel-colored horse probably symbolizes your independent, life’s direction up to this time – a life direction that may have been extremely practical (e.g. suggested by the color of the horse). The other people on this boat (note: a boat can be suggestive of one’s personal spiritual journey or, again, of one’s life journey) have all been moving in the same direction. This group could be symbolic of your circle of friends, your family, or even your co-workers. Seeing the bigger boat and the more prestigious horse indicates that you will be making a change in your life’s direction that is better for you, both personally and materially. This change, however, is going to necessitate a change in some of your surroundings and/or people who are in your life. The fact that the boat is coming into dock may suggest that this change in occupations/directions is about to take place.

Here’s my dream…

I was driving a car across a bridge, the battery died about half way across the bridge and the car coasted to a stop on the other side. I got out of the car and walked under the bridge and there were a lot of boxes of groceries under the bridge, like it was a warehouse and they were being stored there. A guy I knew from high school…known for his ‘partying” came down and started taking the groceries away in a shopping cart. The river was very clear and not very deep, not quite as wide as the Mississippi River, you could see the bottom and would be able to walk across it without any trouble. My twin sister was on the bank when I turned around and then floating in the water were books. I reached down and picked one up, even though it was in the water it wasn’t wet. I opened the book and that’s when I woke up.

Dear Dreamer, Driving a car that suddenly stops halfway across a bridge suggests that some kind of potential life change has not been completed. In other words, whether it was deciding to go back to school, leaving your job for a better one, taking a new direction in life, deciding to get married, etc., part of you may have wanted to or began to undertake a new direction and yet you may have been hesitant to completely follow through on that direction. The battery dying could be symbolic of no longer having your “heart” in the idea. The reason for not completing this transition seems to be because of baggage and/or issues from the past. The party guy could symbolize an approach of taking things too easily or not seriously enough in your own life in regards to your future or in regards to this direction. The twin sister is probably symbolic of your other self – or the self you could be. The river might be the river of life or the passage of time. It could also suggest an emotional or a spiritual experience. Finally, picking up the book suggests the need on your own part for more education, more knowledge, or perhaps the suggestion of going back to school.

Here’s my dream…

My brother had an awful dream last night. As background information, my brother has a permit not a license, so occasionally I allow him to drive my car when I am with him. He asked to drive yesterday and I allowed him; we drove from my house to my mom’s house to pick up my son after I was off from work; after we picked up my son we went back to my house. Later on that night when he went home he had a dream that he was driving my car and he was going too fast and he drove the car into the water with my son in it. He said he survived but could not find my son. He didn’t mention if I was there or not. He said after that the police arrived and arrested him telling him that he sold my son into child slavery. (Yes, he has very odd dreams anytime he has one.) My son is 3-years-old by the way. Please help. This dream is really bothering him.

Dear Dreamer, In all likelihood your brother’s dream has nothing to do with either your son or with driving. In fact, the dream suggests that your brother needs to slow down in life and really think about what he is doing. Otherwise he may make a serious mistake and become a slave to something (career?) and overlook what is really important to him in life.

 

 

Online Database of Past Dream Interpretations: Dreams About Work

Here’s my dream… 

 

I am a married woman but I keep having dreams about being arm in arm with a man from work. Every time I dream about him we are together – not having sex, but walking arm in arm. We have known and worked with each other for ten years but have absolutely no attraction for one another. Please explain.

In all likelihood, the man is a symbol for “work,” and your dreams are work-related. Depending on what is happening in the dreams, the dreams could be reassurance about your life’s direction with your company or they might simply be reflecting some of the issues and thoughts you have been having about your job. In a dream, people can symbolize whatever we most associate with that individual. Therefore, in addition to work, whatever else this man reminds you of could be a symbol for what the dream is about. For example, if he just bought a new house, then the dream might symbolize that you too are about to move, buy a new house, or change locations.

Here’s my dream… 

 

I want to share two dreams. I am very interested in politics and want to run for public office someday, so these dreams are really interesting to me. I had a dream where I was being sworn in as Vice President of the United States, but all I could see was my Bible and the Chief Justice, everything else was blurry. I have been wondering what this meant. My other dream is something that when I woke up, I thought was real. I had a dream where I was invited to appear on “Meet the Press” and I was all excited but when I woke up I was very confused on what was real and wasn’t. My dream ended when I was heading to the airport to be on the show, it was weird since I am only 15 and I was asked to be on the show at my current age.

At the very least, both dreams suggest that your thoughts of pursuing a career in politics may be exactly what you should be doing. In addition, there could be a literal element involved in that the “height” of politics you reach may be beyond what you have been imagining. The fact that there is some sense of “blurriness” to both dreams suggests that (because of the influence of Free Will) the future has yet to solidify. Good luck on your dreams. Let us know what happens!

Here’s my dream… 

 

I dreamed I saw my computer on in clear site of everyone in the office. There was a split screen, both with the same message in great big letters – one screen had my name on it; the other screen had a co-worker in my office who I hardly ever see any more because our company is so huge. Both of the split screens, side-by-side, said BANKRUPT. I felt embarrassed and humiliated as it was as though this information was being broadcast to everybody who looked at the screen. In real life, I do not have any financial difficulties, so I figured it probably has nothing to do with money but with something else in my life. Could it mean my job is at an end? Or could it mean my life in general is just bankrupt – meaningless?

Although both of your interpretations could be appropriate, a more likely interpretation might be that part of you has begun to feel that your worklife (as opposed to your life in general) is meaningless, an that you have begun to wonder what it really is that you want to do. If this is the case, then let me recommend the book, Discovering Your Soul’s Purpose, by Mark Thurston. Good luck to you.

Here’s my dream… 

 

I am at the headquarters of the company I work for. My boss is a visionary and has planted two olive trees in the central plaza of the building as a token of his vision. I haven’t watered the olive trees for some time now, and they’ve withered. They’re nearly dead or appear to be so, but they are not. I feel sad. (I’m particularly worried about this dream and its possible connection with the Revelation of St John, chapter 11.)

First of all, the dream appears to be about work. Second of all, from Edgar Cayce’s perspective the Revelation of John has absolutely very little to do with external world events and is instead about each soul’s own growth in consciousness and attunement. (For more information on Cayce’s insights on the Revelation, let me recommend the book Soul Signs: Life Seals, Aura Charts, and the Revelation by Kevin Todeschi.) That said, the dream seems to suggest that part of you may feel as if you have been neglecting your responsibilities at work, or (worse yet) your supervisor has noticed that you have been neglecting your responsibilities at work. Alternatively, the dream could also suggest that you have lost much of the enthusiasm and drive that was originally a part of your desire to work at this company. Overall, the dream seems to be about you deciding what it really is you want to be doing with you life at this particular time, and how that desire fits in (or not) with your present place of employment. I hope that helps. By the way, chapter 11 of the Revelation is really about “personal purification” and the attunement process.

Here’s my dream… 

 

How literal do we take our dreams when it comes to answering questions we put to God in prayer? I have been in great conflict for years over making a decision. I asked if design/decorating was a good field for me to go into. While I feel passionate about it, I have another interest as well in holistic health/nutrition. In real life, we are choosing tiles for remodeling our bathroom. In my dream, I stood in a bathroom with small tiles on the floor. Thought it too busy-looking. Didn’t care for it. The bathtub was also made of mosaic tiles and I thought, “No, that definitely has to go!” The second night, I dreamt of my (deceased) father-in-law. I remember telephone communication with someone. I had found out after many years, that when everyone would refer to him as “being at the shop,” he was at the “pharmacy,” and I thought, “after all these years, I now know what his is).” Also dreamt a skateboarder did a high-flying, dangerous stunt where he jumped off the board and slid his body down the downspout on the side of the house. I showed my young son and told him, “don’t try that.” I sense that design is not the area I should go into. And though I am passionate about it, I feel I want to do “what I should be doing.” I am a stay-at-home mom and do not want to work yet. Your thoughts?

In brief, I think that – from several angles – the dream is suggesting that being a mother is what you’re supposed to be doing right now, and that you are essentially too busy for anything else. The fact that the bathroom mosaic tile was too busy and had to go probably indicates that right now there is a great deal of chaos in your life and something has to go. The dream about not knowing what your father-in-law did while he was at the shop, and then finally knowing after all these years, suggests that part of you wonders what you’re supposed to be doing even while you’re doing it (e.g. being a mother) and that you’ll get a clearer sense of your personal mission later on. The skateboarder incident suggests that your children still need your supervision and guidance. Overall, I don’t think the dream is suggesting or not suggesting design or holistic health – instead it is suggesting that right now you are too busy to do anything but deal with being a loving, supportive, guiding mother. You’ll know the next step when it’s time.

Here’s my dream… 

 

I am a 48-year-old mother with three sons. Last night I dreamed that my oldest son and I were at some beach or something. I was looking to buy an ice cream machine for making ice cream at home. My son suggested that I not buy the one that I was looking at and that there was someone on the boardwalk that had a nicer one. My son then went swimming and it seems for a short while I was in the water too. Then I wasn’t in the water and my son drowned on purpose. Someone informed me that he was in financial trouble. I really don’t understand that because he isn’t in financial trouble. However! I am currently been unemployed for almost a year and am currently seeking employment. Although I have excellent skills, people seem to always feel I’m over qualified and do not hire me. What could this dream mean?

The dream has several possible interpretations. Part of the answer may be connected to whatever your eldest son does for a living – especially if he is self-employed. My sense is that the dream could be suggesting that whatever it is you have been pursuing is the type of work you will be doing, but you may end up doing it as an independent contractor out of your own home business, at lease for a short time. If your son is self-employed, you might ask for his advice. At the every least, he might know of some connections for you in the work you want to pursue. Also, his “drowning on purpose” could be a warning sign for you and/or your son not to get in “over your head” in terms of some financial situation or business.

Here’s my dream… 

 

Last night I dreamed that I was sitting at my desk and I saw something move in the parking lot. I got up and looked out the door and 2 chickens were out there dancing. I thought it was odd and humorous. I told my boss what was going on and he came and stood behind me to watch. Then I saw a peacock, then another and another and another until I realized there were about six of them. Most of them had their tail feathers fanned out. One started walking toward me. When he got close he turned and I was able to reach out and touch his beautiful feathers. As this was happening my boss had his arm on the door and almost around my waist and I heard a voice say, “He has chosen you.” I need to say my boss is a happily married man and I have no “feelings” for him. There has never been anything between us.

In all likelihood the dream is providing an overview of some of the behaviors currently occurring at work. The chickens are reminiscent of the saying: “a chicken with its head cut off,” suggesting that a couple of the people in the office are running around not really clear what it is they should be doing. Many of the others, it seems, are trying to “show off” to the boss. However, in spite of everyone’s behavior, it would appear that the boss is aware of you and has been watching you. In other words, the dream might be suggesting that you are about to be handpicked for a promotion or raise of some kind.

Here’s my dream… 

 

I am a manager at a large corporation. We are not having financial difficulties, however, headcount was frozen for 2005. When I first started managing the department, it was a very beleaguered group. In the last two years I have been there we have been able to meet or exceed the company’s expectations for our department, and have enjoyed success. I dreamt that I got a phone call from a person in HR at our company while I was at home. He had some news to tell me that he just couldn’t get to, so I asked him if I was going to have to lay people off. He said No. Then I asked what was it and he still couldn’t tell me. So I asked if I was losing my job, and the answer was, “Yes,” and I knew it was because I made too much money. I kept saying “Oh my God” over and over, and was fearful because I knew the department and the current supervisors were not ready for me to leave. There are no signs that anything like this will happen. I get along with my boss well and have the confidence of the senior managers. I don’t know if this was an anxiety dream, or what I am supposed to interpret from this.

The dream may be a literal warning dream, encouraging you to begin looking for other options before the call from HR actually comes. If the dream is simply a metaphor, it suggests that – in spite of your success – you are still somewhat insecure about your worth and your value to the company.

Here’s my dream… 

 

I work at an airport for an airline, and I dreamed that there was a terrorist attack at the airport I work for. I was in the midst of the attack, and was also trying to help kill the terrorist. I actually took the lead and was helping kill them off so that the other employees that were being held hostage would be able to get away without being harmed.

The dream suggests that the airline is having trouble and that there may be layoffs of some kind in the near future. In other words, the terrorists are symbolic of outside influences that would take the employees hostage. Your role in the dream suggests that you either possess some kind of “bargaining” influence with the airline, or that by taking advantage of – what might be called a voluntary resignation – you end up saving someone elses job.

Here’s my dream… 

 

This is one of four dreams I have had that I believe must be some type of past life. (All of them were so much more than a dream and so real.) In this dream I was a young girl (19?). I was in a medieval castle (France?), always looking over the rampart waiting for my husband to come to take me back. Apparently I had been taken from my home by some type of raiders…I was told by some old women (a shaman) that I would die in childbirth at the age of 19. Next image was of me on the ramparts always looking out to sea for my husband. I had images of him crossing the ocean on ships looking for me and also images of him riding on horseback through forests looking for me. Next image I have is me again on the ramparts looking out to sea waiting for him but somehow I know I had died (in childbirth) and I was a ghost still on the ramparts looking out to sea awaiting him and wondering why he never came in time.

Your dream does sound like a past-life experience but as suggested in the dream archives we don’t simply dream about past lives at random; they are generally connected to present-day experiences and patterns. With this in mind, depending on what is currently occurring in your life, I think the dream is either suggesting that you are in the process of waiting for something that you desperately want, and yet you feel like you have no control over its manifestation, or it might be suggesting that the relationship you long awaited in the past is about to make an appearance in your present. In either case, you had the dream now because your subconscious mind is trying to use past events to bring to your awareness something that is going on in your life right now.

Here’s my dream… 

 

I was recently fired after 12 years as a mental health counselor/case manager. The boss that fired me had only been there a few months, and he scared me so bad I would have nightmares, as he harassed me so much I was put on depression medicine and heart medicine because of stress. Now, every time before I go on a job interview, I have nightmares that this man is there to interview me. I actually did nothing wrong to be fired and I have a lawsuit against the company.

The two most likely interpretations follow: If the experience has made you insecure and somewhat withdrawn from your former behavior, the dream is suggesting that your anxiety is coming through every time you have an interview and that anxiety is going to affect whether or not you get a new position. The second likely possibility is that if you feel and act completely normal when you go on these interviews, the dream is suggesting that your act of suing your former employer is going to follow you wherever you go, most likely damaging your prospects of getting a new job. Only you can decide which of these interpretations is most likely in your situation.

Here’s my dream… 

 

I dreamt that I was late for work. In real like I get to work before the sun comes up but in my dream I got there as the sun was coming up.

The most likely interpretation is that part of you may feel behind or late or uncertain as to how you will accomplish all of the things you need to do at work (or even in your life in general). Another possibility is that the dream could be suggesting that you are about to have a new beginning in your life.

Here’s my dream… 

 

I really need some help here. I have had several dreams about a co-worker of mine who is married and has two kids. All I can remember about most of the dreams is that it is normally just me and him and we are very close, such as hugging, kissing and holding hands. I am not married myself and am single. He and I are good friends too. Does this mean I have a crush on him or am in love with him? Please help, it is really affecting the way I act around him. Thank you.

If the dream is literal, it could be reflecting possible feelings between the two of you. However, a metaphorical interpretation is just as likely. In this regard your male coworker could be a symbol for work or for your working relationship with him. If he symbolizes work, it suggests that you really feel like you have found where you belong in terms of your occupation, perhaps even to the point of being “married” to the company. If your coworker symbolizes the relationship between the two of you at work, then it may suggest that you are going to end up working on a project together and perhaps deepen your relationship (not necessarily romantically).

Here’s my dream… 

 

I have been retired for 15 years. For the past two years I have dreamt about my job. What is curious to me is that I go into work and find out they don’t need me. Also I dream of calling in sick and cannot find the phone number. I am very perplexed about this dream.

These dreams may simply be suggesting that part of you is frequently wondering, “What is the purpose of my life right now?” or “What am I supposed to be doing?” or “Does anybody really need me to do something?” In other words, part of you may be looking for your specific “life mission” at this period in your life. If this is the case, I would recommend the book: Discovering Your Soul’s Purpose, by Mark Thurston, which you can find at ARECatalog.com.

Here’s my dream… 

 

What does it mean when you dream about having sex with your boss when you don’t even think about him in that way?

The dream has many possibilities. From a metaphorical perspective, it might simply be suggesting that you and your boss are going to end up in a project together at work and really enjoy working together. From a literal perspective, it might indicate that your boss is having sexual fantasies about you. Another possibility is that your subconscious mind is picking up on a possible past-life relationship that the two of you once shared. A final possibility might simply be that the dream is encouraging you to work on a closer relationship (not necessarily sexual) with this individual.

Here’s my dream… 

 

I am 27-years-old and working as an accountant. Currently I am very depressed at my work place and I want to change my job desperately. On the day of my dream I had gone for an interview at a bank position. I would like to know if my dream is related to my career. I dreamt that a lady, who is a distant relation of mine back in my hometown, was about to have a birthday party. All the party arrangements were done my elder brother. I saw many people; all of them were very happy. Everybody was giving compliments to my brother. But I didn’t have a look at the lady nor did I see the cake. Since the lady’s house is quite near our temple, everybody was saying that after the party we would go to the temple. My brother and I were walking towards the temple when I woke up. Thanks for your help.

The dream may be suggesting that you are about to celebrate (e.g. birthday party) some kind of a return to doing what it is you really want to be doing or perhaps dreamt about doing in the past (e.g. your old hometown, as well as the distant relative). Everything that you need to do to obtain the new job has been done (e.g. all the arrangements have been made). The job is also going to either help you reclaim an interest in personal spirituality (e.g. the temple) or the fact that you will no longer be depressed will encourage you to pursue your personal spirituality. It all sounds very positive

Here’s my dream… 

 

I am a 43-year-old taxi driver. I have been depressed for the last 4 weeks and have not been to work. Last night I had a dream where I saw a friend who has passed away who had worked with me. My friend and I were talking and going to pick up a customer; my friend knew where to go and was showing me a map, which had the route to take. When I looked at the map it was blurry and I couldn’t see it, as I need reading glasses. As we are driving along, I saw my brother-in-law, who is alive, driving along with us. We are driving on a deserted road where there are no homes – just miles of field everywhere. I asked my friend, “Where are we going and where is the house?” Then I woke up.

Since you associate your deceased co-worker with work, the dream suggests that your occupation as a taxi driver seems to be coming to an end – the job is “dead.” In fact, in all likelihood, you no longer have any desire to continue in this particular position. The reason you are with your brother-in-law could suggest that you are going to be doing more the kind of work he does, or that you are going to feel about your new job the way he feels about his, or just as his work may have recently changed yours is going to change. In other words, whatever you associate with your brother-in-law and work has an important meaning for you personally. Finally, the fact that you’re not really sure where you’re headed in the dream could indicate that you’re not really sure where you’re headed in real life but don’t worry, it appears as if things are going to change soon and you will be lead to where you need to be. Good luck to you!

 

Edgar Cayce – The Healing Channel

Edgar Cayce had no medical degree, and yet doctors used him to diagnose the most obscure illnesses and to recommend the correct treatments. It was his great frustration that he knew nothing of what he had directed them to do, he could only find out when they gave him the records of what he had said.

IS it possible to see into the past or future? Can an ordinary man obtain knowledge he has never learnt or heard? Do human beings have extraordinary powers?

In the August of 1 902, Edgar Cayce was called to the house of Mr. and Mrs. Dietrich of Hopkinsville, USA Their five year old daughter Aime had been ill for three years, after an attack of flu at the age of two, she had stopped developing mentally. The Dietrich’s were quite wealthy and had tried many specialists, with no avail. It must have been desperation that urged them to ask a young, rather shy book-shop assistant to see if he could help the girl.

Cayce explained that he was not a doctor and knew nothing of medicine, or why the child had convulsions. The Dietrich’s said they understood this, but urged him to continue. Loosening his shoes and tie, Cayce reclined on their sofa and went to sleep. Standing nearby, A. L. Layne, a friend of Cayce, began to ask him questions about Aime. Remaining asleep, Edgar answered in a clear voice and in great detail.

When he woke up, Mrs. Dietrich was crying ‘You have given us the first hope we have had that Aime can recover.’ Edgar’s only reply was: ‘What did I say?

While asleep, he had explained that a few days before catching ‘flu, Aime had slipped and hit the end of her spine displacing one of her vertebrae. The flu germs had been able to enter the spine, but he said that osteopathic adjustments to the vertebrae would cure her.

This was done, and a few days later Aime spoke the name of a doll, a thing she had not done since her first attacks. From then on she rapidly developed into a normal five year-old. Some years later, the case became headlines in the New York Times (9/10/1910) due to a corroborative medical report.

Diagnosing While Asleep

How did he do it? The Dietrich case was one of thousands he helped or cured through diagnosing and prescribing while asleep. Awake, he was a man with little education, asleep he was an amazing doctor, physiologist, seer, historian, philosopher, mystic and much else besides. At a time when he suffered an incurable loss of voice and after unsuccessful attempts by hypnotists, he found he could put himself into a sleep state at will.

In this condition, A. L. Layne asked him to diagnose his illness, which he did, and it resulted in a cure. Layne who was himself ill asked Cayce to try diagnosing for others. Being a very orthodox Christian, Edgar felt very apprehensive about this strange ability, but eventually agreed to try. To everyone’s amazement, a detailed medical report was given to Layne, along with treatments, Layne too recovered.

From this small beginning,’ news spread, and in 1910, when the New York Times printed a report, people from all over the world began to ask his help. Cayce was himself baffled at first by his ability. During his sleep state, he explained that due to his endeavours in his past lives, Edgar Cayce had the ability to tap the knowledge of his own and other people’s unconscious mind. Not only this, but his unconscious could also draw information from the universal mind or memory of nature (sometimes called the superconscious) and express it consciously.

Everybody, he maintained, also tapped the superconscious, but most people through their activities, attitudes and way of life, had built a barrier within, making it difficult to make this knowledge conscious.

Edgar Cayce could also sometimes look ahead in time, not always accurately, but often amazingly so. In 1932 he said, when asked about the next fifty years, ‘This had best be cast after the great catastrophe that’s coming to the world in ’36, in the breaking up of many powers that now exist as factors in the world affairs. The first noticeable change will be the acceptance or rejection of the first Court of Last Resort in the world. Then the break up in ’36 will be the change that will make different maps of the world.’

Later, he said peace would be established in ’44 and ’45. Looking further ahead, he said that between the years 1968 and ’98, the world would experience enormous earthquakes and geophysical changes. Much of Japan, New York and California would be devastated. These, he said, were all part of the changes preparing man and the world for the next stage in evolution

personal consciousness of God. But prophecy was a difficult business, he explained, as mankind creates their own future by their present actions. Thus one can gain an idea of the present direction, but this could be altered by changes of heart, of ideal on the part of individuals and nations.

Cayce not only looked into the future, or into an individual’s present history, he also looked into their past lives, and into man’s historical past. He gave many ‘life readings’, which were descriptions of an individual’s past lives, and what influences they brought to bear on present activities. The many doctors, scientists and historians who became fascinated by his information, found his comments on reincarnation hard to take. Nevertheless, he helped many in this way.

David Greenwood was an average fourteen year-old when his sister requested a life reading for him. She wished to help him choose a suitable career. In his reading, Cayce said that David had lived in the France of Louis XIII as a keeper of the Robes in the royal court. This gave him an ability in the present to be very aware of fashion and clothing.

In a life prior to that, he had been a tradesman called Colval, on the Aegean coast of Greece. He achieved    a position of power through being in the right place at the right time when one government was overthrown, and a new one begun. But he misused his position. This life helped him develop the ability to fit himself in well when meeting a variety of people and situations.

Before this, as one Abiel in Persia during an invasion, he again reached a position of authority due to social unrest, and he became a court physician. In his present life, this produced a desire to be a physician, and interest in chemical compounds. Also, he lived in Egypt once more during an invasion, and the three such lives giving him an insight into mass psychology, and how to cope with social stress.

As Isois in the Egyptian life he was a diplomat between the people and the conquerors. In this life too, he was connected with special clothing. David eventually got work in the clothing trade, selling school and band uniforms. He became the top salesman in his company, uniting his trading instincts with those of anticipating a person’s clothing needs. During the war he became officer in charge of clothing incoming troops, dealing with clothing on an enormous scale.

Another man seeking a life reading was Dave Kahn. Dave was told he had been an Irishman, and worked as an aide to Lord Howe, a famous English soldier. Cayce went on to say that General Somerville of the American forces was in fact the reincarnation of Lord Howe, and if Dave would go to him, without knowing why, General Somerville would take him on as an aide. Dave Kahn did get an introduction to General Somerville, and was taken on as an aide. Because of other past life influences, Dave was also advised to go into the wood and metal business. Needless to say, he did. He became a millionaire through the results.

These are just two examples of Cayce’s 2,500 Life Readings, just as the Dietrich case is but one’ of even more thousands, all recorded and open to view in a huge cross-referenced file of his 14,000,000 words. These are kept at Virginia Beach, USA and are made available to the public by The Association for Research and Enlightenment. (Books about him can be obtained from A.R.E. Press, 80 St. James Road, Surbiton, Surrey.)

During his life, Cayce became the spiritual teacher, or guru, of many people. Out of him came detailed information on meditation, self development, discovery of talents, dream interpretation, and many other areas of individual self realisation.

Looking at some of the vast store of information in those 14,000,000 words, can be fascinating, like his remedy for tired eyes – one part of glyco thymoline to three parts of distilled water. Place cotton wool pads dipped in the solution on the eyes for ten minutes, and all the soreness is gone.

A recipe I have used myself for years is his tooth powder: equal parts of salt and bicarbonate of soda mixed together. The salt has a mild scouring effect, and the bicarb’, being a strong alkali, clears mouth acids. This often takes the ‘sting’ out of aching teeth, as the ache is usually due to sugars causing acids to eat away at the teeth. Alkalinity. and salt are also germ inhibitors.

For girls who want a lovely skin, Cayce recommended a 20 minute soak in a warm, but not hot, bath. Wash well and massage with a good soap, such as Castile. Have a lotion ready containing two oz. of peanut oil (arachis), two oz. of olive oil, two oz. of rose water, and one tablespoon of dissolved lanolin. After wiping dry, rub this thoroughly into the skin all over the body, especially the face and neck, hips and diaphragm. A chemist can make up the lotion for you, and it will last for many treatments of once of twice a week.

But even at the beginning of the century, Cayce, in his sleep state, said that most disease had its origins, its source of development, in the emotions, and attitudes. Lack of forgiveness, jealousy, and the other negative emotions are as disease-producing as any germs. Time and again he said ‘Mind is the builder’, and what thoughts and attitudes you hold on to are built gradually into your being. ‘No one’ he said, ‘can hate his neighbour, and not have stomach or liver trouble.’

When asked what was the point of a mentally defective or handicapped child being born, he said that here the entity was facing the result of actions in past lives. Nevertheless, the experience was really an opportunity for the soul-personality, not a punishment. Through it, a new attitude to life could be learnt. The parents too can profit by the relationship. ‘Don’t put the body away’ he said. ‘It needs the love, the attention.’ In one such case of idiocy, he said the personality had practised sexual abnormalities on women slaves during a past life in Egypt. A woman who nursed him had been one of these slaves, and felt a horrible repulsion, but through persistently putting her repulsion aside and offering as much love as she could muster, the patient slowly learnt the lesson of love. Instead of smearing himself’ with faeces, tearing all his clothes, refusing food, he began to keep himself clean, eat normally, and follow her every movement with loving devotion, and generally improved.

One night, when Edgar and his wife were just going to bed, there was a knock on the front door. Edgar went, and his wife heard him talking for about an hour. When he came back to bed, she asked him who it was. The strange reply was that it was a friend they had known some time ago. She had died, and had come to Edgar to help her understand her situation. This was not an unusual event for him. ‘When we are born in the physical body we die to the spiritual life,’ he said. ‘When we die to the physical life, we are born to the spiritual. After death the soul and spirit feed upon and, in a sense are possessed by that which was created – thought and realised -by the mind in the earth experience.’

Lastly, can we too have such insights, such helpfulness to others, such capabilities? Yes, says Cayce, we can each come to these. But there is no need to attempt a cultivation of them. Seek rather to consecrate all of yourself to God. These abilities will then come naturally of themselves -Spontaneously in the ministering to and listening to the needs of others.

Cayce died from overwork in 1945. He tried to help too many people, but nevertheless he has left us a heritage of his many words, and a great many changed lives.

Christian Yoga

CHRISTIAN YOGA

By

Tony Crisp

 

Website – http://dreamhawk.com/

 

Contents

Introduction

The teachings on Christian Yoga that follow are not uniquely my ideas. I followed clues left by disciples from the long past. Here and there in the world’s literature there are fragments and sentences referring to this path. So I pursued this trail as it led into the jungle of ideas surrounding Christianity. I hacked a way through

Chapter One

One of the interesting things about yoga in the West is that from its very beginnings women have played as large a part in its practice and teachings as men. In early Christianity women also played an important role, even though none were listed as apostles. In Acts 1:13-15 this is made plain.

Chapter Two

How many of us have at some time reached a point in life where we ask, “Is this all there is – this depression, this labouring on and on, this struggle, this emptiness at the end of even a rich life? Do we do everything that we do only to have all wiped out in death?”

Chapter Three

If you say to yourself, “I am tired.  I am hungry.  I am depressed.  I am happy,” you are describing the changing conditions of your body and your mind.  But if you say – “I am” – you are describing the fundamental part of you that experiences the changes.  The ‘I AM’ is there all the time isn’t it, behind all changes?  But it is as slippery as an eel to catch hold of.

Chapter  Four

To grasp the first steps in Christian Yoga you need to remember that Christ frequently taught in parables.  Such teaching by the use of analogy and symbols was not limited to the stories told, but was also given via the very events and actions of his life.  In the ancient world, much more than in the world of today, teachings were given in the form of rituals or mystery plays, stories and analogies.

Chapter  Five

There are steps or stages in the discipline of Christian Yoga. The very first of these steps apart from christening, is what might be called The Turning Point. It arises from an unmistakable awareness that something is missing from your life; or it comes because of a feeling arising from an inner sense of emptiness or isolation. You may feel cut off from something you know you should be a part of. Sometimes it arises because you are faced by a great tragedy, a loss or illness confronting you with death.

Chapter Six

The birth of Mary symbolises this change of heart, and the life of Mary shows what can come of it. Mary as an image of your own human situation represents the possibility of a virginal mind and feelings.  Put simply this means that we drop preconceptions, we melt away fixed opinions, rigid attitudes, perhaps through prayer, meditation or perseverance.

Chapter Seven

Depending upon how much you dare to allow yourself to experience what was previously rejected or unconscious, to that degree you begin to find a type of awareness and an experience you had never known before. Overall, this inner life can best be described as a deeper acquaintance with the human condition.

Chapter Eight

There cannot help but be a repercussion, a response in your life to the new energy and potential you are releasing.  This is represented by Jesus going into the wilderness and being tempted by the devil.  It is described in the New Testament

Chapter Nine

In a certain way things never end.  The tree can never depart from its roots.  It still needs the life of the earth.  As strong as it may become there are still tender and vulnerable twigs and buds somewhere on it.  Nothing is taken away, but much is added.

Chapter Ten

Looking back at some of the disciplines of past Christians, especially the ascetics and monastic orders, it is obvious there is great confusion about what opened ones conscious self to the spirit. They often seem, when they describe flagellation and extremes of abstinence, to have looked at the letter rather than the law. In Buddhism there is a saying that there is a finger pointing at the moon, but most people look at the finger and forget that it is the moon that is being pointed at.

Chapter Eleven

The path of Christian Yoga is not simply about being inspired, it is about personal transformation, about giving birth to a new being, about being cleansed and healed.

In the New Testament one of the first things that Jesus does is to heal the blind man. This is an important statement. It declares that the power you open to can heal you. It can make you whole.

Chapter Twelve

The path of Christian Yoga is not simply about being inspired, it is about personal transformation, about giving birth to a new being, about being cleansed and healed.

In the New Testament one of the first things that Jesus does is to heal the blind man. This is an important statement. It declares that the power you open to can heal you. It can make you whole.

 

CHRISTIAN YOGA

Introduction

Tony Crisp

 

The teachings on Christian Yoga that follow are not uniquely my ideas. I followed clues left by disciples from the long past. Here and there in the world’s literature there are fragments and sentences referring to this path. So I pursued this trail as it led into the jungle of ideas surrounding Christianity. I hacked a way through, and gradually, with loving persistence uncovered the ancient landmarks of this way. It is a path leading to the Mother Church the central core of human experience, as old as time.

Looking back over the journey, something about it has deeply impressed me. The early Christians discovered something extraordinary. It completely changed lives, healed sickness, made people want to go out and tell others, and in some cases was worth dying for.

Those people expressed what they found in language, and in imagery, that was understandable to them. What they found was something that worked. Just as, in a more recent age, the use of electricity was discovered and applied; and this discovery of electricity was the application of previously unknown natural processes. So the Christian discovery was one of natural processes of the mind and emotions. Unfortunately, as time has passed, the language in which those findings were expressed has come to mean less and less to many people. In fact we may view the statements as perhaps referring to the realm of ‘beliefs’ rather than of practical principles.

What I aim to do in the following paragraphs is to remind you of the original gospel statements, and then try to define them in terms of today’s view of the world, and today’s information about the mind and emotions. For I believe the original teachings refer to an extraordinary possibility in you.

Just as the process of electricity is open to verification with the right equipment, so the extraordinary possibility described by the early Christians is open to verification if you apply yourself in the right way.

Among the written teachings of Christ, we are told he said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Math 11.29).

At the time of Christ the word yoke referred to two things.  It was a wooden beam to harness two oxen so they could be worked as a team.  Also conquered armies were made to walk beneath a spear lashed horizontally to two upright spears called a yoke, as a sign of enslavement or subjection.

The New Testament was originally written in Greek.  The Greek word that we translate as yoke is zeugos.  It is also used to denote yoga.  In Sanskrit the word yoga is used as the name of one of the branches of Hindu philosophy.  This system attempts to bring together or yoke the conscious personality with a latent and unconscious level of the mind that releases extraordinary new possibilities.

In Collins Concise Dictionary the Sanskrit word yoga is described as meaning ‘yoke’, while the English word yoke means to couple or unite.  So one can truly quote Christ as saying “Take my yoga upon you, and learn from me… My yoga is easy.”

The beauty of yoga as it has developed in the West, is that each person has the opportunity of releasing or finding their innate and extraordinary potential in themselves in their own way.  Yoga has always been associated with a personal discipline or techniques relating to self-help. So the words Christian and Yoga are here joined together not to suggest that Christians should practice Eastern yoga postures or breathing techniques, or even meditation techniques from the Far East, but to denote a path within Christ’s teachings that is a personal way for each of us to take. Eastern Yoga often suggests a renunciation of self, a killing out of the ego. The Christian Yoga leads to a transformation of the ego, a transcendence of the self, and a new life. Buddhism and many Eastern teachers suggest that life is dominated by pain, and losing or denying the ego gives release. The Christian Yoga says that pain exists because we have not accepted or claimed our heritage of spiritual life, and if we do so we can experience heaven on earth.

Christian Yoga is not Eastern yoga postures or breathing techniques

Therefore, any present definitions of yoga in connection with Christianity must mention not only that it is a way of life attempting a particular discipline (or discipleship), but also that practitioners are not required to join a sect or denomination, or to accept dogmatic teachings. The aim is to open to an influence that can transform and heal. This way of Christian Yoga has nothing to do with the eastern yoga postures, the breathing techniques or the eastern meditations.  I have nothing against these practices, having been a teacher of eastern yoga for many years, but Christian Yoga has its own path and its own disciplines.  It does not need to borrow from the Far East.  I repeat, its aim is quite different to eastern yoga.  Whereas eastern yoga attempts to drop the ego, the Christian path aims at transforming the personality.  Perhaps the very end results are similar, but the way there is different.

This Christian Yoga is described thoroughly in the New Testament when we look at the story of Jesus’ life as an allegory. It is a step-by-step way of transformation and the finding of a new life. As Jesus promised, this ‘heaven’, this new awareness of your life, is not far away. It is already yours if you know how to find it.

Christ is reported to have said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.” As already said, “The New Testament was originally written in Greek.  The Greek word that we translate as yoke is zeugos.  It is also used to denote yoga.  In Sanscrit the word yoga is used as the name of one of the branches of Hindu philosophy.  This system attempts to bring together or yokes the conscious personality with a latent and unconscious level of the mind that releases extraordinary new possibilities.” But it is important to note that what assume is Christianity was not what we have now in Christian teachings. For Inhabitants of the Roman Empire had a variety of gods and goddesses but there were people back then who would be considered early Christians. Ironically these people were considered atheists by the ancient Romans because they didn’t pay tribute to any of the pagan gods. But their refusal to acknowledge traditional pagan gods wasn’t the only reason early Christians were considered atheists. These Christians didn’t really practice an organized religion had no temples or shrines and no priests. As a result these people were ostracized from society as salacious rumors regarding their lives would often float around, much like modern Friends/Quaker practices.

 

Chapter One

Yoga in the West

One of the interesting things about yoga in the West is that from its very beginnings women have played as large a part in its practice and teachings as men. In early Christianity women also played an important role, even though none were listed as apostles. In Acts 1:13-15 this is made plain. It says:

When they had come in, they went up into the upper chamber, where they were staying; that is Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. In these days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples (and there was a multitude of persons gathered together, about one hundred twenty) …

This passage clearly states that apart from Mary, the mother of Jesus, there were other women, and with Jesus’ brothers the gathering numbered about one hundred and twenty. It must be remembered that in this earliest group of Christians there was no organised religion, no creed, and no denominations. They were a hundred and twenty people trying to live in a certain way, and trying to let something very wonderful into their lives. In fact, that original meeting was to allow what, in the gospels, was called the Spirit or Holy Ghost to enter their experience. This influence is at the heart of the Christian Yoga. The words Spirit and Holy Ghost are of course terms used by these ancient people. They may mean very little to a person educated in today’s world unless that person has direct experience. But these words will be examined as we proceed.

It is an unfortunate tendency in virtually all of the world religions that they become very insular and possessive. When people began to organise Christianity, to place dogmas and rigid rules around it, Christianity had the misfortune to be scarred with battles between sects, intolerance of other races and culture, and male authoritarianism.  Nevertheless, I believe there is a real Christian Yoga that stands beyond that, and talks about universal principles. When Newton discovered the process of gravity he did not tell people they could only receive instruction in it if they belonged to a certain society or group. It was a principle universal in nature. Likewise, what the earliest Christians found is in a similar category.

You do not have to believe in and apply a lot of rules and dogmatic regulations described by organising bodies of people to use the principles of electricity.  But many of us see Christianity as needing to live rigid rules and regulations laid down by the organised church. But the underlying principles are about universal processes. Even if we believe the idea of a personal God, it is strange that a being that is said to have created the universe limits any approach to itself to a particular organisation or sect. Strange also that the three great religions who have as their central belief a personal God, and are therefore monotheistic, are often at loggerheads. If I say hello to you, and someone else says hola, and yet another person say buongiorno – we are surely all greeting each other, but speaking different languages. It seems that Allah, God and Jehovah are surely the same thing in different languages.

The Christian Yoga being described here is about universal processes of life, of your mind and heart. If you use these principles certain results arise that you can understand and test. They do not rely on beliefs in standards set by other human beings. The only thing required of you is a sense that underlying your existence is something you do not fully understand. You perhaps need to feel that life itself is a grand mystery that you want to experience or explore more fully. The aim is to open to and explore that Mystery.

Christian Yoga is an ancient path

Christian Yoga has been known for centuries, and practised by individuals and groups who were frequently persecuted by the organised church. In fact, the power and love that touched the early Christians has been innate in men and women from the beginning, and is lying dormant in each of us. We can think of this inner potential as the Mother Church, not built with bricks, not connected with any form of organised religion. We enter it and are transformed by following the Christian pathway, the Christian Yoga.

In this incredible universe there are possibilities that we only vaguely understand – or do not understand at all. In my own lifetime I have seen the emergence of radio and television into an everyday part of most people’s lives. They arose from the use of natural principles that were previously obscure or unrealised. There are also things about the human body, the human mind and soul that remain obscure or unknown for many of us, despite the enormous amount of research undertaken in the realm of physics and psychology.

Christian Yoga is about unfolding some of these wonderful possibilities still latent in you. It is about possibilities so amazing that many early Christians were willing to die in support of keeping a doorway open for other people to claim them. So what are those possibilities, and how can we claim them?

 

Chapter Two

Is this all there is?

How many of us have at some time reached a point in life where we ask, “Is this all there is – this depression, this labouring on and on, this struggle, this emptiness at the end of even a rich life? Do we do everything that we do only to have all wiped out in death?”

The early Christians said they had found the doorway to eternal life.  They also demonstrated extraordinary healings of body and mind.  Having talked this over with a number of my peers, it has become obvious that there are a few set responses to this in the modern mind.  A few people believe, for instance, that perhaps those things happened 2000 years ago, but those were extraordinary people, and they can’t happen in today’s world.  Others believe that those stories are a sort of folklore or mythology, and must be seen in that light.  Many believe the statements are pure exaggeration made by people who were religious zealots.

Most of us have heard of Albert Schweitzer who went to the Belgian Congo in Africa to start a hospital.  The native people who came to him for help at first were very resistant to his ‘magic’ as they thought of it.  One of his first patients was a tribesman suffering from appendicitis.  Schweitzer anaesthetized the man, cut him open, took out his appendix, sewed him up again and revived him.  All this was done in an old converted chicken house that Schweitzer was using as his operating theatre.  Other tribespeople and the man’s relatives were watching the operation through doors and holes in the roof. They carried the news far and wide that Schweitzer had killed the man, cut him open and removed his innards, then sewed him up and brought him back to life.  He was seen as a miracle worker.

I tell this story because it illustrates the enormous difference in perspective of those tribespeople and of our own.  Describing the event as a miracle and as a resurrection does not in any way change the fact of Schweitzer’s operation on that man.  Neither do the gospel descriptions mean those events did not happen simply because we would not describe them in that way. It is only in very recent years that the medical profession as a whole has acknowledged the link between the mind, emotions, and physical illness.  At one time illness was never seen as emerging from stress or grief. Dealing with these torturous emotions can bring about remarkable physical change.  Although I have quoted this elsewhere, the following story is worth repeating because it illustrates this so well:

Many years ago a woman who could hardly walk came to stay with my wife and I. She hobbled along using two sticks. Within a week, without any treatment, she could walk normally. She told us with great enthusiasm that she now knew what had caused her illness. Three years previously her son had married and had asked if he and his new wife could lodge in his parent’s house for a few weeks while they looked for a house of their own. His mother felt resentful that he and his wife had stayed for years and made no effort to move out. But being a Christian woman she kept her feelings to herself. She ended the story by saying, “Being on holiday away from the situation has allowed me to be free of the resentment, and this has healed my legs. So I know what I am going to do when I get home. I am going to tell my son and his wife to pack their things and move out.”

Taking the path of Christian Yoga can lead to healing of the mind and body.  But perhaps even more important than that, it can lead to the discovery of what at the moment is only a potential within you.  Also, it promises a spiritual life in which you transcend death.

Those are heady claims, and therefore need to be looked at in terms of modern language.

In Christian terminology the word Spirit is used to describe the source of healing and the spring from which the sense of eternal life arises. It is therefore helpful to have some grasp of what this word means in a way we might be able to observe in our daily life. This is said because Christian Yoga is not about things we cannot see or experience in our ordinary everyday life. We do not need to believe in the strange or occult, or even to accept things on someone else’s say so.

Who are you really?

For most agnostics any talk about the eternal in our obviously short spanned life is a sign of mental weakness. They perhaps say, “Point it out to me.” The strange thing is that it is easy to see, but it is usually discounted. For instance, what is it you most closely identify as yourself? Is it your body?  Is your body you?

People can lose an arm, both legs, even mobility, but they still have a clear sense of themselves, of being a person.  Perhaps it is not as easy or as comfortable having no legs, but there is still a strong sense of being a person.

Or maybe you identify with the way you look, your face, your hair or the shape of your body.  But this changes with age, sometimes radically, and old people often say, “Although I look in the mirror and the person I see appears incredibly different to how I looked years ago, inside I still feel as if I am about 20 or 30 years old.”

If you identify your body as yourself, then you are faced by the tragedy of enormous change and the certainty of death.  Even so, up until the moment of your death your body has been eternal.  Think on it.  Your body is the result of two living cells merging and subdividing, and subdividing, over and over to form the mature body.  But those two original cells have an unbroken line of subdivision right way back to the beginning of life.  In that sense you personally have a connection with eternity.  Even the material your body uses in its growth was formed in the beginning of the universe, is from the stars, and is uncountable billions of years old.  So there is another connection you have with eternity. In fact what is there around you and within you that does not involve eternal existence? However, what we focus on most of the time is the changes taking place within this background of eternity.

Again, this is like identifying your hair, your limbs, or your looks as being you.  What Christian Yoga is suggesting is the discovery of the part of you that does not undergo change.

But let us explore this question of what you identify with a little further. Maybe you identify with the way you feel, your emotions, or perhaps your thoughts.  But from one moment to the next these are not the same.  They are constantly shifting and moving, and undergo more variation than your body.  If you identify with your thoughts and emotions you can become lost in their swirling and shifting storm.  Believing you are your thoughts or emotions can be at the root of depression and confusion.

Losing an arm or leg, losing your physical beauty in age, may affect your thoughts and feelings, but those things do not in any way deplete your sense of existing.  So if your body, your thoughts and emotions are not YOU, then what or who are you?  What is it you can most securely identify with?  What is it that is not shifting and changing and capable of being lost?

1. D. Laing, in his long poem The Bird of Paradise, said that, “The truth I am trying to grasp is the grasp that is trying to grasp it.”

The problem with recognising your fundamental, and perhaps eternal self, is that you are so immersed in it, like a fish in water, that it is difficult for you to recognise. In the Old Testament the following conversation is reported between Moses and God:

And Moses said unto God, “Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them?”

And God said unto Moses, “I AM THAT I AM”: and he said, “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” (Exodus Book 2 3:13-14)

 

Chapter Three

Meeting the I AM

If you say to yourself, “I am tired.  I am hungry.  I am depressed.  I am happy,” you are describing the changing conditions of your body and your mind.  But if you say – “I am” – you are describing the fundamental part of you that experiences the changes.  The ‘I AM’ is there all the time isn’t it, behind all changes?  But it is as slippery as an eel to catch hold of.  That is why the discipleship is needed. Instead of realising your naked ‘I AM’ you tend to see only your thoughts and emotions, your changing body again.

This – I AM – survives sleep.  It survives the shifting world of your sensory impressions, your thoughts and emotions.  It is the ever present awareness behind the experience of your life. It doesn’t change with the tides and calamities of events.  This is the rock upon which Jesus suggested building your house, your dwelling place – while your sensory impressions, your thoughts and emotions are the shifting sands he warned against. It is within the awareness of this I AM that the conviction, not belief, in eternal existence lies. It is to the meeting with the I AM that Christian Yoga leads. When you experienced your ‘I AM’ in its nakedness, you KNOW you have existed throughout eternity.  It is not a question of belief, or of being told.  You experience yourself as an eternal being, standing beyond all the shifting winding paths of your body, your mind and feelings.

So, Christian Yoga does not lead to a set of rules, or to certain beliefs, but to an experience.  When you meet that experience you can decide for yourself whether it is valid or not.

Meeting Your Eternal Self

So what is it like to meet this conviction of eternal existence, and what is the value of it? Why have people sacrificed so much for it?

It is easy to see that while you are convinced that your real identity is your body; while you are convinced that your emotions and thoughts are your only reality, you are incredibly vulnerable to uncertainties, fears, dashed hopes, feelings of failure, the emptiness of success and painful betrayals. These can toss you around like a scrap of paper in a gale. They can be the stress that is at the root of illness. Discovering yourself as anchored beyond change is enormously healing.

Although the I AM is beyond thought, beyond emotion and physical sense impressions, and at first appears to be an empty void – the Cloud of Unknowing as an early Christian mystic described it – it is like a spring from which can emerge healing of body and mind, creativity, intuitive perceptions, and all the gifts of the spirit described in the New Testament. (1 Corinthians 12:06-13).

The following dream and waking experience give an impression of what it is like to meet this essence of human life. The dream is taken from the writings of J. B. Priestley from his book Rain Upon Godshill:

‘Just before I went to America, during the exhausting weeks when I was busy with my Time Plays, I had a dream, and I think it left a greater impression on my mind than any experience I had ever known before, awake or in dreams, and said more to me about this life than any book I have ever read. The setting of the dream was quite simple, and owed something to the fact that not long before, my wife had visited the lighthouse here at St Catherine’s to do some bird ringing.

I dreamt I was standing at the top of a very high tower, alone, looking down upon myriads of birds all flying in one direction; every kind of bird was there, all the birds in the world. It was a noble sight, this vast aerial river of birds. But now in some mysterious fashion the gear was changed, and time speeded up, so that I saw generations of birds, watched them break their shells, flutter into life, mate, weaken, falter and die. Wings grew only to crumble; bodies were sleek, and then, in a flash bled and shrivelled; and death struck everywhere at every second. What was the use of all this blind struggle towards life, this eager trying of wings, this hurried mating, this flight and surge, all this gigantic meaningless effort?

As I stared down, seeming to see every creature’s ignoble little history almost at a glance, I felt sick at heart. It would be better if not one of them, if not one of us, had been born, if the struggle ceased forever. I stood on my tower, still alone, desperately unhappy. But now the gear was changed again, and the time went faster still, and it was rushing by at such a rate, that the birds could not show any movement, but were like an enormous plain sown with feathers. But along this plain, flickering through the bodies themselves, there now passed a sort of white flame, trembling, dancing, then hurrying on; and as soon as I saw it I knew that this white flame was life itself, the very quintessence of being; and then it came to me, in a rocket burst of ecstasy, that nothing mattered, nothing could ever matter, because nothing else was real but this quivering and hurrying lambency of being. Birds, men and creatures not yet shaped and coloured, all were of no account except so far as this flame of life travelled though them. It left nothing to mourn over behind it; what I had thought was tragedy was mere emptiness or a shadow show; for now all real feeling was caught and purified and danced on ecstatically with the white flame of life. I had never before felt such deep happiness as I knew at the end of my dream of the tower and the birds.’

Priestly tells us that not only did his meeting with Life itself change his whole perspective, but he knew deep happiness. What he describes is what the Christians called Spirit.

The Meeting that Transforms

The following personal experience happened while fully awake, but it did have powerful inner imagery with it. A group of us were meeting each week in ‘an upper room’ to surrender to the action of the spirit. The week prior to this experience I had been deeply impressed that I had blood on my hands; that I had in some way killed someone.

I was standing with others by the side of a dusty unpaved road. People were excitedly waiting for someone, and I was curious to see who it was.

It was a man, and as he walked the road he saw me and came toward me.

The man was ordinary in appearance, but as he got near to me it seemed as if a great force surrounded him that penetrated me completely. The force was love, buffeting me like waves I could barely tolerate. The man stood before me and took my hands and said, “You are my disciple.”

At this, love so immense touched me that I fell backwards, the contact too painful for me to bear, and the man walked on.

I knew who he was. I also knew, because it was welling up from within me as sure knowledge, that he was the man I had killed. It was his blood I had on my hands. It was his death I felt guilty of. But he, in some strange paradoxical way, was myself. He was the cosmic mystery I have been born as. He was the very best of myself I had killed, murdered. He was my youthful sexuality I had suffocated to death, helped by the tenets of a religion that was supposed to be teaching his way, the way of life, the way of recognising one’s cosmic link. (See Meetings With Christ).

 

Not only is there a changed perspective of life when we meet the I Am – the centre of your being – not only do we feel a radiant happiness, we also meet love.

 

Chapter Four

First Steps on the Way

To grasp the first steps in Christian Yoga you need to remember that Christ frequently taught in parables.  Such teaching by the use of analogy and symbols was not limited to the stories told, but was also given via the very events and actions of his life.  In the ancient world, much more than in the world of today, teachings were given in the form of rituals or mystery plays, stories and analogies.

If we look at the path of the Christian Yoga, it starts with birth. In The Bible story, this is the birth of Jesus. That event in the mystery play into which Jesus is born, is also true for each of us.  For Christian Yoga, unlike some aspects of Eastern Yoga, is concerned with the arrival of the individual identity or soul amidst the forces of the cosmos, not with its nirvana or blinking out and melting back into the ocean of being.  So unless there is the coming into being of a living feeling person, an identity that can make conscious choices, there is nothing to work with.  For this reason, whether as a ceremony or as a psychological fact, Christening has always been an important first step in the Christian mysteries or inner teachings.  Particularly in some denominations of Christianity it is felt to be of great importance if a baby is ill, to have it named before, or in case, it dies.  If this were not done, it is believed that its ‘soul might be lost.’

While in Japan I visited a Buddhist temple devoted to aborted babies. Prayers and remembrance were given for them.  So this recognition of the importance of naming and remembering is not limited to any one culture.

Studies of human babies who were lost at an early age and reared by animals, show that even when physically adult, the lost baby never developed a sense of identity or selfhood.  What we call ‘self’ or ‘I’ or the ‘soul’ is not innate.  It does not develop by itself.  In fact it is given to us by other human beings who have attained it.  It is a precious gift, a flame passed on to us by our parents and the society in which we are reared.  Being given a name, taught to speak, and looked upon and related to as a person, enable us to achieve identity. (See Animal Children).

You are the divine – expressed or repressed

With this in mind, God, Christ, the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary become definable forces with which we can consciously relate, in and through Christian Yoga.  For instance, when Christ says, ‘Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I” – He is describing the force of collective human love and caring. In other words, Christ is saying, “I am the force generated by people when they unite in goodwill.” It is this transcendental force (it transcends individual human action) that creates human souls by naming them, treating babies as loveable valid beings, and accepting them as welcome parts of our community.  Without that action of love and care, human identity does not properly mature, or take its place in society. In fact without it a person may never develop an awareness of the living process in nature and other people as it extends beyond the narrow boundaries of their own personality and sense impressions. They never develop a spiritual life. So here the word spiritual refers to that which exists as a reality beyond the limitations of ones own personal awareness and body.  Priestley’s dream of the birds was a spiritual experience because he was helped to look beyond the individual life and death of the birds.

But returning to the action of family and society on the growing mind and soul of the child, we can see clearly enough when we look around, that children reared in violent or abusive environments have been twisted or injured. It is therefore evident that the opposite is true. In a loving and supportive environment, a child can grow as a soul until the eternal in it shines through.

So when, as a group we approach the mystery of our own existence, we are the God who creates or destroys human souls.  In this light, Christ is the personification of collective human self-giving and supportive love, the shepherd of individual souls. But of course, Christ is both immanent and transcendent.

This is the very foundation of Christian Yoga; that we recognise our responsibility as a group and as individuals, for the creation of the massive amount of ill formed identities we find in modern society; that we attempt to move toward a more caring and humanitarian world; that as parents or adults, we recognise the part we play in transforming tiny human animals into human souls, under the guidance of Christ, which is collective human love, suffering and experience.  And out of this collective human love and suffering, we create the means of healing the deficiencies we find in ourselves, and in the care and humanity we give to each other.

Therefore, Christening as a ritual is an enactment of a baby being given a name and taken into collective human care, that it may be nurtured into healthy identity.  Christening as a psychological fact rather than a ritual, is our own recognition of that baby as a loveable being, who we agree to treat as a valid individual.  It is recognition of each person’s own unique ideas and experiences. It is an introduction to oneself as a being with a personal will. It is the respect we give to the children and people we relate to.

 

Chapter Five

How do we enter on the Way?

There are steps or stages in the discipline of Christian Yoga. The very first of these steps apart from christening, is what might be called The Turning Point. It arises from an unmistakable awareness that something is missing from your life; or it comes because of a feeling arising from an inner sense of emptiness or isolation. You may feel cut off from something you know you should be a part of. Sometimes it arises because you are faced by a great tragedy, a loss or illness confronting you with death.

In terms of the Christian story, this first step can be symbolised by the experience of Mary’s mother Anna.  A description of Mary’s parents is not given in the New Testament as it stands, but is found in the Apocryphal New Testament (Apocryphal New Testament. Protevangelion. Hone edition).  There we find the following description:

There was in Israel a man and wife known as Joachim and Anna. Although elderly, wealthy, and giving of their wealth to the Temple, they became ashamed, for they had no child. Therefore, with his unhappiness upon him, ‘Joachim retired into the wilderness, and fixed his tent there, and fasted forty days and forty nights, saying to himself, “I will not go down either to eat or drink, till the Lord my God shall look down upon me, but prayer shall be my meat and drink.” In the meantime his wife Anna was distressed and perplexed twofold, and said, “I will mourn, both for my widowhood and my barrenness”.’

When Joachim had been in the wilderness some time, ‘on a certain day when he was alone, the angel of the Lord stood by him with a prodigious light’ and said, “When God shuts the womb of any person, he does it for this reason, that he may in a more wonderful manner open it again, and that which is born appears to be not the product of lust, but the gift of God. Therefore Anna your wife shall bring you a daughter, and you shall call her name Mary.” Afterwards the angel appeared to Anna his wife saying, “Fear not, neither think that which you see is a spirit: For I am that angel who hath offered up your prayers and alms before God, and am now sent to you, that I may inform, that a daughter will be born unto you, who shall be called Mary, and shall be blessed above all women.”

This story is not being presented as history, but as a parable describing the barrenness you may feel in your life, and the longing and searching that may lead to that first touch, that first encounter with something beyond yourself. This first meeting, this first brush with something living that is beyond the narrow confines of your own personality, may be very small, or very deeply felt.  But as with the story of Joachim and Anna, usually there comes with it an assurance, a sense of meeting something good, something More.  Victor Gollancz describes his own first encounter as follows:

For an hour past I have been the prey of a vague anxiety; I recognise my old enemy – – – It is a sense of void and anguish; a sense of something lacking: what? Love, peace, God perhaps? The essence of my hell was outlawry. By the sin which, as I felt, I had committed, I had broken the links that united me with universal living: I was separate, alone, without lot or part in the everything. I had deprived myself, treacherously, of it: I had deprived it, quite as treacherously, of me.

One forenoon, when my terror and despair seemed to be at their height, and after a total insomnia that had lasted for twenty-two days, and every muscle and nerve ached, I set out for a walk with my wife. We went very slowly along a country lane… About half an hour later we turned, sharply left, into a dark and narrow path that descended: and soon came out into a great open space – a sort of water meadow, with herds grazing, and a high inland cliff just in front of us. There was dappled sunlight everywhere, and a slight breeze. I felt suddenly very still: and then I heard the inland cliff, and the grass and water and sky, say very distinctly to me, ‘A humble and a contrite heart He will not despise.’ When I say I heard them say it, I mean, quite literally, that I heard them say it; a voice came from them: but they were also themselves the voice, and the voice was also within me. I said to my wife ‘The trouble is over’, and that night I slept a little. (Quoted From Darkness To Light, ed. by Victor Gollancz. Published by Gollancz).

This contact, this meeting, comes to us because there has been an inner shift, an inner change of heart.  It is a change from believing there is nothing but your own will, your own opinions, your own power, to that of perhaps uncertainty, or towards an opening, a longing.  If this change has not happened in your life and you wish to practise Christian Yoga, then you need to cultivate the change.  Consider whether your inner condition is one that shuts out the possibility of the human spirit and love. To take the first step, take time each day meditating upon this change of heart. See if you can feel or create this within you.

Some thoughts to ponder that might help this inner shift are as follows.

• Ask yourself what power you have in the world, and how much control you have over your life. For instance you may be able to decide many of the things you do, but can you make your heart beat and digest your food? What actual independence do you have, considering that you need others to make your clothes, grow your food, build the house you live in, and so on?
• Do you actually know who you are and from what you emerged? Giving a name to your parents and grandparents is not an answer.
• Whatever attitude you have to the process of life in creatures and the universe, does it explain all the phenomena that surrounds you? Are you that wise?
• Practise recognising that your thoughts and emotions never ever reflect reality. At these times remember that if you think of a person you know, your thoughts or feelings are never ever that person. Also, what you feel and think about yourself can never ever be anything more than a tiny fragment of information.  That tiny fragment, if taken seriously, gives a totally distorted view.  To understand and to judge who you really are you would need to be completely aware of all the factors in history, and in the lives of your forebears, and in fact in the development of the cosmos, that led to your existence and to your present situation.  Likewise, when you think about events, people, political situations, always realise that you are considering with a tiny fraction of the information you really need to be wise.
• Therefore stand with some humility before the fact of your own existence and before the world. That humility may act as a leader to open your heart and mind to something more than you have experienced so far.

 

 

Chapter Six

The second step of Christian Yoga is the way of Mary

The birth of Mary symbolises this change of heart, and the life of Mary shows what can come of it. Mary as an image of your own human situation represents the possibility of a virginal mind and feelings.  Put simply this means that we drop preconceptions, we melt away fixed opinions, rigid attitudes, perhaps through prayer, meditation or perseverance.

The story of Mary beautifully illustrates this.  She is a young girl who has just started menstruation.  She is therefore fertile, open and loving.  How much more we can receive from that mysterious spirit of life that is around us and within us if we have an open and loving heart, a love that has unfolded like a beautiful flower toward the unknown mystery that we have given the name of Life or God?  Evelyn Underhill, writing under the name John Cordelier in her book The Spiral Way, has this to say about Mary:

So many had gone up the mountain to that one desired encounter; only to be thwarted by the cloud that broods upon the summit, and hides from human eyes the Shining Light within. The great prophets, poets, and philosophers of the antique world – all these had gone up, all had marked classic moments in the ascent of the race. Then came a little girl, pure, meek, and receptive: and ran easily to her destiny and the destiny of the universe because she was ‘full of grace.’ She held out her heart to the Invisible and in this act flung a bridge across the chasm that separates Illusion from Reality. Mary becomes by this circumstance the type and pattern of each human soul. Consciously or unconsciously, all are candidates for her high office. All, truly can become the mothers of God. (Published by Watkins – See http://www.evelynunderhill.org ).

The life of prayer is often spoken of as part of the Christian path.  But prayer can so easily be the mechanical mouthing of certain words, repeated over and over. We may make the movements of our mouth, we may repeat the words, but do we really experience them – do we make them an outflow of a real inner feeling? The great saints of East and West have gone beyond words and ego-directed movements, to the real changing of self. Some of the changes they made within themselves are almost universal.  This is true of the Prayer of the Virgin Soul.

The prayer of the virgin soul

The symbolism of the Virgin Mary, and the many other virgin mothers in the world’s sacred literature, show how universal a realisation this is. But if you wish to practise it, you have to make it an inner reality. In doing so you have to realise that by “inner change” is meant an inner condition, an inner state of being. It is also helpful to understand why you attempt this. It is because, until you clear at least part of your consciousness of preconceived ideas, biases, convictions, rigid emotions, unconscious habits, and so on, you cannot conceive new realisations from your own inner possibilities, you cannot give birth to the awareness of that Mystery that you are, to God. Basically this is very practical. In trying to remember someone’s name you may fail utterly because you are certain it begins with ‘S’ – when in fact it begins with ‘B’. You will never remember the name until you drop your preconception.

So the virgin posture of the soul is an attempt to bring about an inner state, an inner feeling of fertility and love towards your invisible and unknown potential – purity from preconceived ideas – the offering of your whole being as material for your potential to use in creating a new self – the act of supplication in which you let go of your thoughts, emotions and body, so they can be played upon as a piano or organ by Life. There should arise a feeling of warmth toward and desire for the unseen Life, openness to any possibility Life may have in store for you, good or bad, allied with trust. If you have a temperament capable of this, then make it an act of love, a real devotion, approaching ones darling.

When you manage to let go of what you think God or Life is, what you believe yourself to be, or what you are convinced is so about yourself and the world, then you are ready to receive something new.  Then, that divine conception can take place in you that enables the spiritual (that which exists beyond the barriers and boundaries of your own ego) to gain a foothold in you.  Then you become pregnant with new life and eventually give birth to the More of yourself in the way you live and act. This conception and the following birth will become known to you in some way.  It will be felt, or maybe shown to you in a dream.  The following is the dream of a man who for some time had been practising the way of Mary.

I dreamt I was lying in a cellar. I was myself, yet at the same time, I was my wife and another woman I loved. I was in labour, and after a time the baby was born. It was a boy, a wonderful child. The membrane covered part of its face and I pulled it away. The baby then began to breathe, and looked about, fully conscious and very alert. Then, to my wonder, it spoke the name of Jesus, and said, ‘It is gone’.

When asked what was gone, the beautiful baby replied, “The other ego, where has it gone?” I seemed to know exactly what it meant. The baby had been part of the cosmic awareness, of universal consciousness, and was now but a babe; and I said, “The cosmic still exists within you, to become known as you grow”. I then carried the baby from the cellar upstairs, and knew it to be a holy and wonderful child.

Deep within us, when we have opened to God as a virgin, in the cellar or cave of our unconscious, among the beasts of our instincts, and physical energies, the New Life tentatively begins its growth to consciousness, to birth. The star and the stable are the highest and the lowest in us uniting in this wonderful task. Joseph, our intellect and outer creativeness, difficult though he finds it to believe in this miracle, listens to his intuitions and dreams, and protects and cares for the childlike mother.

 

This new life of the spirit emerging in you, as the story of the Gospels suggest, is just a baby.  It is vulnerable.  It needs caring for and nurturing.  It needs protection against the Herod’s of the world.  It also needs recognition that the Christian drama takes place in your own life, as the following quote suggests.

Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born, but not within thyself, thy soul will be forlorn: the cross of Golgotha thou lookest to in vain, unless within thyself it be set up again. (Scheffler, a German mystic, quoted from The Perfect Way by Anna Kingsford & Maitland, Watkins, 1923) (See http://www.sacred-texts.com/wmn/cws).

Some helpful pointers to this inner posture of the soul are as follows:

• Try to shift the condition of your inner feelings to one of a young and loving girl who is opening herself to the mysterious spirit of Life. In this way you are opening not to the known, but to what is an eternal mystery.
• Remember that you are an expression of that Mystery, so it is not far off or unattainable; it just needs an open doorway into your conscious life. Open that doorway with some sense of wonder.

 

What is born this day?

When you open to the Mystery that is the foundation of your existence something happens within you. An influence starts to work in you, and this is often depicted as conception. It takes time for this gentle influence to grow, and this is why pregnancy is such an apt symbol of it.

Evelyn Underhill, ever explicit about the growth of Christ in us, says:

The long strange months of our expectation are over: that hidden certain trust of ours, that joyous consciousness of crescent spirit, ‘our own yet not our own,’ is justified at last. It is justified in the actual outbirth and appearance of that most real and mystic Life; which is so profound just because it is so simple, so far above us just because it is divinely near. Welcome all wonders in one sight, Eternity shut in a span, summer in winter, day in night, Heaven in earth and God in man, great little one, whose all-embracing birth lifts earth to heaven, stoops heaven to earth.

In terms of its symbolism the New Testament is again a wonderful statement of what happens when the divine is born in your life.  Although the newborn Jesus is recognised as a special child, there are still shown to be surrounding doubts, objections and oppositions.  This is the way it will be for most of us.  Because the wonderful thing has happened to us, it doesn’t mean we are without doubts or that we can now see our way clearly.  The growth and maturity of this new path still faces the passage of time and the complications of growth.  There will be times when the light opens and shines in your life, but there will equally be times when the darkness returns and you lose sight of the wonder that is emerging in you.  These are represented by the child Jesus talking to the teachers in the temple, (Mark 2:46), and the doubts of those around him.

Writing about this inner change, Maurice Nicoll, in his book The New Man, says:

The Gospels are from beginning to end all about this possible self-evolution. They are psychological documents. They are about the psychology of this possible inner development – that is, about what a person must think, feel, and do in order to reach a new level of understanding. The Gospels are not about the affairs of life, save indirectly, but about this central idea – namely, that Man internally is a seed capable of a definite growth. Man is compared with a seed capable of a definite evolution. As he is, Man is incomplete, unfinished. A person can bring about his or her own evolution, their own completion, individually. If he does not wish to do this he need not. He is then called grass – that is, burned up as useless. This is the teaching of the Gospels.

Nicoll also reminds us that what we are dealing with here is not the rational organised realm of thought. We are dealing with the Mystery, that which stands beyond what we understand. Therefore we cannot neatly organise it and control it. We must open to it and be fertilised by it or reject it. This is why Mary is shown with Joseph, an old man who cannot understand her condition, but nevertheless supports her.

The next major step of the path of Christian Yoga is that of baptism.

The emerging spirit in you will not take away all problems from your life.  In fact, having let go of your old certainties, your habitual rigidities and beliefs, things will emerge into life that had been buried, held back by the iron bars of your own preconceptions.  They may be painful things, dark things you have harboured at some time.  Meeting them will be your part, your work, in transforming yourself and the world; for some of what you will meet is from the long past and is the burden the world carries.

But you will also release a wonder and beauty you could not have imagined. And along with this will arise wisdom, insights that throw light on things in a new way.

What was deeply buried within you is gradually emerging. The years of maturing have passed. What has been born has grown and become known in your everyday life in some way. This ‘Jesus’ has come from your opening to the Mystery, and it is taking its place in your affairs. For this to have taken place will have required much strength, or the development of much strength. For to surrender, to open oneself to the Mystery is not an act of passive weakness. It means you have found strength enough to stand amidst your own swirling thoughts and emotions, your own doubts and fears, and remain open to what is unknown to you. That takes great perseverance and strength of purpose.

So it is this strength that brings you to baptism. John the Baptist, who through discipline makes straight the way of the Lord, represents this strength. In the New Testament the baptism is described as follows:

On the next day, he saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said, ‘After me comes a man who is preferred before me, for he was before me. (John 1:29)

‘I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.’ (Mark 1:8)

Now when all the people were baptised, it came to pass, that Jesus also was baptised – of John in Jordan – and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven which said, ‘Thou art my beloved Son: in thee I am well pleased.’ (Luke 3:21-22).

Although we may have touched that higher Life through our prayer as Mary, it can only enter into our consciousness fragmentarily while we are still largely possessed by our mental, emotional and passionate life. Like the poem, we have to be ‘waiting the Word of the Master, watching the hidden Light; listening to catch His orders in the very midst of the fight; seeing His slightest signal across the heads of the throng; hearing His faintest whisper above earth’s loudest song.’

The fight is our inner turmoil, and earth’s song our sensual impacts. It needs discipline to remain open to God and yet not closed to them, and this is our task.

The ancient mystery of baptism

The act of baptism long pre-dated the Christian community. One can find water for purification outside very ancient temples. Therefore the tradition of baptism is older than the historical Christian church.  It had its ascendance in the love a mother felt for her children, and beyond that the love she felt and gave to other children. Beyond that still, a loving woman might suckle a creature and extend her love beyond the normal boundaries.  She might hold that other child, or that creature, with the same tenderness that she held her own baby.  In such a moment she would know something that was beyond herself.  It is something that flows through all of us.  We symbolise it as the milk, the wine, or the blood.  It is the flow of love that comes from beyond our own small personality.

The urge that enables us to reach out to another person who is not our own kin, or to another creature, is a small awareness of that universal life and consciousness that pervades all things.  It is an expression of the Mystery that we can perhaps never understand, that is Life.

Baptism represents a conscious opening or an introduction to that Life. It is also an entrance into the recognition of the wider family; of that mysterious body we call Christ. We become brothers and sisters in a wider community. It takes some skill to recognise who these brothers and sisters are, and what part they might play in your life.  Calling yourself a Christian does not necessarily mean you have been truly baptised in that spirit of life and love. In fact you might still be imprisoned by attitudes of class, creed, skin colour or gender.

Fundamentally, baptism means a change in the stance or condition of your inner attitudes.  It means relinquishing fixed opinions and having an open mind.  It means opening the doors of your being to new experiences, to new possibilities, pleasurable and painful. It means learning to love without bending others to your will, without grasping them for your own needs. It also means becoming a channel for that rive of Life to flow through. For Christian Yoga does not dangle a carrot of eternal bliss, or the resolution of all human problems. “I come”, the Christ says, “not to bring peace, but a sword…. take up your cross and follow me.” What is offered is participation in everyday life and death in a new way.  We can become workers in the vineyard – that is, co-workers with the processes of growth and evolution in the worlds of nature.

Who will you be?

Which is to be your way though? Is it to be a rigid and uncompromising morality and restraint imposed upon yourself from without? It cannot be this, for Mary is a living open heart surrendered to the invisible. Any rigid morals would close the door to this action upon you. To initiate upon yourself a discipline you have read or been told, even in a holy book, is to believe that you know what is best for you. It is to say, ‘I must do this work, not God. I have grown myself from the womb by my own power, not Life. I know where I am going, and by my own efforts will get there.’ But such an attitude takes us right back to the impotent Joachim and Anna.

Obviously though, without discipline we will be lost. As Kierkegaard says: ‘To tear the will away from finite aims and conditions requires a painful effort and this effort, ceaseless repetition.’ It is this very repetition of will that enables us to follow Meister Eckhart’s message.

“I will give” he says, “a rule which is the sum of all my arguments, the key to the whole theory and practice of the truth. It very often happens that a thing seems small to us which is of greater moment in God’s sight than what looms large in ours. Wherefore it behoves us to take alike from God everything he sends us without ever thinking or looking to see which is greatest or highest or best, but following blindly God’s lead, that is to say, our own feeling, our own strongest dictates, what we are most prompted to do. Then God gives us the most in the least without fail.”

“People often shirk the least and prevent themselves getting the most in the least. They are wrong. God is everywise, the same in every guise to him who can see Him the same.”

John the Baptist is therefore a strange paradox. He is the remaining influence of the Mosaic, self-imposed law of the ten commandments imposed from without, or the Buddhist eightfold path, or the yoga self-imposed disciplines, of self-asceticism. He is our love that impels us to heroic acts of self-denial, yet is not worthy to lift the shoe latchet of Jesus. For while John may pave the way, by working from without, Jesus initiates by working from within.

Up until the point of baptism, what has been happening may be largely unconscious, but baptism represents your conscious self dipping deeply into the experience of the wider life of the spirit – a taste of eternity and its wisdom. It also represents a transition from the body centred life to the spirit centred life. This is shown by the descent of the dove. This new life is described in the New Testament:

For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it, or one member be honoured, all members rejoice with it.

The choice to make

So baptism is a definite and conscious experience. A man here describes it as he met it in a dream.

The night before leaving home to fly to Australia, dreamt I was looking at a newspaper cutting about a page in size. Near the top left was a photograph of two trees. One was down and the other upright and alive. The feature was about opening oneself to the flow of life. It was presented by an enthusiastic group of people who had a religious approach to this openness. The trees illustrated the ‘dead’ or cut off state of people who have not let the experience of this flow into them.

As I read I realised my experience and theirs was the same, but they brought to it more pleasure, more enthusiasm, more expressed sense of having something wonderful in their life. It helped me feel a greater sense of privilege about my own openness. I saw that each of us have this flow active in our body – causing our heartbeat for instance, but most people never open their ‘self’, their conscious personality to it. The group urged people to be baptised in the wonderful influence. They suggested with enthusiasm that it was worthwhile to surrender to the inner influence.

From this I renewed my ‘pledge’ to this inner life to let it vibrate or flow through me – not by will, but by getting out of the way. It moved through me and touched other people’s lives. I felt wonderful, and this has carried through into waking.

 

1. P. Barter, describing his own experience, says:

“Although the vibration resembled the impact of a caressing West wind, there was something more in it, which was other. It made me think of being under water, in a stream that was flowing gently past. At the same time it recalled the mild exhilaration that occurs when one bathes in gentle sunshine. I thought of Wagner’s Rhine music, of the Rhinemaidens beneath the water of that river, and of the Jordan in which John the Baptist did his baptising. And so it seemed that the meaning of this was baptism.” (Towards Subud, by J.P. Barter. Gollancz, 1967)

Baptism as a symbol shows the human identity, Jesus, the Son of Man, choosing to immerse himself totally in a river. Having done that, another power touches his being – the Holy Ghost, and he is acclaimed as the Son of God.  As a human person our area of choice and will is limited, and there are definite boundaries to our awareness.  Although we exist as an integral part of a body, we have very little personal awareness of what is happening at a cellular, atomic, or even organic level.  In most cases we are even largely unconscious of the social forces that gave birth to our sense of identity, and which continue to play upon our being.  Many of us are so unaware that we may even deny the existence and influence of a spiritual force acting upon us leading us to a refinement of the qualities of our soul.

Baptism means that we acknowledge how limited our choice and awareness is.  We admit how little we know about our own being, and we yearn for a fuller participation with the flowing process of life – the river. We open to that flow so that it can cleanse away the dross, and we can become aware of our transcendental life within humanity and the cosmos.

In plain language, and using the Gospels as a guide, John the Baptist represents your willingness to be washed clean by the flow of divine life in you. We each live within possibilities we hardly sense. The openness of the Mary meditation allows such possibilities to become active in your life.  From this arises the birth of a new awareness and relationship with these possibilities. Then comes the conscious willingness to surrender to the process and changes this is bringing about. Out of that you know your own divinity, represented by the descending dove.

The ancient people who wrote the gospels were not ignorant superstitious peasants. They had found a wonder in the realm of human possibility and experience. They had defined psychobiological processes and how to work with them. The details of this they had written in the manner of their times, in symbolic story form. The story is in fact an amazing document describing the hidden processes of the your life and what potentials it has.

So baptism is experienced as a flow of energy, a process working in you that brings to the surface, to consciousness, the previously unconscious pains, resentments, habits and desires, that were blocking the flow of the divine life. This cleansing may be uncomfortable. It is like a river that starts to flow in a dry riverbed. Rubbish of generations has been dropped in the riverbed, and the flow starts to push it away. It is unmistakable when it happens to you. In the terms of today’s psychology this is called self-regulation, but in terms of the Gospels, it is the divine action upon us. And this divine action is not something that happened only to ancient people two thousand years ago. The principles the early Christians described in the gospels are universal processes of nature, open to anyone in any period of history, and from any race.

Here is an explicit description of such action in the life of a man who had experienced the birth of the holy child, and had gone on to seek baptism.

For some time I had been earnestly surrendering my life to the action of God by offering my body and mind in any way. I was feeling very ill and depressed at the time, and longed for healing, but could feel no definite change. Nevertheless I sat every day with a ‘waiting’ or ‘open’ attitude. I deeply pondered the question of how the action of God showed itself. Maybe I wasn’t aware of it. I had noticed that while I slept my body experienced a subtle vibration, like you feel when you put your fingers on a smooth running electric motor; even my wife could feel it if she touched my body. But I could observe no changes in myself from this.

Then one night, B., my wife, got out of bed because the baby was crying. When she had settled I got up and went to the toilet. Just as I was getting into bed again I heard a voice speaking to me. Literally a loud voice came from everywhere around me. It said, “You have asked what are the results of God’s activity upon one – now watch closely.”

This was an extraordinary thing to experience, and waiting for sleep to overtake me again I had a mood of expectation, waiting for something to be shown me.  In the morning I remembered the following dream.

I was in a huge theatre, or amphitheatre.  The stage was on my right.  The part of the play I observed was where the actor walked up to a mirror and looked at himself.  Then somehow the activity gradually began to take place on my left.  First of all an orchestra was playing on a slope facing left.  Then everybody was moving to see a big event that was going to take place on the left.  This was at the opposite end to the stage.

There was no immediate ‘big event’ in my life apart from the voice and the dream. But looking back I can see from my dreams and outer life that an enormous process of preparation was taking place. This culminated in the pouring up from within me of old hurts, such as childhood medical operations, and inflicted traumas. It took several months between hearing the voice and the start of these outpourings. But the result was that healing had begun, and it carried me toward a level of wholeness and a sense of the eternal life, that I had never known before.

 

 

 

Chapter Seven

The Third Step

 

Step three is a logical outcome of the last stage.  Depending upon how much you dare to allow yourself to experience what was previously rejected or unconscious, to that degree you begin to find a type of awareness and an experience you had never known before.

Overall, this inner life can best be described as a deeper acquaintance with the human condition.  It is dramatically illustrated in Moody’s book ‘Life after Life’ in which many cases of apparent continuations of consciousness after clinical death are reported.  Revived from their seeming death by electric shock to the heart, or other means, the subjects frequently reported meeting a being of light.  This being asked them a question that might be worded as, “What harvest of experience have you brought with you?” In some cases the being then led the person through full remembrance of every event in their life.  During this they felt the impact of seeing where they had withheld love, missed opportunity, hurt others and missed expressing what was best in them.

You need not die to learn the lessons of your own life.  In Christian Yoga you meet your spiritual life because you have let go of the rigid hold you had on our own mind and heart.  Then you come face to face with the universal consciousness of the Christ. In a series of deepening contacts you burst your own previous boundaries of awareness.  Out of this continuing relationship you are led to see the real inner life, not only of yourself, but also of humanity.  You see its triumphs and beauty; you see its poverty and suffering, and you see its fear and courage.  You gradually view the enormity of change you have weathered in growing up, and how many people never manage to mature emotionally or mentally in confrontation with the world.  You witness the struggle of middle age, where you see the end of life approaching, and sometimes hide from it, or attempt to resist it by holding onto the past.  You see the continual war of forces and powers in human society, where people attempt to snare or farm others and enslave their will with threats, promises, fears and other goads and baits.

The changes that baptism brings are understandable rationally if you follow what has been described of the internal, psychological and physiological events that Christian yoga brings about.  To make this clear I will use the analogy of a plant bulb such as a daffodil or tulip.  If you have a healthy bulb that is not yet planted, the bulb can represent potential.  In this case, there is the potential of healthy leaves, a large and full coloured flower, and then fertilisation and the forming of seeds.  But if the bulb is planted in poor soil, if it is injured in some way or attacked by parasites, that potential will not be fully expressed.

If we apply this to ourselves, we each have not only the potential of healthy physical growth, but also that the full flowering of our mental and emotional capabilities.  But there are so many things that can interfere with this.  It is fairly well documented now that a difficult birth can bring about a major block against full expression of the growing personality.  And then there are the many possibilities of pains and traumas throughout the years of our growth.  Only today I received a letter from a woman who is a professional nanny working for a wealthy family with three children.  The parents decided to take a holiday in Italy without their children, leaving the nanny to care for them.  The youngest child, three years old, began to sleep badly and crying often quite soon after the parents left.  The older child of six was okay for two weeks but then started wetting the bed.  The parents made no connection between their absence and the bed-wetting or the child crying so frequently.  Many parents have no idea of how dependent their children are upon their presence.  So they would never consider absence would create a trauma.  But these are the possible events that together create a series of blocks against the expression of our own potential.

These blocks in fact create something like a dam behind which lies an enormous amount of mental and emotional energy.  When, through beginning to melt away the emotional, mental, and attitudinal blocks through taking on the posture of the virgin, a massive flow of energy starts.  This is what causes the shaking, the experience of vibration, the flushing out of past traumas reported by the people quoted above.

Having this type of living inner life is not always comfortable.  Neither is adolescence, but do you wish to remain a child?  The pleasure of it is the sharing of the labours of life in the garden where life grows souls. For in some degree you become a worker in that vineyard.  Besides which, having the privilege of being near the Master not only breaks our heart, shattering the brittle casings we may have guarded it with, but it also fills us with the joy of that wider life that the Christ is. The following dream told by Peter expresses something of this wonder.

I was walking out of a town. It felt like the end of the world, or the end of society. I was walking through lots of churches standing empty on a hillside, surrounded by grass. There were all types, strongly built but empty now. I walked past a married couple who were walking up the hill too. As I passed I heard them say something about a shepherd. Looking up the hill I saw the sheep, then The Shepherd. A beautiful aura of many colours surrounded The Shepherd. I looked and felt joy and exuberance rise in me, and I ran to the couple saying it was THE Shepherd. When I stood with the Shepherd I felt love and wonder in a way I had never experienced before. I had never met anyone who, just standing near them filled me with awe, and a sense they were more than human. I fell on my knees. I couldn’t help it. Peter M.

Of course, there are hesitations and stages to meet on this journey. One of them is the decision of whether or not to give ones whole life to this impulse. Andrew describes this in the following way:

I was searching, in meditation, to experience what was central in me. This led to the great question,  “What is the life process I am? What gives me awareness?”

The feelings and images that arose as I began to explore this were of me as a person living in a world in which there is a huge organisation or ‘company’ that influences everything and everybody. My question of what was the centre led me to sense myself as someone considering whether or not to join this massive organisation. At first my feelings were that if I did I would be another cog in the huge machinery of its massive workings – perhaps like a worker in a huge government office. I felt threatened by this, as if I would lose my identity. But the organisation would not go away simply because I tried to ignore it, so I decided I would join. What other option was there if the Company, Life, was everywhere?

Still feeling a bit threatened I met the manager – not God – but someone experienced in the place. He welcomed me and assured me that there would be no attempt to take away my identity as Andrew. In fact it would be useful to the organisation if I continued to live and work in my accustomed manner. The only change would be that I was given a gadget like a bleeper. It represented intuition. Through intuition I could link with the Whole – the united being of the organisation of Life. This link would guide, not control, my individual activities to help me harmonise with the overall working of Life. This felt wonderful, so simple and clear. Behind the smallness of my personal being lay the immensity of Life, of which I was a linked part, living my individual life yet working with the whole.

At this point in your growing awareness of the divine in you, you might think, ‘This has arisen from myself. I am doing this.’ You are wrong.

Or you might say, ‘This is God’s work, its influence is completely beyond me.’ You are wrong. This is from your own self and its influence is completely beyond you!

People then ask, ‘Am I doing this, or is God doing this to me?’ the answer is ‘YES.’

 

Chapter Eight

The Wilderness Years

There cannot help but be a repercussion, a response in your life to the new energy and potential you are releasing.  This is represented by Jesus going into the wilderness and being tempted by the devil.  It is described in the New Testament as follows:

And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted by the devil. And in those days he ate nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. And the devil said to him, ‘If you be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.’

And Jesus answered him, saying, ‘It is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’ And the devil, taking him up into a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

And the devil said to him, ‘All this power will I give you, and the glory of them: for that is delivered to me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If you therefore will worship me, all shall be yours.’

And Jesus answered and said, to him, ‘Get you behind me Satan: for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve’.

And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, ‘If you be the Son of God, cast yourself down from here: For it is written, He will give his angels charge over you, to keep you: and in their hands they will bear you up, lest at any time you dash your foot against a stone’.

And Jesus answering said to him, ‘It is said, You shall not tempt the Lord thy God’.

And when the devil had ended all the temptations, he departed from him for a season. (Luke 4:1-13)

Everything new is confronted by the old.  In our everyday activities habits serve us well.  Without them we would not be able to stand, walk, or talk.  Some habits we have created simply through repetition, such as those in learning to ride a bicycle or drive a car.  But some have been etched into us by great pain, by punishment and reward, or by the enormous pressure of social opinion and peer pressure. The outcome of all this is that we respond to the world and to our own urges and perceptions in particular or predictable ways.  These responses are not necessarily well thought out.  They may not serve us well.  How often have we heard of a person making the same mistakes again and again; or of a man or woman who consistently fall in love with partners who are apparently trying to destroy them?

Therefore the temptations described in the New Testament are subtle commentaries on the habitual responses that often arise out of our own inner darkness and pain.  If not that, then they have arisen out of perceptions of the world that tell us there are no living connections between ourselves and other people, between ourselves and the rest of the universe.

The Personal Desert

In 1927 Buckminster Fuller stood on the shore of Lake Michigan contemplating suicide. He said to himself: ‘I’ve done the best I know how and it hasn’t worked.’ He was still grieving the loss of a daughter who had died five years earlier; his business had just failed. He was penniless and 32 years old. He wondered how he could support his wife and newly born baby, but, after struggling with his despair for hours in the dark and the freezing wind, he decided to live the rest of life like an experiment. He wanted to discover whether the golden rule of life was dog eat dog. He would find out by seeing what could be physically demonstrated. To free his mind of conditioned thinking and reflexes he stopped talking for a year because reading  Korzybski had convinced him that language structures caused conditioned associations or mechanical reactions that lock us in fixed perceptions. When he began to talk again he refused to use the words up or down, because there is no up or down in the universe. He also saw, as one of his insights gained through experience, that the golden rule was, ‘If I worked always for others and only for all humanity, I would be optimally effective.’

Buckminster Fuller went on from there to design the Dymaxion House, which was mass producible; the Dymaxion world map, which is the only flat map with hardly any distortion; the Geodesic Dome; the Floating Breakwater, and to become one of the world’s great prophets of a sane, human future, coining the phrase ‘Spaceship Earth.’

Bucky Fuller managed to step out from behind his habits, his conditioned responses, and create a new life.  In fact from failure he managed to express his amazing potential and leave an indelible mark in the world.

The shore of Lake Michigan was Bucky Fuller’s wilderness.  It depicts exactly the situation we will each meet in our own way at this stage.  The wilderness confronts us with a choice.  On this stretch of the way you will have experienced for yourself the realisation of eternity and the recognition that your thoughts and emotions can never encompass reality.  Therefore any sense of failure you might have, any rigid judgments you make about yourself and others, any belief you entertain that money and power alone will give you happiness or wholeness, can be seen as illusions.  The problem is that old habits, old responses, will tempt you to follow these illusions because for all your life they have been what you have taken as truth. So the choice is this; will you follow your old habits and your old illusions, or will you trust your sense of the eternal and your awareness of the life beyond the paradox of right and wrong, good and evil?

Trials and Difficulties

Another feature of the wilderness is that you feel you have touched the heart of things, and although you have had an experience of being part of everything, there is now nothing.  Perhaps the events that have led to this point have been extraordinary in their intensity and variety.  You may feel you have made the great Voyage, travelled a wonderful Odyssey, and yet at the end of it what is there to show? Where is the Golden Fleece?

This is a difficult time.  There aren’t many wise words to say about it, it’s just has to be lived through.  But it does seem to be a time of adjustment.  Up until the wilderness the transcendent, the divine, always appeared as something external, something you might achieve or reach one-day.  Then, on meeting it, it disappears.  At least, it disappears as an external, as something separate.  The adjustment then, is one of recognising that what appears to have been lost is a part of ordinary everyday life, and the moment-by-moment contacts and relationships you meet. What you had as an apparent external reality now needs to be roused and seen as yourself, your own potential.

Another thing that may happen is the falling away of many ambitions, activities and directions, that previously seemed very important.  Perhaps they were important enough for you to believe that without them life would be meaningless.  But here they are dropping away, and you may feel very confused.  The confusion arises because the activities were connected with a belief you had that the activities or directions made your life worthwhile, that through them there was something you had achieved or could be proud of.  As they drop from your life you may be left empty-handed, and with the feeling that you are achieving nothing, going nowhere, losing power.

You are in the Middle of Things

Yet, as your expanded awareness has shown you, you are in the middle of things.  There is nowhere that you are disconnected.  Your life has meaning simply through existing.  Yet why aren’t you being used?  Why are you wandering alone in a wilderness?

Those questions have to be answered by you.  For how are you going to reconcile timelessness with the passage of time?  In your time bound world every day, especially every year, must be filled in a way that satisfies your own perception of achievement or power.  But yet, as someone close to me once told me, “Your life is just a gap in eternity.”

The following is the dream of someone passing through the wilderness:

A few nights ago I dreamt I was with a group of people walking in very dry, desert type countryside. It was like I imagine Egypt to be – or as I saw Israel. We were walking somewhere quite purposefully, but I was not aware of where the goal was. I was caring for a younger man who was not mentally alert, or at least appeared to need looking after. Our path took us into a rock tunnel cut into a huge rocky hill. The tunnel was large and with a well-worn path, and with enough height to easily stand. It was dry and comfortable. Deep within the tunnel we entered a huge cavern that spread for over a hundred yards to our left. The others in the group were ahead of us and out of sight, but the young man and I stood and looked at the cavern that was not at all dark or dismal. What was so remarkable was that on the floor of the cave, entirely covering it were thousands of shoes. I knew a race or tribe of people who had been on a great exodus had left them. They had left their homeland and travelled through this tunnel. The shoes had been left as a sign of the great journey, the great change they had undergone – as if they had left all behind. I felt it had happened long ago.

In exploring this dream, the dreamer said:

I realise this dream is about my readiness to move on. I am ready to make this change. I am ready to let go of the past – I need help to unburden myself of all I have been – like these other people have with their shoes. The past is so powerful though. While we are still living in the old country there is still the sense that we can make reparation. There is still time to change, to make amends. One is making reparation by staying. But when one decides to leave – then I am faced by the finality of what I have done, and that it may never be undone.

I have mourned at that grave so long though. I have wept so many tears over it, to remain would be sickness. There are few tears to shed now, they have fallen in the past. There are regrets, but they are regrets that are not binding me or keeping me in the tomb. So in this way the cave is like the tomb one dies in or is resurrected from.

So now I have the feeling that although I am ready to move on I am in a state of preparation – getting my bag packed, putting my kit-bag/rucksack on. I have left my shoes in the cave, paid homage at the shrine of the dead or the past. I have what may be an old pattern emerging though. In looking forward to change I keep expecting something amazing to happen.

The change is that I have made up my mind not to go back into the old rigid roles of trying to live in a particular way – trying to be something in particular – struggle for recognition and make a name for myself.

 

Chapter Nine

The Whole is Greater than the Part

In a certain way things never end.  The tree can never depart from its roots.  It still needs the life of the earth.  As strong as it may become there are still tender and vulnerable twigs and buds somewhere on it.  Nothing is taken away, but much is added.

So it is with your own growth.  You still remain a vulnerable human being, and yet so much is added that mitigates your tenderness.

The Human Spirit

Through Christian Yoga you gradually come to recognise that your Spirit is the central fact of your being.  Through the awareness of this you arrive at a greater personal peace, and harmonise with your innate nature, without having to join any sect or give yourself to a rigid set of beliefs.  You may also meet and converse with the master, and receive the teachings at first hand.

Achieving this means that you have transcended your own previous state of awareness.  When you transcend your own needs, your own biological, social, sexual needs, and reach across what may be a huge gap that separates you from another being, you change something in yourself.  From the most ancient of times some men and women have done this to extraordinary degrees.  Just as society has built physical and sociological structures that have evolved into what we can see and live within today – for instance we live within this body today that is a physiological structure gradually developed over millions of years  – so, behind that is another structure brought by these extraordinary men and women.  Like our body, like our language, like the social rules and attitudes we live within, this other structure is built out of thousands of lives and endeavours.  As with language it is the accumulation of an unimaginable synthesis of human feeling, action and thought. We have this heritage of extraordinary human action. It is the spirit we open to when we accept baptism. It is the gift we are offered by proxy at christening. It is represented by the blood of Christ.

The mystery of you

This is so important it needs to be made very plain, otherwise you proceed along this path of Christian Yoga in a fog of misunderstanding. Most of us now understand that the body we inherit from our parents is the result of the physical and mental characteristics of countless forebears.  Your physical body, and who you are as a person, have not arisen from a vacuum.  The details of this are becoming more and more understood as thousands of researchers dig deeper and deeper into the mysteries of the genetic code.  But our science has been sadly lacking in helping us to understand what is meant by the human soul, and the human spirit, and unless we have some grasp of these we remain vulnerable in our journey towards a fuller spiritual life.

Just as the human body emerges from immense past action and experience, so do the intangible aspects of your own personal awareness and mind.  As already mentioned in previous paragraphs, without your relationship with parents, family and the people around you, you would never have developed the ability to speak and think.  The language you inherit, like the body you inherit, is the result of enormous human experience, thought, struggle and sometimes bitter hardship.  That immense gift comes to you through your relationship with those around you. But there is another gift that arises with barely any awareness of its impression upon you.  This is the gift of behaviour, or more precisely, behavioural responses.  From the moment you are born, perhaps even prior to that, you are learning, or there are pressed upon you, responses to what you are experiencing.  The culture you are born into is a huge ready-made set of behavioural responses.  For instance, an Australian aborigine would easily respond to a huge living grub/caterpillar by eating it.  This would be a very difficult behavioural response for most Northern Europeans or Americans.

Without knowing it, without thinking of it or being aware of it, when we make decisions or choose directions, or simply decide what to eat, we are drawing upon our own massive behavioural pool.  That may appear to be basic psychological insight, and you may wonder what it has to do with the human spirit.  Perhaps you will have a clearer view of this if you consider just for a few moments a little of human history.  Remember the immense bloodshed, the torture, the constant conflicts between different nations and religions, the struggle of countless individuals to survive, to care for their children and those they loved.  As was said earlier, your behavioural responses do not emerge from a vacuum.  They emerge out of history.  What you do today has its roots in what took place yesterday – even in the long past – as it says in the Bible – unto the third and fourth generation. And those roots are passionately feeding upon those past struggles, the past triumph, the times of transcending evil and war. If you do not understand this, then you do not understand the human soul.  You do not understand yourself, and the passions and pains you are moved by. For the human soul is that great pool of inherited human experience and responses, only part of which you recognise and call your own – yourself. In fact your soul is the part of that grand inheritance that you recognise and are aware of.

Bathing in the ocean of Life

Beyond that lies the human spirit.  To arrive at a glimpse of this is a little more difficult than understanding the human soul.  The problem is that we live our lives virtually unconscious of what moves us, and the subtlety of our own motivations.  Perhaps we can have some understanding of this if we have travelled widely.  Many of the things we do in our daily life are, as said, done completely unconsciously.  If we have the good fortune to live for a while in a totally different culture, sometimes we are made aware of things about ourselves we never previously noticed. (For instance in Thailand it is very bad manners to sit at a level above the head of the family you are visiting.) So, perhaps you might be able to accept that there are things you do, the whole broad sweep of your life, maybe arising out of subtle things within you that you are presently not aware of.

All of us, in fact, are living deeply immersed in the influence of the spirit.  The directions, the difficulties, the triumphs we achieve, arise out of our spirit.  This spirit that guides us and we are immersed in unconsciously, is the essence, the distillation, of all life experience. This essence, this distillation, when we meet it is experience as a great ocean of consciousness that we merge into, losing a sense of boundary, of ego. Or sometimes it is felt as a dropping away of your boundaries and a realisation with wonder and love that in reality you are this ocean of life.

With a little self-observation it becomes fairly obvious what part language and behavioural responses have in your life.  With training you can become more fully aware of how and from where these arise in you.  The impress of the spirit is subtler, but likewise with self-observation it can be experienced.  Meeting the spirit is a profound experience. It is this meeting that is the aim of Christian Yoga. It may be a very personal meeting with Christ, or it may be an opening to the vastness of the spirit in a less personal way. Whatever it is, you will know your life is more that your body, more than the smallness of your personal experience in this one life.

But to grasp what it is before you meet it is akin to a person born blind trying to grasp what light and colour are. We understand things because we experience them. Of course we are constantly experiencing the spirit, but we are so immersed in it we fail to ‘see’ it until the coverings fall away. It is what remains when physical sensations, thoughts and emotions drop away. It is naked awareness – consciousness without the clothing of thoughts or imagery, or sound or smell. Sometimes one arrives at it while practising relaxation, meditation or prayer. Deep relaxation can uncover it occasionally because your personal awareness drops away until, occasionally, it is as if you fall into sleep with a spark of awareness. Then, in that place, you lose any sense of your body, and all thoughts melt away. All that is left is an ocean of living awareness, that you know in some way has always existed through all time. You experience a sense of being in the timeless and universal essence of life.

The Time of Becoming

Although there are stages in your flowering; although there are experiences you pass through, like the cleansing and the wilderness, all this comes about because you continue to remain open to that invisible yet felt influence that came to you when you dropped the preconceptions and limitations of your mind and heart. Out of this emerges the potential being you held within you from birth. This flow is continuous if you remain open to it. The following account describes a meeting with this power, and what can come of it.

I felt as if I were falling down a long hole, like Alice in Wonderland. The observing part of me understood that I was dropping backwards through my whole life. At times I seemed to bang into things, or bump off things, and these were the painful times in my history. At one point I wondered if I were experiencing some sort of healing regression, but I only touched the events of my life as I fell back.

Eventually I came to rest. It was wonderfully peaceful, and even my thinking had stopped. I didn’t have any feelings of having a body or shape. I simply existed. Again the observing part of me wondered if this was the womb, but it quickly became apparent, or I knew, that this wasn’t the womb, it was the basic level of my awareness, how it felt to be before thinking and speech. I began to feel afraid as I realised that if I dropped any further back I would cease to exist. Then I knew the fear was unnecessary as every time we go to sleep we drop back into the condition where we lose any sense of personal existence, yet we emerge none the worse the next day. So I let myself drop.

Suddenly I was aware that something held me. It was the process that had grown me from seed in the first place. My ego had not created me or grown me. But now this deep part of me was unfolding me again, like a plant opening. I felt it was the very source of life itself, and it cared for me and had grown me from a tiny seed in my mother’s womb. I guess this is what people call God, and I understood that we each have this force at our centre. As I watched it working in my body and life, I had a clear sense of it communicating with me. I understood from it that if I opened to it each day, if I surrendered to its action each day, then it would grow me to a fuller life and realise itself in me. Things, qualities or talents would unfold as I was grown. This felt like a holy gift, that the mystery of life would live in me and know itself in me, and when this happened others would find shelter and strength in my life.

As this account suggests, you must remain open to this influence from the core of your being. If you do, then there is a flowering of things that were latent in you, and eventually the mystery at your core will know itself in your life. You will wake up to the mystery you are. It is this that the gathering of the disciples suggests. It has the double meaning of following the impulse of that love and unfolding that is emerging, the discipline or training of that – and also the emergence of the various aspects of you, the disciples.

 

Chapter Ten

The confusion of discipline

Looking back at some of the disciplines of past Christians, especially the ascetics and monastic orders, it is obvious there is great confusion about what opened ones conscious self to the spirit. They often seem, when they describe flagellation and extremes of abstinence, to have looked at the letter rather than the law. In Buddhism there is a saying that there is a finger pointing at the moon, but most people look at the finger and forget that it is the moon that is being pointed at.

In the case of disciplines necessary in Christian Yoga, the method is secondary to the aim. Rebecca Beard, who was a regular medical doctor, but became a healer recognising the place of the spirit in the sick persons life, says of this discipline:

The noon meditation was difficult for many reasons. I found it difficult to sit quietly while the potatoes burned. A friend lived with us who did some of the cooking. When she put the potatoes on and forgot them, I could hardly resist going to the rescue when I smelled them burning. To be able to say, ‘There are other pans; there are more potatoes; there is only one kingdom of heaven; seek ye the kingdom of heaven; seek ye the kingdom FIRST’ was real discipline.

To understand the place of discipline on this path, you must remember base principles. It is the ‘discipline’ of the Virgin Prayer that allowed the birth of a new sense of the divine, of the wider life. Nothing you could do can MAKE that happen. You open by dropping preconceptions, rigid opinions, fixed ideas or beliefs about God or yourself, and trust the Mystery at your core to do its work. What happens is a natural process of growth and unfoldment. You can help it by remaining receptive and observant, but you cannot create it yourself by effort or force.

Unfortunately a great deal of information about being ‘religious’ or spiritual suggests that it is only by being ‘good’; by following certain rigid moral principles; by controlling appetites and desires; by killing out any sign of badness in you, that you can attain real spirituality. This is a completely false direction, a sort of cul-de-sac of your potential growth.

Do you have to be ‘good’ to reach heaven?

When a baby grows toward childhood and youth, we feed it with nourishing food, with a variety of experience and opportunities to explore possibilities. It learns to walk as it’s body and mind become capable and interested in walking. There is no need for punishment or huge processes of discipline to make this happen. The same with learning to go to the toilet. Although many people try to train their child to use a potty, the child will do this quite naturally as it matures to the point where it is easy for it to control its bladder and bowels without enormous stress and fear of not pleasing its parents.

The unfoldment of your potential does not come from ‘self-development’. It emerges as it is allowed to grow. The evil or darkness in us falls away because the beauty and ease in you grows; because you grow in wisdom and insight, not because you forcibly control yourself to be different.

However, this attitude of allowing growth needs to be balanced by another. Sometimes we are so controlled by fears, by habits, by anger and bitterness that we cannot allow the inner growth to start or continue.  A man’s dream illustrates this:

I was in a prison cell with two other men. We ate, slept and defecated in the cell. I was standing at the bars of the cell, and had the impression of having been in the prison for years. I was shouting and cursing the people who had put me in the prison, full of hate and self-pity. Suddenly I realised that my years of shouting had availed nothing. The only person who was upset by it was myself. I was the victim of my own anger and turmoil. I dropped the attitudes and was free of them. Years went by and one by one I dropped other habits of emotion and thought with which I had trapped and tortured myself. I realised I could be totally free within myself.

One morning I woke and sat up on the mattress on the floor that was my bed. The last ghost of inner entrapment fell away. A fountain of joy opened in my body, pouring upwards through me. So intense was it I cried out. The cellmates called a warden. They stood looking at me as I experienced a radiance so strong I felt as if I must be shining. I was aware my joy poured into them, although they thought I was mad. Nothing would ever be the same again.

The discipline of self-awareness

There was a discipline involved here, that of recognising what held the dreamer prisoner – anger, fear, resentment. The joy was there all the time. It didn’t need to be developed, just released. This is a subtle point, the difference between trying to develop ones spiritual joy, and allowing it to emerge. It is a point that needs re-evaluating again and again.

Here is another dream illustrating the sort of situations we might need strength to move out of:

In my dream I was watching a man who insisted on living in a small stable like room that was foul with his faeces and urine.  He wouldn’t go out or clean it and his clothes too were filthy.  He wouldn’t be helped, but blamed his condition on anything and anyone but himself.  As I watched though, he came to the point of accepting responsibility for his own condition.  He came out, and we then happily asked if we could put his clothes in the washing machine.  He started a new life.

The dreamer says of his dream:

As I explored my dream I saw that it is a frequent factor in people to need a problem to stimulate us to activity.  But I saw/felt an attitude I had in which I loved to have problems or shit.  I saw that again and again, when talking to people I would describe this shaky condition I was in, the problems I faced, the difficulties I had.  For instance, I might say, “It’s OK for someone like you, you’re not so anxious.  You didn’t have such a bad start.  You have more money.  You have more luck on your side, etc, etc.”  I just revelled in the shit.

Looking at my dream helped me see that I use this defense because I am anxious life or people will ask something of me.  If I have a nice problem, I can run back and hide in it.  It helps me escape the necessity of saying, “What you are asking makes me feel anxious.  I’m afraid I might fail.  Don’t ask me for love or help, it frightens me.”

The task that Hercules faced, of cleansing the stables illustrates the same human difficulty – moving out from the muck that traps or holds us. Hercules diverted the river, and the power of that cleansed the stables. Likewise, the flow of life, or spiritual energy flowing through you by opening to it, has a natural cleansing effect. But you might need to do some work on unwieldy parts of yourself to get that action flowing.

Have you got it – or has it got you?

Firstly, we cannot let go of something and offer it to the spiritual action if it has hold of us. If you have a tiger running around your house you would avoid it at all costs unless you had a way of immediately being in control of it. So it is with your own fears and pains. Unless you can stop their attack, you avoid them, run from them, and in fact let them unconsciously control your decisions and actions. Of course, you need help and a greater power than your own conscious resources to totally grow beyond such fears and pains. But often you cannot even open yourself to that greater influence while they have a strong hold on you. Without knowing it you resist the action of the divine in your life.

One of the simplest ways to begin loosening the hold such things have on you is daily meditation. There are so many methods, and in one way it doesn’t matter which one you use as long as you understand what the point of it is.

If this is explained you will grasp what is meant. So, for the sake of the explanation, let us say that each day you spend half an hour sitting and quietly looking at a blank sheet of paper or a white wall. You are not trying to get anywhere, reach any higher state of consciousness, or achieve a goal – just looking. Quite soon you might get restless, you mind will wander. Perhaps on that first day, or on subsequent days the question will arise as to what the point of this is. Maybe you still remain sitting, or you give up and go back to watching the TV or reading a book, or visit a friend.

Well, what has happened is that as you sit and look at the paper without goal, all the things that usually have a hold on your decisions start to come to the fore. They will attack your awareness. They will do this again and again, getting stronger and stronger. But if you quietly continue they will cease to trouble you. They have lost their hold on you, and now you have a hold on them.

 

Chapter Eleven

Healing of the Blind Man

The path of Christian Yoga is not simply about being inspired, it is about personal transformation, about giving birth to a new being, about being cleansed and healed.

In the New Testament one of the first things that Jesus does is to heal the blind man. This is an important statement. It declares that the power you open to can heal you. It can make you whole.

This possibility of healing does not need to be argued. It has proven itself uncountable times. However, if you are one of the unfortunates who are trapped in a view of the world in which such healing cannot take place, you may need some sort of proof, and some guidance as to where to look for such proof.

Kathryn Kuhlman held regular non-denominational healing services at Carnegie Auditorium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Seven thousand people crowded in regularly. The sick were carried in helpless on stretchers, and many walked out. The maimed were healed, the dying given life. Take Paul Gunn, for instance; his case is on records at the Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh. When he was dying of advanced cancer of the lung, he attended a Kathryn Kuhlman service, and says, ‘Suddenly the power of God came down. It hit me and just for an instant the sensation of burning fire in my lung was more intense than it had ever been before. And then it was all over – just like that.’ Back at the hospital fresh X rays, lab tests and bronchoscopy showed no cancer whatsoever.

Kathryn Kuhlman often asked the vast assembly of people to concentrate their love and prayers on just one person. Considering that we create much of the physical world, our body included, with the power flowing through body, mind and emotions, think of what is happening when 7,000 people all hold one idea for one person. The so called solid physical reality metamorphoses under the impact. (See: The Kathryn Kuhlman site.)

What happened to Paul Gunn was an immediate healing. This has happened to thousands of people all over the world when they opened to that unlimited power underlying your existence. But even if in your own case there is not an immediate healing, there can and will be a slower miracle when you open your life and being to the spirit.

Do not be hesitant about seeking this healing and wholeness. It is offered to you as a gift. It is given free when you seek your place in the scheme of things and are willing to become a part of that great body of Christ.

The healings described in the New Testament are true both physically and psychologically. The healing of the blind man represents not only the possibility of physical healing, but also the healing or removal of those things that blind you to your true condition – to your true place in the scheme of things – to the wonderful possibilities that are latent in you.

From Death to Life

When Dr. Rebecca Beard experienced a heart attack, she was told by fellow doctors that the next attack might be the last. In her book Everyman’s Mission she describes what happens as follows:

When my colleagues – I being a doctor – said to me, ‘You must put your affairs in order, for you cannot hope to go through another heart attack and live,’ I was brought to such an extremity. There was nothing more to be done. There was nowhere to turn. Yet, when I sought help from another source, I was moving into unknown territory.

Up to that time I had faith of a kind, but like a great many people today who have been educated in material science, it was faith in an intelligence which gives rise to order and dependability of natural law. Whilst I knew that behind the everything was an unchangeable power and intelligence, I had not come to a place where I could actually touch that power intimately. Only when my physical need became desperate did I begin my outreach for this same power which I felt, instinctively, must be integral in the spiritual world.

It was very difficult. Everything I had tried to do seemed to be ending in a blind alley. I cannot say that I prayed for healing. I prayed for deliverance. As I went down on my knees for the first time in my life both figuratively and literally, I asked for contact with the order which I felt was in the universe about me. I needed an immediate awareness of the intelligence responsible for that order. I wanted the comfort and love and a sense of being cherished and cared for. Whether that contact brought life and strength back to my body or whether it took me on into further expression in another life did not seem much to matter at the time.

I had a deep sense of the on-goingness of life. The vehicle through which I was expressing might change, but I felt life itself would go on. I had a sense of its continuity – that it is always moving on, never stopping. So my plea was, ‘Either take me out of this expression which I seem to have snarled up so pitifully and put me into a fresh expression in which I can at least begin with parallel threads in my loom, or in some way, which is beyond my comprehension, untangle these threads and let me start afresh here.’

The illumination that followed was so profound that for hours afterwards I was scarcely aware of my surroundings. I could as easily have been transported to another realm as to have been there in the room that was familiar to me. Everyone had left the house for the day and the night. I was alone and uninterrupted. There was nothing to disturb the long silence and the almost unconscious state in which I struggled towards an unknown source of strength.

At first as I knelt by my bed and looked at the wall before me I saw a black cross outlined there. It was terribly black; there was no light in it. But as I groped and asked, light came into that cross, and it was not light similar to the light of combustion. It was not a flame. I recall clearly that the outline of the cross was never blurred or indistinct as flames would have blurred it. Nothing leaped over the edge of it. But it was white with a whiteness I cannot describe for there is no whiteness that I know that is like it. It was luminous and it was alive, but it was not fire or flames as we see them. Nor was the illumination only a visual thing. The change from black to light still stands as a symbol to me of the change that comes in people through conversion or through physical healing. It is a change from negative to positive, a change from the blackness of despair, frustrations and helplessness to the revelation of light in life, a glimpse of the reality – the real life – which is behind the observed life.

“Before morning came, I managed to get up and throw myself on the bed. I was there all the next day. I knew I was healed Moreover, I knew that the rest of my days would be given to witnessing to that light and to that power which was able to untangle the threads I had snarled and bring them again into order. See: Everman’s Search

Dr. Beard was healed of her physical condition and her blindness to the possibilities resident in everybody.

Any act, thought, emotion or passion out of harmony with our own wholeness is a form of sickness, or contributes toward it. When the Light begins to flow through us more freely, our real experience of healing and teaching takes place. For every healer is also a teacher; and every teacher worthy of the name is in some way a healer. I mean by this that if we become more whole, even if we do not stand on the street corner and preach, we are a living example and an influence in the lives of others.

Preach to the Poor

So the ‘gospel is preached to the poor’, if only to the poverty within ourselves. The poor are those who lack Life, are without or incapable of Love, and have no Power to grow in spiritual stature. The poor are the people who bemoan their fate; or those who can see nothing beyond the material objects of the world; or who feel life lacks a purpose and a wonder, for they are all without spiritual riches.

The ‘broken hearted are healed’. Jesus within tells us that only when we rigidly demand that love must come to us from one person in one way only, do we experience pain and desolation in our relationships. The sensualist may demand love must come only through the physical sex act; the heart-centred person may demand love must come only through the affections, and through just one person of their choice; the intellectual may demand that love must be a shared experience of ideas and concepts. In this way they shut the door to their own wholeness.

Love can come from a child reaching its hand to us. Love can flow between two lovers, skin to skin, wet with their own exuberance. A dog’s shining eyes call out love to us if only we listened. A flower casting its perfume on the air – authors giving themselves to us in their words – an artist, a musician – all creators, shower us with their love in their own reproductive acts. A husband who stands and irons, or holds the baby, is giving as much love in their own way as the one who caresses the breast. The teacher loves us by being there day after day.

So too the dentist, baker, doctor, coal-man, they all give us as much love as they are capable of releasing and we receiving. We only lose our loved ones in death by insisting they must love us exactly as they did before.

But Christ shows us how to open our being to Love as it exists in all its phases. Jesus ‘preaches deliverance to the captives’; for are we all not captives of social rules, fears, environment, education and the many other prisons?

The ‘blind are healed’, for we may be blind to the fact that Life constantly upholds us. We may not be able to see the wonder of our birthright, and our destiny as God’s children.

Sightless, we will deny that a great love and life are behind the entire visible universe. Blind, we may treat people and animals like ‘things’, ‘objects’, denying they have the same Life in them as we have in ourselves; denying they have the same feelings, destiny, awareness and need for love and encouragement as we have ourselves, in whatever degree they now show it.

The inner Light sets at liberty those that ‘are bruised’, for the events of our life, and the pain, or even agony, we may have experienced, often imprison us. Jesus heals these pains, releasing us from the influence of them. He preaches the ‘acceptable year of the Lord’, showing us that NOW is the time to claim our heritage; to start our journey from the swine pens to our Father’s house; to lift up our hearts and rise to our own possibilities; to yield to God’s influence.

What of the great healings? Are we all to be healed of leprosy or fever, as was Peter’s mother-in-law; paralysis; palsy; a withered hand; an issue of blood; deafness and dumbness; or to have demons cast out and be raised from the dead? Yes, we are.

Leprosy is our unclean lusts and desires, our thoughts full of filth. Such filth and lusts are only misplaced life energies. Earth from which wholesome food grows, is called dirt when it gets in a wound. So our emotions and thoughts, when used in the wrong way, or out of harmony, are capable of giving us an unclean soul. Jesus heals by denying nothing, but giving each its place.

A fever is our emotions when we live at ‘fever pitch’. It is the inner heat of passion and feelings when these are self-centred rather than self-sacrificed; when we are impatient and judging. They are the great burning emotions we have blown into a furnace from an ember by nursing our wrath; grieving an injury; magnifying a slight. Christ heals by bringing a wider view to our life, and showing us the result of our actions.

Paralysed by Fear or Despair

To be paralysed is to be unable to act or move in life because we have a guilt, shame or conscience that paralyses. Not realising or wanting to accept how we relate to the Life force, our actions against others, in word or deed, literally wound ourselves. The attitude of mind we use to hurt or speak ill of someone acts as a block to the flow of our own life stream, paralysing many of our functions. ‘For whatsoever ye do unto one of these, ye do unto me!’ The emotion we wield to injure another, turns in on our own life-giving stream and likewise wounds it. Thus Christ heals by saying, ‘Your sins are forgiven you – or – take up thy bed and walk.’ Life itself is the only thing that can forgive us the injury we have done it – and Christ in us is the mouthpiece for its love and forgiveness of us.

Palsy is a symbol for a disturbance of the natural function of the life stream in us. Such movements occur sometimes when a past event has shocked or hurt our nervous system; or when we have held on to a grievance from being deeply hurt or shocked physically and emotionally. The act of holding on to our hate, malice, or judgement of someone who has caused the injury or was not there to comfort us when we needed them, cause the pain itself to become built into our soul. This pain disturbs the action of the life stream in its normal expression as love, sensation of well-being, physical strength, creativeness and spontaneous inner wisdom. Similarly with a withered hand, for this represents our inability to act creatively, or to give and share oneself with others – to give others a ‘hand’ that supports, encourages or carries their load.

Maybe our physical hands are fine, but how are the hands of our soul?

Many of us may also have, within our soul, an issue of blood. To bleed is to lose our life fluid, our physical life. To bleed from our soul is to lose our life force, in this case from the genitals, through misuse of sexual feelings, or of the creative function of childbirth. To give ourselves sexually when our inner feelings tell us to refrain, or to use abortion as a means of killing Life in us expressed as a baby, is to wound our soul and cause it to bleed. But Christ comes, as he says, not to condemn but to redeem. Not for the saved, but the sinners.

Most of us too, are deaf and dumb. For though God speaks to us in our dreams, through our sense of beauty, through our love, the seasons, plants, and all visible creation – and if we are unwilling to hear him calling us through these, he yet speaks to us through men who witness God’s presence in their own experience – through books, music, poetry and all our devices, yet we shut our ears. And if we do hear, we often choose not to act as yet another voice through which God can sing and talk.

Can you deny that your soul is sick unto death? Does it not have many of these soul sicknesses, or perhaps even more? Is your soul even dead within you?

God Speaks to You – Can You Hear?

A woman, told that God speaks to us through our moments of uplift or beauty said, ‘But I never feel that way.’ When streams of living laughter, wisdom, beauty and creativeness flow through us, our soul is alive. Lacking these, our soul is indeed dead, and Christ can raise it from this death even as was done with Lazarus.

Even if your inner voice shouts within you that Love, Light and Life can transform and heal your being you may prefer to believe otherwise. Yet you do so despite the failure which the worldly life demonstrates every day with its criminality, wars, dissatisfaction, meaninglessness and destruction. You are truly, like so many of us, deaf, dumb and blind to the proof God gives us every day. As soon as you allow the inner Light to illuminate you, all this can be changed, sometimes in the twinkling of an eye.

Starr Daily, a convict who discovered this for himself, the hard way, says:

I recall a time when I was being held in jail on suspicion of burglary. For two days and nights I had been subjected to ‘third degree’ police methods in an effort to torture a confession out of me. My head had been beaten with a rubber hose until it resembled a huge stone bruise, swollen beyond human shape, my face black from the congealed blood beneath the surface. Lighted cigars had been pressed against my flesh. I had hung for three hours with my wrists handcuffed over a hot steam pipe. My arms had been twisted behind me and my elbows beaten with black jacks until the bones felt crunchy. Heavy heels had ground my bare feet against a concrete floor.

On the third night of this I was at the end of my endurance. Again I was dragged into the torture room and sat down within the semi-circle of twelve big detectives. My previous sustaining energy of hate and anger had dwindled into a dull sense of indifference. I was alarmed at this new state of affairs. For I had learned that pain could easily be assimilated if sufficient hatred could be thrown against it. I did not want to weaken. Death was preferable. But could I stand the pain without the sustaining force of hate?

‘You’d better open up and come clean,’ the Chief informed me. ‘If you don’t you’re gonna get the works. You understand?’

“I continued to sit in stoic silence, expecting the worst, and wondering if I would be able to take it. It was the showdown. Unless I broke, my life was not worth a dime. I knew this as two of the detectives stepped toward me. Then a strange thing took place in my consciousness. All hate and anger were gone. The vague sense of indifference vanished. And in an unbidden instant, there welled up within me an overwhelming compassion for these men, for their pathetic ignorance, their undeveloped souls, for the pitiful condition of their minds and hearts. And as this strange sentiment reached a high peak of intensity within me the Chief spoke, and what he said constituted a minor miracle.

‘Don’t hit him again’, he barked, ‘take him back.’ I was returned to my cell, and for the remainder of the night was under the care of a doctor. The next morning I was transferred to a private hospital, where I lived for three weeks. Every day a number of women came to see me, bringing flowers and other gifts. It was all quite mystifying, and the nurses’ guarded explanations did not clarify the mystery. These women were the wives of city detectives. I could not figure the thing out. I was only a friendless, unprotected criminal. They had no reason to placate me with gifts and attention because they feared what I might reveal. I was told not to worry about anything, that all bills would be paid. Nor was I returned to jail on being discharged from the hospital. Instead I was given an envelope and told that I was free to go. In the envelope was no word of explanation, only five crisp, ten-dollar bills.

It was not until twenty years later, twenty years filled with crime and punishment, that I was able to see through this mystery, and to know the power, because of which my life had been spared and this odd consideration shown me.

What was it that finally showed Starr Daily the power of Love? It was Jesus! He says:

I re-entered prison for the third time with sinister ideas. Three times I tried to fight my way to freedom. The first two times were of the ‘lone wolf’ variety; the third involved group action, destruction and physical violence. Our plan was to cause a mob riot and during its height to seize the deputy warden as a shield and hostage, then under threats of death force him to give the order that would open the gates.

The plot was discovered and I was sentenced to the dungeon. The average time for a strong man in ‘the hole’ is fifteen days, at the end of which time the doctor ends the sentence. This time came and went. Finally, I collapsed. I seemed to be sustained by hate alone as I lay inured in the lowest hell earth had to offer.

Yet as I lay near death on the icy floor of the cell, a strange new thought came to me. I realised that I had been a dynamo of energy in everything I had done. I began to wonder what would have happened if I had used my powers for something other than destruction. It was to me a completely revolutionary thought!

What then followed is difficult to describe. I first began to dream disconnected dreams, and then they took on meaning. These dreams were the same I had as a child – beautiful dreams of Jesus Christ, the man I had tried to avoid for many years. He paused near my side and looked down deep into my eyes as though he were trying to penetrate my soul. In all my life I had never seen or felt such love.

Then I seemed to see all the people I had ever injured directly or indirectly, or who had injured me. I poured out love to them which seemed to heal their hurts. Then we were in a great auditorium and I spoke of love to all the people. I seemed to be assuring myself at the same time that I was awake and that I would never forget these words flowing over my lips.

When I consciously returned to my dungeon environment, the state of my mind had completely changed. The cell was illuminated with a new kind of light – the light of my own redeemed eye. Before that experience, I was a callused criminal; after it I was completely healed of my criminal tendencies! As a result, the prison doors swung open five years in advance of the time set for my release. (From Love Can Open Prison Doors by Starr Daily.)

This Light, Life and Love that heals us is everything that sentimentality is not. In its practical application love is as precise and scientific as mathematics. Without it there could be no universe, no cell, no organisation of any kind. Because love is the only integrating power in existence. It is all that can establish order out of chaos – or maintain order in chaos.

This is the power that can enter your life to heal, and flow through you to teach.

 

Chapter Twelve

Stop feeding the pigeons

 

The great yogi Ramakrishna illustrated this with a story. He said that if you feed the pigeons every day, they will come in greater numbers. But if you stop feeding them they will gradually give up flying around you and all will be quiet. He described the pigeons as the thoughts and worries, fears and pains that we constantly feed by giving them attention or being directed by them.

In a similar way, the apparently meaningless meditation stops feeding the pigeons of worries, fears and the other urges and irritations that usually control us.

Another approach to this method of gaining control over anxiety, irrational urges and moods is something that was originally connected with the chanting of hymns and prayers. It was thought that this slow measured chanting brought peace and transformation. Recent analysis of breathing rhythms as they connect with anxiety states, suggests that slow breathing or breath holding decreases the influence of anxious states. So the underlying influence may arise from breath holding or regulation, rather than the sounds. Certainly the discipline of slowing the breath brings about the same results as the meditation, but is possible a more potent method.

But remember that these methods are only a finger pointing at the moon – they are not the moon. In other words they do not lead to the transcendence possible through allowing the divine to be born in us. They are simply techniques to help us open to that Mystery, and remain fertile to it. They are means of developing the strength to make the journey, not the journey itself.

An easy way of approaching the slow breathing is as follows. This is much slower and more purposeful than normal breathing. One imagines a feather near one’s nose, hardly moved by the passage of air. Yet not so slow it becomes uncomfort­able and one has to gasp for breath. Breath in as fully as you can without allowing the chest to rise. You then let the chest ex­pand and fill, but without going to the point where you feel tense or struggling.  Do not hold the breath, but let the air out as slowly and as smoothly as possible. If possible feel the quietness of the breath and allow this to pervade your whole being. If at any point you find you are struggling with your breath, slightly increase the speed.

Starting with five minutes’ prac­tice, slowly work up to ten, then fif­teen minutes, and reap the reward of peace and stillness this method brings to the whole system. You will find that your breathing gradually adapts to the slowness, and your system slows down. Some people count their in and out breath, but this is not necessary. Awareness at the point where the air enters your nose is sufficient, along with the feeling of gentleness of the breath.

The goodness and badness of things

One of the great statements in the New Testament is – “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” (Mathew 7-1).

Strangely the enormity of this is often overlooked. If used it can have an incredibly transformative influence in your life. So let me point out just one way it can be introduced as a way of dealing with pain and tension, and removing the blocks to surrendering oneself to the divine action.

Most Christians are taught to be forever wary of the evil, the bad, and the sinful. Unfortunately this turns into awful self–judgements. Such judgements about your own actions and the world continually create misery in you, and should stop. That is not to say you should avoid being aware of the results of your actions and of the actions of others toward you. In this way you can decide if that is what you wanted to create with your words and deeds. That is quite different to judging things as good or bad. Evaluation is a process of learning, but judging everything suggests that you are all knowing and all seeing. Give it up.

The process of judgements also flows into virtually everything you think about. We arrive at judgements about the value or otherwise of people, ideas, religions, and objects. This may be interesting and maybe, to deal with everyday affairs, may at times be useful. But to take such judgements seriously is like putting yourself forward again as all seeing and all knowing.

Take a few moments to consider this in your everyday life. Supposing you hold a cup in your hand – what do you suppose it is? How would you describe it? What is it made of?

Whatever your description, you may have left out details of who made it, how it was made, and just what skill with hands or machine shaped it. But also, what about its colour or how its shape connects historically and culturally? What about the chemical composition of its components, how they work together or conflict? What about the molecules and atoms that are part of that chemical constitution? Where did its atoms have their birth? Was it on some distant star and system, as many of the atoms of your body? Also, its sub-atomic particles – do they, as modern physics suggests, actually have a link beyond space and time, with all other particles throughout the universe? In fact does this simple cup transcend within itself all the ideas about time and space, death and loss that you take so seriously? Is this ordinary object an expression of the divine, leaping beyond all the boundaries you feel so trapped by?

Do you really know how to judge anything?

 

 

Notes

When the unfortunate tendency in humans began to organise Christianity, to place dogmas and rigid rules around it, Christianity had the misfortune to be scarred with battles between sects, intolerance of other races and cultures, and ruled by male authoritarianism.  Nevertheless, I believe there is a real Christian Yoga in the sense defined above.  Through it an individual can arrive at a greater personal peace, and harmonise with their own nature, without having to join any sect or give themselves to a rigid set of beliefs.  They can also meet and converse with the master, and receive the teachings at first hand. This Yoga has been known for centuries, and practised by individuals and groups who were frequently persecuted by the organised church. In fact, the power and love that touched the early Christians has been innate in men and women from the beginning, and is lying dormant in each of us. This inner power is the Mother Church, not build with bricks. We enter it and are transformed by following the Christian pathway, the Christian Yoga.

 

Introduction to LifeStream

Introduction

A straightforward way of understanding LifeStream is to think of it as dynamic relaxation. Classic relaxation is a means of control. One is taught to take control of ones voluntary muscles and drop obvious tension in them. Thoughts and emotions are likewise gradually dropped, and there is the goal of being quiet and not moving.

Unfortunately this pushes tensions more fully into the body and in no way releases them. It also stops any way our system can discharge what needs to be expressed.

LifeStream is a way of learning how to allow parts of ourselves to express that in everyday life may never have had opportunity to be expressed. In most social situations, even those given to self expression, there is in fact little freedom or support or allow your own creative imagination – your body and emotions to discharge tension through movement or sound – to experience your intuitive process and your full range of feeling responses. This lack of freedom gradually diminishes you, allowing only that which is of immediate use in everyday affairs, or is socially acceptable. As important as that may be, such ‘controls’ also stop the full flowering of our own growth. The potential behind what grew us from a seed in our mother’s womb is also in this way interfered with.

The process of life in us, when allowed freedom to express, expresses in many sorts of spontaneous movement such as sneezing when we take in irritating substances; vomiting when we eat something poisonous, and crying to release grief or even happiness. But those are things needed to be discharged. The positive side of this is that it wakens potential talents, creativity and greater awareness and interaction with other people and our environment. See LifeStream – People Experiences Using It

Because of our usual social, religious or personal restraints we usually do not realise that the process behind such expressions is capable of vastly more than we allow. We can see this in dreams, in which when we have let go of restraints we are capable of emotions and creativity usually unknown.

What I have called ‘the process’ behind the spontaneous expression of this more inclusive self, as we come to deepen our relationship with it and know it, is seen as something very special. It is actually a way the very thing that gives us life expresses through us if we open to it. In his book of the same name, Raynor Johnson called it The Imprisoned Splendour. Throughout the ages it has been given countless names. The point is, it is the same wonder now, for you and for me, as it ever was. It may come in various guises, but it is essentially the same for all of us.

We practice LifeStream by honouring simple spontaneous movements and feelings. All the processes and expressions of life in us show as the swing between spontaneous movement and relaxation. The heartbeat, breathing and the movement of the intestines are examples of this. Most emotions, such as crying or laughing or making love, also involve strong physical movements and emotions. If we block expression of our basic living drives and feelings, we not only build up internal tension, but we also interfere with the delicate ways these life processes balance, heal and expresses through us. The wonderful freedom in the practice of LifeStream reintroduces us to the ability of our own life process to heal, balance and move toward its own psychological growth.

it’s medical name is Homeostasis, Homeostasis is from the Greek words for “same” and “steady,” refers to any process that living things use to actively maintain fairly stable conditions necessary for survival. The term was coined in 1930 by the physician Walter Cannon. This was usually used to deal with physical activity, but Dr. Carl Jung and J. A. Hadfield showed how it also is working all the time psychologically as well. See 

To help us find our way into this freedom of expression, some preliminary movements or dance might be used. It is also helpful to learn a process of simply being aware of what arises spontaneously in body and mind as a skill enabling LifeStream.

Through the practice we allow the process and wisdom that grew us from a tiny seed in our mother’s womb to express more fully, to heal us and to carry on its work of personal growth. This can be wonderful, uplifting, and incredibly creative. But it can also be uncomfortable, as it is when our innate healing process fight an infection, or discharges poisons we have taken in. So we have to realise that some life experiences, even very early in life, are quite poisonous and harmful our well-being, and the process of LifeStream will attempt to cleanse them from our system.

LifeStream can be practised alone, with a partner, or in a group. Each group practice lasts for about one hour. The group starts by sitting in a circle for about a minute. It is useful during this period to consciously let go of everyday life and hold in mind that you have an hour before you during which you can spend time with your own innermost life process. Some people like to imagine they are coming to the Core of their being asking it to guide them into and through whatever is most important for them to experience for their  personal healing and growth. Each member of the group then stands and finds a space in the room, and with eyes closed allows the spontaneous experience of LifeStream to begin. See Psychological Vomiting

If you are new to LifeStream a member of the group will start you in the practice by introducing you to ways you can learn to work with whatever attitudes, physical tensions, or feelings stand in the way of life streaming through you.

During the hour leave yourself open to allow movement, sounds, feelings, or whatever impulses are felt. For instance, we constantly experience the urge to move our chest to breathe. Unless we hold our breath this is a gentle impulse. If we remain open in body and mind during LifeStream, any similar urges to move and express – ones which would normally be overlooked or suppressed –  can be allowed. It might be there is no urge to move, but you are overcome by tiredness. If so follow the urge and rest or even sleep. Or an urge to yawn might arise. So allow it without judgement and see where it leads. It is important to allow even what may seem silly or meaningless without stopping it. Whether active or quiet, remain open and free to respond during the hour. After an hour a member of the group will call an end to the session and the members will sit quietly for a few minutes.

One of the best ways to come to LifeStream is naked – and this is not about being without clothes. It means being naked of the opinions and beliefs, convictions and fears we are often completely choked up with. Life itself is constantly shifting and learning. The wonder at the core of your being is indefinable and beyond rules and regulations. It doesn’t need them. It is Life itself, and grew you from seed.

It is helpful to remember, especially if what occurs for you in the session is a deeply felt experience, that it only occurred because you made an agreement with yourself to allow it. Therefore, although it was spontaneous and unexpected, it was still an expression of your choice to allow it. To stop the process you simply reverse your decision, thinking to yourself something like – During this session it was appropriate to allow myself freedom of movement fantasy and sound, but now I will again assume my usual social behaviour. This is my choice.

At the end of you practice it is useful to have a period of quietness. If you are in a group it will be asked you have anything you would like to say or to ask about your experience. There is no need whatsoever to speak at all. But if you do want to say what your experience was, or want to ask other members general questions about the practice, this is the time to do so.

The practice of LifeStream and the format of the group is based on several simple principles. For instance no attempt is made to teach beliefs, philosophy, or rules to live by to members in the group.  This is because experience has shown that each of us have a great wealth of wisdom, self healing and problem solving abilities. Such personal and interior abilities may be unconscious, but become apparent in the experiences met in LifeStream, and are enhanced by honouring them by not attempting to instruct people. Instruction suggests you need and depend on someone else to be the centre of your own understanding. This view also lies behind the absence of any attempt to act as therapist in regard to people’s psychological or physical health. Although the need for experts such as doctors and psychotherapists is not denied, nevertheless, our enormous internal powers of healing and growth are so often subtly repressed, even by people apparently attempting to stimulate their functioning, that in LifeStream we take a radical stand in self help and self trust.

Therefore, during the group practice, we do not support each other by means of any physical contact or verbal interaction. There is no expert in the group suggesting what to do. There is no teacher apart from your own internal unconscious wisdom. There are however, people in the group, or involved in supporting the group, who have many years experience of the action of LifeStream. These women and men can be looked to for guidance and support.

Coex is not a new practice. It has existed in its present form since 1972. It has its roots in traditional approaches which have existed in various cultures for thousands of years. Some of these practices still exist today, but LifeStream attempts to approach the experience of meeting our most interior self in a way generally acceptable in today’s world. The extraordinary depth of experience met by some people in Coex, is thought to connect with the self regulatory process in each of us which produces dreams, linking it with one of our most fundamental and natural of healing and creative activities.

Life Is Movement

While I was teaching XE “Relaxation:teaching” relaxation I learnt that, when we truly relax, our bodies make XE “Movement:spontaneous”spontaneous movements which express our own unique needs. This can be seen in yawning and stretching – movements which will not occur unless we feel at ease. From watching the people I worked with I came to understand that the quiet passivity we usually associate with XE “Relaxation:passivity and”relaxation is in fact only a small part of what the body wants to do to recharge. Spontaneous movements, if allowed, can develop into dynamic self -expression not only of the body, but also of voice and feelings. A wealth of XE “Inner-Directed Movement:results of”unexpected possibilities can emerge: release of tension, unique exercises, healing of body and mind, and the development of your intuition are just a few examples.

Nothing in the realm of systematic exercises such as XE “Aerobics”XE “Aerobics” \r “9”aerobics or XE “Yoga”XE “Yoga” \r “9”yoga can compare with these spontaneous – orXE “Inner-Directed Movement:” \r “9” inner-directed-movements.XE “Exercise:unique to person” They arise from your ownXE “Unconscious:knowledge”XE “Inner-Directed Movement:include body and mind” XE “Unconscious:knowledge” \r “9”unconscious knowledge of your personal and XE “Exercise:unique” \r “9”unique needs. This includes such diversity as your need for physical stimulus if you have a sedentary job; laughter and play if you are too serious; and specific movements to mobilise stiff areas of your body or stimulate internal organs that are underactive.XE “Inner-Directed Movement:results of” \r “9” In particular they appear to attempt a balancing and awakening of your being to new levels of satisfying expression. Because such movements are not just empty physical activity, but combine and integrate body and mind, they bring about a healthier mental and emotional life.

The range of these spontaneous movements arising from your unconscious is difficult to believe unless you have experienced them. This is because most of us allow only a tiny part of theXE “Inner-Directed Movement:and creativity” creative potential we have. It is impossible to list all the aspects I have witnessed in people’s self expression. All movement and the feeling quality of movement is open to you when you begin to liberate your body in this way.

The Beginnings of LifeStream

You already know of how toXE “Relaxation:personal ability” relax enough to allow the beginnings of allowing your body to make its own spontaneous movements. Yawning and sneezing are examples of the side of this process you can already allow. If you breathe in harmful dust your body makes the spontaneous movement of sneezing to protect the lungs and rid itself of the dust. Other similar movements are coughing, shivering when you are cold, and watering of your eyes. In these ways your body self-regulates and protects itself. But this is just the tip of the iceberg in regard to what you are capable of if you understand and learn to work with this process. It is the very edge of what you innately know about your own mental and physical needs and how to satisfy them.

It may seem strange I am suggesting that the process behind something as ordinary as yawning can have a potential which can revolutionise the way you feel about yourself, can improve the mobility and well-being of your body and mind, and can reveal your intuition and creativity. But that is what I have witnessed in helping people use LifeStream. Not only do you know, through LifeStream, just what your body needs to keep it functioning healthily, but also you know how to keep the feelings and mind mobile and healthy too. An intuitive function opens within yourself that can inform you wisely on important areas of your life.

XE “Inner-Directed Movement:physical and mental health”XE “Unconscious:resources of”XE “Spontaneous Movement:and personal wellbeing”This is understandable if certain facts are remembered. To grow physically, and psychologically your being moves and directs itself from its own unconscious resources. You see this in everyday things such as your heartbeat, digestive movements, perspiration, and even your ability to speak without searching for every word or worrying about what gestures you make. The important processes of your being, such as breathing, nearly all express as spontaneous movement – that is, movements you do not have to consciously think about or copy from outside. They are movements that arise from your unconscious mental and physical life. XE “Spontaneous Movement:express aspects of life”XE “Spontaneous Movement:and love making”XE “Sex:not just physical acitivity”The difference between a dead body and a live one is movement. All the gross and most subtle aspects of your life are expressed as movement. Laughter, crying, lovemaking are all powerful movements, largely inner-directed. Such movements integrate the different aspects of yourself. For instance love making is not just a physical activity, but blends emotions, personal needs, as well as deeper instinctive drives. In fact you, as a living being, are a master of expressive movement, but you may be holding yourself back. Having no self confidence doesn’t remove your skill. I have discovered that even shy people, as they learn to XE “Relaxation:and movement”XE “Life:growth process of”relax deeply, have a world of splendid expressive movement inside them waiting to become known.

The organising principle that regulates the growth and shape of your body expresses through LifeStream. It is the unconscious self-regulating process of life in you. Its action continues working night and day. It is common to all of us, but few of us know how to work with it consciously to allow its magic to unfold more fully. This is possible through LifeStream.

In helping people to learn how to relax XE “Relaxation:and inner-directed movement”XE “Relaxation:doorway to unconscioius abilitities”XE “Inner-Directed Movement:definition of”enough to allow such simple movements as yawning to extend into fuller spontaneous movement I witnessed people discovering the wide range of exercises, mimes and feelings their body could express unexpectedly. As people learnt to really relax they opened the door to abilities within their body and mind that had previously remained unconscious. For those who made this discovery it was rather like the dream some people experience in which they have lived in a house for years, then one day they find a door leading to a whole wing of the building they have never known before.

When they open to LifeStream, people find it is:-

1.  A fuller expression of the natural power that regulates the body and mind. This can lead to physical and mental health. The contact is sensed as an awareness of the essence of life active in them.

2.  An inbuilt and spontaneous urge to move and express the parts of oneself inhibited by the specialised environment of family, society or work. This is an urge toward wholeness. Wholeness because when the concentration upon a limited area of yourself such as thoughts or emotions is relaxed, then a greater symphony of expression between mind body and spirit occurs.

3.  Creative and intuitive abilities of the mind. This is frequently experienced as spontaneous visualisation.

What Will Happen If I Really Let Go?

For most of us to ‘let go’ or deeply relax enough to allow spontaneous movement is a XE “Inner-Directed Movement:a learnt skill”XE “Inner-Directed Movement:experience, not thinking”learnt skill. To learn anything new means you tread new ground, you open yourself to new experience. This is certainly true of LifeStream. What you learn is largely non intellectual. It is something you experience rather than think. Because it involves movement it opens you to the realm of what you sense and perceive through body postures and feelings. This is an extraordinarily rich area, much overlooked in general schooling. In his book The Turning Point, XE “Capra,Fritjof”XE “Body:thinking with”Fritjof Capra, writing about the tendency in Western culture to overemphasis the intellectual capacity of the mind to the point where we see the universe and earth as mechanical systems, says, “Retreating into our minds, we have forgotten how to ‘think’ with our bodies, how to use them as agents of knowing.” Later, describing the effect the intellectual and mechanistic view has had on modern medicine and the lay person’s approach to their body, he says we are led to see our XE “Body:seen as machine”body as a machine “which is prone to constant failure unless supervised by doctors and treated with medication. The notion of the organism’s inherent healing power is not communicated, and trust in ones own organism not promoted.”

One person, talking about his early experience of LifeStream says:

I remember that at first I would repeat really peculiar movements, what seemed an endless number of times. I felt that my body was working at freeing itself from habitual postures, attitudes and the results of past experience as well as massaging internal organs. Gradually my movements became freer and more mobile – although since my teens I had exercised and stretched regularly. Also the movements became mobility of my feelings as well as my body. For the first time in my life I realised that my soul,XE “Inner-Directed Movement:mobilising the psyche” my personality, had also been tense and stiff, and was being gently made more responsive, alive and whole.

This mobilising of me was effected by lots of movements in which I expressed powerful feelings.XE “Dancing:stamping”XE “Voice:use of”XE “Inner-Directed Movement:and use of voice”XE “Inner-Directed Movement:personal examples”XE “Human Potential:self healing” For instance I remember once doing a forceful stamping dance in which I felt like a Japanese warrior. My voice also came into full play with such dances and movements. I need to stress that I had never danced before in my life, and I found such movements surprising. So apart from the purely physical movements during LifeStream, there is also a fuller experience of inner feelings.

Because of such encounters, and there were dozens of them, I felt I was allowing myself to experience something extraordinary. The experiences arising spontaneously from within created a sense of wonder in me. I recognised I was touching a secret which existed in everyone. The secret is that we are much more than we usually suspect. We are capable of more than we dare imagine, and have access to internal founts of XE “Healing:self”healing, adventure and wisdom, and experience that can enlarge and liberate us, not only physically but in our psyche as well. Our XE “Unconscious:resources of”unconscious is full of creativity and splendid experience.

That Much Power Needs Understanding

Opening to the mystery of life in you is a powerful thing to do. It brings real change and growth. Opening to that sort of power needs to be understood, and there are certain skills and attitudes that can be of great value.

•  For many people, opening in the ways described leads to a period of cleansing. Negative emotions, residues of past trauma, physical problems, are brought to the surface to be dispelled. This is not a comfortable process. But it is one of the ways life works in us. When we eat something poisonous our healing process can lead to vomiting the poison from our system. When we breathe in dust we sneeze. So when we are harbouring painful destructive emotions or memories our healing process tries to discharge them. It takes a while to learn how to allow this to happen without feeling anxious.

•  It is one of the big human frailties that we blame someone else, or other people, for our feelings or situation. Accepting personal responsibility for your own state of mind, feelings or situation, is a huge step toward positive change in your life. Of course this is a big generalisation. Workers who are exploited by employers and paid inadequate wages, while employers cream off most of the profits, may be seen as justified in blaming their situation on the bosses. However, by not blaming, the employee may still realise it is up to them to do something about the situation. That was how human rights were fought for.

•  Be in a learning relationship with the mystery at your core. Question what arises. Ask what is meant. Be like a detective following clues. Many of the deepest parts of your nature emerge in stages as they unfold. Often your core self expresses in symbolic experiences as do dreams. That is the language of the unconscious. Do not be satisfied with the symbols. Question them during the process until you arrive at insights that give you understanding of how what is experienced links with your everyday life and situation.

•  Your physical growth took years. Your personal spiritual growth also takes time. Processes of growth in nature develop structures and organs as they move towards something. The plant develops stem and leaves before it opens its flower. So your own inner growth may need to develop things before it can manifest certain parts of you. The mystery is beyond imagination in its enormity. Some people have called it the Hugeness. Sometimes courage and strength need to be developed before you can be healed of certain things, or experience other dimensions of yourself.

•  The mystery of life that you are is paradoxical. You can never pin it down to being this or that one thing. It is both very personal — in fact manifesting as your own unique personality — and it is at the same time completely impersonal. By all means learn and define what you learn, but never believe you have found the complete truth. Being paradoxical, whatever truth you arrive at you can be sure the opposite is also true. Holding rigidly to beliefs prevents further learning.

•  Learn self observation. With the non-blaming approach, examine the way you respond to people and events. See what is behind the response. Notice what habits you have, and where they stem from. Learn to observe the constant and subtle play of feelings, thoughts and imagery that takes place within you.

•  At one point in the New Testament it says, “Where two or three people are gathered together in my name, there I am.” Whatever you might interpret that to mean, it is observable that when we open to Life in the company of one or more people who are also approaching that mystery in the same way, it enormously increases the power of what you experience. Even if there is just one person with you who honours the process of LifeStream, it can make an enormous difference to the depth and power of what you meet within.

LifeStream Is More Than Avoidance Of Tension

XE “Human Potential:how to use”XE “Self Trust”XE “Human Potential;”Learning how to promote LifeStream is learning to trust yourself in a new way. It is also a way of learning how to use areas of your potential not previously employed, and to keep in contact with yourself and other people in a more enriching manner. But perhaps the most important fact about learning to allow LifeStream concerns liberation.

The difficulty is not that of saying or being what is innately yourself, it is in doing so in a manner which does not conflict with the needs of others. The liberation you can find through LifeStream is very complete. It is not something you do to someone else or inflict on the world. It is yours to experience in your own physical and emotional privacy. Just as when we dream we can have the most intimate and complete experiences without involving anyone else, so we can relax and find full self expression without anyone else present.

Therefore XE “Social Pressure:”liberating your body through XE “Inner Directed Movement:and social pressure”XE “Relaxation:through inner freedom”XE “Inner-Directed Movement:physical and mental health”LifeStream releases reserves of energy and enthusiasm which might have been subdued by attempts to live within the boundaries of social or interpersonal demands. For many people, it is this enormous freedom which is the most important feature of the practice. Many people using LifeStream have told me they never before felt such freedom, even in childhood. They either had never been allowed it by parents or teachers, or they had never allowed it to themselves.

The Experience of LifeStream

A female student once said, ‘I have relaxed thousands of times and no unwilled movements have happened, so why will it be different this time?’ She went on to say, ‘I don’t believe there is anything in me to create the sort of experience you are talking about anyway!’

Her question and statement have behind them viewpoints and attitudes that in fact make it difficult to understand just what LifeStream is, and how it can happen. They imply that there is nothing about oneself to experience beyond what is already known – that after years of life, surely if there were dimensions of oneself full of rich experience you would have had hints of them – and also perhaps that the body is dumb flesh, largely mechanical and lacking deep intelligence.

Nevertheless, laboratory tests have shown that the most materialistic people, while they are in the relaxed state of sleep, develop spontaneous fantasies, accompanied by body movements, emotions and speech. Namely they creatively dream, even if they do not remember. The spontaneous movements we make in sleep, and the deeply moving feelings and dramas we experience in connection with them, are usually not strong enough to break through to conscious life except in a few cases. To work with this process which is vital to your well-being, you need to be receptive and create the right mood and environment. The body and mind are not disconnected. The wisdom that keeps the body heat at the correct level, the intelligence that keeps millions of various cells interacting in an integrated way, though unconscious, unknown, untouched by yourself in everyday life, can begin to bubble up into awareness and self realisation when you listen by letting it express in its own way.

That is the theory. The experience is that if you do take time to let this subtle action have a space in waking life, you will first learn to let your body be free enough to move to delicate impulses. This will lead to movements that at first you may not know whether you are making them up, or they are occurring by themselves. As they strengthen through learning to trust yourself in letting-go, the movements will follow certain themesXE “Themes”. Perhaps at the end of the session you will see your body has been exercising and loosening. Or maybe you have made dance like movements that have a theme such as emerging from restrictions and growing. You may see this relates to how you feel in everyday life. In this way you will see for yourself that the unconscious resources of body regulation usually only expressing at the level of blood pressure or temperature control, are manifesting at a new level because you are learning to work with them. You will see that the creative imagination of dream life is clarified and showing itself to you while you are awake.

It’s An Old Truth In A New Form

The view that you do not need to practise disciplined or energetic given exercises to keep physically and psychologically healthy may be new to you. Everything from PE. at school, XE “Aerobics”XE “Yoga”Aerobics at the fitness gym, and Yoga, suggest series of given movements or postures. And you must perform them correctly to get the benefits. LifeStream is not a new practice though. Because it is a basic human function, and an extension of movements like yawning, it has been frequently used in the past. In fact it has a history of many thousands of years, different cultures giving it different names and explanations.

While I was teaching LifeStream in Japan I was introduced to an almost identical practice called XE “Seitai”Seitai. The founder of Seitai, XE “Noguchi, Haruchika”XE “Inner-Directed Movement:Eastern practices”Haruchika Noguchi, is said to have modernised an older practice which was a part of Buddhist traditional technique.

I had the pleasure of meeting several Seitai practitioners who taught me their approach to LifeStream. My wife Hyone and I were also able to attend groupXE “Group Practising Inner-Directed Movement” practices. Seitai is popular in Japan with the sort of popularity that causes articles about it to appear in high class women’s magazines. But its practitioners come from a wide age range and are equally represented by both sexes. The ongoing group we attended had about thirty people in it. There were teenagers, married couples, young and old, and lots of single people. In this group each person is encouraged to allow their spontaneous movements, such as their desire to stretch. They all practise at once, so each person does their own personal movements at their own pace.

Seitai’s appeal is probably due to Noguchi’s practical and down to earth approach. Through Seitai many people in Japan have improved their physical and psychological health using this very simple practice. What I learnt from the people who shared Seitai with me was how much fun it can be. Before my stay I had thought the Japanese would be very serious people. In the street and in formal social gatherings this is perhaps true, but individually or in informal groups they are very playful. Several times I watched groups of people decide, during a break in activity on a conference, to practice XE “Yuki”yuki, a form of Seitai in which two people practise together. Within minutes it had developed into active dance like movements which included lots of laughter and playfulness. In the following chapters some of Seitai’s approaches will be explained.

In India the use of LifeStream is called XE “Shaktipat”Shaktipat. It has a different approach to Seitai, contact with a teacher or Guru being recommended though not seen as indispensable. Individuals in most of these approaches practice both alone or in groups.

While working in Australia I was told by the film star XE “Thompson, Jack”Jack Thompson, who had been taught XE “Tai Chi”Tai Chi by a Chinese teacher, that for three years the teacher had him perform the given movements. Then one day he said to Jack “Now I will show you the real Tai Chi.” He then encouraged Jack to allow spontaneous movement – LifeStream.

Tai Chi is a stylised series of movements from China used for health and harmonising ones being. While in Hong Kong I saw hundreds of people in the early morning practising Tai Chi in Kowloon Park. Hyone and I joined in and it was a great pleasure to have the freedom to openly explore movement in public. Also originating in China there is a more direct approach to spontaneous movement called XE “Qi Gong”Qi Gong. As in Seitai the individual or group directly wait for spontaneous movement.

These Eastern approaches see the movements as expressing a subtle energy called Chi or Ki. This energy is seen as the creative, body forming, XE “Life:energy of”energy of life. Therefore the practice is considered to balance and harmonise the way this energy expresses in oneself.

The West has its traditional approaches to LifeStream also. Apart from groups such as the XE “Quakers”Quakers and Shakers, who gave inner-direction a religious orientation connected with the spontaneous movements of the originalXE “Pentecost” Pentecost, XE “Mesmer, Anton”Anton Mesmer XE “Inner-Directed Movement:researchers”founded a form of groupXE “Group Practising Inner-Directed Movement” practice three hundred years ago. He was probably one of the first to attempt a scientific evaluation of the process. Without the recent findings which have arisen from psychological and neurological research however, his explanations were still based on older ideas.

In Hawaii there is a form of spontaneous movement that is allowed to express as dance. Ancient tribal healing or decision making frequently involved spontaneous movements and vocal expression. These are often linked to what is today known as Shamanism. It is a way ancient people found wholeness and healing, or sought intuitive information vital to their existence.

A more recent practice that started in Indonesia is called Subud. It has a format that has allowed it to become world-wide, although unlike Seitai, it has an element of religious feeling because of the Islamic culture and character of its founder, XE “Subuh, Pak”Pak Subuh. InXE “Subud” Subud, groupXE “Group Practising Inner-Directed Movement”s of people meet twice a week. Someone in the group says, ‘Begin’, and the members allow spontaneous expression of body and voice.

Although all these approaches have a very similar core in that practitioners are asked to let go of their self-willed activity, the explanations of the practice, and the details may vary. For instance, in Seitai there is not very much vocal expression. The men women and children can all practice together, and there is no religious connection. In Subud the men and women are segregated. There is a lot of vocal expression, and there is a cultural religious connection.

Movements and Exercises

The following movements are those I learnt that day. If you enjoy them and have time, by all means do the movements consecutively. They are excellent for health in themselves, but they are not LifeStream. They are given to warm your body and help mobilisation and internal balancing.

Use these movements at least three times over a period of a week or so, before going on to the next phase. Practice each movement for between one minute to three minutes, depending on your energy and time. Try doing them with music sometime to see if it aids the good feelings they can produce. Later suggestions for types of music are given in detail. At this point something fairly flowing without too much drama in it.XE “Movements:general instructions”

These are only warm-up movements, they are not LifeStream. LifeStream, once learnt, can be used easily and for a few minutes. There is not a long list of ‘movements’ to use in the proper practice, although there are a variety of ways you can use it.

It is helpful to ‘meditate’XE “Movements:meditate them”XE “Meditation:on the movements” on some of the movements after performing them. This means that you try to recreate the feelings, or sensation of the movement again without allowing your body to make the movement. The idea is to exercise your inner awareness and feelings of energy movement. So in the third of the movements, the pelvic swing, you would create the feeling of the hips pushing forward and up, followed by the pulling back and down of the pelvis. This meditation exercise is important as it enables you to gain some control of your inner XE “Meditation:balancing inner feelings”feelings. Often such feelings are stimulated by external events or unconscious worries. Your meditation is harmonising and balancing these feelings.

These movements take time, so if you are not able to do them all in sequence, do those you can within the time available and work through the other movements during future sessions. You need a reasonable space – something at least the size of a single blanket, so you can feel free to move without bumping into things.

    Squatting and Rising

This first movement you start from a standing position. With feet slightly apart you take an in-breath, and as you reach the high point of inhalation you take head and arms backwards to really open up the chest. From that standing position with head back you then begin to breath out and bend the knees so that you can drop quickly into a squat. As you do so let the arms move forward and up so the hands come palms together near to the face. Meanwhile you drop into a squatting position expelling your breath fast as you go down. You rest there for a moment and then the movement carries on by breathing in and rising back up to the first position again. So you slowly stand as you breath in, then when standing expand the rib cage again by opening the arms slightly backwards and apart, and taking the head slightly back.

When you get used to the movement, going down into the squat position should be done fairly fast with the out-breath quite strong so there is an audible blowing of air out of the lungs. It can be done gently, but if possible, do it strongly as the body drops. Let the hips go down as far as you comfortably can, and let the head collapse down too so the body is relaxed. Some people need to put their heels on books to make squatting comfortable, so do that if necessary. The hands come forward in a scything movement until they meet just above the dropped head. If you cannot squat so low, use a stool or chair to sit on as you go down, so you only drop a short way.

At least two feeling states are involved in this movement. One is the standing erect and ‘open’ feeling. The other is the down, closed and relaxed feeling. When you feel fluid in the movement see if you can enhance these feeling changes as you move between the opposites of up and down. While down feel the relaxed letting-go feeling. While up feel the active, energetic feeling.

In this first movement you start from a standing position, with feet slightly apart.

1.  Take an in-breath, and as you reach the high point of inhalation take head and arms slightly backwards to widen the chest.

2.  From the standing position you then begin to breathe out and bend the knees so that you can drop into a squat. Let your arms move forward and up so the hands come palms together near to the face and expel your breath while dropping into the squatting position .

XE “Illustrations:squaatting and rising 2″XE “Illustrations:squatting and rising”

3.  At this point you should be squatting with head relaxed forward. Rest there for a moment and then carry the movement on by breathing in and rising back to the first position again. This means you have slowly stood as you breathed-in, and expanded the rib cage again by opening the arms slightly backwards and apart, letting the head drop slightly back.

4.  Repeat the cycle of Squatting and rising in your own time.

5.  Now ‘meditate’ the movement for about a minute. This means standing or sitting with eyes closed and imagining doing the movement, but hardly moving your body. Try to reproduce the feelings of the movement. Feel the relaxed, down condition, then move into the up, dynamic feeling. This is an important exercise in becoming aware of the subtle feelings connected with movement, and learning to mobilise them.

    Circling the HipsXE “Movements:circling the hips”

Suggestions – To get the movement satisfyingly mobile, it is helpful to imagine yourself standing in the middle of a large barrel. The aim is then to run your hips around the inside of the barrel, touching it all the way around. This helps to get the full circling of the pelvis. So, as the hips are circling back the trunk is bent slightly forward, but still with the head high. The hips should go well out to the side, and as they swing to the front they should be far forward enough to cause the trunk to be inclined slightly backwards. If you cannot manage this at first, simply do what you can.

The knees and ankles should be kept relaxed, as should the hips themselves, so they adapt to the circling. The breathing should then also find its own rhythm. Generally it is out as the hips swing forward, and in as they swing backwards. This is because the chest is slightly compressed as the hips are forward if the head is floating erect.

1.  Begin from a standing position as the first, but feet slightly farther apart, about shoulder width.

2.  Keeping your head and shoulders more or less floating in the same position, circle the hips horizontally. The pelvis is taken gradually into a wide circle.

3.  At half time rotate the hips in the opposite direction for the rest of the time.

4.  Meditate the movement for about one minute. You can stand or sit to do this.

    Pelvic SwingXE “Movements:pelvic swing”

Suggestions – If you imagine a vertical circle – seen from one side of your body – and move the hips around it fluidly while letting the legs and trunk follow, that is the movement. Although simple this is an important movement as far as becoming aware of the subtler side of your own being is concerned.

The movement is similar to the backward and forward movement of sexual intercourse, except that it is circular and involves bending and straightening the legs. But it does still involve the pelvis swinging backwards and forwards. Do the movement until you can feel your body loosening and flowing more easily. Then, do the movement slowly, being aware of the different feelings of the pelvis being forward and backward. These feelings are quite subtle, but are strong enough to be easily noticed if the movement is done with awareness of the change.

1.  Standing with your feet about a foot apart move your pelvis backwards – as if starting to sit down – to begin a circle. This half sitting position brings the head and trunk forward and bends the knees slightly .

2.  Start to push the hips well forward. As you do so the knees are straightened again, and this completes the full circle with the hips in a way that describes or ‘draws’ a vertical circle.

3.  Do the movement in a way that keeps the hips swinging in the circle in a continuous flow.

4.  Meditate the movement while sitting or standing.

    Roller SkatingXE “Movements:roller skating”

Suggestions – If possible let most of the movement occur from below the navel. You can keep your eyes looking ahead, your arms swinging in time with the hips as well to let the body move fully. But it is the lower back that is being worked here. The movement massages the lower internal organs as well, so you may get the stitch until you adapt to the exercise. Do the movement fairly vigorously. If you do get the stitch, don’t stop altogether, just slow down. The movement will then massage the area of discomfort.

1.  Stand with feet a little wider than shoulder width, with trunk bent forward and knees bent also. Your back should be reasonably straight although at an incline.

2.  Now swing the hips from side to side, making the lowest part of the spine alternate to the left and right.

3.  When finished meditate the movement.

    Swinging the TrunkXE “Movements:swinging the trunk”

Suggestions – Be careful to check how slippery your feet are on the floor surface. If you cannot easily maintain a feet wide position, it may help to stand with bare feet. The movement is an active one, with a light pause as you reach top and bottom. Some people like to allow their arms to extend in a wide arc as they come up. It feels more balanced. Also, as you come to the upright position with the in-breath, let the head drop back slightly, and arms extend sideways and back to increase the chest stretch. This balances the deep exhalation accomplished by dropping the trunk forward.

This is a very pleasing movement, and because it connects with the breath cycle, develops a particular rhythm. If you can manage it without becoming giddy, let the exhaling of breath as you go down be quite energetic.

1.  Stand with the feet about twice shoulder width.

2.  Let your head and trunk drop forward, and the arms hang relaxed, allowing the spine to be gently stretched.

3.  When you feel your spine has adapted to the position, from an out-breath swing your head and trunk to the left, allowing it to roll over and up to the standing position as you breathe in.

4.  Drop the trunk downwards in the mid-line again, breathing out – do it fairly fast – then roll head and trunk to the right as you come up and breathe-in again.

5.  Continue the cycle with a slight pause at the high and low of each swing.

6.  When finished meditate the movement, reproducing the relaxed drooping feeling, and the active, ‘up’ feeling.

    Surrendering Backwards

XE “Body:abdominal muscles”This movement works the abdominal muscles quite strongly, and needs to be approached slowly until you feel confident and able in it. It is not primarily a physical exercise. It is an expression of letting-go of self, of surrendering. You start with feet about shoulder width apart. The aim of the movement is not to see how far backwards you can go. It is to express the feeling of letting go of self, of dropping control in a disciplined way. At first, when the head and shoulders are back, hold the position for a very short time, then recover to the upright stance. As you get used to the movement, you can stay in the surrendered position longer – just as long as is comfortable – then recover.

1.  From an in- breath you drop your head slowly back and breathe out, allowing your head, shoulders and trunk to drop slightly backwards with the arms limp.

2.  If you are comfortable in that breathe as normally as you can while your trunk is backwards.

3.  Hold for a short time then return to the upright position.

4.  Repeat several times.

5.  Meditate on the movement, moving between the surrendered feeling and the taking control upright feeling.

    Sideways LungeXE “Movements:sideways lunge”

XE “Body:legs”This movement uses the legs a lot more, and introduces more spinal twist. Because you are reaching forwards with the opposite hand to the bent kneed, there is a common tendency for people to extend the whole trunk forward too, and that is unnecessary. The trunk curves upright from the trailing leg. The breathing sequence for this is out as you lunge, in as you centre again.

When you are reasonably capable at the movement try doing it as slowly as possible. Make the breath slow, and move in time with the breath – out as you lunge and in as you centre. This is a very powerful movement so don’t attempt too many repetitions at first.

1.  You start with feet about a metre apart in a standing position, with the hands palms together in front of the chest.

2.  Turn the left foot to point to the left and turn the trunk to face in that direction also.

3.  Let the left knee bend until the hips drop right down near the left heel. To make this easier, let the left heel rise if necessary. In other words, don’t try to keep the foot flat on the floor unless this is easy. Meanwhile the right leg is trailing, forming an curve from the floor up along the spine. The right knee is on the floor but hardly bent.

4.  As you lunge to the left, let the right hand reach forward in the direction you are lunging. The right arm stretches out backward toward the right foot – i.e., in the same direction as the right foot. This gives a slight spinal twist.

5.  From the lunge position, using the strength of the left leg, push back into the upright position until the trunk faces forward, and bring the hands to the centred position in front of the chest again.

6.  From the centred position you lunge to the right. Don’t forget that it is now the left arm you extend forwards – always the opposite hand.

7.  Pause in the lunge, then, using the strength of the right leg push up and centre again.

8.  With a slight pause at each lunge, and while ‘centred’, repeat the movement alternatively to left and right.

9.  Meditate on the movement, remembering to get the ‘centred’ poised feeling between each imagined lunge.

    Spinal TwistXE “Movements:spinal twist”

This is more of a spinal twist, more so than the last. The arms are extended describing a wide arc, and coming to rest where you feel comfortable, but not floppy. The breath cycle is to complete exhalation as the spinal twist is complete, and to complete inhalation as you reach midpoint between the left and right twist. Like the previous exercise, if the breathing is united with the movement, it makes for a more satisfying experience. Once you have got the feel for integrating breathing and movement, perform this one fairly slowly and purposefully.

1 –     Stand with feet a little wider than shoulder width and with hands at your sides.

2 –     Leading with the head, turn to the left, letting your arms describe a wide circle, and continuing their movement when head and trunk can turn no further. As the trunk turns to the left, let the feet and knees accommodate the twist, so when you have turned as far as you can to the left, your left knee is slightly bent in a semi lunge to allow the fullest twist, and your foot is pointing to the left.

3 –    Now turn from there to the right, going round as far as you can, fairly slowly to let the feet and legs change.

4 –    Continue this slow swing, making sure you allow a semi-lunge at the end of each swing. This gives a little more twist.

5 –    |Meditate on the movement.

XE “Illustrations:spinal twist”

    The Swinging Rib-cageXE “Movements:the swinging ribcage”

This exercise aims at mobilising the rib cage in one of its movements seldom made in everyday life. To make sure your movement is actually doing what it should, it is helpful at first to practice in front of a mirror. Keeping the hips still and rib-case centred, hold your index fingers about two inches away from each side of your lower ribs. Now see if you can swing the ribs sideways towards the extended but still finger without swaying the whole trunk and hips sideways as well. At first it might be that you do not know just what muscles to move to accomplish this, but with practise it becomes simple.

XE “Illustrations:the swinging rib cage”

Like one of the earlier movements, this one may cause you to develop a `stitch’ if you do it fairly actively. This is because it strongly massages the internal organs, and this is a healthful stimulus to them. It may also cause an unusual bellows action with the lungs, causing a pumping of air in and out of the lungs without actually breathing. This is quite normal for the movement, and is not harmful. No need to meditate this one.

1.  Keeping the hips still, swing the lower ribs slightly sideways. If you do this with the right side of the rib-case, it causes the left shoulder to drop, and the right to rise. When you alternately swing to the right and left, the shoulders alternately rise and fall also.

2.  Therefore, if you lift and drop the shoulders alternately, this may help produce the extending of the rib-case, but not necessarily so. Many people move their shoulders thus, or swing their hips energetically, without their rib-case being mobilised at all.

3.  Swing alternatively left and right until you can do the movement easily.

    The CrawlXE “Movements:the crawl”

Your attention has been moving up the body in this series of exercises, and so are concentrating more on the chest and shoulders at the moment. This exercise is primarily to mobilise the shoulders and rib-case in relationship to the spine. But it also brings the arms into action in more than a supporting role.

It helps if you imagine the hands are pulling backwards through water. Meanwhile, the head and hips should remain facing forward, so the shoulders swing around the steady spine. The movement can be done slowly but strongly, or fast and energetically. This is a wonderful movement to massage neck and lungs.

1.  Start by standing with feet about shoulder width apart.

2.  Be aware of the knees, and keep them very slightly bent and relaxed.

3.  Keeping your head and hips still make the swimming movements of the ‘crawl’ with your arms. This means the right arm swings up and forward above the head as the left arm is low and moving backwards. Then the left arm is up and forward as the right drops.

4.  The movement is a slow circling of the arms.

5.  Finish with the still meditation of the movement.

Playing With the Voice

If you have lots of time you can use this after the warming-up movements. Otherwise use it by itself, taking up to fifteen minutes. It may help to use music as a background. Something not too invading.

In this exercise you explore the use of sound. To make different sounds you need to move not only your throat, but also your trunk and even limbs in different ways. Sounds also evoke feelings and move or exercise them. Just as many of us do not move our body outside of certain restricted and habitXE “Habit”ual gestures and actions, so also your range of sounds may be quite small. So for several minutes you will explore making sounds.

As your sound production improves though, and you begin to enjoy it, in different sessions explore making all sorts of happy sounds; different sorts of laughter, proud, childish, funny, etc.; angry noises; animal and bird noises; sensual sounds; the sound of crying or sobbing; natural sounds such as wind, water, earthquakes; make the sounds of different languages and different situations such as a warriors chant, a mothers lullaby XE “Sounds:themes to explore”XE “Voice:themes to explore”(without real words, just evocative sounds), a lover’s song, a hymn to Life, or even sounds about birth and death; and just plain nonsense noises. Don’t attempt to explore all these different types of sound at one session. Just choose one and explore it until you can feel yourself limbering up in it and getting past restricting feelings such as shyness or stupidity. Those are the walls of restriction.

1.  Start by taking a full breath and letting it out noisily with an AHHHH sound.

2.  Do this until you feel it resonating in your body. This may take one or two minutes.

3.  Change to a strong EEEEEEEEEE sound. Once more, continue for at least a minute.

4.  Now try MMMMMMMAAAAAA.

5.  If you are doing this exercise for the first time, that is sufficient for one session. If not, go     on to use one of the themes suggested above.

The Yawning Exercise

XE “Inner-Directed Movement:starting”Do not use this exercise until you have used the Warm-Up and Loosening Movements a few times, as well as the voice exercise.

One of the easiest ways to begin LifeStream is to use your body’s own urge to express spontaneous movement, as with yawning. To do this first take time to create the right setting for the practice. You need a reasonable space – something at least the size of a single blanket, so you can feel free to move without bumping into things. Play some music that is flowing, but without a strong beat. A strong rhythm grabs the body and feelings too much and so prevents creativity in your expression. Most of Kitaro’s music is useful for this. Try also – Moods, Inner-directed movement Enyo music – Meditation by Thais, and some of the Vangelis albums. Music also ‘gives permission’ for easier self-expression in that you are less worried about making a noise or moving.

XE “Music:to use “XE “Inner-Directed Movement:music to use”

    Do not go onto the other exercises described after the yawning exercise. Practice this one a few times on different days before attempting the next ones.

XE “Yawning method”You need clothes suitable for easy movement, and about ten to twenty minutes during which time you can give yourself fully to whatever your body and feelings suggest. Do not take this suggestion of time rigidly though. If your session is shorter or longer follow your own needs.

1.  When ready, stand in the space, listen to the music and drop unnecessary tensions. Remind yourself that for the next few minutes you are going to let your body play. You are going to let it off the lead.

2.  Open your mouth wide with head slightly dropped back and simulate yawns. As you do so notice whether a natural yawn starts to make itself felt. If it does, allow it to take over and have a really luxurious yawn. Any following impulse to yawn again should be allowed.

3.  Let the yawns come one after the other if they want to. Without acting it out, let the impulse to yawn take over your body, not just your mouth and face. So if the urge to move includes the arms or elsewhere, let it happen.

4.  XE “Body:following its own   impulses”XE “Spontaneous Movement”Give yourself over to the enjoyment of having time to really indulge your own natural feelings and body pleasure. If the yawning develops into other movements and stretches, let it. In the same way you would normally allow your body to express itself in a yawn, let it express itself in whatever other form of movement, postures or stretches arise. Maybe it will be noisy yawns, so allow whatever noises you want to make, however ‘silly’. If this flows into movements following the music, don’t hold yourself back. Or your movements might not follow the music, but have a direction of their own. This is play-time with your body, so enjoy it. What has gone before has simply been preparatory. Now you can do what you want.

5.  Until you feel ready to stop, simply enjoy or explore the movements and feelings that arise – even if what arises for you after the initial yawns is a desire to lie on the floor and rest. That also is you expressing your needs.

Star Daily