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Reincarnation And Dreams
When people have accepted the idea that they may have had previous lives, they frequently then wish to remember what was experienced in the past, who they were, and what lessons were learned or failed. And of course one of the biggest arguments against past existence is the very obvious lack of memory. ‘If I had lived before,’ they say, ‘then I would surely remember it.’
People tend to believe their life began at birth or at conception. That is quite a false concept, for the seed or cell that you developed from wasn’t a new thing, for no plant or creature grows from a dead seed, and each living seed carries within it all the past gathered from all its forebears. So, the seed in your mother’s womb is as old as and even older than human kind, and you carry that wisdom or memories in you. But in this life you developed a new brain, and the memories you gathered this time are what you built your personality from.
Remember your memory as a seed/cell stretches back much farther than your brain memory, so an old house can represents a past dwelling place. Although most of your actions arise from your conscious personality, behind that lies the immense experience of the long past, so your mind that is unconscious gives you stature, breadth, and quality, like the body beneath the clothes/personality.
Before we can properly understand how to work with dreams to recover our lost selves, we must see just why we do not, in general, remember our past. Imagine a tulip bulb in the earth, unseen, unexpressed. In the spring it produces leaves, a stem, and a flower. If the flower were a conscious being, it might look at what was visible of itself. From such a study it might say, ‘I have a physical body which has never existed before. I am a unique individual, I am born, I live, I will fade again and perish.’
The self and the Overself
Indeed the tulip flower and leaves perish, but the bulb draws back into itself their essence as they fade. Next spring up comes another tulip. Once more it may look at itself as if it were a conscious being. But suppose this one were more persevering than the first, and went beyond the obvious: supposing it went beyond its personal awareness into consciousness of the bulb which gave rise to it. Then it might say, ‘I am certainly a unique being who has never previously existed. Yet, at the same time, I am created from the essence of other tulips existing in the past, and the part of my being which lies beneath normal awareness exists beyond my personal death, and holds in it the experience of many other tulips.’
This is a helpful but not perfect analogy. Our present personality has never existed before. Searching within its own experience and memories it could never find memory of our past lives, for it has had none-but yet it has been created out of the ‘essence’ of other past personalities. Tendencies, unaccountable fears or talents, give the clue to these past selves. But behind the personal consciousness lies what Jung calls the Self, or Overself, the Spirit, which gives rise to being after being, in search of self-realisation, and only when we become aware of this aspect of self do we become aware of our link, in the overself, of all these past selves. Our personal consciousness does not reincarnate; it is the overself that unfolds into physical life in order to experience itself in particular ways. See Mushrooms
Example: The plan of man went into action. Downward he went from heavenly knowledge to mystical dreams, revealed religions, philosophy and theology, until the bottom was reached and he only believed what he could see and feel and prove in terms of his conscious mind. Then he began to fight his way upward, using the only tools he had left: suffering, patience, faith, and the power of mind.
At present man is in a state of great spiritual darkness – the darkness which precedes dawn. He has carried his scepticism to the point where it is forcing him to conclusions he knows intuitively are wrong. At the same time, he has carried his investigation of natural phenomena to the point where it is disproving all it seemed to prove in the beginning. Free will is finding that all roads lead finally to the same destination. Science, theology; and philosophy, having no desire to join forces, are approaching a point of merger. Scepticism faces destruction by its own hand.
Things other than pattern concern the soul in its selection of a body: coming situations in history, former associations with the parents, the incarnation, at about the same time, of souls it wishes to be with and with whom it has problems to work out. In some cases, the parents are the whole cause of a soul’s return; the child will be devoted to them and remain close to them until their death. In other cases, the parents are used as a means to an end-the child will leave home early and be about its business.
The personality is shaped by three or four incarnations, the portions of the earthly experience on which the individuality wants to work. The emotions and talents of the person reflect these incarnations. The dreams, visions, meditations-the deep, closely guarded self-consciousness of the personality is the pattern of experience among the other states of consciousness of the solar system. The intellect is, roughly speaking, from the stars: it is the mind force of the soul, conditioned by its previous experience in creation outside the solar system, and dimmed or brightened by its recent experiences within the solar system. Quoted from The Story of Edgar Cayce
If it is our eternal overself that holds the awareness of many lives, and if we lack consciousness of our eternal nature, then it is obvious we will also lack memory of past existences linked with our present life. And because we are woven of the wisdom and folly, hates and loves, of these past selves, we carry with us yet another possibility of forgetfulness. Many of us, even in this life, have no memory of our own childhood and infancy – I mean detailed memory. But thousands of people undergoing psychotherapy where they meet the traumas of their past, recover a detailed experience of their infancy, or even their birth and life in the womb. Painful past experiences causes us to shut out memory. Such barriers are also built between the small self we know as our present identity, and the enormity of the self we are in our eternal aspect.
Thousands of people at present only know tiny parts of their complete nature because of this. If you cannot remember your childhood in its unfolding; if you cannot remember your life in the womb; if you cannot remember your life in eternity, then you really only know a tiny part of yourself. No wonder you cannot remember the much greater and more challenging memories of past lives linked with the present. Such remembering needs courage. It needs the gradual melting away of the subtle and crucial barriers built between consciousness, between our present identity, and our fuller memory of self.
These three things (a) different centre of consciousness between overself and ego (b) wilful turning away, and (c) barriers of bitterness, grudges, pain and unforgiveness, effectively shut us off from knowing who we are in our entirety.
But there is one other excellent reason our present ego is exploring experiences it might never gain if it knew all. One of the reasons the Overself takes up physical life is to develop waking awareness in a self-conscious state. To be self conscious we must of necessity exist within very small boundaries of awareness. If we were aware of ALL-there would be no self – or self would be very difficult to hold onto. Certainly we would not be able to experience the world in the way we do. Once this ego, this self, has been developed and is strong enough, then gradually the boundaries can be enlarged, but not too quickly, for the ego is a very vulnerable thing. In an evolutionary sense the self aware identity is a tiny infant newly arisen on the world scene. In fact enormous numbers of people breakdown into mental illness, alcoholism, drug addiction, medical sedation or depression because of this vulnerability. And we must remember it is difficult enough to cope with the problems of this life. Memory of others would bring back the urges, fears, pains, and talents of the past.
First of all heal the present
Therefore, if we are approaching the study of dreams for the purpose of discovering our relationship with our overself and through this our experiences, karma, and talents from the past, we must expect to meet certain activities in our dream life.
Firstly, it does not often happen that dreams show us our past lives until we have fairly well integrated the aspects of our present personality. When we first come to dream study, we usually have to work for some years on using the dreams to integrate our present psychological state. If one is a woman, one has to learn properly to express to a fair degree one’s own femininity and also to be capable of meeting and expressing the masculine side of self. Conversely, the man has to meet and integrate his feminine nature. The problems of our infantile relationships with our parents; our sexual nature; our ambitions; all have to be faced in some degree before any real entry into past life contact is made. Some memories may arise before this if they are important to what is being met in the present, but to begin to actually integrate the past cannot take place until we have integrated the beginning of this present life. See Ages of Love
The simple fact is, if we have not the mental, spiritual, or moral strength and ability to integrate our present life we obviously also lack the equipment to face and integrate the past ones, and this is why integration of the present stands like a barrier in the way of exploring the past. But another barrier also stands before us: like the barrier of integration, it exists in the invisible realms of our soul, intangible but very real.
It lies in our relationship with the overself. As memories of the past are only in our eternal nature, to reach them we must relate to, enter into, or become aware of, our overself. Therefore, when we have begun to develop qualities that enable us to deal with psychological problems, our dreams begin to instruct us more and more how we may then nurture attitudes in our soul which will extend and deepen our relationship with the overself.
Such dreams may instruct us in certain types of meditation or the development of particular attitudes of mind or behaviour, and we should apply them to the best of our ability.
Only then does a particular type of dream begin to occur, marking the start of a process which, if persevered in, will frequently lead to the unconscious life actually breaking through into waking consciousness, bringing direct experience, of past lives.
A man of twenty-one who was interested in dreams but had not particularly worked with them had the following dream.
‘I seemed to be a young man, not myself as I am, living in Germany in a past age. As this man I was a well-known writer or poet, yet I was of peasant stock and lived in the forest. My writings had become fashionable, however, and because of this notoriety I had been invited to a ball given by the local nobility. This was not because I was liked or admired by these people, but to enable them to say they had seen me. In fact, I was somewhat despised or looked down on because of my background even though I was well educated and capable of the necessary social graces. Because of this, at the ball, the younger men took every opportunity to discredit me. But I did not seem at all perturbed, dancing with the best of the ladies, young and old.
‘As the evening drew on, however, the young men became more aggressive. I was pushed or tripped in ways meant to look accidental. They wanted me to lose my temper so they would have an opportunity of attacking me. When I did not respond as they wanted me to they became openly aggressive and encircled me, pushing, insulting, and trying to start a fight. I knew if I did, they would beat me badly. Suddenly, when violence could no longer be avoided, I cried out a call. It was the call of the Zimmermen (the woodsmen) for I had expected the crisis. Immediately, my friends of the forest, who had been waiting at the windows and doors, leaped into the room with a shout, and a battle royal began. Nobody was really hurt, but both sides relieved their dislike for each other, and afterwards my comrades and I walked back through the dark woods to our homes . We sang the song of the Zimmermen as we marched, and this song I remembered even when I woke.’
This dream may seem to contradict much of what has been said, for the person had not given time to self study, but it is typical of the occasional dreams people do get before a substantial contact with the past has been made. The dreamer had recently stayed in Germany for some months and had begun to write poetry there. During the years that followed he in fact wrote much poetry. No further dreams of that nature followed.
This dream may seem to contradict much of what has been said, for the person had not given time to self study, but it is typical of the occasional dreams people do get before a substantial contact with the past has been made. The dreamer had recently stayed in Germany for some months and had begun to write poetry there. During the years that followed he in fact wrote much poetry. No further dreams of that nature followed.
Example: I noticed a large rag doll on the floor. I seemed to know the doll belonged to Joan, and was unconsciously used as a substitute for her deep longing for a son. I held out my hand to the doll, with love, and it came alive and crawled to me. It came to me as a lonely child might come into one’s arms hungering for love. I held it close to me, and Joan came over and I held her too. Then all barriers seemed to melt, and everything disappeared from view. All that existed was I as a united being and consciousness. It was, I think, beautiful. I used the word think, because I find it difficult to describe the experience. We melted into each other beyond the sense of being separated by the surface of one’s skin If one literally entered during sexual intercourse, and melted together like drops of water uniting, this is how it would be.
We stayed like this, in a sort of darkness, for some time. Then I seemed to be just myself again, and was blowing down my nostrils clearing mucus. Breath came out and out and out without having to breathe in. In some way I breathed into the rag doll and it became an actual child. But then I explained to Joan that the doll had been a lifeless manifestation of her longing for her son. But her longing was part of what a mother does on giving a child an inner life. I had breathed life into the doll and it now had a soul, which was why it was now human. But it would soon die. This was because it needed to die in order to reincarnate as one of their family. Its soul would be born soon in a body they would form – in a baby they would have – a boy child.
But We Are Dealing with the Dream Process
The past life question is one that I explored over a number of years, and I haven’t written it up, so will have to try to put it down in a short version. Because we are dealing with the dream process, and also the business of resistance, we are walking in a massive maze – and yet if we have the right viewpoint it is all clear – our unconscious does not actually lie to us, but it may lead us to the great insight in stages.This is true of many apparent past life memories. I had the experience in LifeStream of being a prisoner during the First World War. I was tortured and then strapped face down on a bed and buggered by several German soldiers. It was so real and emotional that at the end of it I really felt my feelings of me were ‘buggered up’. I felt certain it was a memory of a past life because if its reality.Now, my first experience of LifeStream where I relived my tonsil operation, when I emerged from it the neck tension I had experienced and the other symptoms attached to it were all wiped out. But after the First World War experience I still felt a mess. So it led me to have a question about why I had such an impressive experience and I had not really cleared it.It was sometime before I came across the second level. In this I relived being beaten by several youths. Again it was so real I asked my parents whether I had ever arrived home with signs of being roughed up. They looked at me as if I were somewhat mad. So the question still remained – what was really going on. When I finally broke through the resistances it was with great emotion that I realised the truth of what I had done to myself.
When I started masturbating my mother found out and with enormous emotion told me that if I didn’t stop I would die. I was only thirteen and it was a tremendous threat. What I didn’t know and only found out later was that my mother thought I had contracted TB – at that time TB was everywhere and in fact we knew people who had it. Also it was known that TB energised ones sexual urges, and that could speed the onset of death.
The effect on me, to cut a long story short, was that I learnt, through struggle to kill all sexual impulses, so for 8 years of my life I was dead sexually. That was my First World War I had fought in. The enemy I had fought and lost against was my own urges, and I had tortured myself and turned my sexual urges inwards – buggered myself in fact.
The second level was similar. I had been knocked about by my own youthful urges, which I resisted.
So one can use any excuse or cover up – reincarnation – to avoid seeing the awful things we do to ourselves or have been done to us. I had several other apparent past life experiences that later I saw as traumas in this life.
The Guardian of the threshold
In this type of dream a fairly straight memory is presented, and is not repeated. It is a spontaneous event, a gift as it were, from the Self, and it cannot be repeated because the personality has not forged they key which opens the door to its source. The dreams which arise when we develop into higher awareness are usually of a different nature and nearly always bring, not only memory, but also the lessons to be learnt from the memory. They come loaded with comment from the Overself on how these memories relate to present situations we face.
To understand this process let us look at a series of dreams experienced by a man over a period of about three years. He had been studying his dreams seriously for a long time, and had even been shown in dreams a particular type of meditation, which he had thereafter practised daily for at least two years.
Dream 1.
Before I went to sleep that night I focused on the question -Who am I, really?
The dream was vivid, and still gives me shivers to this day. I dreamed that I looked up and there was this incredible star that was emanating points of light in the sky. It got brighter and brighter and the bottom-most point reached down to where I was and transported me up to the star. The points of light came out from the centre in all directions, and I found myself on the end of one of the horizontal points. A wonderful (female) voice spoke to me and said this is who you are, and I had the strong sense of being located at the end of the horizontal light bar. Then she said and this is who you are and carried (transported in some way) me to the next bar of light, where I saw another version (incarnation?) of myself (in a different time and place, although I knew that the essence of this version of me was really me)
She continued transporting me from bar to bar where I experienced myself in many different versions in the past, present, and future. I had different skills and interests that were the focal point of each version of myself–a musician in one, a farmer in another. Some of the versions were females, although I experienced the same sense of self in all of them. Then she returned me to the horizontal bar of my current self and said to me that all of this is who I am, but that now she was going to show me who I really am. Then she drew me into the centre of the star (light, energy source) where I merged with her and could see each of the emanating points of light as manifestations of a single source or spirit.
It was one of the most incredible feelings of being integrated and whole that I’ve ever experienced, and I basked in the feeling for awhile just absorbing and soaking it in. Then she returned me to myself (with a cosmic wink) and I slept peacefully for the rest of the night. Ever since then I haven’t felt the need to ask who or what I am, and I’ve seen my various abilities and struggles in life in a totally new way. C.A.
But although not as dramatic, here is a dream that sums it up.
Example: ‘I dreamt I was in the jungles of Vietnam, standing near a railroad track, when I felt a sharp pain in the back of my neck. I felt myself rise out of my body, enter a large room, and sit down beside a young man. I asked him what had happened. He said: `We were both dead. I was killed in an automobile accident.’ I didn’t believe him. I saw two doors through which people were coming and going. Some looked happy, others unhappy. Then my name was called, and the young man said I was to go through one of these doors. I found myself standing in a large room facing a group of people seated behind a long table. The man presiding had an open book in front of him at which he looked from time to time. He spoke to me and said: `John Walter Mc-Gregor, you are physically dead and this is where you are judged. You have been found wanting because of your failure to heed the teachings of the woman, Nancy McGregor, your mother in this life.’ I insisted I was still alive. The man took me to the jungles of Vietnam and showed me my physical body lying there dead. He said again: `You are physically dead. You will, however, have another chance. You will return to earth in the body of a newborn baby, once again to learn these spiritual teachings.’ ”
One month later, in September of 1965, the man was sent to the jungles of Vietnam.
I believe this dream came as a symbolic warning to change his destructive attitude toward life lest his own life be cut short. This dream had a profound effect on him. He began to take religion seriously, and I am thankful to say that, after two years of service in the jungles around Danang, Vietnam, he is out of service and planning a career as a psychologist. Through this dream experience, the High Self was most effective in bringing about the desired change. Quoted from Dreams Your Magic Mirror.
Here is clearer evidence
Captain and Mrs Battista, Italians, had a little daughter born in Rome, whom they called Blanche. To help look after this child they employed a French-speaking Swiss “Nanny” called Marie. Marie, the nurse, taught her little charge to sing in French a lullaby song. Blanche grew very fond of this song and it was sung to her repeatedly. Unfortunately Blanche died and Marie returned to Switzerland. Captain Battista writes: “The cradle song which would have recalled to us only too painful memories of our deceased child, ceased absolutely to be heard in the house … all recollection of it completely escaped our minds.”
‘Three years after the death of Blanche the mother, Signora Battista, became pregnant, and in the fourth month of pregnancy she had a strange waking dream. She insists that she was wide awake when Blanche appeared to her and said, in her old, familiar voice, “Mother, I am coming back.” The vision then melted away. Captain Battista was sceptical, but when the new baby was born in February, 1906, he acquiesced in her also being given the name Blanche. The new Blanche resembled the old in every possible way.
‘Nine years after the death of the first Blanche, when the second ‘was six years of age, an extraordinary thing happened. I will use Captain Battista’s own words: “While I was with my wife in my study which adjoins our bedroom. We heard, both of us, like a distant echo, the famous cradle song, and the voice came from the bedroom where we had put our little daughter Blanche fast asleep. … We found the child sitting up on the bed and singing with an excellent French accent the cradle song which neither of us had certainly ever taught her. My wife asked her what it was she was singing, and the child, with the utmost promptitude answered that she was singing a French song. “Who, pray, taught you this pretty song?” I asked her. “Nobody, I know it out of my own head,” answered the child.’
Here is another experience, received in a dream state.
‘I lay in my bed unable to sleep, and because of this decided to try an experiment. We had been discussing earlier the possibility of emptying the mind completely and I decided to see if this could be done. After quite a time had passed in trying I felt it was impossible, gave up and fell asleep. The next thing I knew I was suspended above my body which was asleep on the bed. I felt as if I had returned to the womb, but it was not the physical womb but the cosmic womb. There was a wonderful feeling of love and bliss and being cared for, that completely enveloped me. There was also an awareness of my oneness with God and every other creature and being in the universe, and yet also remaining an individual. There were several questions on my mind at that particular time, and I found that without actually being told the answers I knew them intuitively. I knew my forthcoming marriage was right; also the doctrine of reincarnation and karma which I had at that time been wondering about. I knew that I was surrounded by a love and protection that made all my actions right because I could not go against that which was right in the face of this experience. I wished that I might stay always in this wonderful state and knew that this was akin to what death felt like, and knowing this one should not fear death which was an expansion of oneself. Gradually I returned to my normal sleep-state and woke up, but the feeling of the experience stayed with me for quite a while afterwards.’ B.C.
But here is one with proof.
Example: It began after a father-son bonding trip to the Cavanaugh Flight Museum outside of Dallas. Bruce picked up a video of the Blue Angels navy flight exhibition team for his 2-year-old son, James, who had become instantly enamoured with the jet fighters in high speed formation.
However, soon afterwards James began to smash his toy airplanes repeatedly into the coffee table screaming that the aircraft was on fire. It was then that the nightmares began. His mother Andrea would find her son thrashing around on the bed letting out blood curdling screams, shouting, ‘Airplane crash on fire! Little man can’t get out!’
The disturbing nightmares were physical too, with James kicking upwards on his bed as if trying to kick open the canopy from inside an aircraft.
It was over a bedtime story that James suddenly began talking to his parents about the nightmares, turning them from night terrors to lucid details and conversations.
James told his staunchly Christian parents, that he was flying a Corsair during the Second World War and that the Japanese shot him down. ‘Mama, before I was born, I was a pilot, and my airplane got shot in the engine and it crashed in the water and that’s how I died.’
He told his parents he flew off a carrier called the USS Natoma Bay and his name was James and that he had died during it in a horrific plane crash. The growing implications of what their son was telling them began to trouble the religious beliefs of Bruce and Andrea. When James was two-and-a-half he was sitting on his father’s knee going through a book on the Battle for Iwo Jima.
Opening the book to a picture of Mount Suribachi, James exclaimed, ‘That’s where my plane was shot down. My airplane got shot down there daddy.’ James began to draw disturbing pictures of fiery plane crashes – Dr Tucker believes this kind of compulsive repetition had all the hallmarks of how children deal with PTSD.
Bruce in particular wanted to get to the bottom of his son’s insistence that he was indeed describing the past lives of a downed pilot named James. He attended a reunion for USS Natoma Bay veterans under the ruse of writing a book and was stunned to discover the only pilot killed during the Iwo Jima operation was a 21-year-old from Pennsylvania named James Huston.
Further unnerving research revealed that Huston’s plane had been hit in the nose and lost its propeller – exactly where James had intentionally damaged all his toy planes.
As their belief in their son’s extraordinary claims grew, Bruce and Andrea began to take what he said seriously. One night Andrea said that she was told by James that his past-life father was an alcoholic and when James Huston was 13, they put their drunken dad in hospital for six weeks.
By now they had tracked down Huston’s sister Anne, who was in her 80s by now and asked her if these claims were true – which she confirmed. More staggering coincidences began to occur. James knew details that no four-year-old or even 40-year-old would know about the operational details of a Second World War fighter.
Indeed, after that, back at home in Dallas, James was sweeping the front lawn with his dad when Bruce bent down to hug his son and tell him that he loved him. James replied that when he saw Bruce and Andrea eating dinner in Hawaii on Waikiki Beach he knew that these were the right parents for him.
Bruce still has no idea how his son knew about the romantic trip he and his wife went on to start their family – before James was born. After this he was invited to Japan where he was shot down and was honoured by the Japanese officials who said he was obviously a reincarnation because he knew so much about them.
Maybe we don’t want to see who we were?
One dream was that my wife was mad and had to be locked up, the other that she had suddenly become religious and had retired from the world. I treated her like an animal. She had in fact nearly gone mad, but had developed a real religious inner life of forgiveness and surrender which had saved her from insanity and had also given her an inner beauty which was apparent, and which angered me still more. Now I made her strip naked and washed her in front of my friend, doing so with much roughness. The friend begged her forgiveness for the part he had played in this, as he had never seen her before.
The dream not only shows a past relationship but also depicts the mans inner life and his relationship with his own femininity and emotions. He realised he had to accept the feelings of being a prisoner, just as his wife in the past had done. If he allowed them full consciousness in his life, and yet did not seek to escape, they would burn out and he would have dealt with that part of his karma. He managed to do this, although sorely tried, and it worked. Not only did the feeling of being trapped gradually fade, but he began to find spontaneous love for his wife. Of course, this was not a quick process.
There then followed a number of dreams, well spaced, about the integration of his feminine self, i.e. his marriage to her. In one he dreamt he had intercourse with an Indian girl on a beach and afterwards he wanted to marry her. But although nothing seemed to stand in the way of illicit relationships with her, to legally marry her presented enormous difficulties and he had to prove himself worthy. In fact, he had taken LSD twice prior to this, and longed to further investigate the inner world it exposed. He knew the Indian girl was this inner life, and his illicit, easy intercourse, the LSD. But he wanted to be personally capable of experiencing the inner world, not have to depend on a chemical, and the dream showed him the difficulties he would have to meet. Nevertheless he decided to do this rather than use an artificial method.
In a later dream, he was going with a dark, slightly oriental girl, to the Quaker Meeting House in Euston Road. Some big event was taking place. As they reached the entrance, however, they were asked for tickets. The girl had a ticket, so only she was admitted; he was ushered through another door into the Euston Road, where a battle was raging. He lay down on the ground feigning death.
The dream shows how he still did not have the ‘ticket’ the capability to enter the innermost part of himself, where the big event will be experienced. It again implies marriage or unity with his feminine nature. It also says, to do this, he must first face his conflicts, which he is avoiding by not wishing to become involved in them.
Through determining to face his inner conflicts, and allow himself to experience them, he gradually began to have dreams in which he was dressed as a soldier.
In his dreams this meant he was now inwardly willing to become involved in his inner battle or conflicts. He then had the following dreams.
Dream 5. I had dreamt I had joined the army, and was going to face the enemy. With many other troops I was on a boat. It was night time. Ahead, land loomed. On the left, flashes of gunfire showed, raining shells on a defenceless and innocent town on the right. Our task was to deal with these guns.
About a week or fortnight after this, I not only dreamt earthquakes occurring releasing prehistoric monsters from the depths of the earth, but also of battle. I was in the trenches. We were all keyed up. In the previous dream of war, I had experienced a tremendous fellowship, or mystical union between myself and the other troops. Now I wondered how I was going to face open combat when it occurred. But there arose in me a feeling of certain commitment to face whatever came. Then it was upon us. Bullets were flying, the signal was given, and I was out of the trench running toward the enemy, all fear gone, only the total feeling of destiny, or complete involvement. Whatever happened, I would face it.
In the light of the other dreams, I think these speak for themselves. The gunfire on the left was the arising to consciousness of the effects of inner conflict and fears. The town on the right was his outer life, being devastated by inner explosive emotions. I will let the dreamer describe the result of these years of working on himself.
The Door Opens
“The very day of dreaming I was going into battle; I began to express an uneasy trembling. The years of inner search, coupled with as much or more outer search through books and organisations, had readied me for this. I had read of others having similar experiences, and in fact had been through the same thing with LSD. But never before had it occurred naturally. I lay down and let it happen. To my astonishment not only did I remember and actually relive a childhood scene, I went right into an event from my past of great painfulness, and relived it, thus healing and integrating the emotions it had locked up.
After that time, I could enter this inner experience anytime I opened myself to it. Events from my present life and childhood were slowly brought to consciousness and healed. Then, still slowly, a wider awareness gradually emerged showing me how this life was part of a continuum stretching from the far past. But quite apart from the past, I began to be able, over some years of entry into this inner world, to be capable of moving around in it, asking questions, being taught, and discovering who I was in eternity and not just in time. It had taken me, not just counting working on dreams and meditation, but also with my exploration of occultism and so on, twenty years of searching to find this. Nevertheless, it was worth it. But of course, this must not be thought of as an end. No, it is only a beginning, for like so many others who discover their own inner immensity, in this new world I am but a baby.”
See: The House of the Ancestors; deja vu; past lives in dreams.
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Today, was honestly horrifying. As I lay in bed watching hung TV on mute, I guess I doses off. I could still see the television in the background but I suddenly found myself standing on a road behind me was a Forrest and in front if me a limestone walk. This wall had crevices, each crevice was a road when suddenly my kids as children ran by me and climbed up this huge lime stone wall. Over the wall I saw a carousal went thru it saw my kids on a bike so I followed…and found myself in a clinic with rooms and doctors with patients. I could see my legs and clothes I was wearing a long dress with huge side pockets and some white socks and tennis shoes. Then I heard two people conversating one lady said I’m clocking out so I asked her where do you live by…she replied with by the base. I said oh I live by Lackland a military base in my state.. She said another name and I said where’s that at she laughed and said in Oregano of course. At this moment I panicked felt so real, I could hear myself breathing heavy I could still see the show on the television that I was watching before and I could see the clinic and these people around me I just wanted go home. I find myself at a bus stop on my way yo Texas. When I get there I go to my apt. No o es there, I dial my husbands number its disconnected, call my kids number no answer so I go to my husbands work and I see him. As I get closer to him I hug him and he looks at me like who are you he didn’t recognize me. I said Jason it’s me Yvonne…he starts to cry and pulls me aside says to me my girl died a few months ago is this a sick joke…I said Jason its me I start to tell him about our kids, all kids info and intimate moments he was in shock I asked about my kids and when I went to the bathroom to look at myself in mirror I saw a young white girl with long blonde hair …….I woke up from this trans to the television to the exact show I left it at and only 5 minutes or so had passed I started to cry felt so real. Even when I the this story I get heart palpitations and heavy breathing. Don’t know what it means but, so has me scared.
Hi – I am stopping from answering your posts fully – but will try to give hints; sometimes long ones because I quote from masses I have already put online. Also, I need to take time to update the site – dreamhawk.
It would help you to understand your dreams, if you would read – http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/questions-2/#Summing and also http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/features-found-on-site/ which has so much information in.
Nothing can replace your own ability to understand your dream. With a little effort you can do this by practising what is described in – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson or http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/getting-at-your-dreams-meaning/
Tony
Yvonne – There are so many dream images it would take ages to deal with them all. But you need to know what you called a trance was a waking dream. The dream process can break through into our waking experience, so we see things seeming outside us, exactly liked dreams. Also time is different in the dream world.
It seems the main thing was your experience that you were dead – according to your husband. It is natural to dream of being dead, because it dramatises what we feel about death. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/dreaming-of-death/
It would be helpful if you tried using the following with the young white girl – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/acting-on-your-dream/#BeingPerson
What a coincidence, I have the same surname ( a name that is very rare here in the Toronto area). I am a big fan of Deepak Chopra; I was reading one of his books the other day and he happened to discuss reincarnation in one of his chapters. I don’t have any direct memories of ‘past lives’ myself, but I do have a dream that stands out. The earliest dream I can remember was when I was about 4 years old; I dreamed that I was being operated onin a hospital. I was lying on a table and there were doctors all around me cutting me open. A very strange dream for a 4 year old considering my age; would a child that age even know what an operation is? And that I was lying on the operating table and not observing. I’ve never been to a hospital for treatments or operations. So it made me wonder if that dream was associated with a memory from a past life, or a connection to the collective unconscious….
Hi,
Through having a brain injury which wiped most of my long term and all my short term memories, through the recovery process, I accidently gained access to memories of thousands of years of my past lives, before I finally regained most of my memories of this life again. Previously I had no belief that past life’s existed.
This experience suggests to me that our past lives are very much stored in our brains, perhaps in part of the 90% we commonly don’t use.
To know a lot about your past lives is an increadibly peaceful, opened and conscious state of being. I would like to know your thoughts / opinion on my experience if you have any thoughts?
With gratitude and love
El
El – A fascinating communication and experience.
Yes I have many ideas about your experience. But you have to understand that what I say may seem strange, but I will try to explain, and it anything is not clear please ask me to clarify.
But first of all you felt that your enormous memory of past lives was stored in your brain; but I feel that from my experiences and study the brain is a wonderful organ that simply receives and transmits impulses from the real us, your core self. It only has memory from the present life, and that is why most people cannot remember any past lives.
The ‘real us’ needs explaining. Most people feel certain their body is them, and are certain that their body is who they are. But dreams have a very different view of the body. They show again and again if anyone takes the time to record their dreams over a period of time that we all have a body, a soul and a spirit. The body is in constant change and will age and die. Dreams see it as like a car that we can use to get some necessary life experiences, but the driver can leave the car and the car does not define the driver.
The soul/personality consists of all the personal thoughts, decisions, likes, dislikes and memories of the person – of this lifetime. It can be quite limited in its perceptions because we are only aware of only 1% of visible light and 1% of the range of sound – so we are really blind and deaf, and yet we are so sure we know the world and what it means.
The spirit/core self is basically consciousness/energy/peace or bliss that can enliven a body but is not limited by it, and can exist as bodiless awareness. So from the point of view of dreams you cannot die or be destroyed. Also in dreams – your inner life – you can appear as any form, any gender and any creature. But we are so sure we are the limited world we know through our senses, we are trapped by this view of ourselves.
It seems that your brain injury – as did my major stroke – shut down your usual brain awareness that most people live in and only know of – and yet you were still aware in the core self awareness. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/core/ – http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/jesse-watkins-experience-of-enlightenment/
Obviously the names body, soul and core self are simply words used to communicate the huge range of what we are. Here is an example of the brain being a receptor only and of our great range ones freed from the blindness of our body sense:
Sir Auckland Geddes, a surgeon and one time British ambassador to the U.S., gives a brilliant description of such an experience showing how time and space are no longer the same in this condition. Becoming suddenly and violently ill with gastro-enteritis he quickly became unable to move or phone for help. As this was occurring he noticed two levels of awareness. One was normal sensory awareness in his body; the other was external to his body. From the external self he could see not only his body, but also the house, garden and surrounds. He needed only think of a friend or place and immediately he was there and was later able to verify what he saw. In looking at his body, he noticed that the brain was only an end organ, like a condensing plate, upon which memory and awareness played. The mind, he said, was not in the brain, the brain was in the mind, like a radio in the play of signals. He then observed his daughter come in and discover his condition, saw her telephone a doctor friend, and saw the doctor also at the same time. His observation was that in the lucid condition one can be ‘here’ and ‘there’ at the same time.
Perhaps it will help your understanding to read the following – but it is important to realise that what we know of the process of creation – the Big Bang – is that time and space were created soon after the Big Bang. Before that there was no time and no sense of space. As we are creatures of the universe and are part of it, it perhaps it explains Auckland Geddes, and many other people’s experience of being ‘here and there at the same time’ and perhaps your own experience of stepping beyond time into the timeless memories of past sojourns.
See http://dreamhawk.com/news/there-is-a-huge-change-happening/ – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/quantum-physics/
Tony
This has occurred to me for about 25 years back but it is as fresh as anything. I want to share my dreams that kept reoccurring to me for couple of times. I used to dream that I am in very old time. Such as no motor vehicles, no electricity nothing of this sort. one time I had a dream where I am been taken into protection of some soldiers and they are taking me a horse cart running as fast as they could on a path that was going beside a river. I saw there were many swollen dead bodies in the water. Another time, I saw a dream that it was a huge ground sort of desert and I was going but suddenly I felt my feet wet when I saw down there was water and in that there were dead bodies. In another dream I saw I was in a big huge stone house. I was very frightened and holding an eight to ten year old boy trying to save his and my life and some men were searching for us. I hide behind a wide big stone pillar with that boy who appeared as if my son and his father was already killed by those soldier type men. But finally those men found us then there was darkness all over. In another dream I saw if I am running all alone again in a desert type place fearing to death about a camel. But finally I saw a camel came running towards me. There was some one on the camel and I felt if that was end of it. I still keep thinking what was it. This is almost 25 years back but still I feel so fresh. Can anyone help me understand please. I would appreciate
Last night I dreamt I found the reincarnation of my best friend who passed away a few years ago. She was reincarnated as a cat. Even though the cat didn’t speak I could tell it was her in it’s mannerisms and by it’s eyes. It had her eyes. Don’t know what it means, but would love to get some idea
Christina – As you may know, dreams do the most remarkable things, and often show things in ways that are beyond our understanding. So I believe your dream is trying to show you something in a way-out way.
The thing is that all the cases of reincarnation that have offered some proof, none have been about humans reincarnating as an animal. I know Buddhist literature says a lot about it, but cases do not agree with it. The best book to read about it is Cerminara, Gina. Many Mansions: The Edgar Cayce Story on Reincarnation. I see you live in South Africa, so you might be able to get it from the link.
So, if we consider your dream it is about your own inner world and the associations you have with your friend. See – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/association-of-ideas-with-dreams/#Working also http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions-2/#Summing
From reading those you will begin to see your dream as your associations paint it. So it probably is saying that whatever qualities your friend had have been now connected with your own mammal nature. See http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/brain-levels-and-dreams/
In many people’s dreams cats talk with them or even make love with them. It indicates that one is accepting ones own animal self.
Tony
I always had a dream that i was wearing a late 80-90’s ballgown and there’s a man who’s always staring at me. Then there’s when i was walking along a beach and he’s always following me, he would talk to me, but most of the time, stare at me.
But one night, i had a dream of him again but it seems like where in the present/modern time which he told that me “it would be the right time for us to go back where we both belong”.. And i got so confused. Would it be connected to my first time i dreamt of him?
Could you please help me on a subject. I have dreams of when I was a child and what not and I’m passing things of other people and my present, and I remember my dreams. Its like everything is different but similar in a way. and some movies that come out I’ve seen before which is impossible. and one youtube video of a male talking, I had a dream of which I was there in that room and remember everything he was talking about. please help me
Sarah – There is so much for you to understand to enable you to realise what your dreams are telling you. So to start with please read – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/questions-2/#Summing
It seems from what you write that you have a gift that is totally misunderstood by the normal explanations of the mind and life. But such a gift is not all that easy to deal with until you learnt the rules, so I can only suggest certain things for you to read.
1 – http://dreamhawk.com/news/avoiding-being-my-own-victim/
2 – http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/lifes-little-secrets/
3 – http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/esp-in-dreams/
4 – http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/karma-and-past-lives/
5 – http://dreamhawk.com/interesting-people/edgar-cayce-and-the-cosmic-mind-superminds/
Tony
I had remembered a past life in a dream a while ago. I lived in the 5th century in the forest w/ other people. Men came on horses carrying flags and pulling wagons w/ caged bears and wolves that were starved. They came close to the camp, it was really small and had wood huts and a small stone room in the camp that could be closed. After the animals were releaseed woman and children were to go into the stone room for safety. It was hysteria as the animals ran through the camp attacking people and ripping limbs off of them. Men tried to fight the animals. The men who brought the animals did not come into the camp, but watched for a distance. There are more details but this is getting long. I just wished I knew if anything like that happened to confirm it was a past memory. I was a woman and had a sister. We were both in our 20’s and she was married. She died in the attach when her lower torso was eaten/ripped off.
Hi I have strong flashes of lives befor, I am so sensitive to other people and there emotions and have images of people I have never meet befor, Just as i calm myself to sleep .I have an awarness of hearing other peoples words, and can if clam read pepople and there pasts.
I have a knowing that is eary can you suggest reading material from your collection please Regards
Maria – It is not unusual except in our modern culture that is so full of material gain. In past cultures you were considered crippled if you could not communicate with the dead, read thoughts or see beyond the range of our physical senses.
Obviously these suggestions are not directly aimed at your question, but I hope you will find lots of interesting points in these links below. Also I would suggest you read the book There is a River about Edgar Cayce. It is full of information.
http://dreamhawk.com/interesting-people/edgar-cayce-and-the-cosmic-mind-superminds/
http://dreamhawk.com/interesting-people/eileen-garrett-psychic-superminds/
http://dreamhawk.com/interesting-people/rudolph-steiners-philosophy-of-life-and-death/
http://dreamhawk.com/interesting-people/schermann-graphologist-extraordinary-superminds/
http://dreamhawk.com/interesting-people/journey-through-the-mind-superminds/
http://dreamhawk.com/dream-encyclopedia/reincarnation-and-dreams/
http://dreamhawk.com/body-and-mind/simple-truths/
http://dreamhawk.com/body-and-mind/simple-truths/
Tony