Speaking to Plants

[Tony Crisp]

Experimenting with this I attempted communication with a sick New Zealand tomato tree we had. It was in a large tub, well fed and watered, but had the greenfly, and was also wilting. We had sprayed, but the general debility of the plant seemed to attract the fly. I used the technique of LifeStream to see if my intuition could asses the condition of the plant. The first thing I felt was an unexpected wave of love, as if the plant was wordlessly saying thank you for caring. Then I had the sense of my consciousness meshing with the consciousness/being of the plant. My impression was that the plant was an entity, a form of life and awareness, but it did not have a focused consciousness which could formulate the idea what causes this sickness? Because I could ask the question, and because I allowed my consciousness to consider the plant, a new situation arose; the plant could be aware of itself. The difficulty of the process was that everything was direct non-verbal experience. As the experience of plant life was new to me, I had to spend some time allowing the sensations to soak in and be analysed by my rational mind. What arose out of this was the understanding that the root system of the plant needed to spread sideways, not down. We therefore put the plant in a sack, with the same earth spread thin. Within a week the greenfly had all gone, without spraying, and the plant grew strong and luxuriant.

See http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/using-your-intuition-1/

[Dreamtime]

Tony - Just curious...how did the impressions/sensations come through as they were absorbed by your rational mind? In case this isn't quite clear...I'm wondering how your intuitive understanding about the root system presented itself to you or was it just a sense of 'knowing' rather than images or something of that sort?

[Tony Crisp]

Anna - It wasn't a dream, but using intuition while awake because my lovely plant was dying.

(Silly me again Anna - you are quite right).

Dreamtime - I think the whole thing is understandable when you realise that our brain is a master translator. To quote from Inner World, " Science says that the outer world we are so certain is the real world, is not so solidly real as we believe. To quote a recent report, “Color, for instance: That azalea outside the window may look red to you, but in reality it has no color at all. The red comes from certain properties of the azalea that absorb some kinds of light and reflect other kinds of light, which are then received by the eye and translated in our brains into a subjective experience of red. And sounds, too: Complex vibrations in the air are soundless in reality, but our ears are able to translate the vibrations into a car alarm or a cat’s meow".

As for how it felt, it was a mass of almost formless impression which gradually clarified. But it took place nearly thirty years ago, so I quoted it from my journal, and so I am only reporting my impressions of it being formless.

But how it all began - the intuition - is reported in http://dreamhawk.com/approaches-to-being/lifes-little-secrets/  and http://dreamhawk.com/inner-life/using-your-intuition-1/

After using LifeStream for a year I had a fluid response physically, emotionally, and vocally I tried using it as an aid in understanding particular questions important to me. I found that whatever I sought to understand I received a response to. Sometimes it was very little, sometimes full and helpful.

Over the years I found there are particular ways of working with this possibility that are helpful. Firstly your body, emotions and mind need to be capable of  responding easily. Only in this way is it possible for what is held within yourself to express to consciousness.

 Something I have seen which often frustrates the creative potential of LifeStream is an attitude linked with being gullible. Let me take the example of someone I will call Sally. Sally has gained a good degree of mobility in allowing a spontaneous response.  Whatever arises however, she neatly fits into her preconceived ideas. At no time does she say, ‘I don’t understand what that was about.’ This is like me saying to Sally, ‘The other day I met someone and I immediately disliked them.”  So Sally says, ‘Oh, that must be because you knew each other in a past life.’ That doesn’t bring any insight to me, and although I want to explore the event to find an understanding which I can observe to fit what happened, Sally closes herself to any further communication. In this way Sally makes her sessions of LifeStream say just whatever she wants them to say.

Within the practice of LifeStream there is a way of asking advice from what is really your massive unconscious - see http://dreamhawk.com/interesting-people/edgar-cayce-and-the-cosmic-mind-superminds/ - Once your body and mind has been freed of a mass of inner problems, tensions and preconceptions, you can ask for any sort of information as Cayce did. At first the response may be physical but it gradually become like a waking lucid dream, in which you gain and understand what is presented.

Tony

[Dreamtime]

Tony, thank you for sharing your experiences and wisdom. Seeing the brain as a master translator that can become restricted and limited makes a lot of sense to me from my own personal experience. Your experience with the plant and your description of it as a ‘mass of almost formless impression’ reminds me of a time not too long ago. I was enjoying a relaxing walk outside in a wooded area with a number of towering pines nearby when suddenly a huge flock of birds came out of the trees. They flew high above in huge spirals and were very vocal as though excited about something. In a somewhat dreamy state I wondered silently why the birds had suddenly become so excited and all decided to fly, because they didn’t seem to be going anywhere, but instead just flying around in a massive circling cloud. Then a response seemed to come from somewhere that seemed outside of me, yet it formed distinctly in my mind as a knowing that the birds were enjoying a last flight because the rain would start soon. About five minutes later the birds had settled again and it started to rain. I didn’t really think anything of it - just that it was curious how the knowing seemed to arise naturally and I wondered if it was simply an intuitive knowing of sorts (from my own ‘massive unconscious’ as you mentioned) or if I was actually translating something the birds were communicating to me. I have had similar experiences since that time with other animals as well as when asking more personal questions. Sometimes I do have difficulty translating and understanding the information though.

Thank you for sharing your insights on how to work with intuition. I find that yoga, art and creative writing have recently been most helpful in terms of releasing blockages in my body, emotions and mind in order to allow for clear receptivity and easy response. Experimentation with free physical movement is also wonderful but I find it challenging because I don’t have a lot of private space available for this type of exploration at the moment. I can relate to the attitude linked to being gullible and I have been trying to just allow myself free expression through writing and painting, which has in turn influenced opening and shift in other areas. In some ways I feel that my family and education really taught me to think and perceive like Sally in your example and it’s almost like the openness and receptivity is either never fully developed or just forgotten. It seems like so many people only see what they want to see and become so stuck in limited perceptions of themselves/others along with the world/life. I recall I was far more receptive as a child, which is coming back as I allow myself free time for creative expression.

Over the past few years I have experienced some major clearings or releases from my body and mind but I’m not exactly sure how it’s all evolving. I am finding that uncertainty is a great place to hang out as I become more comfortable with it. After going through some pretty big shifts related to the release of inner tensions and childhood traumas I am finding a much greater trust for life and the light within all of us. I hope to one day experience the type of waking lucid dream you describe and I wonder if it’s anything similar to journeying in shamanism, which is something I have recently been exploring.

[Tony Crisp]

Dreamtime - From your description of your experience with the birds you certainly have the gift. What I find remarkable is what you said about the birds knowing it would rain.

How little we know about ourselves and nature around us, and how rich life really is.

But I would like you to read http://dreamhawk.com/dream-dictionary/what-we-need-to-remember-about-us-3/#Levels

Tony

[Dreamtime]

Tony, I quickly checked out the link and plan to read it over again later on. I think you experience the richness of life far beyond myself but I definitely sense that things are constantly opening up. I'm grateful for all that you share, so thank you for that! From my experience, the vaster experience of oneself seems like a process of acclimation. I'm familiar with the discomfort along with the bright spots. Also, I'm definitely familiar with inbuilt and personal resistance to direct insight, yet at other times it comes so naturally that it seems like there's no resistance at all. It just is as it is and that's all.

I had a dream last night that I sense is tied to another dream from not long ago due to a common element. I'm curious to hear your thoughts because I have some understanding but still not sure as with the other dream about the pool and the lightning. At times I am able to move beyond the symbolic but other times it seems like an unsolvable puzzle....I do need to ask more questions of clarification for sure!  I'll post the dreams in the Dream Interpretation area after I find the notes on the earlier dream.

One question that has come up for me about the self-regulation process.... During this process, or as you're starting to relax into it, is it common for impressions of past life memories to 'arrive'? I had a new experience today. I wasn't really intending to be doing anything beyond enjoying free movement - feeling stiff, I was just trying to get my energy moving to flush out the tension. I'm not sure if this would be the same thing or not because I wasn't trying to do any process at all.....which makes me think of the process of Lifestream you describe.

[Tony Crisp]

Dreamtime - Thank you for continuing with your questioning mind.

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 Was 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 me parents whether I had ever arrived home with signs of being roughed up. The 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 along 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.

Tony

[Dreamtime]

Tony, I understand what you mean and your perspective makes clear sense. It brings me back to the sense that everything is happening all at once. I can see how the symbolic drama that appears to be a past life seems more like a function of the mind to keep one unconscious of a direct experience that couldn't be processed or digested. Once again...thanks for sharing!