Tag: dreams

Not knowing is a gift

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The not knowing is a gift.

– Nyota Uhura in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, season 4, episode 10

I just watched the last episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, for this season, which involves time travel.

At the end, Uhura says: The only moment that’s real, that we actually live in, is now. [Today] is the only day that matters… how you spend it, and how you define it. My future is not all I think about anymore. I am not afraid of it. I am lucky to be here in the moment. To not know what adventure will come my way every week. Because, wow, the not knowing is a gift.

Of course, we need to think ahead, plan, and sometimes prepare. And yet, I find that my life works better when I also recognize that my ideas about the future happen here and now, they are imaginations, guesses about the future. My life is here and now and nowhere else. I can only find the past in imagination, and I can only find the future in imagination. Even my ideas about the present are literally my imagination! It’s all guesses.

Forms of not knowing

There are several forms of not knowing.

Past and present

There is the not-knowing about the past and present. There are always more layers to discover, new perspectives to explore and new contexts to understand it all within. Even if I tell myself I understand something, I don’t really.

The future

There is also have a not-knowing about the future. I may have projections based on past experience and models. I may even have visions or intuitions. And yet, I don’t know for certain. I cannot know for certain. All I know is the future will surprise me.

Dream thought-experiment

Earlier today, I remembered Alan Watts’ dream thought experiment.

Imagine you can decide what you will dream.

First, I may want to dream that I have and experience everything I want in my waking life.

After a while, that gets boring. I may want to add some challenges to spice it up.

After a while, that gets boring too. I chose to not remember that I am dreaming while dreaming. That rises the stakes.

I also chose to not know what will happen. That keeps it all fresh and surprising. As the future arrives, it surprises me.

I chose to not know everything about the past or present. That too keeps it fresh and surprising. New layers are always revealed, and sometimes it changes my whole worldview.

I may also add occasional more serious challenges. I may even add life-and-death issues.

So, after a while, I arrive at the life I have now.

If this life was a dream, I would want it to be like this – not knowing the future, not fully knowing the past and present, and with a mix of ease and challenges.

The gifts of not knowing

Not knowing makes life fresh and surprising.

My personality doesn’t always appreciate or like it, and I also see that if I could choose the content of my dreams, I would want these inherent forms of not knowing.

I want to be surprised.

Another not knowing

There is yet another form of not knowing here, and that is about our nature.

At my human level, there is always more to discover. I never really know myself.

I can take myself to be something within the content of experience – this human self, an observer, and doer, or something similar. If I do, there is also more to discover, and what I eventually discover will turn my world upside-down and inside-out.

That’s because in a more fundamental sense, I find myself to be what all content of experience happens within and as. I am what a thought may call consciousness. As this awake space, I form myself into any and all content of experience. And that includes any temporary sense of being something within content of experience or more clearly noticing my nature.

In all of this, there is a not knowing. I never know anything for certain. There are always more layers, angles, and contexts to understand it all within.

Here too, I this is how I would want it if I could choose the content of my dreams. I would want this too, to add spice and adventure to my dreams.

A medicine for a condition

As all pointers, this is medicine for a condition.

In our culture, we tend to think we know and that knowing is better than not knowing. The reality is that we don’t know anything for certain and not-knowing and knowing go hand in hand. It’s a relief to notice this and take it in, and align a little closer to reality.

The other side of this is that we do know things. We have information. We know what we want. We have inner guidance. It’s important to take that serious too and act on it. And it’s healthy and necessary for us to want to know, and to know more.

If we over-emphasize the not-knowing side, we need to balance it out by emphasizing the knowing. In that situation, reminding ourselves of our knowing, and encouraging our desire to know, is the medicine.

A synchronicity: As I wrote that last sentence, the music I listened to said I want to know. Nterini by Fatoumata Diawara.

Dreams where “I” am someone other than my waking life identity

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I have had several dreams through my life where the dream “I” is someone else than I in my waking life identity.

As I wrote about in Dreams & Ground in 2005, these dreams are an invitation to explore my more fundamental identity.

Who or what am I more fundamentally in my own first-person experience?

WHAT AM I MORE FUNDAMENTALLY?

In my dreams, it seems I can be anyone or anything. I can be a different gender, a different age, a different species.

At the same time, what I am still here. What I more fundamentally am is still here.

So what is that?

When I look, I find I am capacity for all of it. I am the consciousness that forms itself into any and all content of experience, including what “I” or “me” points to.

AN INVITATION

These dreams are an invitation….

To find curiosity about my nature. If I can be anyone or anything in my dreams, what does it say about who or what I more fundamentally am in my own first person experience?

To explore all kinds of identities. The world is my mirror. I can take whatever story I have about anyone or anything in the world, turn it to be about me, and find genuine and specific examples of how it’s true. I am as rich as the world. How is it to explore, get to know, and live from more of that richness?

For my nature to notice itself, to find itself as what forms itself into all content of experience including identities and what they point to.

To explore how it is for this human self to live within and from that noticing.

A FEW DREAM EXAMPLES

Here are a few examples of dreams where the dream “I” is different from in my waking life.

Dream: I am pre-teen and going to see a movie with my girlfriend – where I am about twelve years old and someone different from who I take myself to be in waking life (2025)

Dream: Systems change project in Iceland – where I am a female journalist working with scientists and journalists to map toxins and support systems change (2025)

Dream: I am the murderer they are looking for – where I am someone far from my conscious identity, later explored as shadow material and self-understanding (2025)

Dream: I am a young black man at university – where I am a young Black student in the US in the 1950s (2024)

I am the nursery, growing – where I am the nursery at Finca Milagros, growing (2024)

I am black – where I have become a black man one with Finca Milagros (2023)

Dream: Russian anarchist – from my teens where I am a Russian intellectual and anarchist in the 1860s (2011)

Dream: Mortal and vulnerable – where I am a soldier in a war and experience vulnerability and mortality (2011)

Dream: The Master – where I am a young British upper-class / aristocratic man who has lost access to his former life and capacities (2005)

Dream: An intentional community and I am half woman – where I experience being both woman and man, with a woman’s body integrated with my own (2005)

Dreams & Ground – Reflection on frequently having dreams where I am a quite different person, with different age, body, gender, personality, and circumstances (2005)

THE PERSONAL AND UNIVERSAL

Why do I write about this?

If it was just about me, it would be boring and not necessarily worth mentioning.

But it’s not just about me. There is something universal in all of my experiences. In this case, I know that others have similar kinds of dreams. Some already use it as a pointer to notice their nature, and some may find curiosity about it and start exploring it. It’s an interesting landscape to explore.

When the dreamlike nature of reality becomes ordinary

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In an awakening process, it’s common to – at some point – experience waking life as a dream. Our human self can initially respond to this in different ways, and it does become ordinary over time.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

I assume that a common experience on the awakening path is to recognize the dreamlike nature of reality. The world seems dreamlike. This is something specific and clear, and it’s relatively easy to understand why we have this experience.

Whether we notice or not, our nature is consciousness. We are, in our own experience, consciousness, and the world – as it appears to us – happens within and as the consciousness we are. The consciousness we are forms itself into this whole field of experience which includes this human self, anything associated with this human self (thoughts, emotions, states, identities, identifications), and the wider world.

Dreams happen within and as the consciousness we are. That’s something most of us notice. What fewer consciously notice is that waking life does too. All our experiences, whether asleep or awake, happen within and as the consciousness we are, whether we notice or not.

That’s why, when we notice our nature (when our nature notices itself), reality can seem dreamlike. We recognize that waking life is just like dreams. They all happen within and as this awake space we are.

This can be slightly disturbing to our human self, or not. In either case, it becomes ordinary over time.

MY EXPERIENCE

For me, the dreamlike nature of reality came to the foreground in two phases.

First, when I was fifteen, the world – just about all content of experience including thoughts, feelings, etc. – went far away. Identification was only left in the observer, which was one part of the content of experience. Everything felt dreamlike and it was very disturbing to this human self.

Then, a year later, there was a shift into oneness and everything was revealed as consciousness. Or, as I thought of it then – and still find valid – everything was revealed as Spirit, God, including this human self and anything associated with this human self. In other words, everything is dreamlike. What before had been disturbing was now beyond amazing to this human self.

These days, the dreamlike nature of reality is still noticed and unavoidable, and this human self and psyche are more used to it. It’s a lived-in world at this point, and still as amazing.

Why does reality have a dreamlike nature? It’s because, to myself, I am consciousness, and the world to me happens within and as the consciousness I am. To me, the world appears as if made of consciousness.

And I assume it’s like that for you too, whether you notice or not.

A FEW MORE NOTES

As usual, there is a lot more to say about this.

The world may have a dreamlike nature, and I still need to be a good steward for my own life. For my own sake, and for the sake of others – dreamlike as they may appear – I need to be a good steward and treat others as I would like to be treated.

There are many ways to understand this shift into oneness and the noticing the dreamlike nature of reality. Some may, as I do here, understand it from a first-person perspective and not draw conclusions about the nature of reality itself. (Small understanding of awakening.) Others may draw conclusions about the nature of reality and assume existence itself IS consciousness. (Big understanding of awakening.)

There is another sense in which waking life is similar to dreams for me. When I work with dreams, I see everyone and everything in the dream as representing parts of me. I do the same with waking life. I use the world as a mirror. I can take any story I have about anyone or anything, turn it to be about me, and find genuine and specific examples of how it’s true.

THE PERSONAL AND UNIVERSAL

Why do I write about this?

I share because I assume there is something universal in all of my experiences. I assume others have similar experiences and explore this in a similar way.

It makes it worth putting it out there to say that (a) this can happen and it’s part of the human experience, (b) it’s likely not that unusual, (c) you are not alone if you experience or notice something similar, and (d) it says something about our nature and it’s something we can intentionally explore.

Note: I wrote the second section first, in January this year. I later found it among many unpublished posts and decided to publish it with some additions.

The image is created by me and ChatGPT.

Wish fulfillment – or an aspect of me that can be brought more fully into life?

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Last night, I dreamt I was an animator skilled in a range of styles.

Some would see it as a wish fulfillment. I have artistic talent and was fully immersed in producing and learning about art in my teens and early twenties. I could have had a career in art if life had gone in that direction. Now, I miss it and sometimes think of how those alternate paths may have been. So yes, the dream can be seen as wish fulfillment.

I see it differently, perhaps in a more Jungian way. I see the dream as aspects of me. Something that’s already here, and the dream invites me to bring it more fully into my life. It invites me to bring more of my wholeness and richness into life.

Those two orientations are similar, and the wish fulfillment one can – if we have that orientation – lead to bringing it into life1.

Still, I prefer the second orientation. What the dream is about is already here, as a potential, in some form. And the dream is an invitation to notice and, in this case, bring it more fully into my life.

I may not be a Japanese animator. But the essence of the dream is, for me, about a fun, imaginative, joyful artistic expression. And that’s something I can do. I have pencils, Japanese brush pens, and paper ready in front of me, and plan to do some drawing today2.

NOTES

  1. I am I honest, the wish fulfillment orientation (Freud) feels a little sad and cynical, and it requires an extra step for it to encourage us to bring what the dream is about into life. The Jungian approach is more life-affirming to me, and the invitation to bring it more into life is already built in.
  2. My mother died two days ago, and I can also see the dream as my mother encouraging me to do more art. She did in waking life, and she is on the side of the parts of me that wish for me to more engage in art.

The sketch is one I did a long time ago, when drawing and painting were part of my daily life.

(Some of) The many ways dreams and waking life are the same

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I could say that there are many parallels between dreams and waking life, and it wouldn’t be wrong.

And this is a more honest and direct way of saying it:

I keep noticing many ways dreams and waking life are the same.

THE WORLD IS MY MIRROR

The world – whether in dreams or waking life – mirrors me.

I can take whatever story I have about anyone or anything, turn it to be about myself, and find specific and genuine examples of how it’s true.

Exploring the world as a mirror, whether it’s dreams or waking life, helps me find and get to know more of my wholeness. I am already as rich as the world, the question is only if I actively explore it, notice it, and consciously live from and as it.

This is an ongoing and deepening process without any finishing line.

DREAMS AND WAKING LIFE HAPPENS WITHIN AND AS WHAT I AM

In one sense, I am this human self in the world. That’s not wrong. And yet, when I look, I find I more fundamentally am something else. I am what the world, as it appears to me, happens within and as.

Dreams and waking life are both content of experience. They both happen within and as what I am. They are no different from each other in that sense.

What I am forms itself into dreams and waking life at different times, and sometimes even at the same time. (During waking life, I can sense and sometimes connect with the dreaming part of consciousness.)

Even more fundamentally, what I am is capacity for all of it – consciousness and all it forms itself into.

DREAMS AND WAKING LIFE ARE MADE OF THE SAME

Said another way, dreams and waking life are made of the same.

They are made of the consciousness I am. They are made of awakeness. (The ordinary awakeness inherent in consciousness.)

They are made of awake space.

They are made of capacity taking the form of all of it – awakeness and what it forms itself into.

DREAMS AND WAKING LIFE COME AND GO

Dreams and waking life come and go. It’s all ephemeral. It’s all visitors.

Even this human self and any ideas of being a self (or anything else) come and go.

I am not fundamentally any of it.

I am what forms itself into all of it. I am what it all comes and goes within and as.

I am capacity for all of it.

DREAMS AND WAKING LIFE LIVE THEIR OWN LIFE

Dreams and waking life live their own life.

Even this human self lives his own life.

It all is happening on its own.

HOW I RELATE TO THE WORLD IS HOW I RELATE TO THE WORLD

How I relate to the dreaming world is how I relate to the waking world.

How I relate to the world is how I relate to the world.

How I relate to anything reflects my patterns, habits, and assumptions.

CONSCIOUSLY AWARE OF THE NATURE OF IT ALL OR NOT

Whether in dreams or waking life, I can consciously notice the nature of it all or not.

Within a dream, I can consciously notice it’s nature as consciousness. (I have done this, even as a child, but haven’t pursued this. It’s too tempting to change the content of the dream, and I don’t want to interfere with the dream-making process.)

In waking life, we can notice the dreamlike nature of it all. It’s all happening within the consciousness I am. It’s all the capacity I am taking all these forms. This is something I am actively noticing and exploring.

THE WAY I EXPLORE DREAMS IS HOW I EXPLORE WAKING LIFE

I tend to explore dreams and waking life in similar or the same ways.

I see them as mirrors for me. I find and get to know what in me I see in the dreams or waking life.

I identify stressful stories, question them, and find what’s more true for me.

I do tonglen or ho’oponopono with dream figures or people/beings/collectives in waking life.

I notice it all, to me, happens within and as the consciousness I am. (These days, I tend to rest with viscerally noticing it all as forms of Amma.)

I notice anyone and anything my psyche tend to see as “other” as the consciousness I am, and as expressions of the divine, and rest in and as that noticing.

I notice contractions in me and notice that these, in my experience, are made of the consciousness I am.

After the Amma experience, an absence of dreams, asking for dreams again, and life responding

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An Amma experience: no words

After the Amma experience the fall of 2023, I didn’t have – or at least didn’t remember – dreams for several months.

I assume this reflected the process that unfolded in me after that experience, or that it supported the process.

The lack of dreams is unusual for me since I have worked with dreams since my teens and I usually remember dreams from each night. They came back, occasionally, but not nearly to the extent they used to.

That’s fine, of course.

One week ago, on the night before my birthday, I asked life – the divine, my mind, the consciousness I am – to remember more dreams again. And since then, I have remembered dreams each night, sometimes more than one.

It’s a reminder to ask life… For what we want. For what’s the best for me and the larger whole. For dreams. For a gentle awakening process. And so on.

Life responds, at least if it’s aligned with where life is already moving or can move.

Spiritual practices 24/7 including in dreams

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As I wake up at 3 a.m., I notice I am doing puja, and I have a sense I have been doing puja for a long while through sleep and dreams. (This kind of puja is from Vortex Healing. It’s aimed at straightening out life situations and done through intention.)

The other night, in another dream, the turnaround to a stressful thought was with me as I woke up. (“It’s safer to speak up” which is a turnaround for “It’s safer to be quiet”.) This is a part of The Work of Byron Katie which I did daily for many years, and which now lives in me.

This is not so new or unusual. When I got into spiritual practices in my teens, I noticed that they tended to become continuous through the day and night and even through sleep and dreams.

That’s how it is with anything we do for a while, it becomes a new habit and orientation. Whatever our attention is on for a while stays with us and follows us through sleep and dreams. It lives its own life in us.

I especially remember this when I got into the Jesus / Heart Prayer. It’s a simple phrase said with the breath and heartbeat. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me. The first part is on the in-breath, the second on the out-breath. When I do it with my heartbeats, the comma is on one beat, “on me” is on one beat, and the dot at the end is on another beat so there are eight beats altogether. (I don’t know if this is the “official” way to do it, to be honest.)

What I noticed is that over time, this prayer lived its own life in me, including through the night and in my dreams and when I woke up.

It’s similar to just about any other exploration.

Basic meditation is to notice and allow whatever is here in the field of experience, and then notice it’s already and inherently noticed and allowed and rest in and as that noticing. Doing this for a while makes it much easier to notice the same in daily life, it becomes part of daily life.

The headless experiments help us notice our nature, that we are capacity for the world as Douglas Harding put it. This too is part of my daily life now. I find myself as that which allows and forms itself into any and all content of experience.

When I did koan practice, the koans stayed with me in a similar way. My being explored and processed them outside of the Zendo.

As I mentioned above, this is not special to spiritual explorations or practices. It’s what seems to happen with anything we put attention on for a while.

When it comes to spiritual explorations, it is quite beautiful when it starts living in us.

It makes it easier to dip into it more intentionally during waking time.

Even here, it does require some intention to keep it going, it requires engaging in it consciously and intentionally now and then during waking time.

When it lives its own life in this way, I also find that it’s easier to dip into it again later if I have been away from it for a while. It’s easier to pick it up again.

Exploring dreams as I explore waking life

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I tend to explore dreams the way I explore waking life, and I like to use a variety of approaches.

A FEW WAYS I EXPLORE DREAMS

Here are some general ways I explore my dreams.

I explore how they reflect dynamics in me. Dream life and waking life reflect the same dynamics in me. Both show me what’s challenging for me, what I am exploring and learning about, which hangups and wounds are coming up these days, and so on.

I explore how all parts of the dream reflect parts of me. They show me different sides of myself.

I see dreams as bringing what’s on the edge of conscious awareness more into conscious awareness.

I prefer to explore dreams in ways that access what’s outside of my conscious view. If I only rely on mental interpretations, I would stay within what I think I know which is a limited and small world.

I use a range of approaches to explore my dreams, depending on what seems interesting and useful.

I notice that dreams happens within and as the consciousness I am, just like waking life and any content of experience.

In short, I explore dreams just as I explore waking life.

DYNAMICS REFLECTED IN WAKING LIFE AND DREAMS

In a conventional sense, waking life may bring up things in me that are then reflected in dreams, and dreams may also bring up things it’s good for me to notice and bring into more conscious awareness.

In a more real sense, my life is one and lived in waking life and dreams. Dreams and waking life both mirror themes and dynamics in my life.

MIRRORING ME

Everything in my world – whether it’s waking life or dreams – reflects sides of me.

Whatever story I have about anyone or anything in the world or dreams, I can turn that story around to me and find genuine and specific examples of how it’s true.

I can also take the role of anyone or anything, find myself as it, explore and talk as it, and see that it’s already what I am and somewhat familiar to me. (Voice Dialog, Big Mind process.)

I am as rich as my world, whether it’s my waking world or dream world.

HAPPEN WITHIN AND AS WHAT I AM

Waking life and dreaming life happens within and as what I am.

In one sense, I am this human self in the world just like other people see it and my passport tells me. That’s an assumption that works relatively well, although if I take this human self a what I fundamentally am, I create stress for myself.

I find that in my own first-person experience, I am what all of it – any content of experience including anything related to this human self – happens within and as.

To myself, I am what a thought may call consciousness. The world, to me, happens within and as the consciousness I am.

A FEW TRAINING WHEELS FOR EXPLORING THEM

I use the same approaches to explore dreams as I do to explore waking life.

Through active imagination, I go back into the dream, replay it, explore and dialog with more sides of it, and see how it unfolds. This often leads to unexpected interactions and insights.

I dialog with or as the different parts of the dream. I may be dialoguing with it and hearing their responses, or I take their role and explore from their view (Voice Dialog, Big Mind process).

I follow processes in the dream, as we do in Process Work (Process Oriented Psychology).

I find in me what I see in the different beings and dynamics in the dream. I find the essence, find it in me, explore how I have lived from and as it, and intentionally own it – viscerally feel it as me.

I identify and investigate stressful thoughts through The Work of Byron Katie. This also helps me find in me what I see in the different parts of the dream.

I explore how it all appears in my sense fields through sense field explorations and the Kiloby Inquiries.

I use heart-centered practices towards myself in the dream or other beings in the dream. This is often tonglen or ho’oponopno.

I notice how it’s all happening within and as what I am. It’s the consciousness I am forming itself into these dreams and waking life. (I don’t need training wheels for this, but if I did, or if I want to explore it more thoroughly, I use the Big Mind process and Headless experiments.)

IF I LEFT SOME OF THIS OUT

If I only relied on mental field interpretations of dreams, I would stay within what’s familiar to me and that’s a small and limited world. By using other approaches, I give myself a chance to be surprised and expand what’s familiar to me. I give myself the chance to receive information from outside of what’s already familiar.

If I only looked at dreams as reflecting dynamics in my waking life, it would also be unnecessarily limiting. All parts of my dreams represent sides of me, just like all parts of the world reflect sides of me. Dreams and the world is an invitation for me to get to know more sides of me.

If I saw dreams and waking life as different, I would miss out on how both mirror the same dynamics and explorations in me. I would miss out on how I can use the same approaches to explore both. And I would miss out on how both happen within and as the consciousness I am.

MANY MORE WAYS TO EXPLORE DREAMS

This is just how it is for me now, and how I have explored my dreams for a few decades now.

It’s by necessity a very limited approach. There are many approaches out there equally or likely more helpful.

What we use depends on what we are familiar with, what’s calling us, and what seems to work for us now.

CFS as a correction to our collective orientation

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I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and am often reminded of it as a correction to our collective orientation.

We with CFS express, often without intending it, what’s missing from the collective orientation in our culture and civilization. We are a reminder of what’s missing. We are an invitation for the rest to bring more of what we live into their own lives, as medicine for an imbalance in the culture.

What do I mean by that?

A CORRECTION TO A DOING-FOCUSED CIVILIZATION

The most obvious is that it’s a correction to the doer orientation in our culture. We are trained to find our value in our actions and what we do. The more productive we are, the better. What we produce tells us and others who we are. It’s telling that the first thing we may ask a stranger is: what do you do? meaning what work do you do? What do you produce? We ask this as if that’s going to tell us the most important thing about that person.

Those of us with CFS are invited to find our value independent of what we do or produce. Who am I without identities related to doing and producing? Who am I independent of what I produce? Where is my real value? When I find that, I also find the more fundamental value of others and all beings.

Can I find genuine peace with resting? With taking care of myself? With saying an honest “no”? Do I see that an honest “no” is a yes to myself?

Can I find the genuine blessing in all of this?

Whether we notice or not, all of this is a blessing to society as a whole. It’s a reminder that we all have adopted the production-oriented mindset of our civilization. It’s an example of a different way of being.

The examination is an example. The freedom of certain shoulds is an example. Finding value in ourselves and others independent of what we produce is an example. How people live it will vary greatly, of course. If we can, we will still do and produce but from a different place in us.

HEIGHTENED SENSITIVITY

Another side of this is heightened sensitivity to several products of our culture and civilization.

I am highly sensitive to noise, certain foods, chemicals, and more, as are most people with CFS. We pick up the effects of these things and are strongly impacted by it. Most people experience and live the same effects, but they may not notice since their system is more robust and has more energy to deal with it and regulate its way out of the most obvious effects.

Noise impacts all of us. It creates stress. It takes energy to process and deal with. Those of us with CFS pick this up and express and live it, as a reminder to the rest of us who may not notice it so clearly.

Many of the foods common today are harmful to our health. My system has a strong reaction to just about anything I cannot make in my own kitchen from ingredients that are simple, whole, and low on the food chain. It’s a reminder to us collectively. This food is not what our bodies are meant to digest, it causes problems, and simpler foods are more natural for us to eat.

We willingly surround ourselves with a large amount of industrial chemicals in perfume, cleaning supplies, clothes, and so on. The sensitivity of us with CFS is again a reminder that this is not what our bodies have evolved to deal with, and it can and will impact our health.

We are canaries in the coal mine. The way our systems react is an early warning to the rest of humanity.

SIMILAR TO DREAMS

This is similar to dreams.

We have a conscious orientation, conscious identities, and so on. And yet, far more is going on in us and a lot doesn’t fit our often one-sided conscious orientation and identifications. Any orientation and any identification leaves, by necessity, a lot out.

Many dreams remind us of what’s left out. They are invitations to become more familiar with these sides of us, notice how we are already living them, explore other ways of more consciously bringing them into life, and embrace them more in our conscious view of life and ourselves.

This dynamic also happens in the world.

A problematic child is often a symptom of an imbalance in the family. They remind the family of what’s not consciously included and embraced.

Many health problems are a symptom of an imbalance in our culture and civilization.

Many of our current ecological crises are the same, a symptom of an imbalance in our civilization.

We can see all of this as a problem to be ignored or fixed so it can go away, and we go about it without looking at the bigger picture. We treat the symptom, which often means the imbalance will create other and more severe symptoms.

We can also see it all as a symptom, find some curiosity about it, and see what we can change in ourselves and in our culture and civilization.

This requires some receptivity and willingness to change, and what we need to change is often something deeply ingrained.

Finding that willingness can take some time. It may be the last resort for us after everything else has failed.

ONGOING PROCESS

This doesn’t mean that there is something inherently wrong with having an imbalanced orientation. It’s inevitable that our orientation is one-sided and leaves something out.

This is more about the process. We can look for signs of what’s left out and consciously explore, embrace, and live it.

There will always be something left out to notice, explore, and embrace.

There is an infinite amount of things that we leave out in our conscious orientation, as individuals and collective, and that’s wonderful. That means it’s an ongoing process. The exploration will not end because we run out of things to notice, explore, and embrace.

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Documentary: Fastest woman on Earth

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I just saw The Fastest Woman on Earth which I found very moving, and gave me a more rich story than I had when I read about it in the news some years ago.

What stood out to me was her dream. Three times, she had the same dream. She dreamt she was in the cockpit, seeing herself from the outside as if she was not in her body. She said she felt she was leaving this plane of existence, and it was OK. This was not long before she died in a crash in the same car.

There are many stories like this, and I suspect a part of her knew what was going to happen, and also that dying is OK.

It resonates with a few of my own experiences. I have dreamt of things that later happened exactly as in the dream, including someone dying. I remember an out-of-body experience from very early in life, where I hovered over my body and saw events later confirmed by my family. As a child, I remembered the time before this incarnation, of being consciousness without a physical body.

I also remember Jung writing about these kinds of dreams. The dreams that predict our actual death tend to not literally depict our physical death. They are often more abstract, like this one. Although it’s possible that this one was literal in a different way: It’s very similar to what people describe from near-death experiences (NDEs).

What’s the purpose of dreamwork?

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A while ago, I talked with someone engaged in a particular form of dreamwork. They said that the women in their group tend to express themselves as more feminine – with long hair and skirts – after doing dreamwork for a while.

I was slightly surprised. To me, dreamwork means to be more fluid and embrace more sides of ourselves. It means to explore many different sides, perhaps at different times in life. It means to be more authentic, which will change over time and can look many different ways and sometimes won’t follow stereotypical gender norms.

It’s a reminder that what we see as the purpose of dreamwork may differ between groups and people, which is – of course – good. Diversity means we can learn from each other.

THE PURPOSE OF DREAMWORK

What do I see as the purpose of dreamwork?

For me, it’s to get to know more and more sides of myself (who I am), become more familiar with my nature (what I am), and find more fluidity with it all.

THE WORLD IS MY MIRROR

The world is my mirror, so everything I see in the world is something I have in myself. Whatever story I have about someone or something in the wider world, I can turn to myself and find specific examples how how and when it’s true.

I can find and embrace those parts of myself and relate to them more consciously. That gives me a far more rich and fluid sense of myself, and when I find in myself what I see “out there”, it helps me relate to it in a more conscious way.

MY WORLD HAPPENS WITHIN WHAT I AM

Also, the world as it appears to me happens within and as what I am.

To myself, I am fundamentally consciousness. The consciousness I am forms itself into the world as it appears to me.

Night dreams and waking life are no different in that way. So the way I relate to others and the world is how I – directly, immediately, and literally – relate to myself.

OTHER SIDES OF DREAM WORK

Dreams show me what’s at the edge of what I am consciously aware of. It’s an invitation to be a little more aware of something at the edge, perhaps to recognize that I know something I previously wasn’t aware of knowing.

Dreams can show me what’s happening in my energy system. They can reflect and make it into images and stories. For instance, if I have done energy work on myself (often Vortex Healing), my dreams often reflect that process the following night.

Dreams can also, in some cases, say something about the future. These dreams seem to have a quite different quality than regular night dreams. I have had five or ten of these kinds of dreams. (I dreamt I would live in Oregon several years before I, for completely different reasons, found myself living there. I dream I would live in the northern part of South America, near a very particular school, and many years later – again for completely different reasons – found myself living there and next to the school from my dream. I dreamt my cat in Wisconsin would be hit by a car and die, I kept him inside for several days, and when I let him out again, he was killed by a car that day. And so on.)

THE EFFECTS OF DREAMWORK

For me, this means that I find more of my inner richness. I become more aware of my inner richness which is literally as rich as the world. It doesn’t make me more of something in particular. It makes me more of everything. It helps me find and explore many more sides of myself, many of which may not conform to norms and expectations. It means to paint outside of the lines.

HOW THIS LOOKS FOR ME

I have to admit that I may appear relatively conventional in my clothing. That’s because I still have quite a bit of social anxiety and find it easier to not draw too much attention to myself. If I felt freer, I would likely use a lot more colors and vary between traditional masculine and feminine clothes (including skirts), find more androgynous styles, and sometimes have fun dressing in a far more eccentric way. I don’t at all justify my conformity here since I know it largely comes from my response to my social anxiety.

Even if I am a white European male, my views often align with those more typically found among women, non-Europeans, minorities of different kinds, and even indigenous people. (Although I don’t pretend I understand their situation or worldviews very well.) Even my illness is more often found among women.

In more important aspects of life than physical appearance, I hope I am following what’s authentic for me. I moved to South America to start a permaculture food forest and regeneration project. I will get rid of the water toilet in my little house and instead install a composting toilet. I plan on growing as much of my own food as possible. And so on. This is what feels good and right to me, and what’s aligned with what I see as most important in the world today.

I am not doing this just because of dreamwork, of course, but it is supported by my general exploration of projections and my inner richness, finding my real priorities, and so on.

Image created by me and Midjourney

Dream: I am a young black man at university

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I am a young black student at a university in the US. I get the sense it’s the 1950s. In a math class in the first semester, I do far better on the exams than the white teachers expect. They are convinced I cheated but can’t prove it, so they make me take the class again. Again, I do very well and they assume I cheated. They consider their options, which is to make me take it for the third time or expel me from the university. I beg them to sit down to me, ask me to explain how I would solve the different types of math questions, and see me work it out. That way, they can easily see that I can do it. It will give them peace of mind, and it will allow me to move on.

I seem to be able to remember dreams again.

SHIFTING SURFACE IDENTITIES

In this dream, I am someone different from my identity in waking life. That, in itself, is a reminder of my more fundamental nature. To myself, I am not fundamentally this particular human self with these particular identities. The surface identities are more fluid than that, and I can be any number of other people and beings in my dreams, and during visions. (In this dream, and in some visions, my waking life identity is completely gone.) More fundamentally, I am something else. I am what it all happens within and as.

WAKING LIFE

In terms of waking life, it reflects a recurrent theme: Someone assumes something (wrong) about me, and whatever I say or do doesn’t help. It happened several times in school when other kids would tell the teachers I did something I hadn’t done, I got called into the principal’s office, and I didn’t even know what he was talking about. My brother did the same with my parents, who believed him and not me. And it has happened several times since then too, with other people.

In some cases, I contribute to the situation by not telling people something relevant about me in advance, and also not doing much if anything to clear up the misunderstanding. If someone misunderstands something about me, I typically – at least in the past – don’t say much if anything to correct it. (For instance, when I joined a nondual spiritual group in Oregon, I didn’t tell them anything about my background. They assumed I was a novice, and kept assuming it while I was active with them. When I shared a link to this blog with a teacher I met with regularly, he seemed upset and assumed I had taken the content from somewhere else.)

Why haven’t I spoken up? A few things come up. There is a part of me that enjoys seeing how the minds of others work, and they seem invested in a certain story for whatever reason. I also don’t like to appear to want to present myself in a good light, even if it involves correcting a misconception. In my childhood, it happened several times people had strong ideas about me based on what someone else had said, and whatever I said to correct it didn’t work. (My brother and his friends would blame me, much younger than them, for what they had done, and my parents believed them and not me. Students at school would blame something on me, and I got called into the principal’s office for something I hadn’t even heard about.) My experience is that it doesn’t work.

More to the point, all of this is in me. These dynamics happen in me. How do I not listen to myself? When don’t I trust and believe in myself? I can find many examples of that. I remember several times when my inner guidance was clear, and I chose to do something else – usually out of fear of losing the love and approval of others. I didn’t listen to myself and lived the consequences. (Some examples: Moving to Wisconsin after my initial marriage and leaving my graduate studies, my Zen community, my friends, and a place I deeply loved and felt at home. Not telling my partner I have studied architecture at a graduate level so she dismissed my design proposal for our tiny house.)

In the dream, I do speak up. I am standing up to myself, eventually. I propose a solution that may work for everyone.

ALL PARTS OF THE DREAM MIRROR SOMETHING IN ME

All parts of the dream mirror something in me. It all comes out of and happens within and as the consciousness I am. Also, everything in the world in general mirrors something in me.

The young black man faces discrimination, just like my system (it’s more than just my psyche) discriminates against parts of me. He represents parts of my shadow, and he is brilliant and goes to university. By not including that part of me, and other parts in the shadow, I miss out on a lot of brilliance. More to the point, I miss out on being more real, authentic, and human, and on the rich diversity in me. I miss out on experiencing the fullness of me. I miss out on perspectives that can help me understand myself and others.

I am spending time with my birth family these days, and there are dynamics there I assume are partly in my shadow. There are things my personality doesn’t particularly like, I see it more in them than in myself, and there is a richness there if I can embrace it more in myself. If I can find more peace with it, and also acknowledge it in myself.

What does he represent, more specifically? I am not quite sure. He is someone who is brilliant, and his brilliance is not recognized because it’s not in the form that’s expected and approved by mainstream white society. My mainstream orientation doesn’t approve of or recognize the brilliance of something in me because it’s not in the expected or desired form. I’ll have to be with that for a while to see what comes up.

THE ESSENCE

What’s the essence here? I can find a few:

One is to speak up for myself. In what situations do I not do it? How can I do it more?

Another is to listen to and believe in myself, which in this case means my inner guidance.

And yet another is to keep an eye out for parts of me I disown, dismiss, and overlook, and see how it is to include it more fully. What do I see in others, that’s not in the package my personality prefers, that’s secretly brilliant and I can find in myself? Right now, what do I see in my birth family?

Stand up for myself. Listen to my inner guidance. What’s brilliant in others, in a form I don’t like, and how can I embrace it in myself and them?

The two first are ongoing for me, so I may spend more time with the third right now.

EXPLORING DREAMS

When I explore my dreams, I usually do it in a few different ways.

I look at what it mirrors in my waking life. I look at all elements of the dream as reflecting parts of me. I look for any other insights or dynamics that can be interesting. (In this case, a different surface identity points to what I more fundamentally am.)

I sense into it. I look at what I felt as I woke up and what associations I had. I may dialog with elements or beings in the dream. I may take on their role and see what comes up.

I find the essence of it for me, expressed in a simple sentence as a reminder, and see how it is to bring that into daily life.

In general, I like to sense and feel into it and approach it viscerally although it’s obviously interpreted and expressed in words here.

UPDATE: THE BRILLIANCE IN TRAUMA

I have spent some time with: What’s brilliant in my birth family that my personality doesn’t particularly like? And how can I embrace it in myself and them?

What I see is that even their hangups – their issues and traumas – are brilliant. They were formed early in life to deal with a difficult life situation. They have kindness and intelligence in them. (Even if they now bring suffering.) How is it to viscerally get it?

That’s beautiful to notice. It’s beautiful because it’s true, and it heals something to recognize it. It shifts how I relate to it in myself and them.

I have seen and felt this when I have explored my own issues and traumas. They are here to protect me. Their essence is love and a kind of wisdom. They were the best my system could come up with at the time and in the situation when they were created. There is innocence and even beauty in it, even as they also create suffering. There is beauty and wisdom in the suffering too. It’s the motivation to later examine the issues, invite them to unwind, and find another way that works better now.

How is it to not only see and feel that with my own issues and traumas, but also theirs? How is it to stay with it, let it work on me, and transform something in me?

Image by me and Midjourney

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Life is like a dream

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The world is dreamlike in a few different ways.

THE FLEETING NATURE OF OUR EXPERIENCE

In my experience, life is like a dream. Every moment, it’s new. What was here is gone, just like a dream. At best, I have a vague memory for a while, and then that’s gone too.

HAPPENS WITHIN AND AS CONSCIOUSNESS

To myself, I am most fundamentally consciousness, and the world – to me – happens within and as that consciousness. That too is like a night dream. Night dreams and waking life happens within and as the consciousness I am.

EXISTENCE IS LIKE A DREAM (?)

That’s all how it appears to me.

Can I say anything about existence itself? Not really, but I can make a couple of guesses.

It seems that in existence itself – in the world and the universe – everything is new every moment. What’s here is gone, just like a dream. In this way, it’s as if existence itself is like a dream.

It’s even possible that the nature of existence is the same as my nature, and that it’s all actually happening within and as consciousness. In this case, existence is like the dream of God, the divine, Spirit, Brahman.

Image by me and Midjourney

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The dreaming process seems ongoing through the day and night

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This is something that’s so ordinary for me, perhaps for my whole (?) life, that I don’t see it as something unusual or noteworthy.

The dreaming process of this mind seems ongoing. My mind seems to produce dreams during the day and also during the night.

Sometimes, these dreams are in the background although I can typically notice them if I bring attention to them. I watch the dreams form and unfold as if I am watching a night dream.

And sometimes, they take the form of night dreams which I either remember or don’t or vaguely remember or have a sense of.

I imagine it may be like this for most people, it’s just that we don’t always notice.

Image: Created by me and Midjourney

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Ale’s cosmic dreams and one of mine

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It’s night and I see long spiral chains (DNA?) coming down from the sky. They are made up of bright radiant golden light. I see them as immensely beautiful. When they reach the ground, they turn into my parents and my aunts and uncles.

– Ale’s dream #1

I am in the hammock on our land in the Andes mountains. It’s night. I open the eyes and I see one UFO in the sky. There are then hundreds of UFOs moving around in the sky creating sacred geometry patterns. My parents and aunts and uncles are there and we all see them.

– Ale’s dream #2 a couple of days later

The night sky is full of UFOs in a kind of grid pattern. They all blink synchronously. The whole world sees it and know that a big shift is coming. It’s a new era for humanity and civilization. We go from only knowing about ourselves to be part of a cosmic community of beings.

– my dream when I was in my late teens or early twenties

These are all dreams with a cosmic flair.

So what do they mean? What processes in the psyche do they reflect?

Ale’s first dream may be the most straight forward. She has worked a lot on healing her relationship with her family and finding healing for family and ancestral patterns. The dream may reflect that healing process. Her DNA is golden (divine) and descends from the sky, and it turns into her close family.

The two UFO dreams are a little more puzzling. My best guess is that they are expressions of a shift in consciousness. Perhaps a visceral shift in our worldview, in how we relate to existence and life in general, and/or in how we experience our own nature. (All of those tend to go together.) These shifts tend to come out of an awakening or healing process, and each one is one of many in the larger process.

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AI images – water people – week #5

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A collection of water people, an undersea dream by me and Midjourney.

What would this represent in a dream? Being completely at home in the watery world of the emotions?

I love to explore AI images as I would a dream. The AI and I dream up images together, and they resonate with something in me. I can explore them as I would a dream. In this case, these water people seem to evoke a wish in me to be completely at home in the watery world of the emotions. How would it be to be as comfortable with my emotions as these people are in the water?

See more of my AI explorations here: https://www.instagram.com/chrysopoeia_ai_art

Update: A few weeks after creating these, I watched Wakanda Forever where an underwater people (the Talokanil) look a lot like these images. Did I see some images from the movie without consciously remembering? Was the AI trained on images from the movie so that when I asked for underwater coral people, the images created came out similar to the movie? Or is it just an example of currents in the culture leading to similar imagery?

Picking up dreams from others?

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Several times in my life, I have noticed that my dreams not only change when I sleep in a different location, they also seem to reflect things that are not from my life but from the people who have been in that place before me.

For instance, when I lived in Madison, I would go to Milwaukee to join the Process Work meetings and workshops there. One time, I stayed overnight in a place owned by one of the organizers and I had a string of very intense dreams involving archetypes, magical creatures, and so on. The dreams seemed “foreign” to me somehow. I told my host about the content of the dreams, and she said: “Oh yes, you slept where I work with clients, and those images come from recent sessions I have done with clients.” I moved my massage-table bed to another location in the same room, and slept quietly.

Another time, I stayed in my old Breema teacher’s house in Berkeley during a Breema intensive while he and his new partner were away. The first night, I dreamt his wife was screaming at me and accusing me of several things. When I woke up, I felt I had been him in the dream, and I remembered that he was going through a divorce at the time. I moved to the other side of the bed and slept quietly. (I wonder if the first side of the bed was where he slept?)

Over the last week, I have had very restless dreams bordering on nightmares. This happened when I started sleeping in an apartment and bed that belongs to someone I know (RL). Yesterday, I was curious about what’s happening, I wondered if I am picking up something again, and cleaned the apartment and bed energetically. My sleep last night was much more calm and peaceful.

I should mention that one of the dreams I have had here was of me looking down on my arms and noticing that they were dark brown. (In waking life, they are pink or at best light brown.) I wonder if this dream too may reflect sleeping in the bed and residual energies of another person? (He has darker skin.)

For me, this is just an interesting pattern. I know I can sometimes pick up and sense what’s going on with others and a place, so this may be just another way my system picks it up. It’s also a reminder of how interconnected we all are. And whatever comes up in these dreams does reflect something in me since everything – the whole world – reflects dynamics and characteristics in me. Equally important, it’s all happening within and as what I am. That doesn’t change.

Am I dreaming or awake, right now?

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Whatever we come up with, we may find it difficult to justify the answer. We cannot come up with any watertight argument.

We cannot know for certain. And for a very good and important reason.

To us, dreams and waking life happens within and as consciousness.

They happen within and as what we are. To us, there is no difference between the nature of the two.

This doesn’t say anything about the nature of waking life or existence itself. It also doesn’t say that we shouldn’t take waking life seriously or not be good stewards of our life. It just says something about how this particular question appears to us when we look into it.

And it says something about what our more fundamental nature is, in our own first-person experience. Which, I assume, is why the question was created in the first place.

Cartoon: Drawing by Schulz, text attributed to Stephen LaBerge.

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The dreamlike quality of reality

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To me, the world seems like a dream.

It’s as if I can put my hand right through anything.

And I have some guesses of why it appears that way.

The world as it appears to me – this human self, the wider world, and anything else – happens within and as what I am. It happens within and as what a thought may label consciousness.

That’s the same with dreams. They too happen within and as consciousness.

Does it appear different when the mind identifies as a human self, as something particular within the content of experience? Does the world appear more solid? I almost can remember since the shift happened so long ago, but I assume so. I have heard from several in an awakening process that they notice this dreamlike quality of the world, and it seemed more solid before.

From inquiry, I am familiar with how the sense of solidity of physical objects is created by the mind.

Certain physical sensations combine with thoughts so the sensations lend a sense of reality, solidity, and truth to the thoughts, and the thoughts give meaning to the sensations.

This is how the mind creates anything that seems unquestionably true, including the solidity of physical objects. (This is not about the nature of the physical world, just how the mind is creating its experience.)

Note: This article is originally from one of the Brief Notes posts.

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Recurrent dream: Russia missiles over Norway

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I am in the Oslo area of Norway and see a Russian missile flying overhead coming from the Northeast. It’s war.

Over the last few months, I have had this recurrent dream.

It’s obviously related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February. I have followed it in the media and it has impacted me as it has most others in Europe.

Consciously, I don’t think that Russia will attack Norway. It would make no sense. (1)

So what are these dreams about?

What first comes to mind is that they may be premonitory. It’s not likely but based on previous experiences with similar kinds of dreams, it’s certainly possible. (2)

They may tell me that I have stronger fears than I am consciously aware of or want to admit to. I don’t see an attack as realistic, and at some level I may still have fears I am not aware of and that the dreams invite me to get in contact with.

The world is my mirror. The world and my dreams mirror parts and dynamics in me. Whenever I go into a belief, I go to war within myself. I go to war with reality and I tend to go into reactivity, defense, blame, and so on.

For instance, whenever I believe something stressful about my partner, I go to war within the relationship whether it’s on the surface or more hidden.

Holding any story as true, even the most apparently benign ones, is ultimately uncomfortable and painful because it’s at odds with reality. It’s a kind of war that comes with defense, attacks, suffering, and so on.

So the dreams may be premonitory, although I wouldn’t put money on it. They may reflect a fear I am not fully aware of or admit to. And they definitely reflect wars within myself that happen as soon as I attach to stories as true, which is especially clear with obviously painful stories.

UPDATE AUGUST 24, 2022

In the recurrent dream, I am outside the house in Ski on the southwestern side. Earlier today, I was outside on that side of the house, and a fighter jet flew low over the house from the northeast to the southwest, just like in the dreams. It was a strange experience and a kind of synchronicity, although I don’t know what it’s about if anything. It’s very rare to see fighter jets here.

These days, with a continued weakened Russian military, any kind of conventional war between Russia and NATO seems less likely than ever. And it also seems very unlikely that Putin would use nuclear weapons since it’s clearly suicidal. (Although his rationality and connection with reality is questionable.) So that makes any premonition seem even less likely than it was.

So why the recurrent dream, and this real-life mirroring of the dream?

There may be something here I am still not seeing. For instance, I often experience a kind of invasion from someone in my life (who wants to dictate my behavior and even internal state so s/he can be more comfortable and not have their own issues triggered). It’s something I tend to dismiss or downplay in my own mind. Maybe these dreams are inviting me to notice it and take it more seriously and do something about it.

UPDATE JUNE 2, 2024

I haven’t had this dream again, and I still consciously see it as unlikely bordering on impossible for it to happen. It wouldn’t serve any sensible purpose and would be suicidal for Russia. At the same time, the dream had a different quality to ordinary dreams. It bordered on the type of dreams I have had foreshadowed something that later did happen.

Putin isn’t always so sensible. The dream of rebuilding the Russian empire through conquest is doomed to fail. If he had been able to occupy Ukraine, it would be a quagmire and a nightmare for the Russians. He may want to test the resolve and unity of NATO, and one way to do it is to do a localized attack in the outskirts of NATO.

UPDATE FEBRUARY 20, 2025

Trump is president and, as expected, he is giving Putin what he wants when it comes to Ukraine. (Trump has also attacked Zelinsky, which may be part of a plan to replace him with someone who is Putin-friendly.)

Trump has made it clear that he is not interested in protecting allies, or should I say former allies. This may well be the end of NATO. Of course, all of this may be reversed in four years when – or IF – a more sane president is elected in the US. It may also mean that Europe is far more at risk for an expanding war.

Putin’s ambition is to re-establish the Russian empire of the old, which means that he is likely to invade more countries. In the worst case, if there is no more NATO, that may even mean an invasion of Norway. It was unthinkable up until the US presidential election last fall, and now it is possible.

For me, that puts these dreams in a different light. When I had them, they felt real in a way dreams rarely do. They did feel borderline premonitory and I have had other dreams that came true that had a feel similar to these.

UPDATE SEPTEMBER, 2026

The war is still going on, as is Russia’s hybrid warfare against Europe. Some think they may want to test – or split – NATO through some kind of more obvious attach, perhaps even a border crossing in a more peripheral area of a NATO country.

I still remember this dream. At a literal level, it suggests a more open conventional war, although that does seem unlikely, mainly because Russia doesn’t have the military capacity. It would be stupid of Putin, although Putin does stupid things.

The Ukraine invasion was stupid and he did that. Even if they had taken Ukraine, it would have been an endless quagmire that would end with eventual liberation. An escalation with Europe and NATO will and cannot have a good outcome for Russia. It may even lead to a breakup of Russia which will destabilize the whole region.

The dream is accurate in that Russia is certainly in a hybrid war with Europe and they seem to escalate.

I should add that from the beginning, I have a secret sense that the recurrent dream is an actual premonition of an escalating conflict between Russia and Europe. It didn’t fit my conscious view but I had that sense. Now, more than ever before, that seems accurate.

Footnotes

(1) It wouldn’t make much sense. (Although the invasion of Ukraine also didn’t make much if any sense, at any level, so that’s not really an argument.) They don’t have conventional military resources to engage in any successful invasions and especially not NATO countries. (In terms of conventional weapons and military, Russia is a mosquito compared to NATO and wouldn’t stand a chance.) If they were to attack targets in Norway, it would mean that WW3 had already started. And it would probably mean the use of (at least smaller) nuclear weapons.

(2) My whole life, I have had dreams of things that later happened – sometimes years later. (For instance, a dream in my teens of living in Oregon, which happened fifteen years later. A dream of living in Latin America, which happened about three decades later. A dream of my cat being killed in an accident, which happened a week later. And so on.) By invading Ukraine, Putin and Russia created a volatile situation that can escalate and eventually involve NATO – and Norway – more directly.

It may not be that Russia literally will fire rockets toward the Oslo area. That seems very unlikely. But the rockets in the dream may be more metaphorical and suggest a more direct involvement of NATO and Norway.

I should mention that when the war started in February, I had an unusually bad feeling about it. I had a sense that it would (or could) have worse consequences than most suspected. (I wrote about it back then.)

That feeling rarely happens, and when it does – about world events – it’s often accurate.

At the beginning of the war, when I checked in more closely with my sense, I saw a kind of black cloud moving out from Ukraine and towards the west into other countries. At the time, I was not sure what it could be. Does it mean an expanding war? Does it mean radioactive contamination?

Stranger Things & the shadow

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I love Stranger Things.

Like many others, I love it for its 80s nostalgia and for being more 80s than the 80s were. I love it for the characters which often are more stereotypical than their inspiration. I love it for the dialogue. I love it for bringing Kate Bush back on the charts and introducing her to new generations.

And as with any story – whether it’s fiction, mythology, or about others or the world – we can explore it as a dream. We can use it as a mirror for ourselves.

What I see in Stranger Things is a group of nerds and outsiders, much as myself at that age. (A part of me wishes I had found the type of community back then that they have, which is perhaps also why I enjoy watching it.) They don’t quite fit in. Some of them are bullied.

And I see the upside-down as one of many representations of what Jung called the shadow. The parts of all of us that don’t fit into our conscious or desired identity. The parts we sometimes push aside or even deny. The parts of us that may take on the form of monsters since they are exiled and we are unfamiliar with them.

In this case, we can take it even more literally and see it as the shadow we tend to create for ourselves if we feel like an outsider, if we are bullied (or bully), and so on. We may experience a mix of emotions and painful beliefs and identities — pain, loneliness, self-criticism, blame, bitterness, anger, sadness, victimhood, and so on. And since these may be painful and confusing to us, we may partially exile these experiences and parts of ourselves. We may also attack the sides of ourselves we feel are responsible for us being outsiders, so these become partially exiled. When these experiences and parts of us are exiled, they tend to take on the form of monsters to us. They go into our shadow. They don’t fit into our conscious or desired self image. And they can look, to us, as the upside-down.

Stranger Things operates from a classic good vs evil duality, at least so far. But it does also have some healing qualities. It shows healing and supportive friendships, which mirror how we can be friends with ourselves. (Even as we may also battle other sides of us.) The new season gives us more understanding of how the upside-down may have been created, and with understanding comes a less adversarial relationship. (Although they’ll still need to protect themselves and their world.)

How could Stranger Things reflect an even more mature process and way of relating to our shadow?

I am not sure, there are several options. In Star Wars, we got the back story of Darth Vader so we could understand him better and find empathy with the person he used to be. We learned that the hero (Luke) and villain (Darth Vader) were as closely connected as two people can be. And the villain was redeemed before his death.

In Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver by Michael Ende, the main characters capture the evil and dangerous dragon. Instead of killing her, they put her in a cage so she couldn’t do more harm. And that allowed her to transform into a golden wisdom dragon for the benefit of everyone.

Stranger Things does hint at intimate connections between the main hero (Eleven) and Vecna and perhaps the upside-down itself. If that theme is continued, it reflects the intimate connection between the two. They are both parts of each of us. And if we create a “good” identity for ourselves that excludes certain things in us, then what’s excluded is often transformed into apparent monsters. (This also goes for excluding discomfort and pain. What we exclude tends to take on the form of monsters to us.)

It’s also possible that One (Vecna) could be redeemed. In terms of contemporary storytelling, that could be seen as a bit naive and sentimental. (Unless it’s well done with realism and grittiness, which they probably could pull off.) But in terms of mythology and reflecting inner processes, it would give us another image in popular culture that shows how we can find redemption for parts of us in the shadow.

And it’s possible that Eleven somehow, through facing her past and the uncomfortable sides of herself, could redeem herself and the upside-down. It could bring about a transformation of her and the upside-down. Again, if the story was to reflect a healthy and deep inner transformation, something like that would happen.

Note: I am writing this after having seen the first release (this first seven episodes) of the fourth season.

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Exploring the world like a dream

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I like to explore the world similar to how I would explore a dream.

Why?

The simple answer is that they both mirror me at a human level. And, to me, they both happen within and as what I am.

DREAMS AND THE WORLD MIRRORING ME

Any content of my experience is a mirror for me.

My experience of dreams and waking life both show me what’s happening in my mental field. It shows me my assumptions, stories, and beliefs about others, myself, and the world.

I can take my story about anyone or anything, turn it to myself, and find specific and genuine examples of where and how it’s true.

Anything within my experience, whether it’s a dream or waking life, mirrors parts and dynamics in myself at a human level.

DREAMS AND THE WORLD HAPPENING WITHIN AND AS WHAT I AM

Dreams and waking life both happen within my experience.

They happen within my sense fields. They happen within and as this consciousness.

They happen within and as what I am.

In a conventional sense, and to others, I am this human self in the world. And when I look more closely in my own first-person experience, I find my nature is more fundamentally capacity for the world as it appears to me. I am what the world, to me, happens within and as.

I am what any content of experience – night dreams and waking life – happen within and as.

HOW I EXPLORE DREAMS AND WAKING LIFE

I won’t go into this in detail here since there are many other articles on this topic.

Depending on the approach, I explore what comes up in me in relation to something in a dream or waking life, or I use dreams or waking life as a mirror to identify and explore parts of myself.

I typically use some form of inquiry. For instance, The Work on painful stories related to what’s happening. Or sense field explorations (Living/Kiloby Inquiries) on anything coming up or mirrored including identities, anxiety, or compulsions. Dialog with parts of me triggered or mirrored in dreams or the world. Heart-centered practices towards someone in the world, dreams, or parts of me (tonglen, ho’oponopno). I may identify issues and work on them with energy healing (Vortex Healing). And so on.

And I use some forms of structured inquiry – Headless experiments and the Big Mind process – to find myself as what the world to me happens within and as. (Some like to use lucid dreaming to notice that night dreams happen within and as consciousness, and then see if they can notice that in waking life as well. In my case, I prefer a more direct approach.)

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From fundamentalist to agnostic to taking the stories as mirrors

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I listened to a podcast with someone who went from Christian fundamentalist to agnostic to taking the Jesus stories as a mirror.

It’s a nice illustration of some of the ways we can relate to religion and spiritual stories and mythology in general.

Do we take it as literal truth? If we do, we inevitably come up against logical inconsistencies. And by holding anything as any full, final, or absolute truth, we take a position not aligned with reality and this is inherently filled with conflicts, a need to defend and prop up our position, and discomfort.

Do we still think of it as a literal truth or not and say: I don’t know. I take an agnostic view.

Do we see the stories as useful metaphors for our life? As saying something universal about humans and ourselves?

Or do we go one step further and see the stories and mythologies as we would a dream? Do we see it all as reflecting parts and dynamics of ourselves? Here, it doesn’t matter so much if Jesus – or other religious figures – were historical persons or not, or whether or not the stories actually happened. What’s important is what they can show us about ourselves and our own process.

For instance, we can see Jesus as an image of the clarity and love we all have in us and ultimately are. Or the wholeness of our human self when it’s more healed and we are conscious of more of it. Or someone who lives from noticing his nature as capacity and what his world happens within and as.

We can see the virgin birth as an image of how the world, to us, happens within and as what we are. Our world – including this human self – is born from nothing, from virgin territory.

We can see the death & resurrection as the death of our beliefs and the resurrection on the other side of these beliefs. This can happen in smaller (and still significant) ways when we see through old beliefs and identifications and find a less limited and more receptive way of being on the other side. And it can happen in a more dramatic way when our identity as something within content of experience falls away and we find ourselves as capacity and what the world, to us, happens within and as.

We can see Judas as the dynamic in us abandoning truth, clarity, and love for the benefit of reactivity to fear and unquestioned stories.

And so on. Any story within religion and mythology can be explored in this way.

Two of my favorite books on this topic are Resurrecting Jesus by Adyashanti and The Jesus Mysteries by Tim Freke and Peter Gandy.

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We cannot escape the dream, but we can learn to recognize and find appreciation for it

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We cannot escape the creativity of the mind, and why would we?

THE DREAM OF OUR REALITY

Our experience of the world is like dream in two ways.

It’s created by the mind. And it happens within and as consciousness.

OUR WORLD IS CREATED BY THE MIND

At a story level, we can say that our biological system takes in information about the wider world, and the brain puts it all together into a more or less coherent experience. 

And in our immediate experience, we can explore our sense fields and see how this seems to happen. We can notice what’s here in sight, sound, smell, taste, physical sensations, and so on. And how the mental field comes as an overlay to interpret and make sense of it all, and also create a sense of past, future, and a separate self. 

Our experience of the world is not how the world is. It’s created. It’s an expression of the creativity of the mind. It’s dreamt up. 

Most of the time, it’s accurate enough so we can navigate and function in the world relatively well. 

And sometimes, it’s off enough so we are shown that our experience is created. It’s not how the world itself is. 

OUR WORLD HAPPENS WITHIN AND AS CONSCIOUSNESS

Logically, we see that to ourselves, we have to be consciousness, and any experience we have – of ourselves, the wider world, and anything else – happens within and as consciousness. It cannot be any other way. 

We are consciousness and this consciousness forms itself into all our experiences. 

Even if – in a possible more objective and external reality – we are most fundamentally a biological being in the world, to ourselves, we are most fundamentally consciousness, and the world to us happens within and as this consciousness. It happens within and as what we are. 

We can also find this in our immediate first-person experience. We can see that our nature, most fundamentally, is capacity for any and all of our experiences – of this human self, the wider world, and anything at all. To us, the world happens within and as what we are. 

Night dreams clearly happen within and as consciousness. And our waking life is no different. That too happens within and as consciousness. To us, the world happens within and as what we are. 

RECOGNIZING THE CREATED AND DREAM-LIKE NATURE OF OUR WORLD

To the extent we assume our perception of the world is accurate, and our stories about the world are true, we are out of alignment with reality and this creates suffering. 

We can see through this in a general way, and specifically for each story, and this helps us recognize it all as created by the mind. To the extent we see through the dream, we can hold it all more lightly. We can use our stories as guides and questions about the world and know they are not any full, final, or absolute truth. And this helps us be more aligned with reality and live more in peace. 

FINDING WHAT WE ARE AND APPRECIATING THE DREAM

Through this, we may find what we more fundamentally are in our first-person experience. We may notice our nature as capacity for any and all experiences. We may notice we are what the world, to us, happens within and as. 

We may notice that the world, to us, is like a dream. It’s created by the mind. It happens within and as consciousness. It’s created by what we are and happens within and as what we are. 

This helps us hold it more lightly. We know it’s not any full, final, or absolute truth. 

And this also helps us find a deeper appreciation for it all. We can find a deeper appreciation for the creativity of the mind and the dreamlike nature of the world as it appears to us. 

We don’t need to get rid of the dream. Why would we? Especially when it would mean that we wouldn’t be able to function in the world anymore. To me, it makes more sense to find a deeper appreciation for the dream. 

Image: Created by an AI called Huxley and described as the dreaming up of images. From the “Invisible” video by Duran Duran.

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Some side-effects of the awakening: poor memory, dreamlike quality, etc.

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The awakening process tends to have several side effects. Some of these happen during certain phases of the process. Not all are experienced in all cases. And some seem more or less unavoidable and inherent in the awakening itself. 

I’ll mention a few here that I am familiar with from my own experience and that seem relatively common based on what I hear from others.

POOR MEMORY

It’s quite common to experience poor memory at some point in the awakening process. Our memories used to feel solid and real, and now they feel ephemeral and difficult to grasp.

We may also have a more general sense of cognitive dysfunction. It seems that our mind doesn’t work very well, and may be surprised when we actually are able to function and do what we need to do. It’s as if the abilities miraculously come online when they are needed.

DREAMLIKE QUALITY

The world may have a dreamlike quality to us. It’s as if we can put our hand through it. It feels ephemeral.

The world and this human self – and any content of experience – feel like a dream to us.

This can feel disconcerting, although here too, we may find that we can still function fine in daily life.

THIS HUMAN SELF LIVES ITS OWN LIFE

Another common side effect is that this human self lives its own life.

Anything connected with this human self – thoughts, feelings, words, actions – happen on their own. 

It’s always this way. And noticing it is now more unavoidable.

IT’S NORMAL AND WE GET USED TO IT

All of this can be disconcerting to our mind at first.

And all of it is normal and we get used to it.

We may develop strategies for remembering certain things. (I write anything down that I may need to remember in the future.)

We trust that we will function OK in the world even if it appears like a dream to us.

And we also develop a trust in this human self being able to take care of itself, even if it is living its own life and anything connected with it is happening on its own.

WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?

There is a reason why we may have these experiences, and it’s inherent in the awakening dynamic itself. 

Poor memory

In an unawake state, we tend to hold many of our thoughts – mental images and words – as inherently true. That gives them a charge for us, and it makes them seem real and substantial. This also applies to the mental representations we call memories, and the charge and sense of solidity make it easier to bring them up. It’s easier for us to remember things because these memories mean something to us.  

In an awakening, we tend to recognize all mental representations as just that. They are representations aimed at helping us orient and function in the world. They may be more or less accurate in an ordinary sense, and they are unable to hold any full, final, or absolute truth. For this reason, they tend to lose charge for us and they generally seem less substantial and solid. And that can make it more difficult for our mind to bring up memories. They don’t have as much charge for us, they are more ephemeral and less solid, and we recognize them as a mental creation happening here and now. 

Dreamlike quality

The world takes on a dreamlike quality because it always is like a dream to us. Dreams also happen within and as consciousness. And the world to us – this human self, the wider world, any content of experience – happens within and as consciousness. To us, it all happens within and as what we are, which a thought may imperfectly call consciousness, and it’s always that way. It’s just that we didn’t notice and now we do. 

Lives its own life

This human self appears to live its own life because that’s how it always is. Its thoughts, feelings, words, and actions are always happening on its own. All of it is living its own life. It’s just that in an unawake state, we added a sense of an “I” or “me” doing it (a human self, an observer, a doer, etc.), and now we recognize that as a mental add-on. 

NOTE

As mentioned earlier, there are many possible and typical side-effects of awakening. One is that thoughts quiet down. They appear when needed, and otherwise, it’s mostly quiet. There is just perception and a general absence of noticeable thought. And it’s not always this way. For instance, Byron Katie, rapports a great flow of thoughts, and that’s perhaps why she was moved to formalize her approach to inquiry. (The Work of Byron Katie.)

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The more we try to make life fit our ideas, the more chaos we create

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The more you try to make it fit, the more chaos you create. 

– Adyashanti, in Ale’s dream

Adya is, as usual, clear and spot-on, even when he appears in Ale’s dreams. 

The more we try to fit life into our ideas about how things should be, and the more we push and pull and struggle, the more chaos we create. 

When this happens, it’s a sign that we are perceiving and acting from unclear parts in us. From parts that are wounded, caught up in beliefs, unloved, and so on.

And this gives us an opportunity to explore what’s going on. 

What are the unexamined beliefs this part of me is operating on? What do I find when I examine the belief or beliefs? 

How does this part of me perceive the world? 

What does it need? (Safety, love, support, feeling seen?) 

What happens if I give this part of me what it deepest down wants and needs? 

What’s the nature of this part of me and these painful dynamics? Is it different from my own nature?

And so on.

The only thing that’s not dreamlike

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Any content of experience is dreamlike. It’s as if I can put my hand through it.

Why? Because it’s all happening within and as what I am. It’s all happening within and as what a thought imperfectly can label consciousness.

A dream happens within and as consciousness. Waking life, to me, happens within and as consciousness. The two are not different in that sense.

Is anything not dreamlike?

Yes, when I notice what I am, it’s more direct and indisputable.

When what I am notices itself, it’s direct and indisputable.

I was reminded of this when I was asked about the initial awakening shift in my teens. Any and all experience is dreamlike. And that awakening shift was nothing like that. It was more clear and immediate than any experience.

And it’s still that way. Ordinary experiences and any experience have a dreamlike quality. And noticing what I am, or what I am noticing itself, is far more direct and immediate and has a different clarity.

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Contractions and dreams

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I woke up this morning, having dreamt a man was about to kill me. The man was big, strong, heavily armed, and unyielding.

Obviously, that’s a part of me. It’s another part living from unloved fear and unexamined scary stories.

Unloved fear, unexamined stories, identifications, emotional issues, hangups, trauma, those are all names for the same dynamics.

Yet another name is contraction. This man in the dream is a contraction in me. A part of me that has contracted because of unloved fear, unexamined stories, and so on.

I can explore contractions showing up in dreams as I explore any other contraction.

After waking up, I took time with this man and the contraction he represents.

I noticed the physical sensations associated with him. (Very faint.)

I welcome the sensations and him. I notice all of it is already allowed, and join in with the allowing.

I allow it to get as big as it wants.

I thank it for protecting me. Thank you for your love for me. (The contraction is here to protect me and comes from care for me, it’s confused love.)

I am curious about its needs and wants, and the lack it comes from. I give it love. Am a safe harbor for it. See it. Notice which one(s) resonates the most with the contraction.

I notice its nature and rest in that noticing.

I invite it to notice its own nature and rest in and as it.

Using dream work to inform waking life – in a few different ways

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There are several ways we can use dreams to inform waking life.

DREAMS REFLECT PARTS OF OURSELVES

We can take the different dream elements as representing parts of ourselves, and explore it. This is typical dream work, and it helps us get to know the different dynamics and elements in ourselves, and relate to them in a more intentional way.

LUCID DREAMING AS A WAY TO NOTICE OUR NATURE

We can engage in lucid dreaming, and notice we dream as we dream. Here, we can intentionally notice everything in the dream as happening within and as consciousness – within and as what we are.

And we can bring that with us into waking life. In waking life too, we can notice all our experiences – the world as it appears to us – as happening within and as consciousness, within and as what we are.

(I personally prefer simpler and more direct paths, although I know some find this useful.)

EXPLORE WAKING LIFE AS WE WOULD A DREAM

We can approach waking life as a dream in two different ways.

We can explore waking life as we would a dream. What if my waking life was a dream? What if all the different elements in waking life mirrored me? What does it say about me? How can I get to know these parts of me? How can I relate to them more intentionally? How can I befriend these parts of me?

This is what we also do in projection work, when we explore our sense fields, and in practices like ho’oponopono and tonglen.

HOLDING OUR WAKING LIFE MORE LIGHTLY

We can use dreams as a way to hold our waking life a little more lightly (if we hold it tightly) and see it more as an exploration and adventure.

For instance, Alan Watts’ dream-related thought experiment can help us shift how we relate to waking life. If I could chose my dreams, what would I chose?

First, I would probably want to have wish-fulfilling dreams. Then, I would get a bit tired of it and add in elements of surprise and challenges.

And after a while, I may end up with dreams that are very similar to waking life – with elements of pleasure, contentment, challenges, surprises, and so on.

DREAM WORK INFORMING OUR WAKING LIFE

In each of these ways, and probably many more, dreams and our exploration of dreams can inform our daily life.

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The past is like a dream

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Do you remember how it was before? It’s almost like a dream, isn’t it?

I heard someone say this in reference to the time before the pandemic.

Why does the past seem like a dream? Because, just like a dream, we can only find it as mental images and stories. And, just like a dream, it happens within and as consciousness.

The future is also like a dream, for the same reason. We can only find it in mental images and stories, and it happens within and as consciousness.

And really, the present is very similar. Our mental images and stories about the present, including about what’s physically present with us, are the mental images and stories we find in a dream. And it all, including what’s appearing within all the sense fields, happens within and as consciousness.

If we don’t notice what we are, we tend to take all of this as more solid than it is. The past seems real to us, even if we can only find it as mental images and stories happening within and as consciousness. The future can seem relatively real to us, especially if we attach fears and hopes to it, even if that too only consists of mental images and words happening within and as consciousness. And the present seems real, even if our mental images and stories about it are just that, and what’s happening in all of the sense fields – sight, sound, taste, smell, sensations, thoughts – happen within and as consciousness.

And that’s why, when we notice what we are, it can feel like the world is a dream. It’s because it is, to us. It always was and is and cannot be anything else, we just didn’t notice. This can be disorienting and perhaps disconcerting at first, but we get used to it as anything else. We are just noticing what’s always here and what we already are more familiar with than just about anything else.

Our mental activity is a kind of dream

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I mentioned this briefly in a previous article, and thought I would expand on it a bit here.

THE CONVENTIONAL VIEW ON DREAMS AND WAKING LIFE

Many think of dreams and waking life as categorically different.

A dream is a fantasy and product of the mind. It may say something about our internal life, and that’s about it.

Waking life is real, as it appears to us. It has nothing to do with dreams, with the possible exception of daydreams and fantasies.

THE GENERAL DREAMING FUNCTION OF THE MIND

The reality is quite different.

When we look, we may find that all our mental activity is a kind of dream.

We put mental representations on top of what’s in our sense fields – sights, sounds, sensations, smells, taste – to make sense of them. We label and have stories about what’s here. Similarly, we have mental representations of what isn’t here – the wider world, the past and future, and so on.

In a very real sense, all our mental activity is imagination and a fantasy. It’s a kind of dreaming activity.

It can be very useful in helping us make sense of the world and in helping us orient and navigate in the world. It can be more or less accurate, in a conventional sense. And this dreaming activity doesn’t hold any absolute or final truth.

THE DREAMING ACTIVITY OF THE MIND – IN NIGHT DREAMS AND WAKING LIFE

This general dreaming activity of the mind plays itself out while awake and also in our sleeping dreams.

Both are an expression of the creativity of our mind.

Both create a world for us. Sleeping dreams happen in the absence of sensory inputs. And these waking dreams happen partly as an overlay over sensory inputs (what we see, hear, feel, smell, taste etc.) and partly in the absence of these sensory inputs (imaginations of a wider world, past, future, and so on).

Both can seem real if we take them that way, and we can learn to see through both. We can recognize a sleeping dream as a dream while we dream (lucid dreaming) and we can recognize our waking dreams as they happen (through inquiry). It takes time, but recognizing dreams as they happen can become a new habit.

What we are is capacity for both types of dreams, they both happen within and as what we are. When we notice this, identification with them tends to soften. It’s easier to recognize them as dreams.

Our sleeping dreams are one expression of the general dreaming activity of the mind.

NOTICING THIS HELPS RELEASE IDENTIFICATION OUT OF THE DREAMING ACTIVITY

Recognizing this general dreaming activity of the mind can help us take it a little less seriously. It is immensely valuable in helping us navigate the world. And it doesn’t hold any final or absolute truth.

When we notice that all mental activity is a kind of dream, it helps release identification out of this dreaming activity.

HOW CAN WE EXPLORE THIS FOR OURSELVES?

If we just read or hear about this, it becomes part of the dream. It may be interesting, but it doesn’t really do anything for us.

So how can we explore this for ourselves?

The simple answer is by noticing the dreaming activity directly. By noticing this dreaming activity as an overlay on the other senses for what’s in our immediate environment. And for anything else – the wider world, past, future, and so on – it functions on its own.

And to do this, structured inquiry can be very helpful. We may not be used to noticing this, and may not even know how to go about it, so a structured inquiry will function as training wheels and helps us explore it more systematically and in depth.

The best approach I have found is the Living Inquiries, which is a modern version of traditional Buddhist Inquiry. Here, we get to explore the different sense fields, and how the mental field combines with other sense fields to create our experience of ourselves and the world.

As we get more familiar with this, we learn to notice and recognize the dreaming activity of the mind – the mental field activity – as it happens. And that makes a big difference. It helps us hold this dreaming activity more lightly, recognize it as a kind of dreaming activity, and not something that holds any final or absolute truth.

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Adyashanti: All ideas of what should or shouldn’t have happened are just dreams

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All ideas of what should or shouldn’t have happened are just dreams

– Adyshanti

That’s literally true, and we can find it for ourselves through examining our ideas about what should or shouldn’t have happened.

SHOULDS

I cannot find any should outside of my own mental images and words.

They don’t seem to be inherent in reality. In fact, reality is what allows what happens to happen. Reality is what happens.

I can trace my shoulds – to my parents, upbringing, friends, culture, society. The essence of my shoulds are universally human and likely go back to the beginning of civilization and before.

When my mind holds a should as true, it creates suffering for me. It’s at odds with reality. It makes me a victim.

THE SHOULD-DREAMS

Shoulds are like dreams in a few different ways.

Dreams are an expression of the creativity of the mind, and shoulds are an expression of the same creativity.

Dreams and shoulds happen within and as consciousness. They are not found in any other place.

If our mind holds dreams and shoulds as true, they feel true. We perceive and feel as if they are true. And we may even act as if a should is true.

We can recognize the true nature of dreams and shoulds, and recognize they have the same nature.

Dreams and shoulds happen within and as what we are. When we recognize this, our mind’s identification with them tends to soften.

EXPLORING SHOULDS

How do we explore our shoulds, and especially the ones that feel true?

The most effective way may be through structured inquiry like The Work of Byron Katie and the Living Inquiries, especially when guided by someone familiar with them and skilled in guiding others.

We can dialog with the should part of us. How does it see the world? What are its fears? How does it see us? How do we relate to it? Do we listen? Dismiss it? How is it to find that it is there to protect us? How is it to thank it for protecting us? How is it to listen to the wisdom within it?

They point to emotional issues, and we can work on these in whatever ways work for us. (The other approaches do this as well.)

After a while of exploring shoulds, we may find we generally have a different relationship with them. We may recognize them and see through them more naturally. And if we have some especially strong shoulds coming up, we can take the opportunity to explore them in even more depth.

OUR MENTAL ACTIVITY AS A DREAM

When we look, we may find that all our mental activity is a kind of dream.

We put mental representations on top of what’s in our sense fields – sights, sounds, sensations, smells, taste – to make sense of them. We label and have stories about what’s here. Similarly, we have mental representations of what isn’t here – the wider world, the past and future, and so on.

All of this is a kind of dreaming activity of the mind, and it plays itself out while awake and also in our sleeping dreams.

That’s why our waking dreaming activity is not that different from our sleeping dreams.

Both are an expression of the creativity of our mind.

Both create a world for us. Sleeping dreams happen in the absence of sensory inputs. And these waking dreams happen partly as an overlay over sensory inputs (what we see, hear, feel, smell, taste etc.) and partly in the absence of these sensory inputs (imaginations of a wider world, past, future, and so on).

Both can seem real if we take them that way, and we can learn to see through both. We can recognize a sleeping dream as a dream while we dream (lucid dreaming) and we can recognize our waking dreams as they happen (through inquiry). It takes time, but recognizing dreams as they happen can become a new habit.

What we are is capacity for both types of dreams, they both happen within and as what we are. When we notice this, identification with them tends to soften. It’s easier to recognize them as dreams.

Our sleeping dreams are one expression of the general dreaming activity of the mind.

Recognizing this general dreaming activity of the mind can help us take it a little less seriously. It is immensely valuable in helping us navigate the world. And it doesn’t hold any final or absolute truth.

Shakespeare: We are such stuff as dreams are made on

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We are such stuff as dreams are made on

– William Shakespeare, The Tempest, act 4

As usual, there are many ways to understand this, and that’s the richness of good poetry.

One way we can understand this, is in a very literal sense.

What dreams are made on

A dream clearly happens within and as consciousness.

And if we look, we find that waking life is no different.

All our experiences happen within and as consciousness.

To us, this human self and this wider world happens within and as consciousness.

And to ourselves, we are consciousness.

We are such stuff as dreams are made on

In a very literal sense, we are such stuff as dreams are made on.

Dreams are made on consciousness.

We, as this human self in the world, happens within and as consciousness.

And to ourselves, we are consciousness.

We are such stuff as dreams are made on.

What’s the function of dreams?

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I tend to approach anything from several angles, including dreams. It helps me find the validity or usefulness of each approach, and it helps keep my mind open.

So what’s the function of dreams? They may help us process information and charged issues. They may bring our attention to processes in us right on the edge of being conscious. They may compensate for our conscious orientation and attitude. They may train us for situations we can encounter in waking life.

And, as a recent Guardian article suggests, they may help us get used to new and unfamiliar experiences. Dreams are often new and unfamiliar to us, so we get training in processing these types of situations.

I suspect there is some validity and usefulness to each of these views, and many more.

In any case, dreams are an expression of the creativity of the mind, and they show us certain characteristics of the mind.

Everything in a dream represents parts of our psyche, so by returning to the dream after we wake up, we can interact and dialog with these parts of us and get to know them, how they experience us and their world, and the dynamics between them and in our relationship with them. (Active Imagination.)

And, if we take it that way, they are a reminder that just like dreams, our waking life happens within and as consciousness. Dreams happen within and as what we are, as does our waking life. We can use the nature of dreams to find our own true nature.

What does awakening feel like?

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The short answer is that it doesn’t feel like anything in particular.

We find ourselves as what we always have been, as capacity for the world – including all and any feelings.

Another answer is that it makes the world seem or feel like a dream.

Everything in a dream happens within and as consciousness. And when we find ourselves as what all our experiences happen within and as, it’s the same. We notice it all happens within and as what we are. In other words, in and as consciousness.

It was never any other way, it’s just that we now notice it. The world and a dream both happen within and as what we are, or within and as consciousness.

I am using the word “consciousness” because it makes the point I set out to make. Apart from that function, it’s not a very good word for what we are. Putting a label on it makes it sound like something we can grasp intellectually, and that’s not what this is about. It’s about direct noticing, and for that, an absence of labels is perhaps more helpful.

Some advocate using lucid dreaming to notice the consciousness-quality of dreams and then see if they can notice it in waking life. It may work well for some, although there are simpler and more direct approaches.

Pandemic dreams: mine follow a pattern

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For a long while now, perhaps since almost a year ago when the global pandemic started, many or most of the dreams I remember follow a certain pattern.

I am in a place with a lot of people and interact with them and generally enjoy myself.

And, at some point, I am aware none of us wear masks or keep our distance.

It makes sense. For health reasons, I am generally much less social than I otherwise would be. And the pandemic has reduced social interactions to close family. We are social beings, and I imagine the “dream maker” in me wants to give me a sense of social interaction through the dreams since I don’t get much in waking life.

Towards the end of the dreams, I usually have a moment of “this is a pandemic and we are doing nothing to prevent transmission”. That probably reflects my concern and focus when I am out among people and some of the natural low-grade anxiety behind it.

Dreams about the future: Pacific Northwest & Latin America

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During the initial awakening phase in the teens, I had several strong dreams – some of which had a clear sense of being about the future.

In one dream, I saw myself in a lush landscape and involved in an intentional community. At the end of the dream, I was shown the location on the map. When I look it up, I saw it was the US Pacific Northwest. At the time, I had no wish or intention to go to the US or live there, but through a series of events I ended up living in the Pacific Northwest about fifteen years later. I didn’t live in an intentional community but I was involved in the community and visited intentional communities in the area. (The Lost Valley community was exactly like what was shown me in the dream.)

Another dream was living North in South America. I saw myself involved in a local rural school and feeling a lot of joy and satisfaction in that work. Again, I was shown a map, and this time it seemed it was North in Brazil. This has not happened yet, but I may live in Latin America soon.

Byron Katie: When you walk in a dream

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When you walk in a dream and you know it’s a dream, that’s love.

– Byron Katie

Just like a dream, our waking world is happening within and as consciousness. And to ourselves, we are that consciousness.

Also like a dream, if we believe our mental images and words about the waking world, the way it appears to us seems real and true.

Any lack of love comes from what we believe about our world. We take our mental images and words as true, that creates stress and struggle, and it covers up the love that’s here.

To the extent we recognize our world as a dream – as happening within and as consciousness, and our images and thoughts about it as not inherently or absolutely true – there is a release of the stress and struggle.

And what’s here is love. A love for our world as it is. A love for our world as one. A love for our world as what we are.

Lucid dreaming may be a spectrum, and a part of us knows we dream while we dream

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In my Grant Imahara dream yesterday, I saw and talked with him while also knowing he had recently died. It wasn’t weird at all in the dream, and it seems that this is quite common. In our dreams we do and experience things that doesn’t fit with the “rules” of waking life and we are fine with it.

Why are we so at ease with the different rules within dreams and waking life? My sense, from my own experience, is that a part of me knows I am dreaming while I am dreaming. Lucid dreaming may be a spectrum and all dreams may have some element of lucidity even if it usually is at a low level.

What we conventionally call lucid dreaming may be lucid dreaming turned up to 9 or 10, and most dreams have just enough lucidity so we are OK with the dream logic.

This seemed especially clear in my dream from yesterday. When I saw and talked with Grant Imahara, I wasn’t very aware that he had recently died. That remembering came in when I saw he was moved and cried, and I wondered if he was sad because he had died. At that point, I was more aware that there were different rules in this experience than in waking life, and I was a little more aware that it was a dream. It was as if the lucidity factor was turned up slightly so I would be OK with the difference between the dream and waking life.

Headphone adventures: approaching life situations as symbolic or as if a dream

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Over the last several months, I have had an adventure relating to headphones. I wanted to buy noice cancelling headphones (for travel and neighborhood noise) and do it outside of Norway since the price is lower.

The first was going to be delivered to my partner when she did a Vortex class in Wakefield. The delivery people didn’t deliver it since they “thought the hotel was closed on Mondays” (!) and there was no time for re-delivery before she left the hotel. (April 2019.)

The second – which I got when I was in London – was defective (pulsing in one ear) and I had to return it after coming back to Norway. (November 2019.)

The third was one I actually bought in Norway but it was the wrong – and inferior – model so I again returned it. (January 2020.)

The fourth got delivered to the wrong address in London and was signed for (!) and received by someone I have no idea who is. At least someone out there now has a nice pair of headphones and they didn’t have to pay for it. (February 2020.)

At this point, I knew I had to take the symbolism in this more seriously. If life is trying to show me something, what is it? What can I learn from all this?

What I first saw was my contraction around it. I have sound sensitivity (typical for CFS) and also misophonia, and although it’s much better than it was, I still sometimes get stressed from noise. My approach to the whole situation – and getting noise cancelling headphones – was contracted and fear-based.

How can I approach noise in general with more ease? (I have already worked on this but there is further to go.) And how can I approach the headphone situation differently?

When the last pair of headphones were delivered to someone I don’t know who is, I got into a stressful pattern of thinking and feeling – some mix of hopelessness, victim, and related beliefs, identities, and emotional issues. I noticed this and the addictive tendency in it.

The whole process seems to have put me in a place where I was finally ready to hold it all more lightly. To let it go more fully. And to take a more genuine approach of playfulness and adventure.

I decided to order another pair more as an experiment. This time too, something went “wrong”. When I went on the website to order, they didn’t have any new ones in stock and there was no indication they would get more in. So I ordered the one pair of used headphones listed. The following day, I got the message they had cancelled my order since “the product was unavailable”.

This only strengthened the shift that had already happened in me. From this new place, I went back to the website, ordered another set (they were now suddenly available), received it without problems, and enjoyed using them on the flight back to Norway. (The flight was very enjoyable, partly because of the comfort from the headphones.)

Not everything in life needs to be taken as a symbol or as if it’s in a dream. But when there is a pattern like this, it can be helpful to approach it in that way. If life wants to show me something, what can it be? If this was a dream, what would it mean? If I am supposed to learn something from this – to grow, heal, mature – what would it be? How would I be different in this situation? How can I implement it? What issues – emotional issues, beliefs, identifications – stops me from making this shift?

I also noticed that this ongoing situation felt like a series of synchronicities. Perhaps not in a strict sense, but what happened seemed to follow a similar dynamic. It was as if life wanted me to see something through a series of unusual events. (So far, when I have ordered something online, it usually goes without a hitch.)