Dream Visions

Problem-Solving in Dreams | BYB

More and more, I find that I wake up with solutions to problems. However, it is not like the dramatic stories you read about solutions to problems coming to people in dreams.

It feels more as though I worked on the problem all night instead of really sleeping. Have you ever waked up in the morning and felt as though you had been working all night in your sleep? It feels as though you have merely dozed lightly, while your mind worked on the problem.

I suspect that a lot of the problem-solving actually goes on in that dreamlike stage between waking and sleeping. Whatever it is, it works, and to me it is a blessing.

How about you?

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More on Dreaming Phantom Bells | Blog Your Blessings

In the original post on being awakened by phantom doorbell sounds, I mentioned that I have also experienced being awakened by the sound of a telephone ringing, but not for some years. I was surprised to hear from comments on this blog that lots of you have had the same phantom doorbell experience.

I think there are at least a couple of reasons why people are not awakened by phantom telephone ringing these days. One is that in the past 20 years or so we have become used to answering machines and voice mail, so we are not the slaves to the telephone that we used to be. Instead, we rush to answer the door.

Also, with the prevalence of ringtone options on mobile phones, the sound of a ringing phone is no longer distinctive. The sound a mobile phone makes can be anything from a baby’s giggle to a hiphop hit. Phones no longer literally ring. In fact, some make no sound at all to announce a call; they just vibrate.

Recently, in a book called Magical Uses of Thought Forms, by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki and J.H. Brennan, I ran across the statement that people often hear a bell or ringing sound that is their own inner self trying to get their attention. It is a call to listen to their own inner voice and to pay more attention to spiritual messages.

Wow! Just like our dreams, which are our inner self trying to communicate with us through sensations, stories, images, and sounds. The phantom doorbell may be spiritual wake-up call, a message from the inner us (our spirit) to the outer us (our conscious mind) to wake up to our own inner life.

In other words a helpful message from us to ourselves, a dream that calls attention to what is really important: our spiritual life, “waking up”. I would call that a blessing. How about you?

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

Defining “Dreams” | Blog Your Blessings

The fortieth anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy reminded me of a famous RFK quote: “There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (also assassinated 40 years ago this year) said, “I have a dream…” In fact, he said that on several occasions about different dreams.

Both men were using dream to mean something that they wanted to have happen. At first that may seem to be a different usage from the “dreams” we have at night. But take a second look.

John Lennon said, “A dream you dream alone is only a dream. A dream you dream together is reality.”

Lennon also wrote, “Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one.” That was his dream.

In some cultures, to have a good dream, as in the dreams RFK, MLK, and John Lennon had for the good of their people, is to be obligated to work to make that dream come true. And in reading about the Senoi people of Malaysia, the Tibetan lamas, lucid dreamers of many cultures, and dreamworkers like Robert Moss, we have found that dreaming can cause things to happen. So the two definitions of dreams (day dreams and night dreams) begin to merge.

In Europe and the U.S. in recent centuries we have been taught to think of night-time dreams as passive experiences, surreal and fantastic, having nothing to do with “real” life. Now we know that we can learn to use our night-time dreams to help make our daytime dreams come true.

What could be more of a blessing than that?

Phantom Doorbell and Telephone Dreams | BYB

For years now, if I oversleep, I am often awakened by the sound of a doorbell ringing—but no one is at the door. This has happened over and over when there is no one outside, and no one has been anywhere near the door.

Generally it does not sound exactly like my real-life doorbell. It is a dream. And it is a useful one. The message is “Get up! Get busy!”

Over the years the sound has sometimes been a phantom telephone ring. The principle seems to be the same.

Are you ever awakened by a phantom doorbell? Or a phantom telephone ring? Does this happen when you oversleep, to help keep you from being even later?

I think the phantom doorbell is a very useful type of dream, and a real blessing. How about you?

Creative Dreaming | Blog Your Blessings

When I started working with dreams, years ago, Patricia Garfield was one of the two best authors on dreamwork that I found. She is a clinical psychologist who also works with her own dreams.

Currently I’m reading the second edition of her book, Creative Dreaming, and I highly recommend it.

Garfield’s books are different from those of Robert Moss (Conscious Dreaming, Dreamgates, and Dreaming True). She spends a bit more time explaining the research that has been done on dreams and the methods that she recommends for getting/shaping the dreams you want.

She writes very clearly and simply, so her books are fun to read and easy to understand. I also think that she is a bit more detailed in explaining how to work with dreams. So it seems easier to understand her methods and put them into practice.

Garfield gives great practical advice on transforming nightmares into pleasant dreams. She also has a lot of interesting information on how to use dreams to get answers. And she devotes a whole chapter to Native American beliefs about dreams and visions, and what we can learn from their methods.

This is a great book, and I’ll probably write more about it later. Meanwhile, give it a try, and let me know how it works for you.

Creative Dreaming was published several years ago, so you should be able to find it in the library. You can definitely find it on Amazon, where I got mine.

Sorry I haven’t blogged for awhile. I got a new job—but with a long commute. Then I got sick. I’ll get back on schedule with blogging as soon as I can.

Meanwhile, I feel really blessed to have a great job, working with fun people.

Conscious Dreaming by Robert Moss | BYB

Conscious Dreaming by Robert Moss is currently my favorite book on dreams and dreamwork. You can see that my copy is pretty battered. I not only use it; I also carry it around and share it with others.

Born in Australia, Moss has recorded, studied and followed his dreams for decades. His dreams led him to England and then to the United States, from a career as a successful journalist and best-selling novelist to a teacher of dreamwork and author of dream books.

His dreams even led him to buy a particular house in a particular town in Upstate New York. Then they led him to Native American elders who could help interpret them. The elders told him that he was dreaming the traditional shamanic dreams of their people.

Moss’s books are clearly and simply written, easy to read, and filled with vivid, true stories of people and their dreams. There are lucid dreams, shamanic dreams, and dreams of future events.

Best of all, he explains clearly how to work with our dreams, how to help others interpret their dreams, and how to work actively with dreams, going back into the dreams to get more information. It is amazing how so much information and instruction can be so entertaining to read.

Moss and his dream groups use a nine-step program for understanding and working dreams. They use contemporary techniques derived from indigenous cultures around the world. His method helps you understand your past, shape your future, get in touch with your deepest desires, and receive guidance from your higher self.

Moss believes that dreams prepare us for future events, so that we can avoid disasters or at least be prepared to cope with traumatic events. And he tells some compelling stories that seem to prove his point.

His skills as both a top journalist and a best-selling author show through in his writing. It is clear and easy to understand. You won’t notice his skill perhaps—this is not showy writing—but you will enjoy the book more and understand the concepts more easily because of it.

He takes ancient wisdom and methods that have stood the test of time and makes them easy for modern people to understand and use. That is quite an accomplishment, and he can do that because he has experienced it himself.

Robert Moss is not just reporting on other people’s ideas and experiences. He is a master of dreamwork (though very unassuming about it), and he is able to explain it so that we can understand it.

After reading any of Robert Moss’s dream books (and you’ll be happy to know there are others), you will probably want to gather a few people into a group to work with dreams together. By following his instructions, you can do that—and have fun doing it.

If you do start your own dream group, or if you have one now that you work with, please stop by and leave a comment to let us know what you are doing and how it is going.

I hope to someday be able to take one of Robert Moss’s dream workshops. Now that would be blessing! Meanwhile, I feel wonderfully blessed just to be reading his books.

One Way to Work with Dreams | BYB

People who work with dream journals sometimes notice that certain illnesses and injuries correspond to messages from their subconscious that they have not recognized or heeded. That is, if your subconscious mind is trying to get a message through in one way, and that fails, it may try another way—illness or injury.

Hay House publishing company was founded upon the recognition by author Louise Hay that illnesses are often symbolic ways of communicating emotional or mental issues. For example, she noticed that people who come down with severe colds often are in the midst of trying to make a difficult decision and are in need of some downtime.

Sometimes the messages are obvious, such as tennis elbow, which may be telling you to get some rest or improve your technique.

Often, though, the message is a unclear. You have a sense that an illness means something, but try as you might, you can’t figure out what that is.

That is a good time to turn to dreams. If you keep a dream journal, read back over the last couple of months to see what your dreams may have been telling you. Look for what you may have missed that could possibly relate to the illness or injury you are coping with.

Sometimes the message will just jump out at you from the pages. Other times it may require a little thought. You may have to meditate or ask for clarification.

If you have not been keeping a dream journal, or you can’t recall any dreams that seem to apply to the situation, try incubating one. That is, during the day, and before falling asleep, ask your subconscious to give you the message in a dream.

How to incubate a dream:

1. State that the illness or injury has not conveyed the message so that you can understand it.
2. Ask for the illness or injury to be healed immediately.
3. State that you are open and ready for the message now and are paying attention.
4. Ask to receive the message in a harmless and easily understandable way such as a dream.

I did that the other night, and I had a vivid dream that seemed to apply. Of course, now I have to interpret the dream. But that’s different story for another time.

At least I’m feeling better. The process does work, if you let it. Why not give it a try?

Becoming aware of the communication from our subconscious minds and how to access it is worth working on. It can save a lot of time, mistakes, illness and heartaches.

Receiving and being able to act upon information from our dreams is a valuable skill. And it is potentially available to all of us. I’d call that a blessing. Wouldn’t you?

Lucid Dreams in 30 Days

Another handy book on lucid dreaming is Lucid Dreams in 30 Days by Keith Harary, Ph.D., and Pamela Weintraub. Published in 1989 by St. Martin’s Press, it is a slender paperback that sold for about $6 originally. You can still buy it on Amazon.com.

Dr. Harary is a psychologist, internationally known for his research on altered states of consciousness. He has written dozens of scientific and popular articles and a couple of dozen books.

Pamela Weintraub, was a senior editor at Omni magazine and a contributor to the health and psychology sections of Discover, Ms., Longevity, and other national magazines.

The book offers a complete, step-by-step plan for learning to dream lucidly. You can work your way through the program in 30 days or work at your own pace, taking as long as you want to.

The text is clear, simple, and easy to understand. The authors waste no time getting to the point.

Yet they provide all the background information you need to do the dream exercises they provide. In fact, they cover an amazing amount of ground in such a small book, and they do it well.

Each chapter has a section for each day of the program. Each section is several pages long, with stories, explanations, background information and dream exercises. The chapters and sections are as follows:

Week 1 Waking Up to Your Dreams

Day 1-2 Dream Recall

Day 3 Temple of Dreams

Day 4 Vision Quest

Day 5 Life is But a Dream

Day 6 Dream Rehearsal

Day 7 Edge of Consciousness

Week 2 Lucid Dreaming

Day 8 Reality Check

Day 9 I Love Lucidity

Day 10 Dreamer’s Guide to the Universe

Day 11 Who’s Flying Now?

Day 12 Whirl Without End

Day 13 Dream Weaving

Day 14 Free Dreaming

Week 3 High Lucidity

Day 15 Altered States

Day 16 The Adventures of Gumby

Day 17 High Lucidity

Day 18 Winds of Change

Day 19 Shifting Sands

Day 20 Trading Places

Day 21 Free Dreaming

Week 4 Creative Consciousness

Day 22 Dream Therapist

Day 23 The Healer Within

Day 24 Double Vision

Day 25 Dream Lovers

Day 26 Forbidden Fantasies

Day 27 Extended Awareness

Day 29-30 Toward Higher Consciousness

What I don’t like about this book is the authors’ seeming lack of awareness of how our dreams affect others. They also don’t quite seem to realize that encouraging people to focus on their sexual fantasies about people they know and see every day could turn into a dangerous obsession.

These authors know the techniques, but they seem a little weak on the ethics and metaphysics of dreaming. Lucid dreaming can be very powerful. Please don’t do anything in your dreams that would be unethical in daily life.

Oddly enough, the authors discuss the possibility of psychic dreaming in the very next section, including the research indicating that people communicate in their dreams. Yet the implications never seem to have sunk in. They just don’t seem to get it!

Research has shown that everyone is psychic to some degree, though most do not realize it until some event brings it to their attention. And you certainly aren’t likely to know if they are psychic, even if they do know it.

In North America people generally keep such things to themselves if they are smart. In some parts of the U.S. letting other people know that you are psychic could have serious legal and economic repercussions. You could be ostracized, lose your livelihood, even lose custody of your children.

So you may not know that the object of your fantasies feels your attention on them. They may become aware of it through your dream visit or through your fantasies in preparation for the dream. And a lucid dream or out-of-body visit from you may be extremely unwelcome or even damaging to them.

Lucid dreaming may be a great way to commune with your spouse while separated by business or military duty. But it is a very bad idea to use lucid dreaming to indulge in sexual fantasies about your neighbor, a coworker or your boss’s wife. It could also have practical, unpleasant, real-life repercussions for you.

Needless to say, indulging violent or nonconsensual fantasies, especially with underage or helpless partners, is just asking for very, very bad karma. That is to say, you would be damaging your own soul.

At the very least, the concentration you need to do to make such things happen in your dreams could create or strengthen an obsession, making it harder to refrain from acting out the fantasy in real life. That is dangerous!

Except for that weakness, Lucid Dreams in 30 Days is a useful and interesting book and a real bargain. I recommend giving it a try.

Lucid Dreaming Doubters (BYB)

There seem to be some people who do not believe that lucid dreaming exists—or could exist—despite thousands of years of recorded experiences of other people in various cultures, including ours.

I guess that should not surprise us. European and American cultures have denigrated dreams, inspiration, and thinking for oneself for a couple of millenia at least.

Lucid dreaming got lost in the general repression of metaphysics and the supernatural, I guess. Oh, people still had lucid dreams, but they didn’t dare talk about them, much less teach others how to have them.

Elsewhere in the world some of the most populous nations have also done their best to squelch metaphysical knowledge and thinking for the last few generations, including the wealth of traditional knowledge about dreaming. Not everyone accepted the party line, but many, perhaps most, did.

Still, it always amazes me that people trust dogma over actual experiences of others, even scientifically documented experiences. Sometimes they even trust dogma over their own experience. That just mystifies me.

So I’m especially grateful for the adventurous souls who are willing to consider new ideas, try new experiences, and make up their own minds. (I think dreaming can be a great adventure!)

There’s a great quote from the (historical) Buddha about trusting one’s own experience. He didn’t want people to have faith in him or his teachings. He wanted people to try out the teachings (if interested) and make up their own minds about them. Sounds healthy to me.

So, thanks for stopping by and sampling the ideas, research, and traditional lore about dreaming. Thanks for commenting, yay or nay. What matters is not that you agree, but that you give some real thought to the topic at hand—dreams and how you can work with them.

In fact, plenty of you do just that. This blog has, so far, even more comments than posts. And for that I feel truly blessed.

A Different Kind of Dream? (BYB)

This is a reminder that there are different levels of dreaming. That is, we dream differently at different levels of sleep.

Hardly anyone can remember their dreams from the deepest levels of sleep, deeper than the normal rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep that most people think of as dreaming. At those deeper levels we do dream, but even in dream research labs the dreamers were able to recall only the faintest, vaguest wisps of dreams.

Most of us think of only the classic REM-sleep dreams as dreaming. Those are the dreams we have when we know we were asleep.

Many of us remember them vividly. And even those who don’t remember and claim not to dream at all have them. It appears that cats, dogs, and other animals have them, too.

But there are other kinds of dreams that occur at very shallow levels of sleep, when we are barely dozing. Often these are the problem-solving dreams. If you have ever waked up feeling as though you had worked all night, as though the night had been one long dream of working, you have probably experienced such dreams.

You may not have really thought of them as dreams. You may have just thought that you didn’t sleep well. Many of those dreams are simply your mind being unable to relax enough to go into a deeper sleep. Instead you are hashing over the days events and problems ahead, because you can’t let go.

If you pay attention, you may find that you wake up with the solution to your problem. That makes it sort of worth waking up tired, don’t you think?

In an earlier post, I mentioned getting creative ideas and solving work problems in dreams. I think some people thought I meant the REM “real” dreams, but generally I didn’t. The very shallow-sleep dreams—and even the reverie or half-asleep stage as you drift off to sleep or slowly awaken can be extremely productive.

If you are able to awaken slowly, without an alarm or children, pets or spouse demanding your immediate attention, you may be surprised at the creative ideas and solutions to problems that you may wake up with.

If you can’t wake up slowly, it is best to concentrate on the time when you are drifting off to sleep. Train yourself to remember all the images and ideas that come as you are falling asleep. You may find that some of them are answers to questions that are on your mind.

Sometimes you can drift into a similar, valuable reverie where you get creative ideas if you can completely relax. Medication, yoga, massage, all kinds of things can help you reach that relaxed, creative state.

Here is an example of a problem-solving dream. This week I had promised to create a flyer for my drum teacher to take to an audition or “showcase” where he will be performing in hopes of getting more drumming gigs. He needed a bio (professional biographical information) with a photo and contact information.

I have photos of him, and I’ve written a lot of flyers and blurbs and things about him, but I still didn’t know what to do. He left it open to do whatever I wanted, but it just wasn’t coming together in my head. It would not gel.

I had promised to get it to him on Saturday or Sunday, so I “hardly slept” Friday night. I woke up with the feeling that I had worked on the project all night. But I had an idea! I knew what I wanted to do, and I got it done Saturday morning.

So that “sleepless night” (which was not really sleepless, just mostly troubled dozing) was very valuable. I woke up with my idea and thought, “What a blessing!” So I thought I’d share it with you.

Look carefully at your dreams, even the ones that don’t feel like normal dreaming. Pay attention even to the ones that feel like “daydreaming” just before or after sleep. If you do, often you may find them to be valuable.

Sweet dreams!

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…