Aug2008

August 2008

Hello and welcome to the August 2008 edition of Horizons Magazine. I'm loving how mild the weather has been so far this summer. It's reassuring to know that when it stays relatively cool thru June and July, that means a mild hurricane season for us, too. Remember that when the weatherman starts pointing out every tropical storm brewing offshore, and don't let yourself get caught up in the media hype. Your calm, sure knowledge that “all is well” adds to the mass consciousness, and it is this mass consciousness that co-creates with you and attracts into your world: your country, your state, your neighborhood. That is, mass consciousness co-creates with you to the extent you believe mass consciousness co-creates with you… In either event, staying focused on what's going right with the world will go a long way in prepaving your happy tomorrows.

I have Willis Harman's “Three Dreams” in this issue. Michelle Whitedove also talks about dreams on page 38. I do a lot of dream work and altered-consciousness type of work, such as meditation, visualization, OOBE practice. The past month, I've been re-reading a 1966 Seth book by Jane Roberts and recording my dreams in a dream journal. Before I go to bed, and often during the day, I ask that I will remember my dreams. I keep a note here at my desk that reminds me: Test yourself consciously and continuously throughout the day: Am I dreaming now? Am I dreaming now? So it becomes natural for you to ask yourself that in your sleep.

Then, as soon as I wake up, I quickly run the dreams back thru my mind, to lock them into my short term memory long enough to let me get it written down. Even if I am just jumping up quickly to powder my nose at 4am, I run the dream over and over in my mind even if I don't want to write it down until I wake up "for real". This repetition effectively locks a thought in your memory so you can easily recall it later.

I've noticed recurring themes in the past month.

Dream excerpt: I end up walking the halls in a large hotel and have a sheet wrapped around me and think "this is just like the dream the other night, walking the halls of a large hotel, holding a sheet around me" and then the sheet turns into like a big, patchwork, old-timey dress. I check it out and see I don't have to hold it together to keep it closed, so I just start walking around. It also has nice big pockets, which I like.

During my 20's and 30's I had recurring dreams of being under-dressed in public. I spent a lot of time back then in dreams (and I'm sure metaphorically in life) searching for something to wrap around me, and finding ways to hold it up and keep it in place so I could free my hands. I always needed my hands free, because so often I'd be walking somewhere and would have to reach out to, say, the trees and bushes alongside the walkway, and pull myself along to move faster. Often I have to walk backwards in order to move faster.

So these days I seem to have mastered (in the dreamtime) keeping myself clothed, and even acquired magic pockets in some dreams, but I am still pulling myself along by trees and bushes and cars I pass in the road, in order to get somewhere.

A variation on the theme is walking around the hallways of a large hotel or resort searching for a particular room. Somehow in following the “group” I'm with, I find I've lost my bearings and can't get back to my room.

Dream Excerpt: Once again wandering the halls of a big hotel, and Bill Gates is there with another group and he begins talking to me. I notice I am wearing mismatched pajamas and look sloppy while everyone else is dressed up. He acts like we know each other and he acts like I am not dressed oddly. I am wandering thru the hallways looking for the right door to the entrance to our corridor, or for something that looks familiar to let me know where I am in the building, as a reference point.

I have the thought that "here I am once again in a dream trying to get "home". I keep going in and out of the wrong entrance. I look kind of bummy how I am dressed, and it's an upscale hotel. I try not to be noticed but feel very tall. I just want to blend in and get where I'm going before I am missed.

I remember it's a dream and decide to have some fun with it. I will myself up to the top of the building, maybe 20 stories up, because I want a view from up high like when I go to Google maps with the satellite view of the address I need to go to. I go to the edge and then jump off and begin "diving" - like sailing - toward a swimming pool below. I am going to make myself lightly touch down in it. I fly, sailing on the wind and using my arms to slow me down for landing, and also to direct my flight. Then I see the correct entrance to the hotel from above, so I sail or fly toward it. A small fountain like a jacuzzi is there, so I sail down into it, thinking the water will wake me up. It doesn't.

I find myself at the base of a very large Norfolk pine next to the fountain. I decide I can fly up as well as down, so I lift off and begin going up, but it's slow going and I am using tree branches to help pull me along and get up past them so I can soar. I finally fly free upwards.

Then I am back in the hotel room and everyone else is down at breakfast. I get the impression M and I have a separate kind of suite off to the side of the main bedroom area where everyone else is, but all the luggage for everyone is in our space. I look for my bag which is smaller than what everyone else brought, and it is underneath several others. Their bags (I get the impression one bag each, although they are pretty big bags) are all opened up so I can see everything stuffed inside. Although they are on top of mine, they are not piled on top, but rather atop folding stands so I can easily reach down underneath to access my smaller bag. There are several of us apparently sharing the same room and there is a lot of luggage around and it's all in "my" space. I don't really mind though, I don't feel inconvenienced or invaded. I want to dress appropriately and get back before they notice I have sneaked out and am not with the group.

Recurring themes in the past month's dreams have included:
Walking the halls in a large hotel searching for a room
Noticing I'm under-dressed in upscale venues, so I head back to my room to change
Reaching for support to pull myself along faster
Maneuvering around other people's baggage which is being stored in my space
Becoming lucid in the dream and flying free once I realize I'm in control of the dream

I can see the correlation between the dreams and my life. I am always moving from one thing to another, so wandering the halls looking for the next thing seems pretty natural. I have a tendency around town to dress very casually and have occasionally found myself running into people and thinking I wished I'd been better dressed; so I relate to that part of the dreams. Reaching to grab hold of things alongside me to pull me along the Path faster: I do that all the time. I recognize that everything around me is an opportunity to help me get where I'm going, and if I just reach out and grab hold, I can move along faster with a little help. Oh, I'm so smart… Other people's baggage in my space, I know why that might be a recurring theme. I do visualization sessions on behalf of friends and clients, helping hold a vision for an outcome they would like. So that means they tell me all their “stuff”, all their baggage so to speak. I recognize, though, that because of the counseling work I do, that not all the thoughts in my head are about my own stuff. In the dreams, I don't feel invaded by their luggage, I don't resent it being there, I just notice it and accept it and move around it as best I can. I think I do that in real life to an extent.

The best part of the dream is always when I recognize I'm in a dream and become lucid and take control and go flying all over. Flying dreams and dancing dreams are my favorites. Oh, here's an older dream I have just been reminded of:

Dream excerpt: In the dream I was flying over the ocean. At first I was just flying, then I looked down and saw the earth below me. Then I got closer and saw the ocean, although I didn't recognize a continent. As I descended, I began to get afraid because it was the middle of the ocean and I'm not a strong swimmer. In the dream, I could feel real fear in my chest. As I descended and felt scared, I was standing upright suddenly and could feel small waves splash at my feet. I quickly said a prayer "help me get to safety or help me deal with whatever is about to happen" and I lifted my feet and I looked all around to see if I could see land. My desire to see land was strong!
Suddenly I could see land, but way off in the distance. I had the fearful thought I would be stranded, and suddenly I felt the tile I was standing on begin to sink. The tiles were just barely a few inches beneath the water's surface, and each one a long step apart from the next. I was afraid to move off my one tile, kind of frozen there, not wanting to step over the ocean part to get to the next tile. I noticed that whenever I felt afraid, my tile would begin to sink. Whenever I said a prayer to get to the next step, I'd be on the next tile automatically, and a step closer to the land.

I have contemplated this dream many times. It's been very helpful in teaching me to trust that, just like in Raiders of the Lost Ark, the steps will appear beneath my feet as soon as I figure out where I want to go. And as soon as my desire to be somewhere else is stronger than my focus on being here now. I've been doing lots of dream interpretations in my readings lately as well, vibrational match I guess. I always enjoy working out someone's dreams with them, but to be truthful, the dreamer is the one who must ultimately interpret for themselves. They must use their intuition to determine what the dream really means to them, or is really showing them. Seth suggests that all the characters in the dream are simply facets of ourselves. I find that fascinating. It makes me look at everyone around me with new eyes.

I love being prompted to see the ordinary daily things around me with new eyes. It expands my world every time it happens. Enjoy our offering this month. Hari Om.