dreams

There are many types of dreams. Some help us release pent-up energies. Some have messages for us, some help us solve problems. Some merely review our day's experience. There are dreams that anticipate some event in the future, dreams of goals we are actually striving to achieve, and dreams that express a state of imbalance or illness within us. All people experience every type of dream during their lifetimes. Dreams can be medicine or poison according to the ancients, who understood their true power.

Where does the light come from in our dreams? How can we use dreams to our advantage?

In Tibetan Buddhism, Chinese Taoism and other disciplines, there are specific practices for enhancing dream awareness. Some of them involve prescriptions of visualization, breathing and yoga. A master of this art is said to perform miraculous feats, because they have brought some of the density and certainty of outward life into the dream world, and brought some of the flexibility and variety of the dream world into the mundane sphere.

A simple dream energy practice requires keeping a journal next to the bed, so that writing can start immediately upon awakening, while the connection is still strong between the waking and dreaming mind(s). This may work better with a voice recorder, because the double process of forming the written words (spelling etc.) could consume precious energy that is needed to hold on to the rapidly dissolving images and symbols. When the awareness of being in the dream state occurs, try staring at the palm of the hand, chanting your own name, questioning people and objects, commanding things to happen, and focusing on an object in the "distance". Messages can also be carried into dreams for use when they are remembered.

With practice, the gap between the waking state and the dream state begins to disappear, and conscious dreams will rapidly increase. This experience can be reinforced by saying, throughout the day, "I am dreaming". As self awareness in dreams increases, the energy normally dissipated through dreaming can be collected for intentional use.

Prophetic dreams are common to all people, and specialists at this type of dreaming, as well as dream interpreters, have helped many. The process of prophetic dreaming can also be reversed, and our dream energy can be guided to aid the fulfillment of our desires. This is called 'creative visualization' by some new-age teachers, but most visualization is impotent. The energy needed to dream the future must be reclaimed from the dream state, and other places where the personal energy has been re-tasked to empower of others' intentions.

It is not difficult to expand dream awareness, but while dreams can be useful, a purposeless foray into intentional dreaming can end up in obsession and distortion of priorities. Once psychic energy can be anchored in the waking, dreaming and transitional states, positive achievements are possible. Dreaming becomes a purposeful choice, not a curious surprise.