Every so often a dream makes such an impression on me that I take the feeling along with me through the rest of the day; sometimes even a few days, if it was really impressive.

A few weeks ago I remember becoming fairly conscious in the middle of a dream where this "bad guy" alien was shooting up the downtown of a major city with his laser guns and blowing stuff up (I think I had watched a Star Wars movie that night).  Everyone was running scared away from him.  My first reaction was also to get scared and run in the opposite direction, but due to my semi-conscious state, I stopped myself and reminded myself, "Wait, wait... I'm in a dream!"  Then I realized I didn't like the dream because all of the people in the city were scared.  I became indignant with the alien, thinking aloud, "Why are you scaring people? There is no need for them to fear! We're just in a dream!"  And I became determined to stop him, no matter -and not knowing- what might happen.  So I ran towards him and held him in my grip and didn't loosen it one little bit.  As I was running towards him, however, every step filled me with more uncertainty about the outcome, but at the same time more determination to see it through.  I awoke and spend the rest of the day with a greater degree of fearlessness and of compassion towards others than I had felt for quite some time.  

In a more recent dream I was hiking up mountain at night along a winding road.  It was difficult and cold and a few cars passed by me without noticing me at all.  I wondered if I should keep going, but didn't stop.  I don't remember what happened at the top, but I clearly remember coming back down.  I became light-footed and began almost gliding down the mountain side.  Then I heard a whisper saying to me, "That's right.  Don't be afraid. Run along the path before you!" And I began to run faster and faster, and my vision became tunnel-like and there was a veritable light at the end of the tunnel.  It was daytime down at the bottom of the mountain,  This feeling of faith and/or trust in focusing on what is before me and advancing enthusiasticlly and without fear still feels very real to me.  

With examples like these two, I feel like saying that sometimes I learn and grow more from dreams than from real life.  Certainly episodes require less time in the subtle world than in the physical, so that might account for it.  But nonetheless, they are real experiences and the lessons drawn from them are just as valid as those drawn from waking life experiences.  

Have you ever noticed that your dreams sometimes follow what you were doing right before you went to bed?  Sometimes I watch action packed films and wake up in the morning with a cool story to tell about all the bad guys I out-maneuvered that night.  Or sometimes I’ll get into playing video games with my 7-year-old a for a few hours and then dream that I was the main character in the game going on all sorts of quests and defeating level bosses.  Sometimes I read about some of the evil in the world and my dreams can get quite dark and nightmarish. On the other hand, when I take some time to meditate and read uplifting material before bed, I often see very kind people and we have very pleasant interactions.

I would love to hear your experiences with this.  Please leave a comment below!

Hm, as I re-read what I just wrote and ponder over all the other material on this website, I am getting a notion that I really ought to direct my daily attention with more purposeful intention.  I mean, uplifting thoughts not only make my day more pleasant, but also my nights!  Who doesn’t want that?  It’s in my grasp if I can just manage to make constant decisions to pick up positive, uplifting reading material instead of the scary and depressing stuff that is so much more readily available in this day and age. 

Did someone say “thought-experiment”?

The other day a neighbor called me to ask me if I had heard the loud bang at around 4 am and all the dogs barking.  She wanted to make sure it had really happened and wasn’t just a dream.  She said that her husband felt the same way -that he wasn’t completely sure if it was a dream or if it had “really” happened.  Her teenage kids did not hear it.  I told that neither my wife nor I had heard anything that night.  “Hmm,” she said.  “Strange.”

It took me back to an experience I had back in college.  I distinctly remember being woken up at around 5 am by an enormous explosion.  I jumped out of bed thinking, “what in the world was that?!”  I later asked my friends if they had heard that large explosion.  They laughed and sarcastically said, “sure dude… we totally heard it.” 

Such a strange experience.  Has anybody else ever experienced something like that?  What do you think it could be?

IT'S INTERESTING TO TRY TO TRANSLATE ACTIVITY WE HAVE IN THE SUBTLE WORLD INTO PHYSICAL TIME. It seems as through it takes almost no time to become absent-minded and suddenly physically start after having a brief glimpse of something unknown or unfamiliar. This is something that happens to me all the time. Earthly clocks may mark off only a few seconds during this time yet a complete impression of something else has formed in the consciousness. Although we typically associate going into this next world when we fall asleep it may very well be that such events occur more than we realize at any time of the day during normal waking hours. This is sometimes accompanied by a very brief feeling of vertigo. Though the circumstances in the impressions may be unfamiliar yet it seems the consciousness has rushed to some object or place of interest without any of the encumbrances of physically moving from point A to B. There's a certain timelessness about the whole thing. Curious!