thought control

In these articles we talk about the affects of controlling one's mind.  That is, how does the practice of controlling your mind in your waking life affect the things you see and experience in your dream (subtle) life?

What I do Before Going to Sleep Affects my Dreams

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”?

My First Thought-Experiment

I was reading Adventures Beyond the Body (click here for my review of it) a few months ago, at a very busy time in my life.  I did not have any significantly large enough blocks of time to sit down and just read without interruption –you may know what life is like with small children in the house.  However, this didn’t stop me from reminding myself constantly that “I have to read that book!” and picturing in my mind the physical location of the book, wherever it was at the time.

In the three weeks that I was repeating this to myself, I  noticed something very interesting: twice in my dreams, I noticed that in the middle of it, whatever the environment or situation was, I’d suddenly recall that “I have to read that book!” and I’d quickly follow up by asking, “where is it?!” The first time, in my dream, I “remembered” that I had left it on the table that was located about 10 paces behind me.  I turned around, walked over to the table, and sure enough, there it was!  The second time, I was outdoors and I recall thinking very intently, “I need that book now!”, and it materialized right into my left hand.

I described these occurrences to Michael (another member of the SubtleRealm.org team) one day, and in the course of the conversation, an idea arose for a thought-experiment: for the next two weeks, instead of thinking “I need to read that book” repeatedly, I’m actually going to do some of the techniques suggested in that book; I’m going to think intently: “I am now out of my body!”, I'm going to demand “full awareness now!” and “clarity now!”.  I repeated these affirmations several times a day, as often as I could remember, with as much conviction as I could muster.

I kid you not, on the night marking exactly 2 weeks from that conversation, I had the most lucid dream I’ve ever experienced in my life.  And, even though I’m not 100% sure about this (more research and experience required), I may have even had my first out-of-body experience. I remember suddenly realizing that I was 100% present.  I called out for “full awareness now!” and so it was.  “I’m here! I’m here! I'm in the subtle world!” I called out in excitement.  “Hmm… what should I do?”

I posted a description of my experience here.

Overall Concepts

Our Approach

We at Subtle Realm have the attitude that any set of beliefs or premises presented to others without also indicating ways others can verify those things is thereby incomplete. An unverifiable system from any area of life is at best a proposal, a set of provisional understandings to be taken as possibly true until repeatedly proven either to be true or to be useful with corrections or adjustments in concept practice and understanding … or to be incorrect altogether. This we term “provisional truth”: a set of assumptions people make in order to make decisions, take action, gain experience and understanding through trial and error.

In considering how human consciousness may exist beyond the confines of the physical body we therefore posit a collection of assumptions as a basis for a departure point on the path of enquiry, experiment, discovery, learning and understanding.

Out Of Body Experiences (OBEs) and Near-death experiences (NDEs)

Sometimes called 'lucid dreaming' or 'astral projection', an Out of Body Experience (or OBE) is the experience of being fully conscious and functioning while being outside one's physical body. People who have experienced this often report sensations of floating, perceiving one's own physical body from a different place, and being able to direct or control one's experiences by using thoughts...

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