The other morning I remembered a dream where I was on the coast at the foot of a hill or mountain. There were lots of people there, and the ocean was flooding inland rapidly, like a storm surge. I remember watching a '57 Chevy float by, fenders and some of the body rusted and two different shades of paint on the rest of it. The car was glistening in the water, bobbing gently on its side as it floated by. 

At the same time, stories of hurricane Dorian were dominating the news cycle and I had read a couple stories of folks in the southern U.S. states and the Bahamas dealing with the aftermath. Lots of people had lost everything. There was even a man who had filmed his house flooding with water over the span of just a few minutes. 

I told a friend about this, and he related that his girlfriend had had almost the exact same dream and corroborated several details - almost everything except the car. The coast, the hill, people, and flooding were all present in her dream too, and her dream happened at almost the same time I'd had my dream. 

Okay so it is entirely possible that this is just a coincidence. The news stories about the hurricane have been read by countless people around the world, and the fact we both had similar dreams at the same time could just be happenstance, a result of us both having similar thoughts as we laid down to sleep. I accept this possibility whole-heartedly. 

I'm sure you saw this coming: BUT,

It is also a possiblity that, as a result of both of us seeing images and stories about the hurricane, we both went to the same location to see what was going on, or even to lend a hand. So it's possible that the only coincidence was that we both chose the same location to visit in the Subtle Realm, and that our surroundings in the Subtle Realm were objectively real and not simply figments of our imaginations.

I truly wish my dream recall was better than it is, and that I could dream lucidly at-will! If that were true, perhaps I could have remembered faces, names, or any other detail that would help to prove or disprove the validity of this event. 

It would also be great if people talked about their dreams more, because I would bet that things like this are all too common, a nightly experience for all of us. 

Today I remembered a dream. It was the first time remembering in a couple weeks, and so it was a special thing. Not the dream itself, but remembering it was the special thing. And perhaps because it was special, I also remembered how I woke up.

Looking back on the days when I remember my dreams, I can see a pattern. It appears that if I wake up slowly (without an alarm clock), this seems to have an effect on my ability to remember my dreams. As in, I’ll just lay in bed quietly, sort of ‘adjusting’ to being awake without thinking about much of anything. This may seem like a small thing, but if I could do this every day I think I would remember a lot more dreams. 

Just laying in bed without immediately getting up and going about my morning routine gives my mind a chance to recall what I was doing in the Subtle World just before waking up. If I give my body tasks to perform, my mind seems to track along with those tasks and I’ll forget everything. Or, if right away I start thinking about the upcoming day and the list of things I need to accomplish, the same thing happens - no dream recall. 

So it looks like the ‘just laying in bed for a little while’ part is just as important as the ‘being awake without thinking about much of anything’ part. This got me thinking about how we wake up in the morning, and how much that matters. 

Have you ever owned a drugstore alarm clock? You know, the one that sounds like the raging screed of a very pissed off, meth-addled Godzilla going off every .5 seconds next to your head? Many of you may not be old enough to remember such things. Since the advent of cell phones and their various utilities such as built-in alarm clocks, many of us (mercifully) don’t recall such things. But if you do remember, you know what I’m talking about! I can remember actually flinching so hard I threw my back out a couple times. I even used to get anxious when I would hear any alarm clock sound that remotely resembled my own, like when I was watching TV. Short of being doused with a bucket of ice water and simultaneously having your leg hair removed with duct tape, it was the worst way to wake up, ever. 

The. Worst. And it was every day!

All this got me thinking about how we wake up, and how we should wake up. 

We all know that some of us are very deep sleepers, and some may require having an alarm sound that is loud, brash, so annoying that nothing could possibly sleep through it. To these folks I say this: I get it. It’s totally understandable, and if you need this to get out of bed and get to work on time, then use what works. If you are interested in more dream recall, I might suggest trying out different sounds to wake up to, maybe on a weekend when it doesn’t matter if you oversleep. Keep in mind that we need to be able to trust our alarm clocks to wake us up, otherwise the anxiety over whether or not we’ll be awake on time will cause us to actually lose sleep. So definitely experiment and test out new things over the course of a few nights - just make sure what you settle on will do the trick.

Anyway, please read on!

If you don’t have a cell phone, or don’t use one as an alarm clock, I would guess that you use a proper alarm clock purchased anywhere from a drugstore to Amazon. Try listening to the sound your alarm clock makes (when you are already fully awake) and take a few notes. What does the sound remind you of? How does the sound make you feel? What kinds of thoughts does it trigger in you? If the notes you take reflect predominantly negative feelings, perhaps you should look into changing the sound it makes if it has several to choose from. Or if it doesn’t make any sounds that you like, maybe it’s time for a new alarm clock.   

Note: The long-term effects of cell-phone proximity have not been studied. Nor have the effects of cell-phone proximity ever been studied in relation to human sleep cycles. This article does not explore these issues.

Lots of people use cell phones to wake up in the morning. It sits beside the bed and does its thing at the appointed time. Obviously the same questions apply as with the store-purchased alarm clock: What does the sound remind you of? How does the sound make you feel? What kinds of thoughts does it trigger in you? Again, take a moment for self-reflection and decide whether you should change the sound you use as an alarm. If your cell phone doesn’t have one you particularly like, maybe purchasing a new alarm clock with more pleasing sounds would be best, since getting a new cell phone is a major purchase for most people. 

I don’t consider myself to be a deep sleeper, and nor do I consider myself a light sleeper. But over the years I have found that it doesn’t take an ear-piercing racket to wake me up. In fact, quieter, soothing sounds can do the same job and it’s been great. 

I’d like to make one more point with regard to how we wake up. Here are a couple things that I take as facts because my experience has confirmed them (your experience may vary but I think these things are pretty universal):

• Dream recall is best when the body is in nearly the same state as when asleep
• Dream recall is best when the mind is in nearly the same state as when asleep
• If upon waking the mind is kept on the task of remembering dreams without being dispersed in several directions, then dream recall is better
• Alarm clocks that jar us awake with the use of annoying or otherwise displeasing sounds tend to hurt our chances of remembering our dreams (and really, it’s just not a great way to start the day)

With these points in mind, I would suggest that an alarm that begins as a soft sound (that you could just barely hear) and gets louder over time would be best. It should be a sound that you don’t feel unnerved or upset about when you hear it, and yet it should effectively wake you up. The reason I think this would be best is that our consciousnesses would then be slowly moved from the awareness we have in the Subtle World to the awareness of the physical. This in contrast to an unpleasant shock that disturbs the mind in such a way that it cannot hold onto the dream-like state and loses all memory of it.  

Once awake (snooze alarms will be covered in a later article - stay tuned!) one should avoid thinking about any minor concerns (grocery lists, getting the kids to soccer practice after work, etc.) for a little while. Maybe give it five minutes and just hang out in bed…and see what you can remember from your time in the Subtle Realm! 

I do not endorse any product or retailer, but below are a couple links for “gentle-awake” alarm clocks that I found after a quick internet search. If you find something that works for you, please don’t hesitate to post a comment and link to it. Tell us what kind of a difference it’s made in your life and in your ability to remember your dreams!

http://nymag.com/strategist/article/best-gentle-wake-alarm-clocks.html

https://www.amazon.com/slp/gentle-alarm-clocks/czmvzs9jowzb4p8

I just got back from a week long vacation where meditation was a key part of the proceedings. There was hiking, beautiful scenery, and very few vehicles around. Cell phone service was non-existent, although my friends and I were able to keep in touch using a new off-grid technology that allows text messages without using cellular data. Using this technology along with GPS. we could keep tabs on each other’s location and plans without being in close proximity. This allowed for some decent “alone time” for checking out my surroundings and for meditation, as well as the ability to meet up, say for a meal. 

After listening to some inspiring words from a close friend whose main drive is to help others to meditate well, I sat down to meditate and discovered a few things. 

I have the power to place myself in a state of mind where nothing can touch me unless I want it to. This is an amazing realization. I can fill my mind and heart with love and joy and dwell there for long periods of time. To be able to shut out all thoughts of things that distract me from immediate happiness - talk about taking a break! And to able to do this while taking in some of the most beautiful things nature has to offer - ocean beaches, trees, wildlife… Take it from a guy who spends most of his time in a big city, it was magnificent. 

I guess what I’m trying to say is that for me, it was a true taste of freedom. Freedom to be surrounded by beauty and permeated with joy for as long as I could make that happen each day. I think I can safely say that that one week's vacation had the affect of two. I feel rested, full of energy, and although tomorrow is Monday I am not fearful or sad that I have to go back to work. I am calm, confident that I will meet whatever challenges come my way with all the resources I have available. 

A few days ago it was the 4th of July - Independence Day here in the U.S..  I truly wish my fellow countrymen and women could taste even a small bit of the freedom I experienced last week. This kind of freedom is a real power that has the ability to do great things for so many people who are bogged down with the struggle to pay bills, raise families, and live in an age when politics are a grim sideshow and the future can appear rather bleak. Even in the midst of all this, people can still decide to pursue true happiness and freedom. 

And so for your most recent birthday, I wish this for you, America. May you remember, realize, and embody the reasons for which you were founded.

The Reality of Imagination

Science has proven that if a person sits down and imagines themselves in a heated argument, that the exact same centers of the brain are activated as when a person is actually in a heated argument. While the flow of neuron interactions may be different between real and imagined events as this article indicates,:

https://www.livescience.com/49244-imagination-reality-brain-flow-direction.html

...the same neurological networks within the brain are engaged. Indeed, anyone who has found themselves thinking of any kind of emotionally-charged interaction after the fact, can confirm that the exact same emotions that they experienced during the interaction will surface while simply thinking about it. On a similar note, all of the incredible, very real inventions that make our lives so good have been discovered by way of the imagination of the inventor. In both instances, imagination becomes reality. 

My experience has been that my consciousness does not differentiate between ‘real’ and ‘imagined’. Both seem to occur with equal reality to my mind. If I think about an upsetting event (real or imagined), I get upset. If I think about playing with my favorite pet, I get all warm and happy inside. So it kinda makes me wonder, when I leave my physical body at night and have experiences in the subtle world (i.e. dreaming), just how real are these experiences? However bizarre the circumstances, however strange the juxtaposition of events or things, my mind perceives and experiences them as being real. 

What does that mean for me in a practical sense? After giving this some thought, I think this question is best answered with a question: what do I want in life? Like most people, my answer involves the goal of happiness. So how do I get this happiness in my life?

The way I see it, the quality of my dreams - good or bad - just like the quality of my life in the physical world, depends wholly upon me. When my thoughts tend toward the positive, and I genuinely feel drawn to goodness, be it beauty, truth, benevolence, I will find myself attracted to people, things, and situations that reflect these qualities. On the other hand, if my thoughts are drawn to things such as addictions, hate, or anger, then I find myself being drawn to other people, things, and situations that reflect those qualities. I have been able to actually observe this in my life. 

For instance, I used to have a fascination for news stories about people who did crazy stuff while on drugs. I would be browsing the news and find a bizarre headline with a couple of weird pictures that I couldn’t resist clicking on, and I’d read the story and marvel at whatever the story had to offer. Then at night, I would quite often find myself (in my dreams) hanging out with people who were doing drugs. So I tried a thought-experiment - I stopped clicking on and reading stories of that nature. And you guessed it - I stopped having dreams about being around those kinds of folks. In fact, I found myself having a much broader variety of experiences that included some pretty amazing things! 

Suddenly my thoughts became far more important than they used to be. And I guess I finally, really accepted that I am “the captain of my own ship” when it comes to what kinds of thoughts I have. If I’m after happiness in the physical or subtle worlds, then I need to go to where I want to be - with my mind. Simple as that.