How can we be conscious in our dreams?
by Ed Parkinson
Daydreams Daydreams are an easy way of dreaming consciously. We simple loose ourselves in our thoughts. We wander off to wherever or thoughts take us. As children in school, many of us would have wandered off in our imagination, during a boring class. It is something we can still do. We just need to take time to do and enjoy it. Return to a dream Another way of being conscious while dreaming is to return to a dream just after we wake up. This works well if we want to change something in the dream. I have used this technique after waking up from a dream where I was unhappy with my behaviour. I may have been selfish, cruel or thoughtless. When I wake up from such a dream and realise I was unkind, I think about what I should have done better. Then while still lying in bed half asleep, I’ll go back to the dream and replay the events until I get to the point where I want to change my actions. I now correct my misdeed and try to bring about a better result. While I may be aware that I am using in my imagination and I’m not in the ‘reality of the dream’, it usually makes me feel a little better, as I’ve now made an attempt to correct my error. Nightmares Another way we become conscious of our dreams is when we wake up from a nightmare. We are suddenly back in our bed happy that we've escaped from the trouble we were experiencing. This is one area where we cannot deny the reality of our dream worlds. As we go through the nightmare, we are all too aware of its reality. We know it is real because we are there. All our attention is on the scene which we usually want to escape from. Dream Master A technique for dealing with nightmares is to ask for help from the Dream Master. The Dream Master is a guide standing by to help us when we ask for assistance, but we must ask. He won’t interfere or enter a person’s dream without our invitation. We can contemplate on an issue in a dream or a nightmare, and ask the Dream Master for guidance in dealing with it. If we go back to the dream with the Dream Master beside us, we can ask for advice on dealing with the issue. If we get some insights we should write them in our dream journal. If or when we find ourselves back in the dream or nightmare we can ask the Dream Master to help us deal with it. We may find that some of the insights we recorded in our journal will prove useful. HU Song Chanting HU during a dream can help bring peace and understanding to the situation. When we chant it here in the physical world, HU connects us with our true self, Soul. If you are in a difficult situation in a dream, try remembering to sing HU. It works just as well in the inner and dreams worlds. Edison method Edison, the inventor of the light bulb and hundreds of other inventions had an interesting way of remembering his dreams. He used ball bearings and steel buckets to collect insights from his dreams. He would take time to snooze in the afternoons. He did this sitting in his chair. In his hands he held a number of steel ball bearings and on both sides of his chair he had steel buckets. As he dosed off his hands would relax and the ball bearings would fall with a loud crash into the bucket. The noise would wake him up. He'd then try to remember his dream and take note of any ideas or insights he could recall. This was one of his methods of finding ideas for the things he wanted to invent. Dream Journal Keeping a dream journal is key to remembering our dreams and gaining insights from them. The reason we don’t remember our dreams is because they do not belong in our physical world. They are part of our inner worlds and have nothing to do with our immediate survival here in the physical. However there is a lot of wisdom and insights to be had from our dreams, if we take the trouble of writing them down. Keeping a journal of our dreams helps us remember them. As we write we will often recall even more details. After a number of months writing our dreams we may begin to see a pattern of events, symbols or answers. We may be able to tie events in our dreams to events in our physical lives. We then begin to build up an understanding of what different symbols mean or relate to in our outer life. This is how we can begin to uncover the gems of wisdom hidden in our dreams. The use of any of these techniques will show us how we can be conscious of our dreams and become more conscious IN our dreams. They will in turn reveal wisdom and insights which can help us on our daily life. Wishing you sweet insightful dreams. *Ed Parkinson
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