I often dream of houses....

[Kali's Child]

The details are a little foggy, but the basic theme was being in a house and wanting to leave. For various reasons I couldn’t. At one point I recall opening the patio door but sirens we going off and my Anima- vaguely a ‘step-sister’ -told me I couldn’t leave with the sirens wailing. At some point I became lucid and asked why I keep having this reoccurring dream (It’s not a reoccurring dream, but I get the impression the dream was going on all night) She starts replying in that ‘dream character-speak’ that sounds profound but is essentially meaningless. I become a little depressed as there seems to be no guidance meaning or growth in the dream realm for me.


Later, in another dream I am in a hotel room getting ready to play a gig. I am getting my clothes together and they are some slick threads. I am waiting for the bathroom to clear up so I can shower before getting dressed. My friend Blackie is in there. I am anticipating the show and thinking of how I will handle the nerves and adrenalin. I visualize myself hopping up and down and shadowboxing after the opening act finishes their set.

The bathroom is open now but I go through it and out the back door where my wife/bassist is. The hotel is now Blackie’s house next to the hotel where he rents rooms out for occasions ‘like this’. There is a roar of cars in the street - Blackie is drag racing. I get in a red convertible with my wife/bassist and she asks about me about making some kind of stop on the way to the gig. I tell her I don’t want to make any stops. She says we have to. I ask why she asked me if I have no choice in the matter.

At some point I realize I’m not fully dressed and go back to finish dressing, but instead of going in the back where I came out I have gone around the front. I am walking through the front yard and notice what a cool yard and house Blackie has. I look in the front door, again impressed with what a cool house it is but I don’t want to go in. I don’t know which door is my room and I don’t want to wonder around the house with no pants on. So I start to walk around to the back, still impressed with how cool the yard was.

I’m not really sure what Blackie’s significance is, nor have I been to his house IRL.

Interesting though, the contrast between wanting to leave one house in one dream, and being impressed with another in the next.

[Beekeeper]

Kali, if this were my dream, this is how I'd interpret it:


The details are a little foggy, but the basic theme was being in a house and wanting to leave. For various reasons I couldn’t. At one point I recall opening the patio door but sirens we going off and my Anima- vaguely a ‘step-sister’ -told me I couldn’t leave with the sirens wailing. At some point I became lucid and asked why I keep having this reoccurring dream (It’s not a reoccurring dream, but I get the impression the dream was going on all night) She starts replying in that ‘dream character-speak’ that sounds profound but is essentially meaningless. I become a little depressed as there seems to be no guidance meaning or growth in the dream realm for me.


I'd take the last statement as the most important bit, an indicator you feel stuck and do not know what your intuition is telling you. The alarm may suggest your own alarm at stepping outside the way you currently do things.


Later, in another dream I am in a hotel room getting ready to play a gig. I am getting my clothes together and they are some slick threads. I am waiting for the bathroom to clear up so I can shower before getting dressed. My friend Blackie is in there. I am anticipating the show and thinking of how I will handle the nerves and adrenalin. I visualize myself hopping up and down and shadowboxing after the opening act finishes their set.

Now, you're ready to express your unique self but you're also ready for something new in the way you do that - "slick threads." I'm presuming you felt good about these. You're mentally and emotionally preparing yourself and you're also hoping to cleanse yourself spiritually/energetically as part of the process.


The bathroom is open now but I go through it and out the back door where my wife/bassist is. The hotel is now Blackie’s house next to the hotel where he rents rooms out for occasions ‘like this’.


You miss that cleansing step. Do you feel it mattered?


There is a roar of cars in the street - Blackie is drag racing. I get in a red convertible with my wife/bassist and she asks about me about making some kind of stop on the way to the gig. I tell her I don’t want to make any stops. She says we have to. I ask why she asked me if I have no choice in the matter.

Wow, exciting now but there's also the sense of the forbidden, the illegal. You get moving; you're free but all of a sudden you're reminded of your responsibilities and it feels burdensome.


At some point I realize I’m not fully dressed and go back to finish dressing, but instead of going in the back where I came out I have gone around the front. I am walking through the front yard and notice what a cool yard and house Blackie has.

Perhaps we can assume that there's something about the way that Blackie expresses himself that you admire. Why were his house and yard cool? Did the yard suggest an abundance of growth or something else?


I look in the front door, again impressed with what a cool house it is but I don’t want to go in. I don’t know which door is my room and I don’t want to wonder around the house with no pants on. So I start to walk around to the back, still impressed with how cool the yard was

You're perhaps unsure that you can integrate this thing about Blackie into your own expression of self. Perhaps if you went beyond the exterior into Blackie's house, one of two things could happen:

1. It wouldn't be as good as you thought;
2. It would be wonderful and that would make you deeply aware of something lacking. Then, to admit that would make you feel vulnerable. You might feel disloyal for even admitting that everything about the way you'd set up your life was less than a perfect expression of who you'd like to be.

If this were my dream, that's what I'd see. For you, it might be totally off the mark but I hope I've helped.

[Kali's Child]

I think you are right on point, and you bring up some good questions.


You miss that cleansing step. Do you feel it mattered?

It didn’t really bother me at the time, but it seems significant now that you point it out. I really wanted to get dressed in my new clothes but had to remind myself that I hadn’t showered yet. Had I showered and dressed before leaving then I obviously wouldn’t have been wondering around with no pants on, and would not felt unqualified to enter the ‘cool house’.




Perhaps we can assume that there's something about the way that Blackie expresses himself that you admire. Why were his house and yard cool? Did the yard suggest an abundance of growth or something else?

It’s hard to explain, it certainly wasn’t a mansion or anything like that. It just felt right. As for the yard, you could just tell that people enjoyed hanging out there. I would have felt fine about entering the house had I been dressed… I just didn’t want to go in without my pants on.

In my dreams houses seem to represent my psyche or state of mind. I think these two dreams are about wanting to upgrade my consciousness to the next level. The cleansing that I neglected might be the meditation practice that I’m neglecting…we talked about that the other night, remember? I still don’t really get the Blackie thing, maybe he’s representing an Austin mentality, versus a San Antonio mentality. Sort of hard to explain, but it sort of makes sense.

Thanks Beek! You’ve really helped me nail this down once again.

[Beekeeper]

Glad it helped.:D

[Korpo]

The details are a little foggy, but the basic theme was being in a house and wanting to leave. For various reasons I couldn’t. At one point I recall opening the patio door but sirens we going off and my Anima- vaguely a ‘step-sister’ -told me I couldn’t leave with the sirens wailing. At some point I became lucid and asked why I keep having this reoccurring dream (It’s not a reoccurring dream, but I get the impression the dream was going on all night)

Just read this part and to me it has "simulation" written all over it.

[Korpo]

The details are a little foggy, but the basic theme was being in a house and wanting to leave. For various reasons I couldn’t. At one point I recall opening the patio door but sirens we going off and my Anima- vaguely a ‘step-sister’ -told me I couldn’t leave with the sirens wailing. At some point I became lucid and asked why I keep having this reoccurring dream (It’s not a reoccurring dream, but I get the impression the dream was going on all night)

Was in a hurry, now more. Signs here that it was a simulation - not being able to leave. An alarm indicating that the simulation might abort. It recurs and feels like it was going over and over again.

You probably had your own intentions of what to do, and these were not well aligned with the intention behind the simulation environment you found yourself in. You were unwilling to explore this environment, felt confined and wanted out. Such sensations can happen because people sense the limitation inherent to setting up any simulation. Anima is also the Latin word for soul and animating spirit (the breath of life).

Simulations are limited/limiting dream environments set up to drive a certain lesson home. For being able to do so, some restraints are put on your consciousness, which are often represented/recalled as confined spaces or closed-off spaces. Some people immediately react to this by wanting out and trying to abort the simulation. This is also the case for when you find yourself in a simulation environment and all your efforts are geared towards leaving it. People often experience not having access to typical OBE/lucid dream skills in simulations - like not being able to pass through walls or fly.

How a simulation is experienced by a person is influenced by the level of development of your inner senses and your inner translation table for out-of-body/dream experiences, by your own attitudes towards any kind of outside influence (because a simulation has elements of influence), whether you are able to pick up on elements beyond the simulation (like the consciousness creating and maintaining it) and how you generally deal with unexpected and also regular situations. Purposes of simulations vary similarly, and it is very hard to tell on a simulation like this one, which looks more like it was ultimately aborted, what the lesson was.

[Kali's Child]

Thanks Korpo, simulation is a new concept for me. Who or what, in your opinion, sets up these simulations?

[Beekeeper]

I'll leave Oliver to answer that.

I think, however, that the simulation served its purpose to a large and possibly complete extent, Oliver. Kali's concern was with using dreaming for spiritual development. He went on to have a series of dreams which he remembered and inquired about, thus growing in self-awareness. He did become lucid within the simulation but his failure to understand the female dream figure, who may have been a guide, would imply that his throat chakra was insufficiently developed or sluggish that night. This may have been why there were multiple attempts. He did remember the experience and so he has feedback that in fact his dreams are working towards his spiritual development. He could see the guide figure, so his 1st to 4th chakras are online. If he can differentiate guides from dream figures, his 4th chakra is properly developed. Now he knows all this, he'll be more aware when he next becomes lucid or even in his post dream analysis of non lucid dreams.

[Kali's Child]

Sounds like some Chakra work is in order! Where do I start?

[Beekeeper]

Kurt has a series of exercises in "The Mutidimensional Human." There's a thread on it here somewhere and it's also reviewed on Amazon. I must be honest and say I don't actually do the exercises, though I've tried a few, but I find the information illuminating. I think development happens anyway, especially if the intent is there. Being informed allows you to recognise that and Kurt's work does resonate with quite a few people.
http://www.astraldynamics.com.au/showthread.php?11291-Kurt-Leland-s-quot-The-Multidimensional-Human-quot&highlight=Multidimensional+Human
(http://www.astraldynamics.com.au/showthread.php?11291-Kurt-Leland-s-quot-The-Multidimensional-Human-quot&highlight=Multidimensional+Human)

This review is from: The Multidimensional Human: Practices for Psychic Development and Astral Projection (Paperback)
Many astral projection books give you procedures for getting out of body, which generally result in some success. Ultimately, though, many adventurers in consciousness become disappointed in experiences that fail to live up to their pre-conceived notions of what should be happening. This often happens, Kurt Leland suggests, because they lack the knowledge that would help them appreciate what their adventures actually do signify and also as a result of insufficiently developed inner-senses that would allow them to better perceive, remember and understand their experiences.

Leland borrows from Jane Robert's Seth materials in defining the inner senses as "the channels through which the entire composition of any plane is appreciated and actually maintained. " He emphasizes the importance of developing these senses in order to better perceive and understand adventures in consciousness related to dreaming, lucid dreaming, out of body states and psychic experiences. For example, well developed relational inner senses would allow one to perceive the presence of other entities, to determine their nature, communicate with them and to clearly understand their communications. In his book, Leland offers a range of exercises geared towards developing these inner senses.

Many projectors vaguely understand the notion of their own multi-dimensionality without realising that there are several vehicles of consciousness beyond the etheric and astral bodies, including, using the terms from Theosophy that Leland utilises, the mental, causal, buddhic, monadic and divine bodies. Leland's own experiences have convinced him that by mastering the various energy bodies and related planes, adventurers in consciousness grow in understanding and achieve a spiritual evolution that brings them ever closer to Source.

Thus, he argues for astral projection as a spiritual pursuit and endorses the understanding that many oneironauts eventually arrive at: that events in our physical plane lives, and the emotional and mental habits we develop in response to these, impact our adventures in consciousness. Continually seeking out new techniques and new tools for astral projection will not solve the problems of infrequent or short lucid experiences or inability to consistently direct those experiences along desired lines. Instead, adventurers can work towards greater flexibility of consciousness (a key idea in Leland's work), which can be facilitated through better understanding of dreams and through the use of the exercises aimed at developing the inner senses. This will lead to satisfaction of the true impulse that lies beneath the desires for such adventures in consciousness, which is, "to know who we are, how we fit into the universe, and whether we have a special mission or purpose to fulfill," (p.39).

[Korpo]

Hello, Kali's Child.

I agree with what Beek said. I overlooked the potential presence of a guide because I thought it might have been a dream character, and forgot that it might have been a case of not having developed the required communication skills yet.

For most people it would seem counterintuitive that they are not able to communicate with guides or other helpful entities. Some people encounter them being mute or speaking unintelligibly. Yet in the dream environment we seem to speak and interact just fine. This is probably because we need to learn to decode a higher form of conveying information, a telepathic exchange of abstract and symbolic concepts which Monroe termed NVC - Non-Verbal Communication.

Kurt once explained to me that learning to decode NVC is involved with the 5th and 6th chakras. The 5th chakra enables the exchange of pictures and symbols, and the 6th chakra enables analysing and interpreting it. He likened it to just reading a poem as in reading the words, and actually going in and interpreting the similies and metaphors and extracting what the author's trying to express. He actually used this to decribe how the ability to decode ROTEs (energy information packets, see also Monroe's second book) develops, but it is also true of NVC, I think.

Simulations like the one you encountered can actually help develop the chakras in the higher bodies. If you set your intention on learning NVC or developing your higher bodies you might encounter experiences such as Volgerle's latest one - attempts to read or do maths or other metaphors for decoding, deciphering, combining, discerning, translating, etc. Chakra work as in energy work is usually most involved with the etheric chakras which regulate physical well-being and at some later stages the astral chakras, which regulate feeling, sensation and emotional well-being. The higher body chakra capabilities, especially those used when out-of-body, are developed in experiences such as projections, lucid dreams and other kinds of experiences.

It's mostly learning by doing, and that's why simulations are so useful. You're learning in a controlled environment geared towards getting a certain lesson or skill right. The appearance of simulations is usually a good sign, I'd say. It's also a challenge to see how you react to being taught in this way, essentially. Now that you know roughly what a simulation is, you're better prepared for next time. As for who is setting up simulations - I'd say that any simulation designed to teach you something is set up by those who are actively trying to help along the evolution of your consciousness. Monroe calls them INSPEC, Moen calls them Helpers, and Leland calls them Facilitators.

After the spiritual path is entered, especially if one consciously choses to develop the energy bodies for work out-of-body, simulations tend to appear to test and train the aspirant. In the magical traditions this has led to the notion of "initiation", but you can also find reference to it in theosophic literature.

BTW, more of Kurt's newsletter is up: http://www.kurtleland.com/astral-projection-log/2010/200-the-upper-three-subplanes-of-the-astral-plane. I think you were looking forward to reading the rest.

Cheers,
Oliver

[Kali's Child]

Thanks guys. Much to absorb here...

[Kali's Child]

I did some chanting with the Bija seeds. I've been drawn to Sanskrit and chanting lately so it was a no brainer. It was nice, and I felt like I could direct the vibrations somewhat. Even felt a little tingle up and down the spine afterwords. Not bad for a first attempt.

[Beekeeper]

I love chanting too. We've got a yoga teacher's day coming up in October: meditation, yoga and chanting - love it! Perhaps it's because you're musical this seems a natural practice for you.:-)

[Kali's Child]

Probably so. One thing for sure, I really stink at visualization (maybe that's a chakra thing too), so it's nice to find something with instant feedback, even if it's just a little tingle here and there. We'll see if I notice any dream related results from the practice. I'm going to start adding the traditional mudras to my practice soon, I just about have them memorized.

[Kali's Child]

Oddly enough, or maybe not oddly at all, I had a dream where I was doing favors in one one house when I was supposed to be working in another. Seems like a bit of a theme developing here. Also, my Anima seems to be appearing rather frumpy lately. Hmm...

[Kali's Child]

Well, I've had a few more dreams along these lines and I feel like the whole bit is representing an overall shift from the Astral to the Mental. I'm feeling pretty good now, like I'm rooted a little closer to the divine. Thanks for helping me work through this. Onwards and upwards!