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Symbol, Ritual, and Consciousness

Quitting the Mind Sound and Entrainment Conscious Exteriorization Dreamwork Gateways of Dreaming Planes of Consciousness
Spirit and Matter Merge

Four Zones of Consciousness

According to various beliefs, there are roughly seven centers of consciousness in four zones. The seven centers are commonly referred to as Chakras or energy centers. These energy centers may be examined as being a part of one of the four zones. One, Aurobindo calls the Superconsient, or spirit area, with a center a little above the top of the head. It controls thinking mind and communicates with higher mental realms. The second zone he calls The Mind. It has two centers. One rests between the eyebrows and slightly up into the forehead. It controls will and dynamism of mental activity and the subtle vision. We sometimes call this the third eye. The second mind center is at throat level and controls mental and verbal expression. The third zone is what is referred to as The Vital, and represents our actions in the world. It has three centers, the first is at heart level, controlling our emotional being and the second, at the level of the navel, controls our impulses for domination, possession, conquest, and ambitions. A third sits between navel and sex center. This center controls jealousy, envy, desire, greed, anger. A fourth zone is The Physical which rests at the base of the spine and controls physical being and sexual impulses. This center opens up to the lower subconscious regions (Aurobindo).

Work within these four zones provides a pathway for the ascent into consciousness. This also may be called awakening the Kundalini. This path takes us through the Chakras. Chakra knowledge comes to us through age-old wisdom from the East. The word Chakra means ‘wheel’. Chakras are energy centers present in two forms, one positive and one negative. Living organisms obtain their pranic force through their ethereal body which like the physical body assimilates and dis-assimilates. Chakras are organs of the ethereal layer of the body. There are physical yoga postures to facilitate activation of these wheels. Physical postures, verbal sounds, musical sounds and colors ... or combinations, are ways of activating these centers of energy called Chakras.

Super-conscious Connection - above the head

7. Crown - Sahasrara - Top of the head - Continuity of Consciousness - Supreme Consciousness. It perfects and completes faculties. This is our connection with Supreme Consciousness. Its sound is “Mm”. The associated color is violet and its tone is ‘B’.

The Mind Connection - third eye and throat

6. Third Eye - Ajna - Between the eyebrows center - Clairvoyance - Spirit - Higher mind

sight consciousness. It corresponds to the pineal gland and the brain in the physical body. An indication of the perception of Ajna may be phenomena like the feeling of warmth, the appearance of a luminous point or a brilliant eye, or concentric rings of color, usually yellow and violet, breathing rhythmically with your breath. “Ee” is the sound of this wheel. The associated color is indigo and its tone is ‘A’.

These two sounds and these two wheels form the “OM” sound. This is vocalized A U M. We open the mouth wide with the sound A, gradually reduce the size of the mouth cavity to produce the U, and finally close it with the M sound (Peter Hamel). This is the expression of the highest consciousness. A is walking consciousness, U is dream consciousness and M is the consciousness of deep sleep ... (and death) ... OM is the all embracing “cosmic” or “fourth” consciousness which transcends all words (Lama Govenga). OM signifies the energy of existence (Tarthang Tulku).

5. Throat - Vishuda - Throat Center - Clairaudience - Ethers - Circle. Ethic and astral healing come from this center. It corresponds to the thyroid gland in the physical body. This may be felt like a sensation of a radiating light. “Aye” is its sound. H A M is its pronouncement. The associated color is blue, its tone is ‘G’.

The Vital Connection - heart, navel and solar plexus

4. Heart - Anahata - Heart Center - Understanding - Air - Hexagon. It is here we have comprehension of astral vibrations. We have consciousness of feelings of others. “Ah” is its sound. Y A M is its pronouncement. The associated color is green, its tone is ‘F’.

3. Solar Plexus - Manipura - Navel Center - Feeling - Fire - Crescent moon.

The solar plexus us located under the navel. It is associated with our Vital energy. It is our place of our vulnerability. It is where we recognize our true name. It is the location of general sensitiveness. It is here we feel astral influences. “Oh” is its sound. R A M is its pronouncement. The associated color is yellow, its tone is ‘E’.

The Chinese refer to “Chi - ‘Don Tien’” energy. It is known as a ball of energy. The objective is not to try to cure something, it is finding balance and through stepping into that balance you will be healed. To do so we must be confident and sincere in our pursuit. We learn to send energy with will. External ‘Chi Gong’ is a way of projecting energy to change energy. “Some things (Chi gong) can be sensed but not felt” (Chinese proverb).

2. Spleen Center - Svadishtana - Traveling - Water - Triangle. It is the path of the Vital. Our sense of competition begins is this area. It is our deep river, our white water, our calm lake. Our true nature, our ego, our true personality is centered here. It is here we have power to travel consciously and memory of astral journeys. “Oo” is its sound. V A M is its pronouncement. The associated color is orange, its tone is ‘D’.

Organic life depends on the three Chakras listed above; Heart, Solar Plexus, and Spleen (above the sex organs). The Solar Plexus has a directing function. This is what we have referred to as the ‘Vital’. The vital like the mind can be ‘quieted’, and is integral to the voluntary pursuit of consciousness.

The Physical Connection - base of spine

1. Base of spine Center - Muladara - the sacral plexus - Sexual Center - Earth - Square. This is the core of our physicalness. This is the seat of Kundalini energy which goes to each center in turn and vivifies it. It is from this base we learn to walk our path without fear. “Oo” is it sound. L A M is its pronouncement. Red is its color, its tone is ‘C’.

A conscious perception of the Chakras is possible because unconsciously we are already in communication with these organs of the ethereal body through certain non-physical sensations. These sensations can be made conscious through passive receptivity ... quiet mind ... suspension of the thought stream. In the spine is a channel called Sushumna, within that another channel called the Vajrini, and within that is another channel called the Chitrini, and upon that are threaded the chakras. With meditation, or focused consciousness, the Kundalini rises ... a little at a time. As each Chakra is awakened the down turned Chakra turns upward. Then the Kundalini returns back by the same path leaving each center energized. This is the “fire of our consciousness”.

Individualization of Consciousness

These centers of consciousness, exist ... and have been described by many in equally many ways. Multitudes of teachers use these centers to teach about human energy and how to use it. Energy may be creative or destructive, healing or revitalizing, active or neutral.

Consciousness exists also, more and less, higher and lower, internal and external and makes use of energy. Our most used realms of consciousness are usually focused on extremes. We are conscious of discomfort ... a room too hot, a shirt too tight, a paper cut, sleepiness, a crying child, a barking dog. These things are difficult to ignore. Comfort is more difficult to bring to active consciousness. Pleasant temperature, a good fit ... no cut ... being awake and alert, a sleeping child or dog, all remain unnoticed. We have the same response patterns to emotional comfort and discomfort. Lack of fear gets no attention. Fear ... and we are immediately engaged, consciously and physically. Normal workings of our internal organs go unnoticed. Only pain or malfunctioning brings our body’s performance to our consciousness. We have an ongoing awareness of trees, grass, dirt, mountains, rocks, sunlight, insects, animals ... but barely ... we give them attention only if there is something unusual or threatening about the situation. They remain unnoticed expect through the eyes of casual observation. They become part of sensory memory, there for a portion of a second then dismissed. Exceptions are limited to specific times. We go on a vacation to see the Redwood Forest, give it our most in-depth attention, tire of it and move on to the next spectacular sight. Not only is consciousness in and out as a faculty of awareness, it also remains very surface ... something on the fringes.

We are already aware of consciousness and conscious processes. It comes and goes. It calls our attention when needed or when directed. So why pursue further expansion of levels of consciousness? What are levels of consciousness. Consciousness is a force, an element of force ... an elemental force ... an energy. It can keep us in a state of apathy, indifference, mundanity or it can warn of extremes ... of dangers, of something ‘out of step’, of something that requires immediate attention. Or, it can open doors to previously unseen realms, to new dimensions. It can keep us in a focused perspective or accept ‘peak experiences’ as they are available to us.

The force of consciousness determines our function in the world. In biology, degrees or levels of consciousness determines position on the scale of evolution. Earthworms and amoebae are very low, birds in the middle, mammals are high and humans ... homo-sapiens are at the top of the scale. This elemental force manifests in absorption with process, oblivious to everything beyond its physical being. An ant can remain unconscious of a high-rise building “next door”. The ant may even have its tunnel home under the foundation of the building and the building has no relevance to the life of the ant. Our limited levels of awareness are the same. The difference is that we have the capability of recognizing our small individual world and still be aware that the larger world is just “next door” to us if we care to look at it. Evolutionary progress is measured by the capacity to extricate and free consciousness from its elemental, its rudimentary, force .. from its limiting boundaries, to see the big picture. So we break free of the muck. This is our ‘individualization of consciousness’.

At this point, with individualization of consciousness, through becoming conscious of consciousness and it multiplicity of inherent possibilities, we are ready to begin to learn to quiet the MIND, to quiet the VITAL and to quiet the PHYSICAL. This quieting is not putting a stop to, it is transcending to something beyond mental, vital and physical. It is a process of moving through. We don’t need to stop thought, but to go past thought. We need not suppress the vital energies of life, but we must move past the control they exert on us. Physical does not need to be eliminated but does need to be quietened in order to move past physical to spirit. Only then can we bring spirit to matter and merge into unity.

Mind Layers

The mind layers addressed here are not the actual physical layers of the brain placed one upon the other ... but are layers of ‘mind’. We begin through The Silent Mind. We learn to quieten our mind and listen to the sound of silence. “Silence is the great revealer,” says Lao Tsu. Silence is not merely the absence of noise or sound ... it is a positive and specific state of consciousness (Halpern). “When there is no sound, hearing is most alert” (Indian mystic, Kirpal Singh).

But before we can begin to silence the mind, we must first understand aspects of the layers of the mind. The first layer is the intellectual layer ... the place of daily life; ideas, philosophies, theories, religions, logic, rational thought, etc. This is our thinking place. It frequently becomes an unending chatter ... fragmenting into tiny bits. All that must be silenced before going any further.

The next layer is the emotional layer (feeling or reaction). This is our mental area. When the intellect clears a bit, the emotional aspects begin. This is something like flypaper. We easily get stuck to our emotion. We begin to think ... to feel that we are our emotions. We define ‘self’ as a set of emotions and mental processes which control our every action and reaction. We become addicted to our addictions in order to maintain our emotions, our mental constructs. Then we say, “I can’t help it.” “This is what I was given by me parents, by me grandparents, by all my ancestors.” This too ... must be silenced. This too must be brought to a direct consciousness rather than all the pushing and pulling. Silence.

We can go back to story of the pearl and the ideal parents. The parents in the tale are what we each longed for in our own earth parents. Some of us found something close to that ideal and others missed the mark by a great distance. Almost everyone would have asked for a bit more of a perfect parent if it had been possible. If our parents were less than ideal we could justify our longing for better caretakers. If they were really bad, we could live for years on the blame and shame caused by those bad parents. Those of us with really good parents could create a pretty good case of guilt for every negative thought about our good parents.

Carl Jung addresses this issue as a process of ‘outgrowing’. Jung states that, with development of new levels of consciousness ... with higher and wider interest arising on the horizon ... through widening views ... insoluble problems lose urgency (we become less fixated). They are not ‘solved’ logically in our own terms of understanding and processing ... but fade when confronted with new, stronger life tendencies (higher consciousness). In other words, we do not repress, do not make unconscious, do not process endlessly, do not require ‘treatment’ for our problems and ‘addictions’. They simply appear in a different light ... from higher levels ... like a storm in a valley ... as viewed from a mountain top. When we are in the midst of the storm, lightening threatening our every move, thunder pounding our hearing senses, rain pelting our skin, hail bruising our bodies ... we cannot help but remain focused on the difficulties. When we climb above the storm and look down on all the commotion, we see it from the God perspective. We rise above the immediacy of the storm. We are both the valley and the mountain in relation to the psyche (Jung).

To feel oneself above/beyond what is human ... we feel the effect and feel higher consciousness ... we grow beyond ourself because of unknown potential (Jung). All problems are in a certain sense insoluble. They express necessary duality ... polarity ... inherent in every self regulating system. They are not solved but outgrown.

The third layer of the mind is the sensory layer. Until the first two layers are silenced the third, the sensory layer is unnoticed. Sensory mind has been blended so thoroughly with intellect and emotion it may have been forgotten or we may fail to see our senses as something separate. Actually, all our data ... our information about the world comes to us through our senses. We perceive then we interpret and put into action. Some of this sensory input can be better understood through examination of a model, a way of thought. First is Single Vision. It is physical eyesight, hearing, etc., which reflects the worlds consensus as to reality, our agreed upon definition of what is real. Second is Twofold Vision. It is a manipulation of imagination, a use of allegorical meanings. Imagery is still bound by existing definitions of reality. Clouds look like fluffy, white, sheep grazing. It is in single and twofold vision where we perceive, where we conceptualize and interpret. It is here we make judgments. There are no facts ... we create facts. We define facts according to our perceptions and our interpretations.

Then there is Threefold Vision. This includes regions outside conscious ego, outside ordinary consciousness. In threefold vision we begin to tap the undefined, and experience occasional ‘peak experiences’. Finally, we have Fourfold Vision. It is a step beyond, a transpersonal vision characteristic of mystics, seers and prophets. All our sensations; life, fear, joy, pain and pleasure, sleep, fatigue and sleeplessness, liking and disliking, holding and letting go, wanting and rejecting, and many other sensations have been so connected to emotions and thought, we failed to recognize them. They too must be silenced. To silence the sensory mind we must reach a state of transparency or neutrality. Any processing any naming or labeling, is putting up a wall, it is creating a definition that becomes a barrier.

These layers of vision can also be conceptualized as ‘seeing positions’. First position is seeing through ones own eyes. This is surface sight and includes our ordinary tangible observations. Second position is seeing through another's eyes. This gives us empathy, ‘as-if’. Third position moves us to the observer self. We are able to perceive through third person ... objectively ... as a watcher of both first and second position. Fourth position is viewing from the perspective of the ‘big picture’. It is the view of the cosmic self able to perceive the cosmic plan with its dualities. It is where we can recognize that even things defined as ‘bad’ have ‘good’ outcomes, and we can cease to define it as good or bad. Fifth position is Oneness. It is ‘seeing’ simultaneously the All and the part ... from the viewpoint of the All and the part. It is ‘seeing’ that the worship, the worshipped and the worshipper are the same. It is also ‘seeing’ that the gas, the gassed and the gasser (from the holocaust) are also the same. It is the viewpoint of non-duality, of unity, of emptiness and of fullness. It is the creation of transparency, of true clarity.

The fourth mind layer, after the sensory layer, is the physical layer. When we have silenced the first three layers we begin to recognize the physical layer and can begin to silence it. This process may feel as if we are destroying the body. It is only through hindsight that we can begin to understand what has transpired.

How can we begin to silence the mind? One ... Music can be used to prepare for deep silence. Music can quieten the body, the mind and open the spirit to be present to the divine (Halpern). Two ... Thought watching can be cultivated. Begin by being quiet, relaxed ... meditative ... and begin to be aware of thoughts. It is a process of ‘seeing’ them come in from a distance. When they are ‘in’ we can either roll them around in our thoughts or we can acknowledge them and release them. We can allow them to pass on through. It is important to remain non-judgmental. Just keep repeating the release process. Three ... Thought focus is a valuable training skill. Begin by staring at a candle flame, a small stone, or some other simple object, OR ... focusing on silent sound, such as a hum, or white noise, or an internal tone. These techniques allow us to focus on the fullness of consciousness.

The Silent Mind .....

Causal

Mental/Intellectual

Psychic

Emotional

Etheric

Physical, Sensory

Quitting the Mind - planes of the mind

When these layers are quiet, when the mind is silence, we can begin to recognize the energy body of the mind. The energy body, the energy field, is the counterpart of the physical body --- the energy body has appearance but no mass and can perform acts beyond the possibilities of the physical body. The physical mind activates the energy mind the intangible aspects of mind. The energy body can see ... it can perceive energy as it flows. The energy body can use energy to boost itself into unexpected areas. It can move into the immediate ordinary reality, our familiar consensual reality. It can travel to some other place within ordinary reality. It can move into other dimensions, into other levels, into the abstract ... the intangible. The energy body can perceive as we ordinarily perceive the world, and it can ‘see’ the world as light or vibrating current.

This progress begins to manifests outwardly, the wall between inner and outer ... grows increasingly thin, slowly losing its consistency. We recognize our physical body, its abilities and limits and we come to recognize our energy body and the expanded abilities it has. We discover how our intangible energy body is the force behind all our physicalness. We recognize our transparency and begin to move comfortably in that transparency. We find the very texture of our Being becoming lighter, more porous, more receptive to direct consciousness. We become able to move into the various positions of seeing, quickly and easily.

As we begin the path of silent mind, we discover that thoughts of others come from outside, comes from our energy force beyond our physical. But more importantly, we discover that our own thoughts come from outside. This is part of the dissolving of self importance. This is not necessarily, or only, rising to a higher or more rapid vibrator mode, it is merely a change of consciousness, a shift into a new way of knowing. This way of knowing can be discussed as Planes of the Mind. This can be equated to the layers of the mind. This is the layers or planes of the ‘energy mind/body’. All of these concepts can not truly be separated. It is all the Whole. We separate into pieces ... only for the purpose of discussion and explanation.

Our ultimate goal is the super-consciousness but before reaching this plane, we, as a seeker will cross various mental layers or worlds .... the ordinary mind, the higher mind, the illumined mind, the intuitive mind, and the overmind. This is our energy mind which is part of the energy body. The quality of vibration is essentially what distinguishes one mind plane of consciousness from another. “Everything” is vibration. The frequency and quality determine appearance of physicalness and the position in consciousness. Altering or ‘raising’ the vibration is expanding consciousness so we may recognize and utilize more of who we are. The following descriptions are how they are seen through our energy senses by someone who can see the energy of the planes of the mind.

The Ordinary mind is a grayish mass with lots of darker little spots ... representing their thousand and one thoughts. Occasionally a little burst of light descends from above, a little joy, a little flame of love dances in that grayness, then flickers and goes out.

The Higher Mind is like the mind of philosophers and thinkers. It appears less opaque, freer, with bluish tinge. Little descending bursts of light are less quickly swallowed up, more intense, abundant, and frequent. Joy tends to last longer, love tends to be broader. One begins to know what joy and love are in themselves, without a cause.

The Illumined Mind accepts silence and gains access to the domain of illumination. What previously came one drop at a time now streams in providing a state of enthusiasm. a constant state of awakening, as if the whole being were on the alert, suddenly endowed with a very fast rhythm, with new values, new perspectives, and unexpected clues. Everything is connected within a great joyous vibration ... somewhat as if it could feel truth everywhere.

The Intuitive Mind ... differs from illumined mind in its clear transparency. Knowledge springs from silence ... not higher or deeper, there, just before our eyes. It is a direct knowing as the Buddha spoke of ... it has always been, it has been beyond our consciousness. With intuition comes a very special joy, a sort of recognition, as if there were always two of us, light living in light and a shadow, ourselves, living below, groping awkwardly in the dark, repeating all the gestures and movements of light, imitating knowledge, but in a shabby, stunted, clumsy way. Then all of a sudden, with consciousness and the intuitive mind there is coincidence, and we are one. We are one in a point of light. We discover only oneself, there nothing else to discover. The mind seizes on the intuition and makes at once too little and too much of it. Instead of letting the flash quietly illuminate and clarify our substance, it immediately sizes it, coats is with a layer of thought and no longer understands its light except through the intellect. This understanding through intellect creates another box, confining the illumination inside. We find ourself trapped once again.

The Overmind is the rarely attained summit of human consciousness. It is a cosmic consciousness, with no loss of the individual. It is the ultimate duality ... the state of non-duality. Consciousness of the overmind perceives the same light everywhere, in all things and all beings, everything is bathed continuously in a single substance. This being feels universal love, understanding, compassion ... for all other ‘selves’ who are also moving towards their divinity. This is a of state of being beyond judgment. This being is becoming the light that they are.

Relevance can be self-verified with a simple test, the appearance of a new mode of knowledge. We know a thing because, we are that thing. Consciousness can move to any point of universal reality. Everything now takes place inside, nothing is outside or separate. Nothing can be defined as good or bad. It becomes merely another part of the duality that comprises the Whole.

We emerge in another dimension. We feel ourselves as old as the world and we feel ourselves eternally young, eternally birthed. This life, we recognize as one small link in an unbroken chain. Everything expands to a level of global consciousness. We begin to remember who we are. To remember we must stop being amnesiac. We must put aside that state of forgetfulness we agreed to before our birth and begin to wake up. We must begin to contribute our share to the process of evolution.

Planes of the Mind;

Ordinary Mind, Higher Mind, Illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind, and Overmind.

We have silenced the mind. We have explored layers and planes of the mind. We have recognized the ‘beyond’. The next step in consciousness is the Vital.

Quieting the Vital

The area referred to as the vital is located between the heart and the sex center in the physical body. It is vital to our physical life. The internal organs we refer to as vital organs are located in this area of our torso. In establishing defensive protection, the energy aspect of our vital jams communication from outside, from above, from all sources. This is done in an attempt to retain focus at the level of the ordinary. It is one of our survival skills. This is intended to provide safety from harmful external influences but in doing so, it serves to block consciousness. It keep us mired in mundanity. It is a place of experience, a place of pleasure/suffering, pain/joy, a place of many afflictions and disturbances. It keeps us focused in the present physical reality. The vital identifies with everything that comes out of it ...’my’ pain, ‘my’ depression, ‘my’ joy. It claims ownership and creates the ‘my’-ness focus we live in. It also attributes ownership ... ‘your’ pain, ‘your’ depression, ‘your’ problem. We move through the ‘my’ and your’ to greater unity recognition.

It is also a source of great energy, physical and psychic. We learn to move through ... to quiet the physical vital and move into the conscious vital. We still have protection, survival but we have ‘more’, we have access to energy and consciousness. Many traditions have attempted to cope with these troublesome ‘vital’ issues by suppression and rejection. This is part of the traditional Christian viewpoint. We, being viewed as sinful creatures, must suppress those negative aspects of ourselves. The thought seems to be, if we can deny, we can make it go away. This is a bit like the child who covers its own eyes and thinks it is hidden and unseen. Or, we attempt to bottle it, to keep any fragment of it from slipping into our moral self or our moral actions. If we succeed and impose our mental and moral rules on the vital center of us, we dry it up. We take away its breath, its color, its sound. We kill its life.

When we can be silent within, we can perceive that none of these ‘my’s’ or ‘your’s’ belong to us individually. We can recognize that it is unnecessary to hide. We can cease taking in all the vibrations of others and the world. We can own ourself as part of the whole. Our practice of silence creates a transparency around us allowing us to see ... to use the seeing positions to recognize all that ‘external stuff’ coming in at us and we can make the choice to reject it.

Divine qualities of the vital, the energy consciousness qualities, include loving kindness, compassion, equanimity (impeccability), and an open mind and heart. We become more transparent. We receive life with balance and harmony. The enemy qualities of the vital are attachments; need, desire, wanting, longing. They also include pity; indifference and apathy which keeps us separate from each other. Quieting the vital, finding a stillness of the vital allows us to touch the divine with all its transparency.

Tibetan Buddhism sees this duality of energies of the awakened consciousness and describes it as the five tathagatas, the five Buddha families. First is Vairocana, confusion and ignorance balanced with limitless wisdom. Second is Aksobhya, aggression balanced by uncritical wisdom. Third is Ratnasambhava, pride and materialism balanced with the wisdom of equality. Fourth is Amitabha, passion and detached serenity that transforms into compassion. Fifth is Amoghasiddhi, envy and ambition which transforms into the wisdom to accomplish. This path places great emphasis on meditation, sitting, walking and living. These teachings are core to the Shambhala training established by Chogyam Trumpa and to the philosophies of Thich Nhat Hanh. Both these paths bring alternatives for us to consider in quieting the mind, the vital and the physical body. Matter ... our physical being ... turns out to be the place of greatest difficulty, also the place of victory.

Quieting the Physical

When we find our physical balance and harmony we arrive at balance and harmony with non-physical spirit. We gain an sense of expertise in both through consciousness. Almost all our ‘usable’ information comes through physical sensory input. This is body information. We see, touch, taste, smell and hear our way through life. Other not so obvious sensory input gives us additional information. Balance keeps us upright. An internal awareness of thirst, hunger, temperature, etc. keeps us in homeostasis. This sensory input combined with our emotions, drives and needs, guides and/or pushes us through life. We can gain an independence from ordinary physical sensory input and can allow sensation from beyond. It is possible for the mind to take direct cognizance of the objects of sense without the aid of the sense-organs. Why would we want to do this? Through quieting ... moving past physical we can step into a level of consciousness where we can see beyond ordinary vision, hear beyond ordinary hearing, and know through a direct connection far greater than physical sensing. We can greatly expand awareness when we move beyond the controls of physicalness.

Ultimately evolving in transparency will require alteration in the physical. For the present time it is sufficient that we learn to allow our physicalness to be put to the side ... to quieten it to a level of silence in order focus, to go past body. Then we are ready for transparency or at least less opacity. Mental, vital and physical transparency is the key to a two fold independence; First, from sensation, disconnected at will from a particular point ... from discomfort, from physical pain, from suffering, from desire, from anger, from frustration and many other undesirable sensations. Second, from the sense organs. The consciousness-force is now released. It can extend beyond body physicality and can contact beings, observe distant events and forces through a kind of inner projection or a projection of the energy body ... leaving physicalness behind.

Inner Silence

When the inner silence is well established, we are capable of perceiving mental and vital vibrations at the edge of our periphery of self, the etherial body. We can recognize and reject the emotional ‘stuff’ of others, whether it is directed or inadvertent. We are similarly be able to feel the vibrations of illness and drive them out before they can enter us. These vibrations of ‘illness’ are most commonly recognized as colds, viruses, aches and pains ... similar afflictions.

The vital and the senses also open us to the ‘illness’ of emotional and mental distress. While we may not want to define this kind of malady as an illness, it is probably the worst kind. We recognize that physical illnesses exists and we quietly accept and tolerate ill health as fact of life. Emotional and mental illness is presumed to be ‘in charge’, something we cannot control. It is the great manipulator and energy vampire. Not only are we emotionally sucked dry, we expose our jugular vein, smile at our mental tormentor and embrace it as a lover. Then we express the statement; “I can’t help it.” Through Consciousness, through inner silence, through quieting the mind and the vital and the physical ... we come to a space of stepping beyond the external influences. I do not suggest that we will never again have a cold, but be can be much less susceptible as be become more aware, mote conscious. Just as we are able to recognize and reject a cold or flu, we become able to refuse emotional pain.

Rejection of these vibrations is not the same as covering them with a layer of whitewash. Hiding and denying is not sufficient, they must be rejected. They must be literally and consciously turned away. This is not a simple undertaking, but an effective one. These familiar vibrations, like habits, hang around waiting to enter once again. With patience, and commitment we can outwait them. They finally dissolve away into neutrality. Another kind of illness is one that can result from a difference of development between the higher levels of consciousness and our physical consciousness. Our mental or vital consciousness may widen substantially and receive new kinds of intensity while our physical consciousness lags behind in the old vibratory movements and cannot withstand this increased intensity. This imbalance frequently manifests as a life threatening problem or severe illness. That is one very important reason to work on mind, vital and body all at the same time and to call on our higher consciousness, our ‘God’ awareness to oversee our growth. Shaman and medicine people have recognized and utilized this kind of illness as a prelude of ‘special’ powers, powers that allow a connection with consciousness outside ordinary limits. One positive outcome of the life threatening problem is ... it does get the physical out of the way so that consciousness develops.

Without development of our physical body, matter, we might well be able to go into ecstasy and soar straight into the Absolute, but we are unable to bring the intensities and fullness of the Spirit down to our ‘lower’ kingdoms, the mental vital and material realm.

Fundamental Stillness

Behind this restless, protective and easily exhausted, vital, we find the true vital ... a vital that contains the very essence of the Life Force, the energy of the vital. We enter a state of peaceful, spontaneous concentration, like the sea below the movement of waves. We find the fluid flow, the silent pulse of consciousness. We create the ability to touch this flow and to draw from it. This fundamental stillness is not a dulling of our physicalness, just as mental silence is not a numbing of the brain, it is a basis for action. It is place from which we can expand.

Stillness and silence is an act of moving ‘through’, beyond ... thought and action. It cannot be attained through ‘trying harder’, or being more diligent. Discipline and diligence is necessary so is allowing. It is a result of focused surrender. It is moving the physical and mental ‘us’ our of the way for the Self to be. “It is resting in the nature of the mind” (the Venerable Traleg Kyabgon). It is an experience that can be described by someone, but you must experience it personally to know it. Fundamental stillness ... silence ... quietening, can be sought and can be experienced. It is one of many skills which move us toward a consciousness we call Super-Consciousness.

Part of quieting ... of silencing is bringing sensation more fully into conscious awareness. Through expanding sensory awareness we can learn to bring sensation into our conscious or shift it out of conscious, by choice, or we can move through and then past sensation to a broader experience of all kinds of sensory input.

Sound and Entrainment

Many belief systems recognize and use; sound ... color ... light ... music ... sensory deprivation ... all kinds of sensory input, to improve mental and physical health. Human retinal vision in only a limited light-spectrum, between ultraviolet and near-infrared, seen in binocular fashion. Hearing is a similarly limited capacity. Yet, vision and hearing have profound effects on us. Psychology therapies recognize music, art, movement and sound as part of expressive arts therapies. They are used by therapist to induce behavioral changes, adaptation to society, to produce mood changes, expand horizons and widen perceptions. It is useful in hypnosis, guided imagery, relaxation training, stress management and other therapeutic processes. We can be taught to hear and meditate to an internal high frequency personal sound. We can gain awareness of the sound of color. The term for hearing color is synesthia. Even at the deepest atomic, cellular, molecular level we experience sympathetic resonance. This is also called entrainment or resonance. When two or more vibrating bodies ... realities ... come into step, a process of harmony results.

Sounds and Vibrations

There are common, ordinary sounds that allow us to connect with the fire of our consciousness, laughter, crying, the sounds made during sex, and simply producing tones or vibrations. Flowing tears, sobs, body shaking, moans, orgasmic spasms, deep intense breathing, the belly quivering guffaws ... can open emotional centers and spiritual channels. It cleans the system, triggers endorphins, provides a relief from stress and tension. These sounds and movements provide healing; stimulates the diaphragm, thorax, abdomen, heart, lungs. They clear the respiratory system, speed circulation, increase heart rate, alter the brains chemistry ... producing catecholamines and endorphins ... and use it to our benefit.

To experience hearing your own sound, place the pads of your index fingers flat over the tab of skin and cartilage just in front of the ear canal and press gently. This will create a slight air pressure in the ear canal. Remain silent and listen. The first sound you hear will resemble the sound of the ‘ocean in a sea shell’. That is the sound of your physiology at work. Continue to listen and you will begin to hear an ultra-sonic type sound. It will sound as if it is located in the center point of your head. Imagine a line from the crown down to the top of the spine .... and a line from the top of each ear to the other ear ... then a line from the bridge of the nose to the back of the head ... where these lines intersect will be where the sound seems to originate. Some experience it as a flute like sound, others a a single tone, still some one else may think it sounds like a cricket. Your sound is uniquely yours.

Music, sound, color and light all produce physiological and psychological changes. They create changes in posture, pulse, physical activity and in breathing. Deaf individuals respond to frequency vibration of sound and music in much the same manner that hearing persons respond. Music/sound/color can create destruction and discord or can energize and bring balance and order. It can calm or stimulate, create a sense of well being or one of agitation. It can strengthen or it can weaken. When one is in harmony with surrounding energies a state of expanded awareness is formed.

Entrainment is a term to express how the human body responds to sound, color, light, music, all types of sensory input. The body assumes a sympathetic resonance with stimuli much the way a tuning fork or a musical instrument come into resonance. This process of entrainment keeps us in resonance with the planet. When two or more vibrating bodies or realities come into resonance they create a process of harmony. Many of us watched as a teacher struck and rang a tuning fork. Then they would place another tuning fork near it and it would begin to ring also. This was our early introduction to resonance and entrainment. Unfortunately, we tended to forget its lessons. Recall of the results of being near a resonating vibration can remind us that we are continually resonating with our environment. Developed, this can lead to harmony. Harmony facilitates greater power and wisdom as well as fuller health and vitality.

Hara-laugh

T’ai Ch’i sages speak to a ‘hara-laugh’. This is a laugh from the center of one’s being. It is a laugh, a consciousness center to be cultivated. Laughter is a created resonance with life, matter and spirit. Frequently it causes a resonant laughter response in those nearby.

Al Huang, in the book, Quantum Soup: A Philosophical Entertainment reports that the Chinese calligraphy character for laughter is a figure, arms and legs flung outward, head up to the sky, “vibrating with mirth, like bamboo leaves in the wind”. He gives instructions to “grow a proper laugh”. Briefly ....

1) imagine a baby bamboo shoot pushing up through earth (the idea of a laugh)

2) let the thought of laughter grow

3) feel the beginning of a genuine smile

4) widen the smile until you feel the tickle of sound in of laugh in the back of the throat

5) feel the sound begin to bounce in the chest

6) picture growing bamboo stalk rising toward sky, leaves rustling in air, the laughter taking form

7) allow the body to follow leaves of the bamboo stalk

8) expand (self) in all directions - breath is bigger, deeper, wider ... stretch, let it grow, watch it as it grows - give it life

9) give it its sound to match it life

10) feel the shoulder shake - let the belly quiver

11) the sound from the center of Being escapes - quakes, shakes, blows

12) “toes, kneecaps, hips and lips become the sound of laughter”

All this brings balance and harmony to the mind, body, and spirit. Consciousness is reachable. Laughter heals, balances and establishes resonance with the universe.

Toning

Another skill to practice to simply explore sound and its effect is to learn to tone. Spend time making sounds ... use different vowel sounds. Open your mouth and let sound emerge. Then change the volume and/or the tone of the sound. When the vibration is centered in the mid-point of the skull, the brain, and it feels as if it originates there, then be conscious of different affects on body, mind, and sprit from different sounds. Touch the top of the head, feel the vibrations. Change the sound and touch the body to feel where the vibrations are centered. Use intuitive sensing to be aware of the color and the light of the sounds. Then sense the sound, the color and the light of silence.

All levels of beings and consciousness have varying intensities of luminosity. These luminous vibrations are all characterized by sound vibrations or rhythms which one hears when the ear of consciousness has been opened. Less consciousness is a form of fragmented light and sound. This is part of our vital, and is discordant and jarring, aware of broken and highly colored rhythms. As frequency comes into cosmic resonance, we move into higher levels. The rainbow of resulting color turns to pure white and ultimately crystal clear with the sound ... OM ... the sound of the upper fire, the sound of light, the sound of Super-Consciousness..

By combining certain sounds we can achieve specific powers. Whenever we focus and use this current, we find it contains an extraordinary energy, limited only by our own possibilities. This power is unlimited. It can disable, cure, start a fire, protect, cast spells, modify our own and others sense of well being. This is at the Vital level and like many powers may be misused. Because of its potential misuse, this discourse will not delve further. There are teachers who work with sound , imagery and movement. they can take you into these teachings in a responsible manner.

At higher levels, planes of consciousness, this power of sound vibration manifests as poetry, music, mantras of the Upanishads and the Veda ... or the songs of the Navajo ... or Gregorian Chants ... or sacred sounds of the Tibetans ... or the hymns of the Christians ... or the sounds and colors the way the Sufi use them ... these are conscious manipulations of higher vibrations. It opens gates in consciousness. All vibration is energy and all energy is vibration. Color, music, sound, and light are all energy. Form and matter are expressions of energy.

Color

Color like has a significant influence on us. It influences our mood, our emotions, and our actions. Each of the Chakras has a color associated with it. The color corresponds to the energy of the Chakra. Color has frequency and vibration just as sound does. Each is located differently on the Electromagnetic Spectrum. Think about your favorite color or colors. What is it about that color that you like? How do different colors effect your feelings and your attitudes. It is difficult to think about red without the association of intensity. That definition of intensity varies some. For some individuals it may indicate anger. For others it may suggest sexuality. There are equally varied responses to other colors but some commonalties. Red is intense. Blue is calm. Yellow is light and sun. Green is growth and plants. Native American cultures associate specific colors with the teachings of the directions. Different tribes place colors differently but there is always a logical, practical reason for the color.

Experiment with color. Try them out in your imagery and in your clothing. Think back to different stages, different passages of your life. How did your color taste vary? Many times they reflect the patterns of our lives. Purposely try wearing a color that is one of your least favorite colors. Take note how your attitudes alter. The psychology of color is also active in the business world now. Our spending patterns are influenced by the colors and the decor of commercial enterprises. Food establishments are designed to either move us quickly through or to encourage us to linger and spend more. Music combined with color does a doubly efficient job in influencing our subconscious. Increasing conscious awareness of surroundings and actively changing surroundings to reflect our objectives helps us achieve and accomplish what we want.

Light

Natural light is perhaps the strongest influence on our consciousness levels and all its dualistic partitions. It has an equally strong effect on our physical body. It stabilizes vitamins use, provides vitamin E, dramatically influences vision and color, controls our circadian rhythm, and its lack can cause depression ... Seasonal Affective Disorder.

When we enter Super-Consciousness, we no longer see and hear with ordinary limited senses. Our senses become more vivid, more intense, have more depth. Vibrations of consciousness take possession, enter the cells and spirit of the seeker. They enter consciousness wrapped in color, images and sounds. This is expressed by the priest, the poet, the artist, the musician and others as they translate sensations into ordinary reality through creativity. When consciousness is clear, and is in harmony, its translation is Beauty. Beings, forces, sounds, colors, lights, rhythms and dimensions are just so many vibrations. They are various vibratory forms of the One vibration of consciousness. Conscious individuals can recognize and draw these vibrations into this ordinary reality, into our physical form. We feel their energy, their luminousness, their

The result of harmony, of resonance, of consciousness manifest on two levels. The first level reflects well being, delight, spiritual ease, pleasure ... a virtuous , moral life ... happiness. Our life is uplifted even if we go no further in our Quest.

At the second level we find liberation. We discover an openness of the whole world of inner-ness and outer-ness. We begin to recognize non-duality. We recognize and face pleasure and pain equally and without judgment. We look directly into light and into the shadow of our heart and our mind.

Conscious Exteriorization

Another way of gaining independence from the body is called conscious exteriorization. Many recognize this event as being ‘out of body’. A few people do this spontaneously, others learn the skill. Still others, many people, wonder why anyone would want to step outside their body. This separation occurs very naturally as a component of sleep and dreams common to everyone. If you have not brought this experience into your awake state, recognize it as natural and do not allow yourself to become fearful. It is also becoming familiar as a component of ‘near death experiences’, and surgery memories. This exteriorization during dreams can be a learning technique to gain voluntary and consciousness independence from the body. This separation from the body is one more way of quieting the body to become more fully conscious.

This can be experienced through a form of self hypnosis, self guided imagery. It is a process of stimulating all physical senses in the internal ... mentally physical. It is creating internal experience. Use positive images, phrases and suggestions. Create an attitude of positive expectancy. Set the mood. Example terms to reflect on:

peaceful content reflective joyous gladness freedom

safe secure comfortable protected delight confident

strong capable intelligent eager energetic graceful

wise energy enthusiastic satisfied healthy in control

warmth coolness resourceful willing intuitive accepted

aware conscious awake calm at peace compassionate

It is important to keep this a positive experience. It is not a time to do deep therapy or family history work or to processing past events and situations. The objective is to establish an atmosphere of reinforcement and safety. In this safe and sacred space we can allow conscious exteriorization. In the beginning stages this is much like elaborate day dreams and are created ... elicited by self suggestion.

Begin with setting a variety of images to stimulate all sensations. Some individuals are visual, some are auditory, others might work more effectively with touch and feel. Suggestions should include some of all available sensory influences. Examples of sensation and of settings follow. Select a garden, or a beach or a meadow or a fantasy spot ... then experience as many different sensations as possible.

GARDEN BEACH MEADOW MOUNTAIN CRYSTAL CITY

MOVEMENT walk sit ride horse climb glide on lightbeam

SMELL flowers ocean grass pine, sage fresh air

HEARING birds gulls wind leaves rustling flute music

FEELING breeze sun mist cool shade crystal

TASTE berries salt wild mint spring water water fountain

SEEING plants waves trees snow peaks glass buildings

TOUCH flowers shell moist earth pine needles cool surface

BECOME songbird shark sparrow eagle crystal

SENSE singing gills nesting soaring stone-ness

Using breathing techniques is helpful in eliciting images and breath can also be a primary focus for the attention to help step outside the physical body. One technique uses four stages of breath; indwelling, holding, outgoing and holding. Each of the four breath stages has a distinct tonality (sound). It also has a beat, a cycle, and an electromagnetic pattern. The breath controls temperature, oxygenation and the transfer of pranic energy (Marcel Vogel).

Indwelling breath - builds patterns of thought, develops intention and programs action for transfer to body cells.

Holding one - time for the physical exchange ... the transfer of prana, intention, oxygen and thought to the bloodstream and cells; and for carbon dioxide, CO2 and other waste products to be gathers for release form the body

Outgoing breath - kind, gentle release of the breath that completes the Yin/Yang, male/female, positive/negative energy and creates a balanced whole.

Holding two - the pause which allows preparation for the cycle to begin again.

A common meditation technique is to follow the breath ... in and out. Each time a thought appears, label it as ‘thought’ then return to the breath. Do this for a time period of ten minutes to one or two hours at a time. This changes body awareness to a one-pointed focus of breath.

Each of these techniques allows conscious exteriorization. Then the consciousness-force becomes still, quiet ... like a transparent, weightless mass taking up no space. It feels almost nonexistent. We learn to elicit the exteriorization. Breathing subsides, the heartbeat becomes faint, then we may experience a sharp release and find ourselves ‘elsewhere’. We discover that we are in the subtle physical, in the luminous sphere, the energy dimension. This ‘place’ can still be defined as a place but it exist beyond three dimensional reality, our consensus reality. We find ourself someplace other than our body. The most immediate elsewhere borders our physical world and resembles it. This independence comes to be the normal attitude of the whole being. The physical body comes to feel as something external and detachable. It becomes something we can take off and put back on at will. We may even feel that the body is non-existent and unimportant except as a partial expression of vital force and of our mental and emotional expression.

As we continue to step more fully into Super-Consciousness we are able to ‘wear’ both simultaneously. We can be in physical body and in other realities at the same time. We see and experience the opposites ... the dualities from any and/or all of the seeing positions. We acknowledge the duality from the position of non-duality.

Dreamwork

Sleep and Death

Sleep and death as well as being in the body and out of the body, become intertwined in the same consciousness. In full consciousness we recognize that each utilizes a freedom from physical limits. In the little death we call sleep, we can escape into awakness. If we have a nightmare we can awaken, if we do not like our dreams, we can awaken. With conscious exteriorization ... out-of-body experiences, we can escape into awakeness. In the ‘grand death’ of the physical body, there is no place to return, no escape. Consciousness remains the same, our mode of communication, of interaction ... must change.

This level of consciousness exist as strongly while we reside in ... while we use our physical body in consensus reality and consensus time. While we are fully in matter we can learn to utilize awareness and consciousness. We can learn to ‘see’ everything, with vision more insightful than our optical vision. We can learn to allow an internal, intuitive seeing, an equivalent hearing and sensing that extends far beyond physical sensory input. Our sensory system, by its incapacity, invented darkness. In truth there is nothing but light, only it is a power of light either above or below our poor human visions limited range (Aurobindo). We learn to walk in the light through Consciousness.

Meanwhile we live, sleep and die with much unconsciousness ... as if continually on auto pilot. If we live to 100, at the end we find that we have slept 30 years of our lives with no connection between sleeping awareness and waking awareness ..... Another 60 years has been consumed with acquiring means. Again, very little expanded consciousness is developed or used. We have 10 years or less to be spiritual, to evolve, to be aware, to be ‘conscious’ unless we develop consciousness at all levels; all levels of sleep, all levels of daily life, and all levels of death. Then consciousness survives and thrives unendingly as our energy survives endlessly. We assist in the evolutionary merging of spirit, energy and matter.

To correct this imbalance, this exaggerated state of unconscious, we must recover our entire universal reality, our universal consciousness. Three methods may be used. First is sleep, second, conscious exteriorization (out of body experience) and/or deep meditation. Third, we learn to see everything without sleep, or meditation, with our eyes wide open, in the middle of other activities. We recognize that there is no separation between worlds ... except for our lack of consciousness. We have no need to escape for we have arrived. We have always been.

In our sleep we have ordinary sleep, conscious sleep, the sleep of experience and sleep of action. We dream in each of these sleeps and the dreams may be ‘ordinary’ dreams, ‘unconsciousness’ dreams, ‘conscious’ dreams and/or ‘lucid’ dreams.

Ordinary sleep and dreams is what we are most familiar with. We slip into a state of non-awareness at night and return to physical awareness in the morning and resume our unconscious living. Even if we have experienced phenomenal bliss, or unbearable pain, or great enlightenment during our sleep, it remains unavailable to us. With focus and commitment we can begin to learn to be aware of sleep and the events occurring during this time. We can begin to remember what happened during sleep. Sleep of action becomes the process of learning to ‘use’ the dream time for purpose. Dreams occur for each of us about every 90 minutes throughout the night. Our awareness of them and our utilization of them varies. Lucid dreaming is awareness that you are dreaming while you are in the dream. It is here we can begin to take charge of the dreamtime.

One place to explore the possibilities of ’more’ is the Sleep of Experience. This is Conscious sleep, or dreams in which we remain conscious ... lucid and return to physical awakeness with awareness of sleep awakeness. We learn to do without sacrificing the rest our body needs. Sleep is our first tool, it is something we all do. One can become increasingly conscious during sleep, conscious on this level of reality as well as other reality levels. A new mother hears the steady breathing of her baby but is undisturbed by a siren outside. This is selective attention. We chose our awareness. We become aware of immense and countless worlds that suffuse, envelop and overshadow our little earth.

To begin to experience sleep awakeness, we must have clear austerity, including the absence of desire and a silent mind. Trying harder is counter productive ... we get in our own way. After we learn to have dream awareness it is time to build bridges between planes and levels. One bridge is the bridge to waking consciousness. We learn to being the dream into this reality ... we remember it when we wake up. Thought has no place in the remembering process. If we try and try, this pushes the memory of the dream farther away. If we remain mentally quiet on waking, as if floating on a silent sea, we can begin to feel intuitively the dream and its meaning. With patience we draw forth images from the quiet waters of forgetfulness. We learn to find the thread in the silence and pull gently without trying to think or understand. Patience and persistence will prevail. We can and do learn to remember our dreams.

Another skill we can recognize and develop is the use of ‘formations’. Formations are something we make ... literally. A familiar variety of formation is our inner clock. We create a formation to wake at a certain time ... and we do. Formations are desires and thoughts fulfilled. Sometimes this happens much later, even when we have forgotten and no longer want them. It is the basis of the saying, “be careful what you wish for, you may get it.” They can be more or less durable. Many times these formations come into being many years after the thought. Other times they may need to be recharged and continued.

In pre-sleep, dream awareness we can create the formation, the suggestion of dreaming and waking to acknowledge the dream. This allows us to record or to mentally set the dream in memory so that it can be recalled more easily the following morning. In sleep/dreams of experience we remain passive witnesses. We watch and remember.

Sleep of Action

Action sleep is bigger, richer and more intense. Ordinary dreams are passive. Moving into the action of dreams allows integration of sleep and conscious. Awareness of multiple realms follows. We begin to learn to tell ordinary dreams from dream experiences. The quality of light of the dream changes and we become aware of the changes and the differences. We learn that we can step into the dream, be awake in the dream and manipulate the dream and its outcome. We learn to create our dream realities to the point that our created dream realities can be visited regularly and by choice.

In our Sleep of Action we discover that our dreams are made up of fragments. They are little vibrations which disperse and run all over in thousands of tangents. The physiology of the brain weaves these fragments into story form. When these fragments are not integrated around the individual center, our psychic center, we cannot control them. Without direction we go to our lower vital (navel and sexuality). These are our more base instincts and leave us vulnerable to attack by the fragmented random elements. This is often experienced as a nightmare. We can escape by returning to our body. With integration, when we develop that ability, we have psychic light, a fragment of Supreme light. With this beam of Supreme light adverse forces vanish. Remembering ... calls the true vibration. This true vibration has the power to dissolve or disperse all vibrations of lesser intensity. This nightmare stage is a transitory stage, a stage we learn to move quickly past.

Negative events and positive events in a dream have the potential to facilitate negative events or positive events in our three dimensional reality. They have the characteristics of ‘formations’. Being actively conscious and balanced causes dubious energies to withdraw. “A conscious being, no larger than a mans thumb, stands in the center of our self; he is Master of the past and the present ... he is today and he is tomorrow,” says the Katha Upanishad (IV. 12, 13) {Upanishad means ‘sitting near’}. Developing this Master ability can increase our focus on positive energy creations and disallow the power of the negative. Numerous experiences with dreamwork allows us to better understand to what extent dreams are not dreams. Dreams can be a window into alternate realities and the window can be transformed into a doorway.

Action is intimately connected to integration. As our being becomes integrated around our psychic center, we move from passive to active sleep. Active sleep is dreamwork.

This integration moves us to an awareness of all realms. Premonitions begin to occur more frequently in our dreams. This frequently means that something already exists on a dream reality plane before it gets here in this reality. We have created it in one realm and then pull it into here and now. With consciousness and harmonious balance we can change or recreate that which exist and is moving toward us..

Our DREAM CONSCIOUSNESS begins to develop. When we step beyond the limits of physical reality we begin to recognize the special nature of dreams. Many visible, external changes are preceded by inner change and pre-reality awareness through dreamwork.

There are many reasons we dream. Some of the reasons are:

1) To re-create three dimensional reality through fantasy, for entertainment, to rehearse future events, to problem solve, to re-live and perhaps reframe past events.

2) To provide a message pathways from the subconscious, from the unconscious, from the collective unconsciousness and to provide connection with Super-Consciousness.

3) It is a way toward know what we cannot know through ordinary mind consciousness.

4) It is a Dimensional Gateway.

5) It can be used to stimulate the immune system and other healing mechanisms of the physical body.

6) It is a way to experience the feeling of separation between body and mind, to experience externalization from the body.

7) To gain insight into our personal range of symbols and feelings.

8) To facilitate thought formations.

9) To develop integration of sleep and consciousness.

10) It is a way to bring together spirit and matter.

There are many ways of developing dream consciousness. One way is a progressive technique of perfecting dream skills in a progression of dream exercises (Harary and Weintraub).

1. In alert relaxation the body becomes increasingly relaxed while the mind remains alert. This is a state very much like deep hypnosis. The physical body seems to fall into a deep sleep without losing consciousness. Do and practice this. Seek special feelings of transcendence. Note shifts in waking and sleeping and in the intermediate states. In the learning process, practice this many times and maintain alert relaxation for 20 - 30 minutes. Record all experience in a dream journal.

2. The next step is one of creating adventure, free forming fantasy. A surrealistic cartoon or a nature film can be good facilitators. Music can also help stimulate imagery. About three hours before bedtime, do the alert relaxation and then allow spontaneous or self generated images to form. This may be done by playing a part in the movie or other creative ventures. Practice 30 - 45 minutes.

3. Developing hypnogogic imagery is the next step. This occurs naturally in the ‘twilight’ area between sleep and awakeness. It can also be an elicited state. It a condition of vivid and conscious mental pictures that emerge in the state of ‘twilight’. Be a witness to the dream but not participate in or control it. Follow the hypnogogic image into a full lucid image. Do this about one hour before bed time. Music or a video can be used. Maintain awareness. When sleep is felt to be near, say, “I am now entering a dream.”

4. Repeat the process. This time study the scenario and remind self that the dream is a product of creativity, memories, and imagination. Note general and specific aspects. Then begin to change something. ‘Something’ might be a color, the weather, the temperature, time, smells, tastes, or anything else. If you wake up, continue to play out the end in a semi-conscious state of deep relaxation.

5. Repeat the process again. Enter alert relaxation without music or video this time. Allow the hypnogogic image to form. If they do not form spontaneously then create them through imagery. This time shift the entire dream. This can be done by selecting an object, then shift the object to a different setting, a different dream.

6. Repeat. This time pay special attention to the characters. If you are alone, walk around or do some other activity until some life form appears in the dream. Each form is some representation of your inner self. You ... play each and every part. If you wake up, play out at least one part in the state of semi-consciousness.

7. Prepare earlier in the day for this dream exercise. Prepare by observing and being aware of your relationship with others and the world. Take note of feelings about life in general and about specific situations, themes and patterns that motivate or hinder you. Imagine a life form to represent higher power and wisdom. It may be human or animal or fantasy. Reflect on this at least three times during the day while relaxed and comfortable. Do this for about 1/2 hour each time. Before bed time, gather tangible symbols of these issues and place them on a table near the bed. Contemplate them before bed. Incense and/or music may be used. Enter alert relaxation, contemplate mentally the objects, then enter lucidity, directly from waking consciousness. In the dream look for the symbolic representation of higher power and wisdom. Converse.

8. Repeat, but this time