Category Archives: Thoughts

REM DREAMS AND CHEMICAL CONNECTIONS

The reality of dreams can be investigated only through direct contact. REM sleep or no REM sleep, your dreams exist constantly beneath consciousness, even in the waking state. The personality is constantly affected by them. It is impossible to deprive a person of dreams even though you deprive him/her of sleep (as in certain dream laboratory experiments). This function will be carried on subconsciously.

The eye movements moted in the beginning of REM sleep are only indications of dream activity that is closely connected with the physical layers of the self. These periods mark not the onset of dreams but the return of the personality from deeper layers of dream awareness to more surface ones. The self is actually returning to more surface levels to check upon physical environment. There is a transference of main energy in deeper dream states from physical to mental concentration.

Quite simply, the self travels to areas of reality that are far divorced from the physical areas of mobility. The muscles are lax then because physical activity is not required. The energy that is not being expended physical is used to sustain mental actions. The chemical excesses built up in the waking state are automatically changed as they are drained off, into electrical energy which also helps to form and sustain dream images.

Our scientists would learn more about the nature of dreams if they would train themselves in dream recall. Again, the very attempt to deprive an individual of sleep will automatically set into mechanism subconscious dream activity. The tampering will then change the conditions. The direct experience of the developing dream is what we should be concerned with.

This could be studied if proper suggestions were given to an individual that he/she would awaken at the exact point of a dream’s end (as in our own experiments). The dream state and conditions could also be studied legitimately using hypnosis. Here, you are working with the mind itself and merely suggesting that it operate in a certain fashion. You are not tampering with the mechanics of its operation and automatically altering the conditions.

Using hypnosis, you can get good dream recall with a good operator. You can suggest ordinary sleep and dreaming and then suggest that without awakening, the subject give a verbal description of his/her dreams as he/she experiences them. Another alternative is to suggest that the subject under hypnosis repeat the dreams of the night before.

Using these methods, the dreams of the mentally ill could also be studied if the affliction was not too severe. The dreams of children could be investigated in this way and compared with those of adults. children dream vividly and more often.They return more frequently, however, to periods of near wakefulness in order to check their physical environment, since they are not as sure of it as adults are. In deep periods of sleep, children range further away, as far as dream activities are concerned.

The ego allows them more freedom. For this reason, they also have more telepathic and clairvoyant dreams than adults. They also have greater psychic energy; that is, they are able to draw upon energy more easily. Because of the intenseness of their waking experience, the chemical excesses build up at a faster rate. Therefore, children have more of this ‘chemical propellant’ to use in dream formation. they are also more conscious of their dreams.

I have said often that any action changes that which acts and that which is acted upon; and so in the sort of experiments that are currently being carried on to study dreams, the acts of the investigators are changing the conditions in such a way that it is easy for them to find what they are looking for. The investigator himself/herself, through his/her actions, inadvertently brings about those results for which his/her looks. The particular experiment may see, then, to suggest conditions which are by no means general, but may appear to be. Under hypnosis a subject is not as much on guard, as is the subject of an experiment who knows in advance that he/she will be awakened by experimenters, that electrodes will be attached to his/her skull and that laboratory conditions are substituted for his/her nightly environment. It is impossible to study dreams when an attempt is made to isolate the dreamer from his/her own personality, to treat dreams as if they were physical or mechanical. The only laboratory for a study of dreams is the laboratory of the personality.

ILLNESS AND ACTION

Illnesses can be seen as impeding actions representing actual blockages of energy, action turned into channels that are not to the best interests of the personality. The anergies appear concentrated and turned inward, affecting the whole system. They represent offshoots; not necessarily detrimental in themselves, except when viewed from the standpoint of other actions that form the personality framework.

A certain portion of the energy practically available to the personality is spent in the maintenance of this impeding action or illness. It is obvious, then, that less energy is available for actions more beneficial to the personality system as a whole.

The situation can be serious in varying degrees, according to the impetus and intensity of the original cause behind the illness. If the impetus is powerful, then the impeding action will be of more serious nature, blocking huge reserves of energy for its own purposes. It obviously becomes part of the personality’s psychological structure, the physical, electrical and chemical structures, invading to some extent even the dream system.

At times, illness is momentarily accepted by the personality as a part of the self, and here lies its danger. It is not just symbolically accepted, and I am not speaking in symbolic terms. The illness is often quite literally accepted by the personality structure as a portion of the self. Once this occurs, a conflict instantly develops. The self does not want to give up a portion of itself, even if that part may be painful or disadvantageous.

For one thing, while pain is unpleasant, it is also a method of familiarizing the self against the edges of quickened consciousness. Any heightened sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, has a stimulating effect upon consciousness to some degree. It is a strong awareness of activity and life. Even when the stimulus may be extremely annoying or humiliatingly unpleasant, certain portions of the psychological framework accept it acquiescence to even painful stimuli is a basic part of the nature of consciousness and a necessary one.

Even a quick and automatic rejection or withdrawal from such a stimulus is, in itself, a way by which consciousness knows itself. The ego may attempt to escape such experiences, but the basic nature of action itself is the knowing of itself in all aspects. In a very deep manner, action does not differentiate between enjoyable and painful actions.

These differentiations come later, on another level of development. But because personality is composed of action, it contains within it all action’s characteristics.

These differentiations come later, on another level of development. But because personality is composed of action, it contains within it all action’s characteristics.

The ways in which various kinds of consciousness react to painful stimuli, ending up with a statement that at deepest cellular levels, all sensations and stimuli are instantly, automatically and joyfully accepted, regardless of their nature. At this level, no knowledge of threats exists. The “I” differentiation is not definite enough to fear destruction.

Here we have action knowing itself and realizing its basic indestructibility. It has no fear of destruction, for it is also a part of the destruction from which new actions will evolve.

The complicated organism of human personality with its physical structure has evolved a highly differentiated ‘I’ consciousness, whose very nature is such that it attempts to preserve the apparent boundaries of identity. To do so it must choose between actions.

But beneath the sophisticated gestalt are the simpler foundations of its being and, indeed, the very acceptance of all stimuli without which identity would be impossible. Without this acquiescence, the physical structure would never maintain itself, for the atoms and molecules within it constantly accept painful stimuli and suffer even their own destruction. They are aware of their own separateness within action and of their reality within it.

Now you should understand why even an impeding action can be literally accepted by the personality as a part of itself and why efforts must be made to coax the personality to give up a portion of itself, if progress is to made.

We are also helped, however, by several characteristics of the personality, in that it is ever-changing, and its flexibility will be of benefit. We merely want to change the direction in which some of its energy moves. It must be seen by the personality that an impeding action is a hardship on the whole structure and that this particular part of the self is not basic to the original personality. The longer the impeding action is accepted, the more serious the problem.

CAN ILLNESS SERVE A GOOD PURPOSE

The whole focus of a personality can change from constructive areas to a concentration of main energies in the area of the illness. Now in such a case, often the illness represents a new unifying system. If the old unifying system of personality has broken down, the illness, serving as a makeshift, temporary emergency measure may hold the integrity of the personality intact until a new constructive, unifying principle replaces the original.

In this case, the illness could not be called an impeding action unless it persisted long after its purpose was served. Even then, without knowing all the facts you could not make a judgment, for the illness could still serve by giving the personality a sense of security, being kept on hand as an ever-present emergency device in case the new unifying principle should fail.

Unifying principles are groups of actions about which the whole personality forms itself at any given time. There may change and do change in a relatively smooth fashion when action is allowed to flow unimpeded. When action is not allowed to follow the patterns or channels for its expression that have been evolved by the personality, then blockages of energy occur.

These must be understood not as something apart from the personality, but as a part of the changing personality. Often, they point out the existence of inner problems. Often, they serve temporary functions, leading the personality from other more serve areas of difficulty. I am not saying here that illness is good. I am saying that it is a part of the action of which any personality is composed, and, therefor, it is purposeful and cannot be considered as an alien force that attacks the individual from without.

THE NATURE OF ACTION (ILLNESS)

The personality is simultaneous action; it is composed of actions within actions. Portions of it are conscious of its awareness as a part of action, and portions try to stand aside from action. This attempt forms the ego, which is itself action.

If illness were thrust upon action or upon the personality from the outside, then the individual would be at the mercy of outside agencies, but it is not. Personality is affected by outside agencies, but in a most basic manner, it chooses those actions which it will accept.

An illness can be rejected. The habit of illness can be rejected. When action is allowed to flow freely, then neurotic rejections of action will not occur. An illness is almost always the result of another action that cannot be carried through. When the lines to the repressed action are released and the channels to it opened, such an illness will vanish. However, the thwarted action may be one with disastrous consequences, which the illness may prevent.

POOR HEALTH

Poor health is caused mainly by destructive mental and felling patterns that directly affect the body because of the particular range within the electromagnetic system in which they fall. Bad health, for example, does not happen first, resulting in unhealthy thoughts. It is the other way around.

Illness must be treated primarily by changing the basic mental habits. Unless this is done, the trouble will erupt again and again in different guises. The system has the ability to heal itself, however, and every opportunity should be given to allow it to do so.

In most cases the stimuli (toward healing) come from deeper levels of the self, where they may be translated into terms that the personal subconscious can use. In such cases, these perceptions may find their way to the ego, appearing as inspirations or intuitive thought.

Many such intuitions appear when the personality is dissociated or in a dream state. The effect of any thought is quite precise and definite and set into motion because of the nature of its own electromagnetic identity. The physical body operates within certain electromagnetic patterns and is adversely affected by others. These effects change the actual molecular structure of the cells, for better or worse, and because of the laws of attraction, habitual patterns will operate. A destructive thought, then, is dangerous not only to the present state of the organism but is also dangerous in terms of the ‘future.’

THERAPEUTIC DREAMS

We have not spken about the inner senses in some time. By now, you should realize that they have an electromagnetic reality also and that the mental enzymes act as sparks, setting off inner reactions. In the dream state, these reactions are easily triggered. This is the result of the lowering of egotistical guards, for the ego sets up controls that act as resistances to various inner channels (during the waking state).

A destructive attitude of mind has been changed overnight in the dream state to a constructive situation in many instances, and the whole electromagnetic balance has been changed. In such a case, negative ions form an electrical framework in which healing is possible. Such healing dreams come most often when the self feels a sense of desperation and automatically opens up channels to deeper layers of personality.

Often we find an almost instant regeneration, a seemingly instant cure, a point from which the organism almost miraculously begins to improve. The same happens in less startling cases where, for example, a merely annoying health condition suddenly disappears.

Through self-suggestion, these therapeutic dreams can be brought about with practice. The suggestion (being action) has its own electromagnetic effect and already begins to set certain healing processes into action, while sparking the formation of others.

Such inner therapeutics may occur at various other levels of consciousness, where they may be sparked by external stimuli of an aesthetic or pleasing nature. Other exterior conditions also have an effect. To involve oneself in large groups, for example, is often beneficial not simply to take attention away from the self for a change, but because of the larger range of electromagnetic ranges readily available.

The overall health of the individual is important, as is the delicate balance of electromagnetic properties. When the organism is set deeply in destructive patterns, then this is sometimes felt in the dream state, so that destructive dreams then add to the entire situation. For this reason, the use of self-suggestion in bringing about constructive dreams is of great benefit.

DREAMS SYMBOLS

As the personality is changed by any action, so it is changed by its own dreams. As it is molded by the exterior environment, so it is molded by the dreams that it creates and which help form its interior world. To the whole self, there is little differentiation made between exterior or interior actions. The ego makes such distinctions. The core of the personality does not. As an individual changes his/her physical situation through reacting to it, so he/she changes his/her interior or psychic situation in the same way.

In dreams, you give freedom to actions that cannot adequately be expressed within the confines of normal waking reality. If the personality handles his/her dream activities capably, then problem actions find release in dreams. When the ego is too rigid, it will even attempt to censor dreams, however, and freedom all action is not entirely permitted, even in the dream condition.

If this solution fails, the impeding action will then materialize as a physical illness or undesirable psychological condition. If an individual has strong feelings of dependency that cannot be expressed in daily life, he/she will express these in dreams. If he/she does not, then he/she may develop an illness that allows him/her to be dependent in physical life. If he/she is aware of difficulties, however, he/she may request dreams that will release this feeling.

The individual would not necessarily remember such a dream. Psychologically, however, such an experience would be valid, and the dependency expressed. I cannot stress this too strongly: To the inner self, the dream experience is as real as any other experience.

It follows that (by) using suggestion, various problems can be solved within the dream state. The inner ego of which we have spoken is the director of such unifying activities. It is the ‘I’ of your dreams, having somewhat the same position within the inner self as the ego has to the outer physical body.

Upon proper suggestion, the personality then will work out specific problems in the dream state, but if the solution is not clear to the (conscious) ego, this does not necessarily mean that the solution was not found. There will be cases where it is not only unnecessary but undesirable that the ego be familiar with the solution. The suggestions will be followed by the sleeping self in its own fashion. The solutions may not appear to the conscious self in the way it expects. The conscious self may not even recognize it has been given a solution, and yet it may act upon it.

Both psychological and physical illnesses could largely be avoided through dream therapy. Rather harmlessly, aggressive tendencies could also be given freedom in the dream condition. Through such therapy, actions would be allowed greater spontaneity. In the case of the release of aggressiveness, the individual involved would experience this within the dream state and hurt no one. Suggestions could also be given so that he/she learned to understand the aggressiveness through watching himself/herself while in the dream state.

This is not as far-fetched as it might seem. Much erratic anti-social behavior could be avoided in this way. Crimes could be prevented. The desired but feared actions would not build up to explosive pressure. If I may indulge in a fantasy, theoretically you could imagine a massive experiment in dream therapy, where wars were fought by sleeping, and not waking, nations.

(In practice, however,) there are many considerations to be understood. If aggressiveness is the problem, for example, then the preliminary suggestion should include a statement that in the dream, the aggression will be harmlessly acted out and not directed against a particular individual. The subconscious is quite capable of handling the situation in this manner. This may seem like a double censor, but in all cases it is the aggressiveness itself that is important and not the person or persons against whom the individual may decide to vent his/her aggressiveness.

When the aggressiveness is released through a dream, there will be no need for a victim. We do not want an individual to suggest a dream situation in which he/she is attacking another person. There are several reasons for this, both telepathic realities which you do not yet understand and guilt patterns which would be unavoidable.

We are not attempting to substitute dream action for physical action, generally speaking. Here we are speaking of potentially dangerous situations in which an individual shows signs of being unable to cope with these psychological actions through ordinary methods of adaptation. No one can deny that a war fought by dreaming men/women at specified times would be less harmful than a physical war – to return to my flight of fancy. There would be repercussions, however, that would be unavoidable, (for again, basically, the personality does not differentiate between sleeping and waking events).

Again, if the personality is fairly well balanced, then his/her existence in dream reality will reinforce his/her physical existence. You are involved in a juggling of realities. It is necessary to see the personality as it operates within both, if you are interested in understanding its whole experience.

PRECOGNITIVE DREAMS

What is the point of it all? For one thing, records of your own precognitive dreams will convince you that you can perceive segments of the future. This personal knowing is far more vital than a bland intellectual acceptance that precognition may exist or is generally possible.

You don’t have to take precognition on faith. If you keep careful dream records, sooner or later you’ll find your own evidence of it. Each of my own precognitive dreams made a significant impression on me at the time and represented proof that I was moving in the right direction. Now I am much more interested into dream experience.

Each recaptured dream is not only a highly personal document but a clue into the nature of dream existence. Precognitive dreams are most evocative from this standpoint. The dreamer is baffled at his/her own ability to foresee a future event, and this makes him/her more than ordinarily curious about the nature of dream life in particular.

Even this intense interest waxes and wanes, however, in the ordinary sequence of events. My students and I both go through periods when we forget to remember and wake up for weeks at a time with only a few dream fragments. Often, months go by without a precognitive dream, and then there is that odd sense of discovery – always fresh – of an event foreseen. Then the excitement hits again – of spying out the dreaming self and charting the strange environment in which it has its experience. Once more, I’m up at all hours, scribbling down my latest dream notes, checking them eagerly against daily happenings.

In such dreams, the physical future event is often perceived opaquely, distorted in at least some aspects, just as dream events are when seen from the viewpoint of waking life.

For those of you who want to conduct your own experiments, remember: A precognitive dream is one in which you receive future information that you could receive in no normal manner. The dream should be recorded and dated. Write everything down, no matter how trivial. If you remember only dreaming about person or name, record that. When you awaken, do not make intellectual judgements concerning the relative importance of a dream or decide it is not pertinent enough to record. We often foresee very trivial events that seems to have no particular meaning to us. But as you’ll see, association can be at work, relating such experience in an intuitive rather than logical manner.

If possible, read your dream records at night, checking them against the day’s happenings. Once a week, check the whole series. Remember that symbolism is important. Often, you must learn your own way of handling dream symbolism to make sense of dream. Not every dream is precognitive, nor is there any reason to waste much time with interpretations that seem too nebulous. Some procognitive information will be in symbolic form. However, if you do not know the meaning of a symbol, give yourself the suggestion that it will be made clear to you intuitively – thus trust your answer.

PRECOGNITION AND CLAIRVOYANCE

I have told you that each individual creates physical matter, including objects and his/her own image. Coherence, illusion of permanency, placement in space, mass and color are all arrived at and agreed upon in the ways already explained. Telepathic communication is one of the methods by which such agreement is reached.

Long ago, primary and secondary constructions were explained. I emphasized that each individual perceives only his/her own physical constructions. Basically, there is no difference between telepathy and clairvoyance. The apparent difference is the result of an inadequate understanding of the nature of time. The important fact in both cases is that information is received that does not come through normal channels.

When an individual clairvoyance ‘sees’ an event, this is what happens First he/she forgets the concept of continual moments that usually hampers perception. His/her perception changes focus so that he/she is aware of an event that otherwise would seem to be in the future. Unconsciously, as always, he constructs material objects in line with the available data.

It goes without saying, then, that he/she helps to form the clairvoyantly perceived event, just as he/she helps construct any event in the present. The agreement as to physical dimensions is reached in the same manner as usual.

Sense data is not basically dependent upon the physical body. The mind can bypass the senses and receive data in a more direct manner, translating what it perceives automatically, as it translates ordinary sense data.

Under ordinary circumstances, data is received through the physical senses and then interpreted by the brain. When a clairvoyant event is perceived, the data is received by the mind, then given to the brain which interprets it. The physical body becomes aware of it, but the senses have actually been bypassed. The interpretation is made, however, in the same way as it usually is. Otherwise, the information would not register for the physical organism.

Actually. of course, much information perceived directly by the mind does bypass the physical organism completely. In some such cases, the subconscious does receive the data. In other cases. it is not recorded in any way within the physical system but is recorded at deeper layers of the self.

Even this data is available to the subconscious, however, if the need for it arises. Before it can be used by the physical organism, it must(first) be taken from the deeper layers to the brain for interpretation, as if it were new sense data.

In the dreamstate, you smell odors that aren’t in the physical room. The memory of these is imprinted and registered by the body as faithfully and realistically as any ‘real’ odor. The experience becomes a part of (buried)memory and may be recovered through hypnosis. Sometimes it may arise spontaneously.

PRECOGNITIVE MASS DREAMS

There are many kinds of mass or shared dreams. For now, we will be concerned with the mass dreams that have an almost universal nature; that is, dreams that are shared at one time or another by the majority of living persons on our planet.

This particular kind of dream is concerned with working out certain problems concerning physical reality. The dreams usually are not precognitive, although they might appear to be, since many of the dream events will later occur. They are not precognitive, however, because in a larger measure they bring about or cause the later events.

They occur, comparatively speaking, just above that layer which Jung refers to as the collective unconscious. If you could tune into these dreams, you would have a good idea of the main events of the future because you would see them being born. They are concerned with significant events, that affect many countries. They represent deep intents, wishes and purposes.At times thay have immense power to bring about world-shaking changes of beneficial or destructive nature.

One individual is more important that you have ever dreamed, however, for the intensity and intent are important. One man/woman passionately willing good or evil can overbalance literally a hundred men/women. And in the dream state, also, leaders can be and make themselves known. The people already know them in mass dreams before they are recognized in physical reality.

THE DREAM AND PROBABLE SELVES

We mentioned that the dreaming self has its own memories. It has memory of all dream experience. To you, this might mean that it has memory of its past, and, indeed, to you, memory itself is dependent upon a past or the term seems meaningless. To the dreaming self, however, past, present and future do not exist. How can it be said to have memory?

All experience is basically simultaneous, as I told you. The dreaming self is aware of its experience in its entirety. You obviously, are not. You are hardly familiar with your dream experience and barely aware of its significance.

The dreaming self is to some considerable degree aware of the probable self. There is give-and-take between the two, for much data is received by the dreaming self from the probable self – the self that experiences what the ego would call probable events.

The data is often wound by the dream self into a dream drama which informs the subconscious of dangers or of probable success of any given event which is being considered by the subconscious for physical actuality.

This probable self has operated in each reincarnation, in each materialization of the personality, and has at its command literally millions of the probable situations and conditions upon which to make value judgments. Of itself, however, it does not make the decision as to whether or not a particular event will be made physical. It merely passes on the information that it has received through experience.

This information is sifted often through the dreaming self to the subconscious which has intimate knowledge of the ego with which it is closely connected. The subconscious makes its own judgments and passes these on with the data. Then the ego makes its decision. In some cases, the ego refuses to make the decision, and it is done by the subconscious. On occasion, when an unwise decision is made by the ego, the subconscious will change it.

The probable self can be reached through hypnosis but only with excellent subjects and operators. Often it will not be recognized, however, for there will be no evidence of its experience in physical reality to back up its statements. Its data will agree when considered within its own framework. Reaching it in this manner would be highly difficult in any case. To my knowledge, it has not as yet been reached through hypnosis. It has been glimpsed but not recognized as a separate part of the self – in dream recordings and analytic sessions.

Again, these portions of the self exist in each reincarnation. In the materialization of personality through various reincarnations only the ego and layers of personal subconscious adapt new characteristics. Other portions retain their experience, identity, and knowledge. The ego, in fact, receives much of its stability because of this retention. Were it not for experiences in other lives on the part of deeper layers of the self, the ego would find it almost impossible to relate to other individuals, and the cohesive nature of scoiety would not exist.