July 14, 2005

Program Your Dreams

If you want to program your dreams, you can do it very simply.

1. Before sleep, ask your mind to recall your dreams. "when I awaken in the morning, my mind will recall my dreams from my sleep"

2. Create an environment for learning and state the problem simply. "In my dream I will find answers to solve my problem. All resources needed, will be accessed during dreaming. The solution will be clear and obvious"

3. Present the problem to your mind. Bring all the aspects of the
problem into view in your mind. Put them in a box, or in a machine (an imaginary one of course).

4. In the morning, when you first wake up, find the machine or box in your mind, and open it up to find the solution. Sometimes you will be awakened during the night with the solution. You might want to have a pen and paper handy so you can write it down. Dreams can be elusive.

The box, or machine creates a place for your brain to work on the
information and to store the answer. Creating the storage mechanism gives your brain a place to store it, and retrieve it. This is very handy for studying for tests, or remembering names, etc.

From http://www.wendi.com ( Newsletter)
Posted by Milton Drepaul at 21:20:45 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

June 16, 2005

Balance !

So many are in need . . . so many good causes in
the world today.

Many of us feel torn between the call to inner work
and the call to social and political action. We sense
a need for working on ourselves, but an
equally-compelling urge to help make changes in
our community or nation.

The following story may help bring balance to
the push and pull between the internal and external challenges
that we face:

One day Socrates and I were walking back toward the
Berkeley campus during a period of intense
self-analysis, self-healing, and other forms of inner
work. As Soc and I neared campus, a student handed me
a flyer.

I glanced at it. "Soc," I said, "will you
look at this. It's about saving the whales and
dolphins."

" Last week," I sighed, "I got one
about oppressed peoples; the week before it was about
starving children. Sometimes I feel so guilty, or
self-centered, doing all this work on myself
when there are so many people in need out there."

Socrates glanced at me but said nothing.

"Did you hear what I said, Socrates?"

Abruptly, he stopped, turned, and said, "I'll give you
five bucks if you can slap me on the cheek."

"But . . . what does that have to do with ..?"

"Ten bucks," he interrupted.

I figured it was some kind of test, so I took a swing  and found myself on the ground in a painful wrist lock.

As Soc helped me up, he said, "Notice how a little leverage can
be quite effective?"

"Yeah, I sure did," I replied, shaking my wrist.

"It's admirable to want to help the world," he said.

"But to best help someone, you have to understand
them and to understand others, you have to first
understand yourself. So do what you are moved to
do but at the same time, prepare yourself so you can
develop the clarity to know how to exert the
right leverage, in the right place, at the right time. Then
your actions will carry the power to make an effective
difference.

"History, he added, holds many examples of those who
acted without the wisdom to foresee the consequences .

From Sacred Journey of the Peaceful Warrior
-Dan Millman
Posted by Milton Drepaul at 11:57:42 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

January 31, 2005

The Dream Tribe

Western researchers and psychologists refer to the Senoi of Malayasia as the "Dream People".The daily life of this community is based on the dreams of their people.

Every morning the head of each family asks  each person in the household to relate his or her dream from the night before. Everyone is expected to have had a dream and to remember it because from childhood they are trained to  remember and interact with dreams

Each person interprets his or her dream.Then the family chooses one dream that the head of the family will bring to the tribal council. At the council, every family representative  presents the family's dream.The tribal leader  chooses one dream to be the community's project.

There are very specific rules regarding dreams in the Senoi tribe. If  in a dream someone hurts a person, he must ask forgiveness from that person during his waking state. If he dreams that an accident will happen to  a person, he must warn that person when he wakes up. Dreams are taken very seriously by this unusual community..

The Senoi believe that each dream character is a symbol of one's self or an aspect of himself.So if in a dream a person finds himself or herself in an intimate sexual relationship the person should seek to achieve orgasm. This principle of accepting pleasure in a dream even if it is forbidden in the real world is said to be very liberating.

If in a dream a person finds himself in conflict or in a fight with somebody  he should  conquer his opponent but make sure that he asks for a gift before he does so.This gift need not be real. It could be symbolic, like a flower or a poem.. This is said to balance the fight psychologically.

According to reports, there is no crime of any kind among the Senoi. There is  no sex crime, no theft or murder, no rape, sexual molestation, harassment or immorality of any kind. Some psychologists say this lack of crime relates to their use of dreams.

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Posted by Milton Drepaul at 18:43:59 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Senoi Dream Work Principles

The Senoi are (were) a Malaysian hunting and gathering tribe brought to the attention of the West by Kilton Stewart. His descriptions of this happy tribe, free of disease and mental illness due to their morning dream sharing and techniques of dream control, were first described in the early 1950's though the research itself took place before the Second World War.

The dreamwork principles are summarized by Domhoff: (via Stewart and Garfield,1985, pg 9) and still valuable and worth repeating:

1. Always confront and conquer danger in dreams. If an animal looms out of the jungle, go toward it. If someone attacks you, fight back.

2. Always move toward pleasurable experiences in dreams. If you are attracted to someone in a dream, feel free to turn the attraction into a full sexual experience. If you are enjoying the pleasurable sensations of flying or swimming, relax and experience them fully.

3.Always make your dreams have a positive outcome and extract a creative product form them. Best of all in this regard, try to obtain a gift from the dream images, such as a poem, a song, a dance, a design, or a painting.

Posted by Milton Drepaul at 15:56:43 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |