Ch. 1 Becoming a Frequent Flyer

[Lena]

OK, I'm actually running a little late with this, but I wanted to make it a point to start on 10.10.10 and not post anything before


10.10 - 10.17

All right, I think just about everyone, who is signed up, has a book now. 1. Read Ch. 1 and post your thoughts, experiences, and anything you liked in this thread! 2. Do the exercise on p. 18 Calling in Light at least once or daily if you have time. It might be basic for those of you, who are regular meditators, but it's good to try different things, rather than just to read about them. That's what this study is about. We might know a lot of different theories and techniques, but now we make it a point to practice.

Next Ch. will start on 10.15. I'll post a new thread every five days or at least I'll try this pace and see how we like it. Actually, I decided to make it a week per chapter. It's less confusing this way, plus, it seems like we all can use those extra couple of days...The hardest part will be not reading ahead, but it seems that it's pretty packed with stuff. It'll be nice to have lots of time to practice as well.

3. Also, if you haven't started a dream journal yet, please do. For those, who have it, but might not use it every day, try Ronni's keyword technique (please somebody link to that thread, too tired to find it now). This includes me. Sometimes I remember some dreams, but will just walk around and think about them without writing them down, thinking I will remember, but dreams do fade quick.

Let's make it the best dream study ever!

Who are we, if not scientists of our own minds?

[Lena]

OK, so I only read a little bit. Been so busy with my other project, which I will share later.

Just wanted to share a quote I liked: p. 7 “But we must do more than interpret dreams; we must manifest their energy and insight in our waking lives.” Wow, good stuff, especially when we are having pleasant dreams, but also when we are having trouble too. Just bringing those dreams out into the open can help resolve some of those things bugging us.

[existenceisadream]

Got a late start to the reading but nearly finished the chapter yesterday. Yea it is kind of hard to only be able to read so much each week.

Sort of a rough start for me for this group. Been a bit 'off track' lately. Trying to figure out what the hell I'm doing lol. Need to find a way to break from this stuck feeling I'm in. Maybe this book will be the beginning of it... Though I need a serious something... The problem is I just don't know what.

[~~section8...]

I've been off track lately too, but am basically done with the first chapter. I have to say I love it. The information about how dreams look into the future is fascinating...just to consider it. It brought me to consider thinking about it.

You're right Lena...I also liked the part about interpreting real life like you would a dream...and looking at a dream like you would look at real life. Very cool stuff.

[Lena]

Hey...I'm done with the chapter and there is a lot packed in, I think, so I was thinking about some daily habits to want to keep constant to allow me to progress with dreams.

First and foremost, I've been trying to weed junk food out of my diet again. Yesterday, I did have some home cooked popcorn, but ate really well and mostly raw the rest of the day and was rewarded with a pretty vivid lucid dream. So I'd like to keep going with lots of raw fruits and veggies, especially cause I LOVE shopping at farmer's market this time of year.

Second, I'd like to go ahead and start my morning yoga routine back up again and I've been slacking on exercise too. So both of those, yoga routine in the morning and then some kind of aerobic exercise later in the day. The trick for me is to get up early enough before the rest of the house is waking up, which means 6am or earlier. Also I can do any kind of meditating or energy exercises in the mornings too. It's really the only time I know I won't be disturbed.

So yeah, just thinking allowed with some changes I'd like to make.

Third, I gotta relax a little. I've been so hyper and anxious. Gah...I gotta chill ;D

[~~section8...]

Those are very good ideas, Lena. I remember that was one of the first things I read about astral projection: staying healthy and physically in optimal condition! You sound like you're on a great positive track. ;D It's very inspiring.

[existenceisadream]

Oct 13, 2010 21:02:30 GMT -5 ~~section8... said:

You're right Lena...I also liked the part about interpreting real life like you would a dream...and looking at a dream like you would look at real life. Very cool stuff.

Ya that part for me stood out the most out of the chapter. The idea of looking at your dream at face value before trying to put it into symbols and maybe make it more difficult than it actually is. Maybe sometimes dreaming about something is exactly what it is and not something deeper.

The next thing that got me thinking was the part that we're dreaming the future into existence... Well what I've seemed to notice for me at least is the majority of my dreams are not like that. Every once in awhile something happens in waking life and I'll realize that I dreampt about it before hand. But for the most part that's not the case. Instead what I see is random people, places, and things that seem to be inserted at random into my dreams. Plus all of these things usually are from my past which could had been anywhere from that day to years ago.

Mixed in with these things seem to be emotions that control the dream and then there's the aspects of the dream that seem to have deeper meanings that need to be figured out.

For instance a very short dream I recorded a couple days ago.
Driving onto an on ramp of freeway where I live as a passenger. Matt (guy that works for my cab company who lives near me who I haven't seen or talked to in quite some time) is driving. We're driving a Toyato Tercel (this was my car I had maybe 10 years ago). For some reason the car won't drive fast though we're on a freeway. We exit freeway and as we get to my street I live on the car literally falls apart around us. My neighbor Johnny Barns is here.

So in this dream I've got scene of where I live. Two dream characters that are sort of a part of my life at this time (Matt I never see but I do drive by his house most days, and Johnny my crazy neighbor). But randomly I have my car from 10 years ago thrown into the mix. Next I have the deeper meanings of the dream. Why am I the passenger. Why can't we drive fast on the freeway. Why does the car fall apart around us.

Actually looking at this dream maybe it is trying to tell me something for the future. Maybe not showing me the future but if I can figure it out it may help me with what I need to proceed into the future.

Ok maybe that was a bad example. But what I'm saying is the people places and things often seem to be very random and from random time periods in my life. Like my brain just randomly decides to throw whatever the hell it wants to into the mix. I guess the super randomness of my dreaming just makes me wonder if there is a rhyme or reason to what we're dreaming... Most things that come up I can often remember something in the recent past that triggered why that came up into the dream. Not even why it came but how it's in my brain to be brought up if it decides to.

For instance a dream recently that I had involved one of my fellow cab drivers clotheslining (a term from that fake wrestling on tv) a drunken collage student. The funny part of this dream is that It happened more than once. Well a few weeks ago in waking life this cab driver told me of how he had to chase this drunken college that tried to run on him to not pay his fare and eventually he had to mace him. So here it is several weeks later if not longer that he enters my dream.

Makes me wonder how much of our dreaming is just past events randomly thrown together to create random scenes. I know I've read that scientists believe that dreaming is important for long term memory. Though maybe these seemingly random dreams are important to look at to help guide one into their future.

Hmmm I guess I explained what I was trying to get across ok...

[Lena]

I'm pretty sure I see what you are saying Derek about the randomness of dreams.

Seth talks a lot about the fact, that any events that happen in real life first happen in dreams and that we join in with everyone else to decide on the fate of our world, for example. I wonder if he is talking about deeper dreams here, and that what we end up with in our dream journals, are more surface dreams. Our dreams are also translated into things that we understand too. So maybe if you are dreaming of something you often encounter in every day life it's not because it randomly got in your dream, but because it is a good analogy for a concept, that otherwise would be hard to understand. As much as I like the literal interpretation of dreams, in reality I rarely encounter that in my own dreams. But I think you are on the right track with trying to relate your dreams to everyday life, even in small little details. I think there is something to that...

[nani]

interesting to read your thoughts derek and all.
for me, life for sure IS a dream, though im lucid, somehow at least
and my dreams... in fact me too i feel in a deep process of change and now see that this change includes the last years as well, in that i`ve gone through quite different ways to look at dreams too, like you also... actually my last path or state was something like not interpreting it anymore at all, this coming from the more shamanistic view on dreams... but lately again another, in that i met somebody interpreting dreams, quite all dreams, on an "astral-level", this guy`s view is coming from the edge of theosophic modells, also underlaying the work of Robert Bruce as far as i understood till now... so, how to say or see it, im in the middle of a huge and never ending process, and right now im just taking dreaming as simple as possible, but of course with the want to become aware of all what happens and of course with lots of joy to be inspired by the energy which comes with group-fokus so im looking forward to just experience deeply and the most aware as possible, and of course it interests me to read and see what are your processes, solong best wishes

[Lena]

Hey, it's a final day, and I haven't done my exercise yet. Good thing I decided weekly chapter was fast enough pace for this. The chapter did encourage a lucid dream and got me thinking about optimizing my habits again. Looking forward to going more in depth with next one. Oh, and apparently I just got an intuitive hit that I have a new shamanic guide around. He is trying to keep me on track. Apparently, it's very important that I'm consistent in my intuitive work right now. Plus, I plan on giving lots more distant reiki healings (you're welcome to ask for yourself or your loved ones), so gotta keep that energy flowing or actually more correctly, gotta put more awareness on it, since it's always flowing Oh, and a few minutes later, when I tried to check in with my new guide, I didn't feel him around anymore, so I guess he comes and goes.

[~~section8...]

It is very interesting to examine everyone's thoughts. I don't exactly experience that future outlook either, Derek. (Thank god too, I dreamed last night that my family was going to sell me to an Indian Reserve ) Lena, I think that Moss is trying to make you think about dreaming mostly in this chapter. I think he's trying to pull everyone out of their conventional thoughts of dreams and induce some reflection. I don't think he's advocating for everyone to just look at the dream at face value always. I didn't do the exercise either. I think I'll read it again and do it tonight.

[Lena]

Hey, I'm about to go post our thread for next chapter. Amy, I love the way you can extract essence out of things and put it in a simple way. Wow, and Indian reserve huh? What would they use you for there? Maybe they'll make you their shaman, could be a good thing

Ya know, I've always heard about the whole teethes falling out dream, but wow, yesterday I remembered one of my own and boy, was it vivid. What's that mean again?

[existenceisadream]

Been very off track as of late... Drinking too much. Trying to get back on the wagon for awhile again and get focused.

A couple things I wanted to comment on from chapter one.
Fist I've always been horrible with all the creating a safe "active dreaming" environment. Though I didn't do any of the exercises this chapter, I do plan on working with the 'calling in the light' exercise. I've always just done basically most everything that was written in this chapter as far as following my breathing ,getting rid of baggage (quiting the mind) and so on. But never have focused on setting my "active dreaming" space for "safe" travel. I never had any problems with safe travel for the first long while of OBE'ing. I feel as long as you go into it with no fear and keep that mind set even in the face of you own fears, then you can travel safely even without the precautionary's. But with that said I can see how using something like the "calling in the light" exercise to help rid you of fears and move forward confidently.

Next is the part of about "sidelining the skeptic". This part really rings true with me. No matter what I've experienced both in waking and sleeping dreams, OBE's or from a hallucinogenic experience. I've always had my skeptic keeping it "real" for me. Always questioning the authenticity of the experience. I like what Moss writes on the subject.
I know there's been times where my 'inner skeptic' will "run on the field and make an illegal tackle" lol that part cracked me up. But it's true. Being able to separate the two so that you can have the experience uninterrupted but then later the skeptic can weigh in on it all.
Actually kind of makes me think of dreaming vs lucid dreaming. The dreaming seems like it's the most free from the skeptic it can be. Then when we become lucid that could be like the skeptic coming in and saying, "no no no, this is all a dream... not real..." and from then on out the skeptic is more in control of the dream. Maybe I'm comparing it wrong. I don't know.

Anyways I think that's it for now. Haven't started reading chapter 2 yet but will begin tonight.

[~~section8...]

Thanks Lena. That's very sweet. And yes! Maybe you're right! It was kind of a scary dream, but maybe I'd become a shaman. XD

Teeth falling out...it depends on the circumstances of the dream! I've heard ones where people clench their teeth so hard and they break and fall out. I've also heard ones where someone is talking normally and their teeth just randomly start falling out.

You reminded me of the skeptic, Derek. I liked that part also. You're right. I think the skeptic works at different levels from positive to negative.

[crazycat]

Sorry i have not been here. I did read the first chapter but didn't have time to do any of the exercises. I have been sort of out it. There is no smiley face up there that describes my mood or situation. A state of confusing is what I think I am.

I will read the 2nd chapter tomorrow and maybe be able to contribute.

[nani]

First of all big hug to you Linda. Im also feeling quite unusual at the moment, though all in life are just stages and phases, so there will be more clearness for both of us soon, im sure.
An odd thing too is, that i was 100% sure that i`ve made a post 2 days ago in in this thread, i was sooo sure, but i can not find it. There i said that i had read the second chapter yet and will take the book with me on journey tomorrow, anyway, so i`ll do.
wishing much light and love to all of you, see you end of next week again

[Lena]

Nani, you posted it in Ch. 2 thread and this is Ch. 1 thread. Maybe having a thread for each chapter is too much? We could combine in them in First Section thread, dealing with first six chapters.

Linda, no worries, time doesn't matter. You'll get there when you get there. Sometimes I most important inner work happens in the time of chaos and confusion (even when it feels like nothing much is happening).

[nani]

ahhhh ok, thank you so much Lena, i thought that im slowly loosing my brain entirely LOL and i think its good its very right to do a thread to each chapter, yes of course thats much better as all posts are better seen i think and from now on i`ll have a better look where in fact i am hahahahh. Its great that i can take the book with me now to have some more time to translate it first of all, so anyhow i guess i`ll have to read it 2-3 times, thats good so. So friends, i wish you all good and the best, solong, greetin nani

[crazycat]

Hehe! That was what I was afraid of Nani, losing my mind. I have all these voices saying this and that and not for sure which if any is my own thoughts. The other morning, I was taking James to the struck stop and forgot to get dressed. James happened to notice I didn't have any shoes own. He didn't notice I was still in my pj's and was going out the door with bed hair and no purse!