This lovely lady came with us on a trip to swim with wild dolphins in Bimini, because she had experiences in which dolphins connected her to the divine, spoke to her, and through her.  This lady was not psychotic, delusional, or in any way appearing to be emotionally unbalanced. She is friendly, conscientious, helpful, empathetic, and generous.  Her intuitive connection to the divine is very important to her and dolphins have somehow become a central path or bridge.

This very interesting interview reveals the interface between out of control world events: a world perishing due to human greed and ignorance, and the worried, caring, individual conscience that holds itself somehow responsible.

What are three fundamental life issues that you are dealing with now in your life?

1 Intuition: With all the life issues we have today we don’t have time for intuition.  I have some, but I want more!  If I did, my life would be totally different.  There were moments in my life when I was very intuitive.  Those were very happy moments.  Everything fits together harmonically. Harmony is missing now.

2 Harmony in my life.

3 Love!  Love for myself.  I miss that a lot.

Which issue brings up the strongest feelings for you?

Intuition

I would like to do an interview about an event I had when I was mixing a homeopathic medication five years ago with a group of people that was led by an instructor in homeopathy, I was doing a very special mystery grinding of the “the milk of a dolphin” in a mortar with a pestal.  There was a mother dolphin in a zoo in Switzerland.  Our teacher asked the zoo to give him a little of the dolphin milk because he was making a homeopathic medication with it.  In the homeopathic preparation, you take one little drop of the dolphin milk and put it into 100 drops of sugar and grind it.  When we did that, very strange things happened.  All our senses became very active while this was happening.  We heard voices and saw pictures – not all the same ones – different people heard different voices and saw different things.  All our senses became very intense.  This is like wishful thinking, but you still see reality also.

The first step of the process was a dilution of one drop dolphin’s milk to 100 grams of sugar.  Then you do the same again, diluting it a second time in another 100 grams of sugar.  You take that dilution and repeat two more times for a total of four times.   The grinding only takes twenty minutes for each dilution, however, every step produces different visions and different illusions for the people in the group.  There were forty-five people in our group and everyone got different pictures and stories, so it took altogether two and a half days to do the four dilutions.  When we started to do this grinding I was tasting fresh fish in my mouth.  Normally, I hate fish.  I saw myself coming up from the very dark to the light above.  It was the sea and I was a dolphin.  For those two days I was a dolphin.

There are special themes that we discuss when we do the grinding for each dilution.  The first theme is home country.  Where is your home, where do you feel at home? The second is communication.  It was a very strong theme for me.  I and two others in the group were dolphins, the rest were humans.  I tried to say something to the humans but they didn’t understand.  Other members of the group were telling me I looked like a dolphin, with the nose and eyes of a dolphin.

During this time as a dolphin I saw that human civilization was destroyed.  It was like the end of the world.  Big earthquakes destroyed human civilization.  Everything was destroyed. I knew that we humans were responsible for it.  During the fourth grinding I was standing near to God and I felt very guilty for the destruction of the planet. I wanted to come back down back to Earth and tell humans not to do it, to somehow prevent it.   I was begging to be sent down to Earth because there was still time to change things.  It didn’t matter what shape I came back in, as a dolphin or as a bird, for example, to give this message to humans.  I was standing with my head down and feeling very guilty.  The Divine said, “Humans can’t understand each other.  Why should they understand you as a dolphin or some other animal?”  I said, “I will find a way to tell them so that they will not lose their contact with the divine.”  Then I was a dolphin for several lives.

The back fin connects dolphins to the divine.  As a dolphin, I was feeling that connection.  In my vision, all the dolphins killed themselves because they couldn’t communicate with the humans about the disaster in a way that humans would hear.  So the dolphins turned themselves on their backs to break their contact with the divine and drove themselves onto the land because they couldn’t contact humans.  They are still trying to be heard by humans today.

The leader of the homeopathic grinding said that there should be a fifth dilution but not all the group could follow it.  They could all sleep on it and he would decide which members could do the fifth step.  Fifteen people were selected.  The others were dreaming different things and got signs that they shouldn’t do the fifth step.

I did the step.  I woke up knowing that I should do it.  While I was taking a shower that morning I had a feeling that someone was pushing a knife into my back.   I was feeling it and I was screaming.  My roommate got me out of the shower because I couldn’t move because I was still feeling the knife in my back.  It was a big pain.   There was also a shaman in the group.  He stopped the hurting a bit when he gave me a wooden dolphin.  He told me that he wasn’t a dolphin man and that I am more dolphin than he is.  I caressed the back fin of this wooden dolphin and the pain in my back went away!  With this fifth grinding I was losing the ability to listen to the dolphins. At the beginning of the fifth grinding I was both human and dolphin but after the fifth grinding of the dolphin milk the dolphin went away and I was only human.  Afterwards, when it was finished, I was so happy to see the people, the sun, the trees that it all was still there after seeing everything destroyed during those two days.    Five years later, I still have this pain in my back sometimes; it comes and goes.

Associations: I have been dreaming of this dolphin trip. I would like to ask this pain why I can’t hear the dolphins anymore.  When I was swimming with dolphins yesterday in the Caribbean near Bimini I heard the dolphins like a choir, but I couldn’t understand them.

Pain, why can’t Terri hear the dolphins any more? Why can’t humans hear them anymore?

The pain is there, but it doesn’t talk.

Pain, why don’t you talk?

She’s not listening.  It’s as if she was just whistling….

What would be different if she was listening to you, pain?

I am still Terri feeling the pain.

Pain, what does Terri need to do to become you right now?

Love!

Are you willing to feel love right now, Terri?

I am feeling love for everyone but not for myself.

Pain, why is Terri not feeling love for herself?

It’s the same feeling that she had when she was standing next to the divine and feeling so guilty for the loss of the world.

Pain, do you think Terri should feel guilty for the loss of the world?

No, she’s not responsible.  She just feels that she is.

Dolphins, I understand that you turned over on your backs and beached yourselves because you couldn’t communicate with humans, is that correct?

Yes, we did that because this back fin of power is like a connection to the divine or like a TV remote control.  You can’t do what you want to do; you’re like a robot.  You are helpless.  We couldn’t stand that any more.  We had to disconnect this connection.

I thought your connection was to the divine.  Why would you want to disconnect it?

It doesn’t make any sense, but it was an inner weakness because I couldn’t take it any more.   I came back many times as a dolphin.

Dolphins, are you aware that Terri feels guilty and responsible for not being able to wake the humans up who are destroying the planet?

No, that’s her problem.  She’s feeling that.  We know that she has wisdom like we do.  We don’t make her responsible; she makes herself responsible.

Dolphins, do you think it’s realistic or helpful for Terri to make herself responsible for humans destroying the planet?

No.

Why not, Dolphins?

She had this experience and she can understand it more than any other human, but every single person is responsible for that.  They do not all know what they are doing.

Dolphins, why do you think Terri has had this piercing pain in her back?

The lack of connection of the line to the divine makes this pain. When she can listen again the pain will stop.

Is she listening right now, dolphins?

No.

What would she need to be doing right now in order to listen, dolphins?

She has to find a quiet place, sit down, and listen.

If she does that, what will she hear? (Terri has a problem thinking the dolphins are talking to her in the interview; she has to listen to them outside of herself.)

Does Terri have to go to quiet places and be by physical dolphins to hear you or can she listen to you in anywhere, or in interviews like the one she is doing right now?

Terri: I can communicate with them here and now because I am back in contact with them.(Problems staying in role: “I don’t know which one wants to speak through me right now, the dolphin part of me or the external, real dolphins.”)

Dolphins, what does Terri have to do to no longer have physical pain?

The pain is so she won’t forget what she saw.  When she starts to listen then the pain will go away.

Dolphins, do you think that Terri is listening to you right now?

Yes.

What do you want to tell her, dolphins?

We don’t want to talk to her now because it is too loud.

Is she putting you off, dolphins, or is she going to talk to you tonight?

We will talk to her tonight if she will get quiet and listen to us.

Thank you dolphins.  We look forward to supporting Terri and you in any way we can in the future.

When I regain this connection to the divine through my back then I will have regained my intuition.

Dolphins, how would Terri’s life be different if she naturally scored like you do in all six of these qualities all the time?

Connected with freedom and happiness all the time!  She shouldn’t ask, she should just live it!  If she wants the pain relief she will take time to listen to us.

You say, “listen to us.” So we stop and listen to you.  Then you say, “It’s not the time.”  Which way is it, dolphins?

They are bored.  They went off. They don’t want to talk…

Two days later:

They are talking all the time!  They say, no matter where she is she needs to take time to get in contact with us!

Dolphins, thank you for talking to Terri!  Has Terri had that pain in her back since she started talking to you again?

No!

How come?

She should take the contact to the divine.  The pain only returns when she is not in contact.

Can she do that through listening to you, dolphins?

We are helping.

This interview raises many interesting questions.

What is the relationship between dreams and mythology?

Can individuals dream cultural myths?

Can myths influence individual dreams?

How do cults and religions get formed?  How do world myths get created?

Notice that part of what creates cultural myths in when a person cannot easily differentiate between external voices and internal ones.  Terri assumed that the dolphins speaking to her were external.

Notice also that Terri felt personally responsible for the acts of all humanity and for the destruction of the entire world.  This is grandiose and narcissistic, although her intentions are based on genuine caring.

Notice that Terri felt not only responsible but guilty.  This added a third problem to the first two: 1) inability to distinguish internal from external guidance; 2) personalization of world responsibility; 3) guilt.

These problems were acute enough to create somatization in a way that paralleled her belief system: dolphins lost their contact with the divine through their backs; when Terri lost her intuitive contact to the divine through being a dolphin at the end of the homeopathic dilution, she developed intense and recurring back pain.

All of this was real for Terri

This interview also demonstrates how Integral Deep Listening, as a form of Dream Yoga, helps people wake up out of false awakenings, that is thinking they are awake when they are not.  Terri’s reality of pain in her back because of the guilt and responsibility she felt for the destructiveness of humanity is a type of “false awakening.”  It is a real and important insight for her, so real that it is externalized,  yet it is not true lucidity.  She is clearly asleep within the dream of her own belief system, which generates her own painful reality. This is an excellent description of and example of how karma works and how we create it out of our awareness continuously, because we think we are awake right now when we are actually in a delusional state, locked in the reality of our own delusions.

What are three fundamental life issues that you are dealing with now in your life?

1. My relationship with Jesus

2. Maximizing my contributions to others

3. Waking up.

Which life issue brings up the strongest feelings for you?

Because of my dialogue with David, the first.  As I told him, I had a positive association with Jesus as a child being brought up in the Presbyterian church.  Then at twelve (1962), I had a very positive and sometimes personal association with Jesus through his portrayal in the Edgar Cayce readings (Cayce was an amazing trance medical clairvoyant) and through association with a number of remarkable people who bought into his portrayal of Jesus as someone who genuinely was loving, a miracle worker, but a soul who had incarnated again and again and came back because he had caused humanity as souls to become enmeshed in earthly incarnation and it was his responsibility to show a way out.  The Readings also claimed that the resurrection really did take place.  Following this, I read books on the Shroud of Turin and became convinced that it was not a fake and that the only way it could have been made is if the body underneath it dematerialized.  I was not convinced by the carbon datings that occurred in the 1990’s because they did not explain the existence on the Shroud of the pollen of uniquely Palestinian plants.  In about 1975 I lectured with an elder mentor, Hugh Lynn Cayce, the son of Edgar Cayce, who dedicated his life to serving Jesus through advancing public awareness of him in his father’s readings.  In addition to being told in a Reading at his birth that he had been Andrew, one of Jesus’ twelve disciples, Hugh Lynn had a number of powerful and personal encounters with Jesus throughout his life. Beginning in 1969 with a college course on comparative religion, I had to reconcile Edgar Cayce’s view of Jesus and God (which I decided was more Vedantic Hindu than anything else) with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Chinese religions.  The Buddhist world view in particular presented a world view that raised questions that were not adequately answered by either Vedanta or the Cayce readings, much less by the Western monotheisms.  Looking for a context that would hold it all, my work became informed by the Integral world view of Ken Wilber in the 1980’s.  My view of Jesus now was that people could have a powerful personal relationship with the group thought form of Jesus, created by worshippers over the centuries and perhaps even an experience with Jesus himself, say in a Near Death Experience, but that these experiences were culturally conditioned and Hindus, Moslems, etc. would have manifestations by their own avatars.  In other words, I came to view Jesus as an incarnation of subtle level I-Thou oneness with the divine through loving relationship, but hardly the only doorway (not exclusive) and not universal.  This, however, is conjecture, and the following interview is an attempt to move my understanding forward, to build on all this history and see if I cannot create a deeper, more meaningful personal relationship with Jesus through it.  My goal is to get in touch, through my own subjective mental associations with Jesus, with Jesus Himself and hear what he has to say to me.

Now remember how as a child you liked to pretend you were a teacher or a doctor?  It’s easy and fun for you to imagine that you are the shape that took form from your color and answer some questions I ask, saying the first thing that comes to your mind.  If you wait too long to answer, that’s not the character answering – that’s YOU trying to figure out the right thing to say!

Jesus, would you please tell me about yourself and what you are doing?

I am infinite, unconditional love of the sort people report in Near Death Experiences.  I am the sort of love that makes all hurt, all guilt, all shame go away and replaces it with an extraordinary sense of freedom in an awareness that you are loved, you are love, and you exist in a universe that is abundant and loving in ways that are far beyond your comprehension.  People can incarnate me in form.  As the Cayce readings said, the prayers and focused intentions of generations incubated my incarnation as Jesus in Palestine over two thousand years ago.

What do you like most about yourself? What are your strengths?

I am beyond liking or disliking, however I grow when people wake up to me and become me.  My infinite, unconditional love grows a little bit brighter and stronger through the consciousness of each individual that takes it up.  My strength is that when people act as me they are selfless and able to love regardless of what pains or injustices are done to them.  They dedicate themselves totally and selflessly to the advancement of their fellow man.

What do you dislike most about yourself? Do you have weaknesses?  What are they?

Nothing.  It is not that I am perfect; it’s just that my love so transcends what humans experience and comprehend that by comparison I seem to be.

Jesus, you are in this person’s life experience, correct?  They created you, right?_____  (Character), what aspect of this person do you represent or most closely personify?

I personify Joseph’s oneness with the divine, particularly in selfless, unconditional love.  This is a perfect love that casts out all fear and which carries any burden.

(Character,) if you could be anywhere you wanted to be and take any form you desired, would you change?  If so, how?

I would be fully alive and present as a possessing spirit or muse within and through Joseph in particular and everyone and everything else.  That’s because I heal, balance, and transform lives by people’s experience of me.

(Continue, answering as the transformed object, if it chose to change.)

(Character), how would you score yourself 0-10, in each of the following six qualities:  confidence, compassion, wisdom, acceptance, inner peace, and witnessing?  Why?

Confidence: 10 I can’t die; I have no fear.  I am perfect love.

Compassion: 10 You are an aspect of me; by loving you, I love myself.

Wisdom: 10 I know the Buddha; I am so much more than the historical Jesus was, because he was limited and conditioned by his socio-cultural context.  Acceptance: 10

Inner Peace: 10

Witnessing: 10

How would Joseph’s life be different if he naturally scored high in all six of these qualities all the time?

He and the Father would be one, as I am.  That does not mean that he would be perfect; it would simply mean that for his present level of experience of those qualities, he would be complete and whole.  But he wouldn’t stay there.  As he grows his awareness of those qualities expands, requiring a further expansion of his consciousness. This never ends.

If you could live Joseph’s life for him, how would you live it differently?

I would be fearless in pursuit of and expression of those six core qualities, because they are at the heart of my message and what I personify – spirit.

If you could live this person’s waking life for him today, would you handle his three life issues differently?  If so, how?

1. Regarding his relationship with me, if he takes me with him wherever he goes and into whatever he does he will not only be loving but very, very strong due to the quality of his dedication.

2. Regarding his desire to maximize his contribution to others, I would say to continue along his present lines but with redoubled effort.

3. Regarding waking up, serve more, meditate more, do more interviews, and work harder at applying the recommendations that you get.  Give it all away…

What three life issues would you focus on if you were in charge of his life?

The above three are good.  Living today as if he just had a Near Death Experience wouldn’t hurt.

Why do you think that you are in Joseph’s life?

To help him get out of his own way.

In what life situations would it be most beneficial for Joseph to imagine that he is you and act as you would?

Anytime, of course, but particularly when he feels fear or forgets that he is me.

Joseph, what have you heard yourself say?

Having more of an ongoing, personal relationship with Jesus than I have ever had before is a good thing and that I need to do it.

If this experience were a wake-up call from your soul, what do you think it would be saying to you?

Be one with universal love and act like it!

The following example, which came from a regression years ago, is not a grandiose past life memory of being Napoleon or a disciple of Jesus.  It is chosen precisely because its mundane nature gives it a degree of plausibility that more glorious and esteemed accounts can lack.

What are three fundamental life issues that you are dealing with now in your life?

1. Building IDL

2. Deepening my awareness of life’s abundance, joyful absurdity, and luminosity.

3. Acting. thinking, feeling within the context of the six core qualities.

Tell me a past life memory.

I am an orphan who has been adopted by a hermit.  He teaches me how to live in the woods.  We live in a cave-like place behind vines in a forest.  The floor is dirt. There is a three legged stool.  I walk into a small village and find it empty.  I go to the small church; there is no one there.  I go back to the woods and my home and become weak, sick, and die.

I figure that the people in the village must have died of the plague and I caught it.

Why do you think that you had this past life experience?

Maybe to partially explain my lifelong ability to be by myself and not feel lonely.

If it were playing at a theater, what name would be on the marquee?

Forest Hermit

These are the characters in the dream…

Me, Hermit, Woods, Cave, Vines, Stool, Village, Church

If one character had something especially important to tell you, what would it be?

The stool.  It’s so inconsequential, yet almost out of place.

Now remember how as a child you liked to pretend you were a teacher or a doctor?  It’s easy and fun for you to imagine that you are this or that character in your dream and answer some questions I ask, saying the first thing that comes to your mind.  If you wait too long to answer, that’s not the character answering – that’s YOU trying to figure out the right thing to say!

(Character,) would you please tell me about yourself and what you are doing?

I am just a crudely fashioned three-legged stool.  I am made out of wood from this forest.  I am in this cave.  I am made to be sat on.

What do you like most about yourself? What are your strengths?

I hold people up.  I am useful.  I am reliable; I do what I’m made to do.

What do you dislike most about yourself? Do you have weaknesses?  What are they?

No.  While I may be nothing special, I have a place and a purpose, and I fulfill both.

(Character), you are in this person’s life experience, correct?  They created you, right?_____  (Character), what aspect of this person do you represent or most closely personify?

I am the life support that comes from simplicity, from the overlooked, from the easily obtained.  One doesn’t have to have much to live well.  Not having had much, these people do not experience themselves as impoverished.

(Character,) if you could be anywhere you wanted to be and take any form you desired, would you change?  If so, how?

No.  I am content to be myself.  I like my life and I like my purpose.

(Continue, answering as the transformed object, if it chose to change.)

(Character), how would you score yourself 0-10, in confidence, compassion, wisdom, acceptance, peace of mind, and witnessing?  Why?

Confidence: 10 I have nothing to be afraid of.  I am not afraid of getting old and collapsing or being used as firewood.  Such things are my destiny.

Compassion:   ? I am not in the business of caring about anyone or anything.

Wisdom:   ? I do not need or use wisdom.

Acceptance: 10 I accept myself and life completely.

Inner Peace: 10 Definitely.

Witnessing:   8 I get to observe these people and the world from an unemotional place.  I don’t personalize anything and I don’t do drama.

(Character,) if you scored tens in all six of these qualities, would you be different?  If so, how?

I wouldn’t be a stool any more if I scored ten in compassion and wisdom.  I would prefer to stay a stool.

How would the life of the person who created you be different if he/she naturally scored high in all six of these qualities all the time?

He would would not experience scarcity.  He would experience life as abundant, regardless of his circumstances.  He would have no concern for the future.  It would be enough for him to have a function and to take pleasure in fulfilling it.

If you could live the life of the person who created you for him/her, how would you live it differently?

I would not base my life on thinking or caring; he already does those things anyway.  He needs to get into a deeper essence, a beingness that is not affected by other people or by the ravages of time.

If you could live this person’s waking life for him/her today, would you handle his/her three life issues differently?  If so, how?

1. Building his work:  Proceed with great confidence, yet serenity.

2. Luminosity, joyful absurdity, and abundance:  Be me.  I have more of those things than you do.

3. Living life from the six core qualities:  I can help with four of the six.

What three life issues would you focus on if you were in charge of his life?

The same.

In what life situations would it be most beneficial for this person to imagine that they are you and act as you would?

Whenever he takes life too seriously.

Why do you think that you are in this person’s life?

To help him put life in proportion.

How is this person most likely to ignore what you are saying to them?

I am just a three-legged stool.  Why should he listen to me?

What would you recommend that they do about that?

He values turning the mundane, secular, and profane into the sacred.  He could do worse than practice with me.

I think this person had this past life memory because

it points to the transitoriness of life, the value of simplicity, the abundance of nature, and how these values transcend space, time, and death.

Do you think it was a real past-life memory?

I think it is like a dream, a metaphor designed to help him wake up.

What have you heard yourself say?

That from the perspective of this self-aspect the distinction between waking experience, dreams, and past life experiences either is unimportant or non-existent.  What is important is how I understand such experiences and what I learn from them.  I can learn more and use them better if I interview other characters that appear in past life memories.

If this experience were a wake-up call from your soul, what do you think it would be saying to you?

Spirit doesn’t make such distinctions.  To make your life sacred, focus on the six core qualities and their fruit, luminosity, abundance, and joyful absurdity.

Everybody has dreams for their life that they hope will come true.  Everyone also has fears that they won’t have that dream, that it will turn into a nightmare instead.  Why not look at that dream and the nightmare and do an interview?  There are many ways that could be done with IDL.  One way would be to create a Dream Sociomatrix of the life nightmare and interview several characters from it, write out their preferences, complete the commentaries, and create the Dream Sociogram to depict the results.  Another would be to take the feeling of the life nightmare, allow it to become a color, have it fill the room and congeal into a shape and interview that.  This is the course that we took with the following fun and powerful interview with a guy with chronic health fears and fear of flying.  Comments follow.

Interviewing Dog Shit

What are three fundamental life issues that you are dealing with now in your life?

1. Organization – I still don’t have a contract

2. My eye doctor is not cooperating.  I have to go to court

3. Trouble with girlfriend.  Arguing about her wanting more attention from me.  I don’t treat her like a girlfriend.

You’re on your deathbed.  You look back at your life and it’s been the fulfillment of all your needs.

The people I love and I stay healthy.  I want two kids who grow up and are happy kids.  I would love to have a job where I have fun and fulfill my dreams and the dreams of my kids.  So that if they want to go play tennis I can afford to get them a coach.  A mate who is a good friend and a great mother.  I am able to travel and go see other countries and cultures without fear of flying or being at a distance without support.  These are the basics that are really life quality.  My parents stay healthy and live a long time.

Now imagine that none of this occurs. In fact, you have terrible luck.  All your worst fears come to pass.  You are looking back at your life, a complete failure.  Describe what’s happened…

I can’t laugh at the situation.  It’s too serious.  My parents die early.  My kids have disabilities!  My wife’s a nagging bitch.  I don’t have a regular job so there’s no money for my kids and I feel like I’ve been a lousy father.  I am scared of everything and stay home all the time. I feel terrible – worthless, hopeless, like I’m a failure.  It’s horrible.

What feelings come up for you when you imagine that life nightmare?

Sadness, regret, hurt, anger.

If those feelings had a color (or colors), what would it be?

Dark brown shit color!

Imagine that color filling the space in front of you so that it has depth, height, width, and aliveness.

Now watch that color swirl, congeal, and condense into a shape. Don’t make it take a shape, just watch it and say the first thing that you see or that comes to your mind: An animal? Object? Plant? What?

A huge pile of dog shit!!!!

Now remember how as a child you liked to pretend you were a teachis/her or a doctor?  It’s easy and fun for you to imagine that you are the shape that took form from your color and answer some questions I ask, saying the first thing that comes to your mind.  If you wait too long to answer, that’s not the character answering – that’s YOU trying to figure out the right thing to say!

Huge pile of dog shit, would you please tell me about yourself and what you are doing?

I have a pretty relaaxed life.  I don’t have any control but I get to see a lot of things.  I start as dog food and get to see some of the inner life of a dog.  Then the dog transforms me and I come out after having had a long warm trip.  And then I’m pretty useless!  I can’t be used for fertilizer.

What do you like most about yourself? What are your strengths?

(laughing) I am pretty stupid.  I don’t think much about anything.  I live in the moment.  I don’t worry about the future.  I transform.  I change the way I am and make myself fit every situation.

What do you dislike most about yourself? Do you have weaknesses?  What are they?

No!  I’m happy!  I’m perfect the way I am!

Dog Shit, you are in this person’s life experience, correct?  They created you, right?_____  (Character), what aspect of this person do you represent or most closely personify?

Tony could learn a lot from me.  I don’t complain because I don’t have any control over my life.  Tony has a lot of fear about life.

Dog Shit, if you could be anywhere you wanted to be and take any form you desired, would you change?  If so, how?

No!  I’m a huge pile of dog shit!  I can’t get any better!

(Continue, answering as the transformed object, if it chose to change.)

Dog Shit, how would you score yourself 0-10, in each of the following six qualities:  confidence, compassion, wisdom, acceptance, inner peace, and witnessing?  Why?

Confidence: 10

Compassion:   1

Wisdom:   1

Acceptance: 10

Inner Peace: 10

Witnessing: 10

Dog Shit, if you scored tens in all six of these qualities, would you be different?  If so, how?

I don’t know if it would change my life so much.  I think I’m not smart enough as dog shit, but I don’t need to be.  If I had a high IQ it wouldn’t improve my life quality, in fact it would reduce it.  I would worry too much. Same with compassion.  People could slip on me and get pissed, but what could I do about it?

How would Tony’s life be different if he/she naturally scored high in all six of these qualities all the time?

It would definitely change his problem with his fears.  He wouldn’t have them any more.  He would live in the moment instead of the past or the future.  I’m pretty relaxed.  I couldn’t change my life anyway.  So why worry?  I accept myself the way I am.  His life quality would be increased.

If you could live Tony’s life for him/her, how would you live it differently?

I don’t have fears and he does.  You can put me on a plane and send me to Africa and I won’t change.  If he could be more like me he could improve his biggest life issue a lot.  And with that, the other issues would take care of themselves.

If you could live this person’s waking life for him/her today, would you handle his three life issues differently?  If so, how?

1.  Organization?  What’s that?  I would be really laid back if I were him!  I don’t think I would be a good model for him because I don’t care!  If he doesn’t care about his appointments and the structure of his day…I’m very lazy!

2. Doctor: I would put a big pile of dog shit on his head!  I would take him to court!  Let’s have some fun!

3. Girlfriend:  I wouldn’t have gotten so far in this relationship if I were Tony.  She would definitely have left me!  When she wanted me to change, I would have said, “You gotta love me the way I am!  Even if I wanted to I couldn’t change.”  I couldn’t try to make promises or lie.      He is a little like me already in that he stands up for himself.  On the other hand, he often changes things to please her even though he doesn’t want to.  Why shouldn’t he if it doesn’t bother him?  But does it make sense?  It’s a never ending story.  You can change things, but it has to lead somewhere.  If the next day she’s complaining about the same old shit, then it doesn’t lead anywhere.

What three life issues would you focus on if you were in charge of his life?

1. When I look at Tony’s life his biggest issue, fear, would be gone.

2. I would be very bad for his job!

I would be very bad for his present relationship.  There is probably a girl out there which is probably dog shit too as a girl, but such girls are hard to find…

If he were to live his life as me and on his deathbed he would look back, he wouldn‘t have spent his life being afraid.  He wouldn’t have spent his life with an intolerant bitch, because such a woman would not stay with me, Dog Shit!  He would be broke, but it would be OK, because I don’t need anything.  As dog shit, I would be a good father!  I am always there!  Oh shit!  Maybe his girlfriend would like him because he’d always be home!

To make his life dream come true,  he should continue to work on getting over his fears.  He should open up his eyes before he marries.  He should not marry his girlfriend because she stresses too much.  Not stressing out is not part of her character.  She will always jump around and say, “Why aren’t you dogshit????”  But I, dog shit, want to chill!

Why do you think that you are in Tony’s life?

I am in his life because I can help him deal with some of his biggest life issues.  I think I can improve his life quality a lot.  I don’t care what other people think of me.

In what life situations would it be most beneficial for Tony to imagine that he is you and act as you would?

It would be good to become me when he gets afraid.  When he gets on a plane he should think he’s me!  If he gets stressed, he can be me!  He shouldn’t be me all the time, but for a few minutes here and there.  If he remembered it would put a smile on his face!  He’s on his way to being a pile of dog shit toward his girlfriend.  He doesn’t change things just because she’s pissed.  He should do it more.  If he does, maybe the problem will be solved by itself, but I don’t know!  Maybe not.

Tony, what have you heard yourself say?

I heard myself say a lot of funny and interesting stuff!  I should be a pile of dog shit sometimes during the day and it will really improve my life quality!  Who would have thought that an hour ago?

Notice that the solution to Tony’s life nightmare was not scoring tens in all six qualities.  Why not?  Why wouldn’t being tens in Wisdom and Compassion bring him a happier life?  Tony and I talked about it and it made sense that he gets himself scared by thinking too much.  It’s more wise for him to not be wise – at least not in the sense of overwhelming himself with thoughts about what might happen in the future.  What has passed for compassion for him has been phony compassion, in that he has shown love in response to pressure and guilt, which is not love at all.  He thinks Dog Shit was telling him, by its low score, that he needs to not worry about making other people happy so much and do a better job at focusing on the other things: accepting himself the way he is, developing inner peace, cultivating the ability to witness, and being confident.  Not only was this interview a lot of fun for Tony; it felt very practical and authentic.

Tony reported that becomiung Dog Shit helped him to sleep when he became anxious while traveling on a business trip.  When he remembered to become Dog Shit when he started getting anxious during business appointments he would immediately relax, laugh at himself, enjoy the situation, and do much better.  He has had trouble becoming Dog Shit with his girlfriend, however.  It told him to turn off his phone during business meetings so that she couldn’t call to check up on him and find out where he was and what he was doing.  He knows that if he did that he would have a major problem when he goes home. This led to a discussion of why we need not only a number of different self-aspects, but other resources, such as a plan and good communication skills.

(From Dream Sociometry)

Is waking life a dream?  Whether the answer is yes or no, waking life can certainly be approached as if it is a dream.  Many people resist such a parallel, believing that it devalues life and creates a sense of detachment that is unhelpful and misleading.  Others think that such an approach inevitably leads us to question our common assumptions about what is real, true, and worth living and dieing for.  However, rather than devaluing consensus reality, intrasocial consensus reality becomes valued. Because we make conscious decisions primarily in the waking state, Dream Yoga is finally assessed in terms of its usefulness to the ends and purposes of waking identity.  The application of Dream Sociometry to waking events is another way to demonstrate that applicability as well as the dream-like nature of waking experience.

This can be done with almost any event: an argument, near-death experience, drug trip, meditation experience, romance, or rejection, failure, resistance, humiliation, or abandonment.  In creating a Dream Sociomatrix for a waking event, all of the elements are listed in chronological order across the top of the Dream Sociomatrix and choosing characters are listed along the left margin, just as they would be for a dream.  Interviewing and template construction proceed just as with a dream.  Perhaps the most powerful results occur when you use powerfully mythic events such as marriages, deaths, and other rites of passage, or accidents and arguments.  Socio-cultural events are even more likely to take on mythic proportions that clearly transcend self on a macrocosmic transcultural scale, just as dreams clearly transcend self on a microcosmic intrasocial scale.

The following example explores one of the pivotal events of the early 21^st century.  It was picked because at the time it had a palpably nightmarish quality to many, many people and contaminated ordinary waking life in intense and unusual ways for a period of time.  It was as if a huge bell was rung and you were standing right underneath it, or a huge tsunami came on shore, overwhelming everything in its path. There is no attempt made here to speak for others, although because this was a world dream the life issues and associations that came up reflected a world perspective rather than personal issues. Although I attempted to be in role throughout, you would create a different Dream Sociomatrix. However, deep listening connects us in a way in which one speaks for all.  Some truths resonate, regardless of who speaks them.

Terrorists Attack America

9/11/01

Dillard

(Created 09/19/01)

(What if I had dreamed the horrifying actions of 9/11/01? How would Dream Yoga apply to such a dream?  To work through this authentically, I must, to the best of my ability, treat the experience the nation and world are undergoing now as my dream and the issues that are confronting the world as my issues.)

I am watching first one, then another huge jet full of passengers crash into the NYWTC in huge fireballs, then collapsing, killing thousands, including the terrorists.  The Pentagon is also horribly attacked by a jet bomb.  Fires rage.  People are in shock, then grieving, then outraged.  President Bush prepares the country for war.

Before you continue to read, answer the following questions:

Of the following dream characters, which one do you think would be the most accepting of the others?  Here are your choices:

Dream Self (you in the dream)

The New York Trade Center & Pentagon

The Planes that were hijacked

The Planes’ passengers and victims in the towers and Pentagon

The huge fireballs caused by the explosions

The terrorists

President Bush

Who do you think would be the least accepting?

Who do you think would be the most preferred?

Who do you think would be the least preferred?

Of the following actions, which do you think would be the most preferred by this group?  Which would be the least preferred?

watching

crash

collapse

killed

war

Of the following feelings, which do you think would be the most preferred by this group? Which would be the least preferred?

horrible

shock

grief

outrage

After you have read the following compare your answers to the patterns of preference created by this particular dream group.

My associations to this dream are…If I had this dream, I would wonder that I hate myself so much that I not only kill others but I kill myself.  Why am I so angry at myself?  I doubt that any compromise or resolution can come out of listening to these dream group members because the anger, suspicion, and distrust on both sides is so deep they just want to kill each other.

Three fundamental life issues

Formulate three questions, each addressing a different core life issue:

• How do I create security for every part of myself, so that none of them want to repeat this?

• What is the appropriate response to take in the face of such a brutal, outrageous attack on myself?

• How do I learn to live in peace with all other parts of myself, even the ones I don’t like or respect?

If I could resolve these issues, what difference would it make in my life?

As a global population, I would feel much more secure.  Therefore I would not be angry and I might be able to trust and listen to other parts of myself.

What do I think I need to do to be happy in my life?

I want respect!  I want my values, my beliefs, my way of life to be respected!  You don’t have to agree with me; you don’t have to share my beliefs.  But respect my right to hold them!  Respect the sacredness of my life if you want me to respect yours!

Sociomatrix Scoring Key:

Blank = Don’t Care; 1 = like; 2 = like a lot; 3 = love; /1 = dislike; /2 = dislike a lot; /3 = hate;

A(cceptance) = none of the above; two scores in one box indicate ambivalent feelings. (Underlined statements are extracted and placed below under “What I am saying to myself is…” )

Sociomatrix Commentary

“The reason I like, like (a lot, love, dislike, dislike a lot, hate, don’t care about, or am non-attached toward) (dream element) is…”  “What I liked/disliked most about being in this dream is…”

Dream Self: I really dislike myself a lot for letting this happen to me. How could I have been so blind?  Why didn’t I see this coming?  I really don’t like that I am watching because it feels so passive, so helpless!  I feel so powerless just watching!  The NYWTC is a living, breathing entity, home to thousands which I respect as a nurturing support for the lives of thousands and a powerful symbol of worldwide prosperity.  It belongs to the world.  When it was stabbed by that jet bomb I felt a huge part of myself die!   I have mixed feelings about the Pentagon.  I respect the people who work there as human beings.  I understand the need for security within individuals, nations, and the world.  But this building is basically dedicated to threatening and killing people, if need be.  So I have a love-hate relationship with power and intimidation.

I like the planes a lot because they provide an unimaginable degree of freedom. Technologically, they are miraculous.  Although I knew none of the passengers personally, I care a great deal for the doomed passengers on these planes.  My heart goes out to them in their needless deaths!  I think of the terror many of them must have felt before they died.  I hate the crash, the fireballs, the horrible collapses of the buildings.  I feel great compassion for the thousands of helpless victims.

I hate the terrorists that they would do such a thing!  I struggle to separate the human beings from their actions.  I know that I am not actually hating the terrorists but their thoughts, actions, and feelings. But it feels like I am hating the terrorists themselves because I am having trouble separating who they are from what they do, think, and feel.  I like President Bush because I respect the significance and importance of the role of president at a time like this.  I don’t like him a lot because I don’t trust that he or his advisers have the vision to see past their anger and will simply create more terrorism through their reactivity.  I don’t understand how this war can be won.  I think it is a war that everyone has to agree not to fight, because I see only losers in this war.

What I like most about being in this dream is nothing.  What I dislike most about being in this dream is the feeling of powerlessness.

NYWTC/Pentagon: I am very, very, angry that you let me be attacked and destroyed! You deserve to be angry at yourself! You were neglectful and irresponsible, so complacent and lazy that you ignored not only my safety but ignored countless warnings that we were in danger! Your passivity is disgusting.  Ignoring the injustices in the world won’t make them go away.  It just makes them bigger when they do finally happen.  We hate these planes, although we understand that they were victims themselves.  Still, they are the knives that stabbed us and killed us, in the case of WTC, and wounded us badly, in the case of the Pentagon.  While we feel sad for the passengers on the planes, we feel a lot worse for ourselves.  We feel a lot like Dream Self does about this whole thing.  We hate it and we hate what we are forced to feel.  We like President Bush because we put a lot of hope in him to come through for us.  But we really don’t see how he can fix this situation, to right this wrong, much less keep it from happening again. War sounds like a good idea.  What do we have to lose?  We’ll show people they can’t treat us like this!

What I like most about being in this dream is nothing.  Well, maybe if it wakes Dream Self up to the fact that we need a whole lot more defending than we’re getting, that’s something that’s important.   What I dislike most about being in this dream is getting destroyed and feeling pretty hopeless about stopping it.

Planes: We hate Dream Self for being so passive and not taking care of us.  He wants the power and the freedom we give him but he is unwilling to exercise the responsibility that we require.  He is like a baby playing with matches around gasoline!  He’s just blown up his house and charred himself!  We dislike the WTC and the Pentagon because they killed us when we slammed into them.  But we can’t dislike them too much, because they were just sitting there.  They were helpless victims like we are.  Still, if they hadn’t been in our way, they wouldn’t have killed us. We love ourselves!  We are big, beautiful, and extraordinarily sophisticated!  We like our passengers a lot.  Our job is to serve them.  We are so in touch with our own death and the deaths of our passengers that we really just can’t care about the thousands who died when we slammed into these buildings.  We hate that they died, though.  We hate those terrorists!  There’s nothing that President Bush can do that can make a difference for us now, anyway.  Maybe he can do something to make our brothers safer, but I doubt it.  I think a lot of steps can be taken that create an illusion of security, but maybe none of us have ever really been safe.  Maybe that was an illusion. Maybe none of us will ever really be safe.  We feel neutral about Bush, because we think he’s basically impotent.  But if he can set a positive tone of responsibility and mutual respect, perhaps things can get better.  We like the idea of going to war a lot because the terrorists deserve to be punished.  But we also dislike the idea of going to war a lot because we think it will just hurt the innocent, mostly, inflame passions, and drain resources that could better be spent defusing the causes of terrorism.

What I like most about being in this dream is nothing.  What I dislike most about being in this dream is being a helpless victim and the means to the destruction of thousands.

Passengers/Victims: We feel like the planes do, since they are victims just like we are.  But while they love themselves, and we do like them a lot, we also hate them because they are the instruments of our death!  So we have a lot of mixed feelings about them. We like ourselves a lot.  How could we have known that this would happen to us???   Maybe we should care about all those victims, but we are so tied up in the horror, grief, and anger we feel about our own deaths that we don’t have the energy to feel much empathy or even sympathy.  We hate that they were murdered!  We hate those terrorists!  We have to hope that President Bush can create a vision for the country that sees beyond reprisals and a mere escalation of the round of violence.  We have to hope that he will foster ways to reduce those factors that inflame the passions of terrorists.  Basically, we agree mostly with the Planes.

What I like most about being in this dream is nothing.  I hate it.   What I dislike most about being in this dream is feeling that our deaths are for nothing

Fireballs: I don’t care about Dream Self or that he is watching.  Well, I guess I like that he is a witness to my raw, uncontrollable power.  I don’t care about the NYWTC or the Pentagon at all, except that they become fuel for me to exalt myself in my glory.  The planes and passengers are fuel.  The crash allows me to live, so I love it.  I love myself!  I love to burn!  The collapse basically puts me out, so I don’t like that.  Whether people die or not, whether things get destroyed or not, is no concern of mine.  The terrorists allowed me to express myself, to make my glorious nature known to all.  So I like them.  Other than living fully, I really don’t care.  What I like most about being in this dream is being free, powerful, and fully alive!! What I dislike most about being in this dream is that it had to end.  I would have liked to have burned forever.

Terrorists: We have only contempt for Dream Self. He is not worth hating or even disliking. We like a lot that he is watching, because he is learning of his powerlessness against us, his complacency.  He is dreaming his dream of safety and security while he parasitically lives off of us, robbing our lands of their resources, occupying our holy places, supporting those who commit terrorist acts against our women and children.  If we have to die, he will die too.  But in our deaths the glory and superiority of Islam will shine. They are sleeping cowards; we are courageous holy warriors who put our faith above our comfort and our lives, so unlike what these swine do.  Our deaths, the deaths of these symbols of American arrogance, the deaths of all these accomplices to the murder of our cultures, bring glory to us and our cause.

We hate these buildings for what they symbolize – the arrogant attempt to dominate our land, our culture, our faith.  The planes we like a lot as instruments of our punishment.  We like the passengers because we can make a greater statement through their terror and helpless deaths.  We dislike them as American taxpayers who support the abuse of our culture.  We love the carnage, horror, grief, and even the outrage, because now they know exactly how we feel and we have felt for decades now, humiliated by their arrogance and conceit.   What we like most about being in this dream is waking Dream Self and America up to us.  Making them realize that they not only cannot ignore us, that they can’t just take us seriously.   By our deaths we are forcing them to recognize, address, and respect our legitimate needs. So our deaths are good.  War is good, because we will triumph.  The deaths of all these people is absolutely necessary. What I dislike most about being in this dream is nothing.

Bush: I pretty much feel like dream self.  I put on a brave face, but deep down I don’t know if I have what it takes to handle this one. I very much want to go to war, because it gives me an agenda around which I can unite the people.  I was going to have trouble otherwise.  But I just don’t know about this war.  I want to get revenge, but I am not sure who to attack and I don’t see an exit strategy.  I feel pretty uneasy about this…. What I like most about being in this dream is having a chance to give hope and prove that I’m a capable leader.  What I dislike most about being in this dream is that I’m out of my depth.  What I dislike is that I really don’t know what to do and that this is going to make me look powerless and incapable if I’m not careful.

Dream Consciousness: I really hated having to create this drama.  I hate that Dream Self was so fast asleep, so complacent, that I had to kick him hard in the ass to wake him up.  I had to not just make him mad, but angry.  It’s a risk I’m taking, because he could use his anger to turn me off.  He could use his anger to hurt himself.  But if I don’t wake him up, he’ll fall even deeper asleep.  Then I will have to kick him even harder to wake him up.  So now I’ve hurt him.  But I’ve got his attention.  Now that he’s alert, is he going to listen, or just stay angry?  I hate that I have been forced to hurt my own creations.  But it is time to wake up or die.  If he does not wake up, then what good am I?  Death is better than the selfish insolence of somnambulism.

What I like most about creating this dream is my willingness to take great risks in order to create a greater good.  My hope is that Joseph will come to respect the needs of ALL parts of himself instead of wasting his life ignoring the legitimate needs of parts of himself and therefore at war with himself.  What I dislike most about creating this dream is the pain, fear, and anger it has caused.

What surprises me about what I’ve heard is… The planes said that safety had been an illusion, that they never really had been safe and that their brothers never really would be.  This made me think about living with insecurity instead of pretending to be safe, to live with the knowledge that there is nobody or no thing that can guarantee that I won’t die horribly tomorrow.  It causes me to think about what it would be like to live happily in that knowledge.  Is it possible?  If I do it, I won’t have unrealistic expectations of the President, or the government, or of airplanes that they will protect or support me.  I won’t put my confidence, faith, or trust in people or things that are fundamentally unreliable.  That’s hard to do, because I get used to thinking that they are reliable and will support me.  Then I blame them when I get reminded that this is basically a false trust.  Still, I pay taxes with the expectation that I will get something back.  Maybe I am paying to reduce the odds that bad things will happen, but I am not buying an insurance policy that bad things won’t happen to me.

Sounds to me like I am being forced to move, as a social being, into a radical existentialism in which I have no “thing” or person that I can base my happiness or security on.  I have to learn to live with radical meaninglessness and anxiety and still be happy.  I do it on a personal level.  Can I do it on a social level?

I am also surprised that the passengers and victims dislike most that their deaths are for nothing.  It makes me want their deaths to inspire not war, but a real dialogue that can result in the protection of the rights of people everywhere so that this can never happen again.  If that happened, then they would not have died in vain.

I realized while the Terrorists were talking that “Dream Self” is mostly the voice of America in this dream, a character which was not included in the narrative.

Dream Consciousness is not beyond having feelings.  In fact, it has very strong feelings about a few things and none at all about the others.  This is because it sees much of this “dream” as a necessary drama from which it is detached,  but it feels for the pain it has caused the actors, for whom the drama is real.

Dream Summary Commentary

(“What part of this dreamer’s consciousness do you personify? “ The reason why I am in this dream is…” and, “This dream group came together to…”)

NYWTC/Pentagon: I most closely personify your pride in your public image as the best, the brightest, the strongest.  I also personify your world presence and your dominating power economically and militarily.  The reason why I am in this dream is to make you question your unquestioned superiority and your ability to get your way irrespective of the needs and wishes of others.  You believe too much in your persona, your ego.  This dream group came together to wake you up, to humble you, to teach you not to base your value or your existence on us, because we are transient and will not always be there for you.

Planes: I most closely personify your freedom and sense of security as you expand in whatever direction you want to go in life.  The reason why I am in this dream is to force you to understand that as long as you ignore or repress the freedom and security of any aspect of yourself, you can never really be free or secure.  This dream group came together to force you to listen to your larger self and its’ needs.

Passengers/Victims: I most closely personify the parts of you that get victimized when you ignore the needs of your larger self.  The reason why I am in this dream is to cause you to recognize the pain you are causing yourself.  This dream group came together to motivate you to deeply listen to yourself.

Fireballs: I most closely personify your power run amok.  The more you develop, the more freedom and power you have.  If you do not grow in responsibility and cooperation at the same time, the imbalance between these two will cause your power to explode and destroy you.  You cannot grow at the expense of aspects of yourself forever and remain secure.  The reason why I am in this dream is to force you to rectify this balance by understanding just how capable of destroying yourself you are.  This dream group came together to create anger and fear to generate motivation for deep listening to hurting parts of yourself.

Terrorists: I most closely personify the disenfranchised, ignored, abused, humiliated parts of yourself that are courageous, proud, and demanding of respect at any cost.  We are parts of you that would rather kill you and us too than live like dogs under your rule.  The reason why I am in this dream is to scare you awake and to force you to feel our pain.  This dream group came together to give you a wake-up call.  If you respond with more repression, we will kill you.  We are not afraid to die.  Are you?

Bush: I most closely personify the executive function that is so closely identified with preserving appearances and the status quo that it favors repression over dialogue and compromise.  The reason why I am in this dream is to remind you that if you keep thinking about your problems in the same way you have in the past – strengthen yourself, repress your enemies – that eventually your own power will destroy you.  This dream group came together to get you to put your faith in yourself rather than your government or your personality or your public image.

Dream consciousness: I most closely personify the world-patterning consciousness that created this socio-political drama.  The reason why I created this dream is to help you to understand that you are at war with yourself and repression will only make it worse.  You have to listen to yourself or you will kill yourself.  This dream group came together to enact this dilemma in a way you cannot ignore, repress, or avoid dealing with.

Dream Commentary

“If I could change this dream in any way, would I change it?  If so, how?”

NYWTC/Pentagon: It wouldn’t ever happen!  The terrorists would be caught before they boarded the plane or overwhelmed by the passengers or they would have a change of heart!  But if it did happen, then the damage would be minimal. But if we were destroyed, like in the dream, then I suppose the way I would change this dream would be for our deaths to not be in vain.  I would want a more secure, mutually respectful world to be the heritage of our deaths.

Planes: Yes.

Passengers/Victims: We have to go through the stages of dealing with grief.  But once we have accepted the reality of our deaths, we need to expand that acceptance to all others.  Because after we die, nothing matters.  Being right doesn’t matter.  Being American doesn’t matter.  Being strong doesn’t matter, because we’re still dead. The only thing that can make a difference, from our point of view, is acceptance.  Accept that we are dead, accept each other.  And out of that acceptance will come mutual respect and out of that mutual respect will come a security based on that which doesn’t die instead of bombs and buildings.

Fireballs: I like this dream the way it is!  I get to play and I get noticed!

Terrorists: We need to do this in order to get noticed and our grievances taken seriously.  We have no confidence that you will get it short of our inflicting pain and suffering on you.  In fact, we fear that you will forget this and go back to your comfortable, self-indulgent ways.

Bush: Give me the strength to set an example of good listening, not just to the points of view I agree with, but to the needs of those who terrorize us.  Then give me the vision to embrace responses that respect the legitimate concerns of those parts of myself that hate me.

Dream consciousness: This dream, as gruesome as it is, needs to happen.  You are listening to its members, allowing disagreements and hurts to be aired.  This dream is serving its purpose.  I would recommend that a “cabinet meeting” of these characters be convened in which all viewpoints are heard and a genuine attempt is made to address the needs and legitimate interests of all parties.

Does anyone object?

No!  We all are willing to discuss where to from here.

NYWTC/Pentagon, Planes, Passengers/Victims, Bush: We demand justice and compensation.

Terrorists: We demand that you get your military out of the Middle East.  You defile our holy sites.  We demand you stop financially and militarily supporting Israel because it is a terrorist state that kills our wives and children.  We demand that you get Israel to stop attacking us.

NYWTC/Pentagon, Planes, Passengers/Victims, Bush: If we were able and willing to give you what you want, would that not validate the effectiveness of terrorism?  Would that not be appeasement? And even if it didn’t, could you be trusted to bring to justice those who have committed these crimes against humanity?  Could you be trusted to compensate us for our losses which are so huge there is no possible compensation that would be sufficient?

Terrorists: Don’t trust us.  Empower an international force to keep all warring parties apart.  As long as we are represented in that force, we will accept it.  It will guarantee your security.

NYWTC/Pentagon, Planes, Passengers/Victims, Bush: You must turn the perpetrators over to the International Court of Justice in the Hague.  We do not trust Islamic courts.

Terrorists: We will compensate you with our oil revenues if your military leaves our countries, an international force protects Palestinians from the Israelis, and you stop supporting Israel financially and militarily.

NYWTC/Pentagon, Planes, Passengers/Victims, Bush: We are unwilling to stop supporting Israel, but we may consider equal support for the Palestinians.

Terrorists: You will not need to support Israel if an international military force is guaranteeing its’ safety.

NYWTC/Pentagon, Planes, Passengers/Victims, Bush: In order to pull out of the middle east, we must no longer be dependent on your oil for our economic security.

Terrorists: If you can get to the Moon, surely you can learn to be independent in oil!

NYWTC/Pentagon, Planes, Passengers/Victims, Bush: You don’t understand.  There are a lot of powerful people in our country who would go broke if our economy was not based on your oil.

Terrorists:: Becoming energy-self-sufficient would increase your national security much more than fighting with us will ever do.  Would you rather fight with us or regenerate your economy by developing alternative renewable sources of energy?

NYWTC/Pentagon, Planes, Passengers/Victims, Bush: Why are you telling us this?  You will go broke without our money!

Terrorists:: We would rather have our heritage and our culture than your money.  The corrupt ruling classes are the ones that want you to stay dependent on our oil – not us.

NYWTC/Pentagon, Planes, Passengers/Victims, Bush: We have the outlines of a possible agreement here. If we get the UN to impose a cease-fire between Israel and the Palestinians, with armed troops on the ground, if we agree to remove our air stations from Saudi Arabia, and if we agree to compensate Palestine with yearly appropriations equal to those we give Israel, what do we get in return?

Terrorists: We will hand over whomever you think is guilty to the Hague and abide by the decision of the court.  We will abide by international judgments as to what is fair and reasonable compensation for our terrorist acts, as long as you get Israel to agree to do the same for its terrorism against us.  We will preach against terrorism and forbid it.  We will continue to hold ourselves liable for any terrorist acts and agree to hand over any terrorists to an international tribunal.

(All of the above negotiation requires interpretation on a personal level:  Basically parts of identity require justice and compensation from other parts.  What does this mean?  How could that be done?  On an intrapersonal level that basically means respect and non-interference, if not actual assistance at meeting ends that are desired by the aggrieved parts of self.  Other parts feel violated and imposed upon.  They demand to be left alone.  This is as if there are parts of ourselves that are natural that want to stay that way or parts of ourselves who value their way of looking at the world even if it is very different from what we, as waking identities, accept.  It would be as if dream group members were demanding that waking identity stop controlling them through lucid dream manipulation or, more indirectly, through indulging some harmful addiction such as alcohol or sex. It could also be consistent abusive self-talk that discounts the worth of aspects of ourselves.)

Dreamage

(A rewrite of the dream based on a consensus of dream group member recommendations.  If there is no consensus, there can be no dreamage. A synthesis group dream is usually its own dreamage.  Read it over before sleep as an affirmation of a higher pattern of internal integration and healing.)

There was no agreement on a dreamage.

Waking Commentary

(“Character, ) If you were in charge of my life today, would you change it?  If so, how?  How would you handle my three fundamental life issues? )

NYWTC/Pentagon: In light of our previous negotiation, I would share power.  I would listen more.  I would compromise with other parts of myself a lot more.

Planes: I would not live my life assuming that I am free and secure.  I wouldn’t take those things for granted.  I would constantly be checking with other parts of myself that have the ability to destroy me o see if they feel free and secure.

Passengers/Victims: I would not go through my life assuming that I was safe and deserving.  I would change my expectations to take into consideration the needs of others a lot more than I have been doing.

Fireballs: I’m OK with being contained, and you can trust me to explode if you give me a chance!

Terrorists: If you listen to us we will be less angry and less likely to strike out.

Bush: I have got to realize that my constituency is more than just the parts of myself that I like or that I feel loyal to.  I have got to represent the needs of everyone.

Dream consciousness: You’re getting it!

Life Issue Commentary

(Is there a life issue which you would like to ask these dream group members about? “

Life Issue: Deeper, longer, more regular meditation.

(“If I were this dreamer, this is how I would handle this life issue:”)

NYWTC/Pentagon: I would just surrender, since I’m dead.  There would be no resistance, including interfering thoughts and feelings.

Planes: I would work at staying above the problems of the day, the concerns of everyday life.

Passengers/Victims: I would not trust in my agenda or in my daily routines to get me through, because they are fundamentally undependable.

Fireballs: We don’t burn without oxygen.  Meditate high up in the atmosphere and in space and I can’t burn.

Terrorists: Do Dream Yoga to listen to the parts of yourself.  It will defuse resistance to equanimity, evoke compassion and awaken wisdom.

Bush: The country runs itself.  I need to inspire, then get out of the way.

Dream consciousness: Identify with me when you meditate.

Point of Maximum Leverage

(“Of all the above recommendations for daily change, if there was one in particular that you would strongly recommend that the dreamer specifically apply during the coming week, in order to make maximum progress, what would it be?”)

NYWTC/Pentagon: Meditate.

Planes: Meditate

Passengers/Victims: Meditate.

Fireballs:

Terrorists:  Listen to the disenfranchised within yourself.

Bush: Meditate.

Dream consciousness: Meditate.

Action Plan

(All of these recommendations for waking life applications are not necessarily helpful or of equal importance.  You have to decide how you wish to prioritize them and what you want to do with them.  But take some action!  It is a way of demonstrating that you take your inner direction seriously.  If you have it wrong, future dream groups will cybernetically correct your course.)

• Meditate.

• When meditating, become Dream Consciousness.

• Do Dream Yoga to deeply listen to and move toward consensus with, aspects of yourself.

Action Plan Pre-Sleep Rehearsal

(Imagine you are going about your day tomorrow.  See yourself dealing with your life issues in the ways recommended by your dream group members.  Write this image out as a pre-sleep suggestion.  Read it over several times before going to sleep.)

I am sitting around a large table at the UN in Manhattan.  It’s the Security Council.  The other dream group members from this dream are in the other chairs.  We are negotiating out our disagreements, as above.  Now we are meditating.  I am experiencing myself as Dream Consciousness.

“What I am Saying to Myself Is…”

(A rewording of  key comments of dream group members as statements that you are making about yourself.)

•  I  really dislike myself a lot for letting this happen to me.

•.  What I dislike most … is the feeling of powerlessness.

•  I deserve to be angry at myself.

• I am neglectful and irresponsible, so complacent and lazy that I ignore not only my safety but ignore countless warnings that I am in danger!

• War sounds like a good idea.  What do I have to lose?  I’ll show myself I can’t treat myself like this!

•  I need to be woken up to the fact that parts of myself need a whole lot more defending than they are getting,

• .I want the power and the freedom prosperity gives me but I am unwilling to exercise the responsibility that it requires.

•  I am not worth hating or even disliking.

• My death is good.  War is good, because I will triumph.  The deaths of all these parts of myself is absolutely necessary.

•  I don’t know if I have what it takes to handle this one.

•  I very much want to go to war with myself, because it gives me an agenda around which I can unite myself.

• I really don’t know what to do and that this is going to make me look powerless and incapable if I’m not careful.

Some of the basic issues addressed by this dream group are:

• I am torn between fighting, to express control and confidence and to act out my rage in a self-righteous crusade for justice, on the one hand, and doing the much harder work of examining how I brought this on myself and deeply listening to the legitimate concerns of other, disowned, parts of myself.

• How I am much more like the disowned terrorist within me than I recognize or begin to admit.

• How my self-criticism neutralizes and therefore cuts me off from higher sources of guidance and grace.  (As seen by the neutralization of Dream Consciousness in its Sociogram placement.)

• How strong preferences tend to create reactive, equally strong oppositional strong preferences within me.

At this point, what is your understanding of what you think you need to do to be happy in your life?

Meditate a lot more and do Dream Yoga regularly so that I can become aware of and defuse my internal conflicts before they get to this point.

Sociogram Scoring Key:

To determine placement, find the appropriate axis and count one degree of preference for each concentric circle, starting at the center, which is zero.

Positive scores are placed on “+” axes and indicate degree of preference.

Negative scores are placed on “-” axes and indicate degree of rejection.

Vertical (acceptance axis) scores (choosing characters) are taken from the right end of the Sociomatrix. This indicates how accepting or rejecting “choosers” are.

Element (chosen characters, actions, and feelings) are taken from the bottom of the Sociomatrix.  This indicates how preferred or rejected chosen elements are.

Sociogram Commentary

Overall Pattern: This is a nightmare Dream Sociogram, as destructive dream group member are placed on the positive pole of the acceptance axis while nurturing or victimized dream group members are relegated to the negative or rejecting pole of that axis.  This indicates not only extreme self-loathing but extreme powerlessness.

Acceptance Axis: The terrorists are the self-aspect that have control and power in this dream group, even though they are far outnumbered by the positive, neutral, or victimized dream group members.  We have a very extreme polarization, moving from +28 to -29.  This is a 57 point preferential swing, indicating an amazing degree of internal polarization.  While Dream Consciousness is not only relatively neutral, but neutralized as well.  It too had extremely strong positive and negative preferences, indicating that it also was emotionally invested in this dream group in contradictory ways, as validated by its remarks.   It is powerless to do anything other than depict the causative karmic patterns externally (in dreams and in waking life) in the hope that someone will stop, listen, and see.

Form Axis: The Passengers/Victims are the most preferred dream group members. The big surprise here comes on the negative pole of this axis:  Dream Self is viewed by this group as a surrogate of the hated antagonist, the Terrorists.  This is very different from how Dream Self sees himself in the dream, although he dislikes himself a lot as well.  This pairing of Dream Self with the Terrorists in the preferences of the group as a whole is a statement of Dream Self’s (disowned) responsibility for creating and maintaining this pattern of self-abuse.  Dream Self is seen by this dream group as a whole to be in opposition to the victimized aspects of self, and it is a strong opposition (-11 to +13, 24 degrees of preference – a lot for the form axis.

Process Axis: Another unusual and fairly astonishing feature of this particular dream group is the complete absence of any preferred actions on the process axis.  There are absolutely no preferred behaviors for this dream group.  This is extremely unusual.   It is ironic that a behavior that would normally be expected to be highly rejected, “war,” is the least rejected by this dream group.  This implies that this group is strongly disposed to conflict going forward, although it does not prefer it.

Affect Axis: There are no redeeming positive emotions in this dream group, although there were any number of positive preferences expressed by many dream group members, demonstrating that there was much identification with strong feelings, many of which tend to create their opposite.

Dream Group Dynamics Commentary

(In which the various dream group members are provided with an opportunity to express their thoughts on their relationships with their fellow dream group members.)

NYWTC/Pentagon: I don’t have the power to change this dream group.

Planes: If we listen to each other, perhaps we can find some way forward.

Passengers/Victims: I am willing to listen if I can be heard.

Fireballs: I am pleased with the status quo.

Terrorists: I am in no mood to listen to any of you.  I have demands that have to be met or I’ll kill us all.

Bush: We have no choice.  They are like a cancer.  We can’t love it to death.  It’s time for surgery.

Dream consciousness: There is no grace in this dream group.  It will have to come from a combination of meditation and continuing dialogue.  This is a start.

In Summary,

Based on the patterns seen in the Dream Sociogram, the perspective of Americans is at least as much responsible for Terrorism as are the terrorists themselves.  In addition, it can be predicted, based on the relationships of this dream group, that war is the most likely course of action going forward.  It can also be predicted that war is unlikely to resolve this problem, because it is not a behavior which will change the preference relationships between the various dream group members.

The Fireball is a totally powerful, amoral part of myself.

This is a bleak pattern.  No one is really in a mood to listen to the needs of anyone else because they fear that would be a sign of appeasement and capitulation that would simply inspire more abuse.  It is not realistic to expect change to come from any source but Dream Self, who has to demonstrate leadership to everyone, including Bush, on this, by insisting on continuing dialogue and attunement to a transcendent pattern of healing through meditation.

We can see from the above example that any life event can potentially be treated as a dream.  If we so choose, we can create Dream Sociomatrices about any conceivable waking event.  When we do so, we find that the distinction between dreaming and waking experience is mostly an artifice of waking identity.  It is not that waking is therefore illusory or that dreaming is therefore real; it is that our reality judgments are seen to be tools, not safe harbors or absolutes upon which to base our sense of self.  Dream Yoga can now be properly understood as a Psychospiritual technology that uses any and all form, regardless of the state of consciousness in which it manifests, as a vehicle for transformation.