Do you ever feel like a victim?  Do you ever feel like you are being unfairly attacked?  All of us are victimized; all of us do get unfairly attacked.  So how can we stay out of drama? How can we keep happy, joyous, at peace in the face of injustice?

Could the solution be as simple as becoming like a heron, standing on one foot, gazing into the water?  For Claudia, that’s an important part of the answer. Try it!  Perhaps Claudia’s heron can help you too!

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

1. How can I eat more chocolate without becoming fat?

2. How can I smoke more without developing lung cancer?

3. How can I become less critical sounding?  Not so pessimistic?

Tell me a dream you remember.  It can be an old one, a repetitive dream, a nightmare, or one that you’re sure you understand.

Shadie and Dayo were attacked by a mafia-type guy.  The man came with a shovel and Dayo ran.  Shadie laid there and is cut by the shovel.  I cry for help…An old lady takes me in her house and gives me tea. She is having a little tea-party-blether. The phone rings.  It’s for me.  The message is that my mother is in the hospital dying.  I feel that I am in the dramas of the dog, the superficiality of this old ladie’s circle, and my mother.

Dayo and Shadie:

Why do you think that you had this dream?

It’s like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder!  I kept losing things in my nightmares that I love.  This is a repetitive theme in my dreams.  I think I have them because my dogs have been ill.  I’ve been very worried about them.

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

Drama!

These are the characters in the dream, beside yourself…

Two dogs, the shovel, a man that knows that he can hurt me when he hurts what I love, the old lady, mother in the hospital, street, house

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

Shadie.  I have the strongest feelings for him….

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!

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

I have had my head bashed in by the shovel.  There is blood all over.  I am dead and I am not dead because I am a dream dog.  I’m just alive.  I don’t feel good.  This is Claudia’s dream, that something bad always happens to me, and I don’t like it!

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

I stay in a good mood.

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

I am so passive when the man came and attacked me.

Shadie, you are in Claudia’s life experience, correct?  She created you, right?  Shadie, what aspect of Claudia do you represent or most closely personify?

The part that always gets hit over the head!

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

No! Claudia would change it, but I don’t!  It’s equal.  It doesn’t matter.  It’s aggression.  Either I get my head bashed in or someone has my teeth in his throat.  But I can’t be bothered to attack.  Claudia would love me to kill him, but I can’t be bothered.

What would happen next if the dream were to go on?

I am dead, Claudia brings me away from the street, and Claudia is very sad. I would become a white Heron because I can stand passively and look at the water. If you can wait for half a day, I might say something.  I’m just standing here.

Shall I continue to speak to Shadie or the Heron?

I have had enough of this blood!  I will be the heron!

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

Heron, you are in Claudia’s life experience, correct?  She created you, right?  Shadie, what aspect of Claudia do you represent or most closely personify?

It’s a part that can stand on one foot all day and look at the water and only move when it sees a fish~! I represent her equanimity.

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

Confidence: 10 A fish always comes by!

Compassion: 10  5  for me, 5 for the fish!

Wisdom: 10  I know where the best fish are.

Acceptance:      Sure!

Inner Peace:  9 Also on one foot!

Witnessing:  8 I stay very calm and see everything.

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

When I have a ten in compassion I become a vegetarian!  Or I will have to say a prayer before and after meals! In the other things, it doesn’t matter…

How would Claudia’s life be different if she naturally scored like you do in all six of these qualities all the time?

Her problem is that she has a compassion of ten!

Do you think it would be good if she had less compassion??

During the dramas, drink a tea!  She is suffering with so many things all the time!

Do you think that the suffering of others makes her become like Shadie?

No, she is suffering with Shadie.  It’s best for her to go to the sea and look at the water and not suffer with others.  If she was a ten in all things she wouldn’t look at dolphins and other things getting killed on the TV after days with already enough drama.

If you could live Claudia life for her, how would you live it differently?

I would meditate more on one foot and look on the water!  After half a day, change feet!

If you could live Claudia’s waking life for her today, would you handle her three life issues differently?  If so, how?

1. How can I eat more chocolate without becoming fat? I eat only fish and don’t get fat!  Ask a nutritional expert!

2. How can I smoke more without developing lung cancer? There is a man in a boat that always smokes who doesn’t feel well because he is always coughing.  I’m not the expert for this because I don’t smoke.  The Heron says, “STOP IT!”  How do you go about stopping? You start!   The inner pathologist can tell you about lungs and smoking…

What would help to stop it?

To BEGIN!

3. How can I become less critical sounding?  Not so pessimistic?

Are you critical, Heron?  Are you pessimistic?

Why should I be?

Is Claudia so critical?

No, she is self-critical. She criticizes herself for not saving enough lives and not doing enough to protect others from getting hurt or dying.  She suffers and is empathetic.

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

1. To stand on one foot and look at the water – that’s all!

2. Not to forget to get on the other foot when the one becomes cold!

3. Always look in the water.  Always remember that I am here….

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

Always at the right time. Whenever the drama is too much and her balance is threatened.

Heron, do you do drama?  If not, why not?

No!  Too boring!

I thought drama was exciting?

Oh yeah?

What is your secret for staying out of drama?

It’s always the same, isn’t it?  If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.  You look in the other direction!  Don’t place yourself in the middle of drama! No TV!  But she doesn’t need to follow all my advice.

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

To show her that there are other things in life besides drama.

How is Claudia most likely to ignore what you are saying to her?

By saying I’m just fantasy?

Aren’t you?

What’s reality?  Who knows?

What would you recommend that she do about that?

Realizing that SHE just might be fantasy!

Why would she want to do that?

To put things into proper relationship.

I think Claudia had this dream because…

Because she only sees one side of reality and that’s suffering and death.

Why does she does that?

That’s what she’s learned.  You lose what you love.  What you love gets killed, gets run over, dies.

What do you think about what she’s learned, Heron?

That’s part of the truth.  The other part is life.  Being alive, standing on one foot, waiting for a fish.  You don’t know what I think and where I go in my mind when I’m standing here, gazing in the water.  Other people can’t stand on TWO legs, let alone one!

I think this dream event happened or (some character) was in the dream because…

To scare herself, to hurt herself.

Why would she want to do that?

Because that’s what she’s used to…

What have you heard yourself say?

To be in absolute balance is the most important thing.  There is a part inside of me that is very calm, in balance, and doesn’t get in drama.

If this experience were a wake-up call from the most central part of who you are, what do you think it would be saying to you?

Stand often on one foot!  Maintain balance!  Self-confidence.  Concentration.

“You have a part of yourself that can stand on one foot and it is good for maintaining your inner sense of balance in your life.  You have a part that can choose not to suffer but to be in balance.  There are always enough dramas in the world; it’s important to be in balance.”

It’s important to find a part of myself that can stand still, balance, and look into the water. Perhaps it is important to take this yoga position before the water!  It’s important to feel myself as a heron in my normal life when people are into drama.

What would be the subject for the next interview regarding this dream?

Nobody.  It’s only important to get out of the drama.  The best thing would be to get out while Claudia is dreaming….

What did you hear Heron say?

That he’s getting tired of being asked all these questions.  He wants to get back to the water!

Practically: Don’t waste much time with dreaming dreams of victimization.  Look for a way out of the drama!  The Shadie part of myself was bored by the same thing happening.  I’m victimizing myself in the dream, Shadie in the dream, my mother in the dream because she also dies, I victimize the man because I want to kill him.  I victimize the Dayo part of myself because he gets scared.  It’s almost like these other parts of oneself are bored by it all and only get into the drama because we want them to in our dreams…

Notice that Claudia is slowly waking up. She is seeing her life dramas of suffering and victimization as self-created repetitive boredom that persecutes the other parts of herself that have to show up to play these tired, melodramatic roles.  Ideally, she will learn to wake up in dreams, to realize what she is doing, and stop it.

Some IDL dream interviews emphasize healing.  Others emphasize balance. Others emphasize transformation.  This one emphasizes all three.

Here is an example of an interview that builds identification with an aspect of your experience that is always constantly witnessing and meditating: the sky.

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

1 Cultivating the Witness in meditation

2 Generalizing meditative consciousness to my everyday mind

3 Following the recommendations of interviewed self-aspects

Imagine that you are sitting in meditation witnessing your thoughts, your feelings, your images, your bodily and energic sensations, your beingness.  How do you feel?

Free; at peace.

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

Clear space or clear light

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?

The sky.  The sky looks blue, but only in the distance and only during the day.  Actually, the sky has no color.

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!

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

I encompass all things.  I have no future or past, or “now.”  There is no time or space for me.

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

I like that I am beyond all likes and dislikes, all preferences, because I encompass all things, including all preferences.  This is a strength, because it means I am beyond the drama that preferences create.  It is not that I prefer not having preferences, because that too is a preference.  It is that I don’t do preferences.

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

I am so subtle it is very easy for me to be ignored and taken for granted when I am in fact the context which makes life possible.  This is not a weakness for me and it’s nothing I dislike, it’s simply a fact that most beings are asleep to me.

Sky, you are in this person’s life experience, correct?  They created you, right?

In a manner of speaking.  From my point of view, I created him, I dreamt him…

Sky, what aspect of this person do you represent or most closely personify?

That “part” (although I am not a thing or a “part”) that does not die, that is formless, spaceless, and is completely awake and aware.

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

I already take any and every form.  When animals and plants breathe me I am intimately associated with every cell of their being.  Rocks contain me.  There is nowhere that I am not.  There is nothing that I am not.

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

Sky, 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 know no fear.  There is nothing that I am in conflict with.  I always completely accomplish being me.

Compassion: 10 I give myself completely and selflessly to every form that wants to breath me in or make me a part of it.  I accept completely and selflessly that which any plant, animal, factory, or volcano wants to give off into me.

Wisdom: 10 I am ageless and I experience everything from every perspective.  There is nothing I do not know that has ever been done, thought, or felt.

Acceptance: 10 I accept myself and others completely.  Wind, tornadoes, dark, light, meteors, death, drama, nuclear explosions – I accept it all.

Inner Peace: 10 What’s there not to be peaceful about?  I embrace all things.

Witnessing: 10 I witness everything, even space, and every form.

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

He would be in a constant state of meditation, regardless of what he was doing, thinking, or feeling.  His mind would be clear and centered and that would be the foreground or figure.  The contents of his mind, which are normally the foreground or figure, would still occur, but they would be in the background, or ground.  He would witness both his inner world and his outer world with equanimity and wakefulness, whether awake, dreaming, or deeply asleep.

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

I would be fully present as myself at all times.

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

Regarding cultivating the witness in meditation, I would have him become me when he meditates.  Not see me but become me.  Become me as a ten in each of the six core qualities.

Regarding generalizing meditative consciousness to everyday mind, I would do the same.  Anchor to a constant awareness of the sky as breath and prana.

Regarding following the recommendations of interviewed self-aspects, I would remember that awareness is everything.  That means reading them over regularly, keeping reminders of those recommendations close at hand.

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

1. Becoming me.

2. Allowing me to run his life and make his decisions.

3. Regularly asking me my opinion.

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

When meditating, when in drama, when confused or unsure.

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

To help him wake up.

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

Addiction to the drama of his thoughts, feelings, images, sensations, and states of being.

What would you recommend that they do about that?

Follow my recommendations, above.

Joseph, what have you heard yourself say?

Who I really am isn’t an identity or a being or a self.  It’s not a “part” of me.  It transcends and includes all forms.  It doesn’t “have” the six core qualities, it transcends and includes them.  There is no birth or death, time or space or drama from this perspective.  It is in a constant state of meditation.  Becoming it will automatically put me in more or less of a meditative state, depending upon how completely I am willing to identify with it.  This perspective is not internal to me.  It witnesses me.  It does not judge me or pass judgment on what I do or do not do.

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

Awaken to a perspective that transcends and includes all other perspectives.  It does not mean it is better or best, only that it becomes available as an option once it is learned, where before it was not an option.

This interview is only an example.   It cannot replace and is not meant to replace your own direct contact with your own unique and personal experience.  For this process to heal, balance, and transform your own life, enhance your own ability to meditate, and build within you an ongoing meditative consciousness, you must first interview your own sky (you will find the protocol here), then practice becoming it, particularly when you meditate and as you fall asleep at night.

Please leave us your comments regarding this interview. By all means, share your own experiences with the method.  We all grow faster when we share what works and does not work for us.

I have jumped off an incredibly high place.  I am falling, falling, falling down toward water below.  Some women spot me and yell my name, saying, “Look! It’s Felix Brandt!”  I let go as I fall and feel fearless and free, yet anxiously anticipating the surface.  My eyes are closed.  I want to put my hands up but they seem glued to my sides.  I keep waiting to hit the water but I only continue to feel the rush of wind and to feel light, floating, suspended…The next thing I know I am up in the water, fine and feeling great.

Associations: I don’t remember many falling dreams.  This one felt like I had to be at least a thousand feet up!

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

1.  Taking my practice of waking up to the next level.

2.  Doing a better job of following self-aspect recommendations.

3.  Remembering to frame the moment in terms of the Three Outcomes: abundance, joy, and luminosity

Why do you think that you had this dream?

I don’t remember many falling dreams.  This one felt like I had to be at least a thousand feet up!

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

Free Fall

These are the characters in the dream…

The sky, the air, the water, the woman calling my name, her friend(s)

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

The air

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!

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

I am hanging out here, minding my own business, being light and free.  He is experiencing me mostly as wind, but that’s not my experience of myself.

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

As I said, I am light and I am free.  I am everywhere.  I can’t die.  I am not afraid of anything.  I witness everything.  I am completely aware and completely at peace.

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

Weaknesses?  What are those?

(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?

Spacious clear, pure awareness.

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

No.  I like being me.  However I do have to take the perspective of the waking identity of this person all the time, in that he loses touch with me, and it gets rather old.

(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

Compassion:            ?  I am not sure I know what that is. Is that something I’m supposed to feel about my relationships with others?  I don’t have any feelings whatsoever about others.

Wisdom:                  ? I don’t know if I’m wise or not.  I generally don’t think.

Acceptance: 10

Inner Peace: 10

Witnessing:           10

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

I would be personal rather than impersonal.  I would have qualities of engagement rather than extreme disengagement or detachment.   These seem to contradict my beingness.

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 can potentially do this in ways that I can not or do not.  He would have no fear or anxiety; he would stay serene, light, and free.

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

I would be in the present moment always, because that is how I live.  It is difficult for him to think and to do that too, because thinking splits everything into subject-object, past (intention) and present (thought).  Still, that’s what I would do.

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

1.  Taking my practice of waking up to the next level: I would have him be me.

2.  Doing a better job of following self-aspect recommendations: The same.

Remembering to frame the moment in terms of the Three Outcomes: abundance, joy, and luminosity: I wouldn’t think about these.

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

1. Being.

2. Witnessing.

3. Experiencing.

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 wants to anchor himself in those three awarenesses.

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

To help him wake up.

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

Identifying with his thoughts, as if they were real.

What would you recommend that they do about that?

Remember that such identification is optional and then to become me.

I think this person had this dream because

he is trying to become me but only gets about half-way there.

I think this dream event happened or (some character) was in the dream because…

There was no experience of hitting the water because that was not the focus of the dream.  Besides, there is no death of consciousness itself ; there was no body to experience hitting the water.

What have you heard yourself say?

Staying stuck in my waking perspective, even while I am dreaming, creates drama.  None of that drama has any significance from this part of myself that cannot die.  I am working at having the option to become that part of myself whenever I want to.