This is not a dream about going lucid; it’s a dream about the motivations to go lucid – why a person may want to and what benefits they might receive from doing so.

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

1. How to deal with frustration and turn it into a useful tool.

2. Dealing with Annie.

3. Lucid dreaming more.

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.

I was in a university setting attending a conference about medical businesses.  After a long conference of sophisticated people from academia and business we decided to go for a ride along a beautiful mountain ridge with spectacular views like the Blue Ridge Parkway.  We had some difficulty getting up tot he road because there was a rough patch and the car was not made for it.  I was a good enough driver to get us around the rough patch.  We were congratulating ourselves for our ability to understand what was going on in tis medical conference because we could disseminate the information to less sophisticated people with a great deal of ease. When we got to the top of the ridge the road was completely blocked by six large tree stumps.  There are no roots on them.  They are like a six foot tall tree wall. They have been transported there and pt there to block the road. They are very uniform.   It’s quite vivid.  The scenery was all green and then these brown tree stumps straddle the two-lane road.  There is no possibility to go around them. Behind the tree stumps are three older American cars – Pontiacs, Oldmobiles, Mercury types from the late 70’s.  One’s red, one’s white, and one is blue.  I got really frustrated and then I woke up.

Why do you think that you had this dream?

Alan Wallace (Tibetan monk lecturer on lucid dreaming) had said in his lecture to become aware of your location, what you’re doing, who you are (role), and how you are feeling.  I meditated on frustration for the next half hour. Everything that’s frustration in my life came up.  How do I get my relationship with Annie on track?  She lives on a Ridge and works in a university setting.  I talked to her last night.  I have everything available to me to start dealing with my frustration and learn to be more lucid in my dreams and make my life more magical, to see that everything is a dream.  At that point I can start manipulating the dream.

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

Stumped Again!

These are the characters in the dream…

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

The tree stumps.

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!

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

There are six of us. We are wood. We were uprooted.  As we were laying on our sides our root structure was cut off at what would be two feet underground, so it’s flat.  Our tops are about six feet tall and very thick. We are cut off again at the top.  It looks like a crew cut.  We are uniformly lined up so we occupy the width of entire street so no one can get by.  Felix tried to move us and got to the third one, in the middle after he had successfully moved two, that he couldn’t move me.  He tried to physically move me, like the first two.  Then he got a crow bar and tried to leverage me but I wasn’t moving.  He thought about using dynamite but he didn’t know where he could get any.  He tried to move me by pushing me with the car but that didn’t work, so that thoroughly frustrated him.

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

We are good-looking, we are strong, we don’t move. When we are put somewhere we stay, like we’re supposed to.

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

No flexibility.  No give.  No nothing.  We are just here, like government regulations.  Termites, wood rot, old age, death, death, disease. But at this point we are good and solid.

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

The part of him that puts up blocks when he allows himself to get frustrated.

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

As part of Felix, we wish we could be supportive instead of obstacles.  But we are fairly impersonal.  We do what we do because we are what we are.

Why is this road blocked in the first place?

The people up the road don’t want to share.  There is another way out.  They don’t want through traffic.

(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 We know what we’re doing.

Compassion:   5 We don’t care one way or the other.  We’re just here.

Wisdom:   8

Acceptance:   9 We’re here just because we’re here.  Our self-acceptance is high.

Inner Peace:   9

Witnessing: 10 We can sit and watch it all go by all the time!

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

Compassion was low. We don’t care much about anything.  If we were a ten we would be more flexible, more able to move and creative. We could become an arch or bridge or gateway or the interior of something.  We could become whatever form we wanted to be really compassionately helpful. We could turn ourselves into wings the one could put on the side of the car so they could fly.  We could help Felix.

Weren’t you put there because you weren’t compassionate and because you had a firm structure?

Yes.  We were put there as an obstacle.   We were put there because of our lack of compassion.  When we think about it, our acceptance is very low because of what we are doing.  It’s not true that we were high in acceptance. We are at 2’s or 1’s.

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

He could do lucid dreaming.  That would propel him down the road of understanding what he wants to do really quickly.  It’s a very creative way of dealing with what is in front of him.  He would know the illusory nature of existence and could experiment with it on all forms and levels.  It would all be play, like being surrounded by fifth graders.  (I used to teach fifth grade.)  He’d have so much fun!

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

I would encourage him to become more and more creative in everything he does.  That is the hallmark of being alive and staying alive.  That helps others to do the same – to stay alive.  When it comes time for them to die it helps them to do so with constant awareness and to go into their next life with love and compassion.

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

Frustration: With awareness!  With lucidity!  He would be able to be highly creative very quickly now, in real time.  The frustrations would be tools to help him become more creative rather than be perceived as obstacles.

2. Annie: by doing the above – it’s the nature of what she does – if Felix is creative she will be more drawn to him.

3. More lucid dreaming: As he becomes more lucid the access to creativity becomes more pronounced and becomes a circle that feeds on itself.

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

They would stay 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’s dreaming to recognize that frustration is a key to creativity.  Also when he’s awake.  Things then change!  His perspective changes, that of those who he is talking to changes. Then he can help people more!

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

Because we represent those frustrations he hasn’t figured out how to deal with. We are an opportunity for him to address these issues.

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

Fall asleep! Forget that everything is a dream!  When he gets frustrated, angry, and hurt to draw back in, pull back in, when the opposite is what he needs to do.

What would you recommend that they do about that?

He should instead take several deep breaths, relax as much as possible, and let us clear the road by ourselves. We’ll move out of the way.

What about those red, white, and blue cars, tree stumps?

They have their keys in the ignition!  They won’t be that much of an obstacle. They are vehicles!  They will carry him where he needs to go!  He needs to go to a patriotic place.  He needs a larger vision of what it means to be an American.  It’s been built too much around economics.  It’s a further barrier that he needs to address.  The medical conference was about sophistication of finance and how Felix was self-congratulatory about how much he knows.  It’s where Felix was most comfortable with his expertise.

I think this person had this dream because

he is in the position of opening up relatively quickly to new ideas and more aware of blocks to awareness.  We are just another thing in the road that needs to be addressed.

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

The residents down the road remind Felix of Jupiter Island, Florida, an enclave of very rich people who don’t want a road running all the way through it.  It’s well guarded.  You only see vegetation or a driveway or mailbox.  You rarely see a house.  We are tools of the people down the road. They represent a part of Felix that has used his awareness of economics to defend the system.  That lets him live on “Jupiter Island.”  But now that doesn’t seem to be working for him.  It’s now blocking him toward more creativity.

What have you heard yourself say?

It rings very true.  I have used my economic knowledge as a tool to think like these people to hang out here.  But once you’ve gotten there, so what?  It’s not creative.  You can just get more stuff.  And stuff is stuff. Whereas the real creativity is within.  The real healing of oneself and others is within and doesn’t have much to do with that stuff.  I’ve got to unblock myself and that can help others as well.  It has to do with becoming more aware. Then things emerge.  People tell me I’m an inspiration.  I have more support than I realize.  I am just not aware of it.  It’s pretty humbling (cries). I just overlooked this.

Tree stumps, what are Felix’s humble feelings and his tears about?

Recognition that he’s just ignored and not appreciated and not taken into account how much love and kindness there has been in his life.

If he had, what difference would that have made?

He would have had a much richer interior life and been much more aware of what was going on around him.

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?

Tree Stump: Treat Felix with loving kindness.  He responds to that so very, very strongly.  He needs to treat himself that way much more than he does.  He tends to be much harder on himself than he needs to.  Just to treat himself as a human being.  It’s something he has to work on a lot.

Do you have anything else you want to say to Felix right now, Tree Stump?

Remember you’re loved!

If you had terminal cancer, what would your concerns be?  How about learning to look at life and death from the perspective of spirit?  Live life as a dance! That’s what this fellow is learning to do, already making plans for his next incarnation…In this interview there are practical suggestions about how to put your life into a context that will free and awaken you.

Anvil and Hammer

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

1. How do I create magic in my life and other people’s lives?

2. How do I dance with people?

3. What’s the best way or ways to serve.

Imagine you are on your deathbed, looking back over your life.  Imagine all your dreams have come true.  What do you see when you look back?  How has your life unfolded?

Oct 12, 2009, in my 62nd year, was the big wakeup call when I became alive.  Maharaji was teaching me everything.  The initial recovery took a few months, the intermediate phase took longer.  I spent some time in India at Maharaji’s ashram where I got the message of what I needed to do for the rest of my life.  It became a dance at that point, an analogy I got from my dance instructor mother.  I learned to treat everyone I meet as a dance partner.  From that point on I danced through the rest of my life.  I gave up a lot of the constrictions I had when I was married.  I became an accomplished yogi that helped others learn how to listen to and follow their own inner path.  This continued for many, many years, accomplishing the things Maharaji wanted me to accomplish.

Now imagine that you are on your deathbed, looking back over your life.  Imagine that NONE of your dreams have come true; in fact, all of your fears have come to pass.  What happened?  How do you feel?

I follow what everybody else tells me to do.  I do what doctors tell me.  I did the chemo, I went to the Prostate support meetings.  I got involved in drug trials, testing new drugs.  The more I did it the fewer people were around me because I didn’t have the energy to be in their lives.  I ended up going into nursing homes because I couldn’t take care of myself.  The money I had got drained away and I died a pauper in pain.

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

Black and red!

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?

An anvil and hammer.

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!

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

I am a standard large anvil, solid steel, weighing at least 500 pounds with a point on one end.  I am almost immovable, powerfully built.  As the hammer, I am good and solid.  I work with my partner to bend things that are very hard, like steel.

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

We are dependable, strong. We know what we’re doing. We can bend and shape things.

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

We have crappy social lives!  No one comes because they want to hang out with us.  They are only around us because we are tools. We are not desired in and of ourselves.  People don’t quite understand us. They think that if you hit an anvil hard enough it will break. But the hammer is what breaks, not the anvil, if something is going to break.

(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?

Base chakra stuff. Things he’s used for so long.  However, it’s more than that.  It’s any of the chakras.  He knows how to bend things.  He knows how to make things move.

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

No, we’re happy with who we are.

(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:   5 It’s all bent to the goal, which is more important than compassion.  You just do it.

Wisdom:   5 I don’t learn from the mistakes of others.

Acceptance:   5

Inner Peace:   5

Witnessing: 10

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

Compassion: He would use us much more judiciously.  If all you have is a hammer and an anvil, then every problem is a horseshoe…However, what he forgets  is that the hammer can beat out gold as well as dross, and shape it finely.

Wisdom: Look at other people! See how they are screwing up and learn from that!

Acceptance: Accept that you can be different and be wise about it!

Inner Peace: Doing the art of goldsmithing rather than working on raw iron!  It would be more gentle and effective!

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

The level of subtlety he would require would be quite pronounced.  Learning the dance is so appropriate for him, dancing with his own self, with the universe, with others.

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

He’s doing them.  He’s changing all the time!

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

1. Creating magic: Keep dancing!

2. Regarding dancing with more people, keep your mouth shut, don’t think about people, feel them.  When that feeling is prominent, move with the steps that need to be taken.

3. Service:  Turn it over to Maharaji!  It’s his perogative. Be more open to that.

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

The same ones.  They are the key to a rich and fulfilling life.

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

All the time!  There is always a more open and loving way to do things!

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

We are an important part of who he is.  We are part of his soul.

What do you think about this person’s nightmare?

It gives his fears a reality that he needs to accept and then choose not to do it.  It can be a choice rather than a destiny.

What do you think about this person’s good dream?

It’s also a choice, not a destiny.

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

Falling asleep!

What would you recommend that they do about that?

Stay awake!!!!   Open your heart.  It provides the right answers.

I think this person created this nightmare because….

He created it.  He has to recognize that it’s a choice that he has to make.

What have you heard yourself say?

Bending and turning things; the hammer and anvil have given me a long time perspective.  The decisions I’m making now will affect a lot of people for a long time. That was a surprise to me because my time frame has been so attenuated since I got my cancer diagnosis.  It’s been hard for me to see that the decisions I’m making now have long term implications.  In a past life I was the wife of a samuri in the height of that period in Japan.  I was good with money and kept my husband financially secure.  I was a respected member of the society with money and influence.  I also had a son, who I have met this lifetime.  I spent a bunch of years toward the end of my life as a Zen nun.

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

Get out of thinking in terms of one lifetime.  See the big picture.  Go back to understanding that your choices are not for next week, month, or year, but how what you does can have an impact on your soul and future incarnations.

I was in some sort of building where a lot of people were sleeping.  I would say it might be something like a hostel.  Then I was riding with someone – a woman? There were others in the car, I think.  She took it straight up the top of a tall building.  At the top I knew it was too vertical to land on top of the building. Instead it arced over and was headed back toward the ground.  I was thinking, “Thanks for a great life” when I woke up.

So Car, how do you feel about how this dream went?

Car: Terrible!

I suppose you would change it so that you didn’t get driven up the building.

Car: Definitely!

Well then, I guess I need to talk to the lady that was driving… Lady, why did you drive the car up the side of the building?

Lady: Why not?  It’s a dream, isn’t it?

So are you saying that in the dream you knew it was a dream and you weren’t afraid because you knew no one would die?

Lady: Yes!

So what do you think Joseph should have done about you driving the car up the side of the building?

Lady: Relax and enjoy the ride!  Instead of waking up he could have used it to go lucid, for instance!!!

Any recommendations about waking life?

Lady: Just the same:  Relax and enjoy the ride.  Don’t get stressed out or worried about anything.  Who you really are can’t die.  Use everything to help you wake up more!

Good advice.  OK.  Thank you, Lady!

From the point of view of this self-aspect, rather than emphasizing dream lucidity per se, lucid dreaming is about learning to wake up in whatever state we are in.  While our waking identity clearly differentiates between dreaming and waking states most of the time, that distinction seems less important to many self-aspects.

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!

Surfing Your Way Out of Your Life Nightmare

I am in a jail.  I have to take care of people on death row.  I’m not a prisoner but I’m not a caretaker.  I’m something in-between.  I am taking care of people in the last hours before they go to the electric chair.  One of them is a former male friend.  He knows that he will die in a few hours.  I have to cheer him up.  (Crying).  It’s not a good time for me.  It’s dark with all the fear of losing him.  I have to tell him that I love him and that he’s a good guy.  I have to cheer him up for his last hours.    It’s awful.  Then they take him out of the room and take him to kill him.  I have to stay there until they bring him back dead.  I try to wake up because I realize it’s a nightmare, but I can’t stop dreaming.  I knew I was dreaming but I couldn’t wake up; I couldn’t stop it. The next person is my grandmother.  I have to take care of her.  They take her and kill her and I have to wait for the body to come back on a stretcher.  Then I woke up, went back to sleep and the same thing was happening to other people. Even with waking up I couldn’t stop this nightmare.

Notice that going lucid accomplishes nothing for this dreamer.  There is no freedom, no control, no autonomy, no ability to change anything.  Instead, what is experienced is that the nightmare embraces everyday consciousness, as is the case with post-traumatic stress disorders.  Also, notice that going lucid is a failed attempt by the dreamer to rescue herself from the drama triangle by waking up.  Instead of avoiding persecution and victimization by waking up, it is merely extended to other examples in other parts of her life, stressing the pervasive nature of the nightmare.

While lucidity is often an attempt at self-rescue which succeeds in keeping one stuck in the drama triangle while exerting the worldview of a stuck waking identity into the dream state, deep listening honors the nightmare of your life by giving it the respect of suspending judgment, listening, and applying what makes sense.  Instead of changing the nightmare to conform to your assumptions of happiness, both the nightmare and your waking identity learn to conform to the culture of a transcending and inclusive intrasocial reality.

For more, see lucid dreaming and Some Challenges to Some Assumptions About Lucid Dreaming.

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.

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

1. Reaching children with IDL.

2. Networking.

3. Initiative, drive, focus

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.

I have been given Hitler, who is unconscious or in some sort of state of hibernation, to look after.  I am worried that he could wake up at any minute.  I am carrying him around in a car.  He’s laid out flat.  I find some guy to lie down with him and keep an eye on him.  All the time I am trying to figure out what to do with him.

I am running toward my car, which is parked catty-corner, on the other side of a busy intersection, just before the light, at the bottom of a hill.  I have to stop for traffic.  I see a long, low metallic vehicle cruise by.  Then as I walk toward my car I realize another one has pulled up next to my car and five or so big guys are completely going through it, taking everything apart.  It could be government, it could be military, but it is anonymous and it is unstoppable.  A woman in the group sees me and starts yelling questions at me.  I know I’m going to be caught up in whatever this is about.  I vaguely feel I carried something contraband in my car.  Hitler?

Why do you think that you had this dream?

I went to Prora day before yesterday on Rügen, near Binz, where Hitler had a huge “vacation paradise” built for 20,000 at a time.  It stretches for miles along the Baltic sea.  Although I’ve been to the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag, Prora was the closest I have felt to a sense of the reality of Hitler since I’ve lived in Germany.  In the museum at Prora there were all sorts of pre-WWII and WWII Nazi memorabilia and newspaper articles with Hitler’s picture, making those times very vivid, present, and contemporary, and I could imagine being alive then.

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

Being Responsible for Hitler

These are the characters in the dream…

Hitler, my car, my friend, the intersection, vehicles, woman, guys

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

Hitler

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!

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

I’m in some sort of coma-like state.  I can’t wait to wake up to reassert my authority and will.

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

I get what I want.  I can make almost anyone, most of the time, do what I want, get me whatever I want.  I do it through fear.  I like that you are afraid of me.  You should be, or I’ll kill you, or worse.

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

I do not like that I am in this coma-like state.  I do not like that my power can be checked.

Hitler, 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?

The potential of awakened malevolence within himself.

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

I wouldn’t go into comas.  I would be clever enough to always stay well ahead of those who are trying to catch me, to limit me, to take away, limit, or destroy my power to do whatever I want to whomever I want.

(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 great confidence in my ability to intimidate people into doing what I want.  I have great confidence in the power of fear, lies, and buying people off.

Compassion:      0

Wisdom              7 You would say that I am merely smart, but I have a great deal of experience in what works and what does not.  You may not like my type of wisdom; you may not agree with it, but it gets real results that people have to respect, whether they like it or not.  Most people secretly wish they had my ability to get what I want. You envy it too, if you were honest with yourself.

Acceptance:       8 I accept who and what I am.  Do you?

Inner Peace:       0 I am not interested in inner peace.  I want more power and control.

Witnessing:         7 I could not have accomplished what I have already accomplished if I did not have considerable witnessing ability.

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

Of course.  I would only want to change if it woke me up out of this coma without changing me.  I couldn’t be me if I had any desire for either compassion or inner peace.

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

He would accomplish his goals, that’s for sure.  He already has considerable inner peace and a good portion of compassion.  What I have that he doesn’t is unstoppable confidence, wisdom about dealing with people, no self-doubt, and a determination to follow through with my plans.  Using me as a part of him to get what he want scares him, because he thinks it’s playing with fire, unscrupulous, and may set the worst parts of him free to be destructive.  But I am a part of him, and I represent aspects of his life force that are not only effective, but whose absence not only keep him from being whole, but keep him afraid of himself.

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

I would be in command, in control.  I would use others to get what I want.  I would not worry about whether or not I was manipulating them or whether the end was justifying the means.  I would instead know that others were getting some of their needs met or they wouldn’t be giving me what I want.  He can do a whole lot more of this without getting into the Drama Triangle. That’s what he needs to be afraid of, not me.

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

1. Give away his book on nightmares.  Get the names of sources on line that deal with them, night terrors, and PTSD. Send them unsolicited copies.

2. He needs to then network with those people.  See how that goes. Then consider duplicating with other manuscripts.

3. Take this project and practice initiative, drive, and focus toward it.  If you focus on other things you will lose your focus.

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

Learning that you can access the strengths you associate with the threatening, selfish parts of yourself without being threatening or selfish.  That one is enough!

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

When you need determined, willful focus to see your task through to completion, regardless of what it is.  This is what people secretly admire about me and what scares the hell out of them.

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

To get him to see how he’s thrown the baby out with the bath water.  To have him see how he has disowned strengths he needs out of his fear that he will be devoured by his weaknesses.

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

His fear of becoming or appearing to be like Hitler.

What would you recommend that they do about that?

Realize that is grandiosity.  He in no way has what it takes to become a Hitler. It’s a twisted form of narcissism for him to imagine that he could be ruthless or malevolent.  It’s neither his nature nor in his agenda, and he has the self-awareness, including his Sangha, to catch those tendencies as they arise.

I think this person had this dream because

He needs to own positive qualities that he has disowned out of fear of misusing them.

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

The stripping of his car was a way of saying, “You have this Hitler aspect, and you are going to have to admit it and deal with it.”

What have you heard yourself say?

That it is better to understand and appreciate the fascination of evil and to learn from it than to pretend that you are not that and be both controlled and limited by your dishonesty, repression, and  fear of it.

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

Claim all of who you are, good, bad, and ugly.  Trust that the universe is big enough to accept and use all of you.  That when you get “wake up calls” from your dreams through IDL interviews, you not only awaken your strengths and potentials, but those parts of yourself that you fear and that you need to face to become whole.

If you would like a copy of the referenced book on nightmares, email me at Joseph.Dillard@Gmail.Com.

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.

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.