How often have you been moved by the sight of a new design, symbol, painting or pattern? How often have come to the realization that hidden behind what you first thought was the message a much deeper meaning rose to the surface? How often do you apply that conscious understanding to the reality experienced on your every day life or in your dreams?

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Do you remember your dreams? Have you yet started to gather them under categories in order to learn from or study them? Dreams, as surreal as they might be, hold keys to the core of your mind’s inner workings and the potentials for your wilful consciousness to embrace its realms.

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Sorting Out and Categorizing Dreams

Now that you have gathered a considerable amount of "data" in the form of dreams, have you started finding correlatives between them? Maybe a group of people around the same kind of settings or a specific location around which a whole bunch of oneiric adventures take place? What about the main theme of the dreams you have had over the past few days, are they all around the same kind of fears, social situations making you anxious or a societal state that raise anxiety within your soul?

Because the act of finding meaning is subjective, depending on the logic you apply to categorize the dreams and information you are experiencing in your dreams, there are an infinite amount of possibilities as to how to categorize them. As everything is relative to everything else, the nature of the relationships you are connecting the dreams with can vary and will vary. Consciousness is an ocean where all is in interconnectivity. While the ocean also lives holographically within each of its droplet, each of its molecules, all of time exists within all possibilities of time itself. This means that both the future and the past exist now, all the time, at every single moment, all of forevers are present now. Since the space-time continuum is one, should we infer that all spaces themselves are also one within all possibilities of space? I think we logically have to. From here, the question is, where can we access this potential?

As I started this series, I gave you the key to this answer, hinted by our most famous modern scientist, Einstein, I underlined how imagination has potentials far exceeding what rationality can envision.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

_{(By Albert Einstein)}

Remember these opening words from the first article: “When creativity arise, time goes out the window and magmatic overflows submerges the mystified conscious mind…” It has always surprised me to come to the realization that creativity, whether it is within ourselves individually or groups of all sizes including the entire humanity, has an enormous potential of power. Its role as an agent of change in the stream of our history can’t be underestimated. To borrow thoughts inspired by the Mayans, we have entered an era of human history where time is becoming impregnated with artistic vision, soaked with dreams exceeding all expectations.

Since consciousness lives as oneness, what makes us see things as different from one another in dreams or in our daily lives? It is our choices, more often based on our 5 senses, supported by our act of “analyzing”, when we choose to compare one thing as being different from another. The word “analysis” means *to dissect, take to pieces”, in other words “to cut away from a whole”.

Many asked me, “What does Lucid Dreaming do for you, what is its purpose?”. Waking up to new perceptions gives you keys allowing you to measure and evaluate the meanings of each codes and symbols found within your dreams.

_{(The Sri Yantra, acting on one hand as a very powerful and most advance piece of technology humans have created while being a symbol empowering all beyond their consciousness. Painting by: John Broadhead.)}

By finding points of connection between dreams, you start to build up a "library" of connections, really worthwhile keeping close at hand for a closer look. Especially after a certain time has elapsed, it will allow you to have more perspective and a bit more of a detached point to consider them from. Though neutrality is impossible, your subjectivity has within its core the faculty of separating oneness into chunks more easily digestible rendering categorization a very powerful ally.

For instance, after reading one of our Steemians dreams, I couldn’t help but give them the category of “Relational Dreams” or “Social Dreams”, where the dreamer’s persona is seemingly reflecting, evaluating, and challenging the state of social interactions within societal contexts familiar to the dreamer’s every day life. These sort of dreams allow for one individual to reflect on the power of social interaction and how they behave within these circles. Yet, if one is lucid dreaming, one can practice while evaluating different possible ways of interacting within these realms. This allows for the dreamer’s persona to, at least, build self-confidence and, like a chess player, evaluate series of interactions and the worth of delving into them or not.

Studying the library compendium and opening doorways allows one to better understand consciousness journey through all potential forms of reality. Dissecting this reality into pieces disconnected from one another is also a powerful way by which we interact with reality, though we more often than otherwise forget that we do so, as long as we remember that we come from oneness.

To relate to @denmarkguy: “I started keeping a Dream Journal in the late 1980's as part of a series of psychotherapy sessions that helped me get in touch with "hidden" and suppressed feelings and memories. Once the therapy stopped, I kept going with the journal... And have kept it up, ever since. It offers an interesting record of recurring themes happening within specific contexts of what is going on in my life.”

What can be practice and achieved in dreams versus what is brought forth into our everyday reality becomes a very relevant question. This process of lucid dreaming has brought forth a tool to at least entertain oneself, as we would say in the culture I live in right now… Meanwhile, @denmarkguy seemed to have found a way to learn from them while making the study of dreams a very interesting exercise to go through.

The power to cut oneself from oneness comes with its pros and cons and is ultimately depending upon your will to do so or not. In what seems to be the mainstream culture of this world today, considering oneself detached from oneness is apparently the main philosophy and is strongly based on a materialist outlook of disconnected realities left afloat in an empty soup of void, not even dark matter or its energies…

_{(I the bright light of the pure awareness, all darkness subsides allowing for all forms to rise and shine. What is one to envision?)}

Again, furthering this topic, @denmarkguy writes: “Of course, quite a few dreams also come across as pure science fiction... I have never quite been able to ascertain whether it's common to "dream yourself" onto other planets with other civilizations in other galaxies.”

Unless experienced and corroborated by someone else, eventually by as many as one can, how can one verify whether or not it is in deed pure fiction? My answer to his reply followed in this manner: “The so-called "pure fiction" dreams you are talking about are shared by many! (…) The infinite realms of consciousness have ramifications beyond any limits we can even imagine, as I underlined in the very first post relating to dreaming. Can you describe, draw and or paint the civilization you are experiencing in these dreams? If you can, it will reveal even more to you and others as it will also awake parts of you that are leaving some of the details aside when you write them back.” The act of remembering is in itself also an act of the imagination as it is largely a reconstruction of a vision or series of visions that we bring back to the surface of our consciousness. This also has the power to awake frequencies within your being that will allow doorways of perceptions to open and give you a wider access to your own experiences, both from the past as well as the ones lived right now and the ones to come in your every day life. The future and the past within the now are co-participants in the act of reality’s becoming.

Without necessarily finding legitimate corroborating experiences such as seeing the future or possibly reawakened far gone pasts, @gggreenhouse wrote: “I spoke in foreign languages during meditation. See accidents before they happen, meet with, and learn life lessons during lucid dreaming. It's just another virtual reality, with different rule sets, or constraints.”, legitimately, @livelifefullest asked: “Is a dream a second life? Is a dream the hidden reality ?”

To which I replied: As far as I have experienced so far, the constraints have been self-imposed, when they did occur. The doorways opening for us through the use of dream yoga, allows you to go far beyond the so-called dream and link what most would consider everyday reality with our nightlife dreamscapes as one uncut stream of consciousness. All of what we call the past and and future are but one in the eternity of consciousness. Therefore, there is no limitations as to whether or not one can see phenomena from the future or unlimited pasts either. This time application goes beyond time itself and starts to find ramifications within the space continuum as well, it is not as if time and space where apart from one another, right?!.

The doorways dreams open go ultimately beyond the virtual and are an amazing field of experience to practice for anything you'd like to become and accomplish within this level of reality as well…

_{(Even as we are living through our every day lives, what limits do we impose ourselves in the perspectives we chose to live by, to experience, to see the world as it is? Which perspectives do we dare to embrace and push away from ourselves? Is anyone legitimate to limit one’s mind to embrace all, the wonders of oneness in all its glories?)}

Where are found limitations we find barriers created by our own mind and we have the power to dissolve them. Through dreams, one can practice going beyond the mundane and slowly learn the ways to get there within the plane of reality we live in right now and refer to as “every day life”.

A long time ago, for me, dreams allowed a parallel life to the one I had during the day and, therefore, could have been called a second life in those terms. Now though and after years of lucid dreaming practice exercises, I have came to realize that it is all one with the distinction of being in different density of consciousness, where the dream time is in a much lighter state and our every day life is a denser coarser aspect of life itself. The dream states realities relating more to a liquid river of water while our everyday life is more like a glacier, a frozen river of water. Like a person slowly swimming down after diving into a deep water hole where a small light is found at the bottom, the realities of this hole slowly come forth as one moves toward them. It is not hidden per se, but simply not yet seen as it is always and forever being there.

Now that some of you are already at this phase of lucid dreaming, after realizing that one is dreaming, you have became aware that you are actually dreaming. You are now ready to practice a few exercises to start challenging one on this path of opening doorways, I would suggest a few exercises I used to set for myself as I would move forward in my practice of what I can only call by now “Dream Yoga”.

Though the following exercises are presented in a purposeful sequence, putting emphasis on a progression preventing the build up of fears and anxieties of all sorts, it is not absolutely necessary to follow that order. But I would strongly suggest trying to do so even though some of us are stronger in some areas than others, maybe the fears have already been dealt with thus allowing one to move easily forward without having to follow this progression. I’ll leave it to your discretion. Nevertheless, the practice of these exercises from time to time allows one to stay strong in the realms of consciousness and are really worth revisiting. Just like practicing weight lifting, it makes us all stronger individually and as a whole, especially in times where we are spiritually, emotionally or even physically challenged. Lack of faith in oneself, negativity, hatred, fear or jealousy, diseases have a very strong tendency to weaken our ability to assert our spirit and wilfulness in a constructive and potent force within our dreams and on our everyday life. Having had practiced the following exercises and knowing that one can successfully overcome these challenges allows for our strengths to rise to the occasion, when occasions arise.

_{(A key symbol and powerful tool of visualization and meditation, the “Flower of Life” is at the heart of many technologies that have been developed over the centuries Reverberations of life beyond all realms perceptible or not are included in this ageless symbol. Painting by: Elspeth McLean.)}

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Dream Yogas

Here are some exercises to practice as well as some dream challenges for the ones who can already become fully aware in their dreams. For the others who have not yet developed the skills yet, there’s a journey to move toward. So, without further ado, the very first exercise is the one that allows you to reconnect with inner powers of your innate consciousness and an aspect of its own nature: Try flying!

At first a bit of a jump to suspend yourself in the air and slowly come back down to the ground. Then, make it a much bigger jump, while running might help even more as one starts to acquire speed, one also learn to deal with the feeling of acceleration which is the one that usually scares people as they reach terminal velocity or, later on, faster speeds… Forcing the matter by jumping off of a building or a bridge, a mountain or a flying plane might also do the trick, if your wilfulness is stronger than your fear of dying. If it isn’t the case, then you’ll simply wake up, probably in sweat or in a breathtaking bewilderment. So, before being able to jump off any heights, gradually set yourself for bigger and bigger jumps. Eventually, you’ll build up the inner certitude that you can do it and eventually start flying once and for all!

Once the law of gravity has been dealt with, let’s confront other ones. Lift objects of any sizes through the same progressive method idea I proposed earlier. Challenging materiality is a good one to tackle afterward. Use your will to walk through a window, then a wall, then a mountain, maybe the Earth, eventually. The idea of materialization is a strong contender in keeping us limited and confronting this idea allows you to free yourself considerably.

Thus, it is time to challenge time itself and reverse the dream backwards. From there, then, challenge the dream itself and change all the landscapes surrounding you. Turn different aspects of your dreams into different things. for example, if a lion is about to eat your had, turn it into a little dog licking your face or a car about to crush you against a concrete wall into a butterfly landing on you. Feel empowered already? Wait there’s more, much more to these illusions of grandeur, almightiness of will.

_{(Conquistadors dreams grow beyond measures to paradigms of semi-god… What’s its worth on the long run as none goes to their grave with a single piece of gold while recognitions of any kinds invariably fades away with the sands of histories? I would love to give credit to the painter of this magnificent piece, maybe @liondani or one of our acolyte who knows and can read the signature could help us retrieve the author of this painting?!.)}

Now that space around you has been under your scrutiny, dissolved, reassembled and general law of physics turned upside down, it is time to question your own being in the dreams. Some people can see themselves, some can only see part of themselves and some simply don’t see themselves at all though they have the feeling of being “there” like a omnipresent narrator observer.

If you can see yourself on any levels, try to change its shape and even its nature. for instance, you can try making your hand be your face where you look out from. If this becomes easy, let’s try facing the unthinkable and see if under any material/physical circumstances, you could die in a dream. To force yourself to go underwater and live under there long enough for you to realize that you can’t die as the body you are inhabiting in the dream can’t die. Then, do the same with fire. go walk into a giant fire or, even better, a volcano! Not much to see, on some levels, there but the experience is definitely worth it.

Have you yet come to the realization that you can’t die in a dram yet? Not, convinced yet, let’s go out to space and combine the flying idea with the one of deathly cold in an environment where one shouldn’t theoretically survive without breathing. Ramp up as many factors and build them up against the so-called “self”, apparently immutable… On that path I am bringing you on, so far, you are turning into a semi-god as the world around you seems under your all mighty powerful will, right? now, ask yourself, do you control the speed at which the dreams are changing on you? Now, like a river, the dream keeps on changing beyond your immediate will. It is because the consciousness you are made of is itself bathing in an ocean of consciousness. Like a droplet of water isn’t much different from the ocean as a whole, the whole of the ocean pervades holographically all the processes of our apparently “own” consciousness.

If some parts of our dreams are complete fantasy, how do we make the difference? In other words, someone could ask where or when does reality become science fiction and vice versa? I can only ask, can we really legitimately do so?

One part of it that you can answer as being of a fictional nature is the one you created yourself through these exercises. Your own creations are issued out of your imagination and incommensurably coming from experiences you have had or imagined earlier. Yet, does it mean that dreams and the mundane are necessarily and completely separated from one another, like water from oil or, more potently put, like water from the sun??? Is there any crossovers between the two or none whatsoever? Could there be a river linking the lake of your wakefulness and the oceanic oneness of consciousness itself?

_{(Aim to notch the arrow of emptiness, with eagle’s eye decisively strike ultimate meaning… )}

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On the limits of realities one often finds key answers as to the nature of either part of an equation and in order to further our understanding of reality, dreams and consciousness, in our next article, we’ll be delving into the bordering regions of our dreams and sleep time where our consciousness apparently slips from one realm to the other. Maybe to awake to the fact that one reality isn’t separated from another, other than by our own choice to see it so.

Looking forward to reading your replies, comments and questions. As many have already done so, I have had the chance to answer the majority of them already but some have answers demanding a much deeper answer than what we have came to pass yet. One way or another, there’s an awful lot more coming our way as this series of articles unfolds and I want to thank you for your participation and patience in this process.

So, stay tuned for the next episode of “Lucid Dreaming”, a walk through the intermediary states leading from reality to dreams and from dreams to reality.