Hi Alka,

Welcome to the Openhand website

All dreams are subjective and can be interpreted in many ways. However, what we usually observe in our work here at Openhand, is that we truly ask a self realising question, normally the soul speaks through our own words and usually immediately.

My intuition tells me the answer to your dream is 'encoded' in the words of your question. So it is quite clear from your words that you see God as something separate to yourself. Would that be fair to say?

Many people across the world are now waking up to a common realisation: that we are all one and that at the core of our being, we are the absolute - in other words, we ourselves are God.

When people let go of the 'small self' ego by processing out their attachments to the drama of life, then at some point, they drop through the limiting and frequently deceptive web of the mind and discover a place of infinite pure presence - crystal clear clarity.

We have dropped through the canvas of reality and become the "Seer" of all things.

I believe this is what the all seeing eye is in your dream. So if that's the case, why the fear you might ask? This often happens when people discover the Seer within. We have built a framework of reality around our ego which is often afraid of loosing control. Or else we might fear the limitless liberation and awesome majesty of becoming God.

There may well be other guidance within the detail. So red often relates to the fourth dimension - the barrier between this plane of reality and the next higher one to which we are ascending. It's where we learn to confront and process out our fear based thinking and past life karma.

I would say you're being invited to begin the inner inquiry - the journey inside your feelings and thoughts. What are those attachments that lock you into the drama? How can you go within and empower yourself to be absolutely and completely you? The time may have come to begin asking those questions.

Much love and encouragement

Chris

Hi Chris, I'm just curious why the color red in particular relates to the fourth dimension, what is the nature of this fourth dimension (being a bridge of 3rd and 5th)? Is it the astral realm? How did it get formed? Can opposing consciousness go up to the higher dimensions from the fourth?

Lobsang Rampa" you-forever" is a book i just read and according to him dreaming is not what we know it to be in the modern world. According to him the astral body leaves when the physical body falls asleep merely to have its own experience connected through the silver cord. If one does this consciously one can see the past and visit place and many other thing, He has happens to know as well that what is written in the history books are not facts, so i was wondering if anyone else has the same view on dreaming as him, it being an astral experience?

thanks for posting the question Surrender, i've been wondering about the nature of dream realm.

I've also been wondering that since everything arises out of awareness and is inseparable from it, and in truth there's really no such division between inner and outer world, does that mean the people or beings we meet in our dreams are just as real as the ones we encounter in our everyday waking life? by real i mean there's actually a soul animating the dream figures. Sometimes the dream reality can seem to be more real and lucid than this waking one, its hard for me to think otherwise. I'd like to know what others think about this.

Dream time is an interesting one for me. They often provoke energy or feelings that stay with me for the next day, like putting on a pair of glasses with cloudy lenses. For example I may have an encounter in my dream with someone(ex-girlfriend, friend, boss) from my past or present and in the encounter a scenario that evokes fear, attachment, love will play out, and then when I wake up it is like the energy of that encounter is with me and I am looking through the cloudy lenses and it influences how I feel. As I can see and feel it, I can generally work and process it, maybe I have an unusual way of processing emotions?, I wonder if anyone else has similar experiences?

David

Dear Chris,
Thank you for taking time and interpreting my dream. I think you are right about that your soul speaks to you immedetiately sometimes I get answers right away to my questions.

For example if someone just lied to me, i get the answer with my heart right away yes he is lying. No doubt I am in agreement to that answer 100%. Lately I have been experiencing strange things. I rather say, I am discovering things about myself. I have been thinking about my circumstances which you called the drama of life.

My life is like a puzzle right now and I am yet to solve it.

Thank you for your encouragement.
Alka

Hello Chris, and Everyone,

Here is something I want to share with you all. I have always thought #13 is a very bad number. When I googled it, I found a lot of good information across cultures.

Here is my story relating to that number. I have been locked in an arranged marriage. Recently I have celebrated 13 yrs of wedding anniversary. I get visions sometimes should i say rarely. Often I dream about things that are related to me and they did helped me in my past.

Every since I have celebrated my 13th wedding anniversary this year in August, i began to see #13 atleast 3 to 5 times during the day. At first I felt its a coincidence. Later, it is poping out to my notice. For example I am a math teacher if i solve a problem then my answer is 13, if i make a test for my students then number of questions i end up are 13...
Today, I went to church, and asked God may be its all my mind making it up. May be i want to see that number and hence finding it because I am looking for it. I said God if what I am experiencing is not made up then let me see it again to confirm that its a sign of something that you are telling me to find out. then after the church was over, I forgot about the number and I came out with my husband and son, when i walking down the steps, I saw a car parked right close to road with #13 written on it. Then I thought may be there is something to it, a reason or a message coming to my notice but i do not know what that is? Later that, when i opened my email i got 13 emails in my inbox. My huband was talking to me about something and he said #13 during the conversation. I was still deleting the emails in my inbox while he was talking to me then i moved to junk box and again found 13 emails to be deleted them.

Chris I do not know what is happening with me or around me? Would you help me understand? What am I suppose to understand Good or Bad.

Gods Blessing to you and all
Alka

Hi Rani,

This a truly beautiful phenomenon you're experiencing. But let us be clear - it not 'God' speaking to you but your own higher self. In other words, that part of your soul that is not yet embodied. It kind of works and acts 'through the ether' like our guardian angel. In fact frequently people confuse it with their guardian angel.

So how does the higher self then work with us? When we're ready to awake to universal awareness, it will speak through signs, synchronicity, song lyrics, car number plates, other people's words and also dreams. There are many ways. The higher self works within you by 'spiking' your consciousness to the deeper meaning of life itself. It is inviting you to question the very nature of reality.

It sounds very much like you've had a very conditioning background. So the bodymind seems like it has a good deal of fixed beliefs, ideals, conditioned behaviours and limitation. The soul on the other hand is now yearning for freedom, to wake up and walk the spiritual path. Your higher self is now calling you there.

Interesting that you chose me as a mirror (the soul chooses 'mirrors' in the form of people in the outside world). Because I too was locked in a 13 year marriage until I awoke during a car crash in which I thought I would certainly die. My higher self began speaking to me through the general weave of the fabric of reality just as yours is now. It caused me to question if being in the marriage really served my higher evolutionary purpose, if it truly served my soul. When I began asking this question, the signs grew really strong and it became abundantly clear that I was supposed to leave. This I did and my life took off in the process (in a spiritual sense).

So in your question, you mention you have been locked in an arranged marriage for 13 years. Does that serve you now?

Chris

Hi Lei,

The colour red is something that is quite poignant to me. I remember once getting the strong guidance that the 'parting of the Red Sea' story was indeed a metaphor for bridging the 4th Dimension. It now comes up fairly often in my exchanges with people. But that doesn't necessarily mean it applies universally. At the end of the day, it benefits us each to make our own interpretations based on what we each individually feel. All signs and synchronicity should be processed through our own inner feeling mechanism to get to their true meaning for us.

In terms of how it got formed, I talked at length about this in the beginning of my book Five Gateways. I believe you have a copy? Each dimension may be considered like ripples on a pond. They are formed as consciousness spreads outwards, getting denser and thereby taking form.

And with regards to the progress of Opposing Consciousness, again I address this in the book. It is clear that when a sentient energy tries to control another, this sets up its own limitation based on judgment and control. Basically it is limited by its own manipulation. Something which is of too low a vibration for the Fifth Dimension.

Chris

Hey lei.. Something interesting happened. And a response to your question, I think when we encounter people in the dream realm its either a projection of them or their astral bodies. Its also true that its your higher self that is giving answers to what you ask, as chris mentions above. For the first time yesterday i meditated for more than 40 minutes without noticing and i sense that the brain or the senses they pick up so many frequencies. When you sit in silence there is a very high tone that all of us are familiar with when as i just focused on this i started hearing many more different ones, sounded like "iron bolts" exchanging electricity. So before i went to sleep i wondered a bit about supernatural stuff. when i fell asleep In my dream i think i saw my higher self because i told this person i wanted to levitate and he had a very calm loving face telling me to start with smaller things:)

Hi David,

David wrote: "As I can see and feel it, I can generally work and process it, maybe I have an unusual way of processing emotions?, I wonder if anyone else has similar experiences?"

What you describe feels like a powerful way of processing energy and emotions. Until we have let go of attachment, the energy of past influences are usually woven into our life whether we see it or not. To have that clearly highlighted in dreamtime and then see its relevance in your life is a gift. It gives more space to bypass the mental chatter and allow an unravelling to happen by power of observation and just by being you.

Trinity
x

Hey Trin,

Thanks for your reply. I often admire people who have a good cry and let it all out, not that I haven't in the past but these days it doesn't seem to work like that. I don't feel like I hold back, just different I guess.

with love
David

Hi David,

The important thing is that you are surrendered to the process of unfolding. It comes to us all in different ways.

A little while back I went through a phase where I was processing a lot of karmic energy in my sleep, through 'dreams' and visualisation. It felt such a relief to process in that way as I felt fully able to get on with my every day life with out feeling exhausted. Processing in dreamtime is quite an efficient use of time

Love
Trin
x

Hi surrender, thanks for sharing your experience. it's made me more interested about the nature of the dream realm, i have to understand more about it.

Hi Chris,

I have read your book, it's an excellent excellent book! It's truly opened my mind, thank you so much!

I'd like to ask you more questions about dreams.

What purpose do dreams serve? How is the dream realm constructed? Which dimension does it lies? how should one interpret them?

I've just read about a dream a friend of mine wrote about in her blog. It's an incredibly vivid dream involving many people having crazy wild sex in many places in nature. The characters in her dream were all people she knew in her real life and according to her, the experience was absolutely amazing! It made me wonder why the universe would deliver a dream like this? my friend's a creative writer, is highly imaginative and has seen and talked to spirits since childhood. Also what is more real, this waking life or the dream world?! were the characters in her dream (the people she knew in her real life) actually there with her on some level? or in other words, are the beings we meet in our dreams real in the sense there're souls animating them?

Thanks,

Lei

Hey Chris.. My girlfriend had a very interesting dream she told me about. a man walked up to her and told her he had to pass the information he had on to her (in her dream) he told her life is like a bridge, you can either go left or right but don't build a house along the way. What is even more interesting in my edition of "autobiography about a yogi" there are notes on the bottom of every page and on page 238 there is a reference Akbar the Great who attributed a similar saying to Christ which Jesus said according to the book. "The world is a bridge,pass over it, but build no house upon it. hopefully you can help us interpret it
cheers andi

Hi Lei and Andi,

Yes dreams are indeed powerful and when we discover how to interpret them, can be amazing revelatory help on the journey.

Lei, you ask what is their purpose and are they higher dimensional? To me, yes, they ARE higher dimensional experiences. When we sleep, the soul disengages (to a degree) with the bodymind and the third dimension. We're liberated to expand and 'rise' into higher planes.

We reconnect with our Higher Self (again to a degree) and it's in this place that important information can be realised. But it is not in our interests to be 'told the truth'. It is better that we realise it for ourselves - that is the intrinsic nature of the universe.

So dreams, stories and parable become the most enlightening method of discovery and self realisation. We're presented a story and then asked: "how do you feel in relation to that story?"

Personally, I find it now very straightforwards to interpret dreams, but then I guess I've had a good deal of practice. When conscious dreams started happening for me, they always did so at around 4am in the morning and I'd forget most of the details by the time I woke up a few hours later.

When I realised how powerful the lessons could be, I made sure I'd wake up after the dream - I'd do this simply by the internal application of sense of purpose at the time of going to sleep (some call it setting the 'intention').

After the dream, I wouldn't immediately try to interpret it but instead I'd write it down in a dream log. I'd write only on one side of the book - the opposite page I'd leave blank. Then later in the day, when it felt right, I'd return to the log, read each aspect of the dream in turn and then right on the opposite page my immediate feelings/thoughts about that facet.

After a while, the language developed quickly along with my ability to interpet them. The 'lessons' were being supported by synchronicity during the day.

So Lei, you ask about your friends dream. One aspect jumps off the page for me...

It's an incredibly vivid dream involving many people having crazy wild sex in many places in nature. The characters in her dream were all people she knew in her real life and according to her, the experience was absolutely amazing! It made me wonder why the universe would deliver a dream like this?"

In the higher planes, sex is a totally different experience than here. It's not wrapped up in taboo and distortion. When two beings meet, there is frequently 'divine intercourse' - a blissful interdevelopment of energy. It's healthy, natural and vibrantly uplifting. I'd say it's an indication to your friend about building lovingly blissful internal feelings about her connections with people here. But that's not necessarily rushing out and having wild sex with everyone she meets! It feels she's being invited to explore the higher feelings generated by the positive feedback loop that builds between people who focus on the simple joy and love that connects people when we get beyond our mental limitations and judgments.

Andi, you ask about the dream that is reflected in Autobiography of a Yogi (awesome book by the way)...

"The world is a bridge,pass over it, but build no house upon it."

This life is a transition from one plane to the other - a continual process of internal Ascension. If we allow ourselves to get attached to the physical, then we get locked into our own internal 'house' which can prevent us 'crossing the bridge' into the higher planes. So I'd say the meaning of the dream is about finding non attachment.

And finally I should say this is what the dreams mean to me. What do they feel to be about to you?

Chris

Chris, you became a dream interpretor!

And soon in bookshops!! Chris Bourne's new book!

"The Bourne manual to dream interpretation"!

haha

You sell it, I'll write it.

Chris

The building in a dream symbolises the prison that we build for ourselves. It's the prison that we build in our minds that we have to break free from in order to transcend into the higher paradigm. This is my experience anyway. I agree with Chris regarding the symbolism of attachment.

Not everyone can control what happens in a dream though. I find it most beneficial to watch the dream. Holding the space for unravelling to happen of its own volition will release the restrictions that are current at that time in daily life.

Thanks a lot Chris for your response. Sara would be pleased to hear ur interpretation and it makes perfect sense and it would help her along the way Wow and I just received my Bourne bible today

Chris, that's a great explanation, now i understand dreams a lot better I find dreams often compensate my waking life. I've been living on a raw vegan diet for about 2 years eating basically just fruit and vegetables, i used to have very bad cravings for cooked food, and i'd frequently dream about eating them. The dreams seemed to work to bring some sort of psychological balance in me, but how do I interpret this sort of dreams in terms of signs and meanings? I really have no clue.

Sometimes dreams could be incredibly lucid, more so than in waking life. I do wonder if the characters in dreams were real, are souls actually animating the dream characters? isn't this waking life also a kind of dream, what makes the people in our 'waking life' more real than the characters in our dreams?

Lei

Chris, I think you're spot on with my friend, it's really incredible how you could do this without knowing much about her. She's quite an interesting person, she's had some quite high spiritual experiences through fasting, drugs and yoga etc.. but she always goes through cycles of quite intense roller coster up and downs, she'd get quite high and then come crushing down, she'd been diagnosed bipolar when younger, she's addicted to the highs. She's also been channeling a novel, her spirits say it's good for the world, she's a talented writer, it's certainly interesting the things she wrote, but i feel some of the things are quite dark involving too much dramas. I suspect it might be the opposing consciousness using her talent for their end. They manipulate her subconscious thorough the channelling and writing, make her very susceptible to roller coasters, then feed on her intense negativity. I wonder what you think about it.

Hi Lei,

You ask...

"what makes the people in our 'waking life' more real than the characters in our dreams?

In many cases the characters from our dreams are probably just as real. Except when we're awake, we're so tuned into the third dimension through our bodies, that we tend to loose a good deal of the sensitivity of the higher dimensions. Unless that is we keep expanding, keep staying connected and keep watching those internal subtle feelings.

It sounds as if your friend is very 'tuned in' in this way. And yes, this can provoke a bit of a rollercoater of experiences until we learn to fully integrate them internally. And yes, that can make us susceptible to external influences in the way you describe.

Chris

Hi Chris and everyone!

I've just recently discovered Openhandweb.org, for me it's an endless ressource of valuable thoughts and discussions. This time I found this forum-thread while thinking about dreams and I felt like adding this comment

I have the feeling that for some time now ever so often my dreams have become more powerful and meaningful. But mostly when I encounter this feeling after waking up just hours later I have forgotten the "message", while the feeling stays. That's why your "dream log" really caught my attention. I will try to remember this method, hopefully next time I can write down more details ASAP.

I really wonder where my consciuosness is going during sleep.

You said: "To me, yes, they [dreams] ARE higher dimensional experiences. When we sleep, the soul disengages (to a degree) with the bodymind and the third dimension."

I had the strangest experience some days ago. The moment my alarm clock went off and I was in the process of waking up, first thing I felt was a surprise and then like recalling: "Oh! Right, I have a body!" And it was the most peculiar experience to be caged into this physical container. I couldn't remember where I had come from, but at least I could remember that it must have been quite a different and expanded state of consciousness. Remarkable!

And I have a question connected to dreaming. Lately I read about the dream state and the stories and messages that show up within our dreams. I believe it was in one of Osho's books. He said that one can train to be fully aware and "awake" during sleep and watching one's own dreams. It's like being the observer that is so important to develop during daytime can also be cultivated during sleep. Is this worth persuing? What do you think about this?

With Love
Matthias

Hi Matthias,

Thanks for connecting and sharing here on Openhandweb. You are most welcome

You asked...

"He said that one can train to be fully aware and "awake" during sleep and watching one's own dreams. It's like being the observer that is so important to develop during daytime can also be cultivated during sleep. Is this worth persuing? What do you think about this?"

Yes it is possible, but our approach here at Openhand is not to come from intention to do things (in an evolutionary sense) - rather to let things arise naturally by working with our awareness and where/how it is directed. Interestingly this is the second time today I've engaged with someone whose taken Osho's teachings and there's been (I feel) a distortion associated with them.

So where I feel this comes from is the whole concept and notion of what we call "The Seer". The Seer is pure presence. It is that which precedes awareness (consciousness) and all phenomenal experience. It is crystal clear clarity, the everything/nothing, the source from which all this arises.

The Seer exists in and through all things and it is what we are - except you can't even say its what we are because it even precedes being - does that make sense? (you can read more here...The Seer of All Things).

Moving into Enlightenment is about recognising and moving into this state more and more of the time. In (our) truth, it is all there is. It is the only absolute truth - all else that arises from it is illusionary and transient. Every phenomenal experience is perfectly 'designed' to direct us back to this place - assuming we listen.

So the only true place to really be is the Seer and that is there all the time, even when we are asleep. So when we are being the Seer, we are still awake and can therefore observe our dreams as they happen.

But if we try to effort to do this, the chances are we create an identity which can pull us away from it. For me, the key is to follow the path of natural spiritual evolution, bring our attention to the things that are arising for us, unravel the lessons and unfold the beingness wanting to activate.

I'd suggest right now, it will not necessarily help much to try to watch your dreams as they are happening unless that occurs naturally. What I think would be more helpful is to work to remember your dreams by writing them in a log as we've suggested.

What often happens is that people temporarily wake up after the dream but then go back to sleep almost immediately and forget them! If you know this is happening, you could give yourself a little help by supporting what is wanting to happen anyway - by setting your alarm clock at that time where you think you're waking up. Then you might catch the dream more completely.

Chris

First, Thank you for your answer!

Osho's approach to "train" your subconsciousness before going to sleep, seemed logical to me. Since I'm definetely "trained" in my behaviour to my environment and myself.

It may very well be that I am attracted to the "intention-approach". But do I not have to start intentionally observe my feelings, thoughts and actions if I come from a state of (methaporical) sleep, from blindness and old addictions? Does it not take intention, will and discipline to question my habits and to change my behaviour?

I feel the solutions lies within surrendering to the moment. But its tricky, because surrendering doesn't work, if its "intended".

Hmm, further thinking about intention. Intention has something to do with a planned action in the future or some desired future end or state. Maybe the key is desire here. I think Buddha noticed that the cause of pain and frustration in life is the mismatch of how you like things to be (desire) and and how they actually are. So really intention doesn't allow me to follow the natural flow.

OK, but I feel like my thoughts are running in circles. Maybe my key question is this:

How can there be beneficial catalysts for our evolutionary process, if intention should be avoided? Awareness about my inner self and my environment is to be actively (intentionally?) cultivated, or is it all coming with the flow?

Matthias

PS: And I see a connection here to your last comments on synchronicity and that it can only arise if you're with the flow and not intentionally trying to interpret everything around you.

Hi Matthias,

You pose a great question - I see you're having a deep inquiry.

To me the very word "intention" suggests something that is mind led. Although I accept it could mean something entirely different to others. If it's mind led, then all we end up doing is creating more desire based false identities. It is only the ego that tries to get rid of the ego.

But this kind of intention is entirely different from the upwelling of deep inner yearning from the soul. It's that kind of feeling that can move you to tears about something. Or it could be the persistent quiet inner voice that simply won't go away.

The soul's inherent purpose is our evolutionary growth. So when we get intention led mind out of the way, it tends to well up from within and begin to spontaneously manifest all kinds of new patterns and situations. In following these actions we find we're more aligned with the co-creative flow.

But you might also say "well isn't an intention to connect with my soul still an intention?" And... "isn't any kind of spiritual practice then counterproductive?" Some would argue even this, but I disagree - although it depends on the practice.

If you're trying to force or manipulate something through spiritual practice, such as a rigorous disciplined meditation or a dogmatic religion, then this does tend to build on false self identities. Spiritual glamor is a big one in our world right now!

However if your practice is one which tends to open a space for natural spontaneity to arise, and if it causes you to bring increasing awareness to whatever is going on for you without resisting it, then my experience is such as approach tends to unwind the ego and infuse the soul.

We use that kind of approach here at Openhand. You can read more about it here... Openhand Approach

Chris

Hi Chris,

you have put it perfectly by saying "It is only the ego that tries to get rid of the ego." I had to laugh and smiled inside when I read that, because you simply nailed it.

I'm grateful for your insights! After all I'm getting more and more suspicious that my struggles are telling me something important. I will try to observe my egos playing their games. That way maybe they (as everything else) can teach me.

And reading your lines, I can see that I have experienced the joy, cry and whispers of the soul every now and then. These are moments when I'm full of emotions, when it was NOT intended, then the soul kind of overrides my ego. Its happening to me more often during the last years and I'm absolutely sure and confident that I can trust this inner voice.

"I" am happy about these observations about myself, yet I think it might also be my ego again having adopted another precious something. But I guess that's OK for now. In my opinion the ego is not something bad or disturbing. I like the image of the teacher so much. It's like the ego has taught me a certain lesson about myself over and over again by simply existing. Quite a life to experience

Matthias

Hi Matthias,

What I read between the lines of your post is the interplay between soul and false self acting through the same bodymind - which of course it does.

This is quite an important thing to unravel. It can feel like a kind of schizophrenia - it's because two (partially) separate aspects of self are acting sequentially through the bodymind. So in one moment it will be the soul. In the next it will be the false self (a part of the soul which has become identified with the bodymind - this is what is really meant by "ego").

Now the mind of course is a key vehicle through which we tend to express in this plain of consciousness. So there is a strong tendency to identify with the mind itself. What this does is to confuse the two different impulses (soul and false self) coming through the mind - hence the schizophrenia feelings and difficulty unraveling them.

This is something I experienced on my journey - at one point the NHS tried to diagnose me as schizophrenic! But something powerful happened for me - in a word meditation. I was strongly drawn to meditate, frequently, but not in a dogmatic disciplined way. As I explained in the 5 Gateways documentary, it was a flowing, evolving meditation that was much more spontaneous. It moved my centre of consciousness out of the mind and into my heart (this is the purpose of Openhand Approach).

This was very powerful indeed because it meant I didn't identify at all with what was coming through the mind and so I could begin to watch the dialogue more closely and unravel the different impulses. It was amusing watching the interplay between the two - like watching a soap opera on TV!!!

In watching the two, I could feel the congruency and harmony of the soul but also see where ego was being self destructive. Simply by watching and bringing attention to the interplay began to naturally unwind and unravel the ego.

Over time, the false self dissolves, then the lower self (that part of soul infusing the lower physical bodies) and the higher self (that part of soul infusing the higher etheric bodies) could unite as one and flow in an unlimited and harmonious way through the bodymind.

In order to precipitate this 'transfiguration', it will help to 'turn up the volume on the soul'. Which really means to identify those things in life which really bring you joy. Where you feel aligned and 'in the groove' so to speak. Watch for the opportunities to engage in those activities, all the while attuning to your inner feelings. Again we cover this in some detail in Gateway 2 on 5 Gateways.

We call it 'attunement to the soul' and it happens naturally without efforting when we start unraveling mind led intention.

Best wishes

Chris

I've been intending to write to ask about this for a while now. I’d be hugely grateful if anyone can shed just a little bit of light on some very strange things I have experienced over the past year and a half.

It all started after a few days of some powerful daily meditations up in the mountains in North India.

I wrote down in a note book everything that happened, but there’s just endless stuff, so I’ve just tried to (as briefly as poss) list a few dreams, visions, and experiences at random as I don’t know what’s significant and what’s not.

I’d like to pre-empt this by saying that I’m fully aware that one explanation for all of this is that I’ve just gone completely nuts.

Daily / Regular Occurrences:

Meditation - strange images flashing - people, places objects I don’t recognise.

Jolts when falling asleep (between waking and sleeping consciousness):
-Jolted awake by face appearing in front of me.
-Disgusting insects splatting on me
-Bed being kicked (although no one actually in room & door locked)
-Knocking and whisper in my ear saying “wake up”.
-People / faces I don’t recognise appearing in front of me. Just watching me.
- Little videos playing out in my mind - one for example I was one of 6 / 8 men carrying a dead body at a funeral.

Dream Themes and Re-occurences:
Disturbing strange creatures
Energetically repulsive beings
Sitting in classes (varying locations) amongst people all wearing white.

A few individual dreams:

Experiencing death through loosing blood from heart as a young man. Trying to communicate with my father and close friend (whose name began with 'J') but they couldn’t hear me because I was dead. Feeling how it was to die and energy draining from my body.

Meeting a man who told me humans come from the sea and we will go back to living in the sea. I watched scared as he walked into waves and disappeared,

Seeing three ghosts - two men and a woman. I walked into a room. Door slammed and lock fell off. Lights went out. Strong cold wind. I fall to floor. Ghosts burning my hands with cigarettes.

Hundred of cats pouncing on me sticking claws & teeth in every inch of my body, face, eyes… then receiving phone-call to hear sound of child being killed. Extremely disturbing dream!

Old evil witchy woman - disgusting (energetically and aesthetically), I tried to ignore/get away from her so in anger she put a spell on my feet which made them rotten and diseased and all toes broken.

In a group of people performing a ritual where we each set light to something like a candle wick and placed it in a lake. Everyone else's shone bight and beautiful. But mine shriveled and spluttered and turned to sludge glowing green. The spiritual teacher woman there said “oh God… OH GOD… something atrocious is going to happen” (meaning is going to happen to me).

I am one of 5 captives. Captors take one captive and pour acid on her body and I have to watch to see as I will be next. As they pour thick sludgy brown acid I feel the pain.

There was an old woman the most repulsive being imaginable, who came many times. But that’s another story i would like to know about but it's a bit longer to explain. I ended up having some hypnotherapy to deal with this horrid woman and her visits. It helped but I'm just left completely baffled... and I still have no idea what she was, why she came, or what she meant…

I am really keen to make some kind of understanding of all this. Why it’s happened and how I need to deal with it. I can’t continue with my meditations until I understand what’s going on. It feels like this is some dark stuff and I’m only prepared to go into it once I know what it is I’m dealing with and how to go forth!

I'd also like to add, I never watch scary films and don't have TV. I've never had anything especially traumatic happen in my life. I didn't really know much about anything spiritual or other-worldly until all this started and made me aware of these things.

Any insight would be enormously appreciated

Many many thanks

Holly

Hi Holly,

Thanks for sharing and let me start by saying you're not going mad!

When people really start to wake up to multi-dimensionality, it can be really difficult in the beginning to integrate the experiences.

Essentially what I see going on within your experiences are three general things...
1. Your higher self is 'connecting with you'. It will be benevolent, appear in many different symbolisms and could also bring you to confront the sense of death - which can be quite scary but it's the death of attachment to an identity that we're talking of - not an actual death even though at times it may feel like that.
2. As the soul begins to infuse more fully, it starts to activate other bodily vehicles of expression that have stored negative energy - memories, trauma and karma - over eons of time. So as the soul infuses, these flush out so we get to see it in the mind and feel it through emotions.
3. You're beginning to expand into multiple plains of reality. The fourth dimension contains a great deal of negative and distorting energies that would throw you off track, drive you into fear or create illusionary realities for you (like humans coming out of the sea).

The key is to work to integrate the experiences first by letting go of attachment to them. So not fearing them. Expanding into them. Secondly to bring the energy you're feeling fully inside the body. So finding a centre - perhaps the heart - and focusing attention there, softening and opening up. Finally, to begin to follow heart felt guidance confirmed by synchronicity.

You're being invited to walk the path of the Five Gateways. I believe that's what the five captives represent in your dream - you're being held captive through attachment to five different dimensions of consciousness. Essentially it's about our Ascension into the fifth dimension. I've explained it in great detail in my book "Five Gateways: Our Journey of Ascension" which you can read about and get a copy here... Five Gateways

I trust this helps!

Chris

Thank you so much for your kindness in replying to my question.

This really helps me to make sense of these experiences. It's comforting to remember that these things come about as part of the journey back to the divine. I've never regretted embarking on the spiritual path, although it's been pretty scary at times and a steep learning curve!

I'm not sure if this is something that you believe in, but I've had a bit of a concern that it could be something to do with Black Tantra (shudder!). The person who was leading the meditations was from a Sikh background and had practiced kundalini and tantra, but I don't know any more detail. I feel a bit guilty to entertain the idea, as I still keep in touch with him on friendly terms, but I remember the first time i looked at his eyes I felt a little bit scared. But after that he seemed to be a very peaceful kind person. I've read up a little bit about BT online, and some of the things it talks about describe my experiences.
I've also found some mantras to protect from BT, not sure if it's worth going down that road... what do you think?

Heart felt thanks

Holly

Hi Holly,

As a spiritual guide, one has to be exceptionally careful with the practice of Kundalini Activation. I know there are practices out that which force kundalini activation to happen before people are ready for it. This can send the soul out of body and into all kinds of dense multi-dimensional experiences which we're not really able to integrate and work with. It can be very de-stablising.

Here at Openhand we respect the importance of working through levels of density progressively. So for example we get people to work through physical attachment and density first, then emotional, then psychological (inner child identities in particular).

Once we've done this, then naturally people will open up into the fourth dimension and begin to process karma. Processing karma can be very destablising, but if we have this centredness and grounding to fall back upon, it can be worked through in a positive and progressive way.

This one very important reason we were guided to produce the Five Gateways Routemap. It's a step by step progression that helps people unfold naturally into multi-dimensional living in a 'down-to-earth' and grounded way. If you've not read it yet, I'm sure it will make sense of and help with many of the questions you're asking.

You can find out more here... Five Gateways

Chris

Hey Holly,

Please excuse my delayed reply... I have only just found you here. Chris offers some practical and supportive advice.

If your meditation practitioner practices black tantra I would most certainly make a link back to this. Black Tantra leaves the door wide open to Opposing Consciousness. Generally it is a manipulative art that tends to disempower anyone who enters a relationship of trust with the practitioner (whether sexually or not). Tantra in its purest form is rarely understood and therefore the art has been highly perverted. From what you are saying, it sounds as if you have a link in to your friend. You are being bombarded with negative images and your energy is feeding back down the link.

Personally, if I were you I would cut this cord to stop the draining off of energy. I would also watch for other such relationships in your life. The reason that we might end up in such situations is because of an internal distortion that we need to unravel within. Once that has been processed, we won't attract this any more.

With Love
Trinity

Thank you Chris, I have your book already actually. I’d only read half of it as I thought I should wait until I was further along the spiritual path before I read the rest. However, I picked up where I left off today and what I read started immediately addressing some of the questions I’d had. It made me think that maybe the experiences discussed in the book might not necessarily occur in a linear way so it’s worth reading the whole book to get a better understanding.

Trinity - thank you so much for your reply too. I’m not sure I might be speculating and being paranoid about the black tantra thing... in searching for explanations maybe. When it all started I spoke to a few people about it who told me various explanations. I don’t know much about these kind of things myself, my inner feeling was as if I’d opened up or made a connection with something more vast, but in a way that meant anything (any energies that are all around) were now free to come in, and lots of scary negative energies and spirits were coming in. But I also saw images of some nice things like Jesus and Sai Baba amongst others.

I have been wondering about the opposing consciousness, if this is something that somehow wants to hinder our spiritual journey…?

I came to the Five gateways weekend in Jan. The night before the course started I had a dream. There was a blonde girl who was trying to latch onto me and at first she seemed very sweet but I started to feel uncomfortable with her, and was trying to push her away. I was staying in a glass-fronted room, she came to the door twice and I did not answer. The third time she came to the door and I didn’t want to answer, but felt compelled to open the door to her against my will. This time she’d changed and had black clothes, hair and eyes. As I opened the door a fast and powerful awful energy was thrown out from her at me. I could not avoid it and it forced its way down my throat. In the dream I knew this energy was to prevent me from being able to speak. I woke up strangling on my own breath.
I was really shaken up from the dream for the whole day after and it felt like it hindered me being able to properly participate in the course as I’d hoped to. It felt like there was something trying to stop me moving forward.

Two days before the course, I dreamed I was standing on a beach amongst many others. People were rushing to the beach to see in the sky a beautiful new planet. It was another earth. But it was new and clean and perfect. It was like a precious jewel in the sky and we were staring in awe of it.
Then I walked down the beach and into a cubicle in some public toilets where there was a bath. I was having a bath and arms started reaching through the cubicle and hitting and punching me in the bath.

This bit’s kind of funny-
Then I realised I had to get the Five Gateways course. I arrived and was a little bit disappointed that is was being held like a corporate event in a big hotel. You (Chris and Trinity) were wearing black, and shrugged resignedly explaining that the hotel made you wear these black uniforms. I went up to my dormitory, hurrying as I was late. There was a blonde girl in the dormitory who kept distracting me and was making me late to get to the course. I was putting on my pyjamas in the dormitory and got in a tangle and reached a peak of anxiety and woke up.

This bit is real life now-
When I got to Glastonbury I stayed in a dormitory and there was a blonde woman (like the one in the dreams). We got on really well and chatted lots the night before the course. Then we were going to bed, and I got in a tangle with my pyjamas, then suddenly remembered the dream. So then I was very scared of this woman - even though she seemed lovely and we’d got on really well.

Do you think there is some meaning in any of this?

Sorry for the loooong message. I feel I’m asking a lot of you both but this is the first time I have spoken to people I have unequivocal trust and faith in.

Hi Holly,

I didn't immediately connect you with the Five Gateways course - sorry about that. I remember you well now.

It's classic that when we take a positive step forwards the ego will fear its own demise and try to sabotage our progression. We get that quite a bit from people who turn up on our courses - they might feel really unwell when they get there and sometimes might not want to continue. It's just the ego holding on. But it can cause all manner of experiences from illness and flu to strange dreams like the one you had.

At the same time, there is a consciousness acting in the field all around us playing on our fears, attachments and limitations trying to prevent us from advancing. Its a part of the control system in which we live. Some will see it simply as an outward manifestation of the ego. Personally, in my reality, I know it is much more than that.

Whatever it is though matters not. What matters is to confront the limitation and let go of our tightness around it. I'd say the blond woman in your dreams represents your false self - a program that limits and holds you back. There's an invitation to now walk the path - to confront all those inner resistances and follow your highest truth.

That's what our next course "Way of the Heart" is all about. Maybe you'd like to join us in the next one? We take people through a process called the "Spiritual Compass" to apply in day-to-day decision making so we can align with our highest truth. We'd love to have you along on it if you feel inspired. You can find out more here... Way of the Heart

Blessings

Chris

That’s ok it was a big group so not always possible to connect with everyone in one weekend! Plus I was feeling a bit spaced out that weekend too!

I’m going to try some of the meditations described in your book. I’ve also recently got a book on kundalini, so maybe that will help me to go back through the process of activating kundalini in a correct and protected way.

I’m also going to give some serious thought to cutting energetic connections with others which may be distorting things.

I’d really like to come to the Way of the Heart course in the future as I’m really keen to keep progressing, but at the same time these experiences have been incredibly intense and quite a shock to the system to say the least! So I’m feeling to slow down and get a bit more balanced and grounded before any big new steps.

But you’ve both really helped me to get a clearer understanding of what’s going on and what to address, so I can be better orientated in moving forward. It’s also reassuring to know I haven’t completely lost the plot (yet) and that these kind of experiences are familiar to other people too

Thank you so much Chris and Trinity, you've been really kind. I feel much better about things now

Holly

Sorry just one more question. Do you think there’s anything significant about dreaming about deities? I mean, any more significant than any other character or person within our awareness that might appear in a dream?
I have had a couple of dreams - one about a year ago that I gave birth to Lord Krishna, but he was 4 years old when he was born, and then in the same day I gave birth to another baby too. Then a couple of days ago I dreamed I was Hanuman and I was ringing a bell and announcing that Jesus was on my left shoulder and on my right shoulder.

I often think it's funny how, if our dreams have meaning, why we can't understand what they're telling us?

Thank you

Hi Holly, thank you for asking the questions. I'm also curious to know what your dreams might mean. I'm sure Chris doesn't mind at all you posting questions here. Openhand is actually very encouraging people posting questions on the forum, it's a great way to help people see their own truth.

Lei

Yes indeed Lei - you're getting to know us well

In terms of Krishna and Jesus, I'd say they embodied a very similar consciousness which is acting for humanity right now - the Christ Consciousness. Here at Openhand we call it the Ray 4 (of the seven rays) about activating the soul ray of non judgmental discernment. It activates in the heart.

Right now, we are being invited to walk the spiritual path in day-to-day life. This involves making choices. Even though we may authentically feel not to judge others or situations and events, it's not about accepting 'anything goes' either. It's about surrendering to the truth.

I'll give you an example: I was telling a true story on one of the Openhand Summer Retreats about walking down the High Street in Glastonbury when I encountered a guy walking towards me, quite tall, well built, dressed from head to foot in leather, looking quite brutal and drunk (he was carrying a can of beer in his hand). He was acting very threatening.

Now having done Karate for a big part of my life, I didn't feel threatened or in any real danger, yet at the same time, as I felt within, I knew it didn't serve me to confront him. So I followed a pull to cross over the road which I did. I didn't judge the guy about how he was being but discerned an appropriate course of action.

The group sharing after my story was amazing - two people shared similar experiences! One had encountered someone in another place and time and they too felt to cross the road. The second person however didn't, kept on walking and got clonked over the head! It provided the group the perfect example based on real life experiences what it really means to be walking the path guided by that soul ray aspect of non-judgmental discernment.

Even more synchronistic, only yesterday on our Transfiguration Course one of the ladies in the group shared how she'd encountered what she felt was a shady character out in the woods. She explained how she formed a mental decision not to 'worry about it' and to keep walking in the direction she was headed. She decided to trust the guy. But when she stopped to admire the natural beauty and saw him drawing closer, she suddenly realised to run.

What she realised was that she probably had a slight blind spot around the Ray 4 (non judgmental discernment). She'd probably felt the impulse to move quickly away, right at the beginning, but then mind owned the feeling and she got lost (for a short while) in thought about it. This shows the vital importance of tuning into our natural soul pull and allowing it to express through us. Fortunately she clicked in time!

The Ray 4 is indeed essential attunement for walking the path.

Chris

Thank you Chris, it's actually a very synchronistic post for me indeed as right now I'm experiencing the gradual opening of my own heart centre. Now I'm increasingly able to see the qualitative difference between mind-led decision making and heart based decision making, and I have found repeatedly aligning with the observer is very helpful indeed in recognizing the souls pull.

Holly, this may be a sign that you should consider attending the Openhand 'the way of heart' course in October. I will probably even meet you there on the course.

Lei

Thanks Chris and Lei.

It’s interesting what you say Chris about the blind spot that surrounds ray 4. I can also think of times when I’ve had an intuition not to do something, for example not to speak to a certain person, but then I was very curious to know why I should not speak to them, so I spoke to them anyway and they were very rude…

I had an interesting conversation with the dormitory lady I mentioned earlier, she was telling me about how she was once involved with a rather dark and dangerous character, but felt a kind of enchanting fascination that drew or pulled her in to something she was afraid of. And if I am correctly interpreting my intuition on this matter, I could compare it to the sense of warning I felt about my meditation practitioner (that I mentioned in an earlier post) which I ignored…

Hmmm. Interesting food for thought. It’s as if this blind spot might be like a curiosity, a sense of fascination or a lack of trust in inner guidance. Like a pitfall we need to bridge through surrendering - to reach the guidance of ray 4. Surrendering to the benevolent intuition, rather than surrendering to our own curiosity or analytical judgment.

I will try put my attention on cultivation of the heart. Maybe I will make it to the course in October… that would be nice. I’ll wait and see how things pan out.

Holly

That was strange. Just went downstairs and my housemate had just got back from seeing a really disturbing film. She was telling me about it and it sounded awful. But she said “it was somehow really enthralling though”. I said “yes scary things often are” and it felt like that was exactly what I'd just been writing about.

Good morning,

I thought I would share my dream I had last night, because it relates to Openhand.

I felt really bad energy in my heart and for at least half the night I couldn't sleep. At one point I started to repeat like a mantra the following sentence: 'Archangel Michael, please, save my heart'. I did so until I finally fell asleep.

Then I saw myself at the door of the house where I lived. For some reason it was in the USA. A young man with a pony tail and a guitar approached me and passed me some leaflet. I didn't know who he was, because he didn't speak, I think he was dumb or couldn't speak. I opened the leaflet and looked at it. It was printed in my language and I could clearly see a hand written word 'Glastonbury'. I looked up at him and said: 'It is in England. It is an archaeological and spiritual place, isn't it?' He didn't reply, but started to play his guitar. There was a little girl standing by him and she started to sing the song "Over the rainbow". I loved her singing. I sat on the steps in front of the house and listened. Then I woke up.

I have listened to the song many times since I got up this morning. I love the song and the lyrics too. It soothes my emotions. Lyrics:

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream really do come true

Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
A way above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow
Blue birds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then oh why can't I?

If happy little blue birds fly beyond the rainbow
Why oh why can't I?

Have a nice day

Reni

Season’s greetings to everyone.

I’d like to share the details of a series of dreams I’ve been having recently, all of which have felt pretty intense and powerful symbolically. As has been mentioned in another thread, it can be tricky to know the true meaning of such personal and subjective experiences...

One recurring theme for me is the sense of being examined and given an endurance test of some kind, which involves keeping a complex machine of many parts in tip top running order. After a while, my attention and concentration levels start to wander but I come back on track, only to finally ‘fail’ when I can no longer keep things in a regimented line and disintegration follows (at this point it feels like I’m falling and drifting off to sleep!). On waking, distinct sensations of being disillusioned and dampened down - as if coming back to reality (grounded again?) rather than having grand and unrealistic ideas, despite how creative they might have seemed initially.

The following night, a different dream, in which a voice (it seemed like ‘me’) distinctly called out “Please take me” (away from all this). It was very clear at the time I felt ready to leave this life as it was too painful to contemplate going on; I just wanted to put an end to my pointless existence, a feeling which stayed with me the morning after before later ebbing away.

In another case, I had an acute visual awareness (from outside or above my body) of lying in my bed in a fixed and rigid position. The thick outer shell was baked to a crisp and consisted of a hard but brittle substance enclosing what appeared to be my heart, which was beating in a restless and agitated fashion. An unexpected, sudden act in the form of someone plunging a sword down into my body then took place, instantly cracking open the exterior layers and focussed directly on piercing my heart. My reaction in the dream was to wince in the anticipation and expectation of pain but then I felt nothing, except a strong sense of numbness and of being beyond any bodily experience I might have endured.

Finally, I had a dream where I was initially alone in a clearing away from a forest on a cloudless night with the moon shining. The cold and misty air all around as I soaked up the atmosphere, I felt the urge to call out and observed myself howling like a wolf. Later I was joined by others and we felt a real sense of communal bonding and kinship as we found our ‘true’ voices. Eventually, I woke up to find myself still howling in my bedroom!!

Best wishes for 2012 to all those associated with Openhand and its expanding community.

Andy C

Backtracking a little here, Id like to add my TRUTH... Chris writes the dream book, Yulia sells it, and I buy them all and pass them out for free to the entire world... ))))) That should cover/involve all our higher essences quite well....