Working Dreams

Articles

In this, Part 3 of a three-part introduction to using dreams to solve problems, we begin looking at how to use dreams while awake, and to change the course of our physical lives by rewriting our dreams.(See companion articles) Illustrations by Scott Byers

Working Dreams

By JAMES CORONATO
Aegis Press

In 1957 a doctoral student named Hugh Everett III proposed a startling new view of the physical universe that has become one of the few theories able to reconcile observations of quantum mechanics and general relativity--two areas of physics that lie at the foundation of science’s description of reality as we know it. Today that viewpoint is commonly referred to as the many-universes, or many-worlds, hypothesis, and describes a universe of universes which contains all possible outcomes of every decision that can be made, past and future, and therefore, all possible worlds. It is associated with such notions as time travel, black holes, and superspace.
What would these other worlds look like to an observer? Many would appear similar to our own, with only minute differences; but others would differ dramatically, even to the point of unrecognizability. How they appear, however, is ultimately up to the observer. Our experiences and training color the way we see things, so that even two observers of the same event often disagree on what they saw. The more preconceived ideas and opinions we hold, the less able we are to make “objective” observations. Not surprisingly, our minds usually prefer to gather only such data as reinforces our established world view. The language of our preconceived ideas we call symbols. Symbols are the language in which we dream.

Fluidity of Viewpoints
The more viewpoints we can easily entertain, on the other hand, the more flexible are our views, and the more objective our observations. An illustration would be the judge who examines the truth from all sides in a dispute. In doing so, he positions himself to render judgements that are wise and balanced. Likewise, let us call a “high” viewpoint one in which we have risen above our own symbols so as to penetrate more clearly to the true nature of what we are experiencing. Such a vantage point will be unclouded with opinions, and will allow us the freedom to see equally as well from any viewpoint we choose. The corresponding consciousness is called one of non-attachment and has been sought throughout human history as an uplifting and powerful point of awareness.

"I...rewrote the ending as if I were the director, changing it so that I became the hero instead of the victim."

How do we visit a parallel universe, or at least see one? When we turn the dial on a radio, we adjust the resonant frequency of the tuner circuit to the frequency of the carrier wave of the station to which we want to listen. Although radio waves are outside the limits of our physical senses, and therefore invisible, they do exist in the same space we do, and carry very real and useful information.
In the same way it is possible to tune our awareness to those worlds which normally would remain invisible. In fact, we do this already in everyday life in a subtle way, by the company we keep, the attitudes we hold, and the thoughts we entertain. We bring our outer lives into harmony with our inner composition.
Our awareness is a bit more complex than a radio receiver, however, for in addition to our bodies, we have emotions, thoughts, memories, and insights, and tuning ourselves may require us to shift attention out of those areas in this universe and into the corresponding areas in a parallel one. A simple idea? Yes. Possible? Yes. Easy? Maybe.
Quantum mechanics has brought forward the role of consciousness as integral to how we perceive and even form the universe in which we live. At least one physicist has postulated that dreams may be one of the ways we access parallel worlds:
"Can our minds witness other worlds when we sleep? It just might be that while dreaming, our minds, not being fully occupied with this reality, are able to perceive other realities. Maybe the key to traveling to other universes is to simplify the mind. This world just has too many distractions--such as the art of survival in the concrete jungles of modern life."[Ref 1]
To dream effectively is to open up conduits or communication channels between our highest level of awareness and our human, waking state of consciousness. Anyone can accomplish this, at any point in life, in any field of endeavor, and for any challenge faced. We can dream decisions, solutions to technical or emotional problems, or new inventions. We can dream-learn new skills or concepts, create art, or change the outer conditions of our life. How? Let me give a personal example.

Example 1
I recently had the opportunity to present some work on creative decision-making. My options were two: write a series of short articles, or publish the material as one long chapter in a book.
Rather than analyzing the decision, I instead lay down on the sofa in my office, shut my eyes, and relaxed. (This was to be a more intuitive approach.) I chose an individual who embodied my highest ideals, and I imagined this individual, whose advice I respected, standing with his hand on an old-fashioned knife switch like those you often see in laboratory scenes from old movies. Connected to the switch by curly wires were two green lights representing my two publishing options. The left light was labeled “chapter,” and the right one, “series.”
In my mind’s eye I remained as a guest in the scene, just feeling good until I was certain my mentor had made his decision, and then let him go ahead and pull the switch to light up one of the choices and make my decision for me. But nothing happened. Undaunted, I relaxed a little and tried again. Nada. One more time. Now, however, I was so relaxed, I don’t know what happened because I fell asleep. Immediately I had a dream in which I saw an oversize pad of paper with a line drawn down the middle of the page so as to divide it into two columns. The two columns were headed “chapter”, and “series”, and itemized lists of pros and cons were drawn up under each heading.
All I wanted was a simple answer, but apparently someone in there wasn’t about to let me off the hook by giving anything away for nothing. Instead I had been pointed toward an equally simple--and probably quicker--earthbound decision-making tool.
Upon awakening, I dutifully used the paper-and-pencil method suggested, and made the decision rationally. In the process, I found I not only made the correct decision, but learned something new about decision making and about the relative advantages of each of the options I was considering. Furthermore, I wound up with an experience that could be used here to illustrate the actual concepts involved! So there you are. There is no free lunch, but if you watch, you will see yourself from a higher viewpoint working to help you get the most from each experience.

Growing Your Own
You can make up your own techniques using the one above as a guide. Practice them when you are just waking up in the morning, as you are about to go to sleep at night, and any time in between. You’ll find they work the same way whether you are asleep or awake, once you begin to relax and trust them.
The central idea in an exercise is usually to answer the question: what do I need to do or know in order to take the next step forward? In a typical exercise we construct a film that we can play in our imagination that sets the stage for our inner faculty to take over and slip us the information we seek. Ideally, we do it in a way that’s easy for the information to come through, and simple to interpret.
There are several important ingredients in an effective dream or creative-imagination technique:

Do your homework--Gather whatever information you can in the time you have available. In analyzing the problem, you prepare your mind so that it is able to recognize and use the solution you are given.

Objective--Write down what you want to know or accomplish, and why. Construct a motivation so that your highest ideals are served in achieving your goal. This ensures that the solution you obtain to your problem takes you along the path of least resistance in the long run. For example: “I seek a solution that will best serve my own growth, the benefit of my family, and all involved.”

Attitude--Be humble; ego distorts the information you receive in the dream. Adopt a feeling of gratitude for the solution you will receive and cultivate a knowingness that you will, in fact, receive it.

Sequence--Construct an inner visualization that shows your mentor (e.g., a saint, spiritual figure, or another image representing goodness and wisdom) giving you the information you need, or helping you accomplish what you want to achieve. The mechanism you use should be simple and direct, and leave little room for ambiguity or complications. Run this inner film repeatedly and gently in your imagination until it seems effortless and natural: Live it.

Attention--Focus on the results, on the action of your inner scene, and on the positive aspects of your goal. Do NOT scold yourself for attention lapses.

Feeling--Perhaps the most important ingredient of an exercise is to recreate and cultivate feelings of love, gratitude, joy, certainty, and the feeling of satisfaction that comes from having achieved a goal. Do this during the exercises and at as many other times as possible until you reach your destination. Your success rides on it.

We construct creative techniques in at least two ways:

By creating an internal movie in our imagination in which someone we regard highly gives us the information we seek; and

By creating an internal movie in which we see ourselves gain the solution to the challenge we face.

An example of the first kind was given above as Example 1. An example of the second is illustrated by a recent dream experience:
In the dream I am an inmate of a prison, outside on the grounds at night. I have wandered inadvertently into a restricted area, triggering the escape alarms. Spotlights converge on me, sirens sound, and guards tackle me, accusing me of trying to escape. They beat and threaten me, and are joined at the scene by other inmates. The guard announces that my prison term is now extended. I feel helpless and dismayed, as this was kangaroo justice of the worst sort, and I have experienced it many times before. The guard pushes a long hollow needle into my left leg and takes some sort of routine ‘core sample,’ adding yet another identifying tattoo, which marks me as a new prisoner. I awake agitated.
The dream was telling me I had handicapped myself by walling myself in. My creative foundation was in danger of being seriously undermined, and although I was unsure at the time what the full implications of this might be, I knew it wasn’t something one would confidently aspire to.

Rewriting Your Script
During the following day, and before going to bed later that night, I replayed the dream in my mind up until the point where it had ended. I rewrote the ending as if I were the director, changing it so that I became the hero instead of the victim. The scene now went like this:
I successfully walk away from the unjust sentence and out of the prison forever. As I escape into the woods, the sun comes up and floods the area with light and warmth, and the smell of the clean, open air fills my nostrils. I feel the exhilaration of the complete freedom I now have claimed for myself.
Work, as I have done, with the imagery you are given in the original experience no matter how unrelated it may seem from the actual outer conditions the dream references. In your sequel, make sure you change negative aspects of the experience-- darkness and confinement--to more positive conditions like light and freedom. A dream offers a map of the conditions in your consciousness. By responding back to yourself in the same language (symbols) in which the original message was communicated, you can improve their message by changing the way they relate to each other.
That is, if you take the symbols as they are given to you, untangle their negative patterns, and send them back to their source deep in your subconscious, you effectively disassemble the conditions in your awareness that were the source of the original message, and open up a pathway for additional information to come through. In this way, nightmares now become gateways to a better life.
That night I had a second dream, which featured an old friend. He had always been ineffective in business, and had a tendency to thwart himself. He was serenading me from a rooftop and had a spectacularly beautiful voice. He was also very handsome and had several girl friends, but he was living in a commune in a relaxed but impoverished style, and not accomplishing very much at all.
The next scene showed me as I loaded my fountain pen with the materials for a special (writing) project, and then showed the pen’s tip blazing a long, lazy curve across the desert to a brand new refinery--or fuel station--where there stood a row of enormous new fuel tanks whose bases were massive pianos.
The dream told me the effect the “prison condition” was having on my professional life, and what I needed to re-engage my creative faculty and to regain my effectiveness at work. Tackling the project would open up new creative outlets (pianos), which would in turn generate renewed enthusiasm and give me the energy (fuel tanks) I so needed at the time.
Working with one’s dreams is a personal art that carries the promise of an ultimate prize. Remember that the stories above are my own examples, and that yours no doubt will be different. But know this: Dreams depict our personal experiences at the frontiers of the true worlds of our existence. Thus, they carry the innate power to lift us without fail into an ever-expanding awareness of ourselves and of our world, and to demolish whatever limits we have placed on our own creative expression.
Your dreams in their purity are the poetry of the human spirit. You are at once poet, audience, and critic. Be kind to yourself, and your dreams will reflect your contentment. Be helpful, and they will respect your judgment. Be loving, and they will respond with beauty. But above all, be sincere: they offer you truth.

Comments?

^[Ref
1] Wolf, Fred Alan. Parallel Universes: The Search for Other Worlds. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988. p. 254.

© Copyright 1989-2000 James Coronato. All rights reserved.