Tag Archives: dream reality

Chuck’s Place: In And Out Of Changing Times

Who is dreaming whom?
-Artwork © 2024 Jan Ketchel

Why do we gain so much benefit from a brief moment of rest? When we close our eyes to the outside world and drop into daydream we enter what Seth, whom Jane Roberts channelled, called, psychological time.

Psychological time demonstrates Einstein’s theory of relativity par excellence, as, in but a moment of measured physical time, a whole lifetime can be lived, in dream time.

At one time in my life I practiced extreme dream recall. I would awaken after a few minutes of sleep and record my dreams, which could take an hour or more to record. After a few nights I had to abandon this practice, as I’d experience little restorative sleep while I produced volumes of dreams from such brief blocks of physical sleep time.

What I did discover from this experiment was, indeed, the relativity of time. Our favored construct of living life according to outer time is actually a very slow playing field for our ego’s waking existence. When located on the fuller spectrum of our inner energetic life, waking life moves at the speed of molasses as contrasted with the rapid river-speed of the dream plane of psychological time.

Have you ever noticed upon drifting into daydream that you are casually engaged in conversation with unknown people, in unfamiliar life dramas? Who are you and who are those beings? Actually, you have opened the door to your fuller self, who lives life in many time zones or on other planes of existence.

The closest plane of existence to the solid physical plane of waking life has been called the astral plane, where souls, both still living in physical bodies, as well as what we call departed souls, commingle and interact, either consciously or in deeply entranced states.

The astral plane has many levels. Initially it serves as a greeting station for souls who have completed life in a physical body. During this initial adjustment period, souls recapitulate their just-completed lives.

Some souls remain in a state of purgatory as they reckon with desires, regrets, resentments, losses and unfulfilled needs. Some souls enter bardo states of deeply creative dreaming where they seek resolution and completion of unresolved issues from human life. Some souls remain so deeply attached to their prior life in physical form that they spend extensive time fixated upon life on Earth.

When souls are fulfilled, having evolved emotion and attachment into the purity of refined love, they may then advance to the higher rungs of the astral plane. At its most advanced levels, the astral plane is the launching pad for life beyond illusion.

Souls, like us, who have not yet left life in physical form are visitors in the astral plane during dreaming. Much of waking life is actually the physical reliving of life already lived in dreams on other planes of our existence. Often, what we recall as dreams, reflect interactions on the astral plane, though most of these encounters are lost to waking consciousness.

When we experience a deja vu moment, or a synchronicity, in waking life, it’s actually an awakening moment to an interaction already lived in dreaming that is now crossing over to be lived in waking life.

Our subconscious mind for our present life in human form has a full-time job operating the systems of the physical body while our consciousness is mentally engaged in its pursuits for waking life. In sleep, that subconscious mind, or energy body, is freed to rejuvenate itself and journey into the astral realm, which is more akin to its faster energetic speed of existence.

In these journeys in infinity, the energy body might encounter departed souls struggling to accept their changed energetic condition and living circumstance. Sometimes we are able to help them move on from their confused state into their new energetic life. Sometimes we encounter loved ones who have departed human form and are able to share intimate moments of connection and communication with them.

Sometimes we may encounter souls with whom we have travelled in prior incarnations, discovering lives and themes which lend clarity to   our circumstances and goals for our present life. Sometimes these astral encounters reveal to us unborn potentials, ready for birth in our daily lives. These might be new careers, relationships, and hidden talents seeking fulfillment.

It is my hypothesis that human evolution is moving toward greater integration with the astral realm. When I see the rapidly unfolding dramas on the Earth plane, I see collective movements, problems, and political structures from prior times in human history that gravitated into the astral realm and have now returned.

Have not the holocaust, the current status of Israel, leanings toward a dissolution of democracy in America, and in much of the world, and stirrings toward the restoration of monarchy in Russia—all issues from prior generations—reappeared and quickened at a frenetic pace on the current world playing field? Hard to not conclude that there is an infiltration of old unresolved astral issues seeking resolution in current human life.

Human life is at a monumental crossroads in terms of how it chooses to reconcile these pervasive states of polarization. We are being asked to relive and resolve ancient struggles in the light of a new day. The solution of repression is no longer available to us. We must reconcile with our wholeness, which is both rational and irrational.

And so, in these changing times, we must all bring integrity into the daytime and into the night sea journeys of our dreams. We must be receptive to guidance that resonates the truth. We must provide guidance to, and set limitation upon, that which would seek to overrun our conscience, our balance, and our health.

Human responsibility and choice are critical to celestial solution. Changing times call for greater consciousness, greater conscience and greater love for ALL.

And remember that love leads, but is not dismissive of, hate.

In and outside of time,
Chuck

Chuck’s Place: Encounter with Other

Other…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Other, is a separate reality. Other is life in dreams. Other is life in a body. Other is life beyond reason. Other is shadow. Other is other.   

Beyond the protective narcissistic wrapping around self lies other, waiting. This narcissistic sheath serves to homogenize other, blending it for inclusion within the familiar comfort of self, a far cry from true encounter with the mystery of other.

The internal dialogue immediately snatches the waking ego to erase its  dream encounters with other. To connect and journey with other from dream, threatens the ego’s hegemony over its world. To include other would require ego to take in a world far greater than its solid grasp on reality.

Even if the ego takes up the dream, it quickly formats it into the known; all characters fit into associations that lead back to parts of the self. Reason ensconces encounters with other safely within the boundaries of known self, reinforcing all the usual dramas. From here the internal dialogue paints the day, a portrait of self, everywhere.

Reason cannot permit the mystery of other. Though drawn to the magic, it pummels it into logic, sneering smugly, as it brands it childish fantasy. All that is known is provable in experiment, repeatable in the light of day; everything else is fantasy.

Characters in a dream are merely the byproduct of neurotransmitters active in the brain, says reason, just as it judges out-of-body experience to be merely dissociative hallucination. How reassuring for ego to transpose the irrational into order. How protective of self to resist the delusion of other.

That which is not-I can shatter one’s world. Perhaps its worldview is far more comprehensive; suddenly one is nothing. Perhaps one doesn’t feel worthy of other; other will never show up. Longing for other, one hides in excuse.

Perhaps the greatest challenge of our time is our reason’s encounter with the irrational other. So complacent we became with the dominating all-encompassing rule of reason that we dismissed the power of nature, whether in the form of a coronavirus, or an emotional virus, that now holds reason in its grip.

Clearly, reason must accept the power and autonomy of this  irrational other. Denial has led to this compensatory rise of impulse over science itself. Modern humanity is responsible for this uprising because it embraced reason alone as its one true god.

Suspend judgment, get to know the fullness of other in one’s whole self. Take up the challenge of life in the dream. Get to know and fully live in the body, as well. Connect with the universe in the synchronicities and agreements that saturate every moment. Talk to the plants, the birds, and the bees.

Encounter other with openness, respect, and loving kindness. That’s how the world will heal. 

Encountering other,

Chuck

Chuck’s Place: The Discipline of Awe

Find the pot of gold in every dream…
– Photo by Jan Ketchel

Suspend judgment, and entertain this dream, the current consensus reality, with the Discipline of Awe:*

An incredibly aggressive, take no prisoners energy, has swept control of world leadership. Mightily, it rests the validity of its case upon the strength of its heated economy, the ultimate defense against want and need.

Meanwhile, the Earth heats up, as the oceans rise and the lands tremble. Denial is the proffered tool of this new consensus reality, promised to stave off all disruptions to normal life. Can that really work?

Enter stage East, the coronavirus, in the home of the heart of world manufacturing. Could a tiny virus seriously challenge the very financial  order that upholds world leadership? Will aggression, denial, and science be able to circumvent collapse? What’s going to happen next?!!!!

The greatest defense against anxious infection from the dream we are in, our current consensus reality, is to rest upon the perch of Awe, which for shamans is the very definition of discipline. Awe is the calmness of Buddha, as he faced, without resistance, but also without attachment, all the extreme dreams of Maya, as they presented themselves to him.

The potential trapping generated by the dream of current reality lies in how powerfully it invites fear and offense. As soon as one succumbs to those emotions they lose their edge. To spend one’s emotional energy in bursts of extremes actually feeds the consensus reality of that dream, a dream dependent upon the energy of both unbridled and tortured emotion.

Yes, the dream we are in now may be experienced as utterly ruthless. Yet, as monstrous as that dream interpretation might be, the current dream’s medicinal value lies in its ability to test us; to drive us to greater awareness, if we refuse to relinquish our emotional energy to it.

Of course, this lands one in a lonely, inadequate position. Because, if one separates oneself from the tenets of the dream—the consensus reality it constructs—one is excommunicated from the safety of the party line. One is sentenced to think for oneself; an overwhelmingly lonely and fragile task.

It’s not that one loses one’s connection to emotion through the discipline of awe, but one does lay claim to one’s emotional self. One is no longer a victim of the formula that siphons one’s energy, but instead becomes totally responsible for one’s own energy.

For example, when we watch a movie, we suspend judgment and temporarily enter the consensus reality of the story. While watching the movie, we will likely have the emotions prescribed by the archetypal theme being dramatized. However, generally, soon after we leave the movie, we are restored to our familiar selves, detached from the characters or emotions of the movie. We reclaim our emotional autonomy and reaffirm our interpretation of reality.

To take possession of one’s emotional self is to have one’s emotions, without subscribing to upholding the reality being presented. In this respect, one exercises one’s ability to have a romance with emotion, without attaching to the dream or story as my agreed-upon reality.

By grabbing onto one’s personal intent, one is freed from the framework and limitations ‘imposed’ by the consensus dream. With intent, one is freed to respectfully change dreams. This is in no way a denial of the consensus dream; it remains quite real. However, it is experienced as only one of many alternatives. There are other consensual realities to join, or perhaps just visit, as a warrior-traveler, embarked upon the definitive journey of freedom.

To remain fully in this consensus dream, the current reality, but to refuse an interpretation of it that renders one a depleted victim, is a form of changing dreams. To see its predatory dominance as an expression of the true condition of life, one that can be used to sharpen awareness by getting over self-importance, transforms the dream into an evolutionary opportunity.

One does not have to agree to attach to a glum interpretation of this consensus dream either; that’s the true course of freedom. That’s the real revolution:  to refuse to be a victim of the consensus dream; to not attach and to not allow one’s emotional energy to be offended, thus sinking into a hopeless interpretation of reality.

The shift beyond this consensus dream is aided by using death as an advisorIndeed, it is the ultimate shamanic maneuverIn the Tensegrity workshops I attended for many years, every speaker would introduce themselves by stating their name, followed by the qualifier, “…a being who is going to die.”

I have to admit that my own self-importance interfered with my being able to mimic this style of introduction. I never could do it; it seemed rather trite and morbid. However, like all things those shamans did, there was a truly pragmatic value to this ritual.

For one thing, shamans state their names to affirm their full presence in the reality or particular dream they are currently embodying. Secondly, when they remind themselves of their impending deaths, they are accessing being present to this living moment from the perspective of a dying being, a being who is transitioning into a new reality, seeing the ultimate relativity of the dream they are exiting.

From that perspective of relativity they are freed from an all-consuming attachment to present reality; as it is seen as just a moment—albeit significant, as all moments are—unfolding into the greater unfolding of oncoming time, that which is infinity and beyond! Such an encounter with infinity borrows a perspective from beyond this dream that tempers the emotional energy expended in holding onto, or compulsively needing to change, the outcome of the present dream.

Present reality is merely a dream that exists, with equanimity, among an infinity of dreams, all of which offer golden nuggets of awareness. Exploit the current opportunity to the fullest, regardless of outcome. Defeat and conquest are meaningless outcomes next to an infinity of dreams waiting to be lived.

With this expanded perspective, we’ve come full circle, back to awe, the coveted position from which to truly resume, unfettered, our magical journey, appreciative of all the gifts from our many, rich and colorful dreams.

beingINTENT upon AWE,

Chuck

*As with all my blogs, my ideas presented here are deeply influenced by my experience and appreciation for the path of heart Carlos Castaneda gifted the world.