Dream House: Welcome to the Astral?

[causticus]

I very seldom remember my dreams. And if I do, it's usually only fragments of them. I very rarely feel like I have much of any control over my dreams and the ones I can remember seem rather random to the point where I don't bother trying to decipher whatever symbolism might be contained within. Recently though I've had flashbacks of dreams that seem to occur on repeat, yet I never really remember them. The one thing I do remember is "flying" in them. The precise motion would be me pushing downward on the air with my hands and a levitation effect results from those movements. Really, the motions are very similar to what I would do if I was swimming underwater and wanted to ascend to the surface. But anyway, this "flying" conjures up a thought of deep familiarity, though I can really make sense of it beyond that.

Last night though I had what I'm very sure was a lucid dream. I was suddenly in my old house and it was vivid and extremely detailed. And right I was I was fully cognizant of the fact I was in a dream. As I was walking down the stairs I was touching and feeling the wooden hand-railing and the spindles. It felt so real! I could feel the pressure and fiction of grasping material objects. This place felt as real as any other place, despite my full awareness I was in a dream. Now, this lucid dream was not one that I willed myself into (I'm not sure I even know how to do that); rather, I just happened to end up there, for whatever reason. As I got to the bottom of the stairs, I suddenly remembered my old levitation maneuver. "Hmm, let me try this out," I thought to myself. Then I was slowly floating my way back up the stairs. When I got to the top the scenery changed and there was a wall in front of me that was definitely not part of my old house. Then the lucid dream suddenly ended and I was no longer there.

Was this a brief lesson of sorts? I have no idea. But I did come out of this with an immediate intuitive grasp of how the astral plane is just as real the material. Now, this doesn't mean I'm going to make an effort to go astral travelling; such an endeavor seems entirely foolish unless there is a very specific, spiritually-affirming reason to do so. I also realize it's a big wilderness of unknowns and the sort of dangers and pitfalls that comes along with that sort of territory. But overall I think this topic might be something very safe to explore in meditation.

Comments

[jprussell]

Sounds very interesting, and I'm glad you had the takeaways from the experience that you did!

If you are interested in exploring dreams further, a couple of sources I can recommend:

1) Creative Dreaming by Patricia Garfield: This is meant as a practical manual to learning how to do lucid dreaming on purpose and for specific ends. I haven't read it since beginning more rigorous occult practices, and I'm not sure how it fits in there. At a minimum, though, it gives extremely specific and precise hands-on advice for how to write down your dreams in a way least likely to disrupt remembering them, techniques while falling asleep to make lucid dreams more likely, and ways to test along with what to do if you find yourself in a lucid dream.

2) Dreams, a Portal to the Source by Edward C. Whitmont and Sylvia Brenton Perera: Less on dreaming as a directed process and more on interpreting dreams, this book is solidly Jungian in outlook and methodology, and is built on a lot of practical, clinical experience, married with Jung's philosophy/theories. For me, this is the best book I've encountered for striking the balance in dream interpretation between "here's something concrete and specific you can likely take from certain dream elements" and "all dreams are so intensely personal that a generic 'book of dream symbolism' is worthless - pay attention to the context!"

Besides these, the main thing I have found interesting to consider as I've explored occult philosophy is the idea that dreams that feel so achingly real you are sure they were as real and meaningful as your waking life as well as fleeting flights of fancy are both, in some sense, the same, and both real. I think that the idea that astral phenomena can be stronger or weaker, but also your sensitivity can be stronger or weaker, and that these interactions might be complex, is a really fascinating one that I haven't totally unpacked.

May your dreams bring you further insights,
Jeff

[causticus]

Thanks for these suggestions!

[boccaderlupo]

Very interesting. If we accept some of the Platonic theses, then such levels may perhaps be more real than the waking world.