3 signs you may be lucid

People will talk about astral dreaming and lucid dreaming and sometimes wonder if a difference exists.  You can be asleep yet, still conscious and even conscious while dreaming.  These are sample phases of awareness.  

Lucid dreamers tune out from the physical world, that is, they choose not to be in conscious sensory contact with it.  They act as if they know what they are doing when they do it.  You can learn to awaken your senses and experience new kinds of contact with dream worlds. One view is that astral and lucid dreaming differ based on what part of your mind is in control.  Subconscious mind levels work differently.

If you believe that human consciousness only permits you to focus attention on one or a few things at once, then you begin to realize you are less conscious than you could be and it takes energy to focus and raise awareness.  Consider your own experience.  Reflect on these four signs you may be lucid;

1) You recall lessons you have learned in waking life during your dreams. Non-lucid dreamers experience state-specific amnesia.  That is, while asleep, they only remember fragments of waking reality, if any at all.  They do not sense a bridge or move beyond it.

2) You sense you are radically shifting or transforming experience. Completely lucid dreams have a profound and lasting impact on the dreamer's thoughts and perception.  You move from feeling contained within the dream world to where you transcend it, realize you create it, and expand.  You no longer totally identify with dream roles.

3) Insight you acquire during dreams is accessible when you awaken.  Inventors, scientists, business people and others have been inspired during sleep with ideas they write and apply while awake.   It enables you to access deeper answers within you.

Adjust your sense of what is possible

Dreams offer you clues about how to develop and apply psychic abilities in waking life. They reveal where you construct boundaries and limits and they compel you to explore why.  The why always comes before the how.  Your sense of what is possible evolves with you.

Some people believe dreams are fascinating paths into the psychic world. What you dream and how you interpret dreams reveals more than you will initially realize.  You not only gain insight into your conscious self, but you can also connect and interact with other worlds. 

Many people do not permit psychic abilities to develop beyond the dreaming stage.  You may have found yourself awaken in the morning to disregard images, thoughts and gut feelings as unimportant.  Maybe they are. Maybe they are not.  Only you can judge your progress. 

The time may arise when you discern psychic abilities during sleeping dreams.  You may experience feelings of deja vu.   You may have vivid dreams you recall long after awakening. You may derive startling meanings from symbols that stand out.  You may question the meaning of feeling grounded.  It is just adjusting your sense of what is possible.

How often have you had a wakening experience where you could swear you must be dreaming? Yet, pinching yourself reveals you are aligning new awareness.  You may use senses to discern things part of you refuses to believe are real.  It is a process to evolve.  Astral dreaming is a journey. It can help you solve conflicts, reframe challenges, and learn to trust abilities you forgot you had. You gain insight into your own self-fulfilling prophecies.

Do what is right for you

Analysis on dream submitted by Anonymous of Melbourne, Australia.

Dream- I felt like I was contemplating law school. I stood on a magnificent campus of stone buildings whichseemed like Renaissance Italy. I spoke briefly with an old law friend who told me he was going his own way.  It was like I severed ties or was getting closure on a relationship in a meaningful way. He left the building alone. Then, a female student invited me to take a tour with she and her parents. I told her thanks, but I was leaving school.  I had other plans. Her face was indifferent. She hunched her shoulders and left. I moved into an orante archway and disappeared, as if by magic. I felt lighter, unburdened.

Predominant Emotions- Relief, joy, resolve, faith, courage, and expectancy.

Interpretation- You are unconcerned with legal issues in waking life, although someone you know may have had a brush with the law.  A regimented system is not for you. This does not necessarily suggest indecisiveness. Non-conformism is often mistaken for restlessness. You have an evolving understanding of new opportunities before you.

Specific places often evoke memories of food, music, culture, creative art or even past life experiences. Your level of awareness will assist you to reconnect and delve deeper if you deem such an exercise would serve you. Life is what happens when you are planning.

Some human beings associate learning with institutions and formal training. As you work through different kinds of perceived challenges, you grow to realize learning takes on many forms that unfold outside school. You can grow to believe learning never ends.

Ornate buildings reflect status, reputation and material wealth.  As you reject or detach from aspects of the physical world, you favor spiritual growth.  Paths you perceive are not grasped by people on a different wavelength.  Your level of awareness determines what you discern.  It is not your job to convince people to see or accept your choices.

Revise your view of pride

An elderly African woman had two, large clay pots.  Each hung on the ends of a wooden beam which she carried across her neck.  One of the pots had a crack in it while the other was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.  Each day she walked the same path and when she reached the house, the cracked pot would be half empty.

The poor cracked pot was ashamed of its flaw, and unhappy it could only do half of what it had been made to do.  One day, it said to the woman, "Why do you bother carrying me?, I have a crack and I leak.  You are really wasting your time and energy on me."

The woman smiled and said to the cracked pot, "Tomorrow, I will use you again and collect water and as we make our way back up from the stream, I want you to look on both sides of the road."  The cracked pot did that and was astonished to see that on one side of the road there were beautiful flowers.

The woman said to the cracked pot, "I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them.  For the last couple of years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table.  Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace my house."

Every human being has unique imperfections.  It is our perceived cracks and flaws that make our lives and interactions worthwhile.  They give unlimited opportunities to learn.  You can evolve to accept people as they are.  Consciously choose to see the good.

Thus, if you are carrying a full clay pot of water, do so with pride.  If you are a pot with a crack, carry what you can and enrich the world in your own special way.  Do not give up.  You always have something to give. You may simply overlook it or forget what matters.

This old folk tale reminded me of the intrinsic value of people I know and have known.  I think especially of loved ones who have suffered illness and mood swings which make it seem like they are not themselves.  Life experience teaches me to see through the fog.  Love everyone as they are, even yourself.  The quickest way to receive love is to give.

10 Laws of Healing

In the New American Spirituality, Elizabeth Lesser explores what she describes as the landscape of the body.  She also explores landscape of the soul, or those classical spiritual practices which include prayer, ritual and nurturing faith. How do you shape well-being?  Some people believe everything you manifest or experience begins as a dream in mind.

Consider how you already promote or would like to develop greater mindfulness.  Which strategies would you apply to work through stress, anxiety and fear?  What has worked or not in the past? I encourage you to reflect on  ten laws of healing and how you can apply techniques to your growth.  As you move at your pace, you sense this is a process.

1) We want to care for the things we love

2) The body remembers

3) Separate body image from body reality

4) Come into animal presence

5) Listen to the body

6) Experience the mind-body connection

7) Let energy flow

8) Be a skeptical explorer

9) Get support

10) Take responsibility but give up control