Monday, May 26, 2008

Intention in Dreams

Paying attention to or intending dreams is important to dream functioning. If I give myself a suggestion as to dream content before I go to sleep, I dream more precisely with less random content and fewer references to events that happened during the day.

When I focus my dreaming self to follow a certain scenario, such as when I do a dream experiment, I am successful in organizing the dream events to follow the pattern, perhaps not closely but there is definitely accord between my goal and the dream. However if I think nothing about what my dream content will be before I go to sleep, it is often unpleasant or negative. Sometimes my dreams are wonderful but less so unless I ask for something wonderful. There’s an aimless quality to the dreams otherwise.

For the past several months I’ve participated in dream experiments in an interest group on www.theintentionexperiment.ning.com. The group is open and free, so join it if you want to participate.

The group, led by Bill Schuh, uses the following procedure: Bill chooses a key holder from a group of volunteers and decides the date of the experiment. The key holder decides the key. The night of the experiment, participants from around the world try to dream the identity of the key. Then, the participants post their dreams to the website. After a few days, the identity of the key is revealed.

My turn as key holder has been very interesting. I chose a plaster cast of the letter M because of its associations to words like mother, mentor, miracle, mystery. You can see the key and my instructions at www.tobyheathcotte.com/fivewaysout.htm.

Here’s a summary of dreamers’ replies: Two people actually cited the letter M. Some tried to describe images like double triangles that were obviously impressions of the letter. At least five people guessed a pomegranate or apple as the key. That seemed an odd reference until some research discovered the pomegranate is used as a symbol for the divine feminine, a goddess especially Persephone, the Goddess, or Mother Mary.

I too dreamed that night, what at first seemed a humorous tangent:

First Grotto Dream – the night of the experiment

In my dream I went alone to a grotto in a woods where I laid a printed copy of the agreement about the experiment. I was aware in the dream that it was not my dining table area that should be the site of the key. I was also aware of my clothing, a long white gown that flowed past my feet like a medieval dress. However I don’t think I needed to walk as I was hovering over the ground, flying low. I went away and then returned to the grotto to find the agreement printed and sealed inside of the grotto. I considered this magic or a miracle as it was not possible in the dream environment to go into the grotto. One could only view it from outside. Some other teachers arrived and we started trying to figure out what caused the miracle of the sealed document and also why and how the dream location changed. The dream subject was an illogical dream sign.

When ideas about the Goddess kept coming from the participants, I searched on Yahoo for the word grotto. Many photos came up of grotto formations in nature. Many other photos showed either natural or manmade grottos honoring female deities, Mother Mary as well as Greek and Celtic goddesses.

Second Grotto Dream – twenty days later – I intentionally tried to dream about the grotto again and was successful.

I awoke with an image of the icon in the grotto. It appeared to transform so it was hard to tell, but I thought of the iris flower with stem and leaves, a cobra’s head and neck, a swan with fluttering wings and curved neck – all three images looked similar in shape and seemed to flash in sequence. Then I saw the same review of the iris, cobra, and swan on the right side of the grotto. On the left appeared faint images like copies of checks the bank sends, three checks in all to match the three images.

I believe the Divine Feminine, the Goddess, Mother Mary, whatever you want to call Her, visited me that night and directed my energy to the real image. She also visited many of the other dreamers to show them the pomegranate, a symbol of Her to make us all more aware of Her truth in our lives.

This insight about dreaming intentionally is new to me. I believe intending dreams might be a step up in consciousness for humanity. If human life is about becoming more conscious and more consciously in control of creating our reality, both literally and symbolically, then dreaming intentionally would be more productive and revelatory than dreaming randomly or as a reaction to daily functioning.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Interview with Dyan Garris




Hello Dyan and Welcome,

After you write your manuscripts, do you find it necessary to do major editing or does the text come to you in well-developed, organized segments?

Hi Toby. These are great questions. Thank you for the interview. I find that most of what I write comes to me in organized segments. Sometimes I’m not sure which segment goes where; but then it all comes together at the end, like putting a puzzle together. When I’m done I do have everything edited thoroughly for punctuation, grammar, and sentence structure. When I wrote “Money and Manifesting,” I was told to write the characters first. So I did. Then I was told they would just interact and to my amazement they did. Then I was instructed as to where exactly to insert the fiction around the information. It really was an amazing process.

Would you consider your work automatic writing or inspired writing?

I’ve never looked at it quite as automatic writing. But everything I write is co-created. So yes, I would call it “inspired.”

In either case, to whom do you attribute your creativity? Angels as separate entities or your own higher self or some other intelligence?

The best way I can answer that is that I don’t believe in the illusion of separation. I am not God or angels; but I am part of that, just as the branches are part of the tree. Everything I’m doing I’m co-creating.

Your intuitive cooking idea intrigues me. Are you assembling responses from satisfied users? Does following this method result in slimming or regulating weight?

The intuitive cookbook was so much fun to put together. There are twelve channeled messages in the book. They are food related, such as “The Sweetness of Life” and “The Measure of Success” and “Ode to Popcorn.” And there are several “Intuitive Speaking” paragraphs which encourage the use of one’s own intuition in making the recipe. The book has several reviews, which are posted on my main website. Here is the link: https://www.voiceoftheangels.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_reviews&cPath=1&products_id=3&zenid=8622a7ceb60a857b6dc94f599eb24e3b
I do believe that intuitive cooking results in weight regulation. When you’re tuning into your body and feeding it what nourishes it on every level, your body is going to respond positively to that.

Thank you, Dyan, and best wishes with your books, your CDs, and all your efforts to bring new and better understandings to people.

Love and light,
Toby

Each person who posts a comment on any or all of the blog tour spots will be entered in a random drawing for a copy of Dyan Garris’ CD – Release. In addition – the blog owner that hosted the winning commenter will also win a free copy of Release. Share your thoughts and comments with Dyan. She will check in throughout the day to answer questions. You’ll learn more and you have a chance to win a CD.

For more information about Dyan Garris and her virtual tour, you can check the full schedule at http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2008/04/dyan-garris-may-schedule.html and there are more details at http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2008/04/dyan-garris-may-blog-tour.html.
Her website is full of great details about all of the items within her “toolbox” and there are many special features. She provides the tools you need to have a full and happy life – http://www.voiceoftheangels.com/ and it’s not as hard to achieve as you think. Visit Dyan’s Amazon profile for links to many of her products - http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/AYREZNHQDLRFM/.

Friday, May 9, 2008

Five Ways Out of the Psychic Closet

If you have psychic experiences such as seeing a ghost or knowing beforehand that something will happen, you’re not crazy. These experiences are a part of life. If you have trouble convincing yourself of that fact, maybe this acronym will serve you, as it has served me.

TRUST, The Five Ways Out of the Psychic Closet

T. Track your dreams
R. Repel ridicule
U. Use it or lose it
S. See your ability as a divine gift
T. Trust yourself

Track Your Dreams A direct route to your psychic self, dreams surface while the rational, analytical layer of consciousness sleeps. Focusing on psychic experiences that happen in sleep, such as precognition and encounters with departed loved ones, entices them to occur. You can track your dreams by recording them each morning in a dream journal. You dream about five times per night. Assuming you sleep every night, that’s more than eighteen hundred dreams per year. In thirty years of journal keeping, I managed to write down approximately one hundred dreams per year. That means at least seventeen hundred went out of memory, unrecorded. No wonder the sages say we go through life like automatons, using only a tiny portion of our brain’s ability. After you’ve attained the habit of writing down your dreams, read back through the dream journal at the end of each year and mark the dreams that have come true. If you’re like me, you’ll average four to twelve percent per year, the number of precognitive dreams found in research. You’ll also receive other benefits from tracking dreams, such as help in dealing with emotions, problem solving, self-understanding, and experiencing lucidity. All contribute to a better life and spiritual growth.

Repel Ridicule Scoffers come in two varieties: ones you can ignore or leave without looking back and ones you can’t. Tolerating ridicule from those with whom you have work, family, or love bonds can be difficult. Also, people deride psychic experiences, yours or anyone else’s, out of ignorance or in an attempt to deny their own. You can’t change anyone except yourself, but you can work to discover why your loved ones mock you. Explain to them what you are experiencing and ask them to respect you even if they don’t understand. It’s not easy to keep the fears of others from invading you, but encountering the situation with your loved ones invokes personal growth and builds self-esteem because you are honoring your experiences and your perceptions.
Use It or Lose It Psychic experiences, especially angel visitations or intuition, often come at critical moments to save our lives or give us insights. Unchecked self-doubt can deter positive outcomes if you’re not careful. I wish I’d come to this conclusion earlier. I wasted a lot of time. Once I had a horrible dream where someone I loved died in a car wreck. Because a few dreams with minor implications came true, I feared this one would also. I called the person and described the dream. Nothing bad happened to him in a car, but something bad happened to me. I took on myself awful responsibility by confusing awareness of the future with control over it. For a while I practiced automatic writing. Two spirit guides spoke to me and through me. They gave some excellent insights on life. I rejected those wonderful entities out of fears for my sanity so I also lost the ability to do automatic writing. No one knows better than I that, if you don’t use your psychic ability, you lose it. And if you fear it, it sometimes goes away.

See Your Ability As a Gift You understand synchronicity if you’ve ever picked up the phone to call someone, only to find that person on the other end having just called you. Or, you’re trying to remember the name of the actor who played in an old movie, then he appears on the TV screen, narrating a documentary. Some coincidences are bound to happen by the law of averages. Synchronicities are those that have such special meaning that they seem to have been designed. They let you know you are in the flow. Impulses can save your life. One morning I changed my route to school for no apparent reason then learned from the radio that two wrecks had happened on my regular route at precisely the time I would have been there. Premonitions can help you face bad situations that happen in everyone’s lifetime.

Trust Yourself Parapsychologists have already proven ESP exists with clairvoyance, psychokinesis, telepathy, and more. Now they’re trying to figure out how it works. As increased funding becomes available, more scientific proof will aid people in accepting this fragile facet of their being. The mystics have always known that psychic experiences can set a person on the path of spiritual growth that leads to lucidity and cosmic consciousness. Self-esteem grows when you honor your psychic experiences. Allowing rather than forcing helps them to occur. William James said it only takes one white crow to prove they’re not all black. One genuine psychic experience, if we’re honest with ourselves, is all it takes.

Dyan Garris Interview Coming Up

On Monday, May 12, I’ll interview psychic and healer Dyan Garris about her writing process and intuitive cooking. This interview is part of a virtual tour. I invite you to participate. Her entire tour includes the following topics:

1. Manifesting2. Self-empowerment3. Patterns and belief systems4. What really gets in the way of people manifesting what they want5. Music as a way to unblock energy and as a healing tool6. Meditation, mindful meditation, connection in general7. Chakra balance and energy field8. Angels and angel cards9. Psychic ability10. Integration of mind, body, and spirit and why it's so important

Each person who posts a comment on any or all of the blog tour spots will be entered in a random drawing for a copy of Dyan Garris’ CD – Release. In addition – the blog owner that hosted the winning commenter will also win a free copy of Release. Share your thoughts and comments with Dyan. She will check in throughout the day to answer questions. You’ll learn more and you have a chance to win a CD.

For more information about Dyan Garris and her virtual tour, you can check the full schedule at http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2008/04/dyan-garris-may-schedule.html and there are more details at http://virtualblogtour.blogspot.com/2008/04/dyan-garris-may-blog-tour.html.

Her website is full of great details about all of the items within her “toolbox” and there are many special features. She provides the tools you need to have a full and happy life – www.voiceoftheangels.com and it’s not as hard to achieve as you think. Visit Dyan’s Amazon profile for links to many of her products - http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/AYREZNHQDLRFM/.