Mutual dreams are called different names—collective dreams, group dreams, shared dreams. Sometimes discriminations are made among them. For example, in a mutual dream two or more dreamers agree to meet in a particular place they all know in waking life, like the White House. A shared dream might happen spontaneously where two or more dreamers have a dream with the same plot and characters. .
Whether we remember these dreams or not we may experience them, particularly with those related biologically. If a family has a tradition of sharing dreams at the breakfast table, both types of dreams may occur. It's healthy and normal to share dreams, although some people in Western culture shy away from doing so except in clinical settings. .
Dreams involving unborn children either by the pregnant woman or other family members, such as the father or a grandparent, often break through the memory barrier. Such dreams can result in bonding with the unborn child or drawing attention to problems with the pregnancy. .
Most Native American cultures and some African cultures have traditions of dream sharing and respect for the process. They use dreams to help guide community decision making, such as where to hunt or move their village. .
Dream sharing can benefit everyone because it increases intimacy and understanding of ourselves and others. There is an awe factor to simply knowing we can decide to dream about a place and meet others there.
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Researcher Jean Campbell conducted experiments sponsored by the Edgar Cayce Foundation and the Poseidia Institute in the 1980s. Her book Group Dreaming narrates her findings. At first she and her co-experimenters simply wanted to find out if they could meet in dreams. They discovered quickly that they could and went on to develop their understanding and protocols for experiments. They learned to recognize each other and retrieve messages sent by Campbell..
Two prominent researchers and dream counselors, Robert Moss and Jeremy Taylor, sponsor workshops where people can explore their potential for mutual dreaming.
An important part of any research or just having fun with this activity is the idea of intention. Once you set your mind that you wish to experience mutual dreaming, you create an atmosphere for achieving a positive result. .
As long as you don't believe you can do it, you can't. At least not consciously. Your dreaming self who is far slyer than your waking self may have adventures despite your waking disbelief..
In 2007 I was lucky to find some online groups experimenting with mutual dreaming. At first I joined a public group that included about one hundred people. The website crashed, but some of us managed to reconnect and stay in touch in a Yahoo group. The International Association for the Study of Dreams (IASD) sponsors several websites devoted to mutual dreaming, so opportunities are available for those who wish to experiment..
During four years, the group headed by Bill Schuh has accomplished twenty-four experiments. Here is our procedure:
We set a date. One group member decides the key we're all to guess through a dream or waking intuition. Then we post our dream reports. The key holder posts a description and sometimes a photograph of the key. There are hits and misses and near misses. It's fun..
In one experiment I dreamed I was in a boat on water hauling up a winch with the wind blowing. The key holder listed the key as a replica of a punt owned by her grandfather, who lived in England. I thought I had missed entirely. Being an American I did not know that a punt and a boat are the same thing, but of course I figured it out when I saw the photograph of a boat. .
Others dreamed of being on their way towards water and of wind blowing, so they got hits too..
In another experiment the key holder chose a silver garden windmill. Some dreamers reported dreams of silver knives, of a gray misty cloud, a mobile hanging from a ceiling, and bicycle spokes. All of these objects reflect what a dreamer might interpret when looking at a silver garden windmill. .
However, when the photo of the key was posted there were two bicycle wheels lying against a shed in the background. The person who said bicycle wheels might have been looking down on the place from afar as if remote viewing. .
My dream didn't hit on this experiment, but my near miss proved interesting, the kind of thing that happens often in our group..
I dreamed the key holder had painted a wall light blue with a rainbow on it. The key holder replied that indeed she did have a light blue wall on her back porch near the garden where the windmill stood. She said she had always wanted to paint a rainbow on the wall but had not done so. .
Did I tap into the key holder's physical location, that is, remotely view her backyard? Did I use telepathy to tap into her mind with its unexpressed desire to paint the rainbow on the wall? Is there another explanation?.
It's risky to codify our discernment in these ephemeral matters, but I keep going back to clairvoyance, also known as remote viewing, or maybe astral travel. I always do better at guessing the key if I know where the person lives, that is, I knew the punt key holder lived in England, and I knew the windmill key holder lived in upstate New York. On experiments where I've had complete misses, I've not known where the person lived..
I think I travel to the key holder's home in mind or in my astral body then actually look down at the key. I believe the person who saw bicycle wheels got his information the same way —by looking down at the garden and seeing the bicycle spokes, then incorrectly interpreting that as the key. .
Not all people participating might get their information the way I do..
Do I guess it? Do I go look at it? I don't know the answers, but I keep searching for them. .
Several of the group members believe remote viewing accounts for their hits. Others suggest clairvoyance, telepathy, and sensing the energy of the person..
One other member of the group lives in Arizona. He is the only one I've met in person. Most of our members live across the United States and a few in England, one in Portugal. So it's not that I'm touching in on them physically in the same sense I dream about a family member or friend whom I know personally already and whose environment I recognize..
The online group decided to do an informal experiment to find out whether intentional dreaming or remote viewing played a more prominent role. We set a date with the goal of visiting my living room and describing it in as much detail as possible. .
Eight people participated, four giving dream intention as their method, the others remote viewing. With a small sample it only has validity as an anecdote. Still the results are provocative. .
The four members who professed to remote view got twice as many hits as the others.
Here's one of the best descriptions of my living room by a member named Parodia:
I saw arches and possibly an alcove made of arches. I saw a brass or gold-colored drawer handle and a wooden secretary, the type that has a fold down desk top. I tried to get a smell and although I didn't smell anything, the color and name lavender popped into my head..
I finished the remote viewing session and went to bed with the intention of visiting the home and remembering my dream. I was aware of dreaming but had little recall. I remember being in a living room and at one corner was some type of sparkles or glittery light. I remember a sofa which was an olive green or tan color and had a multicolored throw on the back. A voice told me to "Go through the mirror."
That's all I got. .
Parodia's description matched my living room in several ways. The furniture and kitchen cabinets are Queen Anne and Chippendale style. The cupboards have arches and there is an arch in the kitchen hall. My writing desk is wood with brass pulls. It is sometimes called a secretary. My roll-top desk does have a top that folds down. I have lavender curtains and patio blinds. My couch is tan/beige. There is a multi-colored throw on the white couch, and there is a tall mirror on one wall.
It's hard to imagine Parodia did not actually look at my room with such a detailed description. .
Here's a Tip
• With an interested partner, decide on a night to try to meet somewhere. Pick a location you both know and like, perhaps a specific restaurant or a fountain in a park. Agree to record your dreams and compare notes.
• Afterward, if you both have recalled dreams, check for similarities. Did your dream actually take place in the location? What happened as to plot? Who were the characters in the dream, and what were they wearing?
• Note any similarities. If there are none, you've nothing to lose by trying again.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Reincarnation Dreams
Reincarnation dreams are easy to distinguish from other dreams because of setting details. You and others in the dream will likely wear unfamiliar clothing and the dreamscape will appear old or futuristic or foreign in some other way. You'll have a sense of yourself as someone else rather than as the dreaming self you're accustomed to identifying in your nightly excursions.
Often unsettling, the dream story may include the manner of your death as the previous personality. You will likely recognize the otherness of the dream as suggestive of a past life. If you're lucky, your dream might include verifiable personal details such as names, places, or times.
A friend of mine from my online dream group, Lorelei from Ohio, relates a reincarnation dream with partial verification. She says:
I once dreamt of walking to a convenience store where my mother was my child. She rode her bicycle beside me. As I went into the store, I felt very self conscious because I had one leg slightly longer than the other and thought people could tell.
I told my mother of this dream and she informed me her mother did have one leg slightly longer. She said it was not noticeable but her mother was self conscious about it.
My maternal grandmother died ten years before I was born. This dream was my first clue. It is possible she was sharing her consciousness with me but I have received many more clues since that suggest a past life as the explanation.
Because Lorelei's past life dream involved a family member, some might assume genetics accounted for the dream. The memory might have passed down like brown hair color. Although this could be true, scientists don't know everything yet about genetic influences.
As you might expect, more stories of reincarnation either in dreams or awake occur in cultures which accept it as a philosophical idea or as part of the religion, for example, Buddhism, Hinduism, as well as some practitioners of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
Announcing dreams happen in many of those cultures. The pregnant woman or a member of her family dreams a family member intends to return as the newborn. Often the newborn is named for the returning family member. Sometimes the newborn carries a birthmark or other identifying mark that matches the previous personality's birthmark or other wound.
Research has supported some of these stories. Ian Stevenson wrote a book on the subject called Reincarnation and Biology.
The study of reincarnation has been one of my passions. Although I have had dreams that might include past life content, none contained much detail. As part of my personal serch, I've written a series of novels where the main character evolved from a reincarnation memory of a lifetime I lived in England in the 1700s. I knew place names but not enough detail to verify through records, however I felt a strong emotional connection to the woman, who ran an inn and was abandoned by her husband.
My friend Susan, an acupuncturist, dreamed a similar scenario although she knew the other person in her dream. She dreamed she was a peasant woman in Russia around the turn of the twentieth century. As she hoed crops in a field, a strong man abducted her and kept her prisoner, abusing her physically and sexually. She identified the abductor as the man she was dating in her present life.
When Susan told her boyfriend about the dream, he confessed to having a passion for Russian music although he had never been to Russia. A love relationship did not grow from this reincarnation--type experience, but the two remained friends for many years. Susan enjoyed the friendship and felt emotional catharsis from it as if the man had needed to atone and she allowed it.
Whether the past life information presents in dreams or in waking life, much research has been conducted on cases involving children by investigators at the University of Virginia. In hundreds of cases children gave correct details about a previous lifetime, information they could not have known through ordinary means.
The past life material might present as nightmares, particularly in young children.
The small son of Bruce and Andrea Leininger had recurring nightmares involving a plane crash. Eventually they learned he believed himself to be a World War II fighter pilot who crashed in the Pacific. .
They verified information the boy provided about the previous lifetime and wrote a book about their discoveries called Soul Survivor: The Reincarnation of a World War II Fighter Pilot. The Leininger boy was not related to the man whose past life he recalled. Such examples present more compelling evidence than ones like Lorelei's or mine..
As with the Leininger boy, reincarnation dreams or nightmares often reoccur in a way that forces the dreamer to attend to the problem. .
Psychologists and counselors use hypnotherapy as a technique. They hypnotize and regress their patients to the previous lifetime. Sometimes the problem is resolved by greater self-understanding, whether or not verification in records is possible. .
My experience about the woman in England came at a time in my life when I had divorced and needed to establish myself as a high-functioning single person. I drew strength from her personality and confidence that I could make it on my own..
If a past life dream comes to you unbidden, there is probably some unresolved issue in your present life provoking it. Look for similarities and differences between the dreamed lifetime and your present circumstance. Think through what you could learn if the past life personality were a teacher, helping you find new ways to express yourself in this lifetime..
Here's a Tip • If you've had a dream that has some of the characteristics of a past life memory, ask your dreaming self for more details like names of people, places, or important events. Do an Internet search for what you discover. • If you've never had such a dream, ask for one. Your dreaming self is always there.
They verified information the boy provided about the previous lifetime and wrote a book about their discoveries called Soul Survivor: The Reincarnation of a World War II Fighter Pilot. The Leininger boy was not related to the man whose past life he recalled. Such examples present more compelling evidence than ones like Lorelei's or mine..
As with the Leininger boy, reincarnation dreams or nightmares often reoccur in a way that forces the dreamer to attend to the problem. .
Psychologists and counselors use hypnotherapy as a technique. They hypnotize and regress their patients to the previous lifetime. Sometimes the problem is resolved by greater self-understanding, whether or not verification in records is possible. .
My experience about the woman in England came at a time in my life when I had divorced and needed to establish myself as a high-functioning single person. I drew strength from her personality and confidence that I could make it on my own..
If a past life dream comes to you unbidden, there is probably some unresolved issue in your present life provoking it. Look for similarities and differences between the dreamed lifetime and your present circumstance. Think through what you could learn if the past life personality were a teacher, helping you find new ways to express yourself in this lifetime..
Here's a Tip • If you've had a dream that has some of the characteristics of a past life memory, ask your dreaming self for more details like names of people, places, or important events. Do an Internet search for what you discover. • If you've never had such a dream, ask for one. Your dreaming self is always there.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Precognition, Telepathy
For several years I kept an aquarium in my living room. One night as I lay in my bedroom sleeping, I dreamed the fish named Goldie fell with a thud against the aquarium floor. Startled, I awakened and went to the living room to see if she was all right. Goldie was swimming around looking just fine.
The next day Goldie got hung up in the plastic leaf decorations. I set her free and she plunked to the bottom just like in my dream although without making a thudding sound. The fish died later that day.
This is a typical example of a precognitive dream. It was literal in the sense that I saw in the dream substantially the same image I saw in waking life. Although some precognitive dreams take longer to come true, most do within twenty-four hours. Research indicates the same experience I've had personally.
The subject matter was mundane. Well for me, not for Goldie. The subjects of most precognitive dreams generally pertain to the ordinary events of our lives.
These clear dreams predict by showing what looks like reality and give us tips about our waking life. For example, they give warnings, important or trivial, and rehearse alternate futures from which we can choose the same way we consider alternatives while we are making decisions while awake.
Precognitive dreams can be literal like the Goldie dream or symbolic like one I had about a plane crash on January 2, 2009.
I was jumping to safety from a plane crash. Those who had survived jumped into the sea and hoped for rescue aboard ship. I watched myself and others cannonball into the water, which was frigid. I awoke momentarily, realized I was in a dangerous situation, and felt afraid. My heart was thumping. I went back to sleep and dreamed the same scenario again two or three more times.
Over the next few days I dreamed of travel danger.
One day as I drove past Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, my hands shook so much I considered getting off the freeway and stopping the car. Although I drove on home, my distress was so great that I cancelled my plans to go to New York City to visit a friend in March.
I interpret I was getting precognitive flashes of the U S Airways plane, which went down in the Hudson River on Jan. 17. U S Airways is headquartered in Phoenix, so that very plane could well have been sitting in the airport as I passed by and felt so much trepidation. My emotions, although important, served as secondary confirmation to my disaster dreams, specifically the terror of having to jump into the frigid water.
Normally I'm not afraid to fly, so this was an unusual circumstance for me. I honored the dreams and did not take the chance but have gone on other flights since, even U S Airways flights.
Besides literal dreams and symbolic dreams, other aspects of dreaming psi can occur. Psi is a general term to indicate any anomalous experience like precognition, telepathy, clairvoyance, or psychokinesis. It's not always obvious which faculty dreaming psi involves. One of my dreams might have been an example of precognition and telepathy.
I dreamed I ordered a floral arrangement, which consisted of a spray of flowers with a teddy bear. I don’t know who I was ordering for, but definitely a family member.
Four months later my sister had surgery. I asked my granddaughter, Emily, to go on a flower delivery website and pick out something she thought my sister would like so we could send a gift to the hospital.
On her own, Emily picked a floral spray with a teddy bear and balloon. So perhaps I dreamed the future, but telepathy might also explain what happened. Perhaps Emily tapped into my conscious thought or my dream memory. She has on several occasions said what I was thinking. Maybe I subconsciously sent her the message.
Such events happen frequently within families or with people who are close to each other.
Dr. Stanley Krippner, a medical doctor, did phenomenal research on telepathy in dreams at Maimonides Hospital in New York in the 1960s and 1970s. The experimenters assembled a collection of photographs of art prints. On the night of the experiment, the experimenter chose one art print and focused on sending the image telepathically to the dreamers.
The dreamers in the other room went to sleep with the directive to dream about the target art print chosen for the night. They wrote summaries of their dreams. Afterward independent judges were given all of the art print and dream summaries. Their task was to match the art prints with the dream summaries. The high number of hits, far beyond what would have been calculated by chance, showed dreamers dreamed about the target pictures.
The Ganzfeld protocol, developed in the 1930s, is still in use in psi laboratories. It attempts to measure waking telepathy where a sender sent a mental image of a photo or picture to a receiver who was blindfolded and listening to white noise. Over the years these results have consistently come in at one-third where chance would be one-fourth. The hits increase when the sender and receiver are close like husband and wife.
Research on psi began in the 1800s and continued through the 1900s with notables like J. B. Rhine and his wife, Dr. Louise Rhine, at Duke University. They studied precognition among other things. It's even going on today.
You can be a part of it online by going to these websites: noetic.org, gotpsi.org, aspr.com.
In history Calpurnia, the wife of Julius Caesar, had two dreams that prophesied his death by assassination. Plutarch recorded her dreams for posterity. Interestingly, one was a symbolic dream, that the pediment of their house collapsed. We could interpret Caesar himself being the pediment or pillar of their household. Calpurnia's other dream was literal, that Caesar was stabbed, and she wept over him as she held him, murdered, in her arms. If only Caesar had trusted his wife's dreams, he might have lived much longer.
In the Old Testament of the Bible there are several examples of psychic material in dreams and visions. Joseph had dreams that came true and could interpret the dreams of others. Samuel heard the voice of God in dreams. It would seem that interest in psi ability is ages old.
Perhaps we as the human race are developing our abilities in telepathy. Jeremy Taylor, author of Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill and several other books on dreaming, believes that the human race is developing greater telepathic abilities.
Taylor suggests that in our evolutionary past humans dreamed together to develop language. If that's possible, then perhaps we are developing our telepathic abilities now for the next stage of our evolution.
Often when we recall dreams we have the experience of seeing an image of a person in our dream. That person communicates with us despite the fact that his mouth does not move. We just seem to know what he means without his using language. We seem to operate telepathically in our dreams, perhaps helping ourselves to become more telepathic in the waking state.
Regardless, one thing we know for sure is that we can provoke our own precognitive and telepathic dreams. If you intend to have a precognitive dream and ask your dreaming self to assist, chances are you'll be successful. The better record you keep of your dreams, the greater the chance you'll find successful demonstrations.
Here's a Tip
• Ask a partner to select some dynamic looking photos from a magazine. Have him focus on one each night while you attempt to dream about the subject. Then compare your dream notes to the pictures used. You can make it more complex by inviting a third person to judge the dream stories and match them to the photos.
• Set a time for one person to send a telepathic message in words or an image from a picture to another person. Generally images that evoke emotions work better. Make sure you are in separate locations. Then compare your pictures or stories to the target image.
• Ask your dreaming self for a precognitive dream of something that will happen the next day. Write the dream down as soon as you awake so you'll have evidence for a demonstration.
• Set up a precognition dream study with interested friends. For example, "At 6 am (PDT)Pacific daylight time on the morning of Nov. 3 I will shuffle a deck of regular playing cards. Then I will turn up the top card." Your task is to see in your dream or intuition which card I will turn up. Feel free to submit entries anytime up until the drawing.
• Try your hand at games on psiarcade.com, noetic.org, gotpsi.org, and aspr.com.
The next day Goldie got hung up in the plastic leaf decorations. I set her free and she plunked to the bottom just like in my dream although without making a thudding sound. The fish died later that day.
This is a typical example of a precognitive dream. It was literal in the sense that I saw in the dream substantially the same image I saw in waking life. Although some precognitive dreams take longer to come true, most do within twenty-four hours. Research indicates the same experience I've had personally.
The subject matter was mundane. Well for me, not for Goldie. The subjects of most precognitive dreams generally pertain to the ordinary events of our lives.
These clear dreams predict by showing what looks like reality and give us tips about our waking life. For example, they give warnings, important or trivial, and rehearse alternate futures from which we can choose the same way we consider alternatives while we are making decisions while awake.
Precognitive dreams can be literal like the Goldie dream or symbolic like one I had about a plane crash on January 2, 2009.
I was jumping to safety from a plane crash. Those who had survived jumped into the sea and hoped for rescue aboard ship. I watched myself and others cannonball into the water, which was frigid. I awoke momentarily, realized I was in a dangerous situation, and felt afraid. My heart was thumping. I went back to sleep and dreamed the same scenario again two or three more times.
Over the next few days I dreamed of travel danger.
One day as I drove past Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, my hands shook so much I considered getting off the freeway and stopping the car. Although I drove on home, my distress was so great that I cancelled my plans to go to New York City to visit a friend in March.
I interpret I was getting precognitive flashes of the U S Airways plane, which went down in the Hudson River on Jan. 17. U S Airways is headquartered in Phoenix, so that very plane could well have been sitting in the airport as I passed by and felt so much trepidation. My emotions, although important, served as secondary confirmation to my disaster dreams, specifically the terror of having to jump into the frigid water.
Normally I'm not afraid to fly, so this was an unusual circumstance for me. I honored the dreams and did not take the chance but have gone on other flights since, even U S Airways flights.
Besides literal dreams and symbolic dreams, other aspects of dreaming psi can occur. Psi is a general term to indicate any anomalous experience like precognition, telepathy, clairvoyance, or psychokinesis. It's not always obvious which faculty dreaming psi involves. One of my dreams might have been an example of precognition and telepathy.
I dreamed I ordered a floral arrangement, which consisted of a spray of flowers with a teddy bear. I don’t know who I was ordering for, but definitely a family member.
Four months later my sister had surgery. I asked my granddaughter, Emily, to go on a flower delivery website and pick out something she thought my sister would like so we could send a gift to the hospital.
On her own, Emily picked a floral spray with a teddy bear and balloon. So perhaps I dreamed the future, but telepathy might also explain what happened. Perhaps Emily tapped into my conscious thought or my dream memory. She has on several occasions said what I was thinking. Maybe I subconsciously sent her the message.
Such events happen frequently within families or with people who are close to each other.
Dr. Stanley Krippner, a medical doctor, did phenomenal research on telepathy in dreams at Maimonides Hospital in New York in the 1960s and 1970s. The experimenters assembled a collection of photographs of art prints. On the night of the experiment, the experimenter chose one art print and focused on sending the image telepathically to the dreamers.
The dreamers in the other room went to sleep with the directive to dream about the target art print chosen for the night. They wrote summaries of their dreams. Afterward independent judges were given all of the art print and dream summaries. Their task was to match the art prints with the dream summaries. The high number of hits, far beyond what would have been calculated by chance, showed dreamers dreamed about the target pictures.
The Ganzfeld protocol, developed in the 1930s, is still in use in psi laboratories. It attempts to measure waking telepathy where a sender sent a mental image of a photo or picture to a receiver who was blindfolded and listening to white noise. Over the years these results have consistently come in at one-third where chance would be one-fourth. The hits increase when the sender and receiver are close like husband and wife.
Research on psi began in the 1800s and continued through the 1900s with notables like J. B. Rhine and his wife, Dr. Louise Rhine, at Duke University. They studied precognition among other things. It's even going on today.
You can be a part of it online by going to these websites: noetic.org, gotpsi.org, aspr.com.
In history Calpurnia, the wife of Julius Caesar, had two dreams that prophesied his death by assassination. Plutarch recorded her dreams for posterity. Interestingly, one was a symbolic dream, that the pediment of their house collapsed. We could interpret Caesar himself being the pediment or pillar of their household. Calpurnia's other dream was literal, that Caesar was stabbed, and she wept over him as she held him, murdered, in her arms. If only Caesar had trusted his wife's dreams, he might have lived much longer.
In the Old Testament of the Bible there are several examples of psychic material in dreams and visions. Joseph had dreams that came true and could interpret the dreams of others. Samuel heard the voice of God in dreams. It would seem that interest in psi ability is ages old.
Perhaps we as the human race are developing our abilities in telepathy. Jeremy Taylor, author of Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill and several other books on dreaming, believes that the human race is developing greater telepathic abilities.
Taylor suggests that in our evolutionary past humans dreamed together to develop language. If that's possible, then perhaps we are developing our telepathic abilities now for the next stage of our evolution.
Often when we recall dreams we have the experience of seeing an image of a person in our dream. That person communicates with us despite the fact that his mouth does not move. We just seem to know what he means without his using language. We seem to operate telepathically in our dreams, perhaps helping ourselves to become more telepathic in the waking state.
Regardless, one thing we know for sure is that we can provoke our own precognitive and telepathic dreams. If you intend to have a precognitive dream and ask your dreaming self to assist, chances are you'll be successful. The better record you keep of your dreams, the greater the chance you'll find successful demonstrations.
Here's a Tip
• Ask a partner to select some dynamic looking photos from a magazine. Have him focus on one each night while you attempt to dream about the subject. Then compare your dream notes to the pictures used. You can make it more complex by inviting a third person to judge the dream stories and match them to the photos.
• Set a time for one person to send a telepathic message in words or an image from a picture to another person. Generally images that evoke emotions work better. Make sure you are in separate locations. Then compare your pictures or stories to the target image.
• Ask your dreaming self for a precognitive dream of something that will happen the next day. Write the dream down as soon as you awake so you'll have evidence for a demonstration.
• Set up a precognition dream study with interested friends. For example, "At 6 am (PDT)Pacific daylight time on the morning of Nov. 3 I will shuffle a deck of regular playing cards. Then I will turn up the top card." Your task is to see in your dream or intuition which card I will turn up. Feel free to submit entries anytime up until the drawing.
• Try your hand at games on psiarcade.com, noetic.org, gotpsi.org, and aspr.com.
Friday, January 6, 2012
PSYCHIC CLOSET WINS A SHARP WRIT AWARD
OUT OF THE PSYCHIC CLOSET A THREE-TIME WINNER
Out of the Psychic Closet won second place in nonfiction in the 2011 Sharp Writ Awards. The awards just released by Smart Book Lovers are sponsored in part by Mensa International, book-awards.org. The book, by author Toby Fesler Heathcotte of Glendale, AZ, has won two other awards of excellence this past year. It was a Global Ebook finalist in nonfiction and a finalist in the EPIC ebook competition.
Out of the Psychic Closet: The Quest to Trust My True Nature is a self-help handbook in two parts that will show the reader how to step out of the psychic closet, to rise above anxiety and distrust, and to incorporate psychic abilities into a more honest model of personal reality. The first part narrates the author's psychic experiences. The second part details scientific research, historical background, and previously unpublished anecdotes of the paranormal. The second part also includes print and web resources.
Out of the Psychic Closet, published by Twilight Times Books, is available for sale in multiple ebook formats as well as in paperback on Amazon.com and bn.com. Look for further information in the media kit at tobyheathcotte.com.
Out of the Psychic Closet won second place in nonfiction in the 2011 Sharp Writ Awards. The awards just released by Smart Book Lovers are sponsored in part by Mensa International, book-awards.org. The book, by author Toby Fesler Heathcotte of Glendale, AZ, has won two other awards of excellence this past year. It was a Global Ebook finalist in nonfiction and a finalist in the EPIC ebook competition.
Out of the Psychic Closet: The Quest to Trust My True Nature is a self-help handbook in two parts that will show the reader how to step out of the psychic closet, to rise above anxiety and distrust, and to incorporate psychic abilities into a more honest model of personal reality. The first part narrates the author's psychic experiences. The second part details scientific research, historical background, and previously unpublished anecdotes of the paranormal. The second part also includes print and web resources.
Out of the Psychic Closet, published by Twilight Times Books, is available for sale in multiple ebook formats as well as in paperback on Amazon.com and bn.com. Look for further information in the media kit at tobyheathcotte.com.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Healing in Dreams
People have asked for healing dreams as far back as written records. Results came in dreams to the ancient Egyptians. Aristotle spoke of them in early Greece. From those days until now, sick people have wanted to experience a healing dream and believed it could happen.
Our minds affect our bodies, as demonstrated in modern times by hypnosis and biofeedback where patients modify their blood pressure, dissolve warts, stop the growth of cancerous cells, among other changes.
Scientific experiments have proven the placebo effect works, that is, one third of the time patients get well when they only take sugar pills rather than medication. Unfortunately the reverse happens too, and a person can sicken from the belief that he has been poisoned when he has not been. This is why curses sometimes work or why a patient dies from a misdiagnosis or from the doctor's statement that no one can recover from such an ailment.
There are three types of healing dreams:
First, dreams that show a problem developing in the dreamer's physical body. For example, a woman dreams she buys a pair of shoes that are mismatched; one has a flat heel the other a three-inch spike. Later she learns her shoes have caused her hip pain.
Second, dreams that prescribe a medicine, foods, or other regimen. For example, a man with painful dry eye dreams a cop stops his car and gives him a ticket for wearing sunglasses in a dark tunnel, citing him for not following the rules. The same scenario happens over and over. The dreamer can't understand why the cop is angry. Once he awakens the man remembers eye drops prescribed as a cautionary by his doctor in case of a problem. He starts using the eye drops, and the pain goes away.
Last, dreams that cure the condition directly. Some of these categories can overlap in the same dreams.
Barbara Menezes-Ferreira of Portugal relates a dream that cures. The dream story is complex and includes a mutual dream, a near-death experience, and a cure. Here is the dream in her own words:
Over twelve years ago, back when I was still married, my husband was dying in hospital in a coma.
The doctors had said he had no hope at all. His blood count was way too low and he was hemorrhaging. My reaction was and I quote what I told the doctors, "You don't know him. He's the kind of person that will do exactly the opposite of what you are thinking." They looked at me with a certain pity. I left him there because you cannot stay with the patient overnight in a public hospital. I picked up my daughters at school and took them home. I remember my mother-in-law calling me asking what the doctors had said and I replied, "He's going to be fine," without even thinking.
That night I dreamed I awoke with someone screaming my name over and over again. I sat up in bed and saw my husband standing at the foot of the bed.
I asked him, "What do you want?"
He replied that he didn't know if he should stay or if he should go.
I calmly explained that was his choice. If he wanted to leave, I would take care of our daughters and they would be fine, but if he chose to stay, he would suffer. He would have to change his life, and he would have to stop drinking. I could understand that this would be a big sacrifice, so I told him, "It's really up to you".
He disappeared then and I went back to sleep.
The following morning my brother-in-law came to pick me up to drive me into town for visiting hours. He was very concerned that his brother would not make it. I said I thought he would pull through because I had had a strange dream that had in some way told me he would be ok. My brother-in-law had no reaction whatsoever.
I arrived at the hospital and only three people could see my husband for just a few minutes. I told my mother-in-law to go in first. She came out very distressed and told us she thought he was going. I then told his brother to go in. He came out crying and shaking his head. Then I went in and saw my husband lying in bed asleep.
I kissed his forehead and he woke up and said, "Please tell me the truth. Am I dying?"
I smiled and said "No. You were but you aren't anymore."
The doctor called in the other doctors and they started to ask him questions: "What day is it? Do you know where you are?."
Two weeks later he was out of hospital.
Almost six months after, we were going for a walk, and he told me that he had seen a tunnel and a light and that he had gone towards the light, and as he was walking he had a long conversation with someone he thought was God where he was given a choice to stay or to go. He decided to stay because of the children.
The conversation he described was exactly the one I had had in my room. At the time I started to laugh and he thought I didn't believe him. I just told him that I had had a dream exactly like the one he was describing.
Any analysis of Barbara's dream and her husband's dream will likely mention they experienced a shared dream, in other words, they dreamed the same scenario. The husband's dream includes the popular dynamic of the near-death experience: the light, the tunnel, and the decision to live. His is a particularly revealing segment.
The husband's dream resulted in a cure of his condition.
Think a minute about a time you've healed, whether from a mosquito bite, a burn, or the flu. Perhaps you applied salve and bandaged yourself. Perhaps you visited a doctor. Perhaps not.
In all cases, who was the healer? The inner you. You probably had dreams that helped you heal even if you didn't recall them.
Although we all have this skill, some people need help developing it consciously. Some psychologists, including Ed Kellogg, offer workshops to teach health professionals and regular dreamers how to heal through dream work.
Here's a Tip
• The next time you have any ailment, from a cold to something serious, consult a medical practitioner if you normally would, but augment that visit with requests to your dreaming self to bring you healing dreams.
• Your dreaming self will definitely oblige.
• Oh, and ask to remember the dreams too. They are most empowering and among the most compelling evidence for the value of dreaming.
Our minds affect our bodies, as demonstrated in modern times by hypnosis and biofeedback where patients modify their blood pressure, dissolve warts, stop the growth of cancerous cells, among other changes.
Scientific experiments have proven the placebo effect works, that is, one third of the time patients get well when they only take sugar pills rather than medication. Unfortunately the reverse happens too, and a person can sicken from the belief that he has been poisoned when he has not been. This is why curses sometimes work or why a patient dies from a misdiagnosis or from the doctor's statement that no one can recover from such an ailment.
There are three types of healing dreams:
First, dreams that show a problem developing in the dreamer's physical body. For example, a woman dreams she buys a pair of shoes that are mismatched; one has a flat heel the other a three-inch spike. Later she learns her shoes have caused her hip pain.
Second, dreams that prescribe a medicine, foods, or other regimen. For example, a man with painful dry eye dreams a cop stops his car and gives him a ticket for wearing sunglasses in a dark tunnel, citing him for not following the rules. The same scenario happens over and over. The dreamer can't understand why the cop is angry. Once he awakens the man remembers eye drops prescribed as a cautionary by his doctor in case of a problem. He starts using the eye drops, and the pain goes away.
Last, dreams that cure the condition directly. Some of these categories can overlap in the same dreams.
Barbara Menezes-Ferreira of Portugal relates a dream that cures. The dream story is complex and includes a mutual dream, a near-death experience, and a cure. Here is the dream in her own words:
Over twelve years ago, back when I was still married, my husband was dying in hospital in a coma.
The doctors had said he had no hope at all. His blood count was way too low and he was hemorrhaging. My reaction was and I quote what I told the doctors, "You don't know him. He's the kind of person that will do exactly the opposite of what you are thinking." They looked at me with a certain pity. I left him there because you cannot stay with the patient overnight in a public hospital. I picked up my daughters at school and took them home. I remember my mother-in-law calling me asking what the doctors had said and I replied, "He's going to be fine," without even thinking.
That night I dreamed I awoke with someone screaming my name over and over again. I sat up in bed and saw my husband standing at the foot of the bed.
I asked him, "What do you want?"
He replied that he didn't know if he should stay or if he should go.
I calmly explained that was his choice. If he wanted to leave, I would take care of our daughters and they would be fine, but if he chose to stay, he would suffer. He would have to change his life, and he would have to stop drinking. I could understand that this would be a big sacrifice, so I told him, "It's really up to you".
He disappeared then and I went back to sleep.
The following morning my brother-in-law came to pick me up to drive me into town for visiting hours. He was very concerned that his brother would not make it. I said I thought he would pull through because I had had a strange dream that had in some way told me he would be ok. My brother-in-law had no reaction whatsoever.
I arrived at the hospital and only three people could see my husband for just a few minutes. I told my mother-in-law to go in first. She came out very distressed and told us she thought he was going. I then told his brother to go in. He came out crying and shaking his head. Then I went in and saw my husband lying in bed asleep.
I kissed his forehead and he woke up and said, "Please tell me the truth. Am I dying?"
I smiled and said "No. You were but you aren't anymore."
The doctor called in the other doctors and they started to ask him questions: "What day is it? Do you know where you are?."
Two weeks later he was out of hospital.
Almost six months after, we were going for a walk, and he told me that he had seen a tunnel and a light and that he had gone towards the light, and as he was walking he had a long conversation with someone he thought was God where he was given a choice to stay or to go. He decided to stay because of the children.
The conversation he described was exactly the one I had had in my room. At the time I started to laugh and he thought I didn't believe him. I just told him that I had had a dream exactly like the one he was describing.
Any analysis of Barbara's dream and her husband's dream will likely mention they experienced a shared dream, in other words, they dreamed the same scenario. The husband's dream includes the popular dynamic of the near-death experience: the light, the tunnel, and the decision to live. His is a particularly revealing segment.
The husband's dream resulted in a cure of his condition.
Think a minute about a time you've healed, whether from a mosquito bite, a burn, or the flu. Perhaps you applied salve and bandaged yourself. Perhaps you visited a doctor. Perhaps not.
In all cases, who was the healer? The inner you. You probably had dreams that helped you heal even if you didn't recall them.
Although we all have this skill, some people need help developing it consciously. Some psychologists, including Ed Kellogg, offer workshops to teach health professionals and regular dreamers how to heal through dream work.
Here's a Tip
• The next time you have any ailment, from a cold to something serious, consult a medical practitioner if you normally would, but augment that visit with requests to your dreaming self to bring you healing dreams.
• Your dreaming self will definitely oblige.
• Oh, and ask to remember the dreams too. They are most empowering and among the most compelling evidence for the value of dreaming.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Halloween Book Festival Winner
I'm proud to say my novel Luke's Covenant got Honorable Mention in the Halloween Book Festival this month. For a scary read, go to Amazon and buy Luke's Covenant as an ebook or a paperback. Here is the blurb:
Willing to sacrifice his life on Nine Eleven, Luke instead finds himself required to live. He must protect himself and his family from an ancient vendetta at the hands of a man compelled to murder them all. Although failing before, Kegan has been reborn with paranormal skills that give him the advantage this time. He’ll finally get the revenge he deserves.
“A deliciously evil villain stalks the hero throughout time in a thought-provoking and mystical excursion into the realm of reincarnation. The novel explores the impact of psychic experiences and past lives on present lives and relationships.”
Michael J. Murphy, Suspense Novelist
http://www.amazon.com/Lukes-Covenant-Alma-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B002KE4XZ2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1318773804&sr=1-1
Willing to sacrifice his life on Nine Eleven, Luke instead finds himself required to live. He must protect himself and his family from an ancient vendetta at the hands of a man compelled to murder them all. Although failing before, Kegan has been reborn with paranormal skills that give him the advantage this time. He’ll finally get the revenge he deserves.
“A deliciously evil villain stalks the hero throughout time in a thought-provoking and mystical excursion into the realm of reincarnation. The novel explores the impact of psychic experiences and past lives on present lives and relationships.”
Michael J. Murphy, Suspense Novelist
http://www.amazon.com/Lukes-Covenant-Alma-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B002KE4XZ2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1318773804&sr=1-1
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Problem Solving and Creativity in Dreams
A cool thing about dreams is they support you in your waking life. That is, they can help you solve problems or give a different perspective on them whether you remember the dreams or not. You may even consciously intend to dream about a problem and ask for help from your dreaming self.
I think of my dreaming self as a somewhat different persona from my waking self. I can ask her to dream about a problem and help me out. She has a different perspective on my problem because she doesn't have to consciously deal with any consequences from the solutions. She has a greater depth of memory of everything that has ever happened to me. She can access all of my long-term memories, as well as any human race memories, plus she lives in the dream world that I can only remember while awake. I guess you could say she and I have a different experience of living the same life.
During rehearsals for a production of the musical Pippin in 1980, I remember experiencing difficulty directing a particular scene in the show. It was a short love scene between the two leads, then the chorus came in and the action changed. Every time I watched the scene in rehearsal I didn't like it. When I told the actors it wasn't working, they agreed and one said, "Tell us what you want us to do and we'll try to do it."
The problem was I didn't know what to tell them. I drove home from school worrying about the scene and carried that worry through the evening and into bed. At that time I was recording my dreams and interested in them, but I hadn't realized yet that I could intend dreams, that is, decide in advance the subject of the dream. So I considered what happened with the Pippin scene just good luck.
During my dream I watched the troublesome scene as if I were in a theatre myself watching the show. The actor and actress moved around the stage in a different manner, a more interesting way, and the scene played perfectly when the chorus came in. I awoke excited to get to school because I knew exactly how to change the scene to solve the problem. At rehearsal I explained how I wanted to redo the scene, the actors did it, and it worked perfectly just as it happened in my dream. The actors liked it better too.
I felt extreme gratitude to my dreaming self for solving the problem.
Another time the influence of a problem-solving dream was not so obvious. One of my English students had begun to behave aggressively in class. With minimal provocation he snarled at other students and called me bitch under his breath. Because I'd had his older sister in class the year before I knew their home could get unpleasant with the father's threatening presence. I went to bed worrying about the boy's aggressive behavior and what I ought to do about it. My choices were to talk with him personally, to call the mother in the hope of her intervention, or to write a referral so the principal would deal with the situation. I feared none would solve a worsening situation. I also feared aggravating their home life problems myself.
Despite my worry I slept well. I did not recall a dream in the morning but felt confident my dreaming self had been working on the problem. I intended to trust the first impulse that came into my mind. When I started thinking about what I would do about the boy at school, I knew immediately the best action to take. I kept the boy after class and told him the truth, that I was worried he would follow his father's ways and spoil his chances to have a girlfriend. I told him girls would like him very much because he was handsome and loving and fun to be around, but I emphasized his aggressive behavior would spoil those chances with girls. The boy responded in an open and warmhearted manner. He didn't want to end up like his father, and he felt flattered that I thought he was handsome. I don't know what happened at home but in class the boy turned an amazing corner. He started talking to the girls so much I had to tell him to be quiet. He grinned like we had a secret. His grade went from a C to a B by the end of the semester.
Thank you, dreaming self.
There are well documented cases historically where dreams helped people solve big problems, including the invention of the sewing machine, the discovery of the benzene molecule, and artistic creations by such authors and composers as Robert Louis Stevenson, Voltaire, and Tartini.
Recent scientific studies have shown students do better on tests after they have slept because of the dream activity of shunting material from short-term to long-term memory. Other studies demonstrate the benefits of waking imagery, hypnotically-induced dreams, and regular dreams in solving problems and unlocking creativity. Psychotherapy uses dream analysis commonly because of the belief that dreams can help the client solve problems.
Here's a tip.
The next time you have a problem that seems to consume time and energy, try sleeping on it. It could be anything that bothers you, from a problem at work to your love life. Mull it over during the evening. After you get into bed, say, "Dreaming self, help me solve this problem." Don't imagine scenarios of how to solve it. Just trust it will be solved. Then go to sleep.
After you awaken the next morning, write down any dream or fragments or thoughts. If you have none, don't worry. When your thoughts turn to the problem, go with the first answer that comes into your mind. See what happens.
If it works for you, a little more trust will build between you and your dreaming self.
I think of my dreaming self as a somewhat different persona from my waking self. I can ask her to dream about a problem and help me out. She has a different perspective on my problem because she doesn't have to consciously deal with any consequences from the solutions. She has a greater depth of memory of everything that has ever happened to me. She can access all of my long-term memories, as well as any human race memories, plus she lives in the dream world that I can only remember while awake. I guess you could say she and I have a different experience of living the same life.
During rehearsals for a production of the musical Pippin in 1980, I remember experiencing difficulty directing a particular scene in the show. It was a short love scene between the two leads, then the chorus came in and the action changed. Every time I watched the scene in rehearsal I didn't like it. When I told the actors it wasn't working, they agreed and one said, "Tell us what you want us to do and we'll try to do it."
The problem was I didn't know what to tell them. I drove home from school worrying about the scene and carried that worry through the evening and into bed. At that time I was recording my dreams and interested in them, but I hadn't realized yet that I could intend dreams, that is, decide in advance the subject of the dream. So I considered what happened with the Pippin scene just good luck.
During my dream I watched the troublesome scene as if I were in a theatre myself watching the show. The actor and actress moved around the stage in a different manner, a more interesting way, and the scene played perfectly when the chorus came in. I awoke excited to get to school because I knew exactly how to change the scene to solve the problem. At rehearsal I explained how I wanted to redo the scene, the actors did it, and it worked perfectly just as it happened in my dream. The actors liked it better too.
I felt extreme gratitude to my dreaming self for solving the problem.
Another time the influence of a problem-solving dream was not so obvious. One of my English students had begun to behave aggressively in class. With minimal provocation he snarled at other students and called me bitch under his breath. Because I'd had his older sister in class the year before I knew their home could get unpleasant with the father's threatening presence. I went to bed worrying about the boy's aggressive behavior and what I ought to do about it. My choices were to talk with him personally, to call the mother in the hope of her intervention, or to write a referral so the principal would deal with the situation. I feared none would solve a worsening situation. I also feared aggravating their home life problems myself.
Despite my worry I slept well. I did not recall a dream in the morning but felt confident my dreaming self had been working on the problem. I intended to trust the first impulse that came into my mind. When I started thinking about what I would do about the boy at school, I knew immediately the best action to take. I kept the boy after class and told him the truth, that I was worried he would follow his father's ways and spoil his chances to have a girlfriend. I told him girls would like him very much because he was handsome and loving and fun to be around, but I emphasized his aggressive behavior would spoil those chances with girls. The boy responded in an open and warmhearted manner. He didn't want to end up like his father, and he felt flattered that I thought he was handsome. I don't know what happened at home but in class the boy turned an amazing corner. He started talking to the girls so much I had to tell him to be quiet. He grinned like we had a secret. His grade went from a C to a B by the end of the semester.
Thank you, dreaming self.
There are well documented cases historically where dreams helped people solve big problems, including the invention of the sewing machine, the discovery of the benzene molecule, and artistic creations by such authors and composers as Robert Louis Stevenson, Voltaire, and Tartini.
Recent scientific studies have shown students do better on tests after they have slept because of the dream activity of shunting material from short-term to long-term memory. Other studies demonstrate the benefits of waking imagery, hypnotically-induced dreams, and regular dreams in solving problems and unlocking creativity. Psychotherapy uses dream analysis commonly because of the belief that dreams can help the client solve problems.
Here's a tip.
The next time you have a problem that seems to consume time and energy, try sleeping on it. It could be anything that bothers you, from a problem at work to your love life. Mull it over during the evening. After you get into bed, say, "Dreaming self, help me solve this problem." Don't imagine scenarios of how to solve it. Just trust it will be solved. Then go to sleep.
After you awaken the next morning, write down any dream or fragments or thoughts. If you have none, don't worry. When your thoughts turn to the problem, go with the first answer that comes into your mind. See what happens.
If it works for you, a little more trust will build between you and your dreaming self.
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