Last night I lie in bed to meditate. Since I was a bit tired, my intention was to be extremely brief with my meditation so I placed both hands behind my head. All the lights were turned off. Within a minute or two I dropped into a trance and lost myself. When I realized where I was I noticed a man standing in front of me positioning a screen directly in front of my face as if to prepare the stage for this night’s dreams. Curious as to the purpose of the screen, I quietly watched giving no indication that I had regained my conscious awareness. At this point the screen was down a few inches from my face to the height of my nose so I was able to see above the screen in addition to being able to see down through it.
The man was directly in front of me no more than a foot away from me which made it difficult for me to see his face. I held myself motionless, observing everything around me. Directly in front of me was his upper torso and midsection. He seemed to me working on something above my head as a camera man would position his lighting equipment before a shoot. He was now ready to reposition the screen. This was my chance to see his face. Still unaware that I had regained full awareness, he ducked down and looked directly into my eyes. He was a humanoid type I had never seen before. Unable to process his image entirely, he remained an indescribable blob of pixels. He raised the screen positioning it directly between us. I was immediately able to see his image very clearly. The screen somehow translated the never before seen collection of pixels into a definable image known to my mind. Thinking it’s now or never, I reached out like a preying mantis to grab him. I immediately opened my physical eyes.
Unfortunately the screen prevented me from getting a good grip on him. With stealth quickness and knowing he was present in the room, I reached in front of me with my physical arms like a blind man stumbling to grab at anything before me. I wasn’t able to grab hold of him but I definitely felt his physical presence as he brushed up against the underside of my forearms. As I moved my arms around there were defined areas in front of me where I could actually feel something solid yet I could see anything and there were areas where I could feel nothing at all.
Obviously he got away, but I came away with an experience, knowing there is subtle energy that can’t be seen but can definitely be felt with the physical hands and seen with the inner eye. It seems the veil of separation between the two realms is thinning.
I then rolled on my side and fell asleep. I then had a dream. In the dream I am with my best friend Daniel who passed away many years ago. We are with his family working on improvements to the house in which they live. There is a night watch where each of us takes turns watching the night sky and guarding the house. Tonight it is my friend Daniel’s turn to watch the night sky. I am sitting inside the house looking through the screened in porch. He sits just outside with a blanket rapped around him to temper the chill of night.
At this point I became semi-lucid thinking to myself that there is something strange happening here. I’m aware of the significance of the screen but unaware as to its role in the setting of the dream. I am also aware that my best friend who is sitting outside just beyond the screen has passed away in real life. The desire of the heart to go outside and visit with him is very strong but I resist the urge believing that this might be the predatory response wished by my earlier visitor. I make a conscious decision not to change the effects of the dream and to simply remain still to allow the dream to tell its story. His father comes by to explain the improvements they have made on the house and why they are needed. The tone of his voice has a hypnotic droning effect on me pushing me into a deeper state of consciousness making it difficult to stay coherent. Slipping into another dimension or perspective, I now understand the improvements on the house and I can see their effect. There are a bunch of yellow butterflies that are now attracted to the house because of the improvements made. It reminds me of a Zen garden. There is a sense of comfort in knowing that everything is going forward according to a divine plan. All I have to do it lie in wait.
One adaptation helping both predators and prey avoid detection is camouflage, a form of crypsis where species have an appearance which helps them blend into the background. Camouflage consists of not only color, but also shape and pattern. The background upon which the organism is seen can be both its environment (e.g. the praying mantis resembling dead leaves) other organisms (e.g. zebras‘ stripes blend in with each other in a herd, making it difficult for lions to focus on a single target). The more convincing camouflage is, the more likely it is that the organism will go unseen.
Mimicry is a related phenomenon where an organism has a similar appearance to another species. One such example is the drone fly, which looks a lot like a bee, yet is completely harmless as it cannot sting at all. Another example of batesian mimicry is the io moth, (Automeris io), which has markings on its wings which resemble an owl’s eyes. When an insectivorous predator disturbs the moth, it reveals its hind wings, temporarily startling the predator and giving it time to escape.