Category: Hypnagogia

Posted on

Lie in Wait

Automeris IO

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. 

 

Leafy Sea DragonOne 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.

Posted on

Eye on the Ground

Cat's Eye NebulaLast night I had a dream where I am with a group of emissaries.  We are discussing events of the future.  They are telling me all that is to occur.  I am told there will be blocks of time that will go missing.  Finding this hard to believe, I question them asking them for further clarification.  It is as they say; blocks of time will go missing.  They then suggest that it has already happened to me.  I pause to reflect on my past looking for a time in my recent past for which this could be true; an instance where I could not account for time.  As if to answer the question for me, an eye appears embedded in the ground to my left.  I suddenly understand exactly what is meant by the loss of time.  It is all that I am.  Knowing all there is to know about the eye on the ground, I am told that I am to go forth and preach and begin my ministry because now I am a believer and I know the truth.

 

I begin to feel an energy rushing up from the ground like that of a serpent coiling around my body along my sides and up under my arms.  It has a tingly feeling that tickles.  I want them to stop because the feeling is to intense against my body. The sensation wakes me up with a ringing in my ears.  As I opened my eyes there beside me was a giant warrior with a long sword.  The ringing was from the sound of the blade as he pulled it out of its sheeth.  I asked the warrior, how do you safely carry a weapon of that size?  You don’t carry one, he answered.  Instead, you trust in the eye for no harm can come to you.  With that said, he and his sword vanished.

Photo Credit: Cat’s Eye Nebula NASA, ESA, HEIC, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) 

The Cat’s Eye Nebula is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Draco. Among the earliest of human records written, the ancient Egyptians identified this constellation as Tawaret, the goddess of the northern sky in their pantheon of deities. Considered as ever-vigilant because the constellation never set, she was depicted a fierce protective goddess whose body was a composite of crocodile, human, lioness, and hippopotamus parts.

I found it interesting that Ministry also refers to government and in fiction a reference is given to the New Republic from Star Wars.  The following quote suck out for me.

The New Republic is a mutual self-protection pact among over four hundred sentient species, and an economic partnership between eleven thousand inhabited worlds.”

—Chief of State Leia Organa Solo

Looking up the word preach I was redirected by Wikipedia to the word Sermon.  There I found the most famous sermon to be the “Sermon on the Mount.”  Little did I know there is another version of the same sermon called “Sermon on the Plain” from the Gospel of Luke.  I was unaware of this version which sounds very similar to the title I chose for this dream.  The title of course for the dream came directly from imagery in the dream which was pretty straight forward.  “On the Plain” sounds very similar to “On the Ground.”  Not to mention Sermon and Eye have spiritual connotations.

Notable messages in the Sermon on the Plain include:

I love dreams like this because there are so many layers or dimensions of meaning here.  It speaks volumes to the one with an open mind who is willing to hear. 

Posted on

The Rod of Asclepius

Rod of AsclepiusLast night I had an interesting experience when I laid in bed to meditate.  I quickly lost myself and later allowed myself to slip into a deep trance like state. I was just at the point of dropping into a deep sleep when I began to feel sick.  Quivering, I pulled my arms in tightly around my body as I held my comforter to my chin.  My teeth were chattering.  I felt as if I was about to pass out.  Telepathically, I sent out a distress signal as a cry for help.  I felt I was dropping into a state of delirium.

 

Lying to the right of me was roommate.  Noting my non verbal cry for help, he reached over and placed his hand on my forehead.  I could clearly see his arm across my face as I felt the pressure of his hand as it rested on my forehead gauging my temperature.  A part of me wondered how he had responded so quickly. 

To my left immediately appeared an EMS attendant from some emergency medical team.  She wore a black cap with a silver symbol on the front of it that glistened with the dim light that filtered into the room from the street light below my bedroom windows.  She reached out and grabbed my right arm.  I slowly became more aware realizing that whoever was next to me couldn’t possibly be my roommate namely because we don’t sleep together and secondly because he had not been home tonight. 

 

My mouth was definitely quivering.  Where were these ill feelings coming from?  Why was I feeling sick?  The person’s arm was still resting on my forehead.  I decided to reach for my voice recorder.  As I reached for it, a jackal appeared in front of me and sniffed me.  I ignored it and quickly proceeded to grab my recorder from my nightstand.  I quickly recorded the details. 

 

I could still feel the EMS attendant touching my arm feeling my pulse.  I thought the physical sensations might be my cat sleeping next to me.  I moved slightly to see if I could feel the cat.  Nothing Sable was not beside me, yet the touch against my skin was very real such that even my comforter was moving.  They were examining me with their medical equipment.  I then looked for my dog but could not see or feel him anywhere next to me.  Was I really in my bedroom?  I held my voice recorder while they continued their examination.  It was out of this world.  Once they were done and I was feeling better they disappeared as quickly as they had appeared.  Before leaving the attendant to my left held out she had to me.  I saw her face.  She had a human face.  Her vibration seemed higher than those previously around me.  I knew she had been there all along protecting me.  I quickly reached out my hand to touch hers.  She was the last and only one to say goodbye.  I was now alone in my bedroom.  My dog was sleeping quietly at the foot of the bed.  My cat was nowhere in sight.  Who were my visitors?  It was comforting to know help is merely a heart beat away.

 

In the morning my roommate came home at 7am before my alarm had sounded.  I heard him disarm the security alarm system.  My dog started barking and ran downstairs to greet him.  After settling down I called the dog back up onto my bed.  Mystified by my experience this night I decided to take advantage of my early wake up and meditate to see if I could go back to the scene where I was when all this happened.  I quickly had a remote viewing session where everything I was seeing had a deep forest green tint to it.  The beings around me were definitely alien humanoid creatures.  I could see them moving about.  The video within my mind was shaking which caused the image to distort slightly making it difficult to focus.  The shaking made it difficult to clearly see their faces or read any of the writing that was present on the tables and monitors.  I still wondered if I was in my bedroom or not when it happened.  I definitely had access to my voice recorder but does this mean I was in my bedroom?  There were approximately 12 attendants around me in a very dimly lit green operating room.  Their skin appeared to be shiny with leather like quality.  They had large almond shaped eyes.   I have seen these aliens before many times.  It suddenly made sense as information from my subconscious came streaming in.  I had made the connection.  There are many dimensions occurring at the same time.  Not all dimensions are aware of each other and some are only able to look down in frequency or tone or vibration hence the color of the setting. Depending on my vibration I too am only aware of certain frequencies.  Frequency is a term I am using for lack of a better word with which to describe what is happening.  There are two sides to the same coin.

 

I looked up EMS on Wikipedia and was led to the rod of Asclepius which is what I received from the attendant who said goodbye.

The rod of Asclepius (also known as the rod of Asklepios, rod of Aesculapius or asklepian[1]) is an ancient Greek symbol associated with astrology and with healing the sick through medicine. It consists of a serpent entwined around a staff. Asclepius, the son of Apollo, was a practitioner of medicine in ancient Greek mythology.
 
The rod of Asclepius symbolizes the healing arts by combining the serpent, which in shedding its skin is a symbol of rebirth and fertility, with the staff, a symbol of authority befitting the god of Medicine. The snake wrapped around the staff is widely claimed to be a species of rat snake, Elaphe longissima, also known as the Aesculapian or Asclepian snake. It is native to southeastern Europe, Asia Minor, and some central European spa regions, apparently brought there by Romans for their healing properties.
 
Asclepius (Greek) is the god of medicine and healing in ancient Greek mythology. Asclepius represents the healing aspect of the medical arts, while his daughters Hygieia, Meditrina, Iaso, Aceso, Aglæa/Ægle and Panacea (literally, “all-healing”) symbolize the forces of cleanliness, medicine and healing, respectively.

Posted on

The Death of Physical Desire

Deathast night I had a dream where I am sitting with my family huddled around a small heater that barely produced enough heat for them.  They asked if I could possibly give them a new heater.  Of course, I told them. You can have anything you need.  I materialize a bigger heater for them enough to heat the space in which we were huddled.  Without anyone saying anything to me, I am suddenly aware of the death of my father.  I immediately stand up.  He died while crossing the street.  I observe that no one is saddened by his death not even my mother.  Everyone has gracefully come to terms with his death. 

 

I turn away to do my own inner reflection.  Within me I can see the ground upon which his body lay.  Going back in time I re-live his last breath.  “No, you have to be kidding,” he says to himself inwardly.  He looks up and points to the sky and smiles.  He is experiencing a vision.  “They have come for me,” he says; those where his last words. 

 

I now understood why everyone had gracefully accepted his death.  In his death he received everything he had been searching for.  

 

As my own inner reflection faded within the dream I began to awaken.  Lying in bed I came to full awareness.  Above my bed was floating the image of my father.  Instinctively, I reached out to grab his ethereal form to pull him toward me.  My left hand went straight for his heart like an arrow released from the bow of my heart.  I grabbed hold of him capturing his heart in the palm of my hand.  I could see his final expression as he surrendered his life before my eyes.  His image slowly faded.  I opened my hand and there in the palm of my hand was a handful of the etheric substance of his being.  It was hunter green in color and ran down the palm of my hand and fingers.  I held up my hand to the dawn of the morning light shining through my bedroom window.  Its consistency was dense yet still transparent.  My palm was completely green.  Like tiny fiber filaments angel hair of some sort; it clung to my hand forming a web between my fingers that obscured the light. I compared both palms.  One was clearly green while the other was my normal skin tone. 

 

I placed my palm on my heart.  Could my father have really died?  I’d have to call home first thing in the morning.  Somehow I knew this wasn’t about my real father but more about what my father represented.  My father represents my struggle with addiction and my desire for ultimate truth.  Death is a liberation from bondage; a bondage to my physical desire.  Was I now free from bondage?  I then remembered that last night as I began my meditation I tried to visualize the moment in which I came into existence.  I wanted to know why I had decided to come into physical form.  What was my desire?  What was my purpose for coming here?  What did I want to accomplish? 

 

OstrichI decided to meditate and see if I could glean anything more from this dream vision.  As I meditated, I began to see tree people. These trees were moonstruck; solid black shadows against a white backdrop.  They looked like palm trees with ostrich feet.  There were about 7 of them of varying heights.  They did a two step dance of sorts to let me know they were happy with the outcome.  

 

My alarm sounded.  I quickly hit the snooze button and returned to my meditation.  Seeing that I had returned, the ostrich’s regrouped and returned to their tree dance.  Clarity sharpened as they came in closer into view. The showed me there feet and how they walked.  Still moonstruck all I could see was the outline of their shadow.  My alarm sounded a second time.  It was time to awaken.

 

What does is all mean, I’m really not sure but I know as I live it and hold onto it more will be revealed. I’m exactly where I need to be.

Posted on

Crabby Justice

CrabI had a dream where my ex is involved in a shipping and receiving business that is less than reputable.  I want nothing to do with him but we are still tied to the same sleeping quarters.  He has taken the sheets and covers off the bed that we share and is having me sleep with paper towels as a cover.  I am tired and simply want my own space back in which to comfortably lay my head down.  He tries to convince me of the legitimacy of his new business but what he does not realize is that I can see through the false front.  I can hear the fire alarms sounding incessantly, and the conversations detailing their shady transactions.  I can also see their operations in progress.  What he does simply does not interest me anymore.  I know him for who he really is.  I just want to be removed from him.  It is very much a battle to see who is left standing in the end.  Seeing my lack of interest and my determination to stand my ground, he makes a comment to me telling me that I’m already dead. We are spirits, he says to me. 

 

I pause to reflect and in looking at myself. I become lucid in the dream.  Now with a sense of empowerment, I go after him and grab him by his coattails as he tries to run from me.  I held on and held on until I woke up with something scratching my face like tiny claws.  I opened my eyes and there in front of me was a female police officer with a venomous look on her face and very bad teeth.  In her right hand she held a crab by the legs which she shook at me in an effort to frighten and intimidate me.  She was obviously very upset with what I had done.  I was not afraid.  In a sudden move I leaped forward to grab the crab away from her in an effort to prove to her that her crab could not harm me.  I noticed her forearm was bloody from where the crab had clawed her hand.  She pulled back exposing her teeth at me like a mad dog.  I knew she was a lie.  Although she wore a police cap she did not stand for justice.  I let her know telepathically that I was not afraid of her and I knew who she was.  She remained there at a distance unwilling to withdraw completely from my presence.  I grabbed my voice recorder and began recording the details of what I had just experienced emphasizing verbally as a way of reinforcing my lack of intimidation and fear.  She then disappeared.

Posted on

The Spider's Probe

Wolf SpiderI laid down to begin my meditation. Mystified by the beautiful colored lights within my mind’s eye I completely forgot where I was.  Feeling the presence of someone beside me, I came back to reality.  Realizing where I was I opened my eyes.  There beside me kneeling on my bed was a transparent man.  He was not human.  He had long fingers with large bony knuckles and thick claw like fingernails that reminded me of the feet of a large bird like that of an ostrich.  He did not frighten me nor intimidate me. He simply sat there observing me.

 

Above my face was swirling some form of robotic arm as if my meditation was being monitored by his kind.  To let him know I wasn’t afraid I held out my right hand and wiggled my fingers at him in a scary gesture.  I assumed the sight of my fingers would be just as foreign and frightening to him as his fingers once were to me.  There wasn’t any reason for me to fear him.  He simply sat there observing me as his probe spun a few inches in front of my face.  I closed my eyes again and returned to my meditation.  After about 15  or 20 minutes I allowed myself to drift off to sleep. 

 

During the night, I had a dream.  In the dream there is a man who wants me to carry out his business; his agenda.  I however do not want to participate in his plot because by doing so I feel it places myself in legal jeopardy.  Since I refuse to cooperate, he devises a strategy that will pull me into reacting and into the conflict at hand. It would force me to take action; to become involved thereby initiating his sequence of events. 

 

I became lucid just as he is setting into motion the events that would naturally cause the desired reaction in me.  Now lucid, I am consciously aware of his motives.  What he set in motion violates my sovereignty and therefore I am forced to confront him.  Now fully lucid, I walk over to him knowing he is concealing his true identity.  I grab at his face to pull his mask off. 

 

In that moment I awoke from the dream.  I now had a transparent yellow spider about 3 feet long and 2 ½ feet wide crawling over me. I could also see my aura around me which seemed to have been invigorated by my renewed awareness.  My aura was acting as a force field to shield me from the foreign invasion thereby protecting my sovereignty.  Feeling protected, I starred the spider in the eyes as it backed off knowing I was fully aware of its presence.  Afraid of me now it circled around and retreated until it disappeared. 

Posted on

The Twilight Zone

The Twilight ZoneA strange thing happened to me last night as I was lying in bed meditating.  As usual I began to see the wonderfully colorful lights pan back and forth in my minds eye.  I then saw children approach floating in the void space within my mind. They asked if they could approach me.  I mentally agreed allowing them to come near to me.  The closer they came the deeper I went into trance.  I was however fully conscious and aware of everything that was happening.  They said they had brought me something that I had been longing for.  One of them preceded to hand me an etheric substance which he held in the palm of his right hand that I can only describe as some form of etheric plasma.  It was a very dense luminescent blue color. It was similar to the substance that gathers to form spirit energy but this was highly concentrated. He asked me to hold out my hand to receive the gift of spirit. He then placed it in the palm of my left hand.  In awe I examined it carefully massaging it gracefully with my fingers to feel its consistency.  This was the purest form I had ever seen; like soap suds it clung to my hand.  This gift of spirit was virgin in the sense that it had never been used to manifest any form before.  This was the substance with which creation unfolds.

 

The children sat around me as we all watched with great intent.  I lost myself in the awe of the moment.  I then turned to my partner and told him to turn and look at what was in my hand, but he was fast asleep lying next to me.  Wanting him to share in this moment with me, I nudged him with my right elbow being careful not to take my eyes off this precious gift which I held in my hand.  In that same moment I felt something suddenly hit the left side of my nose.  Startled but still within the trance I realized I don’t have a partner so who is this person lying next to me?  I then opened my eyes to figure out what had hit my face. 

 

I opened my eyes and literally had to back away from a green probe that hung suspended within an inch of the bridge of my nose.  It looked like a robotic arm of some sort.   It too was etheric and luminescent. The length of the arm formed a tunnel a vortex through which I could see multi colored light streaming toward me.  I quickly closed my eyes again and found myself back in the trance from which I had just come out of.  My partner to my right who I know doesn’t exist in real life was still lying next to me.  I then considered this mystery carefully and noticed my arm and elbow, with which I had just bumped my partner to get his attention, was hovering just above the bridge of where his nose would be.   

 

Welcome to the Twilight Zone moment.

Posted on

Idealism: I Think therefore I Am

Pillars of HerculesLast night I had a dream where I am visiting my nephew who is a student in college.  He has most of his days free able to enjoy the campus.  He shows me around campus.  The campus is on the edge of the sea.  The water is tropical, shallow and crystal clear such that I can clearly see the sand at my feet.  There are many boulders and rock formations in the shallow sea that protrude above the surface of the water. 
 
We are standing in the shallow waters where we have a clear line of sight down a water way that leads to where I come from; my point of origin 3000 miles away.  I know this to be the path I need to take in order to return home. As I stand there with him, we marvel at the majestic beauty that is this place.  As I am standing there I realize I am standing atop of an old ruin.  I am standing on a pillar; the leg of a man; a stone statue that once stood here.  All that remains is the stone from his ankle down to his shoe of both his right and left leg which now form two pillars. I stand upon the stone that is his left leg to admire his shoes.  In looking closely at his shoes I notice he wore tennis shoes.
 
In a moment of clarity, I become lucid.  I suddenly know where I stand.  With a new awareness, I realize they had idealized his tennis shoes.  Looking out upon the horizon, I realize the magnitude of where I stand. 
 
As I stand upon the pillar of his left leg, the ruin around me now begins to rematerialize as it once was before the day of its destruction.  From the sea arose an arch to my right that is covered in seaweed.  I know that by standing on the ruin of his leg I bring the life force back to this man because these were my tennis shoes.  Now awestruck with this revelation, I know I must return home with the news.  In the strait, a staircase appears.  I run up the stairs to the top but when I reach the top there is no place else to go.  I turn back, knowing I will have to return home the hard way and travel through the campus to the other side.  Running back toward the campus of the university, I arrive at a wooden gate that is secured with a pad lock.  The moment I stand in front of the gate the pad lock releases and the gate swings open. 
 
I pass though the gate and enter the campus courtyard.  Standing in the center of the courtyard I look back and see a demon standing on the inside of the now open gate.  This demon had allowed me in.  The demon then run toward me.  My initial reaction is to flee but a part of me knows I must confront this demon head on once and for all.  I circle the courtyard and turn myself around to take up my stand.  Like a bull in a ring, I lower my eyebrows in a determined frown.  I charge the demon head on.  Surprised by my action the demon turns to retreat to a corner.    Head to head I corner him and open my eyes to awake from the dream. 

At the foot of my bed was standing a sea faring man who wore a sailor’s hat.  In his left hand he held a shoe; heel facing me.  He was shaking like a wet dog.  He was offering me the shoe as he repeatedly ran his index finger along the ankle of the shoe. 
 
I immediately grabbed my voice recorder to record the details of the dream.  I knew the dream had great importance to me.  When I got to the part about the tennis shoes I became stuck unable to place a word to the feeling I had felt surrounding the shoes.  As if to help me, the sailor placed the words so clearly in my mind.  They came like a refreshing sea breeze that I could literally feel.  “They idealized his shoes.”
 
I thought that’s an odd way to describe it.  It wouldn’t have been my choice of words but I knew those words were true to the dream.  He then held out the shoe.  I reached over to receive the shoe and held it in my hand.  Sitting in my bed, my alarm clock sounded as the sailor disappeared leaving behind the etheric blue shoe in my hand.   I reached over to snooze the alarm.  I put the shoe under my covers and laid there in amazement. 
 
On the way to work someone traveling on the Metro with a suitcase bumped my ankle removing my shoe.  I stopped to fix my shoe thinking, “that’s a strange coincidence.”  At work I searched Wikipedia for a suitable image to convey the imagery of the dream.  The water way reminded me of the Straits of Gibraltar.  I knew nothing of Gibraltar other than the fact that there was a water way so I looked it up.  This led me to the Rock of Gibralter.  Come to find out the Rock of Gibraltar is also known as the Pillars of Hercules.  I was beside myself.  Here this dream turned out to be a continuation of yesterdays dream. .
 
I knew there was definitely something very profound here.  The synchronicity gave me the assurance that what I experienced is in fact real.  I then decided to look up the meaning of idealize which was an oddly placed word conveyed by the dream.  I felt it had some significance that I need to investigate.  As I followed this clue, I was lead to the term idealism.  I was surprised to find the word has a lot to do with metaphysics and God.
 

Idealism is the doctrine that ideas, or thought, make up either the whole or an indispensable aspect of any full reality, so that a world of material objects containing no thought either could not exist as it is experienced, or would not be fully “real.” Idealism is often contrasted with materialism, both belonging to the class of monist as opposed to dualist or pluralist ontologies.

In Eastern thought, as reflected in Hindu idealism, the concept of idealism takes on the meaning of higher consciousness, essentially the living consciousness of an all-pervading God, as the basis of all phenomena. A type of Asian idealism is Buddhist idealism.

Plato
Main article: Platonic idealism
In common discussion, Plato is often referred to as an “idealist”, because of his doctrine of the “Forms,” which are certainly “ideals,” in a broad sense. But Plato doesn’t describe the Forms as being in any mind. Instead, he regularly describes them as having their own, independent existence.[1] So it seems clear that Plato is not, at any rate, a “subjective” idealist, like Berkeley.

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is sometimes interpreted as drawing attention to the problem of knowing “external objects”–the problem that concerned Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, and other modern philosophers. But the Forms that the Cave-dwellers are ignorant of aren’t “external” to them in the way that material objects are for these modern thinkers. The Forms are the true realities, but they aren’t spatially outside us, as material objects are. So the issue that Plato’s allegory addresses–which is, roughly, how can we know what is truly real (and truly good)?–is quite different from the modern issue of our knowledge of the “external world.”

However, even if Plato doesn’t share the specific concerns of modern philosophy, and of George Berkeley, in particular, Plato could still be a non-subjective idealist. He could believe that matter has no independent existence, or that full “reality” (as distinct from mere existence) is achieved only through thought. Bernard Williams and Myles Burnyeat have maintained that Greek philosophers never conceived of idealism as an option, because they lacked Descartes’s conception of an independently existing mind.[2] But Williams and Burnyeat didn’t consider the possibility that Plato could have held an idealism like Kant’s, which argues from the nature of knowledge to the nature of the objects of knowledge, or like Hegel’s, which denies that matter is fully “real”–without (in either case) reducing material objects to ideas in a mind or minds. Moreover, Plato’s theory of the separation of soul and body could be seen as an earlier, rougher form of Cartesian dualism.

The German Neo-Kantian scholar, Paul Natorp, argued in his Plato’s Theory of Ideas. An Introduction to Idealism (first published in 1903)[3] that Plato was a non-subjective, “transcendental” idealist, somewhat like Kant, and Natorp’s thesis has received support from some recent scholars.[4]

Descartes
Writing about Descartes, Schopenhauer claimed, “… he was the first to bring to our consciousness the problem whereon all philosophy has since mainly turned, namely that of the ideal and the real. This is the question concerning what in our knowledge is objective and what subjective, and hence what eventually is to be ascribed by us to things different from us and what is to be attributed to ourselves.” (Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. I, “Sketch of a History of the Doctrine of the Ideal and the Real”) According to Descartes, we really know only what is in our own consciousnesses. We are immediately and directly aware of only our own states of mind. The whole external world is merely an idea or picture in our minds. Therefore, it is possible to doubt the reality of the external world as consisting of real objects. “I think, therefore I am” is the only assertion that can’t be doubted. This is because self-consciousness and thinking are the only things that are unconditionally experienced for certain as being real. In this way, Descartes posed the issue of epistemological idealism, which is awareness of the difference between the world as an ideational mental picture and the world as a system of external objects.

Does this mean I’m Hercules…or possibly a divine hero?  I think…therefore I Am.  In keeping humble, I interpret it as my potential is herculean and if I exercize it, I can be a hero in my own right.  There is something so compelling in all this that makes me feel I’m onto something.  I get the feeling that if I stay on course I will do or discover something in the course of my life that can have the potential to change human history. 

Posted on

Hypnagogia: The Tong of Tongs

Hypnagogia: Nightmare by John Henry FuseliLast night I turned off the lights in my bedroom and laid in bed to meditate. It was such a wonderful meditation that I completely lost myself in the experience. As I began to come back to awareness of where I was I was hearing a voice gently guiding me back through what seemed to be a hypnotic session; “…and when you open your eyes you will remember everything.” I opened my eyes to see a man kneeling on my bed looking at me. He was transparent, etheric and blue in color. As I adjusted my perception to see him better, I noticed he wasn’t exactly a man. He was an ape man like the ones in “Planet of the Apes.” In his hand he held out a tong of some sort with a gripper at the end. I knew he had to be trying to communicate something to me. By this time I couldn’t remember whatever it was he had hypnotized me to remember. I looked at him with a puzzled and confused look. He then produced a pad and writing utensil and made as if he was writing. I then understood. To acknowledge my understanding, I in turn made as if I was writing while nodding my head. I understood, I was to write about it and the memories or revelations would come to me. Maybe he was preparing to give me a dream. I quickly grabbed my voice recorder and recorded this initial experience so I would not forget. 
 
Early in the morning hours I woke up with the urge to go to the bathroom. I got up and paused for a moment trying to think back if I had had any dreams. I couldn’t remember anything. I proceeded to go to the bathroom. I then returned to bed, thinking, “Those tongs had to have been gibberish.” When I laid back down, I immediately began having a dream while fully awake. I was in Miami at the condo Joe and I had when we were together. There were people looking in through a veiled window in the door. I recognized the scene. After my near death experience and on those using days during my last relapse, my struggle to get clean, I was haunted by other worldly entities and earthly beings who I believed were earth bound spirits or 4th dimensional spirits in the astral worlds who were attracted to the energy vibrations I gave off while using. I basically could no longer use and be alone because I would instantly drop into altered states of consciousness triggered by the drugs. While in these states I would encounter both love based and fear based entities. I know now they were not hallucinations because I have these same experiences while clean except they now only come while meditating or in the twilight hours as I’m going in and out of the dream states ie. the hypnagogia states. I am simply much more receptive now after the near death to these experiences. This part of my life I could fill a whole book, which will come later. For now, it will suffice to say that I understood the vision. 
 
Those I perceived to be good people (the police) from this other dimension were coming to hold me accountable for my drug use. I willingly surrendered. They placed black tie wraps around my wrists. They then proceeded to arrest me and my parents who are in their 80’s and very fragile. “Wait,” I told them, “what do you want with my family. They should not be subject to an arrest. They are too frail, it would kill them.” This angered me. Compelled to save my mom and dad from a power hungry group of police, I suddenly had a flash of insight, “OPEN YOUR EYES”. But first, I reached over and removed the tie wraps that imprisoned my parents. As I did, I told the police officer that I would not allow him to misuse his power. I then opened my eyes. I was now safely back in my bed.
 
Feeling unsatisfied with the way I had left the situation, I felt the need to return to somehow change the course of events for the better. I closed my eyes and reappeared in the scene. The cops were gone now. I and my family were now free. I looked around for a way out of this mess I had created. I somehow knew I needed to leave Miami and head home. I prepared for our exit. I looked out on the Bay of Biscayne where ships were beginning to line the perimeter monitoring my every move. We took flight and flew North West in between two ships banking right when we cleared the perimeter; again I opened my eyes.
 
I still didn’t know what the tongs had to do with any of this so when I got to work I looked up the word in Wikipedia. To my incredible surprise, I found quite curiously the proof of God’s existence. This next part is beyond words. According to Wikipedia:
 

Tongs also have a special place in matters of theology. An opinion cited in Pirke Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), a Talmudic tractate, states that God created “the original tongs, for tongs must be made with tongs.” Jewish thinkers therefore have used tongs as proof to God’s existence.

I was beside myself. I still didn’t know what was meant by it but simply that Tongs could be used to prove God’s existence was a miracle for me. It was a tool I could use.  Was my visitor saying, I am on the road to proving God’s existence? This is my passion to do. So what’s the story with the Tongs? I needed to know more so here is what I found.
 

The Tong of Tongs

The rabbis of the Mishnah compiled various lists of items that they claimed were created “at twilight on the eve of the first Sabbath.” Most of those items are associated with spectacular biblical miracles, such as the mannah, Balaam’s talking donkey, and the fissure that opened to swallow up Korach and his rebellious congregation.

Maimonides argued plausibly that the lesson underlying this tradition is that God’s true greatness is manifested in the unchanging laws of nature, and not in the ability to arbitrarily suspend or abrogate those laws. Accordingly, even wondrous events that appear to us as contraventions of the natural order were in reality programmed into the structure of the universe at the time of its creation.

The Maharal of Prague explained that the concept of “twilight” is to be grasped as a metaphor for the subtle metaphysical dimension in which miracles originate. Just as the visible twilight is no more than an indefinable moment in the subtle transition from day to night, so are we to understand that the creation of miracles occurred in a realm that is outside of time, in the infinitesimal present moment that is forever sandwiched between the past and the future. Within this moment lies a dynamic potentiality for change and improvement in response to constantly changing circumstances.

At any rate, not all the phenomena that the rabbis portrayed as having been created on that first Friday evening relate to high-profile miracles. According to Rabbi Judah bar Ilai, the list should also include… the first pair of blacksmith’s tongs.

Among the ancients, the ability to fashion metal into tools and weapons was often enveloped in an aura of mystery, or even fear. In primitive cultures, blacksmiths were perceived as masters of occult lore, and pagan mythologies sang of divine smiths who forged weapons for the gods.

However, as the Talmud explains it, Rabbi Judah’s reasoning was based on much more prosaic and rational considerations. When a blacksmith fashions a pair of tongs in the forge, the only way he can handle the red-hot metal is with tongs. Since we are speaking of the manufacture of the first pair of tongs, this possibility did not exist. Ergo, the first pair must have been provided directly by the Creator himself.

Indeed, the argument sounds irrefutable.

In its modest and whimsical way, Rabbi Judah was employing the same method of proof that was adopted by the great philosophers in order to speculate about such weighty questions as the origins of the universe or the existence of God. For each observable phenomenon, these thinkers would persist in asking what was its cause or what set it into motion. Eventually, as it was no longer possible to keep posing such questions ad infinitum, they were forced to posit the existence of an Unmoved Mover, an Uncaused Cause, or a similar hypothesis, in order to account for the existence of the world.

Nevertheless, there were sages in the Talmud who challenged the cogency Rabbi Judah’s reasoning. It was possible, they argued, that the person who made the first tongs did so simply by first making a tong-shaped mold, and then filling it with molten iron.

For the Maharal, the significance of placing the tongs at the end of the Mishnah’s catlogue of prefabricated miracles lies precisely in the fact that they are the least supernatural item in the list The mention of the creation of the first tongs alongside the more dazzling wonders of the biblical past serves to underscore the lesson that God’s concern for human needs does not always manifest itself in the spectacular pyrotechnics of split seas or burning bushes.

A similar approach was advocated by the 17th-18th century author Rabbi Jacob Culi whose Judeo-Spanish compendium Me’am Lo’ez is one of the most beloved commentaries among Sepharadic Jews.

From the rabbinic discussion about the origins of the tongs, Rabbi Culi derives a profound moral insight into the divine plan for creation.

He argues that people should not be disheartened by the fact that they were created with imperfections and moral shortcomings. On the contrary, the example of the tongs teaches us that the Almighty will always furnish us with any articles that are truly necessary to correct the deficiencies of the human situation.

If this is true with respect to the material advantages inherent in a simple blacksmith’s tongs, how much more does it apply to the religious realm; so that we can be confident that the Almighty will always equip us with powerful spiritual resources that will allow us to overcome our temptations and limitations.

First Publication:
Jewish Free PressJune 20 2002, p. 6.
Taken From: Eliezer Segal’s articles

I was also curious why my hypnotist appeared as an ape man; maybe to imply the beginning of time? Here too I went to Wikipedia and found out something I didn’t know concerning “Planet of the Apes.”
 

The main events of the book are placed in a frame story, in which Jinn and Phillys, a couple out on a pleasure cruise in a spaceship, find a message in a bottle floating in space. The message inside the bottle is the log of a man, Ulysse Mérou, who has written down his story in hopes that someone else, somewhere, will find it.

 .. a message in a bottle floating in space which was the log of a man… That sounds just like my blog. I blog my dreams and experience hoping someone out there will hear me and respond. Is it possible someone out in the universe heard my song? Am I the ape man?
 
I told you this stuff is out of this world!!!  The rest I’m saving for my next book. 

Posted on

Little Terror

ETI had a dream where I am learning to fly.  I soar to incredible heights.  The feeling is exhilarating. They are pushing my limits beyond my comfort zone.  I am good at flying.  I begin to gain a sense of independence and freedom that I’ve never had before.  Alone now, I realize that I am nailed to a cross. It is not me who has the power of flight.  The bird that carries me is the wings of Christ.  Now I am the one nailed to the cross. This is my crucifixion.  In the ecstasy of flight I wonder if this is how Christ felt.  In pondering this mystery, I realize I am no longer alone.  Above me and above the cross are two others.  One is above me to my lift and the other is above to my right.  I am no longer one but three.  As three we fly as one.  Like training wheels on a child’s bike they guide and assist me in flight. 

 

I then had a dream where I am a child.  I have been given a bicycle.  I grab hold of the rear wheel and the pedals begin to melt away.  How am I now supposed to provide thrust?  I then notice my hands.  My hands are like those of an alien with only three long index fingers and a thumb.   They tell me that it is my fingers that have melted the pedals.  I look at my hands again.  In doing so, I became lucid.  I realize this is yet another fear tactic. I know I am not an alien.  I quickly dispel the illusion and discover they had used spoons which were taped to my hands to give the shadow appearance of long fingers.  A struggle ensues between me and those aliens responsible for the illusion.  I know I am now confronting my fear of alienation.

 

Seeing my oppressors, I grab the alien’s wallet without him noticing.   I tear it in half and hide the pieces under my bed covers.  I figure it will buy me time to have hidden it in pieces.  The alien is now looking for his wallet.  He needs it in order to complete his mission.  As he ducks down to look for it, I catch him off guard and pierce his medulla oblongata with my pinky.   He in turns bites my pinky off leaving my pinky inserted deep in his brainstem. I then reached in with my other hand to retrieve my pinky.  I figured I could reattach it later.  The struggle continues with him frantically searching for his wallet. 

 

The struggle wakes me up.  As I open my eyes I can clearly see two alien beings one on either side of me.  Their energy signature was much different than other hypnopompic images I’ve seen.  This energy was more dense and dark green in nature. They had both my arms pinned down to the bed.  Without them noticing that I had woken up, I examined their movement carefully.  They have long heads which were clearly not human which made them very tall.  Both were busy holding my arms down while at the same time looking around the room for something…presumably their wallet. Realizing this was my opportunity to examine what alien life is really like.  I studied them carefully, remaining calm to maintain my state of altered awareness. 

 

After a few minutes, I felt I had had enough of their games, I pulled my right hand away from him. To my surprise he held on.  This is real, I thought to myself.  He was now looking at me face to face.  To my surprise he was wearing a human face.  Slightly taken off guard by his change in appearance and his grip, I paused for a second to relax again and consider my options. They resumed their business.  Thinking this can’t be really happening…I pulled my arm away from him again but this time with greater force.  He immediately turned and looked at me.  The quick and forceful movement of my arm slugged him in the face knocking his mask off.  He quickly readjusted his human mask like a woman adjusting her bra.  My hand was now free however.  He then grabbed my hand again and slapped it as if to tell me I shouldn’t do that.  I was already clued in to him being a fake. 

 

Now however I was free from their grip.  I laid there looking at both of them.  I then found myself in their mind.  I could see what their life was like.  I could see them going about their business.  Their world is dark black and green with very little light.  It is a shadow world.  They wear hoods to hide their features.  I wanted to see them so I asked my consciousness to move about within their world.  I wanted to see their faces.  Their world began to speed up as if they were running from me avoiding me.  I then saw their face and realized they had no love in their world.  The images of their world began to slowly slip away.  I then raised my palms to my two alien visitors who were still standing beside me now in a trance.  I mentally released their wallet and sent love with them into their world.  I could see waves of luminous blue light pulsating through their essence as streams of love flowed through me and into their world.  I could still see everything they were experiencing in their minds.  

 

I was utterly amazed at the encounter.  I got up out of bed and walked over to the bathroom.  I noticed the dog I have sitting on the banister in the hallway. He now had a new scarf around his neck.  It was a black scarf.  It had a white scull and cross bones with the words, “Little Terror” on it.  This was not a scarf I had in my house or that I placed around his neck.  I do have a roommate now, so I assumed he placed it on him when he came home last night.  Had he unknowingly carried out their dirty work?  Coincidence, I think not.  I’ll have to ask him tonight if he was the one who gave him the scarf.