Experience 7: Harnessing the Power of Dreams
Are the answers to your biggest problems hidden under your pillow?
Whoa… time flies! We’re now at the seventh session in Reality Bending Month. And this time, we’re going to talk about harnessing the mysterious power of dreams to affect your physical reality.
You spend about a third of your life sleeping anyway - so imagine what you could accomplish if you spent some of that time doing something productive :-)
First, a disclaimer: you don’t need to change your view of what dreams really are to benefit from this. You can believe they’re signals from your subconscious. Or omens from a greater power. Or even just random brain activity. It doesn’t matter.
According to the great spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, there are five types of dreams:
1. Unfulfilled desires that come into your dream as fulfillment. For example, you wanted an ice cream before going to bed… and in your dream you’re eating a bottomless tub of the stuff.
2. Past experiences like conversations, holidays or just random memories. Again, these are often triggered by thinking about specific experiences some time before bedtime.
3. Intuitive dreams that give you a glimpse of what could happen in the future. These are not necessarily clairvoyant in nature, they could also be your brain speculating on known facts.
4. A combination of all of the above. For example a dream of you finally getting the chance to go horseriding next year on a farm you visited in your childhood.
5. Environment-specific dreams… for instance sleeping in a hotel in Italy, and dreaming about Italian food, culture and people.
How to harness the power of your intuitive dreams
Here is a basic yet surprisingly effective exercise that will help you harness the power of your intuitive dreams. The first step in doing this is of course to be able to recall them!
> Ask yourself to dream about what you want to CREATE before going to sleep...bring the image of what you want into your mind's eye and hold it there.
> After awaking from a dream, record them before they fade from your mind by writing them down in a dream journal or by using a voice recorder, or even the memo feature on your smartphone.
> Take what you get! Capture anything you can remember, even fragments of your dreams.
> Don’t overdo alcohol or other sedatives before you go to sleep—they can disrupt sleep, dull your intuitive senses and make it harder to remember dreams.
> Get enough sleep to help you better recall your dreams.
> Be patient. You may not remember your dreams right away.
> Think about your last three dreams and explore their significance. Look back at the five types of dreams that Sri Sri Ravi Shankar set out. What type of dreams did you have?
- Were they based on past events, the location you were in, unfufilled desires... you intuition... or a mixture of them all?
- If they were based on an unfulfilled desire, is it tied to what you want to create? ...if so, were there things that were holding you back or blocking you from it in your dream?
- Or were they intuitive dreams--ones that felt like they were telling you of events to come?
- Write down what types of dreams you felt they were in a dream journal.
> Continue to pay attention to and track your dreams. Dream analysis isn't a one-shot deal. This is a continual process and a powerful tool to receive deeper messages about your life, the things that may be blocking you and creating dis-ease...and potentially even a predictor of life-events to come!
> Lastly, let the "Knowledge of Sleep Awaken You." As Shankar says, even if your dreams end up being a conglomeration of images and messages--the kind that he recommends to "bundle up and throw in the ocean"--take the opportunity to let the "knowledge of sleep awaken you."
- What reality did your awakening moment reveal to you?
- Before this moment passes, immediately write down all of the thoughts, feelings and realizations that came to you.
- I recommend that you keep a separate dream journal or even your recording device next to your bed so that you can capture everything in the moment.
Keep checking your inbox for your next Reality Bending Month lesson in the coming days, and tell us in the comments section below:
Have you remembered any good dreams lately?
Become the master of your dreams.
Look out for advanced Lucid Dreaming techniques in the full Project:Yourself course. These will allow you to create highly specific, highly transformational outcomes through focused dream sessions. The kind that would take others years of practice to get right.