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Namaste Telangana Paper Promo

chiru00007@gmail.com (My Dreams) — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 20:46:00 -0800

Namaste Telangana Paper Promo

chiru00007@gmail.com (My Dreams) — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 20:46:00 -0800

Motion Graphics

chiru00007@gmail.com (My Dreams) — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 21:17:00 -0800

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51H2fQ6c2UE

Dream-Symbols And Their Meanings

chiru00007@gmail.com (My Dreams) — Sat, 4 Apr 2009 07:18:00 -0700

Abuse: There may be a dispute between you and the person with whom you do business. Take heed and be not slack in your attentions.

Accident: Personal afflictions may be inevitable. But you will remove soon from the trouble.

Accuse: This is a sign of great trouble. You will acquire riches by your own personal efforts.

Adultery: Troubles are approaching. Your prospects may be blasted. Despair will catch hold of you.

Advancement: A sign of success in all that you undertake.

Advocate: A dream that you are an advocate indicates that you will be prominent in future. You will win universal respect.

Affluence: This is not a favourable dream. It is indicatory of poverty.

Anger: The person with whom you are angry is your best friend.

Ass: All your great troubles, in spite of despairing circumstances, will end in ultimate success after much struggle and suffering.

Baby: If you are nursing a baby, it denotes sorrow and misfortune. If you see a baby that is sick, it means that somebody among your relatives will die.

Bachelor: Dreaming of a bachelor tells that you will shortly, meet with a friend.

Bankrupt: This is a dream of warning lest you should undertake something undesirable for you and also injurious to yourself. Be cautious in your transactions.

Battle: To dream of being in a battle means quarrel with neighbours or friends in a serious manner.

Beauty: To dream that you are beautiful indicates that you will become ugly with sickness and that you will become weak in body. Increasing beauty indicates death.

Birds: To see birds flying are very unlucky; it denotes sorrowful setback in circumstances. Poor persons may become better especially if they hear birds sing.

Birth: For unmarried women to dream of giving of birth to children, is indicative of inevitable unchastity. For married women it indicates happy confinement.

Blind: To dream of the blind is a sign that you will have no real friends.

Boat: To sail in a boat or ship on smooth waters is lucky. On rough waters, it is unlucky. To fall into water indicates great peril.

Books: To dream of books is an auspicious sign. Your future life will be very agreeable. Woman dreaming of books will get a son of eminent learning.

Bread: You will succeed in earthly business pursuits. Eating good bread indicates good health and long life. Burnt bread is a sign of funeral and so is bad.

Bride, Bridegroom: This dream is an unlucky one. It indicates sorrow and disappointment. You will mourn at the death of some relative.

Bugs: This indicates sure sickness. Many enemies are seeking to injure you.

Butter: Good dream. Joy and feasting. Sufferings terminate quickly.

Camel: Heavy burdens will come upon you. You will meet with heavy disasters. But you will bear with heroism.

Cat: This is a bad dream. This indicates treachery and fraud. Killing a cat indicates discovery of enemies.

Cattle: You will become rich and fortunate. Black and big-horned cattle indicate enemies of a violent nature.

Children: See Birth.

Clouds: Dark clouds indicate great sorrows that have to be passed through. But they will pass away if the clouds are moving or breaking away.

Corpse: Vision of a corpse indicates a hasty and imprudent engagement in which you will be unhappy.

Cow: Milking cow is a sign of riches. To be pursued by a cow indicates an overtaking enemy.

Crow: This indicates a sorrowful funeral ceremony.

Death: This indicates long life. But a sick person dreaming of death has the positive results.

Desert: Travelling across a desert shows the inevitability of a long and tedious journey. Accompaniment of sunshine indicates successful journey.

Devil: It is high time for you to mend yourself. Great evil may come to you. You must pursue virtue.

Dinner: If you are taking your dinner, it foretells great difficulties where you will be in want of meals. You will be uncomfortable. Enemies will try to injure your character. You should be careful about those whom you are confiding.

Disease: If a sick person dreams of disease it means recovery from the same. To young men it is a warning against evil company and intemperance.

Earthquake: This foretells that great trouble is going to come, loss in business, bereavement and separation. Family ties are broken by death—quarrels in family and fear everywhere, heart breaking agony and disaster from all sides.

Eclipse: Hopes are eclipsed. Death is near. Enjoyment may be put an end to. There is no use of dotting on the wife, for life is coming to an end. The friend is a traitor. All expectations will bear no fruit.

Elephant: Good health, success, strength, prosperity, intelligence.

Embroidery: Those persons who love you are not true to their salt. They will deceive you.

Famine: National prosperity and individual comfort. Much enjoyment. A dream of contrary.

Father: Father loves you. If the father is dead, it shows a sign of affliction.

Fields: Very great prosperity. To walk in green fields shows great happiness and wealth. Everything happens good. Scorched fields denote poverty.

Fighting: Quarrels in families. Misunderstanding among lovers, if not temporary separation. A bad dream for merchants, soldiers and sailors.

Fire: Health and great happiness, kind relations and warm friends.

Floods: Successful trade, safe voyage for traders. But to ordinary persons it indicates bad health and unfavourable circumstances.

Flowers: Gathering beautiful flowers is an indication of prosperity. You will be very fortunate in all your undertakings.

Frogs: These creatures are not harmful. This dream therefore is not unfavourable. It denotes success.

Ghost: This is a very bad omen. Difficulties will be overwhelming. Terrible enemies will overpower you.

Giant: Great difficulty to be encountered. But meet it with boldness. Then it will vanish. This indicates that you will have an enemy of the most dreadful character.

Girl (unmarried): Success, auspiciousness will come over you. Hopes will be fulfilled.

God: This is a rare dream which few people experience. Great success and elevation.

Grave: Some friend or relative will die. Recovery from illness doubtful.

Hanging: If you are hung, it is good to you. You will rise in society, and become wealthy.

Heaven: The remainder of your life will be spiritually happy, and your death will be peaceful.

Hell: There will be bodily suffering and also mental agony. Great suffering due to enemies and death of relatives, etc.

Home: To dream of home-life in early boyhood indicates good health and prosperity. Good sign of progress.

Husband: Your wish will not be granted. If you fall in love with another woman’s husband, it indicates that you are growing vicious.

Ill: To dream that you are ill shows that you will have to fall a victim to some temptation, which, if you do not resist, will injure your character.

Injury: If you are injured by somebody else, it means that there are enemies to destroy you. Beware of them. Change of locality is desirable.

Itch: This is an unlucky dream. Denotes much difficulty and trouble. You will be unhappy.

Jail: If you dream that you are in jail it indicates that in life you will prosper. This is a dream of contrary.

Journey: This indicates that there will be a great change in conditions and circumstances. Good journey indicates good conditions and bad journey with troubles indicates a bad life.

King: To appear before a friendly king is a sign of great success, and before a cruel king is very unfavourable.

Lamp: Very favourable dream. Very happy life. Family peaceful. This dream is always of good signs.

Learning: You will attain influence and respect. Good omen to dream that you are learning and acquiring knowledge.

Leprosy: To dream that you have leprosy always indicates a very great future misfortune. Perhaps you have committed some crime to be severely punished by law. You will have many enemies.

Light: To dream of lights is very good. It denotes riches and honour.

Limbs: Breakage of limbs indicates breakage of a marriage vow.

Lion: This dream indicates greatness, elevation and honour. You will become very important among men. You will become very powerful and happy.

Money: Receiving money in dream denotes earthly prosperity. Giving of it denotes ability to give money.

Mother: If you dream that you see your mother and converse with her, it indicates that you will have prosperity in life. To dream that you have lost your mother indicates her sickness.

Murder: To dream that you have murdered somebody denotes that you are going to become very bad and wretched, vicious and criminal.

Nectar: To drink nectar in dream indicates riches and prosperity. You will be beyond your expectations. You will marry a handsome person in high life and live in great state.

Nightmare: You are guided by foolish persons. Beware of such people.

Noises: To dream of hearing noises indicates quarrels in family and much misery in life.

Ocean: The state of life will be as the ocean is perceived to be in dream, viz., calm and peaceful life when the ocean is calm and troublesome life when the ocean is stormy, etc.

Office: If you dream that you are turned out of the office it means that you will die or lose all property. This is a very bad dream for all people.

Owl: Denotes sickness and poverty, disgrace and sorrow. After dreaming of an owl, one need not have any hope of prosperity in life.

Palace: To live in a palace is a good omen. You will be elevated to a state of wealth and dignity.

Paradise: This is a very good dream. Hope of immortality and entrance into Paradise. Cessation of sorrows. Happy and healthy life.

Pigs: This indicates a mixture of good and bad luck. You will have great troubles but you will succeed. Many enemies are there, but there are some who will help you.

Prison: This is a dream of contrary. Indicates freedom and happiness.

Rain: This foretells trouble especially when it is heavy and boisterous. Gentle rain is a good dream indicating happy and calm life.

River: Rapid and flowing muddy river indicates great troubles and difficulties. But a river with calm glassy surface foretells happiness and love.

Ship: If you have a ship of your own sailing on the sea, it indicates advancement in riches. A ship that is tossed in the ocean and about to sink indicates disaster in life.

Singing: This is a dream of contrary. It indicates weeping and grief. Much suffering.

Snakes: You have sly and dangerous enemies who will injure your character and state of life.

Thunder: Great danger in life. Faithful friends will desert you. Thunder from a distance indicates that you will overcome troubles.

Volcano: Quarrels and disagreements in life.

Water: This indicates birth (of some person).

Wedding: This indicates that there is a funeral to be witnessed by you. To dream that you are married indicates that you will never marry. Marriage of sick persons indicates their death.

Young: To dream of young persons indicates enjoyment. If you are young, it indicates your sickness. You may die quickly.

Waking as a Dream

chiru00007@gmail.com (My Dreams) — Sat, 4 Apr 2009 07:15:00 -0700

In both states—waking and dreaming—objects are “Perceived”, i.e., are associated with subject-object relationship. This is the similarity between the two.

The only difference between the two states is that the objects in dream are perceived in the space within the body, whereas in the waking condition they are seen in the space outside the body. The fact of “being seen” and their consequent illusoriness are common to both states.

The illusion of both the states is established by their “being seen” as “object”, other then the self, thus creating a difference in existence. Anything that is “perceived” is unreal, for perception presupposes relation and relation is non-eternal, for the relations of the waking state are contradicted by those of dream and vice versa. As duality is unreal, all objects must be unreal.

As long as the dream lasts, waking is unreal; as long as waking lasts, dream is unreal. The reality of the one is dependent on the reality of the other. But dream is proved to be unreal; hence waking also is unreal.

Dream-relations are contradicted by waking-relations. Waking relations are contradicted by Super-consciousness which is uncontradicted. Non-contradiction is the test of reality.

That which persists forever is real. That which does not and which has a beginning and an end is unreal. Dream and waking have both a beginning and an end. But it may be contented that one thing exists as the cause of the other in the beginning. But as causality itself is baseless, a thing cannot exist as the cause of another. That which has a beginning and an end is changeable and hence non-eternal and unreal, for change implies non-existence in the beginning or at an end. Hence all perceived objects are unreal.

As the objects of the waking state do not work in dream, they are unreal. As the objects of the dream do not work in the waking state, they are unreal. Hence everything is unreal. One who eats belly-full during the waking state feels hungry in the dream state and vice versa. Things are real only in their own realms and not always. That which is not always real is unreal, for reality is everlasting.

The perception of an object is unreal, because the objects are creations of the mind. An object has got a particular form, because the mind believes it to be so. In fact, the objects of both the dreaming and the waking states are unreal. An object lasts only as long as the particular mental condition cognising the object lasts. When there is a different mental condition altogether, the objects also change. Hence all objects are unreal.

Both in the dream and in the waking stale, the internal perceptions are unreal and the objects of external perception appear to be real.

If in the waking state we make a distinction of real and unreal, in dream also we do the same thing. In dream also objects of internal cognition, are unreal. Dream is as real as the waking state. But since dream is proved to be unreal, waking also must be unreal. Dream is unreal only from the standpoint of waking, and equally so is waking to the dreamer. From the standpoint of True Wisdom, waking is as unreal as dream.

Spiritual Enlightenment Through Dreams

chiru00007@gmail.com (My Dreams) — Sat, 4 Apr 2009 07:14:00 -0700

“He who is happy within, who rejoices within, and who is illumined within, that Yogi attains absolute freedom or Moksha, himself becoming Brahman.” (Gita: V-24.) The highest spiritual knowledge is Knowledge of the Self. He who has known himself, rather his self, for him nothing remains to be known. The wisest of the Western philosophers Socrates, gave the highest and the best of his teachings to his disciples in the injunction “Know Thyself”. The Indian saints likewise gave their highest teaching in the form known as Adhyatma-Vidya or Self-Knowledge.

Knowledge of the Self, which has been called the supreme knowledge by the wise men of all ages, has seldom been recognised as a mystery by the ordinary man. He seems to know himself so well that he does not think it even necessary to reflect upon himself. Not only does the uneducated illiterate person think it useless to reflect upon himself, but the highly cultured modern man also thinks in the same way. The greater the advancement of science and learning, the less we find in the modern man a desire to know himself.

There are two opposite reasons that lead a man not to reflect upon himself: first, he thinks that he knows the self too well, secondly he thinks it useless to think about himself, because the true nature of the self can never be known. Some think that thinking about oneself is a morbid mentality. This is a form of introversion from which one has to free oneself as soon as possible. The study of dreams is corrective to such an erroneous view.

There was a time when psychologists thought, the less we thought about our dreams, the better. The psychologists who take consciousness to be an epi-phenomenon still hold the same view. Seashore, for instance, thinks that it is only abnormal people who think too much of their dreams, and that thinking too much about dreams leads to abnormalities. There is much in the waking life to be attended to and he who spends his time in thinking about his dreams is missing so much of his waking life and this contributes to his own failure in life.

Now Psychology, however, has changed this point of view. It shows that deepest wisdom comes through reflection on dreams. No one has known himself truly, who has not studied his dreams. The study of dreams at once shows what a great mystery our soul is, and that this mystery is not altogether insoluble, as some metaphysicians supposed. Dreams reveal to us that aspect of our nature which transcends rational knowledge. That in the most rational and moral man there is an aspect of his being which is absurd and immoral, one knows only through the study of one’s dreams. All our pride of nationality and morality melts into nothingness as soon as we reflect upon our dreams.

There is logic in our dreams or rather the logic of our waking consciousness is just like the dream logic. The great philosopher Hegel constructed his logic without taking into account what the dream logic has to reveal. Now logic, which at the same time claims to be a system of Metaphysics, cannot be complete without taking into account the absurd constructions of dream experience. Logic is only a tool of intellect, which enables it to deal with the waking experience alone. This fact is revealed to us through the study of our dreams. The real must transcend all logical categories; or the categories by which it can be comprehended have to be such as will not only suffice to catch the waking experience but the dream experience too. This simply means that it should be broad enough to comprehend both the conscious and the unconscious life of a man. To conceive of such a category cannot be the work of waking consciousness. Such a category must necessarily transcend both the waking and the dream consciousness. Thus we are lead to the necessity of intuition or a logical thought to comprehend Reality, when we begin reflecting upon our dreams.

The modern study of dreams shows that they are not meaningless presentations. Every dream presentation has a meaning. A dream is like a letter written in an unknown language. To a man who does not know the Chinese, a letter written in that language is a meaningless scroll. But to one who knows that language it is full of most valuable information. It may be the letter calls for immediate action; or it may contain words of consultation to one suffering from dejection. It may be a letter of threat or it may speak of love. These meanings are there only to one who would care to attend to the letter and would try to decipher it. But alas! How few of us try to understand these messages from the deep unseen ocean of our own Consciousness!

Why do we dream? Various answers have been given to this question. According to the most popular scientific view, dreams are nothing but a repetition of our waking experiences in a new form. A more thoughtful view regards them as productions of an organic disturbance somewhere in the body, but more particularly in the stomach. To this view medical men stick more tenaciously than any other people. Sometimes coming diseases appear in dreams. During an illness dreams are generally more horrible than they are in the healthy condition of the body. These are all scientific theories of dreams. We have here out of account the unscientific theories, e.g. that dreams are premonitions or that gods or demons or spirits produce dreams, or that the soul goes out to a sojourn in dreams etc.

The scientific theories have been very thoroughly exposed by Dr. Sigmund Freud in his Interpretation of Dreams. No physical stimulus, whether it is inside or outside the body, no experience of the waking or sleeping state can explain the presentation of the actual dream content. The same stimulus, namely the chime of an alarm timepiece produced three different kinds of dreams to Hidetrant at different times. Why should it be so if the physical stimulus alone is responsible for the production of dreams?

According to Freud all dreams, without any exception, are wish fulfilment. The wishes are actually of an immoral nature. They are revolting to the moral self, which exercises a control on their appearance. Hence to evade this moral censor the wishes appear in disguised forms. The dream mechanism is very intricate. Very few dreams present the wishes as they really are. Dreams are partial gratification of the wishes. They relieve the mental tension, and thus enable us to enjoy repose. They are safety valves to strong impulsions. Dreams do not disturb sleep but rather protect it. The irrationality and the immorality of dreams make the morality and rationality of our waking life possible.

The above statement of Freud shows that we know our animal self in dream. But he does not say anything about the spiritual life being expressed in dream. This, it seems, has been done by Jung. According to Jung, a dream is not causally determined as was supposed by Freud, but it is teleologically determined. The repressed wishes alone do not explain all our dreams. A dream presents a demand to our waking consciousness. If rightly interpreted, it shows the way to be at peace with ourselves. The dreams of the neurotics not only reveal the repressed contents but they also suggest remedies for the cure. A series of dreams sometimes occur to a patient, which reveal the way to cure.

The dream consciousness is superior to the waking consciousness in many respects. Many puzzles of life are solved through hints from dreams. All dreams, according to Adler, are anticipatory in character. They show which way the spiritual life of a man is flowing. To know the actual flow is necessary to correct possible errors. Dreams help us to discover the lifeline of the individual and help us to give him proper advice for self-correction.

Thus, through dreams one may know how one ought to act in a particular situation. The dreams point out a path unknown to the waking consciousness. Saints and sages appear in dreams at times of difficulty and show the way. The more one follows the dream intuitions, the clear they become.

dream

chiru00007@gmail.com (My Dreams) — Sat, 4 Apr 2009 07:12:00 -0700

A dream is mental activity (thoughts, images, emotions) occurring during sleep. Most dreams occur in conjunction with rapid eye movements; hence, they are said to occur during REM-sleep, a period typically taking up 20-25% of sleep time. Infants are believed to dream during about 50% of their sleep time. Dreams occurring during non-REM periods are said to occur during NREM-sleep.

Sleep researchers divide up sleep time into stages, mainly defined by the electrical activity of cortical neurons represented as brain waves by an electroencephalograph (EEG). The EEG records electrical activity in the brain by connecting surface electrodes to the scalp. The stages of sleep occur in sequence and then go backward to stage 1 and REM-sleep about 90 minutes later. This cycle recurs throughout the night with the REM period typically getting longer at each recurrence. Typically, a person will have four or five REM periods a night, ranging from 5 to 45 minutes each in duration. There is some evidence, however, that REM-sleep evolved before dreaming and that the two are independent of one another.¹

The REM-dream state is a neurologically and physiologically active state. When a person is in deep sleep there is no dreaming and the waves (called delta waves) come at a high amplitude about 3 per second. In REM-sleep, the waves come at a rate of about 60-70 per second and the brain generates about five times as much electricity as when awake. Blood pressure, heart rate, breathing rate, etc. can change dramatically during REM-sleep. Since there is generally no external physical cause of these states, the stimuli must be internal, i.e., in the brain, or external and non-physical. The latter explanation--that dreams are a gateway to a paranormal or supernatural realm--seems to be largely without merit, although it is very ancient. Each of the following may have contributed to this misconception: dreams of dead persons, dreams of being in distant places or of traveling back or forth in time, dreams that seem prophetic, and dreams that are so strange, curious or bizarre that they call out for a paranormal interpretation. The fact that the part of the brain that controls REM is the pons, a primitive section of the brain stem that controls reflexes like breathing, would support the notion that the stimuli for the physiological changes that take place during REM originate internally.

Nowadays, hardly anyone believes that dreams are messages from the gods. But some parapsychologists, such as Charles Tart, believe that dreams offer entry into another universe, a paranormal universe of OBEs, cosmic messages, and blissful nirvana. His main evidence for this seems to be his personal faith and an anecdote about his baby sitter. He claims the unnamed baby sitter (he calls her "Miss Z") had the power to leave her body during sleep. He claims he tested his flying babysitter in his sleep lab at UC Davis after she told him that she "thought everyone went to sleep, woke up in the night, floated up near the ceiling for a while, then went back to sleep." Other psychologists might have been concerned for the mental well-being of "Miss Z" and the safety of his or her children. Tart was intrigued. He put a number on a shelf, hooked up "Miss Z" to an EEG machine and put her to bed. She claims that even though she didn't read the number on the shelf, she flew around the room the first few nights. She didn't get the number right until the fourth night. Skeptics think either Tart is making up the story or it took the girl four nights to figure out how to trick the scientist. (See Tart’s ‘A Psychophysiological Study of Out-of-the-Body Experiences in a Selected Subject,’ Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, 1968, 62, pp. 3-27.) Others have investigated the question of whether the mind is open to telepathic input during sleep and have failed to find evidence of psychic ability while dreaming. Scientific research by psychiatrist Montague Ullman and parapsychologist Charles Honorton in the early 1970s at Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn, New York, obtained chance results after an initial testing that looked positive for psi (Baker).

It is possible that dreaming may be related to the OBE. In some dreams, the dreamer is an observer, even an observer of himself. Perhaps, the brain mechanism that controls spectator dreams versus first-person dreams is the same mechanism that controls the illusion of leaving one’s body in the OBE.

Tart and other parapsychologists who think that the dream state is a gateway to another world seem to think that the key scientific evidence for this is the distinct brain waves of the various stages of sleep. They seem to think that brain waves represent states of consciousness and that sleep is an altered state of consciousness. However, sleep is not a state of consciousness, but unconsciousness. Furthermore, brain waves represent not states of consciousness but electrical activity in the brain. Brain activity during dream-sleep is indeed curious. While dreaming, not only do we experience the equivalent of hallucinations, some of which would qualify as psychotic if we had them while awake, most of us feel like we are physically moving, acting and being acted upon, without the body actually moving. Brain stem mechanisms protect us during sleep from motor activities that could lead to self-injury or injury to others. That is, most of us are paralyzed during sleep. However, some people suffer a weakness or disruption of the brain stem that causes a sleep disorder where motor activities are not prevented. People who suffer from this disorder flail, sleepwalk, etc., and can be a danger to themselves or others. Such people do not leave their bodies, but they often leave their beds during sleep.

Another curious quality of brain activity during dreaming is that almost all dreams are forgotten. Dream amnesia is the norm. This is not due to anything paranormal or supernatural, but to weak encoding. Memory depends upon encoding the data of experience. Encoding depends upon connections in parts of the brain, which in turn depend upon connections in experience. An event with a strong emotional component is more likely to be remembered than one with no emotional component because emotional memories are recorded in one part of the brain while visual components are recorded in another. Neural connections link them. We are likely to remember dreams if we wake shortly after they occur. Even so, if we do not encode the dream by making some effort to remember it, we are likely to forget it. Some people assist memory by getting up and writing down the dream. Others find that an easier method is to stay in bed and create some associations. The easiest association is made by giving the dream a title and a purposive description. For example, a dream of being chased by a polar bear across the snow into a library might be labeled "Research the Polar Bear." Go back to sleep and you are likely to remember the dream by recalling the title.

Perhaps the most curious quality of dreams is that most of us most of the time are not aware that we are dreaming while we are dreaming. PET scans during dreaming have shown that there is reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex during REM-sleep and this might account for several features of the dream-state. The prefrontal cortex lies near the front of the brain and is where behavior planning and self-awareness reside. By dampening activity in this region, a person might not realize that events in a dream are unreal. This may also account for time distortion, lack of reflection on one's plight, and the amnesia that often follows waking.

Some researchers cite the lack of prefrontal activity as a sign that the function of sleep is restorative. Sleep gives a rest to the frontal lobes, the most active part of the brain while awake. And, it may well be that lucid dreaming--being aware of dreaming while dreaming--is possible for some people because their frontal lobes don't completely shut down during dreaming. Most parapsychologists, however, are not interested in the physiology of dreaming. They focus instead on the content of dreams, which they believe reveals a passage to the paranormal or the supernatural.

The prophetic or clairvoyant dream is perhaps the strongest reason for believing that dreaming is a gateway to another world. Some dreams seem uncanny. They seem to foretell events. If a significant number of dreams of just a single person corresponded to future events, this would be a great benefit to humankind and we should try to find out what mechanism is at work here. However, no such person has yet been found. Individual dreams that occasionally seem clairvoyant provide very weak evidence for clairvoyant dreams. I once had a very vivid dream of an airplane crashing nose first in San Diego (where I lived for 20 years). About ten years after the dream an airliner went down in San Diego. Am I clairvoyant? Would the case be stronger for clairvoyance if the airliner went down the day after I had my dream? I don't think so.

While it is admitted by most parapsychologists that some amount of coincidence is to be expected between what a person dreams and what actually happens, it is argued that there are too many cases of seemingly prophetic dreams to reasonably explain them all away as due to coincidence. It is true that not all prophetic dreams can be explained away as being due to coincidence. Most of them probably should be so understood, but many of them may be explained away as due to filling in memories of dreams after the facts and many others should be explained away as cases of lying. But the vast majority of prophetic dreams are probably coincidences. Such dreams are impressive to those who lack understanding of the law of truly large numbers, confirmation bias, and how memory works. If the odds are a million to one that any given dream is truly prophetic, then, given the number of people on earth and the average number of dreams people have during each sleep period (250 dream themes a night, according to Hines, p. 50), we should expect that every single day of our lives there will be more than 1.5 million dreams that seem clairvoyant. That is not including all the dreams had by cats, dogs and other animals, who may well be having apparently psychic experiences while they sleep, though to what purpose we can only guess. Furthermore, one would think that if dreaming were a gateway to the paranormal or supernatural, blind persons would not have their dream time restricted by their physical limitations any more than those with sight. Yet, people blind from birth do not have visual dreams.²

There are also those who think that the dream-state is a gateway to past lives. There are some who even think that the dreams we have today are due to the fears our hunter-gatherer ancestors had. Universal dream themes, such as being chased or falling are said to hearken back to our hunter-gatherer days. We have these dreams because our ancestors were chased by saber-toothed tigers and slept in trees. The evidence for such beliefs is negligible, if not non-existent, although a strong case can be made that the form rather than the content of such dreams might well be due to an evolutionary development linked to exercising instinctive behavior necessary for survival.

If the dream-state is a gateway to anything, it is probably a gateway to current personal fears and desires, rather than to ancient ones of other people. We assume dreaming has a purpose, but that purpose is more likely to be rooted in this life than in some other one. Any decent theory of dreams must try to explain why the brain stimulates the memories and confabulations that it does. It is most likely that dreams are a result of electrical energy that stimulates memories located in various regions of the brain. Why the brain stimulates and confabulates just the memories it does remains a mystery, though there are several plausible explanations. Explanations in terms of the paranormal and supernatural are not as likely to have merit as those that limit themselves to biological and emotional mechanisms linked to brain activity.

One such hypothesis for sleep-related rhythms is that they are the brain's way of disconnecting the cortex from sensory input. When we are asleep, thalamic neurons prevent penetration of sensory information upward to the cortex.³ This gives the cortex a bit of a rest and explains why people who suffer sleep deprivation suffer a loss of critical thinking abilities and are prone to poor judgment. Another hypothesis is that dreaming plays a role in memory processing, especially with emotional memories. During REM-sleep, the amygdalae, which play a role in the formation and consolidation of memories of emotional experiences, are quite active.A related theory is that dreams are "watchdogs of the psyche" (Baker). Dreams are mechanisms that inform and guide our feelings and emotions. In short, this theory maintains that dreams are a way for us to express our desires and fears that, for whatever reason, need to be expressed but are not expressed when awake. If this is true, it would seem to follow that only one very intimate with the dreamer should attempt to interpret a particular dream. Dreams are very personal and speak to the specific emotional life of the dreamer. The "surest guide to the meaning of a dream is the feeling and judgment of the dreamer himself or herself, who, deep down inside, knows its real meaning" (Baker). This theory seems to be based upon the fact that most dreams are about things that have occurred within the past day or two and reflect the dreamer's present life and concerns, including unresolved feelings. This theory also implies that the interpretation of dreams can play a significant role in self-discovery; for, dreams reflect feelings and desires of which we are not conscious when awake. We may have anxieties or desires that only our dreams can reveal.

Most of us would have little difficulty in finding examples of "anxiety dreams" or "wish-fulfillment dreams" from our own experience. We may not have been aware of our desires or fears until they were awakened by the dream. Sometimes our symbolic dreams are so clear that we do not need outside assistance to help us interpret their meaning. Yet, many dreams are so strange, irrational or bizarre, that we are at a loss to find meaning in them. We seek others who claim expertise in dream interpretation to help us ferret out the hidden meanings of our dreams. Those who engage in the interpretation of dreams should be especially careful not to impose their own pet theories onto the dreams of others. For example, the dream mentioned above of being chased by a polar bear into a library might be interpreted in many different ways, but only I, my wife and one or two other persons familiar with the experience that that dream is rooted in are in a position to interpret it "correctly." I don't doubt that there are many possible interpretations and that some of them might seem quite plausible. But the "correct" one is one that has meaning for the dreamer. It was a frightening dream, just as the experience of dealing with a close relative with bipolar disorder (manic depression) was frightening. The experience led me to the library and to bookstores to get as much information about this brain disorder as I could. I have no doubt that a Freudian or Jungian could find some latent or symbolic meaning here that I do not note, but I have no interest in their interpretations because I have no way to check them against reality and do not share their assumptions regarding the psyche. I have no idea why my brain confabulated this dream, arousing fear and disturbing sleep. Reality is bad enough without having our brains arouse more fears during sleep.

There are some people, however, who have experienced much more horrible things than I have, who dream about them every single night of their lives (Sacks). Why the brain should terrify its owner by repeating horrifying memories during sleep seems beyond comprehension. Such obsessive dreaming is of no more value than obsessive-compulsive behavior. Such people don't just have nightmares; they are too terrified to go to sleep. They need the help of a good therapist, but they are not in need of dream interpreter. If such dreamers are to be helped they must learn to control their dreams. There are various method used to control dreaming, most of them involving visual or auditory preparations prior to sleep. Some therapists claim success with victims of recurrent nightmares by treating what is loosely called "post traumatic stress disorder." Some patients claim that they have been helped to overcome the experience of repetitious nightmares by lucid dreaming. None have been helped by treating dreams as a gateway to some higher realm of consciousness.

Yoga

chiru00007@gmail.com (My Dreams) — Wed, 1 Apr 2009 23:48:00 -0700

BASIC YOGA FOR STIFF PEOPLE

PART 1

Yoga is not only meant for flexible people, it is meant for any person of any age and of any fitness level. As we grow older our bodies tend to get stiff, so this series has been designed specifically for people who hate to move there bodied due to stiffness or low energy, and also for people with very low levels of flexibility. Start now and soon you will see changes in your body that you never thought could happen.

Exercise 1

Stand straight, feet together, palms joined in front of your chest.
Inhale, keep palms together and bend back, stretching your arms over your head.
Breathe normally.

Exercise 2

Turn body to one side, bring one foot forward 2-3 feet ahead of other.
Inhale, raise both arms straight above head. Exhale, bend forward, interlock hands around upper foot and pull toes up, heel on floor. Lower the head and look at the toe.
Hold 10-30 seconds, breathing normal.
Repeat with other leg.

Exercise 3

Stand straight with your legs together.
Bend one leg and bring the foot to rest on the inner thigh close to groin.
Maintain balance by focusing on a point in front of you and raise arms to sides.
Raise arms up, keep straight, palms joined.
Hold for 10-30 seconds.
Repeat with other leg.

Exercise 4

Stand straight, feet together.
Exhale and bend forward from hip.
Place your palms on the floor and your head on your knees.
Keep your knees straight.
Breathe normally.

PART 2

Almost any movement of the body requires a movement of the spine. Until the upper body is able to move freely, a person will always feel restricted in there sense of movement. These postures will create a looseness in our upper body buy stretching your back and sides in a sideways direction.

Exercise 1

Stand straight, feet together, arms by side.
Keeping it straight, raise one arm sideways to shoulder-level. Turn palm up and stretch arm up.
Exhale, stretch arm over the head, bending body to one side.
Hold 10-30 seconds, inhale, resume start position.
Repeat the other side.

Exercise 2

Stand with legs wide apart, arms by side.
Raise one arm up to side and up to ear. Exhale, stretch arm over the head, bending body to one side, palm facing down.
Hold 10-30 seconds, breathing normal.
Inhale and go back to start position.
Repeat other side.

Exercise 3

Kneel on floor with knees a little apart.
Bend body to left side and place left palm to the side as shown
Raise right arm and stretch over the head, parallel to floor.
Hold 10-30 seconds
Return to start position.
Repeat other side.

PART 3

Yoga works on the principle that a persons body should be stretched in directions which is not normally done in day to day life. As the body has hundreds of muscles, each muscle needs to be stretched and stimulated in order for the whole body to be healthy. The following postures will work on your Shoulders to bring back an upright posture and basic flexibility.

Exercise 1

Sit with your legs stretched out.
Place palms behind you as shown with fingers pointing forward.
Pushing down on the palms, slowly push the chest forward, arch the back and drop the head back as shown.
Hold, breathing normally.
Slowly come back to starting position.

Exercise 2

Get down on all fours palms directly under your shoulder, fingers facing forward, knees in line with your hips, soles upward.
Curve the back down as shown.
Looking straight ahead, inhale and raise one arm as shown. Keep shoulder level with ear.
Hold for 30-60 seconds.
Repeat with other arm.

Exercise 3

Repeat the first two steps of Exercise 1, keeping hands on hips.
Raise one arm up over your head, palm facing up and bend backwards as much as is comfortable. Look up.
Hold for 10-30 seconds
Repeat the other side.

PART 4

One of the most important areas of the body which if gives trouble can make your life hellish, is your Back. Until it is ok we rarely bother about it, but once it starts giving you pain your whole life ends up revolving around it. To keep your back in good condition practice the following postures which are easy to do and yet keep your back in a good shape.

Exercise 1

Lie on stomach, legs straight, feet together, soles upward, forehead on floor.
Place palms below and to side of the shoulders, elbows tucked in close to the body.
Inhale, slowly raise head and upper body, keeping navel on the floor, elbows bent as shown.
Hold, breathing normally.
Exhale as you slowly come down to start position.
Now place your palms by your chest, elbows tucked in.
Inhale and raise your upper body till your navel.
Straighten your arms, raise your torso as shown, tuck your toes in and look up.
Hold for 10-30 seconds, breathing normal.
Slowly resume start position.

Exercise 2

Stand on knees, knees together with arms by your side, feet tucked in.
Slowly lean back, reach back with right arm and grip right heel.
Inhale, raise left arm, slowly arch backward stretching arm behind you as shown.
Hold for a few seconds breathing normally.
Slowly raise arm, straighten up and resume start position.
Repeat with the other arm.
Get down on all fours, arms straight, palms under your shoulders, fingers facing forward, knees in line with your hips.

Exercise 3

Get down on all fours, arms straight, palms under your shoulders, fingers facing forward, knees in line with your hips.
Inhale and raise head and look up as you create an intense dip in your back.
Hold position and your breath for a few seconds.
Exhale and drop head down and arch back as shown.
Hold breath and maintain position for a few seconds.
Resume start position.
Do 10 – 15 rounds.

PART 5

Almost 40% of the population suffers from some form of Lower Back Pain. If only people would practice a few simple postures to keep the lower back relaxed at least half the people would not find themselves with such a stiff and painful back. These exercise are simple to do but they are highly effective in keeping your back supple & pain free.

Exercise 1

Kneel on floor. Stretch one leg straight out in front as shown.
Inhale raise both arms over head. Exhale and bend forward from hips, interlock hands around foot as shown and place chin on the knees.
Hold 10-30 seconds, breathing normal.
Repeat other side.

Exercise 2

Sit with back straight, place both arms behind you as shown, fingers pointing away from body.
Bend one leg, place foot below kneecap.
Gently twist spine, take the knee towards the floor on opposite side.
Hold for 10-30 seconds, breathing normal.
Repeat the other side.

Exercise 3

Bend the knees pull them towards the chest as shown.
Roll on the back too-n-fro.
Hold for 10 – 30 sec.
Normally breathing.

Exercise 4

Kneel on the floor, knees together.
Sit back on your heels, keeping back straight.
Inhale and raise your arms above your head.
Exhale slowly and bend the body forward so that forehead rests on floor, palms face downward.
Hold position breathing normally.
Inhale, come up. Exhale and resume start position.

PART 6

Another important area of the body which gets stiff with too much work and stress is the groin and hamstrings (back part of the Thighs). If you remove stiffness from these areas your energy levels are much higher and the basic tiredness what you feel at the end of the day will disappear.

Exercise 1

Stand with feet wide apart, back straight.
Exhale and bend forward from the hips. Catch hold of the ankles as shown and rest the head on the floor.
Hold for 10-30 seconds, breathing normal.
Inhale and slowly come back to start position.

Exercise 2

Sit with your legs straight out and back straight.
Bend your knees, bring the heels together and pull the feet towards the groin.
Inhale slowly and raise both arms, exhale and bend body forward as shown.
Hold for 10-30 seconds, breathing normally.
Inhale slowly as you raise your body up.

Exercise 3

Bend right leg to bring knee in front of the body and stretch the other behind.
Place palms in front, place front heel away from groin.
Inhale slowly and stretch your upper body backwards and look at the sky.
Hold 20 – 30 seconds
Repeat with other leg.

Exercise 4

Sit with legs stretched out, back straight.
Bend one leg, place ankle on opposite thigh close to groin. Bend other leg and place ankle on thigh of bent leg, close to groin.
Take arms behind back, catch hold of one wrist with other hand and pull down as you lift the chest and drop head back.
Hold 10-20 seconds.
Slowly resume start position.

PART 7

A stiff body is a result of a stressful mind. Yoga has come up with an amazing way to relax, silence and eventually control the mind. Pranayama or breath control removes stiffness indirectly by increasing the oxygen levels throughout the body which in turn leads to relaxation and flexibility of the muscles. Only a relaxed man can overcome his stiffness to become flexible. Practice the following techniques a feel the difference to your self.

Exercise 1

Sit with legs stretched out, back straight.
Bend one leg, place ankle on opposite thigh close to groin. Bend other leg and place ankle on thigh of bent leg, close to groin. Place your hands on your knees.
Slowly bring head up and move it forward so chin touches chest.
Slowly move the head as far back as comfortable. Do not strain.
Repeat slowly for 5 - 10 times.

Exercise 2

Sit in padmasana.
Interlock your fingers at chest level, palms facing towards you, elbows at same level.
Inhale deeply as you turn palms out and slowly stretch your arms, shoulders and chest upwards.
Exhale through the mouth as your turn palms in, and slowly bring palms back to start position.
Repeat 5 times

Exercise 3

Sit back on your heels as shown, place palms on knees as shown, keep back straight.
Exhale forcefully and rapidly through the nose in quick succession, pulling the stomach in towards the spine as you exhale. Inhalation will be automatic and passive between every two exhalations.
Practise 30-50 inhalations at a stretch.
Repeat 3 times.

PART 8
Relaxing Legs

Stretching of any muscle in the body improve blood circulation, opens blockages and stimulates the secretion of relaxing hormones which are nothing but “Feel Good Hormones”. These exercises can change the state of a body part from stiff and painful to easy and relaxed. Your legs will feel opened up and rejuvenated within a few minutes.

EXERCISE 1 A

Sitting, bend the right leg so that the heel touches the groin area.
Inhale slowly stretching both arms up over head.
Exhale slowly as you bend forward. Interlock the fingers and hold your heel.
Place your forehead, chest and abdomen on the thighs and hold 30-60 seconds breathing normally.
Inhale slowly as you stretch your arms up and return to starting position
Repeat on the other side.

EXERCISE 1 B

Sit with your legs stretched out, feet together
Exhale and bend forward from your hips.
Hold your toes or heels, touch your forehead to your knees and hold 30-60 seconds.
Inhale slowly as you raise your arms over your head and return to starting position.

EXERCISE 2

Lie on side, bend one arm, support head with hand.
Raise upper leg as high as you can. Slide other hand to foot, grasp big toe, keep leg straight.
Hold 10-30 seconds, breathing normal.
Repeat other side.

EXERCISE 3

Come on to your hands and knees, palms positioned below the shoulders, fingers facing forward, knees together, toes tucked in.
Exhale, push back on your arms and raise your hips up.
Tuck chin towards the chest and look at navel.
Keep heels flat on floor.
Hold for 10-30 seconds, breathing normally.
Resume start position.

PART 9
Relaxing Arms

In our day to day life we use our four limbs to the maximum. The legs tend to have gross movements and the arms and hands move in more skillful ways such as typing, writing etc. With time the fingers and hands tend to get stiff from such repetitive movement. These simple exercises should be practiced regularly so that your arms and hands feel supple and relaxed.

EXERCISE 1

Sit with legs stretched out, back straight. Bend one leg, place ankle on opposite thigh close to groin. Bend other leg and place ankle on thigh of bent leg, close to groin.
Interlock your fingers at chest level, palms facing towards you, elbows at same level.
Inhale deeply as you turn palms out and slowly stretch your arms out in front.
Exhale through the mouth as you turn palms in and slowly bring palms back to start position.
Repeat 5 times

EXERCISE 2

Sit as described in Exercise 1
Bend one arm behind the head.
Catch the wrist with the other hand and pull down stretching the elbow and shoulder.
Hold on to the posture for 10 – 25 seconds.
Release.
Repeat with the other arm.

EXERCISE 3

Sit with legs stretched out in front, feet together, body relaxed
Stretch both arms in front of you to shoulder level
Keeping arms straight, slowly stretch both hands down from wrist so that fingers point to floor. Simultaneously, move toes forward and stretch the feet.
Now, slowly stretch both hands up backward from wrist. Simultaneously stretch toes and feet up and towards the body.
Repeat 10 times

PART 10
Relaxing the Neck

Unfortunately the neck bears the brunt of all the stresses that we take on to our selves. If You have Noticed whenever you are stressed your Jaw and Neck are the first to get stiff and get tight. Without any form of stretching you could end up with severe spondulosis. Practice these neck exercises to keep your Neck pain free and loose.

EXERCISE 1

Sit with legs stretched out, back straight.
Bend one leg, place ankle on opposite thigh close to groin. Bend other leg and place ankle on thigh of bent leg, close to groin. Place your hands on your knees.
Slowly move the head as far back as comfortable.
Slowly bring head up and move it forward so chin touches chest.
Repeat 10 times.

EXERCISE 2

Sit in for Exercise 1.
Gently turn the head left so chin is in line with the shoulders.
Now gently turn the head to the right as far as comfortable.

EXERCISE 3

Slowly rotate the head clockwise down to chest, to the right, backward, to left side in a relaxed, smooth, rhythmic, circular movement.
Now gently rotate anti-clockwise i.e. in opposite direction.

PART 11
Relaxing the Waist and Hips

Different people have different personalities. Certain people accumulate stiffness in some areas and other people in different areas. A common area which tends to get stiff for a person with a stressful life style and excess work are the hips. Without realizing it, you may be accumulating a lot of stiffness in your hips which leads to lower back pain and many other problems. These exercises will bring instant relief and relaxation.

Exercise 1

Stand on knees, knees a little apart, feet stretched out.
Turn body slightly, reach back with right hand and catch hold of left foot.
Stretch left arm back over the head as shown.
Hold as long as comfortable, breathing normal.
Slowly return to start position.

Exercise 2

Sit on floor with legs split sideways.
Bring left arm across body and rest hand on upper thigh.
Inhale and raise the right arm above head.
Exhale, bend body to left, and stretch right arm and catch the big toe as shown.
Hold 10-30 seconds, breathing normal.
Repeat other side.

Exercise 3

Lie on back, arms stretched out, knees bent and shoulder-width apart.
Gently twisting spine, take the knees sideways to the floor. Look in opposite direction.
Hold 10-30 seconds, breathing normal.
Repeat other side.

PART 12
Relaxing the Ankles

A person with flexible ankles is less prone to injuries while running or walking. His blood circulation is better and he moves with more agility and speed. To feel more agile, fit and relaxed practice the following exercises which will make you move much lighter on your feet.

Exercise 1

Turn body to one side, bring one foot forward 2-3 feet ahead of other.
Inhale; raise both arms straight above head. Exhale, bend forward, interlock hands around upper foot and pull toes up, heel on floor. Lower the forehead to the knee.
Hold 10-30 seconds, breathing normal.
Repeat with other leg.

Exercise 2

Stand straight with feet together, both arms stretched out, palms down.
Slowly raise one leg up, toes pointed forward, now move the ankle such that the toe points up words.
Repeat it for 10 – 15 times.

Exercise 3

Sit between your heels.
Holding the heels, lean backwards and place your elbows on the floor with the head and neck stretched backwards.
Place your palms on the soles of your feet as shown.
Hold for 10-30 seconds.
Place palms on floor, press down and slowly return to start position.
Slowly straighten your elbows and lie down on floor.
Try and keep knees together, place your palms on thighs and hold 30-60 seconds.
Hold your heels, pushing down on elbows, move up. Press palms down on floor and slowly come up and return to start position.

PART 13
Relaxing the Face

The face is a mirror of a person’s state. If stressed, the facial muscles tend to get stiff and this stiffness leads to development of wrinkles and frowned eyebrows. When you do these exercises you might be making unnatural movements but these movements will bring your face back into its natural state making it look fresh and giving it a youthful look.

Exercise 1

Sit in front of a mirror.
Make funny faces at yourself, stretching the area round the mouth. Some examples are given but be creative and come up with your own expressions.
Fill your mouth with air.
Gently shift air from one cheek to the other as shown.
Repeat 10-20 times.

EXERCISE 2

Close your eyes and inhale deeply as you count 1-5.
Hold your breath, press chin down on jugular notch (mid-point of the 2 collar bones under the chin).
Raise chin up 4 fingers above the jugular notch and make a humming sound like a bee from your throat. Slowly exhale as you hum.
Listen to the sound vibrations as they travel up and spread through the head.
Repeat three times.

PART 14
Relaxing the whole body

Sometimes stiffness can be removed by bringing conscious awareness to the entire body. The process of focusing on each body part helps in proper energy flow and thus removes the stiffness. By being relaxed and “asleep” while being alert at the same time the body receives five times the relaxation that it gets in normal sleep. Practice this technique when you are low in energy and you will wake up feeling like a different human being.

Lie on your back on a mat or on a hard mattress.
Concentrate on your breath. Breathe deeply from the abdomen and just be aware of yourself inhaling and exhaling.
There are sixteen vital points in your body which can relax you totally if you concentrate on them. Start concentrating on the forehead, move progressively to the nostrils, lips, chin, neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingertips, chest, abdomen, thighs, knees, calves, ankles and toes. Repeat this cycle 2-3 times.
Now imagine your limbs are detached from your body. Only the head, chest and abdominal area exist now. As you breathe in, feel the air entering your spine and cleansing it.
Concentrate on the different vital nerve plexus or nerve junctions called chakras and breathe in and out 5-10 times while concentrating on each point.
Start with the root plexus or mooladhara in the space between your anus and your genitals.
Move to the solar plexus or swadhisthan, four fingers above the navel.
Then to the midpoint of the chest, anahat.
Move to the throat, to visudhi.
Move to the point between the eyebrows, ajna
Finally move to the crown, the suryachakra.
Imagine your limbs are once again attached to your body. Be aware of your whole body as one unit for about 2 minutes.
Slowly open your eyes, stretch and get up.

Set aside time for your dream

chiru00007@gmail.com (My Dreams) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 10:56:00 -0800

TACTIC: Schedule time to think about your dream, set long-term and short-term goals, and plan tasks.

A dream is like a garden--you need to nurture its growth. Designate a particular time during the week for your dream. It might be during an exercise period or walk to work.

What specific things can you do to make your dream come true? Write these down as goals. Break down a major goal that may take you years to complete into short-term goals that you can accomplish regularly. Then generate daily tasks to accomplish parts of these short-term goals.

Once you have your dream statement, you have a powerful motivator. You should find that you are very anxious to complete the tasks you make to accomplish your dream.

Gather resources for your dream

TACTIC: Gather information that will support your dream.

For example, find out about jobs in places where you want to live or internships and starting jobs in your dream profession. An opportunity to move closer to what you want might just be a matter of connecting with the right information.

Include in this information contacts with people who are living your dream. For example, want to be an actor? Perhaps there is an actor who you know--perhaps an actor from your hometown or your local theater group who has gone on to a professional work--who will give you advice or be your mentor.

Live-Your-Dreams

chiru00007@gmail.com (My Dreams) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 10:33:00 -0800

Do you know your dream? Not just what you tell other people what you'd like to do, but what you truly want for your life?

TACTIC: Brainstorm your dream by quickly answering hypothetical questions and examining the pattern they reveal.

Answer the following questions honestly and quickly with the first thing that comes to your mind.

What would you do with your life if...

You won $1 million?
You had to return to college to get a four-year degree?
You won $1,000 a week for life?
You lost your present job?
You had a disability that prevented you from walking?
You had six months to live?

Answering hypothetical questions can give you insight into your true motivation. Is there a pattern in your answers to the questions?

These questions should force you to look behind what you might assume to be your dream. For example, you might assume that your dream is to have lots of money--but what do you want from that money? What do you want to do with your time? With whom do you want to spend your time?

What has been the work or lifestyle that you have chosen to return to again and again?
What do you routinely say that you will do "someday"? What life change or way of life are you putting off?
Would you be willing to live with very little money and pursue a dream? Or would you rather work in a job that means nothing to you in order to have all kinds of material comforts?
Are you willing to live in the world, in the moment? Or do you seek to build a cocoon that meets all your needs?
What could you imagine getting up in the morning for? What could you imagine being in your life so that when you go to bed every night, you think, "I can hardly wait for tomorrow!"?
If your dream involves creative or performing arts, would you be willing to live frugally to follow your passion?
If your dream is travel, would you be willing to get a job involving travel?

The answers to these questions should reveal to you more about what you want to do. What are you are willing to sacrifice? How you are willing to live in order to follow your dream?

Study of Dream-State

chiru00007@gmail.com (My Dreams) — Sun, 8 Feb 2009 03:52:00 -0800

Once a disciple approached his Guru, prostrated at His Lotus Feet and with folded hands put the question:

Disciple: O My Revered Guru! Please tell me the way to cross this cycle of births and deaths.

Guru: My dear disciple! If you can understand who you are, then you can get over this cycle of births and deaths.

Disciple: O Guru! I am not so foolish as not to understand me. There is no man on earth who does not understand himself; but every one of them is having his rounds of birth and death.

Guru: No, No. You should understand the nature between the body and that person for whom this body is intended. Then only any one is said to have understood himself.

Disciple: Who is the person to whom this body belongs?

Guru: This Deha (body) belongs to the Dehi (Atman). Try to understand the true nature of the Atman.

Disciple: I do not see anybody besides this body.

Guru: When this body was asleep, who is the person who experienced your dreams? Again in deep sleep who is he that enjoyed it? When you wake up, who is he that is conscious of the world, your dreams and the soundness of the deep sleep?

Disciple: I am just beginning to have a little idea of the nature of Atman who is present in all the three states.

From the above conversation between the Guru and the disciple, it is clear that the dream and the deep sleep states are worthy of our study in order to understand the true nature of the Atman, as we already pretend to have some knowledge at least of our waking consciousness.

Dream is but a disturbance of the deep sleep and the study of the former, as to its origin, working, purpose and meaning will naturally lead us to the study of the deep sleep state also.

The best way to study a subject is to trace its history and development in the hands of eminent authors and to focus our critical faculty on what we have studied from their treaties and to rectify any omissions, when we shall have a complete and satisfactory survey of that subject.

The dream reveals within itself those unconscious mental mechanisms evolved during the course of development for the purpose of controlling and shaping the primitive instinctual self towards that form of behaviour demanded by the contemporary civilization. A working knowledge of the dream as a typical functioning of the psyche—that is, a knowledge of the dream mechanisms and of the theory of the unconscious symbolism—is therefore indispensable for dream interpretation. This knowledge may be gained intellectually from the books written by authorities on that subject, but emotional conviction is the result only of personal analytic experience. Dream should be considered as an individual psychical product from the storehouse of specific experience, which indeed the dreamer may in consciousness neither remember nor know that he knows.

In the analysis of a dream, one would say that the assimilation of knowledge of the unconscious mind through the ego is an essential part of the psychical process. The principle involved in valid explanation is the revelation of the unknown, implicit in the known in terms of the individual. This principle underlies all true dream interpretations.

The value of a dream therefore lies not only in discovering the latest material by means of the manifest content, but the language used in the narration of dream and in the giving of associations will itself help towards elucidation.

The subject of “dream” and its analysis will be, therefore, a most interesting one in understanding the true nature of the individual. We, therefore, quote in the following pages, relevant extracts from the lectures of Sigmund Freud, the famous authority on that subject and will evolve it further, if necessary, by the help of the knowledge we get from the Indian Sages and Seers.

Swami Sivananda tolds

chiru00007@gmail.com (My Dreams) — Sun, 8 Feb 2009 03:49:00 -0800

Svapna is the dreaming state in which man enjoys the five objects of senses and all the senses are at rest and the mind alone works. Mind itself is the subject and the object. It creates all dream-pictures. Jiva is called Taijasa in this state. There is Antah-Prajna (internal consciousness). The scripture says, “When he falls asleep, there are no chariots in that state, no horses and roads, but he himself creates chariots, horses and roads.”

The dreaming world is separate from the waking one. The man sleeping on a cot in Calcutta, quite healthy at the time of going to bed, wanders in Delhi as a sickly man in the dream world and vice versa. Deep sleep is separate from both the dreaming and the waking world. To the dreamer the dream world and the dream objects are as much real as the objects and experiences of the waking world. A dreaming man is not aware of the unreality of the dream world. He is not aware of the existence of the waking world, apart from the dream. Consciousness changes. This change in consciousness brings about either the waking or the dream experiences. The objects do not change in themselves. There is only change in the mind. The mind itself plays the role of the waking and the dream.

The dreamer feels that the dreams are real so long as they last, however incoherent they may be. He dreams sometimes that his head has been cut off and that he is flying in the air.

The dreamer believes in the reality of the dream as well as the different experiences in the dream. Only when he wakes up from the dream, he knows or realises that what he has experienced was mere dream, illusion and false. Similar is the case with the Jiva in the waking world. The ignorant Jiva imagines that the phenomenal world of sense-pleasure is real. But when he is awakened to the reality of things, when his angle of vision is changed, when the screen of Avidya is removed, he realises that this waking world also is unreal like the dream world.

In dream a poor man becomes a mighty potentate. He enjoys various sorts of pleasures. He marries a Maharani, lives in a magnificent palace and begets several children. He gives his eldest daughter in marriage to the son of a Maha-Raja. He goes to the Continent along with this wife and children. Then he returns and visits various places of pilgrimage. He dies of pneumonia at Benares. Within five minutes, he gets the above experiences. What a great marvel!

As in dream, so in the waking, the objects seen are unsubstantial, though the two conditions differ by the one being internal and subtle, and the other external, gross and long. The wise consider the wakeful as well as the dreaming condition as one, in consequence of the similarity of the objective experience in either case. As are dream and illusion a castle in the air, so say the wise, the Vedanta declares this cosmos to be.

Dreams represent the contraries. A king who has plenty of food, dreams that he is begging for his food in the streets. A chaste, pure aspirant dreams that he is suffering from venereal disease. A chivalrous soldier dreams that he is running from the battlefield for fear of enemy. A weak sickly man dreams that he is dead. He dreams also that his living father is dead and weeps in the night. He also experiences that he is attending the cremation of his father. Sometimes a man who lives in the city dreams that he is facing a tiger and a lion and shrieks loudly at night. He takes his pillow thinking it to be his trunk and proceeds to the Railway Station. After walking a short distance he takes it to be a dream and comes back to his house. Some people dream that they are sitting in the toilet and actually micturate in their beds.

As soon as you wake up, the dream becomes unreal. The waking state does not exist in the dream. Both dream and waking states are not present in deep sleep. Deep sleep is not present in dream and waking states. Therefore all the three states are unreal. They are caused by the three qualities: Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Brahman or the Absolute is the silent witness of the three states. It transcends the three qualities also. It is pure bliss and pure consciousness. It is Existence Absolute.

chiru00007@gmail.com (My Dreams) — Sun, 8 Feb 2009 02:25:00 -0800

The SHORT 5-Step VERSION

of the E - A - S - S - Y FIVE STEP METHOD OF DREAM ANALYSIS

1.

E is for Emotions

Feelings and your emotional reaction to the dream as you wake are the first clue to its meaning, and sometimes the most important. For example, if you see yourself dying but wake up feeling happy, it is not likely a prediction of your upcoming demise. Even if you do not yet understand the dream, note your feelings.

2.

A is for Action into Story Line

The story line is not a summary. You “extract” the story's main action and put it into new, more generalized words. For example, a young man dreams of trying to catch a firefly on a warm summer night. He keeps swatting, yet missing, chasing after it frantically, but it gets away. Out of frustration, he plunks himself down on the grass and sits quietly. As he does, a firefly comes near, and moving gently, he catches it. Here the story line is: “When doing something frantically, someone fails, but succeeds after they quiet down.” Or, another way of stating it might be: “Someone sees that they get what they want by staying calm and letting it come to them”. This describes the "overall" story but there is no mention of a young man, a firefly, summer night, sitting on the grass, and so on. The goal is to use words like “someone” and “something” to create generalities without using actual details to describe the main action and outcome.

3.

S is for Story Matches Life

The basic question is not “What does this dream mean?” It is: “To what in my life or something within me (ideas, attitudes, emotions) does this dream refer?” The dream is not just an entertaining story; it's an important communication about you and/or your life.

4.

S is for Symbols Add Detail

If you have ever played a game of Charades - the parlor game where one person silently mimes and acts out a word or phrase to others - then you know DreamSpeak. That's exactly how dreams speak to you - as a pantomime using one image to convey a related meaning. Three main methods of working with symbols are:

1. Freud's Association Method: Go backward in experience for associations with a symbol.

2. Jung's Parallel Association Method: Listi all current associations with a symbol.

3. Pictures as Word Play: Visual images are often a “play on words”, for example, "lettuce" as “Let Us”, or a circle as “going round in circles”.

5.

Y is for You Apply Insight

By step five, you can arrive at an interpretation that rings true for you. As a last step, write the “application” of what the dream invites you to do, become, or change. Does it invite you to work on an attitude or a talent, take a step in career, work, or a relationship, solve a piece of a puzzle in a problem? Set it down as: “I will take steps to calm down in that relationship”, or, “I will investigate how to advance in my career”. This will make the insights you receive concrete, ensure further clear dreams, and like building a house one brick at a time, will add much to our life, character, and happiness.

DREAMS ABOUT DEATH AND DYING

chiru00007@gmail.com (My Dreams) — Sun, 8 Feb 2009 02:24:00 -0800

For many, death is something to fear which makes dreams about death and dying frightening. As the greatest change all face, sooner or later, dreams about death are often a metaphor, though at times can be about the real thing.

Explore the difference between symbolic and literal dreams of death. True stories illustrate the difference and outline features to look for in your own dreams.

NOTICE THOUGHTS AS YOU FALL ASLEEP

chiru00007@gmail.com (My Dreams) — Sun, 8 Feb 2009 02:24:00 -0800

Dreams do not happen by accident and dream symbols are not random. They are conversations you started yourself which continue at night for a good reason. The reason is that there is a message that can help you.

You dream about what is on your mind as you go to sleep at night. Review what is on your mind as you are falling asleep. If you are keeping a dream journal, jot down phrases about main events affecting you such as "wondering about career directions" or "having trouble with so and so". Many times you show the world a brave face but as you fall asleep, your pillow hears what you really think and feel. TAKE NOTE. Whatever is on your mind as you fall asleep is likely to become the topic of your dreams. Whatever is closest to your heart and most important to you is what you dream about. It can be a decision, attitude, or project. That is where the focus for the night will go.

Pre-sleep content is like a ball that keeps on rolling down the hill as you sleep. You pick it up again in the morning.

So the first clue to what your dream is about is to notice what was on your mind before you went to sleep.

EXAMPLES OF HOW IT WORKS

chiru00007@gmail.com (My Dreams) — Sun, 8 Feb 2009 02:21:00 -0800

It all goes back to how you EXPERIENCE what is going on. When you saw the red shirt in the store window, it crossed your mind that you would look sexy wearing it, and that made you feel good. But then you realized there was no one in your life to whom you could show off such a shirt, so you walked on. Later when you dream about the red shirt, the dream is not about the shirt. Because of the association of feeling sexy, it became a story about how to get a new partner, and get back in the game.

When you saw the friend's new car, you realized you have to take steps in your own career before you can afford such a car. A dream about your friend?s car becomes a message about your career goals and how to advance yourself.

What about the movie about the fireman and rescue? As you watched the movie, you admired the hero for helping others. A dream of seeing yourself do something similar can be an invitation from your soul to look into volunteer work, or think about how you can help others. Not everyone can be a fireman, but everyone can be a hero to someone!

DREAM CONTENT IS NOT ACCIDENTAL

chiru00007@gmail.com (My Dreams) — Sun, 8 Feb 2009 02:20:00 -0800

Ever wonder why you dream about a particular item or topic? You pass a store window and see a red shirt and that night you dream about it. Your best friend gets a great new car and a few nights later you dream you have one just like it. Or you see a movie about a fireman rescuing a family, and that night you are a fireman in a dream rescuing a family member.

Is that a coincidence? No, the psyche uses what you encounter every day as a storehouse of images from which to pick, and create into a new message. Whether you saw something yesterday or years ago, the psyche has carefully selected it. Like a game of Charades, it takes one image that has no words and uses it to convey a new meaning to get a message across.

Understanding Dreams

chiru00007@gmail.com (My Dreams) — Sun, 8 Feb 2009 02:07:00 -0800

Perspectives From the Ancients Through Modern Times

Gail Bixler-Thomas, MA
November 1998

Dreams have influenced mighty kings, given insights to world-changing scientists and inspired gifted artists. The importance and power of dreams are well established. From the temples of antiquity to the sleep labs of modern days, humans have tried to understand, explain and apply them.
Ancient Dreams: Pre-20th Century

The earliest recorded dreams are derived from materials dating back approximately 5000 years, in Mesopotamia (Hall, 1991, p. 47). The Sumerians, the first cultural group to reside in Mesopotamia, left dream records dating back to 3100 BC. According to these early writings, deities and royals, such as the 7th century BC scholar-king Assurbanipal, gave careful attention to dreams. Within Assurbanipal's archive of clay tablets, portions of the story of the legendary king Gilgamesh were found. In this epic poem – one of the earliest known classical stories – Gilgamesh reported his recurring dreams to his goddess-mother Ninsun, who made the first recorded dream interpretation. His dreams were taken as prophecy and used to guide actions in the waking world. These attitudes recorded in the Gilgamesh epic provide a valuable source of information about ancient dream beliefs.

Dreams can't die

chiru00007@gmail.com (My Dreams) — Sat, 7 Feb 2009 07:14:00 -0800

U WILL FIND ME IN DREAMS OF A BETTER LIFE

Find Ur Dreams...

Namaste Telangana Paper Promo

Namaste Telangana Paper Promo

Motion Graphics

Dream-Symbols And Their Meanings

Waking as a Dream

Spiritual Enlightenment Through Dreams

dream

Yoga

BASIC YOGA FOR STIFF PEOPLE

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

PART 5

PART 6

PART 7

PART 8 Relaxing Legs

PART 9 Relaxing Arms

PART 10 Relaxing the Neck

PART 11 Relaxing the Waist and Hips

PART 12 Relaxing the Ankles

PART 13 Relaxing the Face

PART 14 Relaxing the whole body

Set aside time for your dream

Gather resources for your dream

Live-Your-Dreams

Study of Dream-State

Swami Sivananda tolds

DREAMS ABOUT DEATH AND DYING

NOTICE THOUGHTS AS YOU FALL ASLEEP

EXAMPLES OF HOW IT WORKS

DREAM CONTENT IS NOT ACCIDENTAL

Understanding Dreams

Dreams can't die

PART 8
Relaxing Legs

PART 9
Relaxing Arms

PART 10
Relaxing the Neck

PART 11
Relaxing the Waist and Hips

PART 12
Relaxing the Ankles

PART 13
Relaxing the Face

PART 14
Relaxing the whole body