I enjoyed reading the banter between you and Lion.

While I an not nearly as talented for putting words together as the two of you, at least I am intelligent enough to understand them.

The conscious, subconscious, paranormal world, is so complex to me, I can't truthfully say I understand any of it, even though I have personally lived in all of it!

Lion has been a big help to me, in learning to just accept it, because I doubt I will ever find the answers, until my time here has passed. Even then, I think maybe it's another cycle, like touching the elephant, I might be able to interpret a little more, but I still wont get the whole picture.

While you were mentioning the Tarot, and I Ching.... I use to read cards for people, and I even amazed myself at my accuracy. but it was just a regular deck of playing cards. I don't think the cards had much to do with it, I believe they were just a visual aid, to help with the pictures running through my mind.

I quit doing this, because I was being overwhelmed with people constantly on my doorstep, I didn't know where this ability was coming from, and how accurate it would be, since it was nothing I could turn off and on like a faucet.

and the fact that I didn't charge anybody anything, brought them out of the woodwork!! any way, this was just to mention in passing, as to my many paranormal experiences, and anyone that can help me to understand myself, and why these things happen to me, I would greatly appreciate any input.

and to boot, I had a dream last night for all, or any to pour over.

First off, while we were on vacation, we stopped to see Russ's father. He told us, he had seen 5 coyote on his property, and how they roamed through his ranch.

I generally do not dream of things relating to what I hear, but last night, I dreamed I was on the ranch, and I was taking care of a bunch of small children, and cats and dogs. (Dad does not currently have any pets, or children)

They were all outside playing and the whole ranch was closed in, to keep the children, and pets safe. As I looked in the distance, I saw 3 of the coyote, and they were inside the compound. I was running around chasing children inside, but the cats and dogs, were hissing and barking at the coyotes. I put myself between them, and kept pushing them all away from each other.No one got bit, including me. during this "keep away" game, I woke up.

I have had dreams with much significance in the past, but I got nothing from this that I can see.

Hi Lucina,

I am perfectly fine with everything you said. You be faithful to your own will and perspective on things. No need to agree with me. We are both doing what we ought to to be well here.

.

Thanks for the great conversation.

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Lion in the Sun

This topic is becoming a little bit complicated.  I apologize to anybody who would prefer to keep posts strictly to dream interpretation.

Lion,

I think my initial response to your post #2 was to this part:

"I keep recalling those stories about Cayce's trances in which he could look into the future or soul levels of mind. Why not me too? Any experience here?"

I didn't understand that you don't feel that your connection to soul is lacking or that your connection to the world is lacking, but that you were frustrated with your attempts to bring them together, at least at this moment in your life.  Is that more nearly correct?

I don't agree that people can't communicate.  Communication is imperfect, to be sure, but it's vital.  If you didn't think so, too, you wouldn't be spending all this time on this board... communicating.  Unless you have another motive I haven't figured out yet...?

The concept that only animal instinct is healthy just twists my brain.  First, animals have far more than instinct.  Second, animals teach their young conformity... except perhaps a few animals like turtles, who leave their eggs unhatched and trust to instinct alone to guide their young.  Third, if you think our animal brothers and sisters are all already healthy, I beg to differ.  They are as susceptible to emotional and spiritual restriction and wounding as we humans are.  Go and visit a couple of animal shelters.  Each of my furry companions has lived in one.  Third, a person learns for a lifetime; and while it is possible for our parents and our educators and our bosses and even our spouses to try to force us to adhere to conformity of belief, thought, and action, there's nothing to prevent us from resisting, running away, or changing ourselves again if we choose to do so.  Changing back, changing forward, changing up and out.  I think the scars from the wounds we incur in this way are often the strongest places in our minds and in our souls.  We build muscles from pushing and pulling and running and jumping, yes?  Shapeshifting is awesome magick.

I think maybe I don't feel quite the way you do about the restrictions of conformity because I wasn't much encouraged to be a conformist.  Oh, well, yes, a teacher or two tried, and an employer or two tried, and who knows what scars I left on them. :D  My teeth are pretty sharp.  *blushes*  My mother said I was a very polite and helpful little girl until I didn't agree, and then I was exasperatingly immovable. 

My father was certainly abusive, but he was never particularly successful at getting compliance out of me.  He did teach me to lie, which I regret.   He had frankly delusional beliefs about some things; however, his delusions leaned away from, and not toward, societal convention.  His work history was, from the point of view of the society of his lifetime (1911-2001) a horror.  He was simply unable to tolerate any kind of educational or career or even social classification, limit, or box (or boss.)  He was an atheist who considered himself an intellectual; but as far as I could tell he never read a book after 1925.  He was charming, deceptive, bipolar, bisexual, easily distracted, elastic in his concept of morality, and entirely lacking in empathy.  He thought spirituality was a lot of hooey and had no interest at all in dreams.  However, I do think he found what spiritual connection he allowed himself in the wilderness, because he went there every chance he got.

My mother was a gifted teacher who encouraged her children and her students to be curious, to question everything, and to think for themselves.  I was her student in English classes for my last two years in high school, and her tests were excruciating.  She had no interest in having concepts, facts, or somebody else's ideas copied down on paper and handed back to her.  She rewarded curiosity and supported the concept that there are lots of different ways of thinking about the same thing.  She was a lapsed Episcopalian who was very nearly tossed out of her church for maintaining that she had a personal relationship with God.  Her books included absolutely everything from the King James Bible to the Upanishads to Kahlil Gibran's work to Margot Adler's Drawing Down the Moon... and that's only a sampling of the nonfiction.  There was nothing about thoughts and nothing about spirit that didn't interest her.  She also taught me, by example, the spiritual qualities of animals, plants, the earth, the sky and the wilderness.  Finally, she taught me that one doesn't find the "right" or the "good" thing in a book or at church, but in one's own soul... and that only with a good deal of searching.

Please understand that I am not trying to make the point that I had a "better" upbringing than you did, because I very much doubt that; but only that perhaps I don't see limitations in quite the same way you do.  My experience says that everybody has a piece of the puzzle, and that we are all connected by a cosmic web, whether we follow this deity, or that one, or many, or none at all.  We may be touching one elephant, or many, or perhaps an elephant, a giraffe and a hippopotamus.  My point is that we can always learn more, expand more, and find more points of contact if we work on communicating with each other and encouraging each other's creativity.  I'm not thinking so much that we're all in the same room or that there is nothing but the one elephant as I am that we can all get a more diverse and complex impression of the elephant if everybody shares a little bit.  Perhaps then we can go into somebody else's room and touch a whale... or is it a bear, or maybe a scorpion? :-)

Reading this over, I think I can see how it may be that we came to differ about where to get the interpretive symbols to decode dreams.  I read Freud, Jung, and Adler, too... and Bettelheim and Erickson and so on and so forth.  Probably nearly everybody who went to college and expressed an interest in psychology did, and also a number of people who didn't go to college and expressed an interest in psychology.  I liked Jung's symbol system very much -- I found it deep and rich; however, at that same time in my life I was learning to read the Tarot, (which is a symbol system of its own) and to read the I Ching (yet another symbol system) and to do trance work and past life regression, for which no dictionary (or map or even road sign) was supplied.  I was learning that there are several different ways of interpreting both Tarot and I Ching, some rigid and some flexible.  Then I ran across Ann Faraday, who was the first (but I doubt the only) person who suggested that a person's dream language has an internal consistency of its own, and that it is possible to understand that language with the waking mind.  Out of this belief came her "system" or suggested structure for recording and indexing and comparing one's own dreams with one another, and discovering how one might be talking to oneself.  I wouldn't dream (ha! :D) of telling you that my system is right and yours is wrong.  They are simply different ways of exploring the dreams.  I have also acquired a number of other useful symbol systems from outside the world of psychology (as recognized by "the experts."  :D  I think I've learned the most from the Rootabaga Stories of Carl Sandburg and the rich poetic novels of Patricia McKillip.  I think most of my Wiccan brothers and sisters would agree that a strong principle of Wicca is, "If it's useful, pick it up and take it along."  I do try.  *meanders away leading a mule loaded down with dusty books, pots, pans, bags, baskets, and the odd knife or bell*

With respect,

Lucina

Lion,

Thank you.  It's good to know that you DON'T find your soul inaccessible; I knew I must have misread something.  I appreciate your willingness to post such a thoughtful response.  It will take time for me to post a full response myself; but I want you to know I read your post (and also the one about your empty hotel dream) and that I am thinking about them.  My life has gotten a little, umm... dense in the past two weeks.  The politics at work remind one of guerrilla warfare; I quit smoking a week ago; and I'm getting ready for a 3,000 mile driving trip starting next Wednesday, during which I expect to have several agonizingly difficult conversations with my oldest friend.  I'm... well... a little bit distracted.  *wanders away muttering to self*

Sheila

Dear Lucina,

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Thanks for the wonderfully long and provocative post. I do love to get into these topics, but I can't always seem to communicate about them very well. Let's see...

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Personally, I don't experience clear lines of division between unconscious, subconscious and conscious minds.  I experience them as a deep pool of water, with experiences, memories, symbols and insights sliding back and forth through the levels all the time... sometimes with my conscious permission, and sometimes not.  Dion Fortune said, "Magic is the art of changing consciousness at will," which describes the basis for nearly all Wiccan magick, whether we're talking about little kitchen spells or important healing work done by a large circle.  The premise is that if one can change consciousness, one can change reality.  It's a powerful concept.

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I do normally differentiate among the levels of consciousness. There are numerous levels of consciousness I feel I've experienced and "viewed", and there are usually distinct differences identifying them. The big four of superconsciousness, normal "sensory"consciousness, subconscious/shadow, and Collective Unconscious are normally pretty easy to discriminate because of Jung's work. I liked the distinction about "magic" being that either everything is magic or nothing is. I tend to lean towards everything is magic...beginning with our existence and the fact that we DO exist...which is ridiculous and wonderful. I've seen acts of "magic" too; being "human" opens the gate to those acts, but so few possess the energy to manifest them. I have this urge to share this video from Adyashanti. I didn't used to be where he is referring to, but I am now. The search for meaning here is over. Meaning is within.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcJ_XZyNw-Q&feature=related

Philosophically, I am a phenomenologist, meaning that I think reality consists of what one perceives.  There may or may not be an "outside" or "objective" reality, and there may or may not be real empathy and understanding between and among separate minds (such as mine and yours.)  Personally, I think that outside realities do exist, and I believe that empathy and communication between sentient beings does occur; but I can't prove it, and you can't, either.  Still, I haven't met anybody who can disprove it.  What you know is what you perceive, which is pretty much what you said in your post.  I think.  This doesn't bother me very much.  I paddle around reasonably well in my real (or imagined) little world, and I experience empathy and communication, which makes them real as far as I'm concerned.  Phenomenology, by the way, wouldn't recognize a significant difference between the reality of a dream and the reality of waking consciousness.  Perception is reality.  There is an old story with probably a hundred versions that has to do with how blind men perceive an elephant. 

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That's the biggest difference. I' lean towards the "old shamans" Freud and Jung rather than the phenomenologist Adler. I had the kind of experience that Jung wrote about in his autobiography. I am also a "dreamer"...spending far too much time "in between" doing what he wrote about.

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One of the simpler versions goes,

"A number of blind men came to an elephant. Somebody told them that it was an elephant. The blind men asked, ‘What is the elephant like?’ and they began to touch its body. One of them said: 'It is like a pillar.' This blind man had only touched its leg. Another man said, ‘The elephant is like a husking basket.’ This person had only touched its ears. Similarly, he who touched its trunk or its belly talked of it differently. In the same way, he who has seen the Lord in a particular way limits the Lord to that alone and thinks that He is nothing else."

I think all of reality, wordly and spiritual, is like that; and I also think that if we can stop arguing with one another long enough, we can probably get a much more comprehensive view of the elephant... and wouldn't that be COOL?

.

I am by far more subjective myself, and lean towards a philosophy that all our consciousness of this outer realm is subjective. Nobody is feeling the same elephant, but we can sure argue about what the elephant looks like. Like in my dream of the Hotel, everyone lives in a different room/reality. But I do understand that lots of folks believe that there is only one room we are all in. Society, as I comprehend it, creates the illusion of a common room/elephant by teaching a common belief system, teaching everyone to conform to one worldview and set of moral codes, and labeling certain members of society as the "Truth Experts"...that is usually the scientists and the professional educators. 

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I'm not sure that living close to animal instinct creates psychological health, although I can't prove that it doesn't.  Humans have brains that operate on a combination of instinct, memory, deductive and inductive reasoning, repetition (habit), insight, intuition, imagination and (if you go that far) inspiration.  I can't imagine why humans have all these different methods of thinking and perceiving if it's not healthy for us to use them.  

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All these higher? forms of consciousness can be manipuated, programmed and structured by the parenting and educational process. We are made maleable and controllable by that programming to hold social order in place...so we'll make good employees, educatable children, responsible parents, pay our bills, serve in the armed forces, and more. Instinct is in the DNA code and is not easily overridden.

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A lot of our instinct needs are repressed by children as a result of parental beliefs, conditioning and punishment. And those "higher levels of consciousness" are ordered to control or manage them to keep them repressed. But they is still there, usually at war with the higher mind at the level of the shadow. If it at some point is not allowed to arise and become the normal functioning basis of need, the person will sicken mentally, emotionally, and/or spiritually. Spiritually, all our animal brothers and sisters are "well" already. Humans experience spiritual crises to correct a unwell self concept, worldview, and belief system, to allow the body-mind to return to a healthier priordial basis of living. I mean all our "manufactured needs" lead us into lives that do not work well...lives devoid of meaning and lifeless. To feel alive, we've got to get back to our bodies and animal level needs. We are, fundamentally, hairless monkeys, only recently off the savannah...or if you prefer...out of the jungle; only small children a couple of million years old. But then, our egos don't like to see things that way; the elephant dream again.

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I suspect many psychologists of being afraid of imagination and inspiration; and some, I think, are or were hampered by their own need to view various kinds of consciousness and perception as "higher" and "lower."  I have a degree in psychology myself, but I don't see psychology as the complete solution to anything.  It's only one tool.  I do think that many (perhaps most) humans make less use of intuition and less use of instinct than they could, which deprives them of some experiences and some solutions to problems.

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As I recall, you are probably right. But then, many psychologists still have the "medical model" of psychology in their understanding. I tend to regard psychology as "the language of the soul." It has served me well as a model of the psyche and provided a "language of the soul" to work with my dreaming. It has not been so good for a spiritual path...but then that's fine. I recently got this model of the High Self, the Soul, and the Body-Mind. High Self sees the world as Advaita teaches. Soul is open to psychology to correct the unwellness of the soul's needs and mind-body's wills from trauma or programming dysfunction. And the ego has the latitude to work with the forms of things. At least, that is the model I'm working from right now. Soul work is the province of depth psychology.

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But here is your elephant. This is the "model" I've formed in my conscious thinking about these realms and how to work with them. This is my structure of thinking only. You've got another model in your thoughts and a different language for discussing these issues. No wonder people can't communicate, try as we might.

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I have had the experience sometimes of wanting guidance or vision I am unable to access.  To be fair, I have also had the experience of having visions I don't want and/or don't seem to be able to use, and I have had the experience of receiving guidance that I have resisted, kicking and screaming, all the way through some the biggest changes in my life.  *sigh*  Guidance does not necessarily engender wisdom, alas.  Life experience may, if one lives long enough and if one pays attention.  Guidance can help one pay attention.
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I understand and accept that, when "guidance" doesn't come when I want it, there is a reason. Usually, I've already had the guidance I'm looking for and have forgotten it. I find that if I complain a while, sooner or later, a new book will fall into my hands and "there" it is again: the point I'd forgotten I already knew or had. Like you said, we don't like the guidance we get. We/ego wants something else or something more. Wisdom comes with accepting what we get and learning to appreciate it. Too few accept that argument, and there's the rub.

I have the impression that you feel unconnected to your spirit in some way, and that you long for a spiritual experience that you feel that others have had and you have not.  I find this a little bit confusing, because I have read your perfectly understandable and often wise posts about spiritual issues.  The only clue I can give you (if any) is that I experience your approach to dreaming as far more rational than mine.  For me, dreaming and waking and the trance states in between are all quite real; but often the specifics don't translate perfectly from one state to another.  (Me, I prefer the dreaming state; however, I have never been able to get a job that would support permanent residence there. )

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No. Absolutely not. My spirit is fine...just where it is. It is this "soul work" that disarranges my intention to be present and patiently waiting to see what happens next. I've found that the soul delivers the goods, but "she" dwells deep in the unconscious mind. She pops up in dreams as a woman's image; that, you willl recall is the anima. She is sometimes a Mighty Queen, sometimes a scamp, sometimes a child, and often appears as an animal image. She is extremely "instinct" driven, and takes me down into instincts often to re-arrange my perspectives on living. That is because I am male, you see, and males in this culture are unbalanced to their left sides: too rational, too unemotional, too limited in the reality they can admit to themselves. So my soul wears the raiment of the feminine within, taking me into deep emotions, into animalness, into wildness and ecstasy.

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The "soul" of woman, on the other hand, the animus, takes her into her masculine nature, into the Light, into her rationality and aggressiveness.

I don't  know how to account for your sense that your connection to the "soul levels" is incomplete or impossible.  Is it possible that you're looking too hard, or that you're expecting what you're looking for to look different from what you see?  

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No. I'm fine. Incomplete is not the same thing as Unfinished. And that at the core is the issue. I'd like to be finished here, but I'm not. Change arises when it is time and not when I want it. I'm a change junkie. If I don't get my fix on inner work, I'm restless and unhappy and complaining nothing is happening. I work to keep my attention on my life as it is. That is my practice. So I don't lapse into depressions. Everything I need is right here, right now. Sound like a mantra? Perhaps it is.

Take a look at that dream about the empty hotel that you posted, for example.  You were looking for a thing, and thought it might be a hat, but you couldn't be sure and you couldn't find it.  However, you did find something you were looking for as soon as you left that top floor.  You found Wolf and you recognized him, and you had the key to find him.  Can't do that without a soul, I promise you.  To venture much more of an opinion, I would want to know what kind of hat you were looking for, and what that piece of furniture between you and Wolf was.  Even then, I could only approximate what the symbolic meaning might be for you.  Being insatiably curious, I would also ask about the nature of your relationship with your college roommate and what you knew or thought about dreams, trance states, and visions when you were in your late teens and twenties.  And all of that might fall into the category of none of my business, too.

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I've just written my "interpretation" of that hotel dream...in case you haven't discovered my final analysis in that topic. The "hat" is a symbol for one's identity, and that I am and have been seeking for several years now. What identity should I wear in this period, after nearly 10 years of trauma and inner work. I am changed. So is my mind, the structure of my mind, my self concept, my worldview, the very way I "think" or function mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically, and sexually...all transformed. Who am I now? Well, consciousness itself is one answer, but that is a "spiritual perspective." As a soul, I have moved from a programmed responder in life to a individuated "chooser", living from my own center and values to be and stay "well" here in this society.

I'm not much in the habit of recommending books to other people, because I don't know how helpful they will be.  Still, you might enjoy Ann Faraday's The Dream Game, which contains the best method I know for setting up a dream journal and creating an individual dream dictionary.  It's fascinating, and I think it works.  Well, no, I can only really say that it works for me.  I don't believe there are any editions later than 1990, but I've seen copies at Amazon.com, eBay, Half.com, and AbeBooks for anything from $1.00 chewed up paperbacks to $300.00 collector's editions.  (I assume the latter

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Yeah. I've journaled my dreams for all this time, using Jungian dream symbols as my inner language. It has worked fine. The two most valuable dictionaries I've found are Rosemary Ellen Guiley's "The Encyclopedia of Dreams" and Alice Anne Parker's "Understand Your Dreams." I've been using these for almost ten years.

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I appreciate the time and thought you gave to responding to my note. Sometimes I give too much emphasis to what arises from within in what I write. When I let those comments through, my writing gets a little mixed up. I think of it as different levels of consciousness within myself have their perspectives, and when those perspectives get mixed up together, the result can be confusing. Sorry. But if I cut these off, they tend to stay inaccessible for long periods of time, and I don't want to lose those perspectives in the Deeps. LOL 

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Lion

Lion,

I read your post several times, trying to come up with a response that will be useful to you.  I can't tell if there is a real difference between your experience and mine, or just a semantic one.

Personally, I don't experience clear lines of division between unconscious, subconscious and conscious minds.  I experience them as a deep pool of water, with experiences, memories, symbols and insights sliding back and forth through the levels all the time... sometimes with my conscious permission, and sometimes not.  Dion Fortune said, "Magic is the art of changing consciousness at will," which describes the basis for nearly all Wiccan magick, whether we're talking about little kitchen spells or important healing work done by a large circle.  The premise is that if one can change consciousness, one can change reality.  It's a powerful concept.

Philosophically, I am a phenomenologist, meaning that I think reality consists of what one perceives.  There may or may not be an "outside" or "objective" reality, and there may or may not be real empathy and understanding between and among separate minds (such as mine and yours.)  Personally, I think that outside realities do exist, and I believe that empathy and communication between sentient beings does occur; but I can't prove it, and you can't, either.  Still, I haven't met anybody who can disprove it.  What you know is what you perceive, which is pretty much what you said in your post.  I think.  This doesn't bother me very much.  I paddle around reasonably well in my real (or imagined) little world, and I experience empathy and communication, which makes them real as far as I'm concerned.  Phenomenology, by the way, wouldn't recognize a significant difference between the reality of a dream and the reality of waking consciousness.  Perception is reality.  There is an old story with probably a hundred versions that has to do with how blind men perceive an elephant.  One of the simpler versions goes,

"A number of blind men came to an elephant. Somebody told them that it was an elephant. The blind men asked, ‘What is the elephant like?’ and they began to touch its body. One of them said: 'It is like a pillar.' This blind man had only touched its leg. Another man said, ‘The elephant is like a husking basket.’ This person had only touched its ears. Similarly, he who touched its trunk or its belly talked of it differently. In the same way, he who has seen the Lord in a particular way limits the Lord to that alone and thinks that He is nothing else."

I think all of reality, wordly and spiritual, is like that; and I also think that if we can stop arguing with one another long enough, we can probably get a much more comprehensive view of the elephant... and wouldn't that be COOL?

I'm not sure that living close to animal instinct creates psychological health, although I can't prove that it doesn't.  Humans have brains that operate on a combination of instinct, memory, deductive and inductive reasoning, repetition (habit), insight, intuition, imagination and (if you go that far) inspiration.  I can't imagine why humans have all these different methods of thinking and perceiving if it's not healthy for us to use them.  I suspect many psychologists of being afraid of imagination and inspiration; and some, I think, are or were hampered by their own need to view various kinds of consciousness and perception as "higher" and "lower."  I have a degree in psychology myself, but I don't see psychology as the complete solution to anything.  It's only one tool.  I do think that many (perhaps most) humans make less use of intuition and less use of instinct than they could, which deprives them of some experiences and some solutions to problems.

I have had the experience sometimes of wanting guidance or vision I am unable to access.  To be fair, I have also had the experience of having visions I don't want and/or don't seem to be able to use, and I have had the experience of receiving guidance that I have resisted, kicking and screaming, all the way through some the biggest changes in my life.  *sigh*  Guidance does not necessarily engender wisdom, alas.  Life experience may, if one lives long enough and if one pays attention.  Guidance can help one pay attention.

I have the impression that you feel unconnected to your spirit in some way, and that you long for a spiritual experience that you feel that others have had and you have not.  I find this a little bit confusing, because I have read your perfectly understandable and often wise posts about spiritual issues.  The only clue I can give you (if any) is that I experience your approach to dreaming as far more rational than mine.  For me, dreaming and waking and the trance states in between are all quite real; but often the specifics don't translate perfectly from one state to another.  (Me, I prefer the dreaming state; however, I have never been able to get a job that would support permanent residence there. )

I don't  know how to account for your sense that your connection to the "soul levels" is incomplete or impossible.  Is it possible that you're looking too hard, or that you're expecting what you're looking for to look different from what you see?  Take a look at that dream about the empty hotel that you posted, for example.  You were looking for a thing, and thought it might be a hat, but you couldn't be sure and you couldn't find it.  However, you did find something you were looking for as soon as you left that top floor.  You found Wolf and you recognized him, and you had the key to find him.  Can't do that without a soul, I promise you.  To venture much more of an opinion, I would want to know what kind of hat you were looking for, and what that piece of furniture between you and Wolf was.  Even then, I could only approximate what the symbolic meaning might be for you.  Being insatiably curious, I would also ask about the nature of your relationship with your college roommate and what you knew or thought about dreams, trance states, and visions when you were in your late teens and twenties.  And all of that might fall into the category of none of my business, too.

I'm not much in the habit of recommending books to other people, because I don't know how helpful they will be.  Still, you might enjoy Ann Faraday's The Dream Game, which contains the best method I know for setting up a dream journal and creating an individual dream dictionary.  It's fascinating, and I think it works.  Well, no, I can only really say that it works for me.  I don't believe there are any editions later than 1990, but I've seen copies at Amazon.com, eBay, Half.com, and AbeBooks for anything from $1.00 chewed up paperbacks to $300.00 collector's editions.  (I assume the latter are bound in gold.)  The graphics on most of the 1970s covers are silly, but the work is solid.

Wow.  This post is LONG.  Please use what you can and let the rest slip away.  When I read it it looks to me as if I think I have superior insights or a better way.  i don't think I do.  My insights are just mine.

Lucina

I've only been able to recall one or two lucid dreams in my dreaming life. Instead, I've concentrated on simply remembering dreams. Although most authorities insist dreams are not "messages", mine seem to be communications in most instances between levels of consciousness--like between different levels of mind or perhaps different functional areas of mind and body. 

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On of the things I've realized over time is that Conscious and Subconscious Mind really can't "know" anything. These levels are recepticles of information derived by sensory organs. Other aspects of self organize this information to deal effectively with an external environment which isn't "in" this body-mind. But neither reason nor intuitive aspects here understand anything external. I deal with it through "educated guesses" made up from experience, logic and memory. Then, ego must "test" these theories and ascertain whether the effort to function outside the line "succeeded." That provides a learning process of sorts.

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There are different levels of intelligence as well. Animal issues get one focusing upon direct experience rather than thinking much about it. Cerebral activity gets instinctual matters into a "thinking process" which gets lost occasionally in introspecting or overconcerned with inner contemplation. Sticking close to instinctual living keeps humans psychologically well, or so psychologists tell us. So my dreaming has led me into a very simple, direct lifestyle, dealing with ordinary issues, but not many excursions into outside experiments in society.

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Actually, I've been using these dream levels of mind to work with external realities for Aeons; it seems so anyway. Those levels aren't well about this approach to living, but I keep looking for "guidance' from them. I keep recalling those stories about Cayce's trances in which he could look into the future or soul levels of mind. Why not me too? Any experience here? 

Thank you, Lion.  I've spent a good deal of time working on lucid dreaming on and off over the years.  More than the events in the individual dream, I find that it gives me a sense of confidence in waking life as well... a sense that I can make things happen, participate in things happening... rather than being a bystander.  That's such an important sense for me.