DREAMS ARE AN OPENING DOOR

When I was just a kid, my dreams were more than real. They were predictions – valid ones. It was almost a comfort zone to have “forewarnings”, as I came to think of them as. The last few I remember however, offered no comfort at all, and changed my life.

Our home was one of the first four in a newly developing neighborhood. Behind our house was a huge apple orchard. Between the construction and the orchard, there was no end to the mischief we could find to get into. Then, I dreamt that a neighboring boy was going to break an arm while playing. It seemed a safe enough assumption since he was quite reckless. None-the-less, I passed the warning onto him with a full description.

He rallied his friends together to make me the laughing stock of the century. When he did break his arm, exactly as I had described, he and his parents blamed me – as if I had caused the incident. Rumors spread quickly - I became some sort of 20^th century witch in the flesh. Even my mother turned against me because of those rumors, ostracizing me not only from neighborhood children, but also, from my own family members.

We try to fit in and bury our gifts…

When a new dream showed he was going to break his leg, I said nothing – just witnessed in silence. A repeating nightmare began of my entire family abandoning me. I could describe it to this day in detail. Every night for 3 years, that same nightmare would frighten me and I would wake up terrified and alone. The vivid characters in that dream all had meaning – each one made sense to me, even then.

Dreams became synonymous with "awful". I did not want to see any more of those real predictions or the frightening forms they took. The solution I came up with was to train myself to be such a light sleeper; I would no longer reach that dream state. My parents did not ever see me asleep again. As soon as they would touch the door handle to my room, I would be wide awake!

Over the years, I continued to stifle that gift as if it were a curse rather than a blessing. I would bear the burdens of real life misery instead of paying attention to or heeding the warnings that were mine to see freely without consequences.

As a teenager, I read “The Bridge Across Forever” and hoped I’d find someone to love so deeply, we’d be willing to cross that bridge, as they did in both their waking hours and sleep, yet I still blocked that avenue by myself.

In my 20s I attended and volunteered in seminars that practiced going to the deepest levels of consciousness with many techniques. We would tap into universal mind and wisdom, healing through thoughts.

Purposeful soul travel started as I discovered we can easily transcend time and space.

My 30s brought metaphysics to become aware of subconscious memories and creations for greater alignment and manifesting. Centerpointe Research introduced methods to instantly reach the “theta” meditative state.

By the time I reached my 40s, I was a Reiki Master and One Brain Facilitator (just to mention a couple).

Over the years, and decades, learning about anything and everything out of the ordinary was awesome and helped me see 'miracles' unfold before me, but still refused to pay attention to my dreams.

Finally, I was guided to Eckankar and the fellowship of like-minded, like hearted, like experienced souls. To advance beyond the initial awareness and protection it offered, stage “2” required utilizing our gift of dream guidance. I dipped my toe in by asking specific questions for specific guidance before going to sleep. The swiftness of the answers astounded me. The warmth of that wisdom ought to have made me rejoice and shout to share it from the rooftops! Instead, I ran from it.

Consciously, I now know that this gift does not make me the laughing stock of the century and it is not as unique as suspected - we are all capable of it if we want.

Still, after so many decades of running and avoiding it, I became a pro. I even created a living situation with someone who was as far from walking that path as could be found, while still living a kind life. He is the real pro, having mastered even the suppression of emotions. We remained housemates for years. I pretended the reason I left the TV on all night was to drown out his loud snoring in the adjacent room.

Then I met TR, my housemate’s friend from long ago. You have had those immediate connections too I am sure. The intense ones where you feel as though you have known each other forever. Anytime people like that arrive in our lives, within a very short period of time, discussions reach such deep soul levels it’s as though you’re catching up on lifetimes.

We can't help but notice the electrifying energy, no matter what is happening in our lives at the time. Perhaps you too have discovered or experienced those connections as re-uniting with soul-mates from past lives? Michael is the expert in explaining those in “Finding Your Soul Mate” along with Elizabeth Claire Prophet in “Soul Mates and Twin Flames” and apparently now in “Soulmates” by Jess Stearn. That however is a subject for a whole other hub.

I needed to meet TR to yank me out of the fear of travelling in my dreams. As he spoke of his own enlightening dreams, times he would write all he saw, felt and heard in his sleep, my daydream of finding a man I can walk the “Bridge Across Forever” with is re-awakened. Although it feels as though I could cross that bridge with him, that may not be why we met.

What I do know for sure is that our meeting saved me from a fate worse than death: believing that my haven of safety and not growing was a “comfortable” way to live. Just as when we look at a wooden table and believe it to be “stable”. It is not stable at all. It is in a state of decay from the moment the tree was cut from its life giving roots.

Stability is an illusion - we're either growing or decaying...

I used to boldly face the fears I was aware of. There is no way they could be anywhere near as debilitating as our vivid imagination and creativity paint them out to be.

Perhaps now that I am in my 50s, I am wise enough not to be concerned with who will laugh at me out of ignorance as I openly share to find others who want to know.

Maybe I can even enjoy getting out of ignorance myself because some people are where I was and still afraid to recognize that

“dreams are an opening door – into the heart of what we’re looking for…” – Bill Mann