Library » Arts & Literature » Dream-Art Science Handbook, Vol. 3 - Recall
Compiled by Miss Blake
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Index:
- The Brothers Karamazov - Book Extract
- The Seth Material Quotes - Various
- From the Archives (SethDreams) - Dream Recall
- Dream Recall Articles
- Dream Fiction Bookshelf
- From the Archives (SethDreams) - The Amorphous Object
- Trees Walking
“I sometimes dream of devils. It's night, I'm in my room, and suddenly there are devils everywhere. In all the corners and under the table, and they open doors, and behind the doors there are crowds of them, and they all want to come in and seize me. And they are already coming near and taking hold of me, But suddenly I cross myself and they draw back, they are afraid, only they don't go away, but stand near the door and in the corners, waiting. And then I'm suddenly overcome by a desire to begin cursing God in a loud voice, and I begin cursing him and they all rush at me again in a crowd, they're so pleased, and they're again about to lay hands on me and I cross myself again and they draw back at once. It's great fun. Oh, it takes my breath away." Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov.
“...I would suggest that you tell yourselves that you will henceforth be able to remember dreams from the deeper levels of your personality, and you should find that you will be able to do so. You can also tell yourselves when you wish that you will give special attention to the nature of time and space, as these appear within your dreams. You will discover then upon awakening that many perceptions concerning time and space within the dream state will remain within you." Session 174, The Early Sessions, Book 4
I'm a big fan of dreams. Unfortunately, dreams are the first casualty in life–people seem to give them up quicker than anything for a 'reality.' – Kevin Costner
“I am still waiting for the day when you become aware of your own dreams while you are awake, and conscious at the same time, fully, of your physical environment, and able to operate normally at the same time in the physical universe." Session 246, The Early Sessions, Book 6
How to Improve Dream Recall
The main barrier to recall and to lucid dreaming is that waking and dreaming memory aren't connected with greater intention, practice and focus. Making a consistent effort to remember and record your dreams will help your waking mind to ally itself more closely with your dream experience. It's also an excellent way to increase imagination and intuitive capabilities which are both intimately connected with dreams. This alone should provide strong incentive.
1. YOU'VE GOT TO WANT IT. First and foremost, you must feel that remembering your dreams will be useful to you, if not extremely valuable. Without this, motivation will soon disappear. More importantly, the desire acts as a magnet which draws your dreams into memory.
2. IT'S A MATTER OF FOCUS AND ATTENTION. Understand that dream recall is an inherent, natural human trait. That is why young children are usually in touch with dreams, as are some native cultures who share their dreams with each other daily. Dream recall is a bit like a mental muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it becomes. Without exercise it may shrink, but it is there if you decide to work it out again. So if your recall is poor, trust that it will develop in time. The trust alone will actually help.
3. BEDTIME PRACTICE: Before sleep, reread your dreams from the previous (or more) night(s). This allows you to begin to connect with your dream memory, and is also an opportunity to interpret your dreams and spot connections to the day's events. Then, as you go to bed, clearly ask (rather than command) yourself to remember your dreams when you awaken in the morning or during the night, and remind yourself that it's a simple, natural process. Also, suggest to yourself that you will spontaneously awaken when you need to without using an alarm clock, since it can inhibit recall.
This method works well with practice, but you may initially wish to set your alarm for 15 minutes after your suggested wake-up time, just to be safe. Any time you awaken, keep your eyes closed (or shut them if already open) and remain as motionless as possible. If you moved since waking, return to your prior body position. Gather as many images, feelings or impressions as you can, then rise and immediately record them in a journal (which you keep bedside) or say them into a tape recorder, no matter how brief or vague they may at first seem. You'll be surprised at how much more you can remember as you write (or speak).
4. BE PLAYFUL, PATIENT, and PERSISTENT. Although most people start having success the first week or two, dream recall is a mental muscle which may require some time to get back into shape. Try to maintain a relaxed and playful attitude of looking forward to your dreams while also trusting that they will come in good time. Trying too hard or being too serious can be limiting factors. Dream recall and motivation tend to come and go naturally in cycles, and also depend upon what else is going on in your life. Once you start on a cycle of focusing on recall, stick with it for at least a few days, because consecutive nights can have an additive effect.
5. A WEEKLY STUDY GROUP with a shared interest in dreams is unmatchable for sustained motivation and inspiration.
http://tinyurl.com/25vu9
D.A.S. from the Archives: Dream Recall
Subject: Re: hi dreamers–fay's message
fay_sutherland@w... writes:
Even with my intent and interest in dreams, I seem to go through phases where my ability to remember them varies from not remembering any at all to madly scribbling four or five of them after rising in the morning.
Lisa says:
I have always alternated the same phases of remembering / not-remembering. It used to really get me down when i couldn't remember. I'm not sure how much this relates to Fay's statement, but I realized just last night how vital *balance* is to both of those phases. Somehow, i'm not sure I really believed in its importance before. I was busy getting to explore my dream reality recently, and to make certain so-called advancements like OOB's and lucid dreams, that I actually started to feel a sort of disdain for waking reality. I have such a blessed and wonderful life, and yet I failed to enjoy it, believing that dream reality was indeed so much freer, more vivid and more enjoyable.
But then I had to ask why I would still be here, living this physical life, if it wasn't worth it? In his letter to Annette (& sethnet), Rob Butts wrote as if he had gone beyond his former fascination with Seth, dreams, and his former mental study of the Beyond, to the simplest love of life.
I got out the book "Seth, Dreams, and Projections..." last nite, and reread the introduction by Rob Butts. He was still immersed in the Seth material and still felt Jane's absence, and also was beginning his relationship with Laurel Lee Davies. Now, he is in such a different place. For the first time, I felt last night like I understood a fundamental difference in his interests from the interests of Jane, and why the progression of his life (as only I perceive it, of course), was so different from the progression of Jane's life.
I felt that the early end to her life was because of her more intense fascination with those other "glittering worlds that she so wanted to see." I then saw myself in her, took a step back, and didn't like what I was creating. The balance I needed, therefore, was to realize how I love and have always loved physical life. This simple insight and decision, i realize, may very well launch me into a non-remembering phase of dreaming, but I don't care. It's all so interesting regardless of whether i remember dreams every night.
There are powers inside of you which, if you could discover and use, would make of you everything you ever dreamed or imagined you could become. – Orison Swett Marden
Dream Fiction Bookshelf
http://tinyurl.com/ysvb6
http://tinyurl.com/247wx
http://tinyurl.com/33k5e
`..Small amounts of ordinary stimulators, such as coffee or tea, taken before bed when you are already sleepy, have a beneficial effect in stimulating dream activity and aiding dream recall. Too large a serving, of course, could simply waken you, but small amounts taken you are already drowsy allow you to take your conscious mind into the dream state more readily, where it can act as an observer..'
Session 795, The Nature of the Psyche
“... When you are dealing with nominal waking reality, you are operating at one level of the many that are native to your psyche. When you are dreaming, from your viewpoint you are entering other levels of reality quite as native to your psyche, but usually you are still experiencing those events through your current waking station. The dreams that you remember are colored or altered or even censored to a certain extent. There is no inherent psychological or biological necessity for this. Your ideas and beliefs, however, about the nature of reality, and sanity, have resulted in such a schism." Session 756 The Nature of the Psyche
From the Archives continued: Dream Recall
I lived in a small north Ontario town and at the restaurant I worked in a group of people would come in to discuss their dreams every week and I thought how great that was. I wished that I was part of it, so needless to say I'm really happy now to be part of a dream group.
I mentioned on sethnet that the key to my dream recall is intent but my own intent does waver and anytime I try to force myself or get too adamant that I should be remembering dream info I won't recall much. I've realized that if I'm too demanding of my inner self it refuses to play with me....so I also view the sense of play as an important factor in dream work.
Lisa: you wrote about the importance of balance and I concur. I realized some time ago that I 'trusted' interior events more than I did exterior ones.Now I'm trying to do away with that idea of division. The first successful conscious out of body experience I had which was just a few months back, when I came back to the body I had an experience where I realized the exquisiteness of physical life. I knew why I had chosen to be born.
Before I always felt a little separated from the fact of my physical existence and suddenly I realized my deep deep love for it. If anything being out of body has made my inbody experiences more harmonious. With fond regard to all. Kaarina
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sethdreams/message/17
“When Gregor Samsa woke up one morning from unsettling dreams, he found himself changed in his bed into a monstrous vermin. He was lying on his back as hard as armor plate, and when he lifted his head a little, he saw his vaulted brown belly, sectioned by arch-shaped ribs, to whose dome the cover, about to slide off completely, could barely cling. His many legs pitiifully thin compared with the size of the rest of him, were waving helplessly before his eyes. "What's happened to me?" he thought. IT WAS NO DREAM."
Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis.
Dream Recall
http://tinyurl.com/2aslg
http://tinyurl.com/33s74
Dream Recall Exercise
[Read between the lines with this article, but the reverse memory technique I have found useful in clearing the memory intensities of the waking day...also notice how the technique works with 'past life memories' and it also can be used to memory-forward which brings the question to the fore..what is memory...love, love MB ]
“... Although startlingly simple (as are most potent systems) Dream Recall is a very effective method of gaining control over dreamtime. In it's ultimate form it can reveal areas of Magical Memory and much initiated work can be done vhilst in dream state, including lucid-dreaming wherein the dreamer is semi-conscious and can 'observe' the dream without affecting it; being carried away and noting every happening in the dream itself, objectively.
The Dream Recall Technique has also been termed Reverse Remembering. The mind makes thousands of decisions every day. It does this automatically and in 'forward-thinking' mode. If you are asked to remember a list of groceries you always remember the one at the top of the list first and then 'chain' them together. When re-membering them you begin at no.1 and move down the list. The mind automatically thinks this way. However just because this fits into our mundane life more efficiently does not mean that the mind is limited to thinking linearly. Not so. The mind can be taught to remember in reverse sequence by command, although it does take some effort on behalf of the operator. Try counting from 100 down to zero for example. You have to think and put effort into the result, whereas counting from zero to 100 you do not think, it is automatically accomplished by familiarisation. Of course there is a limit to what we can accomplish by sequential remembering in the forward mode. Eventually we run out of things to remember because they have not yet happened. We then have to move into clairvoyant realms. However in reverse remembering we can continue much deeper and farther into the realms of experience and Being and pull out of our memories information and data which can really help us in our daily lives. lt helps if the mind is in a state of repose when this reverse remembering goes on and the best results are when allied with sleep although once adept at it you can reverse-remember at any peaceful time.
The knack of reverse remembering is time-phased and memory-phased. That is to say that you can trace back and reverse remember all that has gone on in your mind the night previously. You can also reverse remember previous lives. The key to attempting reverse remembering is simply familiarization. To begin with reverse remembering is very difficult. Within a week you will be absolutely amazed at the progress you have made and after several months it will become second nature and will be available to you at will.
The most successful exercises in reverse remembering is the following:
Just prior to going to sleep close your eyes and try and think of what you did before you got into bed, Make a detailed memory-picture of every action and statement in reverse order from laying your head down to climbing the stairs. As you move along in your mind things will become more and more difficult to remember and most beginners lose track after half a dozen 'remem-brances'. You may find you have dropped off to sleep upon waking up in the morning. PERSIST in this exercise every night reverse remember. The more you attempt it the more successful you will be. It will become easier. Whilst you are training yourself in this you must also keep a notepad and pencil beside your bed. In the morning sit up sharp; before anything else has entered your mind and remember bk to whilst you were asleep. You will find to begin with that this is VERY difficult but persistence will prove successful. You will find that your first success comes when you reverse remember a particularly strong emotional sequence in a dream. Once you have dixed upon this then FORWARD REMEMBER from that point. When you have completed this as far as you can go and put all this down on paper, then switch concentration back to the first part of the dream and reverse remember. This is the most difficult task of all for it takes much effort and only by parts do you succeed initially. However the prize you are after is worth it and even part success is stupendous when it occurs. Once you have mastered this part improvement will flow quickly. lt will not be long before you can 'map' out the highlights of the psychic work you have 'subconsciously' done during the night and truly begin to benefit from the third of your life you normally waste 'asleep'.
http://tinyurl.com/32yy6
“… To some extent or another, however, the child in you remembers a certain sense of mastery only half realized, of power nearly grasped, then seemingly lost forever and a dimension of existence in which dreams quite literally came true…"
Session 824, Individual and the Nature of Mass Events
D.A.S. from the Archives: The Amorphous Object
... a reoccurring dream experience. This always takes place when I've woken but still in a hallucinatory state. It's like my thoughts go away from me and are solidified into mass although the mass is amorphous. I just become aware of a group of objects that parallel the south wall of my bedroom.
These objects then veer across my bed, on a southwest diagonal and then I'm also aware of them going diagonally from the southwest corner of my room to the northeast corner and to my doorway. I never paid much attention to this before but they always appear to align themselves in the way I described.
Often I have this awareness when I feel some bodily discomfort that pulls me from sleep. Today I had woken up coughing, perhaps having aspirated. I find that my attention gets drawn to the objects like I'm trying to figure out if I'm in the right reality. I feel my thoughts pushing against and within the objects in a testing manner and my brain feels uncomfortable about this. Often I feel momentarily puzzled when I later wake thinking "oh those things weren't in this reality afterall". I'm speculating now whether they have anything to do with coordinate points or perhaps I'm dealing with probabilities and shifting neurological sequencing. Kaarina
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sethdreams/message/75
D.A.S. from the Archives: Dream Recall
Subject: dream life taking off again
…I've spontaneously returned to the beneficial sleep cycle and am SO glad. This morning I remembered at least nine dreams plus an auditory visitation while awakening – and I was able to take advantage of that wonderful early-morning time while the inner ego and outer ego are more closely attuned. Seth’s not kidding about that!!! My dream interpretation was almost immediate and intuitive; I clearly understood several facets of my waking life that had escaped me so far; I received several helpful suggestions from the inner self regarding eating patterns and health practices, and effortlessly enacted them.
Let me not forget how whole, how integrated that state feels! For me it normally happens between about 3:00 am and 6:30 a.m., pretty solidly – and if I maintain the Sethian sleep pattern routinely, that length of time spreads out so that my 'inner' and 'outer' sides are more joyfully mixed all day long, with only the natural fluctuation of any other biorhythm…
Charmaine :-)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sethdreams/message/95
I had a sort of dream-trance the other day, in which I saw my favourite trees step out and promenade up, down and around, very curiously – with a whisper from one, leaning down as he pass'd me, "We do all this on the present occasion, exceptionally, just for you."
Walt Whitman, Thoughts Under an Oak, 1875
P.S. Not everyone loves a dreamer, a cause of the strife between Joseph and his brothers was his dreams:
'Here comes the dreamer,' say the brothers. 'Let us slay him, and then let us see what will become of his dreams!' (Gen 32:19)
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