Dreams can be enlightening or disturbing, stress-releasing or stress-producing, revealing or mysterious, and just about everything in between. This is because what we experience in our dreams, as in waking reality, is composed of much more than just personal, private events going on inside our heads. Dreams are often traces of events that take place on other dimensions. The brain records these events (sometimes more clearly than others) from the inner planes of consciousness in what we call dreams. Everyone dreams, but some people do not remember that they were dreaming, so they think they do not dream at all. Just as any two people who witness an outer, physical event may report it differently, so our dreams express our own unique way of experiencing inner events. Yet, the inner event being recorded is not necessarily "dreamed up" by the dreamer. This is why people who are very close, such as friends, lovers, family members, and fellow students of lightwork sometimes report having the same dream at the same time.

SYMBOLS, MEANING, AND ESSENCE

Sigmund Freud called dreams "the royal road to the unconscious". In Actualism we see dreams as a link to other dimensions of consciousness, where the inhibitions and defense mechanisms we have in ordinary waking reality are in abeyance. In many tribal cultures dreams are celebrated and shared. In our culture there is increasing interest in "lucid dreaming", where the dreamer is aware of being in the dream state. With enlightened awareness, almost anyone can learn to have lucid or directed dreams. As you learn to use a laser beam of inner light, you can pierce through illusion and challenge those who would try to intimidate or manipulate you in the dream world.

Many people look for symbolism in their dreams, asking what this or that object means. Often the symbolism in dreams is very personal, so attempts at generalizing definitions of symbols are of limited usefulness. While dreams may be rich in symbolic meaning, and these meanings may yield valuable insights at times, using Actualism techniques of light-fire energy, one can go beyond the levels of symbols and their meanings to processing and transforming the energy in fear, anger, or hurt expressed in dream experience into healing energy ESSENCE. This essence includes the purified, enlightened form of the same energy and awareness that had been trapped in the negative or unresolved feelings in the dream.

TRANSFORMING YOUR DREAMS

If you have ever had the objectivity to change the outcome of a dream intentionally, you have had a glimpse of what the power of thought can do to direct energy on the inner planes. The laws of physics describe the physical world, but in the inner dimensions, including those we experience in dreams, there are entirely different laws in action. Among these laws are the Four Laws of Energy according to Actualism (from Chapter 1):

1. Awareness directs thought, and thought directs energy.

2. Life-energy follows thought.

3. Where there is pain, from mild discomfort to acute distress, the flow of life-energy is obstructed.

4. Where thought is focused, the power of life-energy is concentrated.

The power of these laws is even more evident in dreams than in external, physical reality. The results manifest instantly, as dreams change in response to your thoughts. If, for example, you find yourself falling into the ocean in a dream, with enlightened awareness you can think the thought that "I can fly" and find that you can. Or you might think "I can breathe underwater" and discover that this too is possible. (Don't try this on the physical plane!)

SPIRITUAL NIGHT SCHOOL AND RECURRING DREAMS

Though few people realize it, we are often attending a sort of spiritual "night school" while our physical body sleeps. Due to the instant response time to the power of thought, the inner dimensions lend themselves to training in spiritual mechanics. Many dreams are spiritual tests in disguise, set up for our learning and growth by our own higher self and other Beings of Light. This is especially true with recurring dreams. Frequently we "fail" an inner test three or four times before we even realize that we are being tested. Once we've learned the lesson presented in the dream, it tends not to recur, and we move on to other learning opportunities.

I had a recurring dream of walking in a place where the ground was covered with snakes. They were writhing about me, and as soon as I became frightened of getting bitten, I was bitten. When I awoke and worked with the dream using light-fire energy, I realized that the snakes for me symbolized the hate that I was working to free some of my students from. You can't stop hate with hate, as it soon became clear to me. Eventually, instead of fearing and hating the snakes in the dream, I realized that I could use light-fire-energy to calm them (and myself) down. I let the light fill my body and field, unified with the snakes' consciousness, and communicated telepathically to them to relax, that I would not disturb them. They acted as if I wasn't there, letting me walk through their midst unharmed. This happened once or twice, and I have not had the dream since.

HOW TO REMEMBER YOUR DREAMS

When you begin working with inner light, dream recall tends to increase. You can facilitate the process by keeping a pad and pencil next to your bed. When you first wake up, jot down some notes on what you were dreaming. You may think you'll remember everything later, only to find that you can't even decipher your notes! Eventually it does become very easy and natural to remember your dreams, even to the point where taking notes is no longer necessary.

The main thing at first is to accept whatever you recall from your dreams, even if it seems insignificant. As you become more adept at working with dreams, you will be able to select only the parts of dreams that are most important to remember. At the beginning it is the act of remembering that counts.

TECHNIQUES FOR WORKING WITH DREAMS

BEFORE SLEEPING: Just before you fall asleep, ask your higher self to remind you to use your inner light tools during the coming dream experiences. This opens you to receive inner direction in the dream state. Moving into the Upper Room and doing a quick downpour of crystal white light with your star before going to sleep facilitates greater awareness of dreams. It also helps many people fall asleep in a relaxed frame of mind.

DURING YOUR DREAMS: If you see someone or something in a dream that seems threatening or strange, quickly light your white star in your Upper Room, and send a laser-like beam of light directly at the face of whomever, or whatever, you are looking at. If it is a lighted being, this will be taken as a greeting of light. If it is something other than what it appears to be, this laser beam of light becomes a powerful challenge, often causing the false-front to change or disappear, revealing what is hiding behind the illusion.

AFTER YOU WAKE UP: Write down your dream as soon as possible. This will help you recall it later for processing with light-fire energy. Later, when you are fully awake, sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor, and do as follows:

1. Gather and enlighten your awareness.

2. Light your white star and do a downpour through your body and field, purifying your consciousness.

3. Stop the downpour, and move into your Upper Room (about six inches or 15cm above the center of the top of your head). Within the Upper Room, focus your awareness within your star. Expand the white star to include your whole body.

4. Look over your dream notes and select a dream to work on. Review the dream in your mind, allowing yourself to re-experience the feelings you had while dreaming. Observe where in your body you have reactions to what took place in the dream.

5. Think and let the star intensify, blazing up the consuming fire aspect of the light-fire. Focus the consuming fire aspect in any part of your body where you find tension or discomfort.

6. Bring the images from the dream, and any reactions to it into your lighted Upper Room. Observe and experience the transformation taking place as the images and emotional reactions are processed in the fires. Make no effort to find any meaning in the dream, although you may find meaning being revealed as you work with "effortless effort", holding the dream in the light-fire of the star.

7. Assimilate the essence from the dream, including purified energy, awareness, and changes in identity. Direct the essence to any area of your body that was reacting to the dream.

SUMMARY

For those on the path of spiritual growth, dreams are a wonderful way to extend the fullness of life to include the third of our lives we spend in sleep. They give us insight into activities we are engaged in on other dimensions, and can be a very valuable source of growth and learning.

Like many Actualism techniques, the ones presented above are very simple, yet can be very powerful when practiced step-by-step. As you work with these techniques repeatedly, you will find that you become more skilled at using them. May your nightmares become sweet dreams, as you learn to use the light-fire-energy before, during, and after your dreaming.