seeking_brilliance

An example of whacky answer from DC's: I suddenly became lucid while in some kind of business office with multiple receptionists. I pick a receptionist to talk to, and at first she acts very shy and doesn't want to talk. But before long she starts telling me that I need to watch out for one of my employees, Michelle, because she has several spy cams set up around the workplace, and may be reporting to someone else. This is also an example of being semi - lucid, because although I felt lucid and in control of the conversation, her answer was obviously absurd, but while in the dream I believed what she was saying.

Ok, this one happened not too long ago. I had a false obe, but oh well, it launched into a pretty interesting lucid dream. I got out of bed and melted myself through the back wall and into back yard. A peice of my fence was missing, but I was not fully lucid and it didn't occur to me at first that anything was missing. However, there were some dream characters (DCs) sitting around a fire by the house directly behind mine, so I decide to go up to them and engage. I had previously decided that I wanted to ask my DCs what is a dream to them. Their individual ideas of a dream. I walked up to the closet one and asked my question. He just stared at me and stuttered an incoherent answer. I decided to leave and go to the other side of the house, where an outdoor shopping plaza has apparently sprung up in the middle of my neighborhood. A line of women was wrapping around the back end of the house directly next to mine. I went up to one lady and asked her my question. The answer did not seem incoherent, but I could still not understand (a common problem for me in lucid dreaming). Soon after we were at the checkout counter, and I ask the same lady if I could have an audience with "myself". (another preselected question I was interested in) She began to answer, but the lady at the register slapped her and said "you know we're not supposed to talk about that!"

Found these while searching for something similar to the double helix (serpent) image, so basically the rod of hermes, or caduceus. Is there some kind of formula to decrypt in the image or is it more a symbol/reminder of something.

@Hellspeed ok, it seems like a rewording of the formula you have in your signature. Will practicing spinal breathing help with 4th into 1st with 2nd and 3rd, (and so on), or do you have another suggestion? I need to feel these chakras together and... Do what? ------------------ So that's me interpreting your cryptic messages based off of assumptions and things I have run across on this journey. I'm probably completely mucking it up, but that's all I can do when the only hint is to research it. I have tried several combinations of phrases from your first post in Google, and nothing came up that gave me an idea of what you are talking about. Do you have any sources or websites you can recommend?

What do I do this this information?

@Sahil Pandit Well then, kudos on your excellent dream recall! I have been wanting to astral project for so long now. Do you have a method for inducing them, or do they happen randomly for you? I have had several "false" projections/obe, which turn out to be dreams and have false memories, not fully lucid, ect. I used to get sleep paralysis in the night and it would scare me to death so they finally stopped, only to find out they are a great way to jump start astral projection. So I have tried methods of falling asleep consciously. I can't get my body to relax enough while maintaining awareness, and can't reach the so-called vibrational stage. Does anyone have tips for this? Also, @Sahil Pandit, when you saw the ghouls, were you scared? In projection, did you have your full wits about you?

@Elysian @Sahil Pandit Do you guys ever talk to dream characters? I love doing this while lucid. Sometimes it's just out of curiosity of whatever random thing might come out of their mouths, and sometimes I like to ask questions and compare answers between a number of dream characters. A fun question is: if they are real. 9 times out of ten, the character completely believes in its existence. Every now and then there appears one that will admit this is all a dream and not get offended if I point out the illusion to them. I have also noticed that some dream characters respond with very basic, drone like answers, and some that seem to be able to carry an intelligent conversation. I would love to experiment with this more. My lucidity is still at random and I have been learning to prolong it. I'm interested in anyone's experience with interacting with dream characters, and if any interesting reactions has come from it.

Why?

What is the mind? Well first off, disclaimer : I have no idea and for now and can only speak about it in terms of direct experience and assumptions I've heard from others. (other disclaimer: I have not had a nondual experience, but I intellectually understand "others" to be an invalid term, as there is only one. Still, they can be quite helpful when needed.) What I have assumed for the majority of my lifetime the mind to be: The brain. Limited. Basically me. Separate than soul. Possibly part of our separate than body. Separate from God. Sinful. But to sum it all up, I assumed the mind to be the brain. Currently I assume nothing. (on that topic) I've heard that the gut is also a mind. Whether a part of the one I identify with, or its own separate one, I haven't a clue. Either way, it has a large impact on the so-called mind, affecting mood, sleep regulation, Etc. So now I've just brought up the question on whether there is at least two minds in the body. Probably a good example of accidental assumptions. I probably should not speak further on it without a quick look up to refresh my memory of this. Ok, back. Turned out that thinking I had read somewhere that the gut is considered a separate mind was an accidental assumption, based on most likely misinterpreting the term- "second brain." Well, that's how it works, this (lack of better word) mind. Embarrassing false assumptions. Hilarious false assumptions. (Just heard an inner voice say "dang it!", with the feeling of throwing my right arm in a defeated way, and an emotion of messing up.) Ok, to explain what just happened above is a great way to explain direct experience of this (or whatever) mind. I did have a small amount of Marijuana, and sometimes when high I can hear voices in my head that are separate than my usual thinking voice, with "intentions" sometimes accompanying them. I used to take them as possible messages from spirit guides, (I used to be into all of that), but now I just see them as the mind having a little extra flair, if not somehow commucating with "me". Or with itself. Haven't worked that one out. Another way to describe it is its the kind of voices or sounds you hear during hypnogogic state. For me, pot puts me into some kind of waking hypnogogic state and I've enjoyed exploring the mind with this method, and it's always fun to see what will pop up. Many times it is fucking hilarious what I see or hear. Sometimes the voices say seemingly random things, sometimes they seem to be adding commentary to whichever steam of thoughts is occurring - usually while writing. From now on, I will be including any voices I hear because I would like to analyze this phenomenon. I usually hear voices when my eyes are open and engaged in a word type activity like writing. With eyes closed and still, I see pictures and have small dreamlets that last anywhere from 1-5 seconds. But usually just pictures. Beautiful pictures. Whacky, out of left field type pictures. Landscapes, faces, all kinds of random images. This is all of course while high, so you can think I'm crazy or not but these voices do not occur while sober, unless in the hypnogogic state. This phenomenon does intrigue me, and has fueled my passion for exploring the mind. Yes, the mind that I don't know anything about. But it doesn't make it less fun to explore. I taught myself to lucid dream and began exploring that way as well. I am willing to admit that there may or may not be any spiritual benefit in exploring the mind, but it's really fun. Those who haven't tried it may find it silly to be that interested in what goes on in imagination, but those who have explored their own (or whoever 's) imagination know there's something intriguing there. Even if it's just to see what might come up next, and the pride (possibly misplaced) of owning this unique, amazing imagination. Those who explore dreams know what I'm talking about. Being able to experience seemingly endless possibilities. It's an amazing feeling. Ok, so I got a bit off track, but honestly much of what I get sidetracked by is most likely descring the mind. So it's all good. It would be impossible to unravel the mind in one sitting, or even the night, so I'll sign off for now and mull over some things. If anyone reads this feel free to ask me any questions that I can inqure into.

Are you looking for love or are you looking for a boyfriend? Do you know what you want or do you only assume you know what you want?

If a girl thought you are beautiful and wanted to love you and give you the world, would you consider it?

Oops she sent a picture to me, but unfortunately I'm gay haha and I kind of thought it was a joke or something because I hadn't read this thread... But the picture is of a healthy (outside at least) nice looking lady. Thinking it was a joke, I just responded with, why would you want a boyfriend? Sorry @TheBeachBionic!

@non_nothing if you were born deaf, would there still be a voice in the head? I wonder how deaf people think and if mind chatter is a problem for them.

@SoonHei @non_nothing Haha, so question is, did the parallel universe with the telepathic farting unicorn exist before or after I made my post. Yeah yeah, I've heard time is an illusion ?

@non_nothing oh ok, here it is simple: the voice is an invisible unicorn that farts rainbows and lives in a parallel universe and communicates telepathically telling you all its wants and desires.

@non_nothing@non_nothing how can there be two separate entities if all of one? Perhaps it's better to say you don't cease to exist if the voice ceases.

This is to complete a though experiment proposed by @non_nothing , in one of "his/hers" thread. What is emotional pain? When I feel emotional pain, I feel it in my heart center. Such a heaviness. Or a sharp pain. It's weird because it's kind of indescribable, or perhaps trying to describe it from memory is hard to do. But I'm definitely not asking to experience it anytime soon, no thank you. I'll just enjoy not being able to describe emotional pain from memory very well. One thing it does include is racing irrational thoughts, and this is perhaps the worst: " oh my God, this sucks!" " oh my God, I want it to end." "I don't ever want to feel this way again!" " If I could just go back in time and change this or that, this would have never happened." " everything sucks right now." "oh my God, I just want to die." But it always gets better. Wow, everything I said above about not feeling emotional pain lately was untrue. I feel it nearly every day. Whether it's with an upset customer, a spat with the hubby, or getting my feelings hurt. I actually do feel emotional pain quite often. Also when I fuck up, which happens way too often. There is a tightness in the chest, I'm able to feel it now. Even the top of the stomach area twists up in knots. But I still would say the racing thoughts and narrow mind are the worst culprits. The physical feeling sucks, but it's actually not excruciating. It's the alteration of consciousness that truly sucks ass, and honestly I think that's pretty unecessary to put us(ourselves) through this. For whatever evolutionary need that was to firewall the mind when experiencing emotional trauma or anxiety, I truly hope the body starts dropping that trait soon. There's no need to inhibit clear thinking, when experiencing these things. If anything, thinking should be enhanced. An opening of the mind should occur, not a closing. Soon I will inquire into what is a mind. Not sure how long it will take to unravel that one, but I better get started.

@Shakazulu hmm well I dunno. You hear things like theres really no such thing as gender outside of physical universe, but you have to wonder why not even animals, but plants as well evolved into male and female. As above, so below, they say. I had been tinkering with the idea of when did gender evolve sometime past the one cell organism, but haven't looked into it and am not sure if it's provable. Id be interested to hear anything you find regarding your question

@Shakazulu you have to also consider culture, because being a man may have different meaning in united states, compared to the Middle East or a country like Japan.

I have to admit, I didn't do exactly as asked, and instead I set the stopwatch and spent 35 minutes in total. Here's what I wrote in my notebook : ----------___--------------¯¯¯---------------___----------- What's my fear? Or in other words, what fear arises from ego? Well, of course there is the popular one: pain / suffering. I suppose I also fear missing out on something. Being late to the party, so to speak. I fear I won't even make it to the party. I'm sure somewhere down there I have a fear of dying, even though I've convinced myself otherwise. I also think I have no fear of losing myself, but it's possible it's hiding somewhere very sneakily. I fear being mocked, although I've convinced myself I can handle it. I fear not being liked, largely in part to years of being bullied. I have forgiven the bullying, but the fear remains. I have forgiven the ego, but the fear remains. But truth be told, I don't even know what fear is. A strong emotional response/feeling, sure. But is that all it is? An elixir of chemicals which flood body, and nothing more? A prison warden who turned out to be a cardboard cutout? Like really, what is fear? Does fear exist outside the body which "feels" it? I don't even know what "to feel" even means. Not fully. I have a rough idea of it based on my upbringing but I couldn't truly tell you what feeling is, who or what feels, or if it's just another figment of imagination. So those are the fears of ego, and I'm sure not even a tenth of them. You asked: what is pain and suffering? Once again, what the hell do I know? From this one's head, pain can be both (or individually) physical and emotional. Physical pain causes much suffering, even though this one I'm pretty sure of is no more than a rush of signals and chemicals to the brain. To live pain-free is many people's desire. Look at all the opiate addicts. But I don't necessarily believe pain is bad. Pain is necessary for survival of the body. It would be nice to have direct control over the level of pain, as when say, you break your leg and have already had it set. It is important to feel some pain as a reminder, so one doesn't step off the bed and try to do jumping jacks on it. Such a thing would not ensure survival of species. But it sure would be nice to turn it down to a low hum, since such a (for lack of better word) painful reminder is no longer needed. I digress, but to sum up, physical pain is an evolutionary asset to the body of most animals, to ensure survival of species. Ego fears it because... well, it hurts. It doesn't feel good. Ego wants to feel good, so it has developed an irrational fear of it to prevent pain from happening. And yet, I think emotional pain could be worse in some ways. But I'm well over my 3 minutes and this one would take a while to unpack. Perhaps I will do it in the journal section. --------------—--------------—-------------—-------- Ok, I read your words in small print. No I don't believe in religion's hell and had a huge problem with the whole eternal pain and suffering of hell, even back when I was a good little Christian soldier going around trying to save people from it. Pain comes and goes, this is true. This at least I can trust my direct experience of because I am glad to not be in constant pain.

@SgtPepper just part of the journey, I guess. Hopefully a small part ?

@non_nothing ok, I'll do as you ask when I get home from work. But just to clarify, do you mean what is the fear of trusting direct experience? Or just basic fear?

@non_nothing im struggling right now with even trusting direct experience, much less what I hear from others. I think the best answer is we just don't know. It would definitely suck if your proposed scenario were true, but sucking is relative, right? From the view of this being who tortures us for fun, it didn't suck, it was fun. And to that being, our opinions wouldn't matter, as long as it had fun right?

To sit here and tell you any different would be pushing indoctrination onto you, right? Even if you have direct experience of no-self, or being one with universe, how can you trust its not just placebo effect? Just daydreaming. Are you having doubts or is this just for fun?

Currently my emotional feelings are only a ghost of what they were as a child. Over years of fear and pain, I built a wall to protect me- to numb the unwanted feelings. Unfortunately, I guess little child me didn't know how to build walls correctly and numbed the wanted feelings as well. Disappointment was one of the hardest feelings to have as a child. I could probably name many of "my" action loops that were built upon preventing the feeling of disappointment. And I should. Why is it such a bad feeling? When I was a kid, I had strong emotional responses to being disappointed (compared to now, where it may still sting but I mostly react with, "oh well, should have guessed.") but yeah, strong reactions to not being able to go to the pizza parlor after all. Or the toy I just got for Christmas broke on the second day. Disappointed when I sold my beloved Gameboy and collection of games, to buy a new game which turned out to completely suck. Getting sick and not being able to go to Disney World. I had no buffer on these emotions back then and god, they hurt. Pure emotional pain. And that was just disappointment. What else caused the strong emotional feelings? Fear Excitement Guilt Pure, childlike joy And each of these are accompanied with an intense physical feeling - an expanding or Contracting of the heart area known as the heart chakra (or whatever if such a thing exists.) Sometimes the worst pain can be feeling your heart crumpling like a piece of paper, and you'll do anything you can to stop and prevent it from ever happening again. Strong emotional pain can often times trigger a physical pain-- a physical sense which evolved early on, I presume, in the beginning of animal life. The heart doesn't literally crumple up like a piece of paper, though maybe there are some physiological responses to the emotional pain which causes a contraction of the heart muscle itself, but it would be minimal compared to how it feels. Emotional pain amplifies that feeling depending on the level of pain, until the point where it feels like even a black hole sucking your heart out completely. I wrote a post on where in our body do we feel these strong emotional feelings, because I was curious if it could be verified to be a common place to feel it, or if it varied by culture(i.e. Beleifs). For example, I was taught as a kid that the Hebrews in the bible felt emotions in their bowels, based on some Bible verse in the old testament. So I don't know if I worded it wrong, if it was the wrong topic- feeling of Love - but I got no serious response of where the feeling is felt in the body, even though I restated my question a few times. All I got were responses about how there is no " I" to love, but no one would answer anything about where the feeling of Love, or other strong emotional feelings that spring up physical feelings in the body--- where they are felt. I thought it was a simple question but I swear the answers felt like they were written by a few sheeple just parroting off something they believe in. Exactly how dream characters react sometimes. If they wanted to tell me that there were no such thing as physical feelings, then that would have been an interesting rabbit hole to explore. But apparently I can't feel love because I don't exist. Then who feels love? No one? Then what's the God damn point? I say if Samuel wants to feel love, who is there to say he can't? Doesn't he deserve it? Even in his own little pocket universe it thinks it exists in? But if Sam is only an idea, what is an idea? Can ideas think? Did Sam create this pocket reality, or did I create it for him? Co-creation perhaps? That's not to say that I believe Sam exists. Truth is I don't freaking know. To say he does or doesn't are both beliefs. Even if I had a direct experience of Sam's non-existence , it would still be a belief. Perhaps they are both wrong. Or true. Who the fuck knows? Why should I listen to anyone about it? This is where I'm lost, because I don't even know if direct experience can be trusted, much less other people who can't be directly verified from this (possibly not) locked position. So if I can't trust others' words, and I don't know how to trust direct experience, I don't know how the hell to go forward.