Conscious Dreaming

My First Dream Manipulation

So probably I am more "eclectic" than I am Buddhist...

Background 

I read a few pages of Jane Robert's Seth material, from various sources, every night before going to sleep. Recently, I was reading comments by Seth about dreams, and how we can be (and are, without knowing it) as awake in our dreams as we are in our daily life, with one difference (among many) being that our desires are more instantaneous in our dream life. According to Seth, if we can consciously master this in our dream life, we can bring this skill into our waking life (at least that is what I think he is saying.) One of his suggestions was to ask or comment about being in a dream to people as we meet them in our dreams, and see how they respond.

We are all in a dream!

Early morning, Sunday, July 30th

I woke up about 1:00 am feeling quite fidgety and a little bit hungry, after having had a very light dinner (more like dessert) after a very aerobic Ashtanga Yoga class. I doubled my pillow height and tried meditating myself back to sleep using various mantras that I adopted for this over the years. At one point I felt half awake and half asleep -- I was actually thinking that I was still awake. But then I found myself eating a granola bar, and being accused by about four or five young Hispanic boys of taking their granola bar from the airport security belt -- which I was sure I had not done.

At that point, I said, "Hey, we are all in a dream!"  The boys all said "no we aren't", but a tall man who was behind them (either their teacher or other chaperone) laughed and said "yes we are." Then I thought, well in that case I can produce a new granola bar for the boys, and at the instant a granola bar came out of the scanner on the belt and the boys all cheered. I then thought, I should get enough bars so they can each have their own, and then a small pile of granola bars came out. They were happy, and so was I . I woke up shortly after that.

While this might not be my first conscious manipulation of reality while dreaming, it is the first that I remember so vividly ... enough to right it down, at least.

North Coast Redwood Forest, California

The Life You Give Yourself

...you give yourself the life that is being lived through you.
You make your own reality.
There is no other rule.
Knowing this is the secret of creativity.

from The Nature of Personal Reality: A Seth Book, by Jane Roberts (1974, page 14)

I just finished reading The Nature of Personal Reality. When I was about 20 years old, I read a Seth book (not sure which one) that had a great influence on my perceptions of reality and views toward life. Now, some 40 years later, I have read this one, and again I find that it comes closest to my beliefs and experience of the world.

The top photo taken by me on 3 January 2017 along the Columbia River near Portland, Oregon.
The bottom photo take by my wife in front of our house at sunrise on 24 January 2017 in Flagstaff, Arizona.