Tried and True Tips to Better Remember Your Dreams

Landscape with the Dream of Jacob by Michael Lukas Leopold Willmann

Dreams are a great way of connecting to one’s own inner wisdom. Edgar Cayce thought it was so important to remember dreams as part of an overall plan to stay healthy in mind, body and spirit that in Reading 5754-3 he says failure to remember dreams “…Indicates a very negligible personage!”

Remembering dreams is a great challenge for many people. I have come across numerous suggestions on how to improve dream recall but here is what I found works well for me and people I know:

1. On a daily basis, especially before going to bed, tell yourself that dreams are valuable and you want to remember them. If you are so inclined, even say a prayer requesting help in remembering dreams. These practices will offset any negative input you’ve experienced that suggested dreams are not important. It will also break you of the habit of ignoring dreams. The more you do this, the more you will remember your dreams because you are reprogramming your mind to work better on your behalf while enlisting the powers of higher consciousness and spiritual beings to help you do it!
2. Join a dream class. Just by doing this, many of my students reported that taking the class prompts them to remember their dreams.
3. Keep a dream journal (digital app or old fashioned notebook) next to your bed to record your dreams. Seeing a notebook there will prompt you to ask to remember your dreams.
4. While half asleep, before you move a muscle or before you are fully awake:

• Review the dream as if it were a movie you saw the night before. Make sure you note the action, plot, story, characters, colors, feelings and important symbols. This is perhaps the most important point if you already remember dreams but want to get better at the practice. After a while doing this, you will find the practice not difficult and often pleasurable, as if you are watching a TV show while you are half asleep on the couch.
• Give the dream a title that has a strong association with the dream. For example, you dream that you are walking into a room filled with red roses. Call it something graphic like The Room Filled With Red Roses.
• Review the dream once more to let it sink in, again connecting your title to the dream. At this stage an experienced dreamer can fall back to sleep, knowing he or she will most likely remember the dream upon rising or later in the day.
• Write down the dream in the dream journal soon after rising from bed.

Class: Education for Ministry (EfM) in Honolulu

Education for Ministry (EfM)

Want to Get an In-depth Understanding of Your Christian Faith and Tradition?

Education for Ministry (EfM) is a training program of the Episcopal Church which helps people, especially lay leaders and ministers, to

• deepen their spirituality through an effective theological reflection process and to
• bridge the gap between understanding the Bible and dealing with the issues of everyday life.

Each session includes prayer, discussion, and reflection according to a Theological Reflection (TR) process, and may also allow time for refreshments and socializing before or after the class. Reading assignments prepare participants for each session.

Beginning in early September, 2014, St. Mary’s and St. Elizabeth’s will join to offer a year-long class of this four year program for members of their congregations. Participants must be willing to commit to an academic year of training (36 sessions of about 2.5 to 3 hours each). A free session can be given ahead of time for prospective members to see if this is “your cup of tea.” To the degree possible, dates and times of sessions as well as class location will be scheduled after the class is organized to meet the needs of the participants.

Online information is available at http://theology.sewanee.edu/academics/education-for-ministry/.

If interested, and to get more information, please contact Fran Kramer at 457-9753 or fran_kramer@healingdreamgarden.com. Registration needs to be done by late July to place orders for books and to finalize the class preparations.

NOTE:  This course is being announced on this website but does not imply there is a connection to the study of dreams or intuition in the course.  Course content will be determined by Sewanee.

Class: Working With Healing Dreams and Intuition in the Tradition of Edgar Cayce

Edgar Cayce circa 1910

Edgar Cayce is considered by many to be the father of holistic medicine. This course will explore how Edgar Cayce intuitively diagnosed and healed, viewed dreams and intuition and show how his tradition continues today in the methods developed by the Edgar Cayce Institute for Intuitive Studies.

Sponsored by the Osher Life Lifelong Learning Institute, Univ. of Hawaii
Instructor:  Fran Kramer, Intuitive Heart™ Trainer, certified by the Edgar Cayce Institute for Intuitive Studies. (2011)

Dates: June 12, 19 and 26, 2014
Time: 10:30 AM to Noon
Place: Honolulu, Hawaii.  For specifics, inquire on registration.

To register call:

Rebecca Goodman, Director
Phone: (808) 956-8224
Email: rgoodman@Hawaii.edu

How’s and Why’s of Dream Journaling

Keeping a Dream Journal

If you are serious about developing a deep connection with your inner self, this task is perhaps the best practice you can do. Keeping a dream journal involves writing down your dreams as they occur. Ideally, this would be just as you are waking up while the dream is still fresh in your mind. So keep a notebook and a pen (or digital diary–there are apps for that now if you can get technical while half awake!) next to your bed. If you are one of those people who can’t seem to remember your dreams, then try keeping a journal of whatever comes to mind that is important to you on a daily basis. For any kind of journaling, keep it simple. That will be the best assurance for encouraging you to be faithful about making regular entries into it. At a minimum each entry in a dream journal should include:

• The date
• A title for the dream (this will help you remember the dream as you remember a movie)
• A detailed description of the dream written in the present tense. Include every color, character, object, background, place, emotional feeling, and emotional nuance. Pay attention to the number of things occurring such as recording if there are 3 books or 2 people. It is important. Find and use a good dream dictionary—one that gives many meanings to each symbol and teaches dreamwork exercises. I like Cloud Nine: A Dreamer’s Dictionary by Sandra A. Thompson.

This practice will usually be all you have time to do on a regular basis. However, depending upon how thorough you want to be, you can do the following:

• Reserve a section either below or next to the dream where you make a note of any dreamwork done on the dream such as making associations with the dream symbols or make notes on what the dream may be about by using the other dream methods described below.
• If you have asked to have this dream prior to dreaming it, you should by all means write down the question or intention before having the dream. The point isn’t to be so thorough in analyzing every dream but to keep an ongoing consistent recording of every important dream and even the minor ones, if you have the self-discipline. You can always come back later and do additional dreamwork on any dream if you have done a good job of recording the dream in detail.
• If you have seen how this dream has helped, you may want to reserve space to add a note about this in the margin or in a space below the dreamwork section.

Also, what appears to be a minor dream to your waking mind can actually end up being of profound importance for the rest of your life, so please pay attention to the very short dreams and ones that don’t seem important. It might not be apparent at the moment, but you will see the dream’s significance in ten or twenty years down the road. You will see that your deeper consciousness is already preparing you for the major tasks that lie years ahead. Also you will want to record dream encounters with healers and guides whose presence you might want to honor later

Japanese Light Dance: Interpreting the Human Energy Field?

If people could see what their energy fields look like going through a good day, I imagine it would look a lot like this.
Amazing!

A Dance with Light by Nobuyuki Hanabusa by Posted by 95.7 KJR on Facebook.

My Intuitive Heart™ Soul Reflection Experience

“If you wish to know someone’s heart, look into your own.” Heart Art by Henry Reed, Ph.D.

After doing the Inspired Heart Meditation and the short Memory Divination that followed this is what transpired for me in the Intuitive Heart Soul Reflection Experience which is explained in the previous post at http://wp.me/p45aiq-4J.

My Memory Which Surfaced:

I am in the dental chair in my dentist’s office. My dentist has just finished putting in two new inlays which has been part of a several-years-long effort to gradually replace my 45-year-old worn out gold and silver fillings with new fillings and inlays. It has been a long and drawn out, costly restorative work, but the end result is that all my teeth are now in excellent shape with fillings the exact color of my teeth, making my smile look beautiful and my dental health great. My dentist makes the comment, “Now that you have gotten through all this with good results and no major mishap, it is up to you to keep your teeth in good shape by cleaning them regularly.” I feel a sense of pride and accomplishment for having gone through this long and arduous process. Also, I do get complimented on how great my teeth look—a real blessing at age 66 which few people even today can have or afford! I also realize the importance of what the dentist says about it being up to me to keep my teeth in great shape. The simple but important practices of brushing and flossing are things I need to do every day.

My Reflection on the Memory:

The memory reminded me of my long kundalini clearing process which began about seven years ago and was a real challenge to deal with at all levels, spiritual, psychological and physical, especially during the first several years. The last four years have been challenging at a values level: making choices that reflect the new “real me” despite the fact that I need to take bold risks, especially financial ones, to get where I want to go. Like my dental restoration process, it has been long and arduous but I am now starting to realize some of the kundalini lore benefits such as my good health getting even better while giving me a youthful appearance that belies my age. The major clearing away of the old has been done, as even my dreams have told me, but it is up to me to keep it all clean now: eat healthy food, think positive thoughts, make good choices, brush away any negativity, etc.

Lesson for Me:

Be grateful for the amazing blessing I have undergone. I should be more aware of the simple but important ways of keeping what the Buddhist call the “mirror” clean by brushing away negative thoughts. I need to keep my body healthy by avoiding as much as possible foods and substances that could be harmful or de-energizing. I need to make choices which reflect the integrity of who I am.

Hidden Question: How can I enjoy my life more comfortably, with less effort and more confidence?

My soul’s reflection on this question: By doing the simple daily “polishing of the mirror,” eating right and making what the Hawaiians’ call pono or right choices; I can enjoy life more because it will be easier to stay healthy and happy, without any kind of negativity dragging me down. Removing negativity at the get-go is a lot easier than dealing with it after it has grown from an idea or a bad choice to an embedded feeling or disease in the body. Feeling positive will also promote a greater sense of confidence in what I am doing and where I am going.

Try an Intuitive Heart™ Soul Reflection Experience

“If you wish to know someone’s heart, look into your own.” Heart Art by Henry Reed, Ph.D.

There are many exercises available to awaken intuitive abilities but this one is a favorite because it is so simple and so effective. Also, it surfaces an issue that really matters—one the participant may not even realize as a conscious issue before doing the exercise. Lastly, it facilitates a resolution or process for working with the issue that is line with the soul’s need. The exercise was developed by Henry Reed, Ph.D., Director of the Edgar Cayce Institute for Intuitive Studies  and can be found at: http://intuitiveheart.com/SoulReflection/. The instructions are at http://intuitiveheart.com/SoulReflection/memory-divination-instructions.html which involve:

1. Doing the 7 minute Inspired Heart Meditation followed by the Memory Divination Exercise. Both can be downloaded as one meditation in a free mp3 file at http://intuitiveheart.com/SoulReflection/ihmemdiv.mp3
2. Processing the memory received according to the instructions. Basically, what does this memory remind you of in relation to something important in your life right now? How do you feel about this current concern? What are the challenges?
3. Going to http://intuitiveheart.com/SoulReflection/selected-important-question.html to find a random question generated. Reflect on this question in light of your memory and the processing of it. What comes to light?

For a description of my experience doing this exercise, please see the sequel post at http://wp.me/p45aiq-4N.

Looking back on 40 years of Recorded Dreams: What Can Be Seen?

We all dream every night but few of us actually try to remember, much less record, these messages from the Unconscious. Some people may jot down important dreams or keep a dream journal for a few months. A very small percentage of people, I among them, have made a lifetime habit of recording on a daily basis almost every dream remembered, resulting in a collection of dreams numbering in the thousands. What can be seen from reading and reflecting on all these dreams?

Many Dreams are Prophetic

As I read the dreams in chronological order as I would a novel, I see that a large percentage of the dreams are either telling me something about my current situation or are prophetic messages of something happening in the future. The dreams that relate to the present usually offer some sort of insight such as clarifying feelings I have or indicating a process I am going through. The ones that relate to future usually are a bit hard to understand in my current situation so I have learned to take them to be indicators of something that may happen later in a different situation. For example over ten years ago I had many dreams occurring over several months that had me living in Hawaii—at a time when I did not even consider making my home there. Three years later, I ended up moving to Hawaii. Because of experiences like this, I believe that déjà vu is often the remembrance of place, events and people we have already seen in dreamtime. Seeing this congruence between dreams and the future gives one a tremendous sense of awe at the power of the Unconscious to connect us to the future.

The Real Power of Dreams

In dreamtime, setting the stage for the future we may walk into and the making choices among several presented to us, is an important awareness that puts the conscious dreamer at a great advantage. I believe, after a lifetime of seeing this process take place, that we all live our lives twice— like the James Bond movie says—once in our dreams and once in our lives. In dreamtime we are already negotiating the future. Edgar Cayce noted that dreams are the answers to tomorrow’s questions. In dreamtime, we make the choices, experience the transformations, and meet the people we will meet later. If we tune into our dreams and become aware of the process, we can be prepared with foreknowledge to face the future. We will know that we can get through that awful transition or survive a breakup of a marriage because we will have already experienced and remembered doing it in dreamtime. However, the real power of dreams is not that they can predict the future. The real power lies in knowing we don’t have to make the decisions we made in dreamtime. If we weren’t happy with the decision we made in dreamtime, we can make a different decision in waking life. We have a second chance. But that only happens if we remember the dream. Otherwise, we are like computers playing out a code that has already been programmed—and live with the consequences.

Sustained by a Greater Power

Years of recorded dreams will show times when guides and healers appeared in periods of crisis to sustain and support the dreamer. These figures bring insights and healing power that far exceed the abilities of the waking mind. Once these helpers are recognized for what they are, they can be accessed and employed for intentional purposes of the dreamer, again making the dreamer realize we are in the hands of loving and profoundly powerful forces that are ready to help us. And in dreams we can even see their faces!