Dreams, Visions and Imaginings - Notes

These are the notes I wrote for the Mysterious Studies podcast episode Dreams, Visions and Imaginings. I didn't actually use these notes while recording the episode, but spoke more freely this time. So, the episode itself includes some more things that are not in these notes, and these notes may hold some things that I did not mention in the episode... At the end of the notes you can find links to the books and Substack posts that I mention in the episode.

Keypoints:

• Dreams as the subconscious trying to reach a person who does not actively engage with it

• Active imagining, meeting dream characters (Jungian approach)

• Connect to visualization

• Share a visualization exercise, which is your dominant sense/way to access the “inner world”. And a longer visualization exercise, create your inner home, your magic space…

• Fear of monsters/ghosts/subconscious/spiritual realms/the unknown. To engage with the inner/subconscious, we need to trust, allow, and have courage.

My life direction changed because of a dream.

In fact, there may be several instances where that is true, but there is one life choice in particular that I did, mostly inspired and affected by a powerful dream. It feels too personal to share here on this open podcast, so If you want to hear the details of that particular dream, you are welcome to join my Patreon or substack for the bonus episode.

That particular situation and choice feels too raw and personal to share publicly, so in this episode here, I will instead discuss other dreams and speculate around what dreams actually are, in my experience.

With dreams, I mean the ones we see every night when you go to sleep (or any other time, if you are a nocturnal person or someone who naps...)

As I've shared on earlier episodes, there was a big shift in my life approach which happened around 2017-2019 where I started trusting the inner world, or my inner knowing, more. So before that time, in my twenties and earlier, I didn't really connect too deeply with my dreams. They affected me, sure but then my rational perspective came in, reminding me it was "just a dream" and immediately, the power of the dream was diminished so that the everyday reality of the waking life could have its hold.

Still, as I look back, and as I've read in my diaries (I've so far filled 84 notebooks, with rambling notes about my life events my feelings and dreams) I've always had strange and vivid dreams that have shaken me and also influenced me long after the dream ended. And some dreams make me prescribe to the idea that dreams are Portals to somewhere else, whether that is alternative dimensions, other lives or random mixed snippets from the archives of the collective unconscious..

The explanation for dreams that I grew up with was a scientifically materialistic one, how it was a way for the brain to keep neural pathways active by taking different paths than you usually did in waking life. Could be one way to see it, with some truth in it, but somehow lacking in the life-Ness and the soulfulness and not explaining how the life altering dreams I've had have exactly pinpointed something I know deep inside but have been ignoring.

Thank the gods, or soul, or life, for Jungian theories where dreams could finally have their deserved place in the spotlight and be appreciated for their ability to bring forth meaningful messages from the soul.

That's what feels most true to me. Maybe not for all dreams in the same way, but for some dreams, that is totally the case.

In my earlier part of life, i think I had even more vivid and affecting dreams, probably because I had not yet come to understand that the inner world is somewhere I can actually actively aim my attention. So the only way that the inner or subconscious or soul could communicate with me was through the dreams, where my rational mind for once, did not have any say in what could come through. The only open channel to reach me was through dreams, until the mind returned in the morning to fill my head with chatter. But already as a teenager, and actually earlier, I sensed there was something special about dreams. I knew I had actually been there, in those other realms, no matter how much anyone would tell me it didn't count cause my body had stayed in my bed the whole night. Not that I can have definitive proof of that, I mean, I was asleep, alone in my room. I can't say for sure that I DIDN'T go anywhere..

But here we come up against these tricky and unhelpful definitions of what's "real". A dream is a real experience. Even if it's "just a dream". It's still, also, real. At least, I've had to land in this stance, because of what a tremendous effect my dreams have held also in my waking state. They've shifted my mental landscape around and made previously unconscious understanding available. Which has in turn shifted my approach to my life which has led to also very real results, changes, in concrete ways.

Something that can help in starting to look inwards is meditations, visualization exercises, partly guided at first and then just seeing what comes up. If you have traumas or a fear to go there, maybe do it with a therapist or guide you trust and know resonates with you. For me, I had to go there alone, because I was in that place where I needed to get to know myself, and focus on just my relationship with me. I was also in the process of learning boundary setting and simply needed to isolate a bit from too much influence from others.

Still, I also met fears as I started looking inwards. It takes courage. You have to go through the initial fear to get to the place where looking inwards is just another source of knowledge and gains a more everyday quality. As I became less scared of the inner, the visions also started to shift and change character. As the inner world became more familiar it took on a more playful an everyday kind of energy. Which leads me to believe t that these things are basically reflecting and affecting each other. So, if I’m scared of looking inwards, my visions will be tinged by this fear and I will see monstrous shapes. But as I got more familiar, the inner world and it’s “creatures” also felt more familiar.

As above so below, or as within so without. But we will talk more about the reflecting quality of reality, or the holographic universe in the Reality-episode…more on that later...

Books mentioned in the episode:

The Secret of the Golden Flower by Lü Dongbin, Richard Wilhelm (Editor), Cary F. Baynes (Translator)

The Red Book: A Reader's Edition by C.G. Jung, Sonu Shamdasani (Editor), Mark Kyburz (Translator). (Also available as a larger fascimile version featuring the artworks that Jung created for the book. But I have only read the reader's edition.)

My Substack posts of Dreams and Visions:

The Tree House - Substack post where I share a dream/vision I had about asking for permission. (You can also find this piece of writing in the Writings-section of this website)

Garden Party - Substack post where I share a dream/vision I had about connecting to the Earth. (You can also find this piece of writing in the Writings-section of this website)

Circuits - Substack post where I share a vision I had on New Year's Eve 2022.

Aquarius - Substack post where I share my research and active imagining meeting to connect with the mythological figure of Aquarius. (You can also find this piece of writing in the Writings-section of this website)

Pisces - Substack post where I share my research and active imagining meeting to connect with the mythological figure of Pisces/The Fish. (You can also find this piece of writing in the Writings-section of this website)