A selection from the Dark Knight of the Soul Blog

I’ve had dreams where creatures have suddenly appeared and threatened. They would come from some hidden place, a place where all nightmare creatures hide until when we least suspect it, they jump out and scare us awake. The human psyche can be an excellent reservoir for hidden demons just waiting for us to let our guard down. The following excerpt is from Psyche’s Dream: A Dragon’s Tale, due out in late 2021 or early 2022.

“There are many hidden artifacts and meanings within the fabric of older houses such as this. They are often ritually concealed by long-dead owners to protect or pay homage to the spirit of the house. Sometimes without warning, they can reveal themselves to us. They can come through its walls, cellars, attics, and fireplaces. This house is notorious for doing that.” There was an ominous tone in the old man’s words.

It was then that Adam noticed a sparkle that seemed to rise from below as though from a dark, hidden well beneath the floorboards. He couldn’t tell whether it climbed through the floor, from the abyss, or from the primeval chaos within him. He had seen this once before when it seemed to herald an impending change in awareness. The spark settled above the hearth, where the dragon carving suddenly became animated and uncoiled itself. 

As it grew rapidly in size, it reared its scaly and heavily muscled body and rose high into the rafters, snorting a stream of fire. Bending its terrifying head downward, it opened its fearsome jaws, and with teeth-gnashing and nostrils flaring, it let out the most frightening, bloodcurdling scream as it dived downward toward the cowering boy.

Its head was covered in small hissing and writhing snakelets like a medusa’s crown, and Adam could feel the beast’s hot, wet breath searing the back of his neck and soaking his clothes. Its long-outstretched tongue, which preceded its downward thrust, lashed across his face, leaving a nasty welt. Though crouching and barely able to keep his feet, he mustered enough resolve to turn and face his tormentor and confront it openly. It was as though the waking world universe was forcing him to own up to and face his demons and turn them into daemons.”

The transformation from an obstructive demon to a constructive daemon is always preceded by the protagonist facing their inner dragons and bringing them into a relationship. This action strips the demon of its power, the power of the dark that is destroyed when confronted by the light. That which we suppress and hide from grows within us and gains power over us. As with Adam in the story, our fearful nightmares come to us in the interest of our health and well-being. They present us with a chance to face what we fear or what disgusts us about ourselves and to confront it head-on.

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See the book Psyche’s Dream on the right panel. Click to order

Morpheus Speaks: The Encyclopedia of Dream Interpreting

Click the picture links on the side panel to the right for ordering information.

The Non-Local mind

The Non-Local mind¹

On March 21^st of this year, I wrote in a blog titled “Awakening” about some transcendent experiences I’ve had over the years and their effect on me.

“At that time, I experienced a rapid expansion of my awareness of the environment which also took on a very bright and vivid coloration where I did not feel separate from as though an observer but part of, or more precisely a feeling of, “being” the everything. All judgments and critiques vanished and were replaced with a sense of ultimate belonging and acceptance. I was no longer a separate being with all the doubts and self-recriminations, and ego-desires that come with that separateness. When reaching out my hand I no longer had the feeling that I ended at the tip of my fingers but that I was everywhere and everywhere was me. There was also a feeling of great acceptance, belonging, and love. All this left me knowing that there is something much greater than myself and yet in myself of which I am a whole and not a part.”

Today I want to share another experience that fits nicely with the above encounters with the numinous or otherworldly. I attended a workshop some years back where we studied communication, people to people communication of the nonverbal kind. In one activity we paired off facing one another, saying nothing, and just looking into the eyes of the other person. This went on for nearly an hour, though it seemed an eternity in the beginning. After some time, my mind stopped chattering, my uneasiness melted away, and I had the distinct impression of seeing myself through the other person’s eyes. At first this was quite disconcerting but then it turned into something quite wonderful, and I felt very much connected with this stranger that sat before me. When done we were to write down a certain set of fairly innocuous information about each other e.g., name, background, family makeup, education, job, etc. As I read him how I described him through my answers on the list he sat there stunned at how accurate I was as was I when he shared what he had “picked up’ from me.

Somehow, almost by magic, we had communicated information about ourselves that we could not have known before the exercise, so much so that it was uncanny how accurate we were with each other.

We also shared a similar experience of seeing ourselves through the other’s eyes. It was as though we had momentarily become the other and thus knew the others private thoughts.

How could this be? How could we have shared consciousnesses? It was as if those consciousnesses were not locked within our physical body’s aka our heads, i.e., our consciousness. It was some years later that I learned of some studies on the nonlocality of consciousness.¹

It has been suggested by some scientists that there is a profound connectedness between all things; an experience I shared in the quote above at the beginning of this post. This nonlocal view suggests a more “relational and connected view of the world”.² 

It was Larry Dossey in his book Recovering the Soul (Bantam Books, 1989) who coined the phrase “the nonlocal mind”. In his book he suggested that there is a mode of information communication or nonlocal awareness that transcends the physical senses. Is this what my partner and I experienced all those years ago? And could this add some insight to some of those private awareness’s I experienced as well? Is there another reality and connectedness that we all could share if we could expand our awareness to include something other than the physical and material world? I mean what is it that “experiences” this world but our psyche’s and if we adhere to a rigid definition of what constitutes reality could this limit our experience of it? Can we see what we have trained ourselves to not see by retraining ourselves to a broader and more inclusive view or at least suspend the learned behavior to allow something else to present itself? 

I’ve already given a number of hints across a number of blog articles on how to do this or at least how one might increase the chances of doing it. I’ve also written a story about the kind of magic that seems to permeate these kinds of experiences³.

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¹ Dossey, L. Spirituality and the Nonlocal Mind. Spirituality in Clinical Practice, Vol.1 No.1, 2014 pgs. 29-42

² Edge, H. (1997). Spirituality in the Natural and Spiritual Worlds

³ Cole, R.J. (2021) Psyche’s Dream: A Dragon’s Tale

Some musings on Lucid Dreaming

From Sarah K. Lilythe and the Dream Fairy Lantern

In oneirology or the study of dreams there is a subfield of study called lucid dreaming. A lucid dream is when one becomes aware that they are dreaming while still in the dream. Pretty freaky huh? But that’s not all, one can learn to take some volitional control over the dream once they’ve become aware that they are dreaming.

I’ve had moments when I thought that I was awake when really, I was still in a dream and then took control of the dream but did so thinking that I was actually awake. In these dreams or dream-like states I am aware of myself, aware of the dream meaning enough to want to change it and aware that I could make a decision to change the outcome. These are all necessary conditions for labeling the dream lucid. There’s another condition, that one is aware that they are dreaming. Usually, I become aware just as I’m awaking. This happens in what is known as the hypnopompic¹ state. This state is usually associated with hallucinating. So, am I hallucinating that I’m awake or dreaming I’m awake or becoming conscious of my dreaming as I awake?

For me lucid dreaming has not been an intentional practice certainly not as it would be in the Tibetan practice of Dream Yoga or the Hindu practice of Yoga Nidra.

Some researchers suggest that lucid dreamers aren’t really in a sleep state but are in a brief state of wakefulness or what is called “micro-awakening” or that it may be a state of both waking and dreaming. This is more like my experience. I have also had these micro-awakenings, if that’s what they are, during a nightmare which has allowed me to stay in the nightmare and bring it to a more agreeable conclusion. 

Research has shown that training people with disorders that include frequent nightmares to use lucid dreaming as a way of controlling the nightmares has helped those with PTSD. Other research has shown thar when lucid dream therapy is combined with Image rehearsal therapy where the nightmare narrative is altered when awake has shown some encouraging results².

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¹ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnopompia

²Morpheus Speaks: The Encyclopedia of Dream Interpreting (Section 3, Nightmares)

Animals in dreams: The Wolf

          The Wolf Moon

At 10:54 PST on the 25th of January the full moon, known as the Wolf Moon by the ancients because the wolves would howl at it during this time, filled our skies with its eerie glow.

Wolves also show up in one’s dreams.

Animals in dreams generally speak to ones drives and feelings about events and people when the usual social controls are lifted. Frequently they reflect one’s attitudes about them i.e., whether one loves or fears them.

The wolf has been a mysterious and savage beast of the forest showing up in fairy tales, cult mythology, and dark legends. Men have been turned into werewolves transformed with every full moon. Legends go all the way back to the story of Gilgamesh in 1800 BCE where a woman turns her cheating lover into a werewolf. In Greek mythology the Wolf-God was Apollo and to the Romans the wolf was sacred to Mars, the god of war. It was during these ancient times that gods and monsters roamed the earth. One of the most fearsome of the wolf monster tales was the Norse myth of Fenrir who was so powerful that he threatened all the earth and had to be bound up by the gods.

As a power symbol they can reflect one’s own power and the need to use it or use it less.

Wolves also show up in our dreams and not just as nightmares, though they can speak to our darker natures. The wolf can represent our wildness and represent freedom and independence. They can represent loyalty and be guardians and even spirit animals i.e., a messenger, guide, or teacher that comes to us in times of need. To the Native American Zuni of the Southwest the wolf is a pathfinder and trailblazer. 

The image of a wolf in a dream can also suggest the need to work together as a team. As a teacher animal in a dream look to see what it is doing. Is there a lesson to be learned or some lesson that needs to be taught? As teachers they can open one to their inner nature and intuitive sense. They can be messengers of one’s need to pay attention to this intuitive sense and be more conscious of one’s environment and what’s going on around them. 

Though wolves are pack animals and thus represent family they can also be loners as in a “lone wolf” or reflect the need to be more social or inclusive of others.

When interpreting, consider phrases like “The wolf at your door” (financial issues); Cry wolf (A false alarm, making up stories for attention); keep the wolves at bay (Fight against trouble or someone attacking you); Wolf whistle (rude and unwanted attention); Big bad wolf (evil/trying to eat the good or create havoc). 

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*Dream meanings come from the book Morpheus Speaks: The Encyclopedia of Dream Interpreting

Sarah K Lilythe and the Dream Fairy Lantern

Can be purchased online at Walmart, Barnes&Noble and Amazon (or click on picture).

Just in time for Christmas

Sarah K. Lilythe and her brother, Patrick, are going to stay with their grandparents for the weekend while their parents are away. On the first evening of their visit, the children see a mysterious blue lamp on the patio. 

Their grandfather explains it’s a fairy lantern—a link between two magical worlds. But it only works when someone has fallen asleep and comes under the spell of the dream fairies. He tells them all about the dream fairies and their curious, fantastical dream world, with its wizards, princesses, wisdom keepers, great ladies, heroes, tricksters, and little devils. Then Grandpa teaches them the secret of how to access the magic of their inner selves by flying with the fairies of their dreams, allowing them to find a path to a different side of themselves. 

In this story, two children learn about a special lantern that is a door into the magical world of the dream fairies. When they enter the door, what will they discover on the other side?

This is a children’s book for ages 3 to 8 and will soon have a coloring book to go along with the story.