This strange thing called consciousness
Apropos of nothing in particular, just wish to share this consciousness conundrum.
Early this morning, while still fast asleep, I was engrossed in one of those very ‘real’ dreams, wherein my dream-self was interacting and conversing with other such beings, acting out some bizarre drama/comedy, the details of which I need not go into. Suffice to say, I seemed to be totally oblivious to the so-called ‘true’ reality on which one is usually focused while awake.
However (and this is a sensation that we all have probably experienced, from time to time), while I was completely involved in this dream conversation, some distant part of me became vaguely aware of the sound of an approaching garbage truck. This being collection day in the ‘real’ world, it somehow dawned on me, while still immersed in the dream conversation, that I had forgotten to put the garbage out the night before. And so my dream-self, thus realizing the urgency of the situation, begins trying to explain this realization to my dream-interlocutor, who it appears couldn't care less about my sudden change of dream-topics. Nonetheless, I try to make this poor perplexed persona understand that, if it’s not already too late, I need to wake up, throw on some clothes, and try to get the garbage out to the curb, before the truck arrives. Of course, all the while that this is going on, as I am groggily drifting closer to the waking state, I’m pondering if I should just role over and go back to sleep, because it seems like altogether too much effort, and probably too late, in any case ... and, by the way, I would really like to continue my conversation with this quite engaging and attractive dream-woman.
In the end, you’ll be relieved to know -- after concluding that, because I’m going on vacation next week, I really needed to get the garbage out this week -- I did actually force myself to wake up, and rush to do the chore, without a minute to spare.
So what am I getting at here? I’m really not sure, except perhaps to once again point out the puzzling mystery of an apparently larger consciousness/intelligence that can somehow create and be aware of multi-dimensional ‘realities’ simultaneously, and nonetheless, while immersed in some irrational dream world, still has the ability to make a rational decision regarding the ‘real’ world. It really does make one wonder ‘Who’ or ‘What’ is actually pulling the strings?
Furthermore, sometimes I have this nagging suspicion that, insofar as humankind is concerned, we are just now entering some kind of spiritual pre-schooling, wherein we are only beginning a very long educational, evolutionary process, through god only knows how many grades, degrees, stages, dimensions, etc, into understanding and learning about this mind-boggling mystery we call consciousness. And I can’t help but visualize some god-like entities smiling at us from some inconceivable hyperspace perspective, as we might smile, and even cry a little, at our own adorable children, learning and growing, as they start out on the journey of life.
Happy dreams
- 563 reads
-
Thanks for your added insight and encouragement Anna.
Always nice to receive some confirmation that others share our interests and discoveries in this dream-like journey.
I'll check out Arnold Mindell for sure ... and yes, Ken Wilber is one of my inspirations as well.
bye for now
Anna , thanks for introducing me to the work of Arnold Mindell. It's just the kind of out-of-the-box, right-brained free and fearless thinking that I find most fascinating.
Another such thinker you may or may not be familiar with, or interested in, and who has strongly influenced me, is Joseph Chilton Pearce. Amongst others, he wrote a book in the late 1960's called "The Crack in the Cosmic Egg," perhaps one of the most comprehensive and profound de-constructions of the 'Illumination' experience/process, I have ever come across. Unfortunately, his early writings went out of print, but apparently is being re-issued, and is no doubt still available second-hand.
There are also some videos on-line featuring his ideas, but nothing approaching the overall synthesis or far-reaching implications explored in his writings.
But here is one you might want to check out:
Hey,
just listened to some of the video... sounds quite anti-culture
Yes, to say the least, JCP is anti-culture. Or at the very least, suspect of the status quo of mass-culture.
I believe the point he is making is that culture is essentially an ego-based construct that is, so to speak, the playground of the ego-body-mind. Conversely, the ego-structure is a cultural construct. So ego and culture are fabricated, artificial, conceptual constructs that exist in a symbiotic-like, mutually sustaining relationship, as one can't exist without the other. As such, they co-opt our primary, natural state of consciousness which is is always there, but covered up by the illusion of this identification with ego and culture. Not that there is anything inherently wrong or right about that -- it's just the way it works. But it then follows that, for those who are in the process of ego dissolution, culture is not your friend. In fact, culture will fight tooth and nail against the very idea of ego dissolution, because obviously, its own sustainability depends on the ego structure, and obeisance to its rules and rituals, and the illusion of the pursuit of cultural trappings, as the basis of happiness. And as well, ego will fight tooth and nail against the dissolution of its cultural paradigm, for the very same reason that its own existence depends on it.
At least, that's my take on it.
Dear Poet at heart
Thank you for your beautiful and interesting posts,I really enjoy them.
Your dream was quite an exciting adventure, a sub-pre-conscious trip and it reminded me about a guy I often quote, Arnold Mindell. In "The Dreammaker`s Apprentice" he says:
"The Mind of God or the Dreaming may be the source of your dreams and everyday reality".
The funny thing is that in this book he also tells about one of his dreams with a garbage truck.To him it sounded like cymbals in a music. To him the truck was in the s.c.Consensus reality while the sound of the cymbals was from an other realm which he calls Dreamland and which is preverbal/non-local.Meanwhile the Dreaming would be the non-dual,unsplit Reality being per se multidimensional.
And "when you are close to the Dreaming, the most serious things about this world seem funny and unnecessarily important".
An other interesting quote: "In fact, dreams often seem as if they are a group process searching for a facilitator who knows what is happening!"
I am also very conscious of the mystery of this evolutionary process that we are experiencing more and more tangibly (Ken Wilber has been and still is since quite a while my "guru philosopher")and even if I am convinced that there is nothing else to do other than being dreamed, we can`t help asking about the Dreammaker.
Anna