–by Dale Mann
Can we purposefully frighten ourselves into experiencing, not nightmarish reality, but unusual psychic events and dreams? Here I’m not referring to telling ghost stories while spending the night in a graveyard or a haunted houseâ€â€places where anything may happen. Rather I’m thinking of a more relaxed and controlled setting, but in any case the answer to the question is, Yes!
Humans and animals, and dare I include insects and plants? (many Seth readers would say, “Yes”) are endowed with a very wide range of emotions that many people believe extend far beyond the small descriptions we assign to such feelings: the usual narrow classifications with love at one end and hate at the otherâ€â€and everything else squeezed in between.
It’s also understood that within a group of individuals the strength of emotions felt among the members of that group can vary in intensity and degree even when the same emotion is prompted or felt by all of them under the same circumstances and at the same time. The degree of that variance is determined by individual focus and beliefs. And, according to Seth, it is our beliefs, turned into emotional energy, that controls all the events that we each experience. Both the good and bad experiences.
In The Nature of Personal Reality Seth provides us with some excellent information on the ego. In this book he says that it is the ego portion of our minds that acts as a guardian for the conscious mind, controlling most if not all of the information that comes to our conscious awareness. He also says the ego will ignore information coming from both physical and non-physical sources when “it” considers the data unimportant, and what “it” considers important, varies during our lifetime, and is based within our deepest beliefs. Elsewhere we learn from Seth that our beliefs add emotional coloration to and shape physical events. About the ego Seth said:
“It will often neglect any clairvoyant or precognitive material that comes into the conscious mind from the deeper portions of the self. On occasion, when the ego recognizes that such data can be highly practical, it then becomes more liberal in its recognition of itâ€â€but only when such information fits in with its concepts of what is possible and not possible.”
“Now the ego’s concepts are your concepts, since it is a part of you. If you dwell on ideas of danger or potential disaster, if you think of the world mainly in terms of your physical survival and consider all those circumstances that may work against it, then you may find yourself suddenly aware of precognitive dreams that foretell incidents of accidents, earthquakes, robberies or murders.”
“Your own idea of the perilous nature of existence becomes so strong that the ego allows this data to emerge, even though it is “out of time,” because your fearful beliefs convince it that you must be on guard. The incidents do not even have to involve you. From all the unconscious telepathic and clairvoyant data available, however, you will be aware of this particular grouping, and it will only serve to reinforce your idea that existence is above all perilous.”
“If this information becomes available in the dream state you may then say, “I am frightened of dreams. My bad dreams so often come true.” So you try to inhibit memory of your dreams. Instead you should examine your conscious beliefs, for they are so strong that they are causing you not only to focus upon calamity in the physical world, but to use your inner abilities to the same end.” (Seth, The Nature of Personal Reality, Chap. 3.)
As we grow from childhood into adults we strive to learn how to overcome our fears. We try to set aside our fearful beliefs beginning with childhood tales connected with superstitions, demons or spooky ghosts, as those terms are generally understood. If we succeed we eventually decide that, monster-wise, there’s nothing out there waiting to grab us. We no longer fear that which is “unknown” insofar as our own personal beliefs are concerned. This is not to say we don’t continue to enjoy scary movies and books. During those times when we are engrossed within a scary story we like to pretend the danger is real. It’s called suspending our disbelief. The more a story teller can get the readers or audience to do that the greater their success. However, in this “story” we must remember we are ourselves the authors, the story tellers, of our own lives.
It is generally believed that a person who has no fear of “psychic” materialization or events may be more likely to consciously perceive such events when they occur. But then again maybe not. If no threat is perceived by the ego and no fear is felt, then the ego, connected as it is to both the conscious and the unconscious, is the first to pick up on such events and will, in many cases, ignore it; and subsequently so will the conscious mind. When we reach the point where we pride ourselves on having no fear of things that “go bump in the night” we may also discoverâ€â€as our childhood fears disappearâ€â€so do our super psychic experiences and special dream events.
In an attempt to reverse this trend this writer has begun an experiment which springs out of the question: Can we trick the ego? And if so for how long? Can we, through imagination, fool it by pretending there “is” a threatâ€â€thus forcing the ego “not” to ignore information that may be revealing in some way. And, if so, which of the various emotional energies can we use to push the ego into a different, although temporary, mode of operation? We have to use emotion energy it seems, at least for now.
Following this line of thought which emotion is the strongest or best suited for the task?
Looking back towards our early primate heritage it would seem fear, stemming from self-preservation, when called upon can deliver more on-the-spot physical and psychic energy than any other emotion. Fear-energy, at least in survival situations, and especially when we see a loved one at risk, is stronger and more important than love-peace-energy or anger-energy. Next, having selected an emotion to use in our experiment we try learning how to manipulate that emotion. This is the trickâ€â€again, for the purpose of causing the ego to bring in or allow certain data that would otherwise be overlooked, in this exercise during sleep.
The simple technique described here is not recommended for anyone who is “truly” frightened of their own psyche, or any powers of mindâ€â€the mental equivalent of the unknown. After all, to suggest imaginatively building up false fears on top of real ones would be very bad advice indeed. However if you feel you can, as in a movie, suspend your disbelief for a few minutes each night then you may safely drag out one or two old childhood fears of the supernatural; as if they were some old toys from a dusty chest in the attic, and play with them, but with a purpose in mind. In other words think of this experiment as a child who, wearing a Halloween mask, looks into the mirror for the thrill of self-fright.
It began when I became thoroughly dissatisfied with my dreams. I spend a lot of time at the computer and have often been bored with drab computer-like dreams. It seems many people who spend much time around the “keyboard” have them. To me it seemed that even a nightmare, which I never have anymore, would be a welcome change. But it was not my objective to have nightmares, only more interesting and meaningful dreams. And I certainly didn’t want too much of anything spilling over into my waking moments, at least not at first, although I would like my waking moments to become more “psychic” and hope this will become a byproduct of super psychic dreams.
Giving ourselves the suggestion of having more meaningful dreams doesn’t always work. Clearing our mind of all thoughts for at least 5-minutes before sleep, while it does seem to help, isn’t enough. It is also quite boring. No, we each want our dreams to be more like good movies with plenty of realistic scenes and lots of interesting characters. We also want our dreams to contain meaning and insightsâ€â€something that pre-sleep suggestion alone cannot provide. What is needed here is an application of emotional energy to act as a bridge between the conscious and the unconscious; a bridge with such strength and width that even the ego, that guardian of reason, is forced to recognize the traffic flowing across it.
Looking back you may recall meaningful dreams that implied or hinted at true psychic encounters, and often it seems such dreams come when we are completely exhausted or apprehensive in some way. Now, complete exhaustion is hard to fake when it comes to fooling the ego since it’s a physical condition rather than a state-of-mind in usual terms. Apprehension therefore may provide a way. Here we purposefully induce within ourselves a feeling of apprehension, but with the understanding it is completely within conscious control and can be self-induced and more importantly un-induced at will, and we will “playfully” use it just before sleep.
Before sleep I imaginatively create a state of mind filled to the brim if I can, not with fear, but with apprehension. I tell myself that I “may not” be completely safe in my cozy bed and the darkness “may” contain “unknown” elements. I suggest that the ego should remain on watch, for protection. I instruct it to alert me, in the dream state should anything unusual appear. The ego does not disappear when we fall asleep. It doesn’t disappear into some never-never land. It remains on the job, but it does lower its guard. And we want it to lower its guard complete insofar as its censorship duties are concerned. While we are asleep we want the ego to allow as much information to pass as possible. No longer should it consider anything as being unimportant or “unworthy” of our attention. I’ve used this technique with remarkable results to prompt some very interesting dreams. Perhaps it could also prompt OBE’s.
Primitive man, it has been suggested, knew far more than we do about out-of-body experiences. When at night, as their physical bodies slept, they routinely patrolled the area in their dream bodies looking for any approaching danger from prowling animals. If this is true then apprehensions would have been a motivating factor. Today, few people in this part of the world at least need worry about wild animals sneaking up on them as they sleep. More likely those who do worry at all are concerned because of prowlers. Even so they are protected to some extent by doors and walls and not out in the open and exposed as our ancestors were.
By invoking imaginary apprehensions prior to falling asleep I’ve been able to bring my dreams more in line with what I want them to beâ€â€active. My dream time is not wasted. Things are being accomplished and I remember more in the morning. I think more is being accomplished than even I realize. It’s as if I moved into some new area of dream experience. So far I’ve had no frightening dreams only more energetic ones. Dreams with greater vitality and stronger themes.
These methods, while they are workable, and do bring positive results, should not become a permanent frame of mind and should not be allowed to supplant any gains made in overcoming unwarranted primal fear. This exercise is meant to help us better understand what we can accomplish when we purposefully direct and control emotional energy towards an end other than simple expressionâ€â€even when it’s used to trick some portion of ourselves. It is a small step in a new direction.
To those who are worried that perhaps the giving of energy to scary thoughts may bring them, the apprehensions, into their physical experience, I would suggest they do not focus on building up false night time apprehensions based upon anything other than fantasy. A person who is afraid of spiders, which are real, should not use such images to try and trick the ego.
Much to our advantage, as far as this exercise is concerned, the ego apparently doesn’t demand specifics to the same extent at bedtime as it would, say, during the day when we are fully awake. At bedtime, when we are drowsy, suggesting that the ego remain alert for danger seems to work even when the reason or “cause” is left blank, vague or undefined. We can not trick the ego into acting upon information it knows beyond doubt to be false.
It would do no good for an adult to try and convince the ego there’s is a monster waiting under the bed. Whereas a child, or someone with a child-like ego, might succeed using such a pretense. When the conscious mind provides the ego with information so “lacking” in details, vague, and without descriptionâ€â€data it cannot verify, the ego has no choice, it must consider itâ€â€and to remain alert “and” receptive while doing so.
By bringing emotional forces into play, as tools, as an application, rather than feelings alone, we open up areas that before may have been closed, or half closed to a larger framework of experience. Emotions are more than feelings, facial expressions, or strong opinions. And their effects can be seen to result in more than physical action, or inaction. They are the driving force of our being. It is our desires and beliefs that kick-start our emotions and that enables us to lead ourselves into new areas of interest and growth. As Seth once said in other words, emotions are like colors, there are no “bad” ones. It’s what we do with them that counts.
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