Nighmares and Energetic Response

I chuckled a little at a post where someone who watches lots of horror movies has nightmares half the night ... Jeremy Taylor, the author of Dream Work: Techniques for Discovering the Creative Power of Dreams talks specifically about people engaged in spiritual development. They must clear humanity's worst case archetypal bad dreams out! Why? "...the only place where evil can truly be faced and overcome is within." The problem is, some people keep getting the newest nightmares available on the planet though.

I have nightmares sometimes, but normally they do not have anything to do with what I have been watching. I am a big fan of horror and have had special guests like Vincent Price play the devil, etc. I sort of like that. Most of the time horror has an element of humor in it even in my dreams. It is about time that Freddy and Jason met up... Don't you think so! Anyway... often horror is sort of silly. War movies get to me and stories that might be or are horribly true. So I see the guy with all the nails out of his head and think that is pretty funny that people are scared because I don't see that in even the worst neighborhoods. War is real though. We even learned that torture happens too... recently.

You will notice in all the myths and great stories, the energy the character has going into the adventure has a lot to do with the energy he or she is faced with. For instance, if they go into a realm hiding as thieves escaping, the responses of the people they run into will be tricky. Lots of things will be hidden from them and they will not be able trust others. This is especially true when traveling the "realms." Your energy will determine where the dream goes and what you meet. The energetic response of the dreamer has a lot to do with the direction the dream turns to or continues in. If the reaction is fear, then that is the energy that will be played out in the dream. You might be running, paralyzed, heavy, cold, hungry, and hiding in dark places. I find that if I can do something nice in response to something that could go horrible, the whole dream changes! I call this, "Cooking a Nice Meal for a Hungry Monster."

Why not feed the monster if it is hungry? It is tough to do, but if you can eek out even a nice, small, pleasant response in a dream (such as a nice bit of poetry in the form of a spell which someone mentions in another post that changes her nightmare into a beautiful sunrise), you will find the whole dream will turn around. It is difficult to get past fear in dreams or in real life. Some say the reason we are "here" is to work though fear energetically. Often nice, or even unexpected funny responses will work in real life too. I can have several life experiences where they got me or other friends out of jams. And don't think this is fluff bunnyish, I try everything before losing my teeth especially when there is a lot of them and one of me. It is just great to walk away with everything like a happy holy trickster of myth where everyone gets something out of the deal.

If you take the Hungry Monster theme back into real life, it might me nice to have responses that help the world. Perhaps we are all afraid of poverty and starvation but we think more about our personal fear of public speaking. If you can do something to help feed people, I think that is very nice and sorely needed. It is so much better than turning away. We certainly have a lot of opportunity to do that here. Poor people are not monsters, but in the darkness of our minds that we cannot see, we may find it a difficult and unpleasant reality to really see. There may be a hidden fear response gone unrecognized.

This is not to say that nightmares are not very useful. The author of the book mentioned previously also says that nightmares often call attention to survival issues. In a dream state, these issues can be worked out authentically. I interpret that as meaning it is what we really are like without the masks we wear in everyday life.

I was told that Stephen King gets his inspiration from his dreams. That is saying a lot! Wow. He must sleep like a pointy toothed little baby. Grrrrrr!