Multiple Layer Dream

Meditationtime Forum Post

Date:  Posted 6 years before Sep 14, 2018

Mr. Esquire 6 years ago

Last night I had an experience that, from what I recall, was the first time I experienced a dream within a dream. Although I cannot recall the first dream, I recall waking from the dream by the sound of keys entering my front door. I rose from my bed to find my bedroom door open and assumed that I had fallen asleep, not deliberately, as I sometimes do when extremely tired. I made my way to the living room to investigate the noise that had awakened me. I noticed an object run across the living room. At first, I was unable to discern exactly what it was but assumed it was some sort of medium-sized rodent. As I made my way further into the living room I noticed that the object was actually a small dog. There were at least three small dogs. I instantly assumed that perhaps a dog walker mistakenly returned someone else's dogs to my condo unit. Although plausible, in that moment, I started to sense something was out-of-place but could not necessarily figure it out. I then noticed that these dogs, who had been running freely in the living room, had urinated on the carpet. As I moved closer to look at the soiled carpet I touched it and noticed that it felt differently from the Berber carpet that is supposed to be in my unit. I looked at my coffee table and although it looked the exact same as the coffee table that should be in my unit, the base was different. I made the same observation with the dining room table. The top was the same, yet there was a subtle difference in the base. Again, I made the same observation with the kitchen cabinetry. I quickly concluded that I must be in someone else's unit-- a conclusion which did not make any sense, because from what I recalled in that instant, I went to sleep in my unit. I exited the condo into the main hall to check the unit number on the outside of my door. Instead of 4911, which is my unit number, it said 3911. At this point, I re-entered my unit, realizing that nothing made sense. I knew in that moment that I was dreaming, panicked and started violently slapping myself in the face to wake up...which I did, in my own bed in my own condo unit.

Questions:

1) I immediately thought of Inception and wondered whether multi-level dreaming is a common occurrence? Does it serve any utility?

2) Why was my instinctive reaction, upon discovering that I had a dream within a dream, to try to wake up as opposed to trying to explore or control my surroundings?

3) What can you do with lucid dreaming?

Dear Beloved 6 years ago

Damian, interesting experience...one that I've had but not in a long time.  I find that if I focus on identifying my dreams before I fall asleep, I'm much more likely to have one of these experiences but at other times it's completely random.  See these links for some out of body experiences:

http://www.inselfyoga.com/m/forums/topic/Astral-Projection-Out-of-Body-Space-Travel (Space launch experience)

http://www.inselfyoga.com/m/forums/topic/Two-Lucid-Dreams (Two lucid dreams same night)

http://www.inselfyoga.com/m/forums/topic/Active-Lucid-Dream-induced-by-dry-throat (Extended lucid experience)

1) DAMIAN: Is multi-level dreaming a common occurrence? Does it serve any utility?

Yes, you probably dream on multiple levels and scenes every night but are unaware of it most of the time and may not recall it unless you wake up right after the experience.  Scientists seem to think this is the brain's way of making order of all your random experiences throughout the day and there's truth to that.  But not all of these experiences can be attributed to random experiences.  You have to ascertain which ones are random and which are more unique by personal experience and sharing with others.

2) Why was my instinctive reaction, upon discovering that I had a dream within a dream, to try to wake up as opposed to trying to explore or control my surroundings?

This is a distinctive reaction by almost anyone who has this experience for the first time.  MiBeloved posted this response to another experience (http://www.inselfyoga.com/m/forums/topic/Out-of-body-trick-that-has-worked-so-far/1/5632/#5632) a couple days ago.

If there is excitement on the physical side during sleep even, and if kundalini in the sleeping body detects that excitement it may rapidly and suddenly pull back the astral form into the physical and the person will wake up on this side.

I can confirm from many experiences that as soon as you become excited or alarmed at an experience in another state of mind while dreaming or out of the body, you will be pulled back to the physical side.  After awhile I started to resist the excitement or alarming feeling while having these experiences or realizing that I'm dreaming.  This allows you to prolong the experience and sometimes you can even feel yourself fading or being pulled back into your physical body to wake up and you can actively resist waking up to continue the experience by instantly calming down.  If you have this kind of dream again, I suggest taking stock of your surroundings calmly and then deciding what you want to do next or letting things happen naturally.  You will be surprised...nothing sits still for very long in the dream/astral world.  If you just wait, something will happen.  Or you can be adventurous and try to fly or walk through walls, imagine and create objects out of thin air, and so on...

3) What can you do with lucid dreaming?

Lucid dreaming allows you to explore things in a non-retributional way and to explore your own psyche and observe its habits in an unchecked environment.  It also is a preview of what kind of state you could end up in after this earthly body has passed away.  Robert Monroe is a famous writer on the subject of lucid dreaming and out of body experiences.  You might be interested in reading one of his books too.

This is a wonderful experience for you and I hope you have more in the future.  Thanks for sharing.

MiBeloved 6 years ago

It was not just an imagination. It was an astral projection in fact but there was mental confusion because the astral world does things which do not happen in physical existence. Since you are usually focused on the physical side and since that are where your confidence usually lies, your mind was using the physical reality and the knowledge it retained about that as a reference and so it was puzzled.

If you take time to keep a journal and begin paying attention to subtle things, then over time, your astral awareness will be sharper and you will have more of a reference to that side of existence and your mind will not keep using the physical reality so much as a gage or standard.

In the astral world for instance, it is quite possible for three small dogs to be in your apartment, astral dogs will have no regard for walls. They will walk right through the wall.

Have you ever seen a dog barking at a fence at someone or some animal, at a squirrel for example? You know very well that if the fence was not there, the dog would be running for the chase, so in the astral world, the dog would have run through that fence just as if it was not there.

The astral body is made of high frequency material and just as in an X-ray, the energy passes through bones, so the astral body will pass through solid materials.

But the same dog would freeze if you were to exert a mental force to stop the animal. But in the physical world such mental force has no impact on the dog.

What I am saying is that different dimensions operate under different laws of nature and just as we have learnt how to operate under the physical laws and we make do with it with pride, so we can learn how to operate the astral laws of nature.

In infancy one is very uncertain and untrusting about the physical world. The whole thing seems to be a big illusion. For instance when a toddler steps, he sometimes miscalculates the distance and falls. He then cries in protest because what he thought was there was not there. But as he grows up he gains confidence and this converts into wholesale arrogance and an extra-strong confidence in physical existence such that he denies that there is any other level of reality but this physical one.

So, just as the infant developed confidence and right judgment of distance and perception of form, you can do so in the astral existence if you gave it some consideration and practice to reach it regularly.

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Mr. Esquire wrote:

I immediately thought of Inception and wondered whether multi-level dreaming is a common occurrence? Does it serve any utility?

MiBeloved's Response:

Multi-level dreaming is common but the memory of it after returning to physical consciousness is uncommon. People are having multilevel occurrences all the time even in the waking state but they are not aware of it, because it takes place on a level which they do not perceive.

Imagine you were a motor, well of course there will be an electrical field around you but do you think that the motor is aware of that field. I am sure you would agree that it is hardly likely that it is.

There is an electrical field around your head. There is one around my head also and still if we are face to face either of us would admit that we do not perceive it.

So psychic perception is hard to come by, what to speak of agreement about it.

Recently, I was in a meditation class with about four other people. During the class a guy who was sitting, left his physical body and called me to go down a certain road with him. He said he wanted to show me something at someone’s house in the area.

When this happened, I who was sitting also, was in my physical body but I was switched over about 95% to the subtle side. That is why I perceived that he has left his physical body. However I wondered if his physical body had remained sitting or if it was slouched over. I opened my physical eyes and I noticed that his head was tilted backwards and his mouth was a little open.

He was actually asleep even though his physical body was sitting.

Did I ask him about it after? Of course not because this person has no astral perception and would have no idea of what his astral body did. The body not only called me but talked to me all unknown to him. If anything he would only recall having a thought about me in a dreamy state.

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Mr. Esquire wrote:

Why was my instinctive reaction, upon discovering that I had a dream within a dream, to try to wake up as opposed to trying to explore or control my surroundings?

MiBeloved's Response:

The instinctive reaction is to wake up or to fix things there so that they appear like and behave as such objects would in the physical world.

Exploring that is one thing but I prefer if you would just learn to observe what happens and how it happens like a news correspondence who films everything as it is happening and brings back the video for others to see.

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Mr. Esquire wrote:

3) What can you do with lucid dreaming?

MiBeloved's Response:

Good question!!

You can learn that you have a subtle body. That you do not need someone to give you an eternal physical body since the subtle body will survive death. You can develop confidence in that subtle body, transferring your attention from the physical to the subtle.

You can realize that the subtle body is adaptable to any body type. It can use an insect body, a vegetation body, an aquatic body etc.

The self is not the physical body. The self uses a physical body and is limited to the sensual range of that body unless it consciously shifts over to the subtle form.

The subtle form is adaptive. It assumes the shape and features of the physical body but it can change when it is in the astral world.

Marcia Beloved 6 years ago

In his first little book Journeys Out of the Body Robert Monroe gives many detailed descriptions similar to the dream you shared.  The time frame was around 1950, I think, before people wrote about and shared this stuff.  I read it ago and was fascinated.  He wrote another, which I have not read, called Far Journeys which is also recommended by Amazon reviewers.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

Darren 6 years ago

Michael wrote:

The instinctive reaction is to wake up or to fix things there so that they appear like and behave as such objects would in the physical world.

Exploring that is one thing but I prefer if you would just learn to observe what happens and how it happens like a news correspondence who films everything as it is happening and brings back the video for others to see.

Darren's comment:

This is something I was curious about.  Lately, on occasion I've found myself lucid or aware in an astral location and felt motivation to try and 'Do' something or find out clues about where I am or find meaning to the experience.  This includes looking through old books and looking for clues on old coins which contain symbols etc.  It always has an 'ancient' or antique feel but it's always difficult to make out the writing or work out exactly what it is I'm looking at.

I've also spent some time asking people around me "who they are", "who am i", can they tell me anything about myself etc.  I've also spoken to my physical body while it lay in bed and asking 'it' or myself questions (usually with no response or a blank stare). 

So all this 'investigative' work is futile?  You (Michael) would suggest that it is better just to hang tight and take in the surroundings?  If I can help it, should i try to strike up a conversation with other entities or just leave it?

Recently I found myself in a large mansion with very dense energy, I believe in the lower astrals.  A woman there tried to give me money - I believe to try and keep me there.  I found it difficult to wake up on the physical side after that experience.  Is it best not to accept gifts from other entities?

MiBeloved 6 years ago

Darren wrote:

This is something I was curious about.  Lately, on occasion I've found myself lucid or aware in an astral location and felt motivation to try and 'Do' something or find out clues about where I am or find meaning to the experience.  This includes looking through old books and looking for clues on old coins which contain symbols etc.  It always has an 'ancient' or antique feel but it's always difficult to make out the writing or work out exactly what it is I’m looking at.

MiBeloved's Response:

I would suggest that you abandon this approach if you can. Try not to carry the old method from the physical side into the astral existence. Instead remain open to the astral existence and to any existential changes which might occur there in your psychological profile and in your psychological tools. The way we process information on the physical level is not always appropriate to the astral dimensions.

Suppose you had to change species suddenly like if you had to become a leopard in a jungle in South American. Then if you just carry on in the usual human way with a pair of hiker boots stomping through the jungle, all the other animals will be alerted to your presence and you will just starve to death, because your body won’t be equipped to eat vegetation which is abundant. Trees can’t run away from predators but your mouth won’t be designed to handle vegetation and your digestive track cannot process it.

So you have to be open-minded to the leopard form and not use hiker boots. That form has special soft pads for moving silently through the jungle. If you carry the human profile into the jaguar body, and if you insist on doing things in the same way, it will be to your undoing

Many students come to yoga and demand that things be done in the way it is done in the physical existence. When these demands are not met, they get frustrated and either go away or say that yoga is just a mock up belief system.

When you move over to the astral side, hang loose for a little until you get accustomed to how that side operates. There are analytical tools on the astral side just as they are on this side, but these are different developments and you have to give them a chance to manifest and to operate.

Accept that these tools are there already and that you have to learn how to operate them rather than think that they are the same tools as on the physical side which you are familiar with.

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Darren wrote:

I've also spent some time asking people around me "who they are", "who am i", can they tell me anything about myself etc.  I've also spoken to my physical body while it lay in bed and asking 'it' or myself questions (usually with no response or a blank stare).