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The Science Behind Dreams

This is a Scientific American Article, not a very long one.

The Science Behind Dreams 

New research sheds light on how and why we remember dreams–and what purpose they are likely to serve- By Sander van der Linden on July 26, 2011

  1. “One prominent neurobiological theory of dreaming is the “activation-synthesis hypothesis,” which states that dreams don’t actually mean anything: they are merely electrical brain impulses that pull random thoughts and imagery from our memories.”

I bet this explanation is popular in a cynical, the-universe-is-only-a-computer kind of way.  I’m not hanging with this one simply because it hasn’t been my experience.  My dreams, throughout my life, have LITERALLY given me archetypes or specific information regarding where to look, who to go to, or what was going to happen.  My dreams have literally been A MAP to what appears to be dense on this world.  The analogy could be, earth as Disneyland and my dreams are the maps they give you so you don’t get lost in the carnival.  Don’t leave home without it.

2. “…evolutionary psychologists have theorized that dreaming really does serve a purpose. In particular, the “threat simulation theory” suggests that dreaming should be seen as an ancient biological defense mechanism that provided an evolutionary advantage because of its capacity to repeatedly simulate potential threatening events – enhancing the neuro-cognitive mechanisms required for efficient threat perception and avoidance.”

Here is another fun one. Defense, fear, threat enhances your brain function. Negativity…enhances your brain function?  Not.  I’m fairly sure there is a big study on Buddhist Monks in meditation, perfectly happy and peaceful that proved their higher brain waves and parts of the brain left lying there were awakened by being calm, content, and happy.  So, positivity and being kind to others enhances your brain function. That’s why haters are always nuts.  No love.

3.  “Those participants who exhibited more low-frequency theta waves in the frontal lobes were also more likely to remember their dreams. This finding is interesting because the increased frontal theta activity the researchers observed looks just like the successful encoding and retrieval of autobiographical memories seen while we are awake. That is, it is the same electrical oscillations in the frontal cortex that make the recollection of episodic memories (e.g., things that happened to you) possible. Thus, these findings suggest that the neurophysiological mechanisms that we employ while dreaming (and recalling dreams) are the same as when we construct and retrieve memories while we are awake.

Well, your memory is your memory, whether awake or asleep.  You store memories in the same place.  That’s not too earthshattering.  Memories are real.  It doesn’t matter when or where they take place.  Ask anyone.  They will tell you that they had a dream that they’ll remember forever, just like they’ll remember the feeling at their wedding, the birth of their baby, or their first kiss.  My dreams are no less real, and maybe more real than my waking life.

If you look at the summation at the end of this article, I find it erroneous as it talks about stripping away emotions.  None of my dreams have done that.  They’ve deepened or exposed my emotions to use as information and I encourage you to do that as well.  Here is an example of needing the other half of the scientific method; introspection and intuitional controls.

Neuroscience tends to objectify the mind by examining the brain. The brain and the mind are two different levels of manifestation. There can be no argument about the true significance of dreams once you start retrieving information from them that can be used with people and events in your daily life because those same people and events are shown to you in a different way in your dream, shining a bright light from the universe on them.  The bridge that is built is axiomatic. You just have to listen.

purple face

 

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Intuition is More Powerful Than Intellect

Steve Jobs said, “Intuition is more powerful than intellect”

“We don’t have to reject scientific logic in order to benefit from instinct,” says Cholle. “We can honor and call upon all of these tools, and we can seek balance. And by seeking this balance we will finally bring all of the resources of our brain into action.”

Here is the article.

We Just Do Things Differently

The Ten Things Intuitive People Do Differently (Or the things that I do and have done for years)

  • They listen to their inner voice
  • They take time for solitude
  • They create
  • They practice mindfulness
  • They observe everything
  • They listen to their bodies
  • They connect deeply with others
  • They pay attention to their dreams
  • They enjoy plenty of down time
  • They mindfully let go of negative emotions
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Activating the 12 Chakra System

I work with the immaterial energy centers of the body all the time in my office while I’m doing Reiki.  My patients can feel it because I’m working with Qi or Ki. In addition, my pendulum can pick up the direction of their spin very easily but I don’t use it much anymore.  My hands can feel it.  I only use it when a patient needs to see how their energy is affecting something they can see; the pendulum.

the-12-chakra-system2

Chakra means “wheel”.  Most people are used to working with the 7 chakras, but in this time of increased spiritual growth and ascension, it is important to work with the 12 chakras.  That said, only do it when you’re ready, especially if you’re just now becoming aware of your qi and the chakras.

12-Stellar Gateway chakra-Accessed in deep meditation or even in the dream state at night when you’re out of the body yet still tethered.

11-Soul Star-The Soul Star Chakra is located about six inches above the crown chakra (top of the head) & is the bridge from the human to the spiritual realms. …

10-Causal-The causal body is the layer of energy beyond the higher mental body and is linked to the throat chakra and the causal chakra at the back of the head. This is the doorway to higher consciousness and links the personality to the collective consciousness of the planet.

9-Crown Chakra-This is where we learn, on a spiritual level, to love unconditionally, allow compassion for our fellow soul’s who we realize are on their own path, just like us. It’s also where we open up to lessons directly given from spirit guides and what opens wider when we seek an adventure.

8-Third eye chakra or clairvoyant seeing.  This one spins constantly for me as I live by my intuition first and then I run it through the filter of my rational mind.  It’s psychic vision or a sense of what you are creating going forward for yourself.

7-Throat chakra-how you express yourself.  Whether speaking, writing, playing, crafting, painting…you are speaking in your voice that is unique to you.  For people that feel they must hold their tongue or were taught to guard their cards closely, this will be very low functioning.  There is a good middle ground here.

6-Heart Chakra-who and what you love lives here.

5-Solar Plexus-Your power chakra.  How you express your strength, what you’re good at in the world or not who you are to the outside world, confidence level.

4-Naval chakra.  This is the Dan Tien and is the center of your body.  Your birth qi is seeded here by your mother, who also formed your subconscious mind.  This is very personal and sometimes we need to talk deeply about this.

3-Sacral chakra-personal feelings.  Relates to all reproductive and digestive issues.

2-Root chakra-Your grounding, sense of connection and security in the body related to sex, reproduction, money, ability to walk, willingness to walk, desire to run, relaxation and movement of the feet, hip, knee, ankle, and feet will be directly affected by your attitudes, values, feelings and actions with regard to all of these issues. Security, territory, property, what propels you to stay in the body and keep interacting on Earth in this unique manner.  The ten chakras above it are what energize you with “your agenda”.  Everyone is walking the Earth for different reasons.  The soles of your feet bring in the energy directly from the Earth like a two-pronged plug plugged into an electrical outlet.  Be sure you’re plugged into the Earth.

1-Earth Star.  The condition of your earth star will tell a practitioner whether you’re plugged in the body or compromised.

Chakra healing is now a widely known method of energy healing, and although most people are familiar with the 7 chakra system, there are in fact many chakras.  The higher ones are transpersonal.

It’s important to work with your Reiki practitioner closely to activate and balance both front aspect and rear aspect chakras.

Peace!

 

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Process or Product?

What is more important to you; the learning process, enjoying the moment, the movement, the relationship, experiencing the event itself…OR seeing and feeling the manifested product from your choices and actions?

Anything manifested in physical is fleeting, temporary, like a cloud that will eventually evaporate like your body at the end of your life.  We all really need to think about this when we start coveting something.  Do you really have to have it or do you need something else that’s inside you?

The other side of the coin are the experiences we have, what we learn about others and ourselves.  Now, in this scenario, there are no mistakes.  Everything we go through has a learning curve or we are doing it for the adventure, to see what it feels like.  There is the possibility that we will feel things emotionally or physically that we have never experienced before.  The experience is not fleeting because it affects your spirit.  It doesn’t matter if the experiences feel good or bad because both are temporary.  This too shall pass!

If you believe in the soul and eternity, then you’ll want to go in this direction.  No one can take your memories and experiences away from you.  While it’s vital for everyone on the planet to have food, water, air, and a roof over their head, what we need most beyond that is human companionship, adventures, and learning.

It would be a mistake to size up your success based on “stuff”, tangible this and that for it will evaporate and mean little to nothing in the end.

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Rear View Mirror

I was looking straight ahead, as usual, driving my car.

I very rarely look at the car behind me in my rear view mirror.

For some reason, this time I did.

She was alone in her car with sunglasses on.  I tried not to stare because somehow, I could tell she was upset.

I must have had my empathic radar on again because she looked normal for ten seconds.

I kept glancing back though.

Ok, now she was crying very hard.

I could tell by the shape of her lips as she was trying to control herself and wiping under her eyes beneath the sunglasses.

So many questions and pictures went through my mind.

Did she just get a call from the hospital that her son had gotten into a car accident?

Did one of her parents just die?

Then she started hitting the passenger seat and crying while we sat at the red light.

Being the kind of person I am, I wished I could let her know I wanted to reach out to her somehow.

When she got angry and hit the seat, that caused me to think her husband either asked for a divorce, she caught him with another woman, or her boyfriend text broke up with her.

Then the light turned green.

I wondered all of that, seeing something I’ve never seen before all in a space of forty five seconds.

I hope she’s ok but I’ll  never know.

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Eat Whatever You Want

I know most of my holistic peers don’t agree with me on this.  That’s fine.  This isn’t a consensus reality.

You know the saying, “You are what you eat”?  I disagree…so much.  You are what you think and what you feel.  Wayne Dyer, “The more you change the way you look at things the things you look at change.”

I love it when Abraham-Hicks gets a new person up to ask a question and she asks them, “Do they tell you what to eat?”  I think it goes over the head of the person in the audience asking a question but I find it hilarious.

From my 15 years in clinical practice and from reading the science backing up the reason for why the body is the way it is, I believe that hardly anyone understands why the body is the way it is…really.

You are what you feel and what you think and then your mind manifests it.

Your vibration has been proven to be absorbed by all of your cells and literally changes them.  What is your vibration?  Your vibration is the dominant feelings you run and your habitual thoughts, beliefs, and ideas all day.  It’s also what you absorb from other people because you don’t have the boundaries up around your body.  It’s also what you decide to watch and take INTO your mind all day instead of being focused on your own body, your own thoughts, your own breath, and feelings.  The latter is what you’re shooting for being centered and grounded.  Then you can hang around in public and not habitually suck the public energy into your space.

Yes, food has vibration, by itself, without anyone in the room.  All the plants and animals we eat used to be alive and have their own vibrant qi.  Then we killed them.  So we all eat dead food unless we just picked it or just killed it.  But THERE IS NO WAY that any food sitting there on the counter has a stronger vibration on its own, affecting your cells than your feelings and thoughts right at this moment about the food.

The fact is, your thoughts and feelings are what affect the food, not the other way around.  The food does not have power over you, you are the one that has the power over it.  Your attitude toward the food you eat, your feelings about the food you eat is what makes the foods vibration.  That fact is the origin of blessing food before eating it is aligning our minds and blessing ourselves no matter what we eat so that we are in a loving frame of mind.

So, eat whatever you want, dream up your life, meditate and feel your cells vibrating and lose the guilt!  Be happy while you’re eating and that alone changes your metabolism.  Other things do too, but ignore the toxic emotions projected on to food or anything for that matter,  by other human beings and the media.

Salad looks really good to me, but so does the Laffy Taffy sometimes.  If I get happy thinking about it, it raises my vibration and eating it cannot bring my vibration down unless I change my thoughts and feelings about it.  Because they both make me happy, they are both healthy and they both taste good.  But if you really believe it’s bad, don’t eat it because then you are eating the bad vibes you just projected onto it!  It’s all about what you believe, not the thing itself.

Let’s see how long this takes to catch on in our compulsive, materialistic culture where everyone gives away their thoughts and feelings to everything they see outside of themselves to avoid dealing with or knowing their own thoughts and feelings, thus their own power.

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Publishing Joy

I feel like my baby is about to go off to college.

I’m about to publish my first book and it’s almost time to let it go,

No longer able to control where it goes in the ethers,

Out into the world, warts and all,

Fresh, innocent, never having smelled a book store (yeah right)

Never having gone through the digital or paper mill…

Does that hurt?

My memories, feelings, occurrences, family secrets, pictures,

losses, dates, intimacies, grandparents, babies lost, tears cried,

Oh my god!!!!  Why did I write this memoir????

Stop the presses!  I can’t do this!!!!

I can’t put all of the truths of my life out into the public for perusal and criticism!

Not that anyone will care…but my life has been interesting hasn’t it?

I wrote it so it sounded interesting….yes I did.

Why did I listen to my FRIEND????  She said, “Lisa, write a memoir”

after hearing me tell stories.

Well, what if no one ELSE is the least bit interested?

This is nail biting territory if anyone reads it.

I seriously do have many mind bender stories.

What if people think I’m nuts?

There’s no such thing as bad press.

I’m just…a little nervous I guess.

impublishingmymemoir

 

 

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Oblivion

woman-with-orbs

Digital Artist Sandra Bauser



Time fades into oblivion

One memory, one vision of you and I feel whole again.

I remember your voice, your smell, the feel of you next to me.

In time, it was so long ago, yet to my mind, it was yesterday.

My love for you is as natural as my heartbeat.

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Emotions You Run Proliferate

It’s not quite fully understood yet and I don’t believe there’s a scientific formula for it, but people are starting to observe the fact that emotions you run accidentally, by default, in reaction to events, others, OR on purpose… duplicate.

There are no right or wrong, just or unjust feelings.  Everyone is free to feel whatever they feel at any moment in time and then receive the repercussion.  It’s nature.

If you throw a ball straight up into the air, it will come down.

If you’re in the habit too long of sitting in and running negative emotion, it becomes an automatic pilot and then your body will begin to break down.

If you’re in the habit of daily getting up and feeling and enjoying your body, grateful to be alive one more day knowing it’s going to end someday and deciding to drink it in and run the race, your body will remain strong and vigorous.

Some people put on a good front that they’re happy, but their body tells the truth.

If you tell the truth about how you feel, let go and move on to the next one, you will be well.

If you deny or cover how you really feel and never let it go, you’re making yourself ill.  Sure, you can do it with a smile on your face, but your body tells the truth about how you feel and a healer can feel it.

Take care.