I'm not really sure if I'm putting this in the right conference, but so what,
it's just a little time in the wrong place if I'm not.  Anyway, here's the
point:

I had a rather incomprehensible dream last night.  It started out with me
lying in bed, watching two snakes and another reptile hunting each other. 
Eventually I thinky it was the other reptile which ate both snakes.  Not too
clear as this dream is beginning to fade from my memory.  In another scene,
I kept catching glimpses of my cousin Joanna, who had appearantly been brought
back from the dead somehow, I remember her saying something as she looked at
me, but I couldn't hear her words.  BTW she's been dead for 2 years.  Then,
in the dream's third phase I was in a school, trying to find my way to the
final class of the day - what it was has completely faded from memory. 
Anyway, in this school, I also caught glimpses of my cousin, but this time
she just looked at me, but the stare was somehow inviting.  That's when my
cat knocking on my bedroom door woke me up.

I know it's some sort of puzzle, but the pieces seem to belong on 3 different
boards.

109 responses total.

Generally, the Jungian approach we use says that the symbols have a personal
meaning for you, that you have to discover for yourself -- no "dream book"
is going to be of much help. That means asking what snakes and other reptiles
mean to you, and how they're tied up with your recent experience. In the case
of your cousin, since she's no longer here, what you probably were seeing was
an archetype -- that is, a generic woman, who may have been scolding,
informing, commanding -- whatever you think women are likely to do. In the
last case, this may have been the generic woman issuing an invitation of some
kind. Of course, for many of us, there is the possibility of connecting with
someone in the realm of the dead, but this doesn't seem likely here. Think
about what the symbols mean to you, rather than looking for stereotyped
responses from strangers.

Well, I know at least what aspects of me the symbols represent.  I'm still
trying to see how the pieces are connected.  Well anyway, you do have a good
point.  I haven't been on this conference in ages.

It is said, though, that the goddess Hel allows the dead in her realm who are
not off extremely vile evil to return to the land of the living during the
night.  I guess I'll try to figure it out after I get some things done I need
to do in the waking world.

I don't believe in "generic" archetypes of anything, I believe more that
eveyone moves to a rythm which is theirs alone.  The snakes, are a symbol from
the Chinese Zodiac from the year in which I was born.  Their death's likely
represnt my attempts to put back my warlike behavior until I have a good
reason to use it.  My cousin used to be excellent at catching toads, so
perhaps the other "reptile" was a toad, which I know are actually amphibians.
The "toad" catching the snake is perhaps a message from my cousin that she
wants me to join her.  That seems strange to me because at her funereal I was
stunned as a bolt of positive energy rushed from her coffin into my chest,
and it took me a while to figure out what had gone on, which turned out that
she had possessed a voluntary host.

Sometime before she died, my cousin had invited me to come swim at the pool
in her apartment.  After the months passed and we learned the cause of her
death had to do with a heart tube which was too small, something one would
think doctor's would notice before it claimed a life.  Perhaps the every
famous cliche of dying of a broken heart comes into play here, as our love
for each other was very strong since the day we were introduced to each other.
Perhaps she was questioning why I had failed to fufill her request before her
death.

Schools represent achievement to me, but I still can't make sense of the 3rd
phase of my dream.  On the night I had the dream was the same night of the
landing of a rocket that had a possession of my cousin's on it.  If that has
any bearing on the dream, she must have been inviting me either to space or
to another world.  Maybe I can sort more out with more time.

Ok, this is perhaps some steriotyped interpretation that's from someone
else, so take it with a truckload of salt.  The only reason I'm bothering
is that it's interesting.
I've read that snakes can represent the subconcious, or for a better sense,
the 'real you' (esp. if you were born in the year of..every time I dream
of cats or bunnies (my year) it tends to represent me...but hey, this is you,
this could be a crock of shit)  now, the eating part (freudian analysis aside)
to me can be a basic representation for sustinance. Perhaps that you are
giving her the energy to stick around on this side of the Veil.
(perhaps she's worried about taking too much of your energy..it sounds like
she cared(es) about you., btw, intuition says that she's not selfish enough
to want you to die)  The last part of the dream (to me) hints at a lesson
or something that you are looking for, and perhaps your cousin is trying to
tell you that she can help you find that classroom to learn what you need to
learn.  (I note you were saying it was the last class of the *day* and not
the last class of school ever)  You may be coming to the end of an epoch in
your life.  <shrug>  That's my 1/2 penny worth.  Enjoy, and be amused.

I am as well sure that she wouldn't want me to die, but that part of the dream
likely came about as a lapse in my own will to live.
It is of course, nice, to see how other people interpret things even with all
their stereotypes.  Which, of course, is why I made this item in the first
place.

I should also add that I never found my way to the last class of the day in
that dream, but ended up over by the gymnasium before my cat's knock at the
door woke me up.

Your anaylsis adds to mine in quite a logical fashion.  I am indeed amused.

Off topic, I still kind of see my cousin ever time I look at Sailor Jupiter
from Sailor Moon, since they share quite a few physical features (eye color,
hair color, hairstyle (sort of).  Oddly, if she hadn't been Jewish in life,
I'd thought that my cousin would have made a wonderful Druid.

bjorn, are you familiar with the techniques of active dreaming, or 'The
DreamTime'. If you are convinced that this was not 'just' a dream, but an
actual encounter with the realm of the dead, I would suggest active
partisipation to make (now solisitated) contact with your cousin. 
        Often those that we have lost thru the Veil have and hold information
that is vital to the living, but as it often happens, we the living refuse
to see the dead, and that leaves only the time of the 'mare' that they can
easily come into contact with us.
        I would be happy to share any information with you about the several
techniques that I have found useful in these kind of endevors.

No, I am not familiar with those techniques.  I don't know what to call it,
as I didn't have possession of all my senses, as I do in some cases -
certainly I had all senses in what may well have been a near death experience.
In this "dream" for lack of a better word, I could hear, think, and see. 
Touch and smell were impossible or not neccessary.  Well, I could have
probably talked too, I just didn't.  However, your information would likely
be invaluable.  Thank you for the offer.

( I apologize that this make take several item numbers to complete, but my
system is far less than perfect)
        DreamTime or active dreaming ... it may take several attempts to become
proficent in this technique, but once mastered it presents endless
possibilities, includeing, but not limited to, remote viewing,
necro-communication, and easy access to the Astral planes and Ashkashic
records. The technique is realtively simple, before retireing for the night
repeat to yourself as you lay down to rest; 'I will to know when I dream'.
Repeat this seven times. When you 'know' that you are dreaming, in your dream
raise your hands before your eyes. This first step is the most important. You
must know that they ARE your hands.
        After you have found your hands, begin to look beyond them. To the next
object in your dream, and then the next, finally to the horizoin. Once you
are able to see your hands, whenever you raise them in your dream, you will
have first mastery over the dream.
        To contact those that have gone before us, thru the Veil ... usually
I recomend a black or purple candle be used for the ovious color connection,
but you mentioned that your cousin was of Jewish presuasion, traditionally,
the color blue is used in Jewish ceremonies to represent the after-life.
        The candle needs to be large enough to burn through the prime time of
your dreaming.

Re: #8
        The candle needs to be large enough to burn through the prime time of
your dreaming. (For the sake of safty I recomend that the candle be placed
in a small bowl and the base filled with some water). Remember that it is
discourteous to command the dead to return, it is best to 'invite' them
back.Before the candle put a picture of the subject, and before that burn
incense that is blue in vibration, vervain and lavander or sandlewood and
vanilla will work just as well.
        As you lay down to rest, focus on your chosen subject and call out
their name in trice manner. This means to call their name in three groups of
three (name, name, name, pause, name, name, name, pause, name, name, name).
        You will know when you are dreaming, and this dream will return to you
the one lost beyond the veil.
        bjorn, I wish you peace and success in this undertaking.

Re: #8
        bjorn, this is a caution that I must make to you ... the first enteries
treated, not incorrectly, the recounting of your dream as the difinition of
a self-generated night excursion ... just you memories, and night phantoms.
If this is all it was then it will out ... if it is that it is a true calling
to you from beyond the veil, this also will be made known. If the visage of
your cousin comes not before you by the fifth DreamTime, this is, of course,
after you have mastered your dreams, then she has most likely gone to rest.
Beware the deamon of obsession ... as long as we love them, they are always
with us.

        bjorn, there are other techniques, but this is the simplest, and
reportedly has the highest rate of success ... let me know what you find.

Thanks for the info.  Also for using seperate responses due to the length of
the information.  It will be a while before I attempt this - and further, I
should probably wait until I have my own place.  I need supplies anyway. Well,
thanks again.

You'r welcome. Feel free to call on me when there is need or just questions
... or just to talk.

This may seem like a silly question . . . wait a minute, the only silly
questions are the ones that aren't asked.  Anyway, would what I wear at night
have any bearing at all on an aspect of this technique?

Only if it makes you uncomfortable or is obtrusive in some way...

Okay.  I'll keep that in mind whenever it ends up that I try this.

Re: 14 ... Everything that we surround oueselves has it's 'hooks' to us, so
everthing that is about you may have a bearing on the task to hand ... things
affect us only as we allow them to. I have never realised 'myself' in clothes
on the astral planes, from time to time I have noticed 'psychic armor' has
enclosed my form there, but not clothes. 
        Many people pratice 'skyclad', naked, that is, and many others preferr
to have special ceremonial robes. The best techique is all in the mind.

Sure, but what you wear, and what tools you use, affect your will, your state
of mind. Ceremonial robes can help you get into an exalted state, even though
we know that the magic isn't in the robes themselves, but in our response to
them. I find skyclad is wonderfully energizing, and can be very exciting, but
there aren't any clothes there at all! Some of us have been working with
stones or crystals, in which the energy is said to be in the stone itself.
But I suspect that the power is in the person using it. And the right clothes,
lighting, room objects, sounds, and smells are going to affect your dreams
as well.

For one person, choosing what you wear to bed, the color of the sheets, what
you eat or drink before hand, etc. can help focus the experience of controlled
dreaming.  For another person, all that fussing will pretty much prevent any
significant opening or experience from happening.  Now, if the intention is
to follow a set discipline, a particular set of teachings, with dream work
as part of it, then it would be important to use the specific forms and
proceedures as taught, in order to have, as nearly as possible, the shared
experience of other followers of that discipline.  
Now, I'm not very comfortable skyclad, unless there is a particular need for
it in a specific ritual.  But worse, someday I'm going to need a black robe
for some reason, and then I'm just going to cry. :{  I *love* robes.  I love
color and flowing lines.  Even in my inner vision, I've got flowing robes with
long graceful sleeves.

Lately, I've been having very vivid dreams.  Kinda neat.  The other morning,
for some reason I was dreaming that I was making hamburger patties.  I could
see myself forming them and putting them onto my broiler pan.  The corrugated
metal was really bright and clean.  The dream was so vivid that my hands felt
greasy/sticky until I washed them.  Thing is, I can't recall if I washed them
in the dream or awake... 
This morning, I was dreaming about being at lunch with my mom and a friend
of hers and talking to the friend about how my mom has a tendency to isolate
herself.  Almost a realistic conversation, although the resteraunt was not
one that, to the best of my knowledge, actually exists.  I was awakened by
my son's friend calling to say his grandpa had fallen and been alone on the
floor for two days so could he come over while his mom took care of grandpa.
Pretty scary segue- from thinking/dreaming about my mom's aging isolation to
hearing about an older man in a dangerous situation of isolation.  Oof!

I know its been a while since the discussion of clothing, but I'm going to
admit that I'm an infantilist, and I wondered if my diapers would in any way
affect this.

Be interesting to see if they "come with you", or are transformed in some way.

Hmm, transformed diapers, an interesting thought.  So too is the idea of them
joining me.

Well, such as becoming armour or the like...

Might be.  It has been a while since I have astrally travelled, most of the
time I go to bed and simply don't dream.  I also will forewarn anyone who
wants to start that EVERBODY ALWAYS DREAMS stuff that even scientists agree
that almost everybody dreams.  Besides, having the activity for dreams doesn't
make it that I am having a dream.  set drift = off.

I think the last time I astrally travelled was sometime during my second year
of college.  I've been having a lot of upseting things happen lately though,
even though lately includes the middle of the school year before this one.

Diapers to armour - my codpiece perhaps?

        So how do you tell between dreamtime astral travel and dreams?

It's hard to explain how I do it, even to myself, but I know that I can
somehow separate the 2 types of experiences.

        I've never completely trusted anything in dream.  I've had experences
with things that jibe well with what others have described as astral travel,
but I can't seperate those from other dreams in a provable way.

This is a continuation of my response, response #24.

Though it is not connected to astral travel, while I was at college, one of
my friends thought my diapers could act as armor in the physical world.  His
thinking was towards me wering disposables though . . .
I suppose cloth could too.  His idea was a long the line of if someone tried
kicking me in the balls . . .

An a different note, lots of people in my family had visions of my cousin soon
after her death - I believe all of them were fully awake at the times of their
visions.  In fact, it seems that I am the only person in my extended family
who did not have such a vision.  In my mom's vision, she said that Joanna went
right up the stairs of the new house to see me . . .

Maybe this isn't the right item for that discussion, but . . .

Here's something else to think about, related I'd say about half-way to the
discussion in this item.  While I worked at Meijer, one night I was mesmerized
by the Full Moon - not just by it's sheer brilliance, it was almost as if I
was magnetically attreacted to it.  What I remember about that part of that
night is that I dropped what I was doing and proceeded towards it (despite
the fact that there was fence only a decent walk in front of me.)  I thought
of three ways to interpret this, but the third is so silly I think it should
be left beyond mention.  1. The Goddess of Wicca was calling me, 2. a Moon
God/Goddess of whatever compliation of religions wanted to reach out to me.

I don't like the idea of switching religions yet again, but I have come to
find reincarnation a slightly more comforting thought than any afterlife. 
I figure, everything else in the universe goes in circles - so that must
include life and death.

O well, this isn't turning out as well as I wanted to type it.

So what was option number 3?  Reality is sometimes more "silly" than
imagination.

Number 3 actually had way too much to do with Sailor Moon.

Just try to keep your heart open, Bjorn.  If it was another diety calling out
to you, it may be that you're ready to hear.  But don't fight it or force it.
That usually results in disaster and rash decisions.  ;)

In that case, I will wait for more messages before making any decision.  And
now, back to the topic at hand.

        I like to apply Occam's razor to things supernatural;  if a car is
broken and it becomes fixed, first check to see if someone worked on it or
whether the problem might be one that corrected itself or corrected it's
symptoms.  If you don't, you might well wind up with a broken-down car!

        Applying this to the example at hand, is it possible that this relates
to the human biorythmic cycle, and to nocturnal behaviour?

I dunno.  I stopped thinking about what I entered for a while and went on to
ponder "It might be neet to be undead, if it weren't for all the people who'd
try to kill me out of fear/misunderstanding/stupidity."

That reminds me of something that happened with an old family car though. 
Every so often, whether or not the car was "on", it's radio would turn on for
a while and manual attempts to turn it off wouldn't work.  It usually turned
itself off after a few minutes though.  The same sort of thing happened when
the car radio had been turned on manually, and it would turn off by itself.

Gee, someone brought up a similar problem on "Car Talk" once.  I think it was
about a frayed wire or some such, such that a connection would be formed
without the usual necessary actions being taken.

Getting more or less back to the original topic, I remember that on the night
I had this dream/message/whatever, in the waking world I was wearing my pink
flannel "girl" print diaper . . . It also felt like I was wearing a diaper
in the dream, but I do not remember whether it was cloth or disposable.  Which
leads me back to think tht my diapers probably won't affect the suggestion
made several responses above.

I guess I'll have to save seeing if Joanna has something to tell from beyond
the veil sometime after I live by myself in a self-owned or co-owned dwelling.
BTW Today is the day she died two years ago.  Just thought that information
might somehow be useful.

Response 38 isn't something I just came up with today.  It was an actual part
of the dream/message/whatever which I had intentionally left out because of
not yet having revealed my infantalism to the synthers.  It is also wrong to
say that I was wearing a diaper in the dream, and more correct to say I had
the sensation of wearing a diaper in the dream.  Jut needed to clear that up.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss