4. Sleep
What good is it?
For those that aren't trying to develop, it is a time for their body to rest and do basic maintenance.
For those that are developing, it is a laboratory of useful mental and physical tools.
Some of the basics about sleeping
Understanding Dreams
The first thing to know about dreams is that they aren't mysterious. Most of them merely display to us our level of mental development. Don't get caught up in what is happening in your dreams. Only pay attention to how you react to the situations presented. This will help you understand why you react as you do when awake.
Eliminate or Control Nightmares
If you are often frightened in your dreams, work on overcoming your SEVEN FEARS. Some think that we all have the same seven fears. This is ridiculously inaccurate. We aren't all exactly the same. Some are afraid of heights while others climb up the side of a mountain. Some might not be able to think of seven things that they fear, while some might have a list as long as their arm. No matter how many you have, dealing with your seven worse fears will solve the problem. Any other fear will become insignificant.
The most important part of overcoming your fears is making a serious commitment to do so. Finding out what they are is where to start. Analyze each of them and wonder why you are so affected while others are not. If you are afraid of spiders, pick one up and pet it. That's just a saying, but you get the point. Some people aren't afraid of spiders. Are they just lucky or mentally better developed?
Remember this: Once you overcome your Seven Fears, you will no longer have nightmares of any kind. Until then, enjoy your free horror movies.
This is a little story to show you how I began understanding dreams:
At eight years old I was fascinated with horror movies. Fortunately, my parents didn't try to inhibit my learning by censoring what I watched. As a child I was allowed to do anything I wanted, whenever I wanted. And I wanted to see every horror movie, so I did.
Naturally, I had horrible nightmares. I knew how ridiculous it was and never mentioned it to anyone. I didn't want them to think that I was so stupid that I didn't know that I was safely in bed at the time. And I didn't want my parents to stop me from seeing these movies, as some of my friend's parents did.
Every night before going to sleep, I looked under the bed, then held a plastic fluorescent cross to the light so that it would glow brightly in the dark and hang it back on the wall above my head, say The Lord's Prayer, and say;
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
I didn't realize at the time, because I always went through this ritual, but I was preparing myself to begin mastering my dreams. After my ritual, which had reinforced in my mind that I was safely in bed, instead of relaxing and drifting to sleep, I would begin thinking about dreams. I would think of them as movies. In most cases I would try to continue or expand on a recent dream. I began noticing that my dreams were even more vivid and scary, but that I was always able to escape danger. It almost became fun to see how I would accomplish this feat. In most cases, I would awake before a dream would be over. After several attempts, I was able to continue the previous night's dream. At times, they became a continuing saga until I saw another movie that got my attention.
Then an amazing thing happened; a dream would start with credits and music just as they did in the movies. I didn't realize at the time, but I was writing complete screenplays in my dreams. I see now that I should have done so. If I had been raised with people in the movie industry, there is no doubt that I would have been a writer and probably an actor, since I was always the star in my dreams. Who isn't the star in their dreams? In our dreams we all display our acting ability because we are reacting to an imaginary situation, just like being in a movie. That's all actors do. How can anything be simpler? Think about it.
What was really happening was that I was beginning to master my dreams. I was happy to scare the crap out of me because somewhere down deep, if the dream became more than I could stand, I could raise myself a level and enjoy the fact that I was dreaming, and even begin directing the dream. I had the best of both worlds.
Sleeping at will
This is a very simple skill to master. Any self-hypnosis instructor can teach this skill. Or you can learn how on your own by lying down, not to sleep, but to rest your body. While consciously relaxing more and more, begin fantasizing about something that does or would make you extremely happy. Some use a love or sexual interest. Some think about enjoying material things. Some think of spiritual things, such as leaving your body and traveling somewhere else. It doesn't matter what you use as long as you rest your body while your mind is doing other things.
You want to be aware of the fact that the real reason you want to sleep is to get away from the world for a while and forget your troubles, etc. We already know that the mind needs very little rest, so as long as we are resting our body and our mind is taking us into pleasant situations, why do we have to actually go to sleep. It's a bit simplistic, but you will begin noticing that you soon drift off to sleep before realizing that it is happening.
Mental and Physical Sleep
Our minds need very little rest. That's one of the reasons for dreams. It is a way for our minds to occupy itself while our body is being restored. Rather than have your mind waste away the night with mostly nonsensical dreams, give it a task to work on. Your mind can solve much more complex problems while you are asleep. You will soon see that your conscious mind does very little deep, analytical thinking.
Requiring less sleep
This is achieved by consciously programming your mind to rest your body much deeper than normal. It seems too simple, but many times a solution to a problem is overlooked because we look for, or expect to find, a complicated solution.
Healing during sleep
Our mind has a section whose only purpose is to keep our body healthy. Unfortunately, its only way of communicating with us is with feelings that it makes us experience. A big part of heightened awareness is learning how to listen to these feelings. The best things you can do to heal better in your sleep is to supply your body with the necessary material it needs in order to best heal itself, and be aware that the real purpose of sleep is not a way of escaping from the world. It is a time for our body to rejuvenate and heal itself.
Exercising during sleep
This is a very simple thing to develop. It will actually develop on its own as one develops heightened awareness. Developing this ability is a progressive step to enhance growth in other ways. Nearly every ability that we have, or will develop uses a combination of several abilities.
The way to begin exercising during sleep is to move around into various positions before going to sleep, and thinking about stretching and exercising while asleep. A dream can soon be expected. In the mornings one should stay in bed and limber up and stretch, then move into some light exercises in order to awake the body and prepare it for action. While doing this, think about how healthy this is and how some light exercise during sleep can be very beneficial to ones health. Doing this will be associating bed and sleeping with healthy exercise. From then on, this ability will progress into areas that will surprise you.
Exercising in bed upon awakening
This is the best way to start a day. It is also a time when your conscious and subconscious minds are nearly as one. What is done during this period of time is extremely beneficial.
As you awake begin wiggling your toes, then wiggle and rotate your feet. Then start wiggling your fingers and rotating your wrists. These two simple exercises awaken your feet and hands. If you get up at this time, you will notice that your first few steps feel much better than usual, and that your hands have better dexterity.
Now that you realize the benefits of a few simple movements upon awakening, you will notice that you will start moving and stretching your legs and arms to wake them. Seeing the benefits of this, you will begin moving, stretching, and lightly exercising other parts of your body before getting out of bed. You won't have to drag yourself around like a zombie until you have that cup of coffee because not only will your body be awake, but your mind will be awakened into a productive activity. You will love the positive affect this has on your mental attitude.
The next thing you will notice yourself doing is massaging your arms, wrists, and hands. With these two thoughts in mind, you will find that your mind and body will show you what to do. You will be helping blood circulation by squeezing the blood vessels, and you will be exercise muscles and joints. Remember, exercise to a human consists of moderate muscle usage, stretching, and massaging. Monkey-people, those still in the physical realm, exercise strenuously in order to build huge muscles, which is considered a great accomplishment to the mentally undeveloped. (Intended to be a slap in the face as a wake up call.)
Being alert and aware during sleep
Using your subconscious mind as a burglar alarm, smoke detector, etc.
It is a fact that our sense of hearing is many times better than we realize. Since birth we have tuned out our hearing ability in order to eliminate the cacophony of racket with which we are assailed almost constantly. What we haven't done is develop the ability to turn up the volume at will. We have learned from people's drug experiences that occasionally people experience periods of time where sounds are extremely amplified. Just realizing that it is possible begins the development process.
During sleep, our hearing is tuned out by our minds in order to allow us to sleep better. But during this time our hearing abilities have the capability to be on a high stage of alert, actually hearing at our natural, primitive level of extreme hearing sensitivity. All we have to do is allocate a small part of our mind to be the "night watchman" and listen to all sounds to determine if any of them are of concern. That watchman can easily follow all sounds and determine whether any of them are directed at you, and if any of them could represent pending danger or disaster. In most cases this watchman will have plenty of time to analyze the sounds and, if warranted, start putting your body's systems into a gradually rising state of preparedness.
This watchman can be developed to have a much better degree of accuracy than our normal conscious mind because it isn't driven by fear and emotion as our conscious mind normally uses for responsive reaction. Our watchman becomes a specialist at what it does. After your watchman becomes adept, you will notice that it will always be there for you, even when awake. Learn to trust him as if he were a guardian angel. After all, that's what your angels really are; developed parts of your mind that become specialist in certain areas.
"Feeling" the presence of people and knowing whether their intentions are clandestine.
We have this same watchman ability when awake, however, due to distractions, we don't utilize this ability very much. But by being aware of its existence, you will begin using it automatically. Begin noting how you glance in a direction and see something that attracted your attention that normally would have been overlooked. It may be a bird, a cat, or something as small as a bug. Everyone is aware of having had a feeling of being looked at, quickly turning our head and making instant eye contact with the person looking at us. It is very common among children in the school room. This ability will soon develop to a level that would normally be expected to amaze you, but it won't because as you develop, you won't waste time being amazed unless you are developing faster than you can accept. This is a big trap; being so amazed that one has to stop and tell someone, and brag, and begin thinking that they are much more than they really are. (I have just saved you from that trap.)
Instantly awakening in an immediate state of readiness if a situation requires it.
Your mind would rather prepare your body for action while you are asleep. It can start your heart pumping faster, begin deeper breathing, inject a bit of adrenaline into your bloodstream, etc. and preparing your conscious mind for action so that when you are awakened, you will be physically and mentally ready.
Someday scientist will discover that our minds will generally use dreams that require action as a method of preparing us for conscious action. If you need not be awakened, the dream will tone down or change.
You have to trust your watchman to only prepare yourself and awaken you if absolutely necessary.
When your body jerks as you are falling asleep
It is simply our mind's way of reminding us that this is the time to give it instructions for what you would like it to do during the night. What problem it should work on, etc. If we don't give it any instructions… I have to stop here. That's a subject for the second grade.
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