The Secret of Dreams | Page 8

is lacking may be evolved. It takes a very sensitive instrument to register all that is seen, heard and done while out of the body. It also requires physical, emotional and mental harmony, or the dreamer is apt to mistake an actual astral experience for an automaton of the physical brain, or vice versa. To what extent the ego would guide us and warn us, if we were only sensitive and responsive to the delicate vibrations sent down into the physical brain, it is impossible to guess, says L.W. Rogers in his volume, "Dreams and Premonitions." The extent by which we are guided and warned from the ego depends upon how much we are not swayed by our physical methods of artificial civilization implying the power to impress the astral experience on the physical brain.
The habit of our scattering thoughts must also be brought under control. One must be able to concentrate his mind on what he wants to think about. Camille Flammarion says nineteen-hundredths of the human family never think at all. They are merely shallow receptives for the thoughts of others. As you acquire the habit of controlling your thoughts and with the emotions well under control, then you begin to turn the consciousness back upon self, and as the sleeper lays his body down to rest he gives the ego an opportunity to impress itself on the lower mind. Gradually the mind is brought under control. This connects the two different states of consciousness. At first you begin to see pictures, landscapes, faces, etc., only for a flash. Then you will fall into unconsciousness. Once this state is attained, if continued the rest will not be so difficult.
With practice, you will be conscious of yourself leaving your body, conscious of yourself looking down on your body asleep, and seeing yourself going on a journey to inspire a friend or to acquire some knowledge of something you are studying in physical life. In this way you make your nights, as well as your days, to be of assistance to others. Your nights may be made useful even if you are not conscious of yourself out of the body, by suggesting to yourself upon retiring, that you will go somewhere, and meet some one and assist them in an unselfish act. If you persist in your suggestion on retiring, your spirit will go where you demand it to go, although you may not remember your experience in your waking state.
Just as it is possible for you to render help to another in sleep, so you can influence them for a good purpose. It is also possible for you to influence another selfishly, and let me warn you here, if you do, you are practicing black art, and as surely as night follows day it will return and burn you as you justly deserve, so beware and think well before you act. He who dabbles in occult teachings for selfish ends treads on dangerous ground, and he will not attain his desires, but rather the reverse. The unselfish soul who acts unselfishly can be of much service to his fellow-man, not only the living but also the misnamed dead, and they can often remember their astral happenings in waking consciousness to the minutest detail. This requires rigid training.
The beginner will find it to his advantage, to resolve before falling asleep that he will bring his astral experience through into his waking consciousness. It is also well to keep a notebook at hand and write down your dreams in the morning, if you cannot remember your dreams.
Speak to no one. Do not leave your sleeping chamber. Before the day is many hours old your dream will come to you. In this way if the student is patient and sincere he will, in time, be able to find out many things of the invisible realm where his soul functions during the time his body sleeps. I do not claim that our physical plane affairs should be guided entirely by dreams, nor are dreams of the fortune-telling variety to be relied upon. You must use your reason and judgment in this the same as anything else, and only when the student has attained to that point in his development where there is no break in consciousness, may he be guided by the astral life. The mystic, and sages, go beyond the astral life. They go into a state of dreamlessness. Listen to what a great mystic said:
"In waking state we are conscious of the objective universe. In dreaming we are conscious of the inner world. Then we are of great help to the living, and also the misnamed dead. In dreamlessness the true seer turns the light of consciousness back upon itself and in its own light sees the gloom of nothingness. Imagine