It Was Just a Dream... or Was It?

Have you ever woken up after a strange dream and thought "where did that come from?" You just had a dream full of people you have never met, things you have never done and confusing events you never thought were possible. So how is it possible to dream about things you have never heard of in your life? Is it just your imagination? Or are your subconscious memories trying to tell you something.

Sigmund Freud believed the foundation of all dream content was wish fulfillment and the everything that happened in a dream could be connected to the events of the previous day. Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams was obviously focused on the psychological elements of the subconscious including the id, ego and superego. To Freud, dreams were simply a representation of psychological problems.

But, then how do we explain dreaming about people and things we have never heard of before? It is possible they are a representation of other people in our lives, but if that is true how are we ever supposed to figure out who and why we are dreaming about them? There a ton of dream dictionaries on the Internet you can use to look up pretty much any symbol you can think of. Check out Dream Moods, Dream Central or iVillage's Dream Dictionary if you are interested.

One question that comes up often when people are trying to interpret their dreams is why do they dream about people who have passed away. The simply explanation is that they are thinking about them and missing them, consciously as well as subconsciously. Edgar Cayce, on the other hand, suggests the deceased person is trying to communicate with you. While you are asleep you are totally relaxed and open to different types of energy, making it easier for spirits to get through.

Edgar Cayce believed in reincarnation and past lives and he claimed to have psychic abilities. These things led him to believe dreams were the subconscious mind trying to tell the conscious mind something. Past life memories might creep into our dreams which could explain why people we have never seen before pop up. Have you ever encountered a person in a dream that looks completely different but you are convinced they are your mother or ex boyfriend or something you know in this life? That might be because your subconscious mind remembers them looking different.

Basically, dreams are another way to look into a past you can't remember. While a lot of the time they are reflecting things that have happened in your current life, some psychological issues stem from past lives.

Dream therapy is something anyone can do themselves if they want to. You have to practice remembering your own dreams first. A good way to do this is to keep a journal by your bed and write down everything you can remember about your dreams within a few minutes of waking up. The details usually fade the longer you wait to write them down so keeping the journal near your bed will remind you to write things down.

Eventually you might begin to see connections in your dreams and that is when you should look up certain symbols in a dream dictionary. A recurring dream is a lot more important (according to your subconscious) than a dream that you have only once. Also, a recurring theme or group of people is common.

With a little effort you will eventually understand your dreams better and therefore your own subconscious.

The Children Are the Future: Indigo Children

There will always be multiple points of views that come from different backgrounds and life experience when it comes to spiritual issues. Usually medical and psychological opinions in particular reject anything that can't be explained using practical science. That is why many Indigo Children are being diagnosed with ADHD.

The term "Indigo Children" comes from Nancy Ann Tappe who suffers from synesthesia and claimed to see a high number of kids with indigo coloured auras. In reality, identifying an Indigo child has nothing to do with the aura.

Indigo Children are defined as the following:

• They come into the world with a feeling of royalty (and often act like it)
  
• They have a feeling of "deserving to be here," and are surprised when others don't share that.
• Self-worth is not a big issue. They often tell the parents "who they are."
• They have difficulty with absolute authority (authority without explanation or choice).
  
• They simply will not do certain things; for example, waiting in line is difficult for them.
  
• They get frustrated with systems that are ritually oriented and don't require creative thought.
  
• They often see better ways of doing things, both at home and in school, which makes them seem like "system busters" (nonconforming to any system).
  
• They seem antisocial unless they are with their own kind. If there are no others of like consciousness around them, they often turn inward, feeling like no other human understands them. School is often extremely difficult for them socially.
  
• They will not respond to "guilt" discipline ("Wait till your father gets home and finds out what you did").
  
• They are not shy in letting you know what they need.

A lot of these characteristics make a child 'difficult' to deal with, at least in comparison to the other kids who sit patiently and follow the rules, never questioning authority.

Author of "The Indigo Children", "An Indigo Celebration" and "The Indigo Children Ten Years Later" Lee Carroll suggests that instead of giving these kids Ritalin to control their behaviour, they should get more special attention that helps them learn according to their strengths. Carroll believes the rise in children who think in less linear ways and are more creative and uninterested in rules and guidelines means that we are witnessing and involved in an actual shift in human nature.

Charles Darwin coined the phrase "survival of the fittest" and that is exactly what seems to be happening. Children are learning to think outside the box and strive to actively change the world, not just passively live in it.

In contrast to the evolutionary theory, there is also the idea that these children are being sent here for a purpose. They have come to guide us in another direction. They will be responsible for a major change in perspective and the understanding of our purpose as a whole. From this point of view, it is interesting to think that maybe there is some higher power that does want to help us. We really aren't alone.

As with any big change, it will take time, but that is the point in sending help down in the form of children. These kids could be the key to a future full of more open minded and non judgemental individuals. It kind of reminds me of Noah's Ark and Natural Selection combined. We can choose to change and take the help we are given, or we can just drug these kids like they are abnormal and ignore their potential. It might be a test, do we have faith or will we die off because we couldn't accept that maybe our way isn't the only way.

Numerology: Your Birthday

Numbers can affect our life in many ways. Numerology has been used for decades to gain insight into personality, challenges and purpose in life. Just like in astrology, numerology can offer some information about about the most important things you will have to face in this life and how to deal with them. You can see it as entertainment or follow it seriously, either way, no harm in finding out what your numerology chart says about you.

The difference between numerology and astrology is that astrology attempts to predict the future while numerology is more of a guide to how to navigate your own life. It provides insight into your personal struggles and can help you overcome obstacles.

Your birthday can tell you what your Challenge Numbers and Purpose Numbers are. I'll use my birthday as an example for how to find these numbers.

July 8, 1986 = 7+8+1+9+8+6 = 39. So my Challenge Numbers are 3 and 9. My Purpose Number is 3+9= 12, and 1+2= 3. Using your birthday for numerology is much easier than using your name I find and it can be a lot more accurate as well. Sometimes it is hard to know what name to use because of marriage and adoption among other things, but with your birthday, it never changes and there is no confusion.

The things that are associated with each number are as follows:

1: Creativity/Confidence/Starting Anew
2: Cooperation/Relationship/Balance
3: Expression/Communication/Sensitivity
4: Stability/Foundation
5: Freedom/Change/Discipline
6: Humanity/Acceptance
7: Spirituality/Openness
8: Abundance/Power
9: Completion/Wisdom
0: Inner Gifts/Intuition

A lot of websites call different Numbers different things so it is good to stick with one or two books or websites in order to keep it all straight and consistent. One good website for more detailed descriptions of your numbers is Numerology Essentials.

Numerology definitely isn't as popular or easy to find as astrology but if has it's own insights to offer. If you are really interested in it, I would recommend getting a book or two because it will be explained a lot more clearly. Some good ones are:

Numerology - Hanz Decoz
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Numerology - Kay Lagerquist
Number and You: A Numerology Guide for Ever Day Living - Llyod Strayhorn

There are many more books available, just check out the New Age or Spirituality section in Chapters or any other bookstore. Just another way to find out more about yourself, Enjoy!

Numerology: Your Name

Since I have pretty much said all there is to say about astrology by now, I thought I'd move on to my second favourite way to find out secrets about your own personality, and better yet, everyone you know.

Numerology can be done using your full birth name or your birthday, but in this post I'll be focusing on the name. Each letter is associated with a number so all you have to do to is add all the numbers together for your first, middle and last name and then reduce that to a single digit. The chart below show which letters are associated with what number.

I'll use James Dean as an example to demonstrate how adding and reducing the numbers works. The exact name on his birth certificate (which is what you should use if you want the most accuracy) is James Byron Dean.

There are three different numbers you can get from your name. The first is called the Destiny or Expression number and it is the sum of all the letters of your name. James adds up to 3, Byron to 11 and Dean to 6. The 11 is not reduced because it is a Master number. All of these added and reduced ends up being 2. Check out this website to read about your Destiny number.

The next number, the Soul Urge Number is just the vowels. James Byron Dean adds up to 5. The Y in Byron is considered a vowel in this case because there is no other vowel in that syllable of his name so the Y acts as a vowel. Look here for an explanation of your Soul Urge Number.

Finally, the consonants represent your Inner Dreams. Dean's adds up to 4. Here is a list of the Inner Dream numbers.

Numerology can be a little confusing at first but it's pretty easy to figure out if you have the chart. There are tons of websites you can look at that explain it better than I can, as well as books. It is kinda of similar to astrology in the fact that there are a lot of different levels and ways to look at it.

In my next post I'll explain how to use Numerology for your birthday. See you next time!

A Little More Astrology

I know I have already posted a couple times about astrology, but it's such an interesting topic that I thought I'd do one more. In my other posts I gave links for websites that you can check out to get more information on your astrological chart but sometimes the Internet doesn't go as in depth as you'd like it to. There are hundreds of astrology books out there, and they all give different perspectives.

Miss X, a fellow blogger, mentioned that she likes Linda Goodman's Sun Signs. There is an online version here if you want to check it out. It is pretty detailed and separates the explanations for each sign into 'women', 'men', 'child', 'employee', and 'boss'. This focuses only on the Sun signs and I have mentioned before there is a lot more to astrology than that. Linda Goodman also has a book called "Love Signs" that goes into compatibility using the Sun sign.

In London (where I'm from) there is a bookstore called Mandala downtown that has an enormous selection of astrology books as well as anything you could ever think of to do with spirituality. And if they don't have it, they will order it for you. This is where I realized astrology is pretty complicated.

Even though a lot of information is available on the Internet, I would recommend getting a couple good books to have on hand. I don't know about everyone else, but I don't like constantly being in front of the computer screen and it's nice to have a physical copy of the book instead of an electronic one.

So that being said, I thought I'd list a few of my favourite astrology books in case anyone is interested in looking deeper into their chart. These are just a few examples, just go to the astrology section at Chapters and you'll find lots more. Also pretty much anything is available to order on amazon.ca. So I guess the Internet is pretty useful after all.

The Only Astrology Book You'll Ever Need - Joanne Martine Woolfolk
The Secret Language of Birthdays - Gary Goldschneider
The Secret Language of Relationships - Gary Goldschneider
The New Astrology - Suzanne White
Lovestrology - Phyllis Vega

Oujia Board.. Just a Game or Truly Dangerous?

It's Saturday night. Your parents have gone to bed for the night, leaving you and a few of your friends alone with scary movies and a bowl of popcorn. Thunder and lightning along with torrential downpours complete the scene. What better time to pull out the Oujia Board? I know I did it a few times. We even lit candles and turned out all the lights to make it seem like a real seance.

I didn't really take it that seriously back then, but in the back of my mind I still hoped something would happen to convince me that spirits were real and they wanted to communicate with the living. But the candle flames didn't mysteriously go out, there were no strange sounds, and certainly no one was ever possessed by an evil spirit. I guess I should be grateful for that.

I have heard multiple times that Ouija Boards are extremely dangerous. Every psychic I have talked to has told me to stay away from them because if you don't know what you are doing it is very possible you could open the door to another realm and let things into our world that should not be here. Of course, I can't help being a little skeptical about that as well. Out of all the times my friends and I used a Ouija Board, we never had a single encounter with anything supernatural, or even slightly unusual. So, why the warnings?



The video above is pretty eerie and so are these stories of weird experiences people have had while using a Ouija Board.

There are a few explanations for the whole Ouija Board phenomenon. First, scientifically, it has been suggested that people are subconsciously moving the planchette without even realizing it. So when it seems like it might be inching towards the M, everyone kind of starts to push it that way together. This is possible, but depending on how many people are playing, the planchette would be attempting to move in a lot of different directions at once causing a lot of confusion and misspelled words.

Second, spiritually, mediums have said it is not the board itself that holds power, but the people that are using it. It is just one form of divination among many. They also believe that spirits use the eyes of the person they are talking through so by blindfolding the person it takes away their ability to speak to the spirits. This would mean than any experiment in which a person was blindfolded would be inaccurate.

Lastly, many skeptics have just said that someone who is playing is purposely moving the planchette to play a trick on the other people who are participating. It is more like a joke that people can pass on to others who have never played before which I think is the purpose Parker Brothers had in mind when then marketed the game. I'll admit I did this a couple times when I was younger, and people fell for it.

Anyway, whatever you think the Ouija Board really is, game or serious divination tool, keep in mind that there could be more to it than you know, so be careful!

When It's Your Time It's Your Time

There are advancements made in medicine everyday, all over the the world. Which means while twenty years ago someone whose heart stopped would be pronounced dead, today, they can be revived, even after a half an hour of being clinically dead.

The ability to bring someone back when technically they were gone raises some pretty interesting (and complicated) questions. Most obviously, where did they go? Most often, this is called a Near Death Experience or NDE.

One researcher, Kenneth Ring, separated the NDE into five stages:

1) feelings of peace and contentment,
2) a sense of detachment from the body,
3) entering a transitional world of darkness (rapid movement through a long dark tunnel: "the tunnel experience"),
4) emerging into bright light, and
5) "entering the light."

In his research, however, he found that 60% of people who reported having an NDE experienced stage one, but only 10% experienced stage five. The idea of going through a tunnel towards a bright light is one that most people have heard so it is possible it could just be an expected part of the experience. But, I think, the reason only 10% of the people entered the light is because once you enter this light, you have crossed to the other side, making it impossible to return to your body. It is also possible that the experience is different for everyone, and some people simply never enter the proverbial light.

Death is a subject that is on everyone's mind at one time or another considering, eventually, we are all going to die. It is only natural to wonder what is going to happen when that time comes. That may be why there is an International Association of Near Death Studies. It was started in 1978 by doctors and medical and psychological researchers who wanted to know more about the phenomenon. Now, there is more research and information on the subject than I can even begin to describe or fully understand.

There are scientific explanations for NDE's. Some skeptics believe they are only hallucinations the brain is creating in response to a trauma. I suppose you have to belive in the existence of Heaven and God if you are going to believe anything at all happens when you are dead so a lot of atheists are more likely to think NDE's are nothing but a dream.

I think Near Death Experience's can give us insight into the afterlife but it is also hard to know if the information people bring back is accurate. We will never truly know what death is like until it happens to us and maybe it is better that way. I'm not sure I really want to know all the details before it happens. It's not something we can control, why worry about it?

I don't know about anyone else, but death is one thing I don't need to know everything about before it happens. I'm more than happy waiting sixty years before I enter the light.