Spiritual Art Blog - *Ed P

The Other Side

Some people think of the other side of life as a parallel universe. It exists in parallel to our physical world.  Becoming aware of this other side of life is one of the challenges we face as we live our lives. There are a number of elements in the other side of life, some of which we will already be aware of, such as, our emotions, our memories and our mind. The more subtle elements are our subconscious or intuition and our true selves Soul.

Back from death

Thought for the Week 

It’s not often we meet someone who has come back from death but when we do it can help us see another side of life and death. Last weekend I was exhibiting at the People's Art Exhibition on St. Stephen's Green in Dublin, Ireland. If you are familiar with my work you'll know my pictures usually have a spiritual theme or story behind them. The spiritual art attracts like minded individuals who recognise the thinking behind the pictures as similar to their own. One such individual was John who approached me with the question "So what is the answer to all this, what is your idea of what life is all about?" 

Near death experience
After a few words together I discovered John had had a few near death experiences. He explained that at one point in his life he had been an alcoholic and was suffering from pancreatitis. He was in hospital in a serious condition. He found himself leaving his body and going through a tunnel. Many people who have had near death experiences tell of going through a tunnel towards a light and meeting friends or family who have died and some tell of meeting a higher being. John met a higher being and was given the option of returning if he wished. Why would he want to do that? The suggestion was, to be of some assistance to his fellow man. That struck him as a good idea and very quickly he was back in his physical body. As soon as he was back, he said "What have I done, I should have stayed there!" 

In the following weeks he recovered. He felt like he didn't belong among the people he was with. "I felt like an alien. I knew stuff other people didn't." John knew death was an illusion. He knew he would survive death, he knew he there was a better place beyond the veil of death. 

Drug user and addict
From that point he gave up alcohol and took up cannabis. That led to other drugs and the problems that go with them. During his drug taking period, he reckoned that he was like a guinea pig. He was using himself as a test case to go through all the experiences of a drug user and addict so that he could get the experiences and thereby be able to understand the mentality and processes involved. He could put this experience and learning to good use in the social programmes he would help develop later in his life. 

During his drug taking years, John had another near death experience. During this one he was put through a review of his life. He was put in front of a video where his life was shown on screen. He saw where he wasn't kind to some people, where he had caused upset and hurt others and where he neglected people he had met on his path through life. He also saw where he had suffered at the hands of others. 

A social entrepreneur
John eventfully got himself off the drugs and into a clean lifestyle. Over some time he went to the people he had hurt and apologised to them. He also learned to forgive those who had hurt him and more importantly, to forgive himself. He then became what he describes as a social entrepreneur. He has helped create social centres and social programmes to help communities in various ways. 

John is living a life of abundance. Because he has back from death, heknows life will provide him with whatever is necessary to do what he needs to do. He knows that if it is the right time for something to happen it will happen. We can plan and set things up but unless the time is right it won’t happen. We are in the hands of a Higher Power or Holy Spirit which is leading us back to our home with God. We still have our free will and can do as we wish but if we are willing to look for light, love and wisdom, a way will be shown to us. 

We will all survive death
It was a stimulating to meet John, as before this, I hadn’t had a chance to have a good chat with someone who has had a near death experience and come back from death. He is a regular sort of guy. There is nothing weird or unusual about him. Because of his understanding and insight he has great empathy and compassion for people. He knows we will all survive death and go on to a better place. As far as John is concerned, this life and world are training grounds for us. They help us understand who we are, what we are doing here and why we are here. 

It is reassuring to meet John who has come back from death and able to share his story. He helps us to confirm that what we know in our hearts is true. That we do survive beyond death. 

Thank you John, for your story and message of hope and love. 

*Ed Parkinson

News

Bray Churches Together – 14^th Annual Art Exhibition

The art exhibition with the Bray Churches Together, organised with a lot of help from local artist Peter Growney s taking place in The Well. The old church opposite the Royal Hotel in Bray. There is a lot of nice work there including 3 pieces of mine. It’s worth a look if you are in the area.

Inspirational Near Death Experiences Quotes

“Yes, as my swift days near their goal, 'tis all that I implore: In life and death a chainless soul, with courage to endure.”
 Emily Bronte 

“Death may call any moment. Every moment, everyone is nearing death.”
 Sri Sathya Sai Baba 

“I shall see
The hour of death draw near to me,
Hope, blossoming within my heart. . . .”
 William Cullen Bryant 

“According to near-death accounts, the reason for our very existence is to attain spiritual growth. We are more of a spiritual being than we are a physical being. We assume a body of flesh out of a desire for spiritual growth, to complete a mission for God, to qualify for higher spirit realms, to test our spiritual ideas we had before we were born to see if we actually possess these ideals, to obtain a level of self-realization, to re-discover higher knowledge in physical ways, to be more of a companion of God, to find the kingdom of heaven within, to achieve our goal of evolving into the higher spirit beings we once were, but with individuality, to make God stronger by spreading love which is God, to bring light in a world of darkness, but more importantly, to play, love, laugh, and live for the sole purpose of it because this is the way to holiness.”
 Kevin Williams

"Death is nothing more than a doorway, something you walk through."
 Dr. George Ritchie 

“There exists a mountain of circumstantial evidence that consciousness survives bodily death. This is the kind of evidence that would stand up in a court of law. Some people believe that science needs better tools to quantify what consciousness is. Perhaps when we discover what consciousness is we will be on the road to providing absolute scientific evidence that there is life after death.”
 Jean Ritchie 

“Death is simply a shedding of the physical body like the butterfly shedding its cocoon. It is a transition to a higher state of consciousness where you continue to perceive, to understand, to laugh, and to be able to grow.”
 Elisabeth Kubler-Ross 

 

"For any culture which is primarily concerned with meaning, the study of death - the only certainty that life holds for us - must be central, for an understanding of death is the key to liberation in life."
 Dr. Stanislav Grof 

"To appreciate heaven well it is good for a man to have some fifteen minutes of hell."
 Will Carleton 

“In fact, my life review, (during a near death experience) what I learned in it and, even more importantly, what I experienced in it -- that a divine energy connects all of us -- have since orchestrated all my relationships. With each person I have attended in the dying process, I have also witnessed this spiritual energy. I have given talks for hundreds of hospice workers, and almost everyone agrees that this energy is present. Hospice workers often tell me their stories of God's loving energy being present during a client's death.”  Barbara Harris Whitfield 

“The biggest surprise for most people in dying is to realize that dying does not end life. Whether darkness or light comes next, or some kind of event, be it positive, negative, or somewhere in between, expected or unexpected, the biggest surprise of all is to realize you are still you.”
 P.M.H. Atwater, 

"It is worth dying to find out what life is."
T.S. Eliot 

"What is death but a passage to life."
Travis M. Farnsworth 

"Life is a great sunrise. I do not see why death should not be an even greater one."
Vladimir Nobokov 

“The dying often have the sensation of rising up and floating above their own body while it is surrounded by a medical team, and watching it down below, while feeling comfortable. They experience the feeling of being in a spiritual body that appears to be a sort of living energy field.”
 Dr. Raymond Moody 

"Of course you don't die. Nobody dies. Death doesn't exist. You only reach a new level of vision, a new realm of consciousness, a new unknown world."
Henry Miller 

“The classic Soul Travel experience is leaving the human body in full awareness and having the Light and Sound of God flow directly into the Soul body.”
 Harold Klemp

Inspirational Life and Death Quotes

“We love our dear ones deeply and miss them when they leave us. But we know that the bond of love is greater than death.”
  Harold Klemp

"Death doesn't live. your soul lives."
  Vivian Martins

“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.”
  J.R.R. Tolkien 

“All our life is but a going out to the place of execution, to death.”
  John Donne

“Sleep after toil, port after stormy seas, Ease after war, death after life does greatly please.”
  Edmund Spenser 

“Anyone can stop a man's life, but no one his death; a thousand doors open on to it.”
 Seneca 

“Love's over brimming mystery joins death and life. It has filled my cup of pain with joy.”
  Rabindranath Tagore

“Life is rather a state of embryo, a preparation for life; a man is not completely born till he has passed through death.”
  Benjamin Franklin 

“If one was to think constantly of death, the business of life would stand still.”
  Samuel Johnson

“Death is the veil which those who live call life; They sleep, and it is lifted”
 Percy Bysshe Shelley

“The gods conceal from men the happiness of death, that they may endure life.”
 Lucan

“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
  Mark Twain

“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.”
  Norman Cousins

“Death must be so beautiful. To lie in the soft brown earth, with the grasses waving above one's head, and listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no to-morrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace.”
  Oscar Wilde 

“Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely.”
 Buddha

“Death gives meaning to our lives. It gives importance and value to time. Time would become meaningless if there were too much of it.”
  Ray Kurzweil 

“Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides.”
  Lao Tzu

“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.”
  Marcus Aurelius

“Do what you fear, and the death of fear is certain.”
 Anthony Robbins

“Death ends a life, not a relationship.”
 Robert Benchley

“If we don't know life, how can we know death?”
  Confucius

“Death is not extinguishing the light; it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.”
  Rabindranath Tagore 

“I am not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens.”
  Woody Allen

“After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.”
  J K Rowling

“Death is nothing at all; it does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room.”
  Henry Scott Holland

The Other Side

This is a development of The Other Side picture which I hope will illustrate the other sides of our lives.

We’ve got the wrong info about death

Thought for the Week

We have been given the wrong info about death. We, in most Western societies, are under the impression that when we die we cease to exist. Death is the end, there’s nothing after it. As a result a lot of people live in fear of dying and death. We don’t know what is coming and we don’t know what happens. Our religious teachings are unconvincing about what happens after death, so we are left to work it out ourselves. 

Fear of death
This fear of death cripples many people’s lives. If we are afraid of dying, we will take few risks. We won’t try anything out of the ordinary as we will be afraid of something going wrong. If it goes seriously wrong we could be killed. If we make a mistake and die, that is the end of us, so we are afraid of living. For example, some people are afraid of flying, sailing or driving on unfamiliar roads, because if they make a mistake or something happens they could die. 

This fear of death is preventing them from exploring new places. If they knew that when their body dies, they just move into a higher area, a similar place to where they go when they dream, they would have a more relaxed view of death. They could see it is not such a final event in their lives. 

What does happen at death?
Well, it’s not all that bad. In fact it is good. Our existence doesn’t stop at death of our physical body. It is really just like a graduation ceremony where we graduate from our life in this physical world into our inner world. Where is our inner world? The easiest way of getting to our inner worlds is through our dreams. When we sleep, our physical body is more or less dead. Our attention moves into our dream worlds. We are where our attention is, so when we sleep we are in our dream worlds. Our body is semi dead but we are completely alive in our dream or inner worlds. 

Her essence was somewhere else
A friend, who had just come from the funeral of her close friend, remarked that she noticed her dismissive attitude to the coffin and the body in it. She didn't consider the dead body to be her friend, but something she had been using but now had left behind. She was a little confused by this. Logically she should be in deep pain at the loss of her friend but somehow she was detached from this despairing attitude. 

She was allowing her subconscious to come through. Having been through many lifetimes and deaths herself, deep down she knew death wasn't final. There is a continuation of our existence after death. Subconsciously she knew what was in the coffin wasn’t her friend. The essence of her friend was now somewhere else. It wasn’t logical but it felt right. 

How can we prove it?
How can we prove that we live beyond death? There are some easily accessible methods we can use.

Dreams of loved one who have moved on
Have we had a dream with a loved one who is dead? How did we feel when we were there? How did we feel when we woke up? Usually the dream is in a pleasant place or a place which seems normal. The odd thing is, we are talking to someone who is dead in our physical world. However they are obviously alive and well in this dream world. We have been with them in their new life in the inner worlds. There is no reason why we wont join them when our time comes. 

Dreams of ourselves in historical times
Have we dreamt of living in historical times. In this type of dream we may be interacting with other people who we know in our physical world. Could this be a past life dream giving us hints about situations and people in our current life. Is the dream trying to help us understand why we are in this current position with these people? With this type of dream we can see we have lived other lives and we can live many more too. 

Listening to people who are dying
Listening to people who are dying, as they begin to establish themselves in their inner worlds, can help us see what is beyond the veil of death. As we listen, they will often refer to people in the room who we cannot see. They may name people who are already dead. They are acquainting themselves with the place where they are going. They are reconnecting with old friends and relatives who are already there. With this insight we can begin to understand this strange behaviour of a dying person. It also confirms that there is somewhere to go to when we die and these people and preparing themselves to pass over. 

Reading stories of people who have had near death experiences
There are many accounts and stories of people who have died in accidents or in a hospital but who were brought back to life. They often speak of going through a tunnel and into a light. They tell of meeting dead relatives either welcoming them or telling them it isn’t their time yet. More proof from those who been there and come back that we do continue to live beyond death. 

With these insights we can see a glimmer of light beyond the usual understanding of death. If we can get some realisation that death is only a process we all go through and then we continue living in the inner or dream worlds, then we can begin to live our lives with a little more confidence. We are no longer living under the threat of extinction when we die. 

Wishing you a good life here and in the inner worlds. 

*Ed Parkinson

News

Lucan Arts Festival

Tonight, Monday 20 September, the Art Exhibition of local artists and photographers opens at the Lucan Festival Arts. The official launch of the exhibition is at 7 pm, in the Festival Gallery at the Douglas Newman Good building, Main Street Lucan, Co. Dublin, Ireland. This is a free event and all are welcome to attend. Il have a number of pictures at the exhibition.

The objective of the festival is to provide a quality community festival for the people of Lucan/Adamstown area, that encompasses all groups, cultures, ages and celebrate a one week-long event. 

http://lucanfestival.wordpress.com/

 

People's Art on St. Stephens Green

This coming weekend will see the last of this years People’ Art Exhibitions on St. Stephens Green, Dublin, Ireland. Not a bad place to pick up some nice Christmas presents direct from the artists. I’ll be about mid way on the East side of the Green, which runs between Merrion Row/Baggot Street  and Leeson Street. If you are in the area call around and say hello. 

 

The Ranelagh Arts Festival  

I expect to have some of my pictures in the Ranelagh Arts Festival. The will be in a shop window somewhere in the area. This is an Arts Festival for the community, organised by local residents. It’s their contribution to building a sense of community and celebrating Ranelagh, past and present. It’s an opportunity to promote the importance of the arts in people's lives. A festival for all age-groups, to be enjoyed by everyone living and working in Ranelagh, Dublin 6, Ireland, and surrounding areas. The festival runs from Friday 24^th September until Sunday 3^rd October.
http://www.ranelagharts.org

The Other Side

I was looking through a number of art books to find a way of illustrating the other side or the inner side of life. In the book Masters of Deception by Al Seckel which goes through a number of artists who created optical illusions with their art, including M. C. Escher, Salvador Dali, I found the answer. 

Among the artists in the book is Oscar Reutersvard who created the The Penrose triangle in 1934, also known as the Penrose tribar, it is an impossible object. The mathematician Roger Penrose independently devised and popularised it in the 1950s, describing it as "impossibility in its purest form".

Reutersvard went on to break the triangle into boxes which he titled After Opus 1, creating a more subtle illusion. As each box or cube has six sides it suited my concept of showing the other sides of life. I could use each of the six sides for a different side of life. The sides being: Physical, Emotional, Memory, Mind, Intuition and Soul.

Below is my initial concept sketch.

What is life all about? What is our purpose in life?

Thought for the Week

What is life all about? What is our purpose in life? This is a question which comes up in our lives at some point or other. For some it will arrive when we hit a disaster where our lives are disrupted by something like a career failure, a major disappointment or the death of a friend or relative. Our understanding of what life is gets interrupted and suddenly the direction in which we were going no longer makes any sense. The prize or goal of our lives has suddenly crumbled. What we though was worthwhile has become worthless.

At this point we often turn to religion, God and/or the spiritual aspects of life. The outer material goals do not make any sense so maybe there is some value in the inner aspects of life. At this point of our questioning we are no longer happy. We have a burning inside that needs to be satisfied. We have questions that need answers. We need to find a purpose for our lives so that we can understand why we are here in the first place. Some people live with these questions all their lives, searching for an answer to what life is about and what we are doing here. 

How do we find our purpose in life?
The short answer is, we are here to learn about love. Not just the human love but a love for all Souls. An unconditional love, which we allow to flow through us. Life is about learning how God loves us and how we can love the same way as God. It’s not an easy task but once we get some idea of our purpose or mission we become more comfortable with life and we begin to find the answers we seek. 

We are probably already working on our purpose in life. We may already be doing something that we enjoy or love doing. This is the key to finding what our purpose is. Discovering what we love to do, what brings love to our hearts and makes us happy, is the way to discover our purpose or mission in life. If what we love to do brings a benefit for others, all the better but that is not necessary in the beginning. 

What makes us happy?
Some people are blessed to be doing or working at what they love or with people or things they love. If we are in an unhappy position we should look over our lives and see when we are happy. What were we doing? How can we incorporate that into our daily lives? How can we spend more time doing what makes us happy? 

Some people enjoy caring for people and making them feel comfortable, secure and safe. Some enjoy communicating with people via words, writing, songs, music, poetry, film, photography or art. Some like to be of service using their particular skills or talents such as, finance, security, making things, engineering, building, farming, teaching, etc.

Where do we go from here?
When we discover what brings happiness and love into our lives and gives it purpose, where do we go from here? With a little love flowing through our lives, we begin to see the benefits and feel the happiness it brings. We then begin to find ways of bringing more love into our lives. This usually is by being of service to others in an unconditional way. That is, doing things for people without putting conditions on what we do. Doing things for the joy of doing them and because they lighten the load of others, bring some love to them or make them be a little happier.

Doing things without conditions frees us from the requirement to keep tabs on what we have done for people. Our mind doesn’t get bogged down keeping control of who owes us this or that. We begin to leave love wherever we have been. Life gets brighter around us, for ourselves and those close to us. 

Doing what we love to do and loving what we do, is our purpose in life. It benefits us and the world around us. Love is the purpose of life. 

Do what we love and love what we do, that’s our purpose in life. 

*Ed Parkinson

People's Art, St. Stephens Green, Dublin

News
On the 24th, 25th and 26th of Spetemebr, the weekend after next, the People’s Art Exhibition will take place on St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland. It is always a creative and colourful affair and if the weather is nice it is a good place to spend some time enjoying the art and artists of Ireland. I’ll be there on the Green and hopefully I’ll see you there too.
The video below is from one of last years exhibitions anf gives you a flavour of what to expect.

Inspirational Purpose of Life Quotes

“A good book is the precious life-blood of the master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose for a life beyond.”
John Milton 

“You ask: what is the meaning or purpose of life? I can only answer with another question: do you think we are wise enough to read God's mind?”
Freeman Dyson 

“When mankind forgets its purpose for existence, a calamity occurs which reminds people that earth is only a temporary school.”
Harold Klemp 

“What allows us, as human beings, to psychologically survive life on earth, with all of its pain, drama, and challenges, is a sense of purpose and meaning”
Barbara De Angelis 

“I began to have an idea of my life, not as slow shaping of achievement to fit my preconceived purposes, but as the gradual discovery and growth of a purpose which I did not know”
Joanna Field 

"The purpose of life is to collaborate for a common cause; the problem is nobody seems to know what it is”
Gerhard Gschwandtner 

“Simplicity, clarity, singleness: These are the attributes that give our lives power and vividness and joy as they are also the marks of great art. They seem to be the purpose of God for his whole creation.”
Richard Holloway 

“The need for devotion to something outside ourselves is even more profound than the need for companionship. If we are not to go to pieces or wither away, we must have some purpose in life; for no man can live for himself alone.”
Ross Parmenter 

“When you feel that you have reached the end and that you cannot go one step further, when life seems to be drained of all purpose: What a wonderful opportunity to start all over again, to turn over a new page.”
Eileen Caddy 

“Perhaps extreme danger strips us of all pretenses, all ambitions, all confusions, focusing us more intensely than we are otherwise ever focused, so that we remember what we otherwise spend most of our lives forgetting: that our nature and purpose is, more than anything else, to love and to make love, to take joy from the beauty of the world, to live with an awareness that the future is not as real a place for any of us as are the present and the past.”
Dean Koontz 

“Purpose is what gives life a meaning.”
Charles H. Perkhurst 

“Without a firm idea of himself and the purpose of his life, man cannot live, and would sooner destroy himself than remain on earth, even if he was surrounded by bread.”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“When I chased after money, I never had enough. When I got my life on purpose and focused on giving of myself and everything that arrived into my life, then I was prosperous.”
 Wayne Dyer

“Never forget that the purpose for which a man lives is the improvement of the man himself, so that he may go out of this world having, in his great sphere or his small one, done some little good for his fellow creatures and labored a little to diminish the sin and sorrow that are in the world.”
William E. Gladstone 

“Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time.”
Marian Wright Edelman

Dreamer

Dreamer is now finished and below in the Thought for the Week I give an explanation of some of my thinking behind it.

How to become a better dreamer

Thought for the Week

We sleep for about a third of our lives, which may seem like a waste of time to some, but is it really? When we sleep our body rests and we go off to our dream worlds. If we knew how to become a better dreamer we could get a lot of valuable insights and useful information from our dreams. We could bring back the things we learned in our dreams to use in our physical activities and work in this world. Let’s have a look at the dream process. 

When we go to sleep our body rests and recuperates from the work of the day. The focus of our attention now wanders off into the inner worlds. As we drift off to sleep we drift into our dream worlds. Wherever we’ve had our attention, just before we go to sleep, will dictate our initial arrival area. If we’ve been watching a movie just before we went to sleep, we’ll probably have elements of the movie appearing in our dream. 

Restless nights
If we have concerns about things in our physical world, they too will influence our dreams. We have all had restless nights where we toss and turn as we dream about an upcoming event or challenge we are facing. We can use these restless nights to our advantage and let them help us resolve our concerns. While sleeping we often tap into our creative self to search for solutions to problems. We sometimes see new angles or ways around things which we couldn’t see while we were awake. The trick is to get that information in a form we can use in our physical world. 

As we roll around in bed almost awake, we can try and remember what we’ve just done, learned or seen in our dream. Were there any useful insights we noticed? Was there an idea that might prove useful? If we find something that would be helpful, we have to wake ourselves enough to write down a few words or notes which will trigger the idea in the morning when we wake up fully. We can do this several times or as often as we get a good idea. This will help us sleep better as we will now have part of a solution to the issue that concerns us. 

Nightmares
Nightmares are another element which can cause restless nights. There are several reasons why we may get nightmares. 

We have been through a fearful experiences and we revisit it in our dreams.
We have a challenge or issue we need to address.
We need to learn something so we can move on in our lives.
If it is an issue we’ve been avoiding, it will often grow bigger as we keep trying to avoid it. Just knowing that our nightmares may have a lesson for us can help us overcome them. 

We are not alone
We are not alone in our dream worlds. We interact with our friends, relatives, workmates and many other Souls. While we may have a dream with a particular individual, and remember it clearly, the individual will likely have no recall of the dream event. This can be because the message in the dream is just for us. Our friend in the dream can be there to help us learn something. They are the most suitable vehicle for the message we need to receive. 

There are also many spiritual masters available to us in our dreams. We can ask them to help us in resolving some problem or to offer advice or explanations so we can better understand some of the situations in our lives.  The way to access these masters is ask for their guidance. Before we go to sleep at night we can ask them for help, guidance or insights on an issue. Then just drift off to sleep. In the morning if we can recall anything we should write it down. We may recall nothing but later when we come across the issue again we seem to have a new perspective on it or a solution for it easily comes to mind. This doesn’t always work immediately and can take time but if we ask we are opening ourselves to receive an answer. 

Take our time
As we return from our dreams, we can take our time as we wake up and become aware of our physical world again. We can take our time to remember our dreams and what we’ve been doing in our dream worlds. We may get a variety of images and memories. They can be jumbled up, like bits of a jig saw not making any sense in the order we see them. If we can write down any significant or interesting details we can recall, they will help us begin to piece the jig saw together. The more often we write about our dreams the quicker we begin to see what the images mean. We begin to see patterns in the things we dream about and how they relate to events in our outer world. 

Rhona’s Dream Room exercise
While doing a dream workshop recently, Rhona, who was co facilitating with me, came up with an excellent idea to help us develop a more conscious dream experience. Here’s Rhona’s Dream Room exercise: 

Mock up a door of a room on your inner screen with the sign on the door that reads "My concerns about….(fill in your own issue)". Invite your spiritual guide or someone you respect to join you. Open the door and walk inside your dream room. What do you see, feel, hear?  Maybe you will find...

Writing on the wall,
People to talk to,
Images relating to your concern,
A computer, to search for topics about your concern,
An easel, paint and brushes which you can play and create with,
Pen and paper to write something. 

Examine and investigate what you find. Take time to go through the experience. When you’ve got some insights open the door and allow the problems to fall or jump out into the stream of Holy Spirit now flowing outside the door. Thank your spiritual guide and ask if he/she has anything else to tell you?

 

How to become a better dreamer
We now have a few ideas on how to become a better dreamer…

Use restless nights to write down ideas about the thing that concerns us.

Be aware that nightmares have something to teach us.

We can ask for assistance from spiritual masters and get the occasional hint from friends in our dreams.

We can take our time when waking up and take time to write down any insights or interesting ideas from our dreams.

We can use Rhona’s Dream Room exercise where we can explore things that relate to our concerns.

We can chant the sacred word HU before we go to sleep or even in a dream to help us get a better understanding. (More info on theHU Song here. ).

 

By using a few of these ideas our dreams will become clearer and we’ll soon learn how to become a better dreamer. 

Sweet dreams. 

*Ed Parkinson 

Inspirational Dream Quotes

“Before you go to sleep, relax and decide that upon awakening you will have an answer to whatever it is you desire.
“When you awaken it will be in the forefront of your thoughts. At the moment of slipping from or into sleep, you are open to truth and in direct contact with it. It is at this point you will perceive your answer.”
Harold Klemp 

“Hold on to your dreams for they are, in a sense, the stuff of which reality is made. It is through our dreams that we maintain the possibility of a better, more meaningful life.” 
Leo F. Buscaglia 

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
 Mark Twain 

“Always dream and shoot higher than you know how to. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”
William Faulkner 

“The starting point of great success and achievement has always been the same. It is for you to dream big dreams. There is nothing more important, and nothing that works faster than to cast off your own limitations and to begin dreaming and fantasizing about the wonderful things that you can become, have, and do.” 
 Brian Tracy 

“If the dream is big enough the facts don't matter.”
 Dexter Yager
 

“Dreams are renewable. No matter what our age or condition, there are still untapped possibilities within us and new beauty waiting to be born.”
 Dr. Dale Turner 

“Interpreting your dreams may actually introduce you to your spiritual destiny in this life. After all, God is speaking to you in your dreams.”
Debbie Johnson 

“A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.”
Denis Waitley

“It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”
 Paulo Coelho

“A goal is a dream with a deadline.”
 Napoleon Hill

“Be careful what you water your dreams with. Water them with worry and fear and you will produce weeds that choke the life from your dream. Water them with optimism and solutions and you will cultivate success. Always be on the lookout for ways to turn a problem into an opportunity for success. Always be on the lookout for ways to nurture your dream.”
Lao Tzu 

“You are never given a dream without also being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however.”
Richard Bach

“You can't just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream. You've got to get out there and make it happen for yourself.”
Diana Ross