Thread: Lucid dreaming as a developmental tool toward higher brain function

Thanks JJFrank, in today's western society it's not practical to be in a blissful state 24/7 it's also not well tolerated by others either. What would your advice be regarding this? Should it be used as merely a tool to accessing altered states and nothing more?

Eonnn,

I used to seek states of awareness as though they were independent of daily living. I imagined that I would someday transcend daily awareness and relocate consciousness to some ethereal world. I now believe that such a fantasy is unrealistic, unattainable and yet widely promoted by charlatans.

While I have been successful in the world of daily consciousness, I have never found a single expanded awareness experience that could not have beneficial effects on daily consciousness. Not that I always could find the beneficial effect. Sometimes the benefits need to be collected into a useable form, like wiring together electronic components to create a useful computing tool. They might not carry much apparent usefulness by themselves.

Also, all of the bad effects of conscious exploration that I have had where when I was seeking to escape daily life and relocate consciousness elsewehere. I believe that the best use of all explorations of consciousness is to become a better person in daily life. If you can imagine the most noble and enlightened consciousness possible on this planet, then also know that you are capable of even more than what you can imagine as the highest possibility. Then set out to find how to live that reality. Luicd dreaming is a good tool and very powerful toward making the impossible possible.

JJ

Thanks again JJFrank, what you said makes perfect sense on so many levels. In fact, when I woke up this morning the first thought in my mind was about these charlatans. They all cling onto one main desire "to know your life's purpose" and exploit that theme. I have read that once you know this you can live life more fully but on the same hand new age spirituality talks about how once you know your life purpose and have completed said purpose then you pass from this world to the next. The only thing this does is make people wonder endlessly about what their purpose is, with the charlatans never actually telling them anything concrete.

I have been using altered states of consciousness to escape reality most my life, but never applying it to waking life, instead just enjoying the experience in the moment. I was always striving for the afterlife like you said trying to relocate consciousness elsewhere but also soaking up as much experience as I could in the process. Finally, I am beginning to see that the benefits of such states don't need to wait until death, but can be applied in the here and now.

Eonnn,

A wise man was once asked why there were so many false teachers. He replied "Because there are so many false students".

While I call them charlatans because what they say is false, I also appreciate that they are able to make a living by inventing clever fairy tales that people want to purchase. JK Rowling does it, but she admits that it is fantasy. The only difference between her and the charlatans is that they say that the tales they spin are true.

As far as purpose goes, we always have a purpose. When we go to bed our purpose is to rest. When we awaken, our purpose is to get out of bed. We can go to a job with the purpose to earn money. These are all valid purposes. Our purpose does not have to be "end world hunger" to be valid. A purpose is simply a reason to move ahead. If you like living with passion, then use a purpose that you get excited about. It doesn't make you better, just more passionate. If that's what you want to be, be it.

If it is a really good purpose, then it will change very rapidly. A simple purpose can stay the same for a long time because you know exactly what it looks like and you simply pursue it until you arrive (then you create a new one). A really great purpose changes constantly because everytime you take a few steps toward it, you become wiser and from that perspective can see a better goal than the one you started with.

So don't worry about finding THE purpose. Just do what you love to do and do it with people you love to do things with.

JJ