Thread: Finding Your Dreamguide (3 In 1 )

Originally Posted by Avalanche

I think your definition of Dream guide is different to mine. I see them as possibly being a representation of our own minds (as dreams are what our subconscious creates when "we" are asleep). If they are in a human form, meaning they can speak back, then in theory you can talk with your conscious mind to what you subconscious mind has created. The dream guide is more of a prestigious title for what really is a subconscious manifestation. I don't believe the DG has super duper secrets for me to tell me how to unlock my true potential, but I do think it would be interesting to speak with something in your mind, not made by you.

When I say "made by you" I mean something you imagined, made up, created etc. You subconscious is almost completely independent of your conscious mind. It would be like joining the two halves that existed together but never really interacted.

I don't expect to finally find my super duper dream spirit magical animal guide and we will learn secrets from each other and unlock my own SUPERPOWERS, nor do I think I need a hand to hold as I navigate my dreams.

Well said. I was actually using the generally accepted dream guide definition out there, and not yours specifically. In truth I am myself in search of that connection to my "subconscious" -- as I've said before, I hate that word -- to consciously tap and understand the basic nature of my being, of my soul. I suppose using the metaphor of a dream guide -- as long as you are able to remember that it's just a metaphor -- is as good a tool as any to make the exploration. As long as you are able to maintain that it is just a metaphor, and don't drift into a belief system that there really is an external being there to do the work for you.

You can either-

Believe the dream guide is like some higher being in your head which has many many secrets to tell you

See that a dream guide is a manifestation of your subconscious, which is widely accepted as being separate from you conscious mind

or

Dream guides do not exist and they are just DC's who happen to talk more, possibly related to a placebo effect where you expect them to respond better than other DC's, and they do.

In truth I am myself in search of that connection to my "subconscious" -- as I've said before, I hate that word -- to consciously tap and understand the basic nature of my being, of my soul. I suppose using the metaphor of a dream guide -- as long as you are able to remember that it's just a metaphor -- is as good a tool as any to make the exploration. As long as you are able to maintain that it is just a metaphor, and don't drift into a belief system that there really is an external being there to do the work for you.

What is the soul? Where is it? Certainly not in your heart, your brain? Buried somewhere in your prefrontal cortex? Or your deep brain? Is it an advanced brain function, or basic, a primordial remnant from evolution, or is it intelligent and conscious? How do you justify your belief in the soul if you reject the concept of a sub-conscious?

I'm not trying to be confrontational, I'm interested in what your opinion is

Originally Posted by Ctharlhie

What is the soul? Where is it? Certainly not in your heart, your brain? Buried somewhere in your prefrontal cortex? Or your deep brain? Is it an advanced brain function, or basic, a primordial remnant from evolution, or is it intelligent and conscious? How do you justify your belief in the soul if you reject the concept of a sub-conscious?

I'm not trying to be confrontational, I'm interested in what your opinion is

First, I don't reject the subconscious, I just don't like the use of that word to describe the part of my mind that takes care of all the nattering details of consciousness and gets me through my waking life (and goes nuts during my dreaming life). It's not "sub" anything -- it's part and parcel to my mind, and a fully functioning -- if not occasionally dominant -- component of my consciousness. Also, just because a part of my mind that contains a vast wealth of information and wisdom is difficult to directly access does not mean that it is not a part of my consciousness, or of my self. It's all still me. No "rejection" intended. Subconscious is simply the wrong word for the "concept.".

I always hesitate before I type the word "soul" anywhere. This is because the word elicits responses in people (usually religious) that might have nothing to do with what I am talking about. Unfortunately, it's a difficult word to avoid sometimes.

What is the soul? Good question! First, I mean to imply nothing religious. Please keep that in mind. Second, I really need a book-length post to describe what I think the soul is, so this is not the right venue for a proper answer. But here we go anyway:

In my opinion, the soul is an accumulation of a lifetime of thought energy that coherently binds to itself and forms a self-sustaining orb of sentient energy that both reflects your personality and becomes a repository for all of your life's experience. The quality of your soul depends solely on the quality of the thoughts that form it -- so a lifetime of good, strong thoughts will make a good, strong, bright soul, and a lifetime of bad, weak, or empty thoughts will produce a crinkly little ball of ineffectual energy. Since it is formed by an energy (thought energy) that exists outside the realm of Nature as we know it, to be able to explore this accumulation of energy while you're still alive might open doors to transcendence, immortality, and perhaps real communion with other realities and dimensions. Currently the only way that I know of to explore it while still breathing is through advanced lucid dreaming or perhaps hyper-advanced meditation.

And no, the soul does not reside in the heart, brain, prefrontal cortex, or even the pancreas, because it it is not a product of DNA -- it is a product of sentience, which is a totally new thing, nature-wise. Since it is composed of thoght energy, which is not governed by the (known) laws of nature, it may literally exist outside time and space; nowhere at all! It is on its own not sentient (neither is the subconscious), and is neither intelligent or conscious while you are still alive and building it, but I like to believe that after death your consciousness is able to transfer to it, and allow your own existence to continue within its energy. So best not make a crinkly ball during life!

Hey, you asked...

Do you believe in transmigration/reincarnation of souls, then? Or some other afterlife? For me I'm not quite sure what I believe, for there to be a soul then I think that our conscious thought, our mind, would have to be something more than a bundle of neurons in the forebrain firing off at random, it would have to be more than simply a physical, neurological construct (which in of itself is just astounding, and should be seen as a miracle of nature).

Recently I have been going through something of a philosophical, maybe spiritual (in a reserved way), change in attitude and belief. I used to be a nihilist atheist (maybe I was rebelling against church school education), now I have a more open-minded attitude, although I'm not sure what I believe now.

Bringing things more on topic, I think your beliefs are compatible with the concept of a dream guide.

Originally Posted by Ctharlhie

Do you believe in transmigration/reincarnation of souls, then? Or some other afterlife?

I'm not a big fan of reincarnation -- I simply don't see a need for a soul, after being energized by its maker's consciousness, to "go back." Since something like transmigration happens once in the form of uniting with your soul after death, I suppose that might be a concept to partially "believe in." And, of course, obviously I must believe in some sort of afterlife, since that is what the continuation of consciousness in the soul after death of the body is indeed afterlife. No rapture, heaven or hell or what have you, but still an afterlife.

For me I'm not quite sure what I believe, for there to be a soul then I think that our conscious thought, our mind, would have to be something more than a bundle of neurons in the forebrain firing off at random, it would have to be more than simply a physical, neurological construct (which in of itself is just astounding, and should be seen as a miracle of nature).

Agreed. Now, consider that something more to be sentience. Imagine that a sentient (self-aware, thinking, remembering) being is a new form of energy engine in this universe. The energy it produces is from its thought, and this thought energy is unique, keys directly to the consciousness of the sentient individual. Think of this energy (and the soul that might form from it) as the result of the miracle of nature that produced thought in the first place -- our brains.

But none of this has anything to do with dream guides, so I'll stop now. For further reading on this, you might check out a little book called Simply Pay Attention that does a more thorough job presenting this idea of a self-made soul.

Recently I have been going through something of a philosophical, maybe spiritual (in a reserved way), change in attitude and belief. I used to be a nihilist atheist (maybe I was rebelling against church school education), now I have a more open-minded attitude, although I'm not sure what I believe now.

Bringing things more on topic, I think your beliefs are compatible with the concept of a dream guide.

I did not think that when I entered this conversation, but I think as I step away from the closed, dogmatic, concept of dream guide that I held earlier and towards a more general picture of a DG, its nature, and purpose, I am coming around. I guess that makes this a good thread for me!

I wanted to add a bit to the soul talk. Souls seem to work outside of time and space. My opinion is that a soul is an accumulation of lifetimes of experiences and responses to this. Reincarnation isn't a factor here as souls never really die. What does die is the body or whatever form the soul decides to take. That's my two-cents.

Anyhow, all this Dream Guide talk is interesting. I think there are DGs out there but what is a DG? Some claim it's just another person with a mind of their own who can help them with dreaming. A DG seems pretty abstract and the various assortment of DGs seem daunting. In fact, anyone seems able to be one. All you really need is the willingness to share your opinion on something and bam... instant DG.

Do I think DGs are useful? Sure. Clothing is useful too. Seriously though, a DG is only as useful as an individual allows them to be. I'm sure personality plays a factor, I mean it'd be completely useless to have a DG who has absolutely no idea how to communicate with you or can't explain themselves clearly. Do I think DGs help solve problems for lazy dreamers? No clue. Although if I were a dream guide who came across a lazy dreamer and I had better things to do, sure, I'd totally do their homework for them. On the other hand, if I were feeling sadistic, I might decide on another route.

Personally, I think I've had a number of transitory DGs. Some acted as protectors until I was ready to take on the big bad world of dreaming alone and some have taught me things regarding death, crystals, healing, etc. Did I ever ask them to do things for me? Sure! Did I use it as an escape? Not usually. I think DGs and people who interact with DGs and the reasons for this are numerous. It's just like waking life and school. How many of us need teachers? How many of our teachers did we find useful? How many of our teachers did we like as human beings? How did our age affect how we interacted with our teachers? There are just too many variables involved to say whether or not DGs are real/useful/part of our lives.

In the end, I think everyone should have their own approach for discovering their DG. The working relationship involved is a personal one. My personal preference in a DG is someone who acts more as a friend than a teacher. For example, when I help other people I help them coming from a friend perspective, an equal. Everyone knows something which someone else doesn't. This way I see everyone as a potential DG. The relationship dynamics within the realm of DG'ness can sometimes blur which makes it even more difficult to find or identify a DG. My solution to this: While in a dream, shout for your DG. Then pay attention. Easy. People make things like this more complicated than it needs to be. Just believe you have one and you'll either find or manifest one into existence

To be honest I think as with many things in lucid dreaming, dream guides become unnecessarily over-complicated by people. To me a dream guide is a more than usually aware, knowledgeable and cogent dream figure that the dreamer is able to project certain characteristics on.

Originally Posted by Ctharlhie

To be honest I think as with many things in lucid dreaming, dream guides become unnecessarily over-complicated by people. To me a dream guide is a more than usually aware, knowledgeable and cogent dream figure that the dreamer is able to project certain characteristics on.

That's exactly it. Where people go astray is the "guide" bit. Saying they are a guide means they have a role or a task to guide or help you through whatever. This has never been proven or confirmed, and there is no real reason to back it up, save the name, which was made up to glorify the image, rather than saying "Better dream character who can actually talk"

I can b a dream guide if you can find me, but this Spiritofthewolf is not a good dreamer and will never find a real dream guide by this sort of bs.

Dream guide won't you be?
Dream guide walk by me
Dream guide don't you see?
You mean everything to me

Dream guide I love you so
Dream guide please don't go

You have to have a lot of love and emotion
Like the waves upon the ocean

Dream guide you light my days
Dream guide I must say
You light my nights
and I know that you can't stay
for it's me and I have to go
I have to go my way
Dream don't worry
It'll be alright
Because dream guide
I love you right
Dreamguide

Now, if you replace "dream guide" with "random dream character" they don't seem half as cool or mystical.

It's all about their name really.

How does a DG decide if it's ready to appear to you? I'm kind of young, in my early teens (prime dreaming years!) anyways is it all related to your skill as a dreamer or would maturity level and other personal factors be part of if your DG is going to appear to you?

Depends on how open you are to the actual idea of a dream guide. If you don't expect to find one and you don't believe in one, you probably won't meet one. Or if you never heard of the concept then you would probably never meet anything like it.

If you really wanted to meet one or you believed in them 100%, or you thought about them all the time, then odds are you would meet something claiming to be a DG.