MOST PEOPLE DON'T REMEMBER THEIR DREAMS. When they do remember, it is emotional, like a nightmare. Once a person is awakened to the reality of the dreamworld, curiosity grows in the waking mind and one begins to long for this kind of communication. Shortly, thereafter, the person makes the most outstanding shift. This is a transition from sleeping consciousness to wakefulness.

20th century mystic George Gurdjieff once remarked, "Contemporary man is born asleep, lives asleep, and dies asleep. What knowledge could a sleeping man have? If you think about it, and at the same time remember that sleep is the chief feature of our being, you will soon understand that if man wishes to obtain knowledge, he should first of all think about how to awaken himself, that is about how to change his being." Gurdjieff wasn't talking about getting up in the morning. He was addressing the illusion of our attachment to the physical world around us and beliefs that the physical is all there is.

As someone becomes a student of their dreams, significant shifts in consciousness occur. The person we are becomes as important as how we look to others. Character becomes as important as reputation. Conscience enters into the choices made.

When this happens, one begins to experience Epic Dreams.

Significant shifts are caused by a sequence of events in thoughts - mental choices toward the goal of Self awareness in dreamstates. Sometimes these are made consciously in present time, through consistent efforts in the wakeful mind toward that goal. Daily meditation is an example of this. So is a commitment to virtue. You may decide to practice being true to your word (honesty), cooperating with others (harmony), or completing what you begin (dependability). Sometimes people call these kinds of changes turning over a new leaf, or if religious in nature, they might be conversions. Whatever name they may go by, these kinds of shifts have a profound effect upon consciousness. They pick us up and place us on higher ground and our vision is expanded.

Sometimes these shifts are made unconsciously. This is why truly "good" people often don't realize the value of what they afford others. They are guided by the inner mind with the outer conscious mind mostly unaware.

When Siddhartha Gautama reached enlightenment while wrestling with his ego-demons two dozen centuries ago, he became the Buddha - awakened. Life is this journey for each of us. We are soul travelers in a vast cosmic universe and custodians of quantum ones. Our dreams help rouse us from our worldly slumber, opening the mental eye of perception to something greater than what we presently know.

The following dream, named Dream of a Desert Oasis Water Pool and the World on the Verge of War by the dreamer, is an example of someone making the transition from a state of unconsciousness to consciousness. The profundity of this 45-year-old man's dream appears in several ways.

He notes that the dream occurred on March 17, 2005, four years before sending the dream to dreamschool for interpretation. This means the dream message has lingered in his waking consciousness since he was 41.

The dreamer notes the specific time as 2:15 a.m. indicating the dream occurred in the middle of the night, awakening him from sleep. Dreams that interrupt the circadian rhythms of our being are meaningful beyond the reality that they grab the conscious mind's attention. They are reflective of the whole system of the Mind. This message is powerful enough to wake the man. It comes early in the sleep cycle rather than in the later morning hours closer to the expected time of arising. He remembers the dream because its timing is unusual. In Chinese Medicine, the hours of 2 to 4 a.m. are ruled by the liver associated with body movement, emotions - particularly frustration and anger. The liver meridian has a yang partner meridian which is the gall bladder. The gall bladder rules decision-making and is associated with bravery. These elements, as you will see, actually appear in the content of the man's dream.

The inner mind intended this man to remember this dream, and indeed he does. The detail the dreamer recalls is remarkable, even down to the color of the chicken's feathers and the dimension of a pool of water. This synesthetic quality indicates the dream has evolved beyond a theme dream of war to an epic dream. The scenes change and the dreamer's concentration remains steady. He does not lose track of the greater message characteristic of the epic dream.

Next, the man is making judgements in the dream. The man's suit is "dirty" and the young man shows "false humility". These kinds of references indicate the dreamer is fully present in the dreamstate. He is thinking as well as acting, and his thoughts cause the dream to move forward. This is the mental maturity that makes this dream an epic rather than a nightmare. The man is actively participating in the dream mentally and emotionally rather than reacting to images he either does not want or does not understand.

This higher level of judgement is reflected in how the man divides the dream into scenes or smaller themes. Even when the dream-theme, scene, and characters switch, the dreamer sustains his concentration to receive a greater message. The dream could have reasonably ended five distinct times, or the dreamer could have described the six "scenes" as different dreams, unrelated to one another. This dreamer recognizes the continuity in the dream that only comes from an understanding of the nature and use of mental attention.

The man's developed command of mental attention reflects a level of subconscious understanding that can be characterized as soul evolution. This is supported by the dream content in Scenes 4 and 5.

With this dream, the mental attention is used in both the outer and inner consciousness, outwardly in the dream action where the dreamer is experiencing (Scenes 1, 3, 4, and 6) and inwardly where the dreamer is observing (Scenes 2 and part of 5). This presentation indicates a movement in the dreamer's consciousness, in the mind experiencing and separate from the mind observing. This brings a dream into archetypal symbology of epic proportions.

Now let's examine the dream then interpret its meaning in the Universal Language of Mind.

AN EPIC DREAM

March 17, 2005, 2:15 AM I awoke from a dream on the time and date above and wrote this.

Dream of a Desert Oasis Water Pool
and the World on the Verge of War

Arrival
My wife and I arrive at the drive through of a luxury resort hotel. There are palm trees both short and tall at the edges of the drive. Alighting from their car is a couple, a man and a woman. The man is in his late fifties and wearing a dark blue suit with pin stripes. The suit is dirty from the dust of the desert. His hair is salt and pepper gray with an oily shine. The woman is in a dark blue skirt suit and she has brunette hair. She is wearing many pieces of jewelry.

I mention to the woman that her husband's suit is dirty and it might be easily cleaned with a lint brush. She scoffed as if she didn't care about him.

Symbol of Authority
The scene changes to one of the hotel rooms at the resort. The old man is now dressed in an Egyptian wrap (turquoise blue) with gold metallic fabric accents. Also in the hotel room is another man, young and handsome. He looks like Brad Pitt and he is also wearing an Egyptian wrap of the same color. The older man is presenting a golden sash to the young man. The sash is a symbol of authority that the older man is attempting to convince the young man to accept. The young man smiles smugly, as if he knows he will accept it eventually, but he is showing false humility by his hesitation to accept.

Water Pool
In the hotel is an open air dining courtyard with several circular tables with people seated. The patio is paved with stone tiles of earth tones. I'm walking through the courtyard following a chicken that is walking alongside a small stream. The chicken is white with green, yellow and red accented feathers. The stream meanders to the edge of a cliff where it turns into a waterfall dropping down about 30 feet to a large oval pool about 30 by 80 feet around. The chicken walks down a set of stairs to another patio area adjacent to the pool. I hear a voice say, "It will go to the island jutting into the pool." (Its not really an island but rather a very small peninsula extending land slightly into the pool.) I see the chicken go to the edge of the pool. The tiles are darker than the rest of those in the patio and have special patterns. The chicken grasps one of the tiles with its beak and jiggles it. The chicken then steps onto another tile, grasps another tile and jiggles it. I walk over to the tile and I follow the same procedure as I saw the chicken perform. The stone tiles re-arrange and a tall pottery vase appears. The vase is about four and one half feet tall, dark blue with speckles of dark gray.

Bearded Man
The vase then turns into a man with black hair and a black beard. He is wearing a robe in the Middle Eastern style. The robe or hijab is the same color as was the vase. The man looks at me very intensely and says, "You must attack me." I am startled and puzzled because I don't intend to attack this man. He says it again, "You must attack me." I feel that this man is evil and is attempting to goad me into violence. In fear I pray to God that he protect me and I say, "Through Jesus all thing are possible. Through Jesus we will overcome evil. Through Jesus all things are possible and nothing can stop those who believe in God."

Armies in the Mountains
Away from the old man and the pool I am lifted up into the air to a range of mountains to the northwest. I see a dark cloud in the sky next to the mountains. It has symbols on it that appear similar to dark brown lightning bolts. I am floating in the air above an army of marching soldiers in the mountains. The soldiers number in the 100s of thousands and appear pale and sickly. This is the beginning of a war or battle between the forces of goodness against the believers in worldly things.

Sultan
In the mountains is a residence with stone statues of elephants on the side of the adjacent road. I go into the residence and I see two elephants, which then turn into men. One man is older, in his sixties, and the other is in his thirties. The older man is very wealthy and socially and politically powerful. The younger man wants something that the older man has. The older man wants to see his harem of beautiful woman. I think the younger man wants the power and wealth of the older man. The dream ends and I awaken.

- Male/WA, United States

The sections noted here are the dreamer's own. He has divided the dream into these sections with the subtitles. This level of lucidity assists in the interpretation of the dream for it reflects the depth of the dreamer's thinking.

To understand this dream, we will refer to these sections as scenes.

Scene One: Arrival
Scene Two: Symbol of Authority
Scene Three: Water Pool
Scene Four: Bearded Man
Scene Five: Armies in the Mountains
Scene Six: Sultan

This dream concerns a shift in thinking the man is in the process of enacting. Most of this is unconscious as evidenced by the males in his dream who he does not know. Some of them are older, indicating greater experience and longevity. Some of them are younger. All of them are unknown to the dreamer.

The dreamer describes these males. Although he cannot say they are people he knows, he tells us about their clothing and, in some cases, their attitudes. The first man is well-dressed yet unkempt. His clothes are dirty. He is older than the dreamer. This indicates the dreamer has taken great pains to express the self well and, in the process, that expression has become sullied in some way.

In the next scene, the 50ish male has new foreign clothes reflecting values that are highly prized yet foreign to the dreamer. The dream says he has been using his imagination to produce this quality and it is time to accept responsibility for it. The dreamer describing the males' appearance and attitude indicates the dreamer's progress in discovering these parts of self. Although he is not yet conscious, the dream reports his progress.

In Scene 4, shapeshifting occurs. A vase turns into a man. The Middle East tone continues in this man's dress, a symbolic representation of how the dreamer unconsciously expresses self. In the dream, he is "startled" and "puzzled". The dreamer is unaware how this man can be in the dream, much less a previously unknown part of Self. This part of self, however, evokes the response in the dreamer that causes the pivotal shift that makes this an Epic Dream.

In the final Scene, the older and younger males reflect the aspects of self that began the dream. Again, shapeshifting occurs when two elephants turn into these two men. From willfulness has come the possibility for intelligence. The older man is described by his power. The younger by his desire. The man is making a shift from being unaware of how he expresses himself and why to being aware and responsible for this. How he has thought and the actions he has taken thus far have brought him to where he is at the time he remembered this dream.

There is one other factor to consider in looking at the people in this dream. The women - the dreamer's wife and the first man's wife - represent aspects of the dreamer's subconscious mind. They symbolize the difference and the relationship between how the dreamer recognizes getting what he wants in life (he and his wife) and how he has actually manifested his desires (the other married couple). This leads us to intepreting the action of the dream.

This dream concerns the dreamer's relationship with others. Not so much one-on-one relationships in his daily life, as the bigger picture of societal relationships characterized by the country he lives in and his status in society. This is established in the opening moments of the dream in what the dreamer calls "Arrival". Once the entire dream is received, it is clear this dream is both an alpha and omega point in the dreamer's life. He is both beginning and ending something in his view of the world.

In his dealings with others and the way they have shaped his ideas about himself and the world, the dreamer has been mindful of how he comes across to others. Perhaps he has believed he needed to be certain ways to receive what he desired. Now, he is questioning this.

He is beginning to realize, in Scene Two: Symbol of Authority, how he has allowed society, the collective consciousness, to determine the vaules he expresses. Some of these were not his own, yet he imagined them to be in order to obtain other desires. He believes he has created this on his own terms and this is the false humility the dreamer is recognizing. Perhaps the dreamer is reflecting upon how he has played the game of life, believing he has played it well up to now for it has brought what he thought was valuable. Now, however he finds the pin stripes have lint and the jewelry is plentiful.

The dreamer has had the knowledge he needed to available to him (Scene Three: Water Pool) yet has often become caught up in the details of information. When something in life was attractive or intriguing to him, his attention wandered away from the bigger picture. This is the compulsive way the man has been approaching life. Thinking, saying, doing what he believed would get him what he wanted. He has focused his spirit and creative intelligence into physical thinking symbolized by the colorful but flightless bird.

This has produced a part of self that is unexpected. This "Bearded Man" is a conscious aspect of self who hides who he really is. This is the part of the dreamer that springs from the too much information, too many details, too much physical-only thinking. The dreamer is waking up, realizing these things are an illusion and things are not what they seem in his dream.

When the dreamer becomes caught up in physical ego-centered thinking, this leads to emotional imbalance brought on by the shifting polarities of what is right and what is wrong, what causes peace and harmony and what causes harm and discord. The aspect of Self represented by the Bearded Man is the stimulus for this realization.

The dreamer's response is to turn toward God, to image something never before perceived. The dreamer affirms that he can be in alignment with Universal Law and calls upon the Law of Infinity, the law that opens the mind. This allows the dreamer to see what before was hidden from him. He now knows the cause and effect relationship between acting from external motivation and acting from internal motivation, the dream-armies ready for battle. Here is the internal conflict alluded to in the opening scenes of the dream. The dreamer can see this conflict without becoming a part of it. He can be objective in his struggle to do the right thing.

By meeting a challenge - probably something that happened the day or two before this dream occurred - this dreamer has become aware of how he has used his will to make the life he enjoys (Scene Six: Sultan). The older man and younger man reappear in new forms. The values have been clarified. The dreamer discovers that his life has spawned as many desires as it has fulfilled.

The result is a question: How will the dreamer use the discipline he has built?

It is Self-discipline that has enabled this dreamer to accomplish in his life and it is Self-discipline that he will use to feed his soul. The shift will occur as he chooses to become conscious about what he values in life and why.

When you think about it, that's what every epic hero is seeking.

© 2009, Dr. Barbara Condron

Dr. Barbara Condron has been studying the Mind and dreams for 50 years. The author of a dozen books including The Dreamer's Dictionary and Every Dream is about the Dreamer, she is project director for the GLOBAL LUCID DREAMING EXPERIMENTS based at the College of Metaphysics. To learn more about the teachings she shares in this column visit www.dreamschool.org. Hundreds of interpreted dreams are at your fingertips. While there, be sure to contribute a dream for the Q&A's Top Ten Dreams of the Week (be sure to note that you are a PLW subscriber) and check out the Dreamschool Program to become a Dreamologist. Sweet dreams til next month!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Since 1977, Dr. Barbara Condron has made guest appearances on radio and television shows and been interviewed by newspapers here and abroad. From WGN in Chicago to WGNO in New Orleans, from PBS Latenight in Detroit to BBC Radio in London, her expertise in her subjects and her ease as a public speaker have made her a media favorite especially on call-in shows. Her affection for using media to connect people was behind the National Dream Hotline®, the annual weekend of sharing dream research sponsored by the School of Metaphysics, a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to developing spiritual potential. She served as International Coordinator for the hotline from its inception in 1989 to 2000.

In 1997, Barbara created www.dreamschool.org to share School of Metaphysics research and answer questions from dreamers online. Now she is pioneering global dream awareness through heading the Global Lucid Dreaming Experiment at the College of Metaphysics in the Midwestern U.S. The experiments seek to collect the largest body of experiential knowledge to date concerning specifically, lucid dreaming, and to analyze the data making it widely known. Her books include The Dreamer's Dictionary and Every Dream is about the Dreamer. She also created the documentary Ten Powers of Dreaming, a study of dreams that have changed the course of history.