Vision When I was seven years old, it was determined that my eyes needed corrective lenses, ie, glasses. In fact, I likely needed them long before second grade. I just didn't know that I couldn't see like other people until I began to notice that my fellow students were reading things from the blackboard that were only smudges or completely invisible to me. How much I missed before that, I cannot say, but it makes me wonder what I may have learned that others missed. What sort of skills did I have to develop in order to comprehend what I could not see beyond my reach? How much interpretation did I learn by trying to match the blurred images with what I was absorbing of life? It seems to me that I had to depend more heavily on verbal cues and my mind's eye in order to function, and I functioned very well, by all reports. I still make use of this visual interpretation skill. I do graphic layout work and sometimes squint my eyes or remove my glasses so I can look at the overall balance of a design or artwork, rather than getting caught up in the details. This concept works for many spiritual applications too, particulary in the area of dreams or visions. Messages are often received as only impressions or in such heavy symbolism that you have to learn to step back and look at the whole picture, or its general import, instead of the concrete details. I don't recall having had precognitive or clairvoyant dreams. I know people who do. Very few folks get these dreams in a clear, realistic, movie-like way. There is usually symbolism to be interpreted and that is often possible only after the foretold event occurs. With practice, recording these dreams and noticing how they play out, one may learn their own set of symbols and be able to predict events. I gather that many of these dreams are just notification to sharpen your awareness because a clearer message is forthcoming, perhaps in waking life. There is usually a particular quality to spirit dreams and visions that is not like the run-of-the-mill dreaming. Everyone dreams, whether they remember it or not. Much of the time it's rather mundane stuff. We use sleep to clear out temporary storage. It's a time of filing and reorganizing to put the day's experiences where they need to go in our grey matter libraries. Sleep deprivation can cause us to have too much uncataloged junk sitting around. This creates confusion and impacts our efficiency in processing even routine items. With regular sleep, most of the dreams we remember may be common stock, like being naked in a public place or hurrying at some activity but getting nowhere. This is the usual work of the subconcious cleaning house, so to speak. Other dreams are exceptionally vivid so they stick with us when we awaken. Even so, they may fade. It's a good idea to keep a dream journal if you intend to use this as a resource. Some have reported what I would call 'tagged' dreams. It's the same concept as graffiti tagging. These dreams use a unique symbol or essence so that the dreamer knows it's a significant vision. One spirit friend of mine has what he calls 'fire dreams.' In each of these there is a red glow or flame of some description, as well as the scent of cool sweet smoke. These two elements cause him to take special note of these dream because he's learned that they have messages for him. I have working dreams too but I can usually decipher the symbolism immediately upon awakening. Generally my dream work is a direct product of some dilemma I'm facing. For instance, early in this transition to independent soul work, I dreamed I was in a big fancy house belonging to a woman with the same given name as myself. I didn't feel it was another me, just some woman about my age who really had her act together and I was thrilled to be in her company. I've forgotten what we'd been doing but it would have been scandalous to some people, however, it wasn't harmful or illegal. Our activities just didn't fall within the confines of my upbringing. I'd been staying with this woman for quite a while because my clothes and things were there. Now I know that our activities were not consistent with my upbringing because, in the dream, my grandmother showed up and started packing my clothes! Until then I was enjoying myself just fine. My grandmother talked calmly but firmly about needing to get me away from this other woman and our activities. I protested by unpacking as quickly as she packed, THEN my mother showed up and started to help my grandmother and I couldn't keep up. Finally I quit trying and ultimately I told them, very nicely, that I was staying... naked if necessary. They were welcome to take my clothes to some charity but they could not remove me from this place. My mother and grandmother left a few of my clothes but packed the rest out of the house, while shaking their heads. After they left, the other woman and I went back to whatever it was we'd been doing. Surely you can see what this dream meant. I am taking a path that is not my mother's and not my grandmother's path. It's not a slur on them at all. They're merely the symbols of my early training. Now that I'm changing, I have to leave some of that behind to make my own way according to my own spirit. I feel that I cannot tread their paths. I'm in the process of sorting what to carry forward with me. Those who came before me gave me a marvelous start and I appreciate that immensely, but it's time to make my own way. It was right for me to be who I was, but now, my soul urges me to broaden my horizons in a way that my mother and my grandmother might never understand. I'm fortunate that this need not destroy my relationship with my family or most of my friends. It does however mean that I cannot share a lot of my discoveries with them. They may not be ready. I have other visions too but I'd classify them more as spirit travel, so I'll cover them as such. I haven't delved much into another facet, lucid dreaming, but that's also a valid tool which many people seek to use. In my case, I feel that trying to exert control in my subconscious dreams would thwart the natural process of working through my dilemmas. So, as long as it works, I'll leave it alone and just pay attention to the dreams that feel significant. Of course, there are times when there's no symbolism at all and I am given direct information. I have occassionally had some puzzle to solve and awakened without memory of a specific dream, but an answer will be foremost in my mind. For instance, while researching my family tree, I hit a major brick wall. I worked at this for weeks and got nowhere. I woke up one morning with a name in mind, but I couldn't find any correlation of that name with the information I had already. About a week later, I received a copy of a death certificate I had ordered to clear up the matter. The name I had been given while asleep was on that document. I'd gotten it mixed up in the dream though. I had been given the first name, which appeared nowhere else in anything I'd seen, but I attached the wrong surname to it. I laughed at my folly when I saw the correct name. I guess my vision still isn't as clear as it could be. (Vision)

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