Posts tagged Dreams
Programmed Dreams – For Psychological Problems
Oct 1st
A professional woman, who performed at the highest level in her profession, had a very serious problem. If her husband were ten minutes late coming home from work, she might take a blade and cut her wrists. There were many futile attempts to interpret to her that she was so upset because her father was alcoholic and often he didn’t come home when she was a child. These fell short of the mark because it was the adult part of the mind that had to experience the infant part of the mind react. I was only telling her adult mind what the child was experiencing.
Finally I suggested that she have a dream that would give her a new therapeutic technique that would enable her to overcome the problem sooner.
In her dream I was to make a recording of things that would cause her to be extremely upset. Then in the dream she was to take the recording home, play it, go berserk, and record her reaction on a second tape. Then she was to bring the second tape into the office, play it, and say “Oh, how stupid.”
That dream itself cured her. She never again was concerned about when her husband returned from work. As soon as she would start to get upset, she would hear the little voice say “Oh how stupid.”
This dream could lead to a new therapeutic approach for drug and alcohol dependence. If persons could witness themselves in their drugged state of mind, the adult part of the mind might say “Oh how stupid!” Recently a friend described how a warehouse, filled with surveillance cameras, filmed an addict convulsing, dying, and being revived. When the young lady was shown her film, she said “Wow. Everyone should see that!” The video clip ended her years of addiction.
Another woman was suicidal, even though she had seen the best psychiatrists in NYC for 25 years. Her friend asked if I would be able to help her. I told her I probably would not be able to find the time, but I would write a programmed dream for her: “I will have a dream about the depression, and the dream itself will cure it. I will awaken at the very end of the dream, remember it and write it down.”
Her friend received a very excited call the very next morning. In the dream she was on an airplane. She didn’t know where it was going, but there was a man sitting next to her who began showing her scenes out of her past. Her depression quickly lifted, she began to feel joy, and at the end of the dream she said she realized the man sitting next to her was God! As of last report she still remained free of her depression.
Another remarkable cure happened when man with extreme anxiety all his life, had not seemed to make much progress in previous therapy. I told him to have a dream about the anxiety problem, and the interpretation of the dream would tell him exactly what to do to overcome it.
The next day his wife called and asked what on earth did I do in one hour to get him beyond 20 years of extreme anxiety.
In the dream he and his friend were in Eaton suits – which were worn by young boys. They were going down an escalator into a department store. At the bottom of the escalator was a frightening monster, and he knew the monster would kill when he reached the basement level. So far the dream was just a castration anxiety dream, with the department store and all the goodies inside representing the mother, the monster representing his rival, the Eaton suit representing early oedipal stage of development, his friend representing the “spare” that is consistent with castration anxiety dreams.
When he reached the bottom, he found that the “monster” was a friendly guy who just wanted to play and dance, and who would never hurt him. Thus the child’s fear was eliminated, and consequently the adult had no more anxiety!
How to Be Yourself
Oct 1st
Most of us are who our parents, background, society or religion wants us to be. Even when we think we are liberated from trying too hard to please the world by being who they expect us to be, we still tend to want to be like people we truly admire. I only wonder who the people we want to be like want to be like.
Regardless, the most ideal person you should be is YOURSELF. The idea of being oneself however is not as simple as it sounds. We live in a confused world and it is increasingly more difficult to communicate with oneself today than ever. The following simple steps will guide you to be yourself despite personality anarchy that threatens our human race;
1.DISCOVER YOURSELF. As obvious as this may sound, many people get it wrong. It is pretty easy to. Yet it is the first and most important step to being you. How can you be yourself, when you don’t have an idea who really you are meant to be in the first place? You have to learn to pay attention to yourself and listen to your own inner voice. Ask yourself why you do what you do. Query your every actions and reactions until you learn your likes, dislikes, persona, uniqueness, passion, talents, dreams and everything. Isolate your strengths from weaknesses, and understand what is important to you and what is not. It takes a lot of efforts and disciplined concentration to achieve this in our noisy world.
You might also require feedback from friends and associate to achieve your objective. Ask them to criticize you and have them do it genuinely. Most importantly, handle their criticisms with maturity and don’t be disheartened if their lists also include some awfully unpleasant things about you. Make them comfortable enough to be able to tell you anything and everything, without any reservations or fear of hurting you. Keep the end in mind. It is towards making the greatest personal discovery of your life – discovering yourself!
2.ACCEPT YOURSELF. Accept your discovery! Embrace your uniqueness. This includes accepting your pedigree and background – pleasant or unpleasant. It also entails accepting your strengths as well as weaknesses. Most importantly, learn to accept things you cannot change about yourself – your past.
3.DEVELOP YOURSELF. As you learn to accept things you cannot change about yourself, don’t forget to learn how to change the ones you can, to be who you are created to really be. Though a piece of gold is still gold when crude, it is best when refined. Then its real value can be revealed and treasured. The same applies to you. You can’t afford to be crude if you want to attain your full potentials. Continuously develop your strengths and diminish your weaknesses. Do everything in your capacity to be a better person today than you were yesterday, by simply committing yourself to a life of ever-growing personal improvement.
4.CONTROL YOURSELF. Be in charge of your own life. Don’t run your life’s affairs by “what will people say” like most people customarily do. Life is personal and your life’s control must not be left at the mercy of external factors. Don’t give the steering wheel of your life to people who have lost theirs.
Too many people have lost the control of their lives to what others think for them. They’ve diminished themselves to mere robots who functions on auto commands. Am I trying to say you should ignore peoples’ opinions? Yes! Opinions are as abundant as the over 6 billion of us walking the earth, and everyone wants theirs to rule your life. So, it doesn’t really make any sense trying to make sense of the noise.
As a kid I was very mischievous and I erred a lot. Whenever I was indicted for doing something wrong and I try to blame other’s influence for my actions, my dad simply asks, “If he asks you to jump into fire, will you?” I felt truly stupid afterward.
As important as it is to have role models, mentors, advisers and learn from people, the final decision about your life should be yours exclusively. It is your life; therefore, it’s your responsibility. If you really know who you are, you will know what is good for you, even if it is unpopular or unconventional. At the end, what makes you special, unique, and yourself is how much personal control you have over your actions and reactions. Learn to explore your power of choice and use it rightly.
5.ENJOY YOURSELF. This is the ultimate. The whole essence of being yourself is to have the liberty of enjoying yourself. The idea is simple; BE REAL! Only a real person can enjoy himself/herself. Be truthful to yourself and your God. Be spontaneous. Laugh when you feel like. Say what is on your mind. Don’t pretend to be happy when you are not. Don’t act to be who you are not if you are not an actor of course. It will make your life more interesting and uncomplicated. That is the secret of truly sophisticated people.
Real people are like magnets. Like iron fillings to a magnet, they draw people to themselves. Whether you like to come in terms with it or not, people see through you, and they know if you are real or not. Aren’t we all attracted to a real person? By being yourself you draw into your life, the right people, factors, situations and release the positive energy that will make your very existence meaningful.
Indeed, “Your life is an occasion, rise up to it!”
