"WAKING DREAMS"
OR TREATING THE EVENTS OF YOUR DAY AS A DREAM

As I said before, dreams can be a real source of growth, insight and fun. There are other types of dreams. The word "dream" implies sleeping, but some types of "dreams" occur while you are awake. Everyone knows about daydreams, which can be useful altered-state experiences for opening to our imagination and inner resources. There is another way to access inner guidance and tune into higher guidance, in your everyday life. All that is required is awareness.

This is not a part of a sleep-time experience. This is where we receive messages pertaining to some issue or question we are working on or perhaps something pertaining to our spiritual growth and awareness, during our everyday life. Someone may say something to us in such a manner that points out something to us; or an event may happen that sheds light on a situation you have been thinking about; a song could come on the radio that gives the answer to a question on your mind at that instant. A theme or "sign" may be repeated in your day and your attention is brought to it again and again.

These experiences will have a kind of theme which will repeat. They could be prophetic or contain a key that will lead you to a deeper understanding of something. They could be conveying a warning, or a message. The key to understanding this concept is awareness. These things go on all of the time, but you learn to focus your attention and awareness on them and open to possible hidden meanings.

I use the rule of thumb that if something happens to me that highlights the same theme or sign or symbol three different times, in a short space of time, then I pay close attention to the message and try and figure out what is going on. It doesn't necessarily have to happen three times...sometimes more, sometimes less. But it "sticks out" to me in some manner. Using this idea of the waking dream, anything that "sticks out" in my mind is a potential message. Carl Jung called this "synchronicity" and was a great believer in the concept of waking dreams.

A waking dream can use the radio, TV, movie, etc. Another person might be the vehicle, by saying something to you, out-of-the-blue that pertains exactly to something that you were wondering about, worrying over, etc... The idea is that you receive some type of Guidance through an outside medium.

Again, this type of experience requires attention to details and a willingness to grow in awareness. If you decide to try this method out, you will need to become alert to the thoughts you have as well as to the feelings you are feeling either before, during or after as the situations occur or re-occur. When something happens to you to get your attention, say the same message repeated in several ways, three different times in a short period of time, but you do not know what the point is, pay close attention to how you were feeling just before and during the time(s) they happened and try to remember what you were thinking about just before it happened. This will likely be your key to interpreting the waking dream.

But, what if, as a woman recently said to me, you have been "waiting for a sign," paying close attention, and yet, never seem to have anything "jump out" at you? Don’t give up on this idea! You do not just have to wait for a "sign" to be made known to you. You can choose your own sign! Of course, having an increased consciousness (or awareness) of what goes on around you, is always beneficial. If you try this, you have to be alert, because your sign could come up in a number of ways and if you are typical, you may not realize that you received it, at first. Over a thousand people who have attended my workshop and tried this technique got fast, impressive results. If it happens for you as it has happened for them, then you will get the "sign" in unmistakable ways. But you may not notice it at first. Then, after several times of receiving it, you will finally realize that you got it, look back and with greater awareness and insight be able to see where and when you got it before -- and just didn’t notice it.

For instance, my husband asked for the sign of a rose to indicate the woman he was to marry. He uses signs often, and understood that it could come up in any way, perhaps as someone talking about a rose, giving him a rose, wearing rose perfume, a rose on her shirt, etc. Even though he was looking for this sign, he still missed it, at first.

This is another important point: the angels and teachers will always give you more than one sign! They keep giving them until you get them, or the time has passed for that particular sign’s relevance.

When I came into my husband’s life, I was wearing a ring with a rose on it, which he did not notice. Several weeks later, at a workshop, I had a vest on, with roses embroidered on it -- which he did not recognize. There were other instances revolving around he and I and a rose, but he didn’t notice. Finally, I made a button for him, and put a picture of a rose on it. But when he first looked at the button, all he saw was "a button". It was a while before he realized that I had given him the sign repeatedly.

He sees now that he had received the sign three times, but simply didn’t recognize what he was seeing! By the way, I did not know anything about the sign he had asked for.... it was simply a "coincidence" that I had given it to him....

It is vital that we open to all kinds of ways that the "sign" might appear! A green fly might not be an insect... It could be a green fishing fly...

A dramatic example: During a reading, a woman asked for the symbol of a white rose to come up to prove to her that she really had a guardian angel watching over her. I explained to her that she would have to pay attention, and that it could take awhile.

She was vigilant for about two weeks, but didn’t get the sign. She woke up one day, angry that she had not received the sign yet. So angry, in fact, that she decided to walk to work that day to get rid of some of her anger at me for obviously lying to her about the whole waking dream and "sign business". She very rarely walked to work, but it was only a few blocks and the day was nice. As she got to a street crossing, near her place of employment, she looked up. Taped to the pole where you push the button to cross, was a white rose. Who put it there? We’ll never know, but she looked around, (no one in sight), burst into tears, and took the rose, feeling sure that it was placed there for her. She has received many signs since then, although none quite so dramatic.

Here’s another idea. I was talking to a workshop group, about waking dreams, a few months ago. One woman was intrigued with the idea and decided to try it. She was driving along and said out loud "if there really is an Angel watching over me, then I am going to turn on this radio and whatever comes on will be the message from the angel." She reached over and switched on the radio, just as it was playing "you and I have a guardian angel, sent from heaven above."

I have hundreds of stories, from others and a huge stock of my own experiences, all about the same type of experiences. And by the way, the most common concern I hear, at first: "Are there really unseen beings watching over us?" Ask them for a sign and find out!

Try this for yourself. Pick out a sign and ask a question. Don’t make the sign so common that you are seeing "signs and portents" everywhere! But be sure that it is a sign that can have a chance of happening. The sign can be anything: specific fruits, animals, songs, words, etc. It can be whatever you decide. Give it time to manifest and then, follow it through when you get the sign. If you don’t explore it, you will never know what the message was. I find, over and over, that the sign may point me in a direction I would have never thought of on my own. You have to do your best to drop your expectations and your attachment to the outcome for this to work effectively, but if you can achieve some detachment, this is a dynamite and fun way to unfold and learn!

As you proceed with your discoveries, you will see that these "coincidences" happen quite often, but we are usually too caught up in our "stress of the moment" to stop and pay attention to it. There is a point when coincidences start adding up and you can't explain it all away. Give it a try for yourself. Pick out a sign and ask your Guides and Master teachers to give it to you in such a way that you will recognize it. The manner in which it comes up will surprise you!