Just a Silly Fantasy That Occurs to Me Regarding Eternal Return
If we keep coming back to the same lives and doing each do-over better, so does everyone else in prior history. Moses writes better, prophets prophesy better, hearers obey better, students learn better, preachers preach better, politicians politic better, etc. Next life my Bible is better, messages are clearer, I learn better, world is better. I know it isn't working out that way,
or is it?
or is it?
posted by Daniel C. Branham-Steele at
1:19 AM
9 Comments:
You call this silly? Well, let me tell you mine: I'd like to "wake up" in the "next" life the same way I do in a lucid dream, suddenly (probably when I'm around 20 again) become aware of this former life and from then on start to live consciously, not relying just on intuition or Déjà vu (the supposedly normal way), and probably not knowing exactly what I should do, but surely knowing what I shouldn't. Even though it never goes right in fiction, I think it would be great if things were that way.
Also, if Eternal Return were to be regarded as part of a belief system, then I think that strengthening one's lucid dreaming abilities should be part of the set of practices, along with revision, that would hopefully help to achieve the exceptional level of awareness necessary to remember that you have lived before. What about that?
By
Will, at 5:16 PM
I have always read Ecclesiastes 1:9-11 as Solomon's observation that we do not remember the distant past, and when our lives are distant past, the people then will not remember us, either. But if it is as Neville supposed, Solomon was giving it as an intro to what he was talking about, and thus to what all the Bible is about. I assume that what we call Science of Mind, Mind Science, Religious Science, lucid dreaming, revision, and all them all -- how to live Aramaicly-- is what the church is SUPPOSED to be teaching, but cannot because it became politics and the usurping leaders knew none of that and could not teach it. Didn't see it or believe it.
Sounds like a calling, if you ask me, Will.
By
Daniel C. Branham-Steele, at 6:10 PM
Some great responsibility. Have you done lucid dreaming at all?
By
Will, at 10:39 AM
No. How do you do it?
By
Daniel C. Branham-Steele, at 5:46 PM
A lucid dream is any dream during sleep which you become aware that you're dreaming, that enables you to explore the dream world as you wish (not quite, actually... but things improve with time and it's a skill to be developed). The basics of the practice encompasses:
1) Increase dream recall - that is, remember your ordinary dreams better, the most common way to do this is using a dream journal: as soon as you wake up, with the memory of the dream still fresh, you write down some key words related to the dream(s) you had, then later on when you have more time you read those words and write down the full dream(s), with as much detail as possible. This works well for people who naturally wake up in the middle of the night or don't have too much time during the morning, but some people skip the key words part and just write down the full dream.
2) Reality checks - Make the habit of asking yourself several times a day: "Am I dreaming?", and then test that answer by doing something which has different results in the dream world and in waking life, like for example, trying to take off the ground and levitate, sounds crazy but if you practice this enough, this will make you realize that you're dreaming the next time you find yourself soaring in a dream, but this is just one example, others prefer to simply pull one of their fingers to see if it stretches. Anyway, you've got to be creative.
3) Induction techniques - This is how you'll actually have a lucid dream, there are dozens of induction techniques and some work better than others, it's not worth to summarise them here before you start with the basics like writing down your dreams and doing reality checks, you'll have to learn about them and experiment with different ones to see what works for you and you can also combine different techniques. The only thing I recommend here is to not attempt any technique which you have to force yourself to wake in the middle of the night to improve dream recall, some sources state that this is not good for your health.
There is a plethora of information about the subject out there and you can get quite lost when you're just starting out, so I recommend this site: World of Lucid Dreaming - It's very concise and covers everything from the basics to more advanced stuff, and the book Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Inner Self by Robert Waggoner.
That's it, if you decide to embark on this journey, please do report about your experiments.
Ah and I am no expert by any means, I'm still learning and doing my own experiments.
By
Will, at 8:41 PM
"it's not worth to summarise them here before you start with the basics"
That sounded a bit rude, I should've said "there is no need to summarise them here", but I think you probably noticed that I'm not a native English speaker, so you're probably ok with that.
And here is an interview with Robert Waggoner worth watching before you consider to read his book:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gf0g1YZa8co
By
Will, at 11:30 AM
Honestly, I thought you were an educated American or British. Your English is better than a lot of native speakers, except more formal than natives usually use.
By
Daniel C. Branham-Steele, at 1:58 PM
Eternal Return. What a hellish concept for the less fortunate. No thank you!! Once is enough!!
By
Anonymous, at 12:43 PM
You'd never know it, though. Complete amnesia as to the prior, with unlimited opportunity as to the future. What if this "once" was your hundredth? Oh. Okay. Let's start looking for those opportunities.
By
Daniel C. Branham-Steele, at 1:12 PM
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