Before
I started using various forms of meditation CDs enhanced with advanced audio technology
like binaural beats, I estimate I hadn't recalled much more than tiny snippets
of a rare dream in, gosh, at least ten years and probably many more than that.
One
of the things I liked after listening to my first audio-enhanced CD in late 2001
was the fact that I started sleeping as soundly as a puddle of snoozing cat and
dreaming vividly and often. For the first time in far too long I could clearly
recall in the mornings my imaginings of the nights before.
Well,
in February of 2002 after I first started listening to these powerful CDs, I dreamed
that I was in the atrium of a large bank-like building, the front of which had
huge plate glass windows. Granite columns rose from the polished floor to the
top of the atrium, some four stories above my head.
I
was walking through this atrium, minding my own business, when a man suddenly
ran past, shouting, "The storm's coming, the storm's coming. It's headed
right for us!"
He
evaporated from my sight as only dream people can do.
I
walked toward the plate glass windows, looked outside, and, sure enough, a terrible
storm was headed right for the building, a perfect storm with tornadoes, hurricane
force winds, lightning, and driving rain.
I
started to run as fast as I could toward the interior of the building, but then
a voice screamed, "We're all going to die!"
I
looked back and, yes, the tornado's winds were driving uprooted trees and debris
straight toward the plate glass windows.
I
could feel myself panicking, sweating, shaking with fear, going zero at the bone.
I
collapsed to the smooth, polished floor, worrying furiously about what I could
do to protect myself. For lack of anything better, I crawled to one of the granite
columns and then wrapped my arms around it even though I knew the force of the
terrible winds would laugh at my feeble hold on safety and easily toss me about
like an egg shell.
My
eyes squeezed shut to avoid the glass fragments and flesh-piercing slivers that
would be headed my way any second now.
I
felt fear flooding through my veins.
My
heart pounded as I clutched onto that column for dear life.
Suddenly,
for no conscious reason in that dream, I calmly took a deep breath, opened my
eyes, totally accepted the storm, and then watched in calm fascination as glass
and trees and street signs and
driving rain and other storm stuff flew past me, leaving me untouched, calm, relaxed,
and utterly at peace.
Seconds
later, I woke up, happy, smiling, almost in tears because of the wonderful
experience of completely letting go.
For
the first time since 1980, when something similar happened to me, I felt completely
at one with everything in the world -- the good and the bad, the beautiful and
the ugly, the violent and the peaceful.
It's
been a week since that dream, but I still reflect on it several times a day to
remind myself of the way I'm prone to attach to things I really don't have to
attach to and fear things I really don't have to fear.
As
a result of what I experienced while clutching the granite column in my dream,
I've lately been a better witness of what I say and do - an observer who can now
better embrace the still calm around which the storms of life swirl, bluster,
and blow.
EDITOR'S
NOTE :
I attribute most of the growth and insight discussed above to daily listening
to our meditation-specific CDs in our CD
store for stress relief, relaxation, sleep promotion, alertness, and deep
meditation.
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