About the Video

The Podcast

The hosts are articulate and knowledgeable and so unexpectedly funny I found myself laughing out loud as I listened. More importantly, I feel I've already learned things from them. 

I have heard several episodes (including two on the shadow which were excellent) already but the episode I want to talk about in this post is called Unlock the Power of Symbols (video follows). The guest in this episode was Murray Stein, author of Jung's Map of the Soul: An Introduction (affiliate link) and I was so impressed with him that I bought his book the second the show was over.

When I was in my New Age phase I talked about synchronicities a lot even though I didn't really understand them and to be honest I'm not sure I understand them now. But when Stein quoted Jung as saying that a synchronicity is an act of creation in time I felt like I was being shown another, more theoretical perspective.

And an example followed.

The Spirit Dream

So there I was, doing the dishes and listening to the podcast and wishing I could ask Murray Stein to help me make sense of the Spirit Dream. I was thinking that I wouldn't even have to get him to take on the whole dream. I would just ask him to help me figure who the lady in blue was and why she seemed so important—and what was up with the whole color thing (read The Spirit Dream in full if you'd like more context). 

I have often thought that the spectrums of blues I was shown in the dream  exceeded anything I've ever seen witg ordinary waking vision. Sometimes I have wondered if there isn't something reminiscent of an NDE in that, but I've never been sure about any of it.

The interplay of red and blue in the Spirit Dream seemed significant to me from the start and I have always supposed that color was the key to the dream. 

Murray Stein

I was still thinking about these things and how nice it would be if Murray Stein could tell me about my dream, when he answered a question about the difference (or relationship) between a symbol and an archetype and said the following:

So there are archetypes and there are archetypal images... [and] Jung makes a very important distinction (you can read about this in a paper he wrote called the Nature of the Psyche in Volume 8 and I use that a lot in my book Jung's Map of the Soul).

He [Jung] lays out a spectrum [and] says the psyche is like a spectrum from ultraviolet to infrared.

On the infrared side it disappears through a psychoid membrane into the body, into physiological processes and there's an interplay between body and psyche—the psychosomatic interplay. The psyche can affect the body. The body can affect the psyche through that psychoid membrane.

He says on the other end of the spectrum there's the ultraviolet end of the spectrum that's blue—the psyche disappears again through a psychoid barrier or membrane into he says "what I can only call Spirit,.." and that's where the archetype exists.

And the archetype emits... [and] influences the psyche. The archetype influences the psyche by giving it images so when you have powerful images coming into your dreams, for instance, we call them archetypal images [or] Big Dreams that are related to mythology and fairy tales and all that.

The archetype... beyond the psyche in the... spiritual world is emitting some energy and it's coming into the psyche and then it takes the form of a couple of things: It can be an image or it can be a big idea [that] can be an inspiration, you know, suddenly [the] aha light goes on [and] you understand something.

So... the psyche disappearing into the spirit world on the one hand... [and] the psyche disappear[ing]     into the material world on the other hand... Now there's where Jung tried to tie that together—the material world and the spirit world—in his theory of synchronicity: Something happens in the material world and in the psychic world at the same time. It has meaning. 

It delivers meaning.

The Video

My Takeaway

The Dream

I had several dreams last night. The one I dreamt just before I woke up was a short dream about a beautiful green plain filled with white buffalo. Not a herd, but several (I don't remember how many exactly). The point of view of the dream was above the plain looking down. There was a voiceover saying, "they were looking out on a wide plain, but it was the white buffalo that held everyone's attention." 

Biblical Associations

When I look at a dream that I think may be spiritual, I turn to biblical and religious references first. I do this because as a Catholic, I've read the Bible and am familiar with Church traditions. So these elements tend to be part of my personal symbology. 

There are no buffalo in the Bible so I focused on the color white and the significance of a green plain. I immediately associated the green plain with the green pasture of the 23rd Psalm. To me, the 23rd Psalm is about trusting and following God.

My favorite verse about the color white is from Isaiah, so that was another easy association.

After my first impressions, I like to do a word search in an electronic Catholic Bible to find key terms (like white) and read through the verses cited. I also use Fr. Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary. (I have the print version but you can access the entire dictionary free online.)

There may be a lot of Bible passages for a single term, so I try to focus on those that have personal meaning to me and / or are coherent with other aspects of the dream.

While white is occasionally associated with symptoms of illness in the Bible, I don't feel that applied to this dream.

More often, white is used to describe angels, God and Jesus in the Bible. It is mentioned in connection with the transfiguration and the resurrection. There are so many references to the color white in Scripture that I can’t list them all here.

The four horses  mentioned in Revelation and in Ezekiel include a white horse. In Revelation, Jesus rides a white horse. The lamb of God who represents Jesus is white as is the countenance of the Ancient of Days.

The common denominator in all of this is that white is associated with the holiness. What's really interesting about this to me, is that the Indian meaning of the white buffalo is very similar. 

Native American Associations

I have an interest in the symbols and teachings of indigenous cultures. I knew the white buffalo was significant in Native American culture but I didn't know the details, so I decided to do some research.

I learned that there is a Lakota myth about the White Buffalo Calf woman who was a supernatural being who appeared to teach the people the seven rituals. All the rituals are fascinating but I found Wanáǧi Yuhápi or the Keeping of the Soul especially interesting.

There are prophetic ideas linked to the white buffalo as well:

This video tells the story of the White Buffalo Calf Woman:

General Associations

General associations include anything that occurs to me about the dream. It can have to do with plot, context, or symbolic meanings not previously explored.

The point of view in the dream was above, looking down. This, combined with the voiceover,   suggested an omniscient, or all-knowing narrator. A group of people were observing the white buffalo below and the buffalo were what held their attention. The unseen group thought the white buffalo were important.

Waking Context

To me, the waking context of the dream matters. This context could include related events that seem to be connected with the dream as well as any prayers or petitions that precede it.

People have practiced dream incubation from ancient times to the present day. The practice can be simple or involved. The way I usually approach dream incubation is through prayer. In this instance, I was praying for insight on my writing and learning about dreams. 

I have heard various priests say that we should just ignore our dreams and I understand why they have this opinion. But to me, Scripture and the early Church take a different view. In spite of that, I feel some conflict about working with my dreams.

Possible Meanings

• The dream reinforces the idea that dreams have meaning in many cultures. Dreams were valued in biblical times, as well as in many other cultures. 
• There are common cross-cultural themes in this dream. I am a Catholic with an interest in American Indian culture and some very distant Indian heritage, so this feels right to me.     
• I feel this dream speaks to the importance of following God (omniscient viewpoint), staying close to Jesus (lamb of God), working with my guardian angel (man in white), and cultivating virtue (holiness). These are all things to think about.
•  Because a group of people are observing the buffalo, I think the dream might be of interest to others, which is why I've posted it to the blog.
• The story of the White Buffalo Calf woman is something that I want to reflect on further.
• There are prophetic elements in both the Indian and the biblical resources. I'm not sure what that means as of this writing, but I'm open to further insight.
• I usually share important dreams with a good Catholic friend who has a gift for dream interpretation. She gave me some wonderful insight on the dream I had prior to this one but we did not get to the buffalo dream yet.

As you may have noticed, I put a lot time into interpreting this dream even though it’s short. This is why I don't take a deep dive into most of my dreams, though I do record them all. To me, it is worth the effort because there is so much to learn!

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Please note: I use Catholic Christian symbols and sources in dream interpretation because that is my religious tradition. It's what I'm familiar with. You will probably want to consider what's familiar to you.

What Is Shared Death Experience? 

I heard famed near-death researcher Dr. Ray Moody speak on NDEs and shared death experience in 2015. But I didn't fully understand what a shared death experience was until I read Glimpses of Eternity (affiliate link) earlier this week.

A shared death experience occurs when a person takes part in the spiritual experience of someone who is dying. This experience can take many different forms. And Glimpses of Eternity does a great job of showcasing that.

Accounts of Shared Death Experience 

Dr. Moody didn't hear about shared death experience until after his ground-breaking book on near-death experience, Life After Life (affiliate link) was published in 1975. The shared death phenomena has been studied before however (as doctor Moody points out), going all the way back to the early days of the Society for Psychical Research.

The 19th century book Phantasms of the Living (affiliate link), written by two prominent members of the Society, includes multiple examples of what were once called deathbed visions. Several cases from Phantasms of the Living are included in Glimpses of Eternity.

Shared death experience has also been discussed by Melvin Morse. MD in his book Parting Visions (affiliate link).

Like most of Dr. Moody's books, Glimpses of Eternity, features a wealth of first-hand accounts. These accounts include full-fledged out of body NDE-type events, the observation of  unusual phenomena around the dying, extraordinary dreams and more. 

I enjoyed reading these reports and feel there is a lot that we can learn from them.

Elements of a Shared Death Experience

In Glimpses of Eternity. Dr Moody provides a list of features common to the shared death experience. He is also very clear in saying that shared death experience may include several or as few as one of these elements and that he is aware of no shared death experiences that includes them all.  

While most shared death experience occur in a waking state, Dr. Moody cites some that have occurred in dreams, including the 1988 shared death experience described by Melvin Morse. MD in Parting Visions.

The fact that some shared death experiences occur in dreams was of special interest to me because I once had an unusual dream about someone who was near death and then recovered. This dream included some of the elements Dr. Moody associates with shared death experience:

1. A change of geometry, where rooms either change shape or appear to open into another reality Dr. Moody describes as a "different and larger dimension."
2. A mystical light that Dr. Moody considers to one of the most profound features of a near-death experience. This light is often described as having substance. According to Dr. Moody it is "no ordinary light" but one that may lead to mystical experience and spiritual transformation. This light may fill the room, be observed in the eyes of the dying or in the translucent glow of the entire body of the person near death.
3. Music that has no physical source but can be heard by the dying and others present.
4. Co-living a life review similar to the type reported in a classic NDE except in this case the dying and healthy observer share the experience.
5. An out-of-body state which Dr. Moody describes as a "fairly common" element of a shared death experience. This element is cited in some of the most profound and NDE-like shared death reports.
6. Encountering unworldly or "heavenly" realms which may include a border or barrier. As with many NDEs this border may be a bridge, river or other boundary.
7. The appearance of a fine mist that may have a human shape and tendency to drift upward and disappear.

What Can Shared Death Experience Tell Us?

When I heard Dr. Moody speak, he was quite excited about shared death experience. This was because the shared death experience contradicts the main argument people make about NDEs. This argument--that an NDE is the product of a dying brain--cannot be applied to perfectly healthy people who share the experience of someone else's passing.

Some first-hand shared death experiences described in Glimpses of Eternity involve entire groups of (healthy) people. In these cases, members of the group perceived varied - though coherent - phenomena. One or two observers might perceive light or a vision of the departed, for example, while others only hear music or have a sense that something unusual is happening. This supports the idea that the shared death experience is telepathic in nature. 

Sometimes shared death experiences are predictive. At other times they announce that someone has died in another location. The fact that certain elements repeat from experience to experience is compelling.

The part of Glimpses of Eternity (affiliate link) that impressed me most, however, was the idea that shared and near-death experience may have played a part in the formation of religious beliefs about the afterlife. Noted individuals like Egyptologist Cyril Aldred, NDE researcher Kenneth Ring, PhD and Dr. Moody himself have all made this suggestion. To me, this makes sense. 

Instead of undermining religious belief, I think it supports it.

Please check back for future posts on dreams, mystical experience and more, including my upcoming video about my own experience!

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This post includes Amazon Affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of my links, I will get a small percentage of the sale, at no cost to you.

Why Study Psi? 

Parapsychologists use the Greek letter psi to represent what many of us think of as psychic abilities. The three main categories studies are psychic phenomena (telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance), psychokinesis or PK (the ability to move or influence the physical world through our mental processes) and what is called survival research.

Survival research focuses on survival after death. This includes apparitions of the departed, near death experience (NDE) and reincarnation research. While some skeptics refuse to see it, there is strong evidence both inside and outside the lab that psi phenomena is real. 

Parapsychologists take the position that psi is a human ability. Questions such as why psi occurs and how it can be applied are important and can only be answered through research. 

It’s possible that  psi abilities are growing stronger in the population or possibly diminishing and this is important information as well. 

It's known (through evidence based studies) that belief in psi increases psi abilities (or at least the ability to demonstrate psi). If continued research into psi helps convince people that psi is real, it's very possible that psi abilities/phenomena will increase as a result.

Some Everyday Psi Application

I personally believe that ESP (especially telepathy and possibly some forms of PK) can be a valuable life skill. Unfortunately, in our society too many people are taught to doubt or discount their abilities. Being able to sense when something is off or read a potentially dangerous individual, for example, can save someone’s life. I think this is especially true for women and people who live or work in dangerous areas or professions. 

I personally feel that I have avoided dangerous situations and at least one accident because of psi. I hope that someday people will be encouraged to make use of psi abilities instead of ignore them.

Another helpful use of psi is in business or various professions where hunches can lead to unexpected success. There are many other uses, obviously, but these are some of the most common and often taken for granted. It's worth noting that some parapsychologists believe that we use psi all the time and just aren't consciously aware of it.

I believe this is true for a lot of people. 

I have always had some awareness of psi. Since childhood I've had experiences of feeling what other people felt to the point that it was like sensing an almost palpable field. At other times I've found that I was able to guess things well above chance which has saved me on more than a few tests. 

I've also had the experience of tuning in on what people really mean in a conversation so clearly that it felt as if there were a surface conversation and a subtext or what I used to think of as the conversation beneath the conversation.

I've also had other occasional more evidential psi experiences.

Psi and Belief

Thanks to my recent Rhine Education Center course, Dreams and Altered States, I've been thinking about dreams and how they communicate information. This post shares some of my thoughts on the language of dreams. 

Information Sources 

As explained in our Dreams and Altered States course text, Psychic Dreaming, dreams reflect sensory, psychological or psychic input. Some examples follow. 

• Psychological input might be traced to the stress of the day or worries buried deep in our subconscious. This may lead to disturbing dreams or nightmares.
• Light or sound that bleeds into our sleeping awareness are examples of sensory input that can be incorporated into our dreams.
• Psychic input has an unidentified source that may be defined in different ways by different people. 

My Favorite Theory

In addition to different kinds of input, there are various theories about how information (as listed above) becomes a dream. 

Psychic Dreaming shared several such theories, but the one I liked best was that of neuroscientist J. Allen Hobson. According to Hobson: 

1. A stimulus or input (or information source) causes neurons to fire. 
2. The resulting neural impulses are translated into images. 
3. The subconscious mind makes the images into a narrative (dream). 

This process of creating a narrative is a lot like the process we use to make sense of information we receive when we're awake. But I find the idea that we do it in our sleep interesting.

Especially when it comes to psychic or spiritual dreams which I believe to be received.

Received Information

In one of his books or talks, biophysicist Rupert Sheldrake shares an analogy. 

Imagine that you know nothing of radios and that you assume that the sound is generated by the radio itself. To test your theory, you open the radio and remove some of the parts. When you see that the radio no longer functions, you may assume that you have understood how a radio works. But you would be wrong.

This, according to Sheldrake, is how many scientists approach the brain. And it is how a lot of them approach dreams as well. The parts do matter, obviously, but they are not the source of the message.

Some studies, such as those done with Faraday cages, indicate this analogy isn't valid for the communication of electromagnetic signals. (Though in my view, the mind is still a receiver in a way we don't yet understand.) 

In dreams the mind isn't just a receiver, however, it is also a translator—as Hobson theorizes and dream studies seem to suggest.

Dream Communication Studies

In 1962, American Society for Psychical Research (ASPR) researcher Montague Ullman opened a sleep laboratory at Maimonides Medical Center. Experiments used a sender and sleeping receiver. 

• The sender attempted to communicate an image. 
• Receivers were monitored via EEG in order to be awakened at the end of each REM and report their dreams. 
• Results were judged to be "hits" or "misses" with hits being statistically significant, indicating, that telepathy does in dreams. 

Survey studies by Louisa Rhine and others reinforce the Maimonides Dream Telepathy Study findings. According to these surveys, most (65% or higher) psychic experience happens in the dream state.

Of special interest to me was that, while the Maimonides Dream Telepathy study hits were obvious hits, they were almost never an exact replica of the original image. 

What This Means to Me

I have received to much evidential information in dreams to doubt that such communication is possible. I have also always known that we created the symbolism present in ordinary dreams. 

Psychic and spiritual, however, seemed different me and for most of my life I believed that they symbols they contained were directly communicated. This impacted the way I interpreated my dreams.

Now, thanks to what I learned in Dreams and Altered States, I feel that I'm looking at dreams in a more discerning way.

I wouldn’t go as far to say that dream images are never directly communicated, but it seems likely that w'e translating the information we receive most of the time. To me, it is not a closed system, but I am realizing that we play a much bigger part in our experiences than I imagined.

I will still use the same resources for dream interpretation (Christian / Catholic sources, cultural symbols, personal meaning and experience, etc). But the idea that the images themselves are (probably) my translations will definitely impact my dream work going forward.  

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Psychic Dreaming (affiliate link), written by our professor Loyd Auerbach, is available through Amazon and elsewhere. Please note: if you buy Psychic Dreaming via my Amazon affiliate link, I may receive a small commission at no cost to you.

To ask Professor Auerbach a question live on YouTube, check out his channel at YouTube.com/@AskProfessorParanormal

For more on about the Rhine Research Center and their wonderful online classes, please visit RhineOnline.org I am not taking Intro to Parapsychology and plan to share some of what I learn in an upcoming post.