Life Could be a Dream…

Posted on February 23, 2010 by Sarah Carmichael

I have always loved dreaming. Sometimes, I go to sleep just so I can dream – and often, to finish a dream. Yes, finish my dreams. I have always had very vivid dreams and lucid recollections of them. At the risk of sounded cliché or crazy, I will say that my dreams are so real that it seems like they transport me. Arguably, they feel as real when I am in them as my perceived reality feels when I am in it.

When I was kid, I pictured a TV in my head as I was falling asleep (no wonder my parents took our TV away for a few years). As I fell asleep, I would ‘flip through the channels’ and choose what I wanted to dream about. I would skip through the scary ones and settle on the the ones that made me feel good. It wasn’t until much later in life that I realized that this was uncommon. It served me well. Though, I don’t have to do it anymore, I sometimes will for fun and nostalgia.

Now, I can fall asleep to finish a dream from the night (or nap) earlier. Usually, I see where the dreams take me and go along for the ride, but when I know I am dreaming, I can dictate what happens next, when it ends, or who will appear in it.

As a result of my connections to my dreams, sometimes the distinctions between my perceived reality and my dreams blur. I often do things in my dreams that I need to do in my reality and then I think they have actually been done.

Recently, I read the following passage in Mysticism and the New Physics by Michael Talbot (page 6 in my copy)

“I may dream that I am sitting at a table having breakfast and talking with my friends, but when I wake, I know that both I and my friends are part of the continuum of the dream. To say that there are many ‘consciousnesses’ in the dream is merely a semantic distinction. All the people in the dream are illusions. They …are constructions of consciousness”

Interesting and provocative.

What does that say about reality and consciousness? Could it be. . . that saying there are many consciousnesses in reality is also a semantic distinction and that people in reality are constructions of one consciousness? Illusions. . .?

I'm Busting Loose!

Posted on June 4, 2009 by Sarah Carmichael

A few days ago I started reading Busting Loose from the Money Game by Robert Scheinfeld (@phase2player). I came across this book as a result of a series of serendipitous events (which was actually a path of discovery that I had created for myself). First, I was led to Scheinfeld’s new ebook The Business School of Consciousness: Busting Loose from the ‘old’ Business Game by a tweet. I read the ebook and craved more, so I went to the bookstore and bought the only book I could find by Robert Scheinfeld.

Busting Loose from the Money Game has changed my perspective on, well, everything. It’s not like the model was completely foreign to me, but Scheinfeld had finally articulated what I had struggled to find accurate words for, for years. Finally, I have tools to support what I know. Game on!

What you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe
- Ralph Waldo Emerson. So true.

Getting caught up in the ‘shoulds’ of this world…

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Sarah Carmichael

There are a lot of things I should do, should be doing, should be thinking, should be feeling, and should be judging. There are things I should be drinking, should be eating, should be watching, should be saying, should be listening to.

The world I know has very specific standards and it has spent my entire lifetime conditioning me to aspire to these standards – and to feel guilty or inferior for not meeting them or worse, not aspiring to them. More often than not, these standards conflict with what I know to be true.

Sometimes, I catch myself getting caught up in the shoulds of this world. I have to check myself. Why do I want to aspire to them? What do I get out of it? Attention? Affection? Affirmation? That is all ego.

Negotiating this world is a challenge. Sometimes, convenience trumps goodness. Sometimes, the perceived importance of time trumps compassion. Sometimes, ego trumps consciousness. Sometimes… perhaps, most of the time.

As much as it likes to think it is, this world is not built for goodness, compassion, or consciousness. We are too caught up in what we ‘should’ be doing to do what we should be doing, and to be who we are.

In Illusions, Richard Bach wrote “I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going.“ What am I clinging to? Where would the current take me if I let go? Dare I?

A Lesson in Being

Posted on March 23, 2009 by Sarah Carmichael

Dear Q,

Scatman Joe once said “I’d rather be a human being than a human doing.” I couldn’t say it better, myself.

This fast-paced, high-tech world will expect you to get things done, to multi-task, and to be productive. It is so pervasive that we work on our laptops, in front of the TV, with a book open beside us, and feel guilty for being unproductive.

Stillness is the key to being. Feel free to be still. Remove your self from the physical and enjoy the stillness that you find there. The more still you are, the more still you will be. Be conscious. Be present. Be aware. Be still. Just be.

Love,

Mom