QUESTIONS & ANSWERS:
Dreams Department

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Question

I have often found reference to dreams as a hint or possible connection to a past life on this planet. Do you agree or not?

Answer

I have talked to people who do use dreams as a way to investigate their past lives. However, since past lives are not verifiable, they must remain for me in the realm of belief rather than fact. I prefer to see past lives as a portal or perspective that gives me insight into how I see my rootedness & place in the world and I like to open the possible lives up to past, present-parallel and future as well.

Dreams can then not only hint at connections, but provide an emotional bridge across which we can travel and provide inner-personal cultural exchanges. The key for me is cross-fertilization -- that I both provide something new for my alternative lives and they provide something new for me. I feel the key to all past life investigation is to ask myself why I am doing it? Am I just nosey or can we begin to build a mutually enriching network across time and space?

Suggestions for Dream and Past Life Exploration (with Karma & Improvement in mind)

1. What parts of the dream seem to be about the past, the present-alternative or the future?

2. What aspects of the character's personalities and behavior is familiar to me? Is this something I want to increase, to maintain or release?

3. What aspects of the character's personalities and behavior are unfamiliar to me? Is this something I want to increase, to maintain or release?

4. If I could write a short letter to this character, what would I say to them?

5. If I were to receive a short letter from this character, what would they tell me?

6. Is there a hint about a project that involves both their time and mine?

2/20/98

Richard Wilkerson is general editor for The Internet Dream E-zine, Electric Dreams, and director of DreamGate, the Internet Communications and Dream Education Center. He writes the Cyberphile column for the Association for the Study of Dreams Newsletter.