Theos-Talk Archives (May 1995 Message tl00147)

> b)How is that when we are at sleep, we can communicate
>with the oved ones as we do in the physical plane and yet
>not able to retrace a single venet after that ?

We can communicate with the recently dead in dreams.  But after
they leave kamaloka and enter devachan, communication is no
longer possible.  We can also communicate with them in
meditation.  The exoteric idea is that death only separates us
from the lowest vehicles, such as the physical body and prana.
The deceased goes to kamaloka which is on the astral plane (or
whatever we want to call the next plane up).  I believe that
kamaloka lies between Globes C and E.  To communicate, we need
only drop off our physical body and prana (etheric body) and
communicate via our astral body.  But after the dead drop their
astral components (emotions) they rise to devachan which, I
believe, lies between Globes B and F.  There, such communication
is virtually impossible, because they become wrapted in a
cacoon-like shell and dream heavenly dreams for a long time.
Only Adepts can break through this shell.  There are many magical
rituals (some from ancient Egypt, such as Opening the Mouth)
designed to allow us to break through this shell and permit
communication.  The human psyche is like a movie projector, and
continually projects images.  The shell of the devachani serves
as a movie screen which receives the projected images.  All of
this is highly exoteric (by which I mean that it is actually a
lot more complex then it seems on the surface) and can be found
in most of the early theosophical writings.

Both myself and my wife have had dreams where we met deceased
persons.  I met my brother shortly after his death, and am
ashamed to say that the experience was so real, it scared me so
much (because I knew that he was dead and that nevertheless he
was right before me) that I woke in a cold sweat without talking
to him.  My experiences occured before coming into theosophy.
With my acquired theosophic insight, I would hope to remain
unafraid and communicate with such a one.  Alas, I have not had a
recurrence of this experience in the last 25 years.

My wife almost died of an illness prior to meeting me.  While
lying in bed, she dreamed she met me, my family, and my family's
house, as well as several deceased relatives.  She correctly
described them all to me when I brought her to the house on her
first visit (before she met them physically) shortly before we
were engaged.  There are many kinds of dreams and some simply
make mincemeat of time and space.

> c) Can someone tell me how can I develop the faculty to
> recall the impressions of most incidents during sleep...?

There are lots of books around on this (and I have written a
great deal about it in my own books).  But I think that the first
technique that anyone should work on here it to get a small
notebook, and place it by your bedside together with a pencil.
As soon as you wake up, write down what you remember of your
dream.  At first, you may not remember much, but in time you will
be able to recall whole dreams.  Everyone usually remembers the
last dream they have before waking, for a few seconds.  Also, you
need resolve.  Say to yourself just before falling asleep that
you WILL remember your dreams when you awake.  I don't want to
bore everyone with the technical details of this, but trust me,
it does work.  Somehow the resolve, if sincere, will carry over
to the morning and allow you to remember.  But usually by the
time we dress, we have forgotten - thats why it is important to
write them down as soon as you wake, even before getting out of
bed.  After three years of doing this, I was able to remember my
dreams without writing them down, and no longer do so.

Alan: < No doubt his clairvoyant abilities worked for him just as
he described them, but I believe he was mistaken is supposing
that his _personal_ experiences were valid for everyone else.>

This points out a perennial problem.  We all tend to assume that
we are just like veryone else.  Jung developed most of his
analytical psychology based on his own experiences.  Pieget based
his psychological stages from observations made on his own
children.  Freud based his psychology on only a handful of case
studies, and so on.  How can we tell when our experiences are
real or are just projected visions? Perhaps one person's
experiences are another persons hallucinations.  Just as we have
a personal and collective karma, so I believe, we have personal
and collective (shared) experiences.

<As awareness of the subtler planes develops (if it does)
<then one can, I have found, contact the departed
<occasionally in the waking state, which is much clearer
<than in the dream world(s).

I agree.

Jerry S.