One item is something Wolf calls, “The other now.”  I fell in love with that term instantly.  Can you guess what it is?  Where is it we can be present, but not here?  We can use all our senses and even determine what we, as well as others, are doing in this other now.  But, most often, we follow along and then wonder what it was all about later.  Dreaming!  Yep.

Prospero:

“We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.”

The Tempest, Act IV, scene I, William Shakespeare

Dreams, visions, prophecies, does anyone have a corner on that market?  Don’t think so.  I think most people are blessed with the ability to dream.  Not everyone does though.  I just found this great website called The Quantitative Study of Dreams, with some pretty in-depth FAQ’s about dreaming.   They are pretty darn sensible with their answers, even bludgeoning my whimsical ideals of dreaming into submission at some points.  However, I rise undaunted and stick to my guns on my beliefs regarding the positive information we can glean from our dream time.  Who knows from whence our dreams come?  Who knows for sure they are or are not passing on information from a higher source?  It may be that we are talking to ourselves; revealing our innermost thoughts, desires, fears; and encouraging ourselves onward through our lives.   I often wonder if we can control this “now” as much as we can the “other now” of dreams; pay a bit of heed to what we are dreaming and then lead ourselves toward success.

“A dream which is not interpreted is like a letter which is not read.”  ~The Talmud

What fun it is to share our latest, wackiest dreams with the first person who will listen.  Perfectly natural.  Dream interpretation drifted in along with human awareness and has gone on since man began to speak, I am quite sure.  What better stories to share around the clan fire?  The clan mage, now known as my friend the psychic healer, would have the final say in interpretation, but we could all hedge our bets as to whether the dream would come true or not.  We may even have based our very survival on the interpretations, believing in the mage’s healing powers and accepting, come what may.

The other now. Isn’t it just the most wonderful term?  I love to sleep and to dream.

Demetrius:

“Are you sure
That we are awake? It seems to me
That yet we sleep, we dream.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Act IV, scene I, William Shakespeare

Hamlet:

“To die, to sleep—
To sleep—perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub!
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause—there’s the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.”

Hamlet, Act III, Scene I, William Shakespeare

My, my, wasn’t he taken with sleeping and dreaming?  Here’s another.  John Keats.

WHAT is more gentle than a wind in summer?
What is more soothing than the pretty hummer
That stays one moment in an open flower,
And buzzes cheerily from bower to bower?
What is more tranquil than a musk-rose blowing
In a green island, far from all men’s knowing?
More healthful than the leafiness of dales?
More secret than a nest of nightingales?
More serene than Cordelia’s countenance?
More full of visions than a high romance?
What, but thee Sleep? Soft closer of our eyes!
Low murmurer of tender lullabies!
Light hoverer around our happy pillows!
Wreather of poppy buds, and weeping willows!
Silent entangler of a beauty’s tresses!
Most happy listener! when the morning blesses
Thee for enlivening all the cheerful eyes
That glance so brightly at the new sun-rise.

Sleep and Poetry, John Keats

Absolutely incredible and astounding metaphors; the number of ways he thought of describing the beauty of sleeping!  Maybe it’s my age that has allowed me to know how enticing this nightly ritual really is.  The lack of sufficient rest, the deprivation of dreaming, filtering, creating in our other state of consciousness can be most discombobulating.  I do crave that “Silent entangler”, “The other now”.  Thank you, William Shakespeare, John Keats, Wolf and Michelle Paver, for your thought inducing bibelots.  Now for “the other now”.  Off to slumber land.

I had a feeling you were going to call!

My tummy hurts the day before a catastrophe happens in the news.

I feel dizzy just before finding out one of my kids is hurt.

My dreams seem so real and I get great ideas for something that has been bothering me.

What can these things be attributed to?  Angels’ whisperings, God’s still small voice, luck, or maybe it’s just one more of your senses doing what it’s supposed to do.

Why not try to accept this sense is real and allow it freedom to practice itself?  Simply observe.  Observe your body’s little tells and start remarking them to yourself.  There are all kinds of places online that will tell you how to develop your dreaming time.  Most of them will stress using a dream journal.  This is a great way to keep track of your body’s messages as well.  Writing down oddnesses or out-of-the-ordinaries will help you have a greater belief level in your sixth sense.  Every sea captain keeps a log.  Ledgers, journals, diaries are all common place ways of keeping track and then going back to find patterns.

Allow yourself some time to meditate on a particular idea or question; keeping a pad and pencil next to you.  I used to worry during distance healing energy sessions that I would lose the connection if I stopped to write.  Not true.  I love to capture the images that come into my mind and then share them with a client.  Most often (although not 100%), the images have some pertinent information that helps with part of life’s trials and questions.  Sometimes the images speed by so quickly that, as soon as I realize there is one, it is gone and I am off seeing another one.  In this case, I try to get a feel for the general message/picture of them all.  The point is that I have to write them down.  Because I do this, I can not only share the images, but see that they really have some substance to them.  I am building my belief level, my foundation and faith base, my trust in myself.

Imagine how much we miss by not developing our skills from childhood.  Why were we not allowed to pursue that which comes naturally?  Lack of knowledge, lack of belief, fear of things we don’t understand, fear from religious propaganda…fear and lack…very negative words.  Can you remember mentioning things to your parents when you were preschool aged?  Our psychic abilities and pre-life memories are lost at about age seven unless they are used and talked about.  This is the age when we become aware of our actions and how they impact the world around us.  We figured out how to manipulate when we were infants.  We found out consequences and could reason through them starting at about age four.  At age seven we begin to start feeling who we are and how we want to be.  Reality has become the concrete that anchors us in this plane.  We have learned to believe our parents and our parents, no doubt wanting to protect us, told us we were imagining things.  No such thing as that little friend, no you’ve never been to that house before, no that man is not a bad man, there’s nothing in that room, they’re just dreams and aren’t real…on and on and on.  I remember all these very well; and the confusion of being told so.  It was all real to me and I had to learn to filter and sift through my reality and make decisions on what to ignore and what to hold onto.  My doubts still persist.

I’m not saying we should fall for or even believe every little thought that flies through our minds, a discerning nature is a great tool, but I am saying we should stop, examine, and make an informed decision as to just how psychic we really are.  It is a very useful sense and can help us make choices in life…who we will marry, where we will live, what foods are best for our particular metabolism.

Another point I’d like to add here is that there are some different ways people tap into their psychic ability and we don’t need to be afraid.  We know that we are only using them as tools to find out what our sense is telling us.  Pendulums are easy access to the sixth sense and subconscious.  Crystal balls, bowls of water, flames…all good ways of scrying – another way of saying meditating.  Dowsing for water or oil, or whatever else you want to try, is just a way of asking the sixth sense to show an answer.

Global Consciousness.  Mass Consciousness.  Inventions happening simultaneously half way around the globe from one another.  Indicators piling up all around us, showing that there is something more and, yes, we can tap into it.  We can use our abilities and we can make a difference.  We can share what we feel through our sixth sense, our psychicness, and not be afraid or embarrassed.  We can be wrong or right and take it as a matter of course.  We don’t have to hide in a closet and wonder what others will say.  Who would argue over what emotion you’re having?  If you say you’re happy, you’re happy.  If you say you have a feeling something is going to happen, you have a feeling.  So it goes.

Am I psychic?  Everyone is.  Ever heard someone say that God put it on their heart to do something?  Is it a sin to use your God given gift?  Nope.  It all boils down to what you do with it.   I am always thankful and eager to find out more about my gift.

Flickr Creative Commons image credit: circulating.