Here’s a good example of how a dream speaks to us on different levels. John’s dream about the underlying beauty of a smelly street corner reflects not only a personal experience of his in daily life, but also the greater idea that everything has its place and a unique beauty – when we are open to it. To be open to it, however, requires that we begin to realize that the world is not here for us, but that we are here for the world. (At the end of this post there are instructions and a link to download this recording to your computer.)
John: Everything has an outer appearance that’s a reflection, and then it has a meaningfulness that goes much deeper. And this is portrayed in my dreams in terms of the way in which we tend to draw conclusions based upon our personal mannerisms and, as a consequence, we take those mannerisms, appearances, attitudes, laziness, indulgences and not turn the page to something deeper in the whole.
I had two dreams that depicted this. These dreams really do correspond to what you dreamt but go at it a little differently.
So in my dream, I have gone off on a tangent and in going off on this tangent it appears, to everyone except for me, that this has brought the energy down. The way this is portrayed in the dream is that I have taken some guests to a favorite street corner.
In other words, it’s a place I just like, and I’m showing them around. And I comment that there is a stench in the air on this street corner because of the way that the rainwater gathers here after a storm. In other words, it just doesn’t soak into the ground, and it tends to lie around and it tends to get stale. It’s a low area and so it doesn’t evaporate readily.
I like this place because it hasn’t been affected by attitudes and mannerisms of others because most people stay clear of here. I guess they would treat the odor that comes off of this place, or the smell, or the stench even, as a kind of ghetto-like quality or something.
Or at least it turns them off, which is a blind spot. It’s a blind spot based upon personal prerogatives. And I’m aware, in terms of how others see this, because I can see it that way myself I guess, if I let myself go into their perceptions, or place myself in their shoes of how they see things, so to speak.
But I can also see beyond this and I wouldn’t have taken them to this place as if it was special if I didn’t see beyond this and wasn’t trying to communicate to them what is special about the quaintness and general peacefulness of the street corner that I like.
Other people tend to hang out in other areas. In other words, that’s more in keeping with their… that suits their fancy, so to speak. And I seem to have this for myself but would like to share it. Try as I might, I can’t get anyone else to appreciate what I see because everyone else identifies because their identity reaches to the staleness, the stench, the odor. That’s what they take in, not the quietness and natural peacefulness that this corner also reflects.
So what is going on is that the odor of the corner does not affect me because I am able to see a latent beauty that lies there, as well, beneath the surface of most people’s perception. And the meaning is that the dream is showing that when we rely upon our senses to make decisions the tendency is for those perceptions to cut us off from that which lies beyond appearances.
In this case our sense of balance is affected by a smell. For me the smell isn’t an issue because I find the odor is also associated with a quality where there is a quietness, quaintness, and peace that also exists. In other words, this is what comes with this kind of a scenario, or so it seems in this dream example.
And the deeper meaning from the scenario is that this also helps to explain why cronies of mine fail to appreciate Vegas. They are affected by a conception and reflective vibe of the place and are not able to let that go to see what there is here that is special and real. I have been able to go beyond this because I am able to access a latent value that is refreshing, original, quiet, and soothing that also is at the epicenter of this environment.
By way of another example that will also portray what I am trying to say, I know that people tend to shun a wetland area because such land isn’t personally useful, and there is a staleness and a seeming imbalance. To turn such people off even further, all you would have to do is take a shovel and dig it into the ground and turn the soil.
This would unleash a horrible stench odor and, of course, then, make people walk away straightaway – but I know differently. This is an odor important to all of life. This wetland is absorbing impurities in creation. Without wetland areas, creation suffers.
A wetland has an essential role to the well being of all of life. To arbitrarily reject that which is different because it disturbs or disorients personal projections is to deny to life that which is essential. The corner spot has a wetland effect energetically. Vegas is an absorbing wetland, so to speak. To go beyond my senses and the projections that blind a sight deep within is to deny one’s self, or myself.
So you could say that my dream is indicating that I am able to identify with where I belong based upon smell, and I am putting the street corner in my dream, Vegas, and wetlands into the same vernacular. And the reason why it’s like this is because I have come to grips with the bigger picture of myself. I’m talking about a beingness that is in a wholeness which is real, in other words not the appearances, and not the general mannerisms that people can shoot from the hip from.
To download this file, Right Click (for PCs) or Control Click (for Macs) and Save: The Wetland Effect
