Waking Up and Switch-Dreaming

Last night I had a night-mare. I, among hundreds, was in this massive concrete facility with armed guards, police, and soldiers everywhere. It was cold, with high walls, razor wire, angry guard dogs and people, armored vehicles and shadows & flood-lights. Thematically it was a mixture between Guantanamo Bay, OPP, and the movie Children of Men. Everyone was harsh, people were controlled, I was afraid - "What will happen next?" "What will they do next?"

People were getting hurt.

Every moment was terror.

I then realized at one point: "I am dreaming. I do not want this - wake up." There was a certain pull to keep on sleeping, to stay in the dream. It took effort - I was enchanted by the immaculate fear sequences. I chose to resist it.

I woke myself up.

Then these words came to me, I turned on the light, picked up my notebook & pen and wrote them down. They seemed important:

" Notice your thought-processes and trances that produce hopelessness & despair.

Develop your ability to stop, pause, and distance yourself enough to consciously choose to insert a new story in its place.

This new story is based on choice, meaning, inderdependence (this is a part of you), and care.

Have the new story form the basis of the new operating assumptions for your actions that you take.

After surveying the situation, pick key specific areas to take key specific actions.

Act out of care, show care. Ask questions. Say things to high-light care for all & our interdependent nature - "I see that a lot of us are wanting trust/respect right now and are making choices where people get hurt."

Point out the zeitgest that we are all under and feeling, but do so with care. Eventually point out the choices that we make to carry it on.

Multiple personality disorder is when you have more of an identification with the different parts within yourself and not with the internal collective identification that you call "I".

The kind of identification ("We", "I", fragmented self) that you have determines the kind of decisions that you make, the reasons that you have for making them, and subsequently, where your attention is placed.

Your identification can either scale-up or scale-down, but regardless of that, your attention can be placed anywhere.

Doris Lessing said: "I don't see ideas as being personal, they're collective experiences going on simultaneously. It is not 'my idea', rather, there is 'an idea that is around'". Based on this, look for others who hold the same idea, & more specifically, that carry the same idea onwards - 'the next piece'. "