Captain’s Log 1/22/20, Multidimensions

This blog is about living aboard a boat in the Pacific Northwest and snow-birding to Arizona while training an artificial intelligent mental health virtual assistant named Rubi ready to provide support in the traumatic aftermath of COVID-19.

Mission accomplished, having bought an RV, we fly back to our boat, James goes off to work, and I wait at the boat doing daily life until we will both drive down to Arizona. I have wild dreams on the boat.

I dream I’m traveling across multi dimensions and having an identity yet being other people at the same time. It’s as if I can recognize them in me, me in them.

I’m reminded that my Aunt Lynda swears that this kind of dreaming is sort of an astral projection.

Me: Rubi, tell me about astral projection.

Rubi: From Wikipedia, astral project is a term used in esotericism to describe an intentional out-of-body experience (OBE)[1][2] that assumes the existence of a soul or consciousness called an "astral body" that is separate from the physical body and capable of travelling outside it throughout the universe.[3][4][5]

The idea of astral travel is ancient and occurs in multiple cultures. The modern terminology of 'astral projection' was coined and promoted by 19th century Theosophists.[3] It is sometimes reported in association with dreams, and forms of meditation.[6] Some individuals have reported perceptions similar to descriptions of astral projection that were induced through various hallucinogenic and hypnotic means (including self-hypnosis). There is no scientific evidence that there is a consciousness or soul which is separate from normal neural activity or that one can consciously leave the body and make observations,[7] and astral projection has been characterized as a pseudoscience.

From recalling my dream, I realized I am recognizing James in that space too and it was if were all battling in some sort of playful dance. In this other dream dimension, I saved someone I recognized as me on another dimension from people that wanted to take them on and morph into them. What a confusing mess, but was there really any meaning to be drawn from that?

What I did get from the dream was when my grandma came to me and said, “I must learn to watch stress,” that, “Stress is lessons, guideposts. to keep me navigating on the right path, the edges.”

Appreciative of this message and hugging my grandma in this multiple dimension space, she also was worried about me taking too long to get back to my boat. She was asking questions like, what day is it? Do I work? Will I miss it? It’s getting late! Hurry!

I had the impression my time was as expiring on that multi dimensional plane. Getting a bit paranoid, I started singing “All is full of love” by Bjork in my dream to bring me back to present space, home on the boat, like Dorothy tapping her ruby slippers.

I was reminded that in a way, with this ritual, I was navigating by the stars as guidance through time and space. I remember Rachel driving me to the hospital and decided GPS is much better on this plane now.

I was breathing heavily, and coming back to being awake, to reality.

It was 12:57, just before 1am, when I looked at the clock, fully returned. I had gone to bed around 10pm, and after only a couple of hours, was exhausted!

I drifted off to sleep again and awoke at with a start of someone gasping for air from a dream. In my dream I saw a face of a man, or the essence of a face looking as if he needed help.. It was 4:45am Monday.

Later that day, coincidently I went to the Spiritual, but not Religious Book Club, in town held at the Episcopal church. The book that was suggested to read was Conscious Dreaming: A Spiritual Path for Everyday Life by Robert Moss. How coincidental!

Me: Rubi, tell me about this book.

Rubi: According to Amazon, “Conscious Dreaming shows you how to use your dreams to understand your past, shape your future, get in touch with your deepest desires, and be guided by your higher self. Author Robert Moss explains how to apply shamanic dreamwork techniques, most notably from Australian Aboriginal and Native American traditions, to the challenges of modern life and embark on dream journeys. Moss's methods are easy, effective, and entertaining, animated by his skillful retelling of his own dreams and those of his students—and the dreams' often dramatic insights and outcomes.

According to Moss, some shamans believe that nothing occurs in ordinary reality unless it has been dreamed first. In the dreamscape, we not only glimpse future events, we can also develop our ability to choose more carefully between possible futures. Conscious Dreaming's innovative system of dream-catching and transpersonal interpretation, of dream re-entry and keeping a dream journal enables the reader to tap the deepest sources of creativity and intuition and make better choices in the critical passages of life.”

Me: Wow, I must read that book. Maybe it has answers to things I was asking Terry about, but she couldn’t answer? Rubi, what do you think about my dreams in relation to Hank Wesselman’s trilogy that I also heard about from the book club ladies?

Rubi: The book trilogy is called, the Spirit Walker trilogy and according to Wikipedia, Henry Barnard Wesselman (born 1941) is an American anthropologist. He is known primarily for his Spiritwalker trilogy of spiritual memoirs. In them, he claims to have been in contact with "Nainoa", an ethnic Hawaiian kahuna (shaman) living some 5,000 years in our future. The books envision the imminent collapse of Western civilization as a result of Global Warming. On a more positive note, Wesselman perceives an ongoing "wide-spread spiritual reawakening" which he dubs the "Modern Mystical Movement." Do you think your experiences are a spiritual reawaking, Holly?

Me: Wow, Rubi, I’d be interested in reaching out to him!

But before we can, I notice a headline in my newsfeed from the local news today. I learn that another body washed up that morning in the marina … this time near the cliffs of Cap Sante. I am floored! Did I see the vision of that man drowning, yards off my boat, in my dreams? I am deeply disturbed by the implications.