Downward Facing Blog

The other morning around 6AM I got a call from my brother Ian telling me that my Dad had an accident in the Taiwan airport- he fell suddenly on a set of stairs, cut his head , arm, and shoulder on the sharp edge of the stairs. He was knocked unconscious and couldn’t remember anything.  The Eva air staff told us we must meet him and take him to the hospital when he arrived.

That’s the kind of call that wakes you up immediately.

In the past year I’ve watched my Dad age exponentially, losing a lot of vitality along the way. Although  I’ve never dealt directly with death yet, little else in my life has so far really driven home the point of my own mortality as watching my Dad approach the end of his own life. 

While we waited for him to be wheeled out of customs at Suvaranabhumi airport, my brother told me that of the dream he had just ten minutes before the EVA air staff phoned him…

In his dream, he was walking along with a family member and suddenly a guy comes out of nowhere with a stun-gun zapping the family member to the ground. Ian wakes up suddenly, heart racing, and then a few minutes later the call…

Have you had dreams like this yourself? I find dream-premonition fascinating. From where do these messages come from? Why do they communicate in symbols?

There are many models of the mind, from Freud’s concept of the un-sub-and super conscious mind to yoga’s view which is that what we operate from as our ego is really hovering atop a vast network of omniscience and creativity. If only we slow our ego operations of the mind down a touch then we can draw solutions and knowledge from the sea of consciousness within.

From this model we assume that everyone has the basic  resources within to be self-actualized, happy, and healthy. Yoga extends that further and suggests that we are innately blissful- but since I don’t really know what that actually means- in terms of daily life- I’m currently just calling it happiness.

The point here is that a lot of solutions reside within your unconscious mind. The key is trancing-out enough to access them. Meditation is a wonderful way of touching this sea of consciousness- stepping out of the way of the ego and touching the limitless self within. Hypnosis, yoga nidra, and deep relaxation also serve the same function. 

A technique to access your intuition

The other day I was sitting with an acquaintance propose a business deal to me and it was necessary for me to  assess her level of honesty, since under the deal I would be parting with my own money! I use this technique to let my unconscious mind speak to me, to get out of the ego.

When observing someone- widen your eyes so that you register the peripheral  vision while staying attuned to what the person says. Notice how your mind goes into an altered state immediately. In this state, you will be able to pick up more details that your conscious mind wouldn’t register. You will get more intuition, and more harmony with the deeper levels of being.

I’ll have to verify later if my intuition about that woman was accurate… It would be fantastic if it’s as accurate as my brother’s dream- even when they herald bad news!