Flying Dream Theme..., power lines Options

So, I have flying dreams probably every other dream that I'm aware of, and I've been recording all my dreams for a while. There's this reoccurring theme in my flying dreams specifically that I thought I would share here, and see if anyone had any ideas.

In my dreams, the act of flying is not spontaneous at all - it takes focus, awareness of the ground and my relationship to it, and of course the willingness to jump and keep going up instead of falling down. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

However, in every single dream, I always have a hard time avoiding power lines. Regardless of the apparent setting - usually my grandmother's old house, another reoccurring theme - I almost always have to struggle to avoid powerlines while flying.

Anyone have some similar dream experience? Any ideas on what it might symbolize? I have thoughts, but I want to reserve them until I get some outside perspective.

peace

Wow guys, whenever I go out of my body I take on the form of a coyote (sometimes with wings). I have difficulty sleeping, so when I do dream I get really odd dreams where I'm in the sci-fi books I'm currently reading (not really flying ones). In out of body though I can switch from human form back again but I don't exactly like traveling in human form, it's too sluggish. Even during my first experiences out of body I've always appeared in the form of a k-nine for whatever reason.

These are all very interesting replies. Begin at the beginning...

Acid's analysis will take some meditation. The inclusion of my grandmother's old house has always confused me. I stayed there occasionally as a child, but although we lived fairly close to her I didn't see her that often at all - to the point where I am not even a little close to her now although I see her for the occasional christmas and thanksgiving. She doesn't approve of my lifestyle so I spent these past holidays with my boyfriend's family instead, and I haven't attended family holidays for almost five years. I catch a little flak about it but generally speaking, my immediate family were always the outcasts of our larger, very traditional southern babtist, extended family. There was a time just after my parents divorced when we stayed at my grandmother's house, but she made us stay in the damp basement, I got pneumonia, and we moved out after that. Was about three months. I suppose it could represent my mother's - and be extension subconsciously my own - relationship weaknesses; with significant others, with my family, etc. I often have felt that I inherited that from my mother, and that she in turn got it from her mother, who left her 'mountain folk' family when she married my mother's father, and never saw most of them again.

The power lines as obstacles is pretty much how I interpreted them, and in the setting I suppose those could be representative of the vital nature of those particular weakness - power lines supply us with electricity, make our modern lives possible, and the connect almost all corners of our community. They could be likened to the network of 'power lines' in our own energetic body which function very similarly. It may suggest that this weakness can be addressed or understood in those terms. In any case, I will spend some time meditating on this.

may i ask which position you prefer? - sitting up cross-legged arabian flying carpet style, or the superman prone?

I have gone both ways, but most often it is a semi-prone position. Not exactly superman like, kind of 'airplane'-ish, but with slightly bent knees and arms. My flying is sort of like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon if you know what I mean.

how is the temperature in your flying dreams, cold, hot, indifferent?

Usually kind of warm, I have had some dreams where it was colder and that made it difficult to fly. My dreams are about 50/50 for awareness at this point, if I am aware of dreaming on any level then the temperature makes no difference but it is usually a pleasant kind of warm. The wind makes a difference in my flying for sure, though, and I can loft like bird does, etc., I often have to readjust my position to change how the wind is affecting my flying. The wind itself doesn't usually affect/change the temperature. And, I can influence the wind when I am more aware.

did you observe people on the ground? what were they doing? could you hear them?

That is another interesting detail to mention - very often I am with one other person, trying to explain how to fly. The explanation is always the same "You just jump up, and instead of coming back down, keep going up. You have to sort of flatten yourself out, otherwise gravity will pull you back down. You have to uncurve everything a little bit, and concentrate on it like this." I've given that speech so many times that I admit I have actually gone out to secluded places and tried for as much as a couple of hours one time.

Other than the 'teaching someone to fly' dream, I also dream that there are some people milling about and talking like at a little mixer/party or barbeque type setting, and I fly usually to leave. Other times I'm flying over a small town, often made of very cramped together buildings with alleyways and clothes lines between windows, etc., and often fly to get to the other end of town. I dream about my grandmother's house most often though, well over half the time. Sometimes there are no people at all and it's an open field, and I fly as a means of traveling as though I were headed somewhere.

I have only left the earth a couple of times, and I did not pass any planets or go anywhere, exactly, just sort of into nothingness and stars.

do you control your dreams, or try to, or do you let them run as they will cause its cooler to see where it will go, like watching a new movie waiting for a sick twist?

I usually don't really control my dreams. Even when I'm aware of them, its more like I'm following a script and I know what happens next but even if it's bad/disturbing I go with it. As though it's what I'm there for. I have had dreams where I was in control and very lucid, but so far they don't last very long and when I try to control anything to any specific degree I wake up. There were two exceptions to that, but they were still brief. In flying dreams though, the flying part takes constant concentration on some sort of 'other' element around me. Its like I have to unroll or flatten some part of myself and then when I fly I sort of drift. If I get distracted I'll start to fall.

That sensation lead me to consider that what I do in my dreams involves flattening space - gravity is just curvature in space, or at least that's the theory that makes the most sense to me, based on my experiences perceiving from higher dimensions. If you flatten space, then there is no acceleration force, and you are free to move/be moved by other forces. At least, that's how I think of it when I wake up. I try to recall the sensations as clearly a possible, both internally and externally.

was it a nice flight, or a bumpy one? what was the purpose of the flight? just to fly, or was flying incidental to the major portion/overall theme of the dream?

My flying is smooth, but takes focus. It's like being in zero-g, but with some control, usually a combination of my initial jump/acceleration and the wind, but I can control the wind sometimes to some degree as well. Sometimes I fly with more control than other times, but there is always some degree of control and it is always a nice flight. Usually I'm flying for some reason, but it's incidental at the same time - I can just fly as though it's another thing I can do, like cross stitching or cooking. It's completely casual and I'm never amazed at the fact that I can fly, although I think I used to be amazed by it. I've been having a heavy load of flying dreams since I was pretty young, at least 9-10. Their more frequent now, and have continually grown more frequent. My flying dreams rarely center on the flying itself, but when they do it's always as though I'm trying to perfect it, and I try it this way, that way, different positions, etc. Those ones usually take place over a field.

Wow guys, whenever I go out of my body I take on the form of a coyote (sometimes with wings). I have difficulty sleeping, so when I do dream I get really odd dreams where I'm in the sci-fi books I'm currently reading (not really flying ones). In out of body though I can switch from human form back again but I don't exactly like traveling in human form, it's too sluggish. Even during my first experiences out of body I've always appeared in the form of a k-nine for whatever reason.

I have been other kinds of animals as well, but it's very rare for me. When it happens its always a black leopard/panther, and I can jump very far rather than strictly fly. Once I dreamt that I was a large non-specific bird, and when I landed I shifted into a panther. I had dreams of shapeshifting more often when I was a child. Now it's maybe two or three times a year that I have those dreams, and they are usually accompanied by violence of some kind, either witnessed, or inflicted by myself upon others.

When I travel out of body, I don't have a form at all unless I concentrate on having one, and that often ends the experience. If I need a hand, I reach for something and have a hand, but usually that is not necessary.

A lot to think about. Out of curiosity, even if it sounds crazy, has anyone else ever attempted to fly as well? I have always tried to hold that if you never try then you don't know. I've made the attempt more than once. The first time, I was genuinely nervous and had to sit down for a moment to calm myself - my heart pounded, my breathing was short and fast, I got hot all over. I worried about what might happen if I did fly, and if coming down would be as easy and harmless as going up, etc. I once got to a point where I really could not gauge my own body weight, there didn't seem to be any pressure on my feet at all.

I fell down a lot. Jumped pretty high a couple of times though. I took a running start just like in my dreams, tried to generate the same inner sensations, tried to abandon myself to the experience, etc. Afterwards I questioned my sanity for a bit, but then figured that it's no more insane than any other magical endeavor - I've spent hundreds of hours spinning psi-wheels, rolling pencils, and attempting to levitate/move other objects with my will, why not fly as well?

In 'A fire from within', by Carlos Castaneda, Castaneda relates that he was with Don Juan and his fellow students and future nagual group on top of a mesa, and was forced to jump into the abyss in order to learn to fly. If he did not fly he would die, so this was an initiatory practice intended to break the last inner barrier to becoming the nagual. This was to take place right after Don Juan and his compatriots burnt up in the titular fire from within and attained freedom, presumably. I have often wondered if such a situation is not necessary, should one indeed attain to such a skill.

Of course, in the book this was the 'last' barrier to break before Castaneda became the nagual. This is why I try periodically, after I feel I have made progress in other areas of conscious development.

Hm.

peace