Living the Dream

In the past decade, a whole collection of movies and television shows have arrived that tell us that our reality isn’t really reality. From The Matrix and Pan’s Labyrinth to Inception and the recent television series “Awake,” mainstream media is asking us to question what it means to be living this life.

The stand-up philosopher (his description) Tim Freke talks about Lucid Dreaming and Lucid Living in his book How Long Is Now? Lucid dreaming is the phenomenon of going to sleep, being in a dream, and suddenly being aware that you are in a dream. Rather than simply running down long hallways or falling out of the sky helplessly or whatever, we suddenly realize that this is all happening inside our heads. A bubble that surrounded us pops. We then can alter our experience, enjoying the ride, switching from falling to flying, or whatever.

Tim Freke describes lucid living as having that exact same experience – except that it occurs while being awake. We suddenly realize that we are living in an even larger dream than the one we woke up from this morning. The world becomes more real, more vibrant. We suddenly see the experience as something mystical, magical, without filtering it. Rather than fearing life the reality, we stop to enjoy life the movie, and really dive into it, because the movie is so amazing. The descriptions in his book drive this different perception home in a way that I can’t do justice to.

But it raises a question. We understand from psychology and neuroscience that the purpose of dreams is to process the events of the day. So much sensory information comes in that, at night, the brain uses that time in order to settle the impressions down, shake them loose, and help us get those impressions organized into memory. The process can get surreal while we are in the dream, but once we wake up, we shake it out and start the day again, perhaps with new insights from that experience.

So a dream helps the conscious mind shake itself out. What if the dream of living helps the soul shake itself out and process its experience? What does this mean for all the random experiences we have in our lives?

The spiritual community likes the phrase “Everything happens for a reason.” Sometimes it’s hard to see the reason why we are, say, working in retail if that’s not really our calling. But if everything is a dream, it can help explain why some things have more apparent significance than others.

Why do I find myself in the same patterns, the same relationships, the same situations, again and again? My soul is processing its experiences. Why is this particular stranger important to me? Our souls have some processing that we can do together. Why do we feel as we do in a certain situation? The soul has absorbed that particular energy and is working to release it in its sleep.

When we see life as a dream, it becomes a different experience. Circumstances become metaphors. Relationships become lessons in love. Life moves from just being what we do between birth and death. It becomes a myth.

I do not remember where I got this definition, but it rang true to me: Myths are stories that resonate beyond the simple circumstances of the story. Myths take simple stories and reveal an abstract truth about life. My friend Peter describes myths as the way to explain the truths of the heart that cannot be described in simple statements. Profound truths arise from the most simple or complex experiences.

When looking at life from a mythic perspective, we begin to look at our situations from above, rather than from within the trenches. We see the patterns in our lives with a deeper understanding.

Archetypal work starts to make more sense. Seeing classic relationships and identities – Father/Son, Victim/Rescuer, The Martyr, The Wizard versus The Magician, The Court Jester versus The Prophet, The King versus The Prince – helps bring greater understanding to our relationships. By seeing how people play roles, we can also get a better understanding of why they play those roles (in a general way) and how to work with them.

When life becomes a dream, a myth, it lets us be amazed at what our soul can create in its sleep. When we stop simply playing the part in the dream, but recognize it as a dream, we wake up within the dream of reality and begin living lucidly. Our souls awaken to the fact that they have created the most amazing playground to process eternal truths of love, understanding, betrayal, hatred, camaraderie, courage, cravenness, all the things that truly move us. And we are humbled and gratified by how life lives through us.