Welcome to the show dr. David Lowe hey thank you so

much Raymond for being here it's wonderful to be on there

show with you my honor so we have a couple questions for you here is there

anything else you wanted to add to your your history or bio before we get going

not just this is the email David at worlds spirituality calm easy to

remember and so what why are dreams so important in so many

ways well biologically it's amazing but you know they are integral to the sleep process so if you Wix if you trying to prevent someone from dreaming you also prevent them from sleeping effectively

so people basically collapse if they're not allowed to dream they are important

for brain maintenance and neuro physiological nighttime maintenance in

ways that we that that that we don't completely understand there's also

evidence that they are important for cognitive processing you know stuff

going from short-term to long-term memory or sensory materially going from

it going from the sense organs to the brain to be to be represented in

consciousness all that the byproducts of that are thought to involve dream

imagery but the but their most important function for us at least in terms of our

interests is of course the spiritual level so those they're they're they're

really important in many ways they're integral to who we are and they're

really almost as important as food and water I like to say everyone dreams

every night that's been known for decades yeah and I overall how do dreams

work for us on the spiritual level well I think that they're they're sort of

like in an advanced radar and we all have inherent psychic gifts some people

those gifts are pretty obvious like clairvoyance and so forth but we all

have what I call a dream sight the basic psychic gifts that make us human so our

thoughts and feelings exist on the fifth sixth seventh dimensions and higher they

cross time and space or deeper dimensions of those thoughts and

feelings across time and space so unawares at night way beneath the

radar we pick up on interference patterns you might say out in the future

and in the past and we all have our Karma's difficult things we have to go

through and lengthen we can't avoid the difficult things and the surprising some

very negative things but we have choices about a lot of things that we do go

through and we make those choices unconsciously but the most part dreams

offer us alternatives basically they basically present information to a

switch which we can utilize if we want to to go through life in a better and

more effective way so we can make better choices and and have an easier path

through life if we choose to pay attention to our dreams which takes time

and discipline but it's well worth it I do have a practice to help you remember

your dreams is there something you recommend people to do if they don't

tend to remember their dreams i with the major thing is to take a greater

conscious conscious interest in them get a notebook stick it next to your bed

stand you know get a pen put it there get a book on dreams Riya bout do things

with your whole body you can't just think about one to be more interested

you have to go out and do things so do those things and make a whole ritual not

every night but maybe once who make a whole ritual out of relaxing spirits for

reading the TV off at least two hours before going to bed you know so there's

no electronic interference you're ahead and so forth and may firm to yourself I

will remember my dreams out loud and having done all that the likelihood

that you will remember them is is much greater since you will you will have put

God on notice hey I'm interested God self here's your interest and will will

respond but you need to do things you can't just offhand wish that you'll

remember more off you have to express real interest with your whole being and

they will they will follow through over the years what dream experiences have

been the most important to you I would say the ones which have offered really

concrete guidance but once for example I was confused about where to go to grad

school Temple University Court George

Washington State University okay one night I had a dream very simple

dream just a just a scene from Temple University campus and the timing of that

dream helped me realize that that was an answer to my question I should go to

Temple and not George another time they had a dream I was

meditating sore dropped off asleep and a 10-8 dream of getting into a very

serious car accident I had an appointment to go to later that

afternoon so the dream was really vivid to the point where I need to go check

this right now so I went out looked at my car and found some that one of my

tires was seriously defective visually it definitely would have blown up had I

gone out in the highway so again the timing of that dream the fact that it

was vivid enough to make me go out look to get and I looked and saw that oh my

goodness so there been I mean again again and again guidance like that has

come to me through dreams the people we can get that guidance we just have to be

interested enough to strike up a dialogue with with our unconscious which

we can do are there any guidelines as to when you should especially pay attention

to your dreams well it's most of us think in the field that a dream is

unpleasant this this comes from explicitly for I think Jeremy Taylor for

the great dream theorist of our century dreams are unpleasant only only to get

our attention okay not for any other reason so nightmares or unpleasant repetitive tree and recurring dreams are the ones

you really need to pay attention to those are the ones who are trying to get

a message across and the ones the messages that you've been doing your

best to ignore without realizing those are the those are the important ones I

mean sometimes nightmares can be simulating Ince and they're a good sign

because you are you were wrestling with something difficult and problematic in

your life you really taking the bull by the horns and doing do what you need to

do but a really bad nightmare or like a recurring unpleasant theme you need to

address that

of course the interpretation of the dreams can be vastly different from one

source to another that's sometimes what confuses people how do I interpret this

dream some are easier to interpret than others of course

but some of them are pretty difficult yeah oh well you know one amazing thing

which again most of us in the field believe it and there there are there

different kinds of dream workers there are those who are sort of limit

themselves to like cognitive science I don't think that dreams really have a

transpersonal dimension most of us do think that they have a transpersonal

dimension and do have supernatural dimension to to to what they can tell us

so those of us who think that the great majority of us think the symbolic

language is universal is universal and that is the same because we all have the

same basic perceptions of the world before our brains do anything with it by

way of language and cultural conditioning and so forth which which

makes us individuals our brains all perceive the same basic data from the

world so we all on one super basic level even an eight-year-old illiterate from

the Amazon jungle an 80 year old brilliant professor from Iceland or an

Eskimo housewife from northern Alaska illiterate they all know what clouds are

they all know what a parent is they all know what sex is the only water is you

know they all know what the basic world is and that's the material that dreams

work with basically in formulating their imagery so in that sense you can

appreciate how dreams do it do indeed have a universal language do you have

any recommended source for interpreting dreams a good simple dictionary a really

thick one with lots of scholarly references is okay but that's only a

starting point the symbols vary so much from person to person the most important

thing to realize is that only only the dreamer can really fathom the meaning of

the dream often people engage in what Jeremy Taylor called mistaken literalism

they think the dream literally it literally means what it shows you that's

hardly ever the case they're almost always symbolic

so the most important thing to realize is it

only that only you can know what it means ultimately people can offer

crucial life-saving assistance only you can know precisely what it means and to

is that the amount of effort that you put into it is going to determine how

close you are to the real meaning of it just talking to an individual that's

that that that's what I would tell him or her and to find a dream circle find a

group of people interested in in dream interpretation and dream feeling because

vans have a emotional deep felt message as well as an intellectual message yes

it's interesting that I'm just as you have been listening to you I'm thinking

the dream world is giving you the information and metaphors or analogies

and many of the mystery schools of the past have taught in that same method so

it's I'm not sure what the correlation is but I just just came to mind that

there was there was a similar delivery method of wisdom correlation basically

is it there is a deep underlying universality to human experience and

knowledge and that universality is beneath literacy beneath language

beneath culture those same profound images that mean the same thing across

the board are going to be utilized in the great mythical stories and the great

quasi historical accounts of the great religions and so forth and the mystery

schools it's all the same thing across the board and tuning into that is the

difficult thing to do but beautiful and easy if you really get into it and

people who don't dream at all what can they do to start remembering their

dreams take a greater in conscious interest in them I mean aside from what

I said before taking an interest getting a book notebook and so on and so forth

look at look at your beliefs look at your assumption a lot of people many of

us believe that some people don't remember their days because their own

assumptions and and ideas about them screw them effectively from memory so

yeah a person might give lip service to the notion that dreams are meaningful

but he or she deep down because of their strictly empirical scientific

auditioning or whatever may not really think so

it may not be as open to deeper spiritual things as as they say they are

so that's part of it sometimes but I think it's just realizing that yeah

there is a deeper dimension to life am i interested in it dreams are the most

common venue for a higher spiritual value which which which we all have and

which is almost universally ignored that's that's that's the paradox of

dreams they're there for everybody but most people ignore them even though and

most people think that they that they really aren't eligible to have a great

dream directing them to do this or that but they are they're already getting

that potential direction all they just need to pay attention to it you know

that information is on offer all the time we just need to be interested and

you set out any intentions before you go to sleep at night or or can that be done

with some useful welcome you are dreaming already if you're already

remembering your dreams and you know I mean the main thing is if you keep a

journal a diary you're basically into deeper spirituality you have a

meditation practice you do yoga or whatever and you're constantly

journaling trying to find out who you are in a deeper sense the word working

through here just we're working through your issues and problems dealing with

them internally then the questions will always be arising what do I do next what

do I want to know what is my next initiative what do I need to understand

better next week about something in your dreams will be informing you begin

because you had that dialogue going if this is a new thing for you hey wow it

dreams there are things that can really help me out with then think about the

most important questions in your life and you know make them into a short

pause to the worded phrase and by all means before you go to bed at night in

conjunction with everything else I mentioned make that affirmation out loud

into yourself that you want that you would really appreciate knowing the

answer to that question you know that you would appreciate help from your own

inner self to get more insight about something and you will it's very likely

if you put that kind of effort into it that that that's something will come up

for you is there anything you can do for

instance to go and heal some particular physical condition when you go off to

the dream world there are definitely cases of people

Lucina proficient lucid dreamers have done feelings on themselves in with

other people in small anecdotal situations which I've been privy to it's

happening more and more often it is something which will it's sort of on the

cutting edge of New Age therapy if you will therapeutic techniques but it's a

capability that we all have to utilize our own energy to heal our own issues

and this is something with some lucid dreamers do very well both for

themselves and for other people yeah do you teach lucid dreaming i certain I can

certainly help somebody get further with lucid dreaming than they're at right now

like I can certainly do that effectively the thing to remember about lucid

dreaming is that everybody can learn it at least to an extent okay sometimes to

a significant extent some people just seem to have a knack for bio spiritually

in some way so it's more than okay if you can never lucid dream that well no

matter how hard you try you may not have the spiritual just position for it so

yes by all means I can certainly teach you basic lucid dreaming and you can

have greater experiences with it than you have right now I cannot guarantee

you that you will be one of those people who has who has an inherent neck to do

it a lot what does it mean when you dream of falling or flunking a test or

course or being undressed in public those are pretty common dreams right

those who want call common psychology dreams you know

as we grow up and adapt to life and go through things that we all go through it

to work have our first date and so forth go to college or whatnot

have our first interview and so forth we had nervous we get anxious we get

defensive we get embarrassed and so we have common psychological tensions that

we all experience growing up those kinds of streams just reflect those tensions

if all you have is a simple dream with just something like falling or taking a

test or you know being pregnant or you're losing your teeth or something

like that go to a simple dictionary look it up online it's probably something

that you'll that you'll recognize that the general meaning of that kind of

dream you'll immediately see how it applies to yourself but anything more

complex than that you need to call somebody like me if you're really

interested in understanding it more effectively or working with it yourself

or orth another group of people but common psychology dreams like that are

pretty much no brainers but I mean their messages are important they're important

but they're not difficult to understand if you look them up and everything and

they're not always the same for everybody else oh no certainly not absol

absolutely not but I mean things like falling flying dying flunking a test

being pregnant you know what'd I just say

being undressed in public there you know do you like the 15 20 most common dream

thieves the first nine or ten most common dream themes are pretty much

universal across the board all over the world if it's just a simple dream

featuring one of those things then you can pretty much look at the common

meaning for it and figure it out yourself you'll see how it applies to

you and often that sensation of falling when you're falling asleep is pretty

common although it may be a dream but I think often that's it's just the process

of falling asleep in the visual you're getting inside your your mind but how

would you describe that well the interesting thing about yeah there's a

question amongst dream work as exactly how you do

what a dream is and how beneficial they they may may or may not be dreams

occurring during rapid eye movement sleep REM sleep that that that we've all

heard of those are unconvinced all of them 100% come for the sake of health

and wholeness of the individual as Jeremy Taylor said other kinds of Dreams

appear in the hypnagogic State or in the hypnopompic state half which is half

awake and half asleep going in sleep and coming out of sleep some dreamlike

phenomena occurred during episodes of sleep paralysis which can be frightening

where you do have sensations of lifting following physical kinds of sensations

of being crushed and so forth during the hypnagogic half awake half asleep state

a number of interesting things can happen and that's when some people

there's a gray area between astral projection and dreaming they're not two

separate things all that they're they are usually two completely different

things but they can blend into each other in some dreamers experience and of

course that involves sensations of separating from the body and so forth

but ordinary dreaming like rapid eye movement sleep dreaming which is the

most common 80% of our dreams now are in that state those dreams are always

beneficial like most of us think and they then they take place while the body

is completely paralyzed that's the REM State yeah the REM sleep

well that's deep disorder and those can be interesting too and that does astral

traveling happen in the REM state or some other state well it's I I'm gonna

say never during REM but they're probably dream workers who would take

exception to that certainly in the in in the hypnagogic state which is when

asshole projection happens there are cases where really proficient dream

dreamers or a but when I say proficient I mean people again not more spiritually

advanced they but people who have a psycho spiritual knack for these kinds

of experiences more so than most people do so there are cases

people during hypnagogic plead you separate from your body you haven't

asked for possession experience it can turn into a dream experience in which

you fall completely asleep that doesn't normally happen but it can in some cases

okay yeah that would be an area would be curious to explore but that's probably a

whole other subject as to all these different dimensions and brain wave

rates and what were they represent in terms of where the soul or the mind is

yeah anyhow moving along are there some general guidelines for

interpretation which most dream specialists would agree on sure I mean

again only only the dreamer knows what the dream means he or she may be totally

off in the beginning but once they get a sense of the of the deeper symbolic

nature of the message of the dream only they can really understand what it means

for them and that needs to be protected on most all dreams come to help us out

most of us think some probably don't but it depends what kind of dream it is when

it occurs you're entering the sleep cycle most dreams are definitely there

to be beneficial for us most of them have many possible meanings many

possible meanings because one depends within the realm of the individual how

much effort does a dreamer want to put into fatha me the message I really count

a dream you might just answer it's about something at work or they can take that

count k dream to a dream group to a therapist to a dictionary and so forth

work within himself talk to people and come up with a much more profound

meaning after four or five hours of doing all that stuff so the effort that

you put into it the attitude and effort that you're willing to devote to it we

will determine we'll go and we'll play a large part in determining what what the

dream means first yeah and what is it that you offer in terms of

workshops or personal sessions in respect to all of this online sessions

for dreamwork and i basically the person tells me the dream or better yet writes

it to me ahead of time so i can see it all I will get to know the individual I

asked them for basic demographic information and personal information to

the extent that they're willing to share it if they don't that's fine but there

are even basic categories of information name date birth occupation the rough

sorts of things which are on their minds by we have personal issues and hang-ups

what's your mind dwelling on that's the thing that most dreams are going to

concern results with helping you with most of the time so but yeah personal

information what they're going through personal hang-ups immediate practical

issues just a car need to be fixed or my children's grades okay am i smouldering

over my relationship with with a tantrum I through with the co-worker two weeks

ago all that sort of thing can't figure into why treants happening had to - what

is trying to say so those kinds of things are important to learn about the

dreamer relationship issues family configuration who is alive who's dead

who's talking who's not in the family that sort of thing and all be

represented symbolically and I can't tell the person what the

dream means the most important thing to understand about the way I work with

trans and most of us I think work this way is that my job is to help the

dreamer understand for him or herself what his understanding of the dream is

the last thing I want to do is tell them what I think it means that would be

criminal so it's very important that that they be given you that the dreamer

have the opportunity to discover it for themselves and my job is to help them do

that but not to really suggest anything - with with too much authority that's

appropriate I think for my kind of dream work now other kinds are more

authoritative but the type that I think most of us do in though those of us who

do dream work we we give ultimate authority to the

dreamer so the dreamer is the one who decides everything in the end

you have any workshops do you do I do local I do two different dream

circles here in Philadelphia once called lucid dreaming seeker the

other is a it is a dream group in a in in a local church I've done basic

workshops about regarding dream work and working through personal issues I offer

a day-long workshop which I do want to start offering again soon but yeah just

dream work remote dream work counseling dream the

dream consultation I do offer the day-long workshop which I'm interested

in getting going online yeah so but locally counseling around dream work and

come other related issues in that workshop and that and that that day-long

workshop yeah you've written have you written any books

yeah the ad the first one I wrote is that that first tile at Universal

spiritual philosophy in practice I've been teaching adjunct professor for some

time it was getting more and more boring basically more and more you know

something else was in the wings I don't know what but at one point just sitting

in a library between classes I had a kind of Epiphany and it just came to me

in one sweep the title what the cover would look like and within six months

I'd written it so I like to tell people it took me sixty three years to write as

if the book had been cooking the whole time in my head since birth I like to

think it finally was ready to emerge and I had that epiphany around writing it

yeah so I mean any other projects coming up I'm working on a second book and I'm

working on a dream research project around for a convention that I'll be

going to in about six months I dream a major dream convention and yeah I'm just

doing as much dream work as I can andwell just to close off this interview

what coordinates would you like to share with people just that website David Lowe

MSS and Masters of Science MS not NS MS only one in the name David Lowe LW MS

PhD calm and that email David world spirituality dot-com is relatively easy

to remember Facebook page yes I do so you have to if you go to my huh Wow I

sent that to you didn't know me the seller yeah it might be on your profile

page I don't remember off the top of my head but is it on your website to your

link okay so people can go there and any any last words of wisdom you would like

to share with the audience yes very please be motivated to to pay more

attention to your dreams to get a book about them get a diary make do your

rituals take more interest in in your general spirituality because if you

really can develop dialog with those dreams choices and options will open up

for you to make things easier than they would otherwise be throughout the rest

of your life you'll be happier sooner if you follow your dreams then you will be

if you don't that's certain so go for it and you know beam the dreams that you

need your even follow them with all your heart and call me if you need to okay

thank you very much for all that great advice I much appreciate your wisdom

David thanks for coming on the show and hopefully we got a chance to interview

sometime in the future Raymond thanks very much it's been great

being here my pleasure thanks all the best.