Hi you all,

I've noticed this happening in my mind:
New imagery is very intriguing. Images from the 'afterlife' especially are seductive because they come with such hope. I'm so ready to believe that anything in afterlife realms has got to be better than what this old world offers.
Especially potent are images presented by good writers, past or present--poetic, colorful, fully involving our imaginations. Open minds let in these forms and seem to set up great expectations.

If my expectations are teased or developed by exciting pictures in my mind, where will I go to find these images? Will I hang around C1, perhaps beyond my time, waiting to meet an alien or angel? Maybe I'll flit around the afterlife, unable to rest in the park or other refuge, because my mind's full of fantastic beings I think I should be meeting because some place they were once described?

Bruce wrote five books and kept imagery to a minimum, while rather instead, he focussed on the processes of consciousness, often emphasizing the role of Interpretor and how it can distort meaning by the imagery it chooses. Many of the more experienced explorers here have followed his lead by giving minimal clues about what they saw, and emphasize the  process  of their experience and how that transformed their understanding. As much as I love the visual world,
I'm beginning to think their approach is not accidental.

So I'm wonderring,
What is the importance of imagery to our afterlife development?

Bets

I guess we can grow in many different ways Bets. when I read Bruce's books I skipped over the exercises and went for the images to learn what he saw, how he interpreted them, then I compared them and interpreted them to images I had seen and later would see.

especially I related to the acrobatics I saw in his images..the movement of the inner body as relating to movement of consciousness. his guides faces he could not see. same here. I never met an alien like some here do even though I wanted to, I also didn't want to.
I never met angels either, just people who reminded me of angels because of that divine spark inside of them.
you won't drift around looking for what another has experienced because you are unique and will get what you  need rather than what you want. which is the best thing anyway.
All of Bruce's exercises are important. once I did around to trying a few I saw they did work.  it just takes disapline, and at first, I enjoyed the comparison of images.
love, alysia

Hi bets,

The afterlife is the same as this physical life, but without all the short comings, and in greater spectacular detail. Imagery is good, it is a lot of the language of the afterlife, along with symbols, and complete package thoughtforms, that include, sound, images, emotions, and symbols. Although, you can still speak as one did on Earth, but all will soon find the new language much easier.

No one will be disappointed, with the afterlife, if they are a loving person, with controlled thoughts, and right living. Even those that find themselves in a belief system, will eventually move on to live in the beauty of the afterlife.

Once adjusted, one wil be able to listen to composers perform their Earth music, along with compositions newly created in the afterlife, after thier passing on, in great halls of music. As well as poets, and inventors, and arcitects. Theaters are also there, recreating plays of the past, as well as those which have never been seen on Earth.

I have visited many of these realms, as well as realms with amusement parks, and have enjoyed many joyus times with loved ones.

Yes bets, I will look forward myself, spending time with loved one's and friends for eternity, once I leave the physical body for the last time. All our experiences in the non-physical are there to condition us for our new existence, as we evolve into oneness along our spiritual path, leading us back to the fountain head of God's Love.

Dreams, oobe's, retrivals, are just teasers of the wonder that is to come.

Dimensionally Yours,
Rick
Ricktimet

Rob Calkins : In traditional forms of meditation and spiritual growth the direction seems to be to let go of things like thoughts, images, ego, etc.  The result is some kind of oneness or light or merging into a broader sense of the divine.  From this perspective, images can certainly be distractions from the spiritual side of development.  I think Recover’s experiences and sense of love, peace and Christ Consciousness reflects this.  This type of development represents spiritual advancement within the meaning of our religious traditions.
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I agree Rob there are levels of meditation that have nothing much to do with seeing images, where there is no visual input, but so quiet and still, sometimes like blinking off, but something is being fed into the soul undefinable by the intellect. that would be the difference I suppose between spiritual development versus psychic gifts unraveling. so I conclude it's nice to be having or knowing something, as in psychic implications, but it's really quite extraordinary to enter the silence.
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Rob said:
Being attracted to Bruce’s books and this board gives me a different perspective (and I think it’s good to have different perspectives).  What I hope for is to explore and expand my consciousness and that can take many forms.  To me images can reflect different aspects of consciousness or the different Focus levels developed by Monroe.  In this having images and experiences of different types can indicate that we are touching on different areas of our own conscious awareness that reach beyond C1.
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those areas that reach beyond C1 at first involve those symbols and images I need to figure out as these symbols have something in common with the collective consciousness I am a part of. We all effect each other I notice, for either positive or negative, when i can find my commonality with others is when I am happiest that I am advancing on the right path.
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As Alysia suggested when we match up images to what we read in Bruce’s books then we can assume we are having a common experience and that tells us that we’re not just making things up but actually having the same experiences or lessons in consciousness that other people have.  So in this sense, images are positive reinforcement.
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well said interpretation, thanks. I also would add that images represent conceptualization. once my guide said to me while I was just waking up: "do not document, when you begin to write. Instead, conceptualize."  and so I took this to heart. I had been attending class "out there."   according to some symbols given me, I was in a classroom. lol. what fun it was! The teacher let me talk back! he said there was no wrong question. hehehe. Somehow this interaction went beyond mere symbolism because of the teacher whos face I saw as if he were a physical real person with his own personality. It was more like an out of body situation. perhaps focus 21 where the bridge is..could be.
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Rob said:
The other value of images, to me, is that they communicate meaning.  Sometimes when we work through the exercises that Bruce and TMI give us, we get feelings, images, and, sometimes, verbal communication.  There is much to be learned from these.  So I see images as part of the learning process.
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If I follow an image, say, a dream image or an imagination image, I find a rote on it, a whole bunch of thoughts get tied together, to my personal interprets. like being in a kitchen is one of my symbols in dream. whenever i dream of being in a kitchen, I know my sub.con. is "cooking up" something.
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Rob said:
But I think you are absolutely correct in stressing the importance of process.  The images are just indicators of different places in that process.  Some of my experiences lately seem to come up with images that seem to relate more to the process than symbolic content or just images.  Sometimes I think reducing the experience to an image may be the only way to know and remember what has occurred and perhaps the only way to learn something so that I can go on and hopefully learn more.
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Bets, you are I noticed, a very good organizer type of person. I can see that you have always worked to make this an interesting board for people to grow on. you have one of those overview mentalities which tell me you are group oriented. to me, I'm not being psychic, I just watch things you do here and I've always liked it because it shows me how much you care about others. so I could see why ask the questions you do and you've managed to produce a very good thread here once more. you've done this before I have a friend who does not like to try and decipher symbols within dream, as he would rather just leap to direct conversation I suspect, as we do in C1. I relate to his struggle. I have many more dreams in my folder which lie there undeciphered until I get around to it. In my friends point of view, he does listen to me a little,  I would say we look at our lives, ourselves and our dreams and we like to just focus on what is easily understood and resist to focus on areas outside our expertise...but since we all dream whether we wish to or not, I told him not to resist what was given to him so easily as I'm sure there's always a reason and I don't think eating spicy food the night before has anything to do with it, unless your body is telling you not to eat that again. for instance, you might dream of a large red pepper chasing you, then maybe peppers are not for you, but on a larger scope, there is superficial, then there is deeper levels, and that's where it starts to get really interesting in interaction with others.
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Rob, you are so right. we communicate here on Earth with objects. objects in turn will be symbolized within dreamscape to our personal meaning we place on those objects while we are within C1 area. Like the kitchen is a planning area for my sub.con.
someday, I can predict a growth in humanity to receive direct communication from each other and from our assistants who are invisible to the naked eye, as well the religious among us can say god is speaking directly, as in revelations, someday I can see a leaving off of the symbology that we need to work with now, within mind/Mind.

peace and light, alysia

Bets, the three 'R's? That's good.  And Alysia's there as team leader.  Good observations Alysia.  Rick, I like the imagery in your post.  Recoverer, happiness, peace and love are definitely way up there in importance.

Rob

Doc said: Learn to love and express love.  Love thy neighbor as thyself.  Love the lord.  Act based on this love.  If these concepts are implemented and focused on, I have no doubt but that the rewards in our perceptual abilities will dwarf many wonderful sites and visions.
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thats about it in a nutshell Doc. seems to bear repeating though and so we do. just to share, at a certain development phase, we can hear voices in auditory vibration. I have maybe only a half dozen times in 60 years heard the thing I call clairaudience.
my mother once made me jump up from my skin calling my name from across the miles.she was breaking through the layers as we had a bond, to make amends, to get back to love while I suspect u have mischievious helpers, I consider they are like mine, they use this humor approach to break thru the cloud of disbelief that anyone could possibly be invisible and be able to see our private thoughts, yet these are overlapping worlds; we surely do not walk alone and separate when love is there.
we must have these sort of influence, of humor, because thats what works better than a shout to repent and change your ways. releasing a negative thought is much easier with humor or surprise technique, personally speaking that is.

it seems intent comes true..not the images, but perhaps the images lead to clarification of intents. I read somewhere thought and perception follows intent, not vice versa.
I suppose from a psychological perspective what u said about Tibeten book, if I could say it differently, we should or could bring our passions under our diminion, subdue the earth and animals as the good book put it, the animal passions of our own natures, not somebody else's nature. that way we don't repeat patterns of behavior which keep us in bondage to the Earth.
but I'd take it a little further that the intention, if we hold it, to not reincarnate, or to not return to this place, is a projection of guilt; we are not trying to escape anything, but rather explore our passions and direct them into channels best served to one another.
in  other words, get back to priorities and that thing called PUL.
love, alysia

betson wrote on Apr 3^rd, 2007 at 4:12pm:


When humans  explore spriit realms , our sight is limited and our hearing is constrained .
We are all one in the Univesal Mind and we must share and by service to each other we will learn more . So we grow together .

I work with a circle of mystics . At the best of times , it is like scuba diving with maximum visiblity and still being limited in bottom time . Ultimately  the tanks still constrain how long divers can stay under even at no decompression limits.

So it is in trance , dreamstate recall and other mystic visions . Humans have a limited time of great recall with great sight and hearing . Some sessions are better than others .

I do recompose a journal with all the details we can recall as a circle and I share these journal entries  freely online . In the best of circumstances ,our own circle sits with clear sight and limited hearing in 1.5 hour sessions once a day .

And there is so much to explore , so much to learn .

So the process is much more important to teach and to share . I suspect all mystics want to make it easier for future  mystics to continue what we value . And so leaving the process is essential .

I hope to leave a message in a bottle by publishing our works for free so that when we reincarnate , we might find each other and waste less time in resuming our work .

All humans "stand upon the shoulders of Giants" . We learn from the Universal Mind what we have forgotten and what collectively is our best esoteric information available . We recall the eternal truths gleaned by humanity , we reveal new ones and cultivate future revelations .