A dream by Whitley Strieber

http://www.unknowncountry.com/journal/?id=427

In the dream he describes in his journal, I see elements that seem prevalent in many of the dreams we ocassionally report in this forum- I am curious to see how the people who interpret dreams (here) break this one down. I plan to take a crack at it even though I'm not that good at it.

For those of us that are interested in doing this, please don't quote large portions of it, I'm not sure how the copyright laws work- and please always be respectful. I know I don't have to tell you this, but the Admin in me has to say it.

Well, it has the whole ascension story written all over it, but given Strieber's history it's no surprise there's a negative spin to it. He had some pretty traumatizing experiences, it's kind of shaping his expectations.

Quote:

---

"How did they live? What was wrong?" I asked.

Anne's hand came into mine. She whispered to me, "It's refusal of the soul."

---

This is unusually clear. I think the crossing over the mountain is however a journey beyond the body. Going beyond the body and beyond this incarnation is associated with death. The death of the body and the death of the "false personality." In this sense "life" is not sacred - everything that is impermanent withers and changes.

Sometimes you could say our higher selves are our future selves. There's a grain of truth in that for most people. Few turn this future self into the present self and find themselves on this new level of growth (a verdant valley up on or beyond the mountain). Living life this way could be seen as being beyond (fear of) death. Also removed from the threat of the uniformed people who could represent the fear of death (or any kind of outside threat).

The interesting thing is that here not only aliens but also people man the machines in the sky. This could indicate that if these are higher being (in the sky) they seem less alien now to Strieber than they used to, but still he questions their motives.

The bookshop restaurant represents "nourishing information." This could place the dream at the lower end of the mental plane, which also often is reported to offer libraries, museums, etc. The rest-aurant is probably a reference to this happening during sleep - being nourished by the information input available while asleep.

Nonphysical reality is also the afterlife. This makes for some uncomfortable associations sometimes, especially with death. The angels which rescue the souls of the deceased can easily be confused with ones that take life. I think that has happened in my dreams. In this sense it's just natural that life ends, but the incarnate self is afraid. The death aspect is seen or even overdramatised, while the focus on that hides the idea of rebirth or of serving one's own soul as its incarnate in this world. The error mentioned in the quote above.

Refusing the soul confines ones to small thinking - the small town, the symbol for thinking a certain way, of tradition and the old ways (habitual thought and behaviour). Few people leave the small town behind and make their way facing "ice and storms" - a period of hardship while making their way.

Take note of the size of the man confronting Strieber. He's taller - this could be spiritual stature. I'm not sure what the small film of paint is - but Strieber thinks he gets shot. If this has to do with death and then this is all that happens - it's all on the surface. It's no real harm.

Quote:

---

He said that this had happened before, and each time mankind had gotten a little farther in terms of development of a truly good society.

---

In theosophy there is a similar teaching with shifts ahead. Don't think there was something about "being torn under" though. Just a shift in evolution - in early 20th century they discussed the shift from the 4th (current) to the 5th kind of man.

Cheers,
Oliver

korpo, you never cease to amaze me. awesome reading.

it is all about the crayons we would pick up and choose to color with within. me thinks

Thank you, Tim. :)

Oliver

In the dream, I was with Anne in a sort of bookshop-restaurant where we were looking at books and waiting for lunch.

This is a “food for thought” dream.

Suddenly, there was a commotion outside. I went out and saw a number of enormous machines in the sky. They were not ordinary UFOs, but different shapes and sizes. I glimpsed a few grays, but for the most part, they were manned by people, both men and women in various sorts of uniforms and all with weapons.

There’s a commonality here, despite the differences in uniform, species and gender there is aggression. I don’t think grays in this context represent higher beings. Yes, they’re literally “higher” but their behaviour is not that of a spiritually higher being, only that of a technologically higher being.

Although they seemed quite cheerful--or perhaps because they were so cheerful--I got the impression that they were here to kill people, and I became frightened. When I turned to go back and get Anne and try to escape, a man taller than me confronted me. He had a gun, which he shot me with. It didn't hurt me, but left a sort of film on my clothes, like a light dusting of spray paint.

The adversary seems more powerful but his weapon of choice does not annihilate Whitley, suggesting the gun is representative of a tactic that Whitley encounters in his life that could potentially control him or destroy a part of him but that isn’t working. Note that Whitley is showing concern for Anne when faced with this adversary. I wonder what colour, if any, the film was? It left its mark but there was no real impact, as far as I can see.

I said, "You can't kill people. People's lives are sacred." He replied, "lives are not sacred unless people make them sacred. The future is sacred." Then he said, "We are here to make room for the future."

Whitley’s innate sense tells him lives are sacred no matter what. What is the future if life is not sacred?

I got back to Anne and we left the restaurant and climbed out of the small town it was in, passing across a great mountain full of ice and storms.

Standing up for the sacredness of life sees Whitley escapes the “small town,” a confined and dangerous space. The challenge of standing up for his truth is represented as a journey through difficulty.

Behind us and far below, terrible things were befalling the city we had been in, while a small number of people came out and started up the mountain.

It is those who resist rather than those who acquiesce that escape the city to the more expansive but more challenging outlook. An upward movement is about lifting oneself spiritually.

Once we crossed the mountain, there appeared a verdant valley below. In it were quite a few people. A man told us that
A man told us that the ones who had come were going to "turn under" the whole planet once again, and we were "encoded" with a new way of being, that would enable our progeny to build a new world along better lines, with a clearer understanding and a more compassionate heart.

The “progeny” may be children but it might also be somebody’s life work. The “encoding,” if misinterpreted, suggests an outside force that denies the autonomy Whitley showed earlier in the dream. The people are there because of their own efforts. Certainly outside influences can help us evolve spiritually but it’s listening to the inner promptings that represents true growth. "The ones who had come were going to "turn under" the whole planet once again," may sound like some spiritual avenging force but I wouldn't trust such a fundamentalist reading. Obviously, it would be those who do not respect life and free will that would do such a thing. Those who are more spiritually enlightened could avert such a fate.

He said that this had happened before, and each time mankind had gotten a little farther in terms of development of a truly good society.

This represents a notion of collective spiritual evolution but that only happens with each individual’s choice to evolve according to his own conscience. Ideally, humanity learns from its own mistakes as, ideally, each human learns from his or her mistakes.

I said that this was wrong, that so many people were being deprived of their lives. He said, sadly, "Their lives aren't being taken. By the way they lived, they gave them away."

A spurious argument to justify a wrong if their deaths were actual physical deaths but maybe they are symbolic deaths, in which case they must change the way they live if they seek a return to life.

"How did they live? What was wrong?" I asked.
Anne's hand came into mine. She whispered to me, "It's refusal of the soul."

This speaks for itself. Whitley's intuition whispers to him that to refuse the soul is a type of spiritual death.

I posted to this and somebody deleted it. :(

Here is my interpretation, I'll probably be repetitive and boring, a lot of people said a lot, so I'll just add mine, now that I had some time to write it down.

"In the dream, I was with Anne in a sort of bookshop-restaurant where we were looking at books and waiting for lunch. Suddenly, there was a commotion outside. I went out and saw a number of enormous machines in the sky. They were not ordinary UFOs, but different shapes and sizes. I glimpsed a few grays, but for the most part, they were manned by people, both men and women in various sorts of uniforms and all with weapons."

Here I see the incursion into a place of spiritual/mental and physical nourishment. I would characterize this to be the mental plane, or a precursor to physicality- mental nourishment comes before the physical.
The difference in the UFO structures indicate to me that there are more than one way to look at this 'higher' plane- that just because it is higher doesn't mean it can be categorized by one fell swoop- here you can see humans and nonhumans alike, and all armed. IMO the weapons don't necessarily mean destruction, it means that the inhabitants of this plane are not homogeneous, or anything of the sort.

-to boil it down, I see Mr. Strieber having internal conflict- ideas may come from within or without, and they are not necessarily in harmony with each other.

"...because they were so cheerful--I got the impression that they were here to kill people, and I became frightened. When I turned to go back and get Anne and try to escape, a man taller than me confronted me. He had a gun, which he shot me with. It didn't hurt me, but left a sort of film on my clothes, like a light dusting of spray paint." The man is taller, it could be his own rational faculty- a 'male' self-aspect. By spraying him it shows that the fear is not physical, but can mark him. Once again, I see the idea of 'fear of an idea' that his rational side is fighting with. He is protective of his wife, who could symbolize his anima, or feminine side- the emotional nurturing side.

"passing across a great mountain full of ice and storms. Behind us and far below, terrible things were befalling the city we had been in, while a small number of people came out and started up the mountain." This confirms it for me- ideas too lofty and cold in the name of the future are destructive, because they don't take the emotional aspect into account.

"People's lives are sacred." He replied, "lives are not sacred unless people make them sacred. The future is sacred." Then he said, "We are here to make room for the future."
The male rational aspect sees the logic in only the self aware being important, but his female intuitive side sees the importance of sacredness- which is why Anne says that people's lives are not taken away, they themselves gave them away- they gave their soul away. "It's refusal of the soul." She whispers it to him, a very personal and intuitive thing.

I think this dream indicates how worried he is when he sees how soulless we are becoming as a society- giving our individual freedoms away, sacrificing others for our own immediate comfort, and just not caring, and how destructive this way of being is.
It is also a dream of hope, of the future being better, but his conflict with how he believes it will be, and his desire to figure out a better way, and frustration at not yet having it.

ps. As usual, this interpretation isn't based on any "knowledge", just impressions I got when reading the material and how they 'chemicalized' as I wrote them down.