Memories, Dreams, and Zim

                                       Memories, Dreams, and Zim

                                


“I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?”

                                            Ernest Hemingway

All good teachers, mystics, healers, artists, and scientists are not keeping their wisdom a secret, indeed, they are writing, singing, dancing, and shouting their wisdom from the mountain tops to give it away for all who have ears, eyes, and a nose for beauty, truth, goodness and hope for humanity, I am no exception.

In his book Memories, Dreams, and Reflections, C.G. Jung reflects on the early influences that shaped the course of his life. I will begin, as Jung, in describing an indescribable early feeling and memory of life being informed, inspired and fueled by something or someone “other worldly,” that is to say that there was a very early presence in my life that made contact with me and let me know that I was being watched, guarded, and guided. This is not to say that I didn’t suffer extreme terror and loneliness, for I certainly did, but again and again, a presence of guidance, protection, comfort, and inspiration would make itself known to me in dreams, imagination, books, and the circumstances of my life.

I do not pretend that I have trusted or abided in this presence with any consistent alliance or allegiance, it’s just to say that it’s always been there, whether or not I have paid attention or not. And I can truthfully say, life goes better when I’m paying attention!

                                                         Spirit

                                

So this is my first point, that life is informed and inspired by something truly mysterious and spiritual, and that we would all do well to find, contact and build relationship with this spiritual presence however we may interpret or imagine this power greater than our selves. Caution is advised in how we interpret and make sense of this mystery, because the ego is prone to want to bottle, package, and label definitively what spirit is, and spirit will have none of this!

Another aspect of my life trajectory is the realization that life is a profound theatre of the absurd. It has profound existential meaning in its irony, paradox, and infinitely entertaining drama that is the human condition. This brings humor to the forefront, because the ridiculous nature of living a human life has inexhaustible comedic value, especially the things that are sacrosanct and taken so seriously. All our institutions, conventions, beliefs, ideas, and models of reality are as fleeting and permeable as to be made of bubbles and balsa wood, but we often treat them as if they were enduring steel monuments of immutability. This is where the wisdom of insecurity and impermanence is helpful, because everything is passing, changing and transmuting constantly.

By entertainment, I’m not talking about a mild stimulation or titillation (love that word!) of the senses, I’m talking about a deep, moving, belly laugh, belly cry, life changing kind of entertainment, like your all-time favorite movie, book, or song that you listen to 1000’s of times, this is the grist for your mill of life that can provide a well spring of soul nourishing entertainment, all you have to do is pay attention and be present to the drama that is your life.

                                         

                                               Synchronicity

Synchronicity is the awareness of one integral whole, this awareness has given me an abiding faith in the interconnectivity of life, and belief that there are no accidents. I try to look for what life is serving up to me and see it as a perfect addition to my next scene on the stage. Even if it is something I truly feel sucks, I try and see it in the greater context and continuum that will unfold into an even richer future, because without exception, this has been my history. So every person, place or thing in my life is something I try and see as precious, even when it’s not my preference, if it’s in my life, crossing my radar, I try and acknowledge that “this is happening now,” and make the best of it.

Just as it can be helpful to read a food, movie or travel critique before you buy a ticket, I consider myself an eternal crititic of society and life. I offer my friends 2 ½ cents of opinion, experience, and hard won wisdom so they might consider their flight plan of thought, feeling, or action in life. I encourage all of us to become good critical thinkers in our age of extreme dumbing down that is the scourge of our modern technologic society.

                                    

                                        Animals, Nature, and Children

                                    

For my money, the best things in life, don’t cost money. I have always been awed and enchanted by animals, nature and children. They are so pure and unfettered by pretense, the raw, unequivocal genuineness of a dog, a flower, a toddler is a direct experience of the divine. They are here in their glory to teach, entertain, and love us back into who/what we really are, because in truth, we are animals, that are part of nature, and we are all God’s children.

Some of my deepest mystical experiences have been with animals. Both in my dreams and in regular life, I have often had interspecies experiences that have transported me beyond the limitations of identifying myself as a human into some other realm that is the source of any species. All species of life have common ancestry, so it stands to reason that we can break through to this commonality if we are open to it.

I remember one time, tripping on mushrooms, I got down on all fours with my Labrador retriever and began to play with her as if I were a dog. She instantly accepted me into her world and treated me as a dog friend, she showed me her world and taught me how to play and be dog like, just like an older dog would play/teach a young puppy. We were chasing each other round the house, biting each other in the face, and smelling each other’s butts, with the joy and spontaneity that is dogness. My mom was alarmed and taken aback, but it was well worth it!

I’ve also had lifelong dreams of dolphins. In my dreams the recurrent patterns are that the dolphins are showing me what it’s like to be a dolphin, what it’s like to be one with your environment, and what it’s like to live playfully and joyously. When I eventually swam with dolphins in regular life, it was the same experience, they are super intelligent, sensitive beings that delight in sharing themselves and their world as long as we are respectful and open. They have so much to teach us!

The same is true of children, not having children of my own, I was blessed with a God given gift to connect and commune with children that honors who they are, and doesn’t impose on them with an adult agenda. I am able to understand and communicate with children in ways that helps them be seen and appreciated for who they are, not how we think they should be. This is the #1 mistake people/parents make with children is they see them as miniature adults that just don’t “get it yet,” instead of beings in their own right, at their own developmental level, doing/being exactly how they should be. It doesn’t mean they don’t need guidance and discipline, but it should be given and communicated in terms that their developmental level can understand.

                                             Art, Beauty and Imagination

                                     

This last piece I’ll mention in my self-introduction, is my connection to art. At an early age, I retreated into my imagination as if I was boarding a vessel to another planet. This was a psychological coping mechanism to survive the chaos of my dysfunctional family, but it fertilized the soil of my soul in ways that would continue to bear fruit throughout my life. To make contact and develop a deep abiding relationship with the imaginal realm is to make contact with that which is liminal and numinous.

The liminal is the threshold of ambiguity and disorientation in ritual where one is neither in this world or the other. An example of a liminal stage is right before we go to sleep or wake up, or if we’re in the middle of a dream and start to become lucid that we are dreaming.

The numinous, in Latin numen, (especially in ancient Roman religion) refers to a "deity or spirit presiding over a thing or space". The numinous invokes a feeling of awe, terror, fascination, and compulsion. Again, at an early age I was able to make contact with fantasy world’s that were as real, and more real than my “regular reality.” This consisted of me projecting myself inside of books, movies, T.V. and play in ways that literally transported me out of my usual mind.

I played for hours as a cowboy, an athlete, or James Bond saving the world and getting the beautiful women. This gave me a feeling of power and worth, as well as a belonging, even if it was a belonging to a fantasy.

In music, I was also able to escape and immerse myself in a world of rhythm, melody, lyric, and good vibrations. Music soothed my weary soul, and I lived in the golden age of folk, rock, and electric acid kool aid.

I found my way into theatre and comedy and this gave me a license to play and pretend, as well as enter into the lives of plays and characters and out of my own pain. I learned more and more about the ephemeral, arbitrary pretense of identity, and how easy it is to be someone else, it is merely an arbitrary, synchronistic, juxtaposition of circumstances and history that makes a personality, a marriage, and a dramatic biography.

All this gave me a sensitivity to beauty and the art of life. In theatre, there is the idea of the willing suspension of disbelief, this is the art and craft of luring an audience into forgetting that it’s just a movie, a play, a book, or a song and allowing all our conventions of reality to be suspended while we enter willingly the atmosphere of the art form. This was the original divine quality that the Greeks perfected that is catharsis which is the purification and purgation of emotions—especially pity and fear—through art or any extreme change in emotion that results in renewal and restoration.

So art for me is part and parcel to life, we are all artists in the creation of our life dramas, the writers, directors, set designers, lighting engineers, costumers, and actors of our own plays. Make sure you are creating quality entertainment!