The question of whether our life is being dreamed for us by some Cosmic Dreamer

or we are dreaming our body and our life has long been discussed in spiritual ci
rcles. For most people, the dream world is considered unreal, a byproduct or hal
lucination of some physical brain process. Its essentially the modern scientific
world view - only the physical brain/world is defined as real. Its really just
a statement that because the scientists can manipulate it, matter is real to the
m. But what would happen if you could intervene in the dream world, and express
your will in the nether world? What if you could shape it as definitively as the
multitudes of choices in daily life shape your physical world experience? This
is what spiritual scientists/alchemical meditators do: they lawfully manipulate
the life force to achieve greater harmony and balance. This is a very different
process than dream interpretation, of which there are many schools and systems t
hat analyze dreams after the dream is over. Taoist dream practice is about prese
nt moment interaction with the forces that control the dream plane. Since those
forces appear to gain control while we are sleeping, they are traditionally call
ed the forces of the night side or the dark side. Does this make the dark side evil?
Well, ask yourself is sleep evil? It is, after all, the realm labeled by modern
psychology as the subconscious in which many evil things might appear to happen y
ou might find yourself killing or being killed. But if you love to sleep, and co
nsider yourself a good (at least non-evil) person, what does it mean to be daily
refreshed by the dark side? Is the violence and sexuality that many experience
in dreams a form of necessary evil, needed to balance out what is repressed by day
light? Have we made some kind of unconscious pact with the Devil s/he will recha
rge our body batteries to let us live on earth another day, but only if we surre
nder our consciousness to Him/Her for eight hours? Most people never consider th
ese questions deeply, because they are afraid of things that go bump in the dark
. They dont want to know the answer, they only want to wake up refreshed, and pre
tend that the waking self is the only real self. The truth underlying this denia
l of the dark side is that the need to sleep to go unconscious - is the single m
ost powerful thought form on planet earth! Stronger than sex, hunger, religion,
political power, etc. This may be why Taoist dream practice is considered to be
the most advanced form of meditation its very easy to fall asleep during the pro
cess, to succumb to the thought form that I must go unconscious now.
Meditators of all traditions commonly think of their practice as a way of mergin
g with their spiritual self or the Divine Spirit. But think about it does Spirit
go to sleep? If you think Divine Spirit, the All-that-Is or total all-embracing c
onsciousness of Nature also needs to sleeps eight hours a night, and that like h
umans, it is subject to cycles of night and day, then you need not bother studyi
ng Taoist dream practice. Likewise, if you believe that there is a Light Side th
at will someday vanquish the Dark Side, that whatever refreshes us during sleep
needs to be killed, then you should not explore Tao Dream Practice. Only if you
are willing to explore and embrace the dark side as an equally important aspect
of the whole should you attempt to manage your dream state. Tao Dream Practice i
s a method for managing sleep and the dark side as if it were an equally ordinar
y part of life as the day/Light side. Because it effectively doubles the amount
of time available to cultivate yourself, it is considered a shortcut. But the ex
tra time available is the least important aspect. The truth is, everyone has dre
ams about what they want in their life, and its ordinary to hope that they can m
anifest these dreams. This Day dreaming-manifesting process is no different in p
rinciple than the night dreaming-manifesting process. But there is a difference
in effectiveness at night, there is no resistance from the dark side, because yo
u have become the dark side. So you can manifest what you truly need for spiritu
al development without struggle. Thats the shortcut: no resistance. That is why w
e love to sleep its the only time we are living without resistance. So sleep is
an unconscious form of wu wei - living without coercive action, without trying to
push the river. So during sleep, we can get profound answers to what we need fro
m life. The genies of the night side can become our genius by day. Many of mankinds g
reatest breakthroughs have thus been dreamed at night by artists, inventors, sci
entists or others struggling with seemingly unsolvable problems. I used to run a

Night School in the dream plane, where all my friends would come and I would teac
h them to fly. It was just a gift I had. Flying dreams are one of the most tangi
ble signs of achieving conscious state of non-resistance. In the astral plane it
s easy to defy gravity, but its still quite a thrill if your mind is awake, simu
ltaneously aware of the force of gravity pulling on your physical body laying on
the bed fast asleep. Anyway, I finally closed that Night School, and decided it
was time to open a Day School for living without resistance. That is really wha
t all my ten qigong (chi kung) and inner alchemy Tao Home Study courses are abou
t. So eventually conscious movement, breath, and inner mind meditation cultivate
s an energy body that is equally comfortable functioning in the Day or Night mod
es. What happens when you manage dream states is ultimately no different than ma
naging what we call physical states and their underlying energetic structure. Th
ey are both part of the same chi field. But if you cant come to my Day School liv
e or on audio - you can still contact me or anyone else who is willing to assist
you at night. But it helps to know the method.
Dreaming the Inner Smile with you -- Michael Winn, http://www.healingdao.com