The Dream Specialist

There has been some misunderstanding based on our title, “Ask the Dream Specialist.” Unwittingly, I gave the impression to many this was a “Dear Abby” type of column. I have thus changed the title, as this is not the case and I apologize for any confusion. If you want help with or advice on a dream, you must email me at kenstories@comcast.net. Dreams are so unique and specific to the dreamer and particular life circumstances that I can not address the dream properly just in writing. Dreams are best dealt with verbally by phone, so if need be, contact me at the address above to set up an appointment. Keep in mind I do charge a reasonable fee for services depending on time spent. See the bottom bio for more details.

I am continuing the Revelation Dream Series, which will have one more segment, for a reason. The intervention of the Divine aspect of self in dreams, as in any mystical experience, has great import, not only for the individual, but for the collective as well. “What is true for one is true for all”, especially in this regard. In this column I wish to focus more on how the Higher Self can explicitly guide, create prophecy, and as it does, interface more directly with the subconscious. Because I had so many of these, I am using my own dreams as the reference material but I invite others to add their own “revelation dreams” to the comment section for all to read.

One of the most striking examples of this type of direct guidance occurred when I began a career as a performer for children over twenty years ago. The fall had come and during that summer (1988), I saw that such a career was viable. But in September I got scared. I could not live off independent concerts at preschools alone. Somewhat petrified, I saw an ad for drug experiments that could pay very well at a local hospital and in a panic, decided I would apply. That night Baba, my Guru, came to me in a dream. I was lying on my back with my feet in a fire pit and he was packing my feet in coals. The fire had died down sufficiently so that the ashes were warm and quite uncomfortable, but not hot enough to hurt me in any way. As he kept packing my feet in this warm-hot ash, he turned to me and said directly, ”I told you, you are not to be your own best friend. Paramapurusha (His term often for God) is to be your best friend”. The dream ended but it was extraordinarily vivid.

A few really important things were going on in this dream. The first was that I was taking a wrong turn and my Higher Self (symbolized by Guru) was intervening to warn me. This lesson alone is highly significant for all because I believe if one is really attuned to spiritual growth and one’s spiritual center, you can’t “stray” because you will get signals, often many, as to your diversion from your path. Secondly, dreams love to pun so here was Guru “holding my feet to the fire”. Third, the message itself was to let go of ego trying to deal with the situation and trust God. The next morning, when I woke up, I knew the direction of the “experiment” was wrong. I went to the phone book, opened up the yellow pages and found preschools relatively near to me. On the first call I asked the owner if he needed a music teacher for his children. He replied that that would be a fine idea, he would love to have me once a week, and offered a quite reasonable fee for the hour I would be there. In one day the entire situation had been reversed and a major support for the direction I was going in had revealed itself. The dream had literally turned my life around.

Earlier in my life, when I began teaching Kindergarten, I had a dream that was both prophetic and included a powerful interweaving of elements from the subconscious to demonstrate where some of the issues were emanating from that played into previous problems. Baba appeared in the dream in a living room that clearly was my mother’s, with whom in the dream I was living with. But his countenance was that of an outlaw, like Lee Van Cleef, who appeared in several Clint Eastwood movies. Baba had a three-day beard growth and was stalking around the kitchen, which I could see, like a lion. The Higher Self, through Guru, was showing me that in my subconscious, powerful male energy was seen as dangerous, even criminal. And linked to mother, who had issues with men, and the kitchen, where one is nourished by food.

He emerged from the kitchen, still brawny and powerful (not at all like his earthly physical presence) and started rubbing his hand over the right side of my head (right side of brain-creativity, non-linear thinking.) He kept doing this until there was an unusually strong current of energy and light, which I felt was releasing something that had been stuck. This was highly prophetic because later that year I unleashed a creative streak within me and with the children that was beyond extraordinary, and became the basis of many presentations I do for teachers (I am a certified trainer in Early Childhood in Pennsylvania.) At the end of the dream, Baba painted an “R’ in light on the wall, and a friend of mine, who in my mind was quite repressed, fell over into ecstatic trance. The meaning was that “R” meant YOU ARE REAL, YOU ARE, and that part of myself, which my friend symbolized for me, was going to be highly affected. That the Higher Self can arrange subconscious elements from the interior psychological landscape so adroitly and seamlessly is a tribute to the genius of the dreaming mind, and reinforces the amazing significance and power of dream work I have been emphasizing from my first column.

The last example is more recent. I may have mentioned that about three years ago I began a journey from working primarily with children to working with adults using intuitive gifts. This very column is a manifestation of that transition. But early on (and I still wrestle with the huge changes, that’s why the dreams I mentioned are so important to revisit), The feeling of challenge was very strong. Most of the issues came from my father, from whom I had unfortunately internalized a fear that success brought great danger. This is called “annihilation fear” and can be quite common. In the dream I entered the Spectrum in Philadelphia, a concert arena. But instead of the fine seats, etc, it was like a third world bazaar with adobe floors and camels, other animals, tents etc all over the place. I have mentioned that Jung believed dreams occur in four stages, and the first is the “setting”, or how you view your life at present. Obviously at that time I saw my world as chaotic and impoverished, and as I have said dreams never lie. They are ruthless in their honesty.

As I wandered through this complex, I saw Baba. This startled me because he died in 1990. (In the two previous examples he was still living). I said, “What are you doing here, you’re supposed to be dead.” But it was so real. This was not the first post death Guru dream but in this one I felt particularly jolted by his presence. This is also a reminder once again that death is an illusion, especially for great spiritual teachers, who when they leave the physical body, are just as available energetically as when they were in form. There was contention in the early Christian community (see the Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels) as to whether the resurrection of Jesus was physical or not as many, many people were seeing him in dream and vision. Given the power of what was to happen next, did Guru have to resurrect in physical form to guide me?

Baba then drew me onto his lap and I went into a state of incredibly deep trance, peace, and ecstasy. I lost all concern of any problems in the “lap of the Divine”. But I could not stay permanently. After a night, Baba had to release me. The agony I felt upon leaving him, and that state was nearly unbearable. I cried bitterly. I then wandered for a while and saw him again. This time he invited me back on his lap, what a blessing? But to my surprise I could not do it. I was too full from the previous experience. I literally could not take in any more energy. There was an extremely powerful message here. “See, in the midst of your challenges, you feel often forsaken, but the reality is there is so much I (as Divinity, Source itself) have given you and are continually giving you. This is even to an extraordinary degree that you are not even completely aware of how full you are, of support, nurturance, guidance and love.” There was much more to the dream, especially at the end about father issues and feeling shut out of the professional world, but this part was so significant, I wanted to concentrate on it. Not only for me, but for all. How much do we deny the reality of Divine availability in our lives and hold on to the stories we have either created or been inculcated with since childhood? Isn’t the Course in Miracles and other modern texts and paths, such as the Work of Byron Katie based on these principles?

In these three dreams, as in some of the dreams in the last column, there was far more happening than just a show of Divine presence. This beautiful interface of Higher self and psychological self provides an exceptionally fertile field for the consciousness to work with as the possibilities are endless. This type of opening can be cultivated for as one works more with dreams, one opens the conduit to Source energy more fully. A good example of this is Rodger Kamenetz in his interesting book “The History of Last Night’s Dream”. Although I do not agree with all of Kamenetz’s and his mentor, Marc Bregman’s, approaches to dreams, and I have issues with Kamenetz leaving out important modern dream workers in a self proclaimed role as historical chronicler of dreams, Kamenetz’s journey is instructive and valuable. From one who rarely if ever worked with dreams, to one who used dreams AS the spiritual journey (Bregman’s path and gift), he ends the book with a beautiful revelation dream. I recommend it as a very interesting look at one who invested himself totally in dream work as the path to spiritual/psychological growth and freedom.

We will conclude the “revelation dream” section next time as we examine how dreams helped me understand the true nature of Guru and furthered my release from dependence on form.

Ken Kaplan is a dream specialist, intuitive counselor, and presenter on spiritual topics. If you wish to inquire about his services, or especially if you desire to work with him on a dream you have had, he can be contacted at kenstories@comcast.net.  Ken works by phone, charges a reasonable fee, and emails that just describe dreams seeking answers with no depth of interaction or willingness to engage verbally generally are not considered. If you wish to explore a dream for healing that could appear in this column, Ken will work with you for the reduced rate of $25 no matter how long the session.