Dreaming a New Reality

By: Luis Molinar
    Edited by: Bruce Du Ve

What if you slept?

And what if,

In your sleep

You dreamed?

And what if,

In your dream,

You went to heaven

And there you plucked

A strange flower?

And what if,

When you awoke,

You had the flower

In your hand?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge   (1772-1834)

There are certain fundamental creative principles that profoundly influence the experience of human beings and the unfolding of the universe as a whole. One of the first and most influential of these is the human imagination. Coleridge's poem invites you to explore your imagination and maybe even to re-evaluate some of the agreements you may have made with regard to the assumed reality of this human dream called life.

Most of what we think we know is based on judgments that are themselves by definition limited. The human imagination on the other hand, is limitless by nature and in Spirit. It is only constrained by the limitations we agree to and then without even noticing, impose on it. We agreed that those limitations were real at a time when we were rather inexperienced, during the hazy, distant days of our childhood domestication.

In truth, the human imagination is limitless. This is especially evident in the asleep-dream. Our agreements with the waking dream of human “reality” will hardly admit the concept of bringing a physical object back from the asleep-dream to the awake dream. However, we can probably accept that it may be feasible to retrieve an idea or a concept regarding an action or a reaction to something outside of the self. If we can learn to do this deliberately and consciously, we can begin to use our asleep dream state to assist in the reprogramming of the mind's patterns, so as, to be able to transform the way we live our lives in the awake-dream to the best of our ability.

In Samuel T. Coleridge's poem, he suggests that we may want to take a deeper look at our limited agreements regarding what can be brought back from the asleep-dream state. Consider if you will, that through an effective dream practice one could actually choose to do anything you would want to while in the asleep-dream state. Acknowledging that we do spend a rather significant part of our lifetime sleeping, even though it is generally overlooked, this is actually a time where the agreements of this awake dream of “reality”, may be shifted and stretched to create or recreate just about anything we choose, simply by the power of intention and the use of our imagination. One can return to memories of the past or journey to the future, merely through the faculty of imagination. One can fly, swim under water for as long as one wants, voluntarily changing any action or a reaction, while in the asleep dream state. One may even chose to move from one personal dream to another. Maybe even deliberately, consciously, re-create a new minds' patterning using our imagination in the asleep-dream, to having this change one's behavioral programming in the awake-dream state. Through the power of the mind and imagination, we can actually dismantle our old agreements about what constitutes reality and deliberately restructure whole areas of our lives.

However, what if you woke up one morning with the strange flower in your hand? What if, simply through recreating a new asleep-dream, we humans could actually initiate paradigm shifts in our behavioral patterns that would reflect into our experience of every day life and manifest entirely new realities? What if prior to entering the sleeping state, we could set our intent to dismantle an old, limiting pattern and then wake up with new unlimited program for a completely new and fresh experience of the outside dream? We do sleep for at least one third of our lives, so why not make this a productive time? How could we actually bring the flower, the gift, to this awake-dream to be reflected in our behavior and experience with self and others?

The Toltec Dreaming process is an ancient, time-tested practice, which achieves this end. The process is particularly effective when undertaken by a correctly directed group. All the greatest teachers of humanity have understood the effect of group momentum in accelerating personal transformation for millennia. They always encouraged their students to collaborate under direction, as did the ancient Toltec naguals, the teachers, and guides.

Toltec Dreaming is a technique that takes the participant from the awake-dream through the asleep-dream, deliberately reenacting the old limited patterns, and programming accumulated through the process of social domestication. These patterns, initially passed on to us by our families, continue to create and call forth into our lives the repetitive circumstances that we have become so accustomed to as to consider normal. This process of domestication for most of us, gives rise to an ongoing sense of limitation in our perception of ourselves and of our outer dream.

By “re-visiting” the mind's “first attention” and examining the limited patterns that bring about these lessons and challenges in our daily lives, we can uncover the real forces that guide our waking behavior. This creates an opportunity for us to consider what we would really prefer to create for ourselves in the mind's “second attention,” a new, clean, reformatted, reprogrammed reality. By creating a deliberate connection to the limitless, we can systematically develop a new set of programming for our minds that will actually bring forth a new reality into the awake-dream. In this way, we can create a new dream of our own choosing.

Humans are in fact dreaming all the time, normally in response to our old domestication and patterning. On a moment-to-moment basis, we energetically produce repeating experiences, recurring automatically according to the patterns retained in our existing, energetic “dreaming body.” By developing a new dreaming body, as devoid of limitations as possible, we can enhance our unlimited un-patterning and begin to experience a way of life that is more spontaneously in alignment with our Real Self, our true Essence. This is the process of waking up from the old dream of the first attention.

As we develop a new core programming, or more realistically an un-programming, rooted in our true Essence, we can call forth from the universe a new connection to the unlimited in us and begin to live our new dream of life on earth. The new unlimited dream will enable us to live in a state of presence, both to our Self and with others. Through the deliberate restructuring of our reality, we can participate in life from a new place of deservedness, experiencing love, joy, happiness, and abundance on all levels. There are actually no limits here, unless you have anything that you may personally choose not to heal or change in yourself. There is no limitation, no right or wrong, only choice.

The Toltec Dreaming experience carries a specific, sacred energy, transmitted through the lineage within which Don Miguel Ruiz was taught by his forebears and continues to teach to this day. Don Luis has received the teaching through the same lineage. He continues to pass on that teaching to others as one of the Mentors of don Miguel's group.

This energy supports an unlimited connection to Don Miguel and through him to the ancestry of the teachings. The dreaming force, present at each Dreaming experience supervised by Don Luis, grants each participating dreamer an opportunity to realize the Real Self, by transforming and restructuring the mind's old patterning and revealing the true and infinite nature of what lies beneath.

Every Dreaming Experience is unique and is structured for each group according to the specific needs of that group. The experience and practice is not something that takes place outside of one's self, but is actively and spontaneously created and transformed by each individual doing the process within the sacred setting of the circle. Don Luis leads and instructs the group through the path initially created by the Toltec ancestors and revealed to us at this fortunate time in history by Don Miguel. If we really want to find Coleridge's metaphorical flower in our hand, we do really need to awaken. By learning how to dream in a new way, we can rise to discover the wonder of a reality that is so completely beyond the bars of our mental cages as to leave us breathless.