The Coming of the Holy Light
1972
Dream Sociomatrix, 11/07/16
Although this is not your dream or nightmare, to get the most out of it, imagine that it is. Then, before you read my associations to it, think about what your own might be. If you were to create a Dream Sociomatrix, Commentary and Dream Sociogram on your own you would get results that were uniquely your own, that spoke to who you are and where you are in your own development. Therefore there is no claim that the following write-up in any way reflects your truth or reality.
That having been said, there are collective or shared feelings, world views and life experiences that all of us have in common. therefore, we can approach any dream or life experience in terms of its implications for humanity in general, in addition to those specifically addressed to the circumstances the dreamer finds himself or herself in in their lives. We discuss some of those implications of this dream and Dream Sociomatrix following the Commentaries.
I am in an upper chamber, sitting at a table, tell my parents that I had heard from a Ray Stanford reading that before the coming of Christ there was an angel that came to Israel bearing a “holy light” to announce the coming. At that moment I experienced an overwhelming presence moving into the room; I knew it was the angel carrying the Holy Light. In the next instant there was a huge earthquake that shook us out of our chairs and onto the floor. It felt like the building was going to collapse around us. When it stopped, my mother was gone. With a horrible feeling, I rushed over to one of the two windows in the room and looked down. She was hanging by a rope. I had to pull her up by the rope around her neck to save her. I dragged her back in the window and she cried, “Your father! Your father!” I had an even more horrible feeling. I rushed over to the other window and looked down. My father was hanging like my mother had been but horrified, I could tell that he was dead.
My associations to this dream are…
I woke up sobbing and it took me some time to get a grip. At that time I was about twenty-two and living in Newport Beach, a suburb of Los Angeles, with two friends. I had traveled there to study the “Light Work” or “Agni Yoga,” which was a work created by a chiropractor, Russell Paul Schofeld, that was designed to “purify and raise consciousness” by imagining colored energies circling through one’s body, first in one direction, then another. The different colors were associated with different qualities that were being strengthened and purified in one’s “aura” and consciousness. I had experienced it several times in Dallas, Texas with my friends and they talked me into coming out to Califonia to study it with them.
The lessons did not impress me. I felt like it was some sort of hypnotic mind-control or programming and my doubts got back to Schofeld, who also knew of my interest and work with dreams. He knew I was considering quitting.
One night I woke up with a dream of Schofeld. He was telling me, “Just stay until lesson 32; all will be clear to you then.” But this “dream” felt literal; it felt like a visitation by Schofeld, who had a reputation as a psychic, coming into my dream because he knew that I respected them. It felt like a form of psychic or mind manipulation to me, and a very underhanded form at that.
However, I continued to take lessons. I was committed and stubborn. It was at this point that I had the above dream. Afterward I talked about it with my two friends and sent a copy to both Ray Stanford in Austin, who did a reading on it and sent it to me. I also sent it to my mentor Hugh Lynn Cayce, son of Edgar Cayce, who wrote me back. Both concurred with my conclusion, that it was a warning dream that was telling me to get out of Agni Yoga.
However, I was enmeshed. Like someone in an abusive relationship who keeps returning for more abuse, I was co-dependent and symbiotically locked into the culture or collective consciousness of the group. I never knew groups could so control and limit one’s options. It taught me a lesson I would never forget. But things kept getting worse and worse. I couldn’t find work and I ran out of money. Broken emotionally and very confused, I limped home to Arkansas. It took me about two years to get a sense of direction back after that experience.
At that point in my life I had not yet created Dream Sociometry or IDL; that would come some eight years later. My approach to dreams was completely interpretive and symbolic. I came up with my best interpretations and then compared those of others to it. The version that I arrived at was that the “room” represented my third eye, or more generally my mind-space where I was one with my “source energies,” represented by my parents. Telling them about the “Holy Light” was expressing my validation for doing the Light Work, that it was intended to enlighten my consciousness in preparation for the coming of what the Edgar Cayce readings called the “Christ Consciousness,” which he defined as one’s awareness of their oneness with God. The coming of the angel into the room I interpreted as my actual relationship with the Light Work and the earthquake as its effect upon my abiity to center in meditation. The hanging of my mother and father was a symbol of being “cut off from the will of the mother/father” and the death of my father as a metaphor for losing contact with “the father,” or God or oneness due to the effect of this work. You would think that with such a powerful message, confirmed by respected others, that one would naturally immediately get the hell away. But such is the power of groupthink; it is not to be underestimated. But we normally do and have no idea what we are getting ourselves into in a relationship, the military, a profession or a job until we are deeply committed financially and emotionally.
Three fundamental life issues
• Getting clearer
• Finishing the book I am working on, Seven Octaves of Enlightenment: Integral Deep Listening Pranyama
• Staying in cosmic humor
Predictions:
Most preferring: Angel
Most rejecting: DS
Most preferred character:
Most rejected character: Angel
Most preferred action: pulled up
Most rejected action: dead
Most preferred feeling: none
Most rejected feeling: horrified
Dream Sociomatrix Commentary
“The reason I like, like (a lot, love, dislike, dislike a lot, hate, don’t care about, or am accepting toward) (dream element) is…” “What I liked/disliked most about being in this dream is…”
Dream Self: I dislike myself a lot because I hold myself responsible for the death of my father and the near-death of my mother, for creating this entire tragedy. I like this upper chamber; the Ray Stanford readings are a source I respect so I am citing a respected authority to back up my belief. I am sharing with my parents a central motivation or purpose behind who I am and why I am living my life as I am. It is a sense of excitement, of sharing something valuable with them. The Holy Light is assumed to be a source of great love and peace. Same with Christ. The angel, as its bearer, is assumed to be the same. My intentions are clear and clean. I do not hate the angel or the Holy Light but am overwhelmed and nearly destroyed by their presence so I do not like it at all that it is entering the room. I hate the earthquake, my horror and my father being dead. I feel highly ambivalent about the ropes and having to pull up my mother and father by them because they are around their necks. I love my parents. What I like most about being in this dream is that it shocked me into paying attention to it. What I dislike most about being in this dream is having to be so shocked due to the depth of my delusions.
Chamber: I like myself and DS a lot. I am glad he comes into me. I am a space in his consciousness where he clarifies his intentions and purposes. The table is a space for communion, for the giving and taking of support and nurturance. While I respect the intention of Ray Stanford and his intentions to be a reliable source of spiritual guidance, it’s not. It is untrustworthy, because it does not represent your own path, your own truth. I like DS’s sharing of his intention and understanding with his parents because he is being transparent, honest and as clear as he can about his core intentions. And he has acted on them. What more can anyone do? Hate may be too strong a word, but this Angel is dangerous and it is trespassing dangerously! It is not so much the Angel that I hate as its act of coming here! This idea of a “Holy Light” is a very dangerous fraud! I hate the damage it can do and does do! I have no problem with Christ, understood as one’s awareness of their oneness with God, but I find this whole way of thinking deluded and dangerous. But I really have nothing to do with this concept. While I hate the earthquake, because it threatens to destroy me, I like a lot that DS is horrified. I like his mother and father a lot and his act of pulling them up by these ropes because it forces him to unavoidably face the consequences of his choices in an unforgetable way. What I like most about being in this dream is that it shocked Joseph awake and into deep contemplation of his life decisions. What I dislike most about being in this dream is having to scare him so badly in order to get his attention!
Angel: I love myself, the Holy Light, Christ, entering the room, the earthquake and having a horrifying effect on the dreamer. My intent is to stun him awake and I succeed! What I like most about being in this dream is waking up the dreamer. What I dislike most about being in this dream is having to frighten and horrify him so badly. However, his fear and horror is totally justified because I am overwhelming in my power and do indeed almost cause this room to collapse and lead to the death of his father and almost the death of his mother. In fact, although I cannot tell you how I did it, I am the most plausible source for the ropes around their necks and them thrown out the windows.
Holy Light: I have essentially the same preferences and motivations. I like the Ray Stanford readings because they provide the credibility that makes my presence known. Am I or am I not associated with Christ? These concepts themselves are cultural delusions so they are impossible to answer. What I like most about being in this dream is that I succeed at doing my job. What I dislike most about being in this dream is personifying extremely dangerous and powerful uncontrolled forces.
Christ: I love almost everything about the first part of the dream because it wakes DS up. The second part, which deals with the consequences of DS staying asleep, is not likeable, just necessary. What I like most about being in this dream is its success. What I dislike most about being in this dream is being part of a delusional system that has trapped Joseph.
Mother: There is a lot about this for me to hate, but if it does succeed in waking you up it was worth it. What I like most about being in this dream is my ability to get your attention. What I dislike most about being in this dream is having to scare you so badly.
Father: Agreed.
Rope: While I like myself, I really have no preferences in this dream. I am indifferent and not emotionally involved. What I like most about being in this dream is that it served its purpose. What I dislike most about being in this dream is that I have to be an instrument of death and horror.
Dream Consciousness: Everyone needs a good kick in the ass sometimes. Much of the time it doesn’t get through or do any good. Congratulations on being smart enough to listen and figure out a workable path out of one of the worst parts of your self-created delusion. What I like most about creating this dream is getting heard and bringing Joseph’s life closer into balance. What I dislike most about creating this dream is having to shock him so badly to wake him up.
What surprises me about what I’ve heard is…
That Christ is part of the socially-created delusion. I get so far into belief in my delusions that only nightmarish events can get through to me.
Dream Commentary
“If I could change this dream in any way, would I change it? If so, how?”
Chamber: I’m not sure how. He is so into his delusional belief system that he can’t break out. But ideally, he would simply meditate in me with his mom and dad.
Angel: That sounds good to me. I am unnecessary unless he continues in this delusional belief system.
Holy Light: Same. He does not need some external source of spirituality, holiness, truth, etc., other than he already has available to him.
Christ: I too am irrelevant. My problem is that there is so much garbage associated with me that it’s like dancing with a tar baby. Try and you’re gonna get tar all over you. Better to ditch the mythologies and focus on clarity.
Mother: Let’s meditate together! I like this room!
Father: I agree! A good idea!
Rope: I am unnecessary if you wake up out of delusion.
Dream consciousness: I like the idea of you meditating in the upper chamber with your parents. Forget about whatever others tell you and find your own clarity.
Dreamage
(A rewrite of the dream based on a consensus of dream group member recommendations. If there is no consensus, there can be no dreamage. A synthesis group dream is usually its own dreamage. Read it over before sleep as an affirmation of a higher pattern of internal integration and healing.)
I am meditating with my parents in this upper chamber.
Dream Summary Commentary
(“What part of this dreamer do you most closely personify? “My strengths are… “The reason why I am in this dream is…” “This dream group came together to…”)
Chamber: I most closely personify a clear space in your consciousness in which you can ground, balance and clarify your awareness. My strengths are that I am always available. The reason why I am in this dream is remind you that you already possess a continuously available context for not only grounding, balance and clarification but identification with the sacred.
This dream group came together to wake you up by giving you a good kicking.
Angel: I most closely personify out of control sacred power. My strengths are that I am extraordinarily powerful. The reason why I am in this dream is to teach you that sacred power is not all that it is cranked up to be. This dream group came together to scare you straight.
Holy Light: I most closely personify the billing of the Light Work you are doing as holy and sacred and as the forunner to oneness with God. My strengths are I’m pretty and interesting. The reason why I am in this dream is to represent the pile of crap you bought. This dream group came together to wake you up.
Christ: I most closely personify oneness with God in love My strengths are unconditional love. The reason why I am in this dream is to represent the payoff you think you are going to get if you follow this rainbow. This dream group came together to let you know it’ all a dream, a self-created delusion and to wake you up out of it.
Mother: I most closely personify the foundational feminine principle and nurturance that you grew out of and that continuously supports you. My strengths are my reliability, my unconditional love of you and my acceptance of you and your choices. The reason why I am in this dream is to make you aware of what you are jeopardizing and sacrificing by your determination to follow a delusional course. This dream group came together to get you to examine your purposes, decisions, commitments and relationships.
Father: I most closely personify the support of the world, of your larger socio-cultural contexts. One could also say I personify your connection with God. My strengths are my ability to provide for you and to support you. The reason why I am in this dream is to wake you up to a realization that you are cutting yourself off from my support by your stubborn commitment to a bad course for the best of reasons. This dream group came together to shock you awake!
Rope: I most closely personify how you have hung out your dependency on your fundamental support, sacrificing it to your delusional path. My strengths are that I am reliable. The reason why I am in this dream is to give you a graphic sense of what you are doing so you will choose a better path for yourself. This dream group came together to support you, even though it had to scare the crap out of you.
Dream consciousness: I most closely personify the big picture, the context that sees and includes all of the above. My strengths are my connection to the priorities of life as they want to express in your life. The reason why I created this dream is to wake you up.
Waking Commentary
As (this dream group member), if I were living this dreamer’s waking life, how would I live it differently? Would I handle this dreamer’s three life issues differently? If so, how?
• Getting clearer
• Finishing the book I am working on, Seven Octaves of Enlightenment: Integral Deep Listening Pranyama
• Staying in cosmic humor
Chamber: Be in me when you meditate! Include your parents!
Angel: That’s a good recommendation. You certainly don’t need me.
Holy Light: Agreed.
Christ: Agreed.
Mother: I would love to be included in your meditation!
Father: So would I!
Rope: No need for me any more. You’ve got the message.
Dream consciousness: I would say you are on track with all three of those priorities. Good job! Keep up the good work!
Identification Commentary
If I could designate specific occasions in the dreamer’s waking life when I would recommend that he imagine that he is me, what would those occasions be?
Chamber: During meditation!
Angel: You don’t need me.
Holy Light: You don’t need me.
Christ: You don’t need me.
Mother: During meditation!
Father: During meditation!
Rope: You don’t need me.
Dream consciousness: When you want to back off and grok the whole picture…
Action Plan
(All of the above recommendations for waking life application are not of equal importance. You have to decide how you wish to prioritize them and what you want to do with them. But take some action! It is a way of demonstrating that you take your inner direction seriously. If you have it wrong, future dream groups will cybernetically correct your course.)
• Experience yourself meditating with your parents; allow yourself to become them and for them to become you.
Sociogram Commentary
Overall Pattern: Another oppositional pattern with opposition on both the Process and Acceptance Axes.
Acceptance Axis: This is a rather strange display, in that three high scoring accepting characters, Angel, Holy Light and Christ expressed no preferences at all toward the murder of the parents. This implies that their acceptance does not extend to that part of the dream or group activity. “Christ” is by far the most accepting character, which is not surprising in that Christ personifies both oneness with God and universal, pure love and compassion. That Mother, Father and Dream Consciousness express preferences toward the entire group, not just the first part, implies that there is some difference between the nature of their acceptance and that of the first three. My suspicion is that the acceptance of the first three, based on their comments in the Commentaries, reflects the type of “acceptance” found in nightmare patterns in which normally rejecting elements are in ascendency on the positive pole of the Acceptance axis. This may not be correct, as “Christ” may perhaps not belong in that category, but still I think so, as other members of the group make comments indicating they view Christ as part of delusional groupthink that is responsibile for this waking and dreaming nightmare in the first place. That DS is least accepting, and terribly conflicted about it, reinforces his status as victim within the Drama Triangle. Upper Chamber appears to be least out of drama or projected wonderfulness.
Form Axis: The spread of chosen characters on this axis is very interesting. DS is right up there with Christ as most accepted. This is not so unusual for interviewed groups, as DS is often viewed as the leader, guide or even “messiah” for the group, which looks to DS for guidance and leadership. This is often an intimidating realization, particularly when dealing with a group with figures that DS looks up to. Upper Chamber and the parents are also highly preferred. The fact that NONE of the characters are rejected, even Rope, reflects the group’s view that the dream is essentially therapeutic in nature.
Process Axis: Behavior is where the real conflict in the group lies, and quite the conflict it is. The spread between “telling,” the most preferred action, and “dead,” the most rejected one, is twenty-five units, which is about as great as I have ever seen in a Dream Sociogram. If “telling” indicates acceptance of sharing an honest, upright intention and “dead” means the cutting off of access and the termination of everything, then we have a huge split between intention and consequences. “Earthquake” and “entering room” are a smaller opposition on this axis and imply a polarity between radical destabilization and vulnerability. “Pulling up” is in the middle between the extremes. Perhaps it is indicating taking effort in the world to save bad situations.
Affect Axis: There is a great deal of ambivalence about the two types of horror experienced in this dream. While one is derived from fear of death from the earthquake, the other is derived from the horror of the victimization of beloved others. But notice that the ambivalence comes from group members approving of this horror and both horrors are themselves preferred by the group more than they are rejected. These horrors are opposed by a highly preferred feeling of “positive anticipation.” Right now that feeling reminds me of the mood or feeling that I cultivate when I meditate. Interesting. I had not made that connection before.
Dream Group Dynamics Commentary
(In which the various dream group members are provided with an opportunity to express their thoughts on their relationships with their fellow dream group members.)
Chamber: I think this is all an invasion. Get this sacred shit out of here! It may be good somewhere else but it obviously doesn’t belong IN ME!!!!
Angel: Joseph is clearly not mature and evolved enough to be able to digest and integrate my magnificence. I will go away. His loss.
Holy Light: Exactly. Too bad for him.
Christ: Maybe in three hundred lifetimes he will burn off enough karma to open himself to my divine love and light.
Mother: That’s all well and good, but we have a track record of supporting you and standing by you. They don’t.
Father: That would be true.
Rope: I certainly don’t want to be used to hang anybody. If the three Holy of Holies go away I won’t be needed.
Predictions:
Most preferring: Christ
Most rejecting: DS
Most preferred character: Christ
Most rejected character: Table
Most preferred action: “telling”
Most rejected action: dead √
Most preferred feeling: positive anticipation
Most rejected feeling: horrified √
2 of 8 not so swuft.
“What I am saying to myself is…”
Statements from elaborations are rewritten here as “I” statements.
There is a space in my consciousness where I can clarify my intentions and purposes. There is a space for communion, for the giving and taking of support and nurturance.
Christ is part of the socially-created delusion. I get so far into belief in my delusions that only nightmarish events can get through to me.
Better to ditch the mythologies and focus on clarity.
I am learning that sacred power is not all that it is cranked up to be.
I need to be in a clear interior space when I meditate and include my parents.
Some of the basic issues addressed by this dream group are:
• Wake up out of group think!
• Do not take personally wake up calls; instead, listen to what they are telling you.
Some Collective Implications of “The Coming of the Holy Light”
You have to decide which, if any, of the above applies to you and your own development. If something resonates, it’s yours, and you are encouraged to do something with that resonance.
The general pattern in play here that applies to all of us is one of commitment and dedication, for the highest, clearest and purest of motivations, to a life path that is nevertheless toxic and destructive for you. This could be a job, a profession, a course of study, a relationship or membership in a spiritual, social or cultural collective that is quicksand. It is about the power and intensity of our denial and also about our motivations for not looking at our motivations, for staying the course, for continuing to do what merely makes us more completely stuck in the quicksand of our drama and delusion. It is also about what it takes to wake us up and how life is willing and able to administer severe shocks in an effort to do so.
IDL believes that if we do not hear these shocks in dreams they may get louder and appear as nightmares; if these are ignored, repressed or misunderstood, some of these imbalances, if strong enough, will externalize, that is, appear in our bodies, relationships or activities as illness, abuse and victimization, or as accidents. IDL does not believe that this is the etiology of all illness, abuse or accidents, but that it may be a contributing, complicating factor that makes misery more likely and more difficult to overcome.
There is no one type of waking up that is best for everyone. What is recommended here for the dreamer in this particular situation may well not work for him in other situations, nor will it work for you as well as will your own, unique recommendations that result from your own interviews of your own dreams, nightmares and life issues.
For example, the recommendation to take mother and father into meditation could be very poor advice for those who do not trust or respect one or both parents for good reason. It does not do to gloss this over by saying it applies to union with mother-father archetypes, particularly if those do not resonate for you. Therefore, we need to back off and see if we can find a broader recommendation. That would be to not allow disruptive mythologies, dogmas or groupthink to get into your “upper chamber” or to pollute the center or core of your consciousness.
While this advice makes sense and is indeed quite ancient, it is not so simple, because most of us have to learn how to separate out our scripted identities that are like clothes or a mask we wear, rather than clear, selfless ground. Finding and learning to return to this experiential place is an important part of the work of IDL, and the interviewing of characters that are “emerging potentials” is important for accessing and learning to return to such a centered, centering space, and to insist on its primacy over the beliefs and desires of others.
