Sometimes it’s needed to go back in dreams. If for example having the same dream repeatedly, really scary nightmares or dreams that feel un-finished.
And when going back into a dream, the very best is to have a co-dreamer on the journey, someone being there, dreaming the same dream at the same time. Someone who is able to see more details and perceive things, and also as a safety for the dreamer.
This extra guidance is needed at least in the beginning. Later on, when having some experience, one is capable to handle it by oneself, and when doing that, one also discovers how to direct one’s life in a more harmonious way. Through forming the awake dream.
The last time I really needed to go back into a dream, it was to be able to find out who was driving a car and made me lose all my power only by seeing the car on distance. I had no co-dreamer at the moment since I was at our cottage, kind of in the middle of nowhere, and my husband who was there with me, was quite busy – and I didn’t want to wait. (Patience has never been one of my gifts) The good thing was that I already was an experienced dream traveller, and that in the dream there actually was someone who functioned as a co-dreamer.
This is the dream:
“I'm going out from a small square house, facing east. It’s a pitch black winter night outside, and on the short stairs leading down to the square garden, leys a thin layer of sparkling white snow. I take the steps down and walk the few meters on a shoveled path between the short walls of glimmering snow. In front of me flies a small spiritual being, and it is sparkling like stars, just like the snow. Everything is so beautiful. When I leave the yard I turn left and start walking northwards. The feeling is that I am leaving my safe place, but I'm going to visit my mom and talk about astrological signs, and I'm so happy the time has finally come.
I am walking on the right side of the empty snow white road towards north, and to the right of me is a high wall of snow. I am wearing my old white fur imitation coat, and all around me it’s pitch black. Everything feels just right, and I am happy. Behind me a sound of an engine appears in a distance, and soon I can see the light beams of a car. This makes me powerless, as if all my energy disappear the closer the car is coming. When the car is some 20 meters behind me, I have no power left and I fall down on the road. I know I have to get up and get past the snow wall, but a massive act of will power is required, and I don’t have that.”
When I went back into the dream the first time, the small spiritual being - who I lost the contact with in the original dream, the moment I turned left and went north - gave me the strength I needed, to not lie down on the road. Together we both slid and flew, down the snowy slopes towards north. And when we arrived, it was to my surprise in another dream, an older one - and there it became pretty obvious why my power so abruptly was lost. It was kind of the epicentre of lost power. A part of me was actually stuck there.
It all was very intriguing, but I still couldn’t see the character in the car. It was hidden to me, as was the present male in the “epicentre of lost powers-dream” so I decided to use the initial dream as material in a dream -and higher spiritual knowledge- course I held together with a friend. One of our brilliant students went back into the dream together with me, and she saw the person in the car, who had been defying my attempts to see him.
I had reason to re-visit the dream many more times, since the driver turned out to be a character who was known from earlier dreams,
and the most striking thing was that this driver, also was synonym to the male in the dream I so surprisingly entered, when going back to the initial dream by myself, the first time (who then only showed himself from the waist and below), he who held the soul part of me, as prisoner.
I found her as an old mummified-ish dry grass looking woman, sitting in a doll house, working with a spinning wheel. Her hair was stuck in a spider’s web attached to the wall. After quite a few journeys back to both dreams, I had not only identified and understood, which aspects of myself the participates represented, and seen the theme it caused repeatedly in my life – I had also brought home with me the lost soul part. It took some heavy shaman work to do this, but I really needed that lost part of myself, who had been gone for eons. Such a blessing.
The thing is that we really can suffer from the lack of soul parts from incarnations so very long ago that we can’t remember them. The loss keeps affecting us from lifetime to lifetime. The drama repeats itself to make us aware of the fact that something is missing. In my case the sign was fatigue adjacent to apathy, quite an unusual condition for me, since I have always been the one who takes care of the situation whatever it takes.
Since I had no clue about what caused it, even if I had begun to recognize the situation before the situation, so to say - I really had to identify the driver, the trigger, and the cause of the original wound. Otherwise I couldn’t change my reaction. It was a blind spot, and even if was both unfrequently and rare, I had to find the cause. The cause that turned out to be a drama stuck in time since a part of my soul was imprisoned in another dimension.
As I said, one really can use a co-dreamer, especially if doing deep dream work, going from one dream to another, and when releasing soul parts, because that’s actually work for experienced shamans. Working alone, may end up in being stuck in heavy energies, from which it may be difficult to free oneself.
There is a chakra in the back of the head called Alta Major, functioning as a portal towards old incarnations, and that chakra is seated near the reptile brain. This means the fight or flight-reflex is easily activated in such situations, which is actually not a bad thing since it’s kind of a guard on the threshold, kind of like “you are now leaving the safe net, are you sure you want to continue”. But the yes and no- buttons are more like two reactions upon fear, than two choices, and with the third reptile brain-oriented reaction at hand, as in ending up in shock – it should be pretty clear that deep dream work is not always like going on a Sunday picnic. It’s quite easy to become overwhelmed when the reptile brain is activated.
Happily enough new beginners don’t disconnect the awake mind that easily, so the risk isn’t that big for something critical to happen. But it’s needed to be said. The worst thing that happened to me, when going out and about, alone in my early OBE:s, was that I fell out of my bed, when I without result tried to re-enter my body. Quite a weird situation, but when my body fell out of the bed I felt the pain and was back inside it in a blink of an eye.
So, down to earth - the greatest benefit of having a co-dreamer, is not fear of getting lost in another dimension, but having one extra set of senses observing the realm of the sub-conscious.
This kind of work can be used in real life awaken dream too, for example when you can’t find the car keys. Then instead of running around swearing and getting all stressed out, you may sit down and relax into the last time you can remember using the car keys. If someone is around and willing to help, it’s perfect, a co-dreamer is always welcome, but this can absolutely be done alone. Since it’s kind of a light form of re-entering an awake dream. Some dreamers do easily step into the same dream and take on where they left the last night, but for the rest of us who don’t, there are some shortcuts. If focusing on the last night’s dream when going to bed, going through it from the beginning to its end, it’s quite possible to re-enter the dream that way.
Dream-time is dedicated to dreams, that special kind of awareness one have during sleep, comes naturally, and the possibilities are unlimited. But most of us don’t have the key to that place, and have to wait for dreams the same way as waiting for stars to fall. Randomly and in the best case scenario, kind of. Therefore learning to walk in and out of dreams, using different techniques and doing it together with others, is quite helpful. In native communities dreams are really important, they also dream together and alter the reality if necessary. It is definitely possible to get together in dream-time, to meet when asleep and working for the greater common.
So how to do then, if wanting to re-enter a dream together with someone else? The co-worker doesn’t really need to be in the same room during the process, this can be done in distance – but it must be done at the same time. The work before consists of information about the original dream, when the dreamer tells the co-dreamer everything he or she remembers about the dream. The place, the time, season, direction and so on, and also the purpose for re-entering the dream. Find yourselves a calm place where you won’t be interrupted. Take a few minutes to relax and move into the landscape of the dream. Have an alarm set on a quiet tone, extra important if you are on different places. Afterwards, write down what you remember - and talk about it.
Sometimes the answer comes the first session, but more often it doesn’t. With the new common material though, there is a better position for next session. And re-entering a dream is never un-necessary work, so even if it takes time to get the answer to the question, or understand the message – every second in consciously chosen dream-time, is one step closer to the key that gives you access to the realm of dreams.