Dreamscapes Podcasts - Dreamscapes Episode 114: Practical Magic

Episode Date: February 22, 2023

“There is nothing deep down inside us except what we have put there ourselves.” ― Richard Rorty https://www.instagram.com/empower.create.encourage/

Greetings friends. Welcome back to another episode of Dreamscapes. Today we have our friend Alessandra Guerra. She is the host of How to Empower Create and Courage podcast. And she's dedicated to empowering the individual to inquire, acquire, if I could speak properly, the tools to improve their quality of life. And you can find her on Instagram at Empower.com.comte. encourage. We're going to get right back to her in two seconds. If you would kindly like, share, subscribe, tell your friends always need more volunteer dreamers. Uh, hey, get a t-shirt like this one. Uh, there's other designs I haven't bought them yet. Coffee mug, that kind of stuff at the merch store. All of this, uh, at Benjamin thedream wizard.com, as well as downloadable, uh, audio

only MP3 versions of these. Take, take me to the gym with here on your daily walk, whatever you're doing. Um, also on that website, uh, 15 currently available works of historical, dream literature, the most recent book 15, The World of Dreams by Have a Luck Ellis, edited and lovingly reproduced by by yours, truly your friendly neighborhood dream wizard. And that's enough about me. Back to Alessandra, thank you for your time. It's good to have you here. So good to be here. Wow. What an intro. I love that intro. Wonderful. We kind of wrote it together beforehand. I do that with all the guests. Like, what do you want me to say about you? How do I, I call it, you know, giving you your mother of dragons

titles. And some people have a bunch of them. They collect, collect titles. I just got one. I also was talking about, take me on your walk with you, take me to the gym. I'm like, wow, that's a great way to say that. Yeah. I just make it up as I go. And sometimes it's, sometimes it's genius and sometimes it's not. So, well, so what is the how to empower, create and encourage podcast? I mean, maybe the genesis of it and how you, how you carry it out with some topics you've covered. It's a podcast with a dream to just create a community where we can celebrate each other and encourage each other to become the best versions of ourselves that we can be.

And I'm dedicated to me and having other guests on coming to share tools that help individuals improve the quality of their lives and think that if they can apply daily, they will experience better results. And that can be a variety of things like dating, helping to manage depression, anxiety, building your confidence, understanding shadow work, why we're kind of driven to repeat certain behaviors that aren't producing the results that we want, but we're still kind of stuck in these loops repeating them and understanding why are we doing this. We also help with trauma.

It covers a variety of different things. Anything that could help you improve your life, we talk about it or we want to talk about it or we're planning to talk about it. All right. That's very cool. I was doing some audio tweaking in the background there. Suddenly you got a little softer, so I was having a hard time hearing you. But I caught most of that.

And if someone was to listen to the, say, the most recent podcast, this will be going up in a couple weeks from when we're talking right now. But what topics would they hear covered maybe specifically? What approach did you take to looking into solving someone's problems? So today I did a podcast this morning with this amazing person who is studying how emotions affect our organs. And one of the greatest things that she talked about is fear and anger. Those are the two most major emotions that people carry and how that affects your liver. Very powerful. Yeah.

Yeah. She talked about why we do this, why we're carrying this around. The suppressed emotion is what hurts the organ. But if you process those emotions and you understand how to move past certain things, it can actually help you to have healthier organs that are actually functioning as they should be. Yeah, what did she say about the maybe the, and this is maybe unfair to you putting you on the spot. I don't understand it either.

I get lost on the biochemistry of some things. But that was my basic question. Like, did you mention certain functions where you experience this emotion, it sends a signal and that affects it in a specific way? So with your liver for people who are angry, she said something around the lines that you crave sweet foods or alcohol. And it, you want to do anything. to kind of help that liver feel better, but it's driven by anger.

And she said a way that you can also move forward, because sometimes you're stuck in these cycles. You can go back in time in your mind to where you're like, okay, when's the first time that I felt angry or when's the first time that I felt abandoned or whatever you're feeling or betrayed and understand where that memory comes from, how you felt, and then learn how to move past it. And you'd have to ground yourself to be like, okay, I'm safe now in this moment. I'm now an adult.

I have other resources. I have the ability to move past this. But she said essentially there's different things that we can crave food-wise that are related to emotions that we're feeling. And in turn, how we suppress those emotions can start to affect the functioning of our organs. Like our heart is connected to self-love. And so if you're experiencing heart problems, there might be a lack of self-love there. If you're experiencing liver problems, there might be some anger that you have to process.

And she just went to cover a variety of different things. Very interesting. So this may be tangential. And sometimes I do that is I get inspired with an idea. And I'm like, let me tell you about this interesting thing. There's a long history of, and it may be connected. So we'll get there. But there's a long history of dreams being used as diagnostic tools for physicians.

It goes back to the ancient Greeks. It's say if you dream about this, that, or the other, it may relate to a problem with your liver. Um, one of the famous examples is, um, and I don't know if this happened to someone, but it's the example given and it may be actually drawn from a historical example, but the idea, idea that someone dreamt of driving horses up a hill and the horses are panting and sweating and, you know, striving and, oh, it's this thing and you're, you know, driving them forward. This dream then suggested the intensity or overwork or some damage to the heart that that because it's beating this this driving pulse to push oxygen around around the body and the blood being used as a as a diagnostic tool so

I would say there's maybe some correlation there and the idea of if you're having you know bodily sensations sometimes those show up in your dreams and they can be saying you know it's that sub subliminal, but that's a good way to think of it. It's subconscious, certainly, bodily sensations that we're more, it's more possible to experience in that way, in our sleep when we have less of the waking world pulled over our eyes and grabbing our attention. I don't know if you have any comments on that in general, but I have two comments actually. Something that that makes me think of is the dream where the horses are being worked so hard. Relating, that to a lack of self-love. I think sometimes we work ourselves so hard because society has

says to be successful or to be attractive or to be desirable for employees or whatever. Employers, you have to do X, Y, and Z. And so you work yourself so hard into fitting into this mold that you're not loving yourself enough to say, is this even what I want? Is this even what makes me happy? And so like, I don't know, maybe the person, the horse represents working yourself to the ground and not loving yourself enough and that can tie back to the heart. And I actually, the other thing that comes to mind is just a post that I was working on for Instagram. Today I'm talking about tools on how to improve your relationship with yourself and one of them

is get adequate sleep because REM sleep helps solidify, you know, memories and positive emotion helps you with managing your emotional reactivity. So I do think REM sleep is very, very, very powerful for your mental health. definitely there's uh there's there's there's two things to that i'm glad this is inspiration going going both ways we used to believe that dreams only occurred in in rem sleep and there's more recent evidence that dreams also happen outside but we're more likely to say if we wake someone in rem sleep they'll have a more vivid impression of it um but they've woken people in non rem sleep and said what was going on right before you woke up well i was having this imagery and this

experience and they relate dreaming. So we've definitely proven that it does take place at other times. I personally believe it takes place all the time. From the perspective that like the heart beats, the lungs breathe, the brain thinks. And it goes on from the moment where, you know, conceived or whatever, whatever your perspective is on that until the moment we die. I mean, from the moment the heart occurs as an organ, it beats until it beats its last. And I think the brain is the same way. And the difference is we're not consciously processing our own experience or receiving new sensory information. It's just continuing to spin. The wheels keep turning in the background.

And that's basically what dreams are all the thoughts we think, the emotions and experiences we process while we're unconscious or in the subconscious. That was the second part to that. Ah, the horses, the self-love. Where are we going with all that? Damn. Ah, I lost it. That's the second part. The last thing you said about.

The horses could represent you're driving yourself to the ground because you want to be accepted by society and you want to fit whatever society standards has said, but you're not worrying about, hey, what do I actually want? And worrying about fulfilling your own needs. The idea of healthy sleep, too. And I mean, that comports exactly with the idea of taking care of yourself. If you're going short on sleep, you're working yourself to death in some ways. I mean, very much, another two things. I hope I can remember them both. We do need REM sleep, like the people who do not experience REM sleep or do not get enough of it, definitely have worse health outcomes.

They don't get as restful asleep. There's something about that that needs to happen. And it can happen in as short a time as 90 minutes. There's people, I think they're genetic freaks in the best possible in the X-Men sense, that they can nap 90 minutes in a 24-hour period and they're golden. That is not most of us. Please do not. This is not medical advice. Consult your doctor.

But for most of us, yeah, we need, you know, eight. Some people need nine. Some people need seven, whatever. But round about eight. And you got to, you got to have good sleep hygiene as well. And that doesn't mean, you know, just washing your body and changing your sheets. You know, it's the hygiene of a specific routine that helps you wind down, slow down, dissipate whatever agitation or distress is is upon you.

And it helps to have physical rituals that you do in those periods of time leading up to sleep that kind of tell your mind to anticipate sleep is coming and then helps you move into it. That's that's where I was going. That broader, broader idea of, yeah, we cannot underestimate how important sleep is to, you know, humans. It is not optional. Yeah, not at all.

There's even if you're not getting enough REM sleep that can increase your anxiety, your depression, and even suicidal thoughts. Yeah. And definitely decreases our ability to, our resilience when faced with difficult situations, our ability to handle them well and come out of them without damage or distress afterwards. Or at least better mitigated. Yeah. I didn't know that our emotional reactivity was linked to sleep until I studied it. I was like, oh, wow. Like, that explains so much. Like, as a teenager, I got like, no sleep. And I was so wound up all the time.

Well, sometimes we're just too busy living. And we're like, you know, there's so much I want to experience. I got it. You know, and then we have obligations. Sleep's not important. Whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll sleep when I'm dead is what the kids say. And now I'm like, I sleep like the dead.

which is actually interesting for me too. And I've said this before a lot of folks know is I sleep so deeply that I don't remember my dreams. I'm certainly happened and I know they do. I wake up with vague impressions of isolated incidents that are not even like an incident is actually something that happens. The example I've used recently is I have an image from a recent dream where I was standing next to an open car door. It was the passenger side, rear of a four-door vehicle, nothing else. Just that isolated impression. Now, I don't have to really build a narrative on.

Now, that said, I could, and I've thought about this, I could explain, well, what does it mean to be a passenger in the vehicle, to be outside the vehicle? Am I getting in? Am I getting out? Have I arrived at my destination or am I on my way to somewhere? There's a lot of ways to go with that, that even those isolated images could be processed into something. It doesn't give us a lot of context to say what else it's about.

what does it relate to in my life um so you know for those folks out there who are like i don't dream i think you do but you don't remember it like me so you're you're not alone but uh you remember your dreams and yes thankfully you do um we you are short on time and i want to give you a good dream interpretation experience so normally i talk to people a lot a lot longer and get into their stuff um for the audience you know the um instagram and podcast links will be in the description below. And I definitely recommend checking it out. I can tell our friend as a mind,

I'd like to pick a lot more if we had more time. But do you feel like you're ready to get into the dream thing? Yes. Yeah. I'm excited for you to interpret this because I'm very curious. Good deal. Good deal. Well, we're going to do it together.

As I tell folks, the answers aren't in me. I just have crazy ideas. And then between the two of us, we figure out something that works. So no magic action. magical magic powers here beyond hopefully speaking useful words. Right? I do love magic. Sidebar.

There's more magic for sure. And it's the funny thing is that it's a contradictory definition. It's like magic is kind of, you know, sufficiently advanced technology is, appears magical to people who don't understand it. Magic is kind of exists in that gap between cause and effect. That's kind of where the. magic is and it's everywhere. There's so much we don't understand. That's kind of where my definition is a poor definition. I'm expressing it poorly, but that I, that basic idea.

No, I think it's a great definition. I think it can mean different things for different people. Like, I get really excited and emotional, actually, which is interesting because I'm a fairly logical person. But when I see couples and you catch certain glimpses of them, like, leaning in to talk with each other or holding their hands or doing something that truly professes there is so much love here. I think that's magic. Or when you witness parents being so loving with their kids, I think that's magical. Or people that are overcoming addictions or that were suicidal and now are like, oh, no, I want

to live now and I love life. And you check in on them and from a certain time they're like doing all of these things that they never thought they could be doing. I think that's absolutely magical. And that gets me so excited. It very much is. I think that's a great example, the idea of turning an addiction around. And it speaks to the idea of inspiration or understanding.

Like there's a moment before something makes sense to us. Then there's the moment after and we get it. And there's that eureka moment where no one can really explain what that is or how it happens. What makes those pieces fall into place? place such that you went from ignorance to knowledge that there's magic in that gap as well and the idea of addiction relates to it because there's a moment where people go I'm fine with this this is how I want to live something happens some moment some magical moment and on the other side of it they say I don't want to live like this anymore this is not working it's a people have

described it as a paradigm shift I look at the world in one way and now I see it in a new way we have all these metaphors for it and we it's magical because we don't understand it we don't really know we hope we can try and set up scenarios that make it more likely those things will happen but we haven't hit that cause and effect of like here's how to cast the spell that moves someone from addiction to recovery you know we're working on the formula but we haven't haven't gotten the alchemy yet so I said we were going to get into the dream and I keep talking we just keep talking uh why don't I why don't I shut up and listen you tell me your dream experience and we'll go from there.

I'm ready when you are. Benjamin the Dream Wizard wants to help you pierce the veil of night and shine the light of understanding upon the mystery of dreams. Every episode of his Dreamscape's program features real dreamers, gifted with rare insight into their nocturnal visions.

New Dreamscape's episodes appear every week on YouTube, Rumble, Odyssey, and other video hosting platforms, as well as free audiobooks, the psychological principles which inform our dream experience and much, much more. To join the Wizard as a guest, reach out across more than a dozen social media platforms, and through the contact page at Benjamin the Dream Wizard.com, where you will also find the Wizard's growing catalog of historical dream literature,

available on Amazon, featuring the wisdom and wonder of exploration into the world of dreams over the past 2,000 years. That's Benjamin the Dream Wizard on YouTube. and at Benjamin the Dream Wizard.com. Okay, so the dream starts with, it's the end of the world, and I kind of just know that in the dream, and it's nighttime, and I'm with my family and some other people

that I think we trust, and we are running from something. Like, there's a lot of craziness in this end of the world scenario. People are turning on each other, but there's some people that haven't turned on. each other and that's who we're with. There's some people that even though it's chaotic and resources are limited, they're still kind people. They still have ethics and we're with them and we trust them.

And we have to be on the lookout because there's a ton of people that are, you know, out to hurt you because they think that it's survival of the fittest. There's not room for everyone. And if they get you out of the way, then there's more for them. So we entered the... this, I'm still recovering from that called, we're just entered this abandoned building type thing that almost looks like a restaurant, and then it's really weird because we enter this almost looking restaurant thing, and then it's like a working restaurant,

and it's kind of like this part of the world has been untouched by the end of the world, and I'm like, are these people, like, they really just don't know that it's the end of the world and it's crazy out there? And for a second, I'm like, oh man, this is kind of nice. we could just stay here for a little bit and enjoy this nice dinner, something that we haven't done in so long. And then it's like, no, maybe we should get going. Like, we should keep moving.

Like, we shouldn't stay in one place too long. And then we're in the restaurant. And then we see the people that apparently were after us. We're like, oh, no, time to move. So we leave, and then we go into this really abandoned building. And now everything is super dark. And I'm there with my dad and two of my sisters. and the rest of my family and our other friends have,

they're somewhere else waiting for us, we're out there gathering resources. And then these other people come and they try to attack us. And I'm there with my dad and my other sisters. And obviously my dad is trying to protect us. And so, oh, I forgot to tell you something really important. Sure. In this dream, we have a special power.

Like, if we hold our hands out and we have to feel something with our hearts and think something with our minds. And then those people can't come near us. They can't come near us. It's kind of like a shield or something. And so because they climbed in the diner, they climbed the roof, and then we did this,

and then they couldn't come to us. So now in the abandoned building, we go because we have that power, that gift, and we're shining a flashlight, and we're doing this with our hands so that people can't really attack us. But then there's a lot of guys that are coming, and they're about to hurt me and my sister,

and so my dad, in order to protect us, he picks up a club, a curb, or something. He picks up something so he can hit the guy. And I tell him, no, dad, not like that, because I know if we do it like that, we'll lose because they're going to overpower us. There's way too many of them. And so I say like this, and I get silent, and I hold my hand out, and I have to think something with my mind, and I have to feel something with my heart. I remember that's very important.

And then it's a shield, and then they can't come near us. and I say, okay, do it like this. And so he does it like this. Then my sister does this. And then they can't get to us. And then I think I wake up. Okay. All right.

That's great. Let's say that went to. Okay. All right. We've got some great imagery here. So definitely a end of the world apocalyptic scenario. All right. First, I'm scattered.

I'm all over the place. This is what we do. When I'm a little shorter on time, We've got about a half an hour-ish to do that. There's usually a part of my process where we go deep dive and you take me through every image and experience in greater detail. I think that process for this amount of material could take the entire 30 minutes and we wouldn't even get started on putting it together. So I'm going to lately, when I am short on time, I try a slightly different approach where I talk a little bit more than I usually do. I kind of talk, verbalize my way through seeing it out loud.

and then that takes place instead of the deep dive and then we get into okay anything i said or stop me if i'm talking you're like yeah that uh of course um so if that's okay with you i think that's maybe all we got time for um so yeah that's what i was starting to do uh end of the world apocalyptic scenario and so what i do also is i start looking at things like um what it what does this mean to this person in this sense of the dream i've dealt with apocalyptic scenarios before end of the world. One of my episodes featured a gal that had exactly that kind of a feeling, but mean something to the individual.

So the way you've described is definitely a breakdown of social order type of apocalypse. It isn't another episode. Some guy said, you know, there's like a meteor coming and it's going to smash everything. There was no reference to society or dealing with other people. It's my experience in this setting in relation to a specific person. So yours is more, yeah, looking at the broad umbrella, perhaps, of a stable social order and how that provides, you know, if that disappears, what do you got left? You got family and friends. You got trusted people.

So it's looking at the danger of the world in a way versus the core group close to me. People I can trust, people that still have ethics, they're kind. and that others outside this group have a more killer be killed survival of the fittest maybe might makes right perspective they're not as ethical they're doing what they need to do but it's not for your sake and you're not safe around them um so we got all that right off the bat um as as kind of uh okay think of what's going to happen next in that from that framework from from looking at the world that way. What if you were in this scenario and this is the problem you had to deal with?

And what you did is you guys found an abandoned building, or at least it looked like it from the outside. And it's, you come to find out or maybe you saw it looked like an abandoned restaurant and you find out. No, there's actually people here. Like it's an untouched place in the world that they seem unaware of the danger. So you've got, you've got ideas of. pockets of stability, like even in a complete breakdown, there are places of stability,

places where the old way of doing things, the stable social order perhaps persist and function as intended, but they are in ignorance. It's like they don't realize, they don't realize the risk they're in. And you're tempted to stay in that place of apparent safety or comfort, a place of comfort, but you realize it's not safe to stay there. You are still being pursued. The danger of the world is going to find you here. And it seems like, and you can confirm, it seems like they do. You leave because you realize the outside world is the people, the bad people are still

hunting you or they're going to find you there anyway. Yeah, they show up with the restaurant. And the interesting thing is that they don't farm the people. Like they're completely, they don't. care about the people that are eating in the restaurant. They're just looking for us. And so they climb on the roof. And then I remember we are like, we do that thing with our hands and we're okay. And then we leave. And that's where we get to the abandoned part looking for more resource. And that's when they find us. And there's so many of them. And my dad goes to grab it to protect us and

to hit one of them. And I remember saying, no, it can't be that. Because if we do it like that, we're going to lose. Like, we're overpowered. Do we have to do it the way we've been doing it? And to be able to do that. It takes something with our hearts and our minds to think whatever. And then it keeps people awake. That's how it protects us. Yeah. And since we kind of pause there, I'm looking for feedback.

That's fantastic. I'm taking more notes. Any thoughts on how I've kind of framed some of the stuff up to now? Did it inspire any ideas? I usually go slower again. I'm sorry, there's a lot to process. But what were your thoughts about the general idea? That's great because I do believe that we do need.

social order. And I certainly see how nowadays, there's still wonderful people that have a lot of ethics and they have their conviction in that. And I also see a lot of corruption and a lot of, it's me versus you mentality. Instead of, no, we're in this together. Just because we're different, just because there is scarcity of some resources, we can still help each other. And I see that there's a lot on social media that tries to separate you. especially with COVID. A lot of people became angry with each other. Either I'm vaccinated or you're not and now we're at war with each other.

Or even if we're vaccinated, stay away from me because you're still dangerous to me. And there was a lot of alienation and the pockets of stability. I have felt that. During COVID, I'm so grateful for most parts of it. I was with my family and it was just us in our own little world and things were great and wonderful, even though things were chaotic.

outside. Yeah. And I use great and wonderful loosely because COVID was extremely challenging, but I didn't feel what I felt outside. Yeah, definitely. And it's, you know, there's no, uh, another wrong with saying, I feel great and wonderful with my family and in their presence. And because, uh, uh, they are with me, that, that kind of a thing.

You're not referring to, um, you know, judging anyone else's, problems or just your own emotional response to that, to that situation. So I'm glad that that brought up all those, all those ideas. I, you know, I have, I only have my own suggestions, my own, I get a tickle and I follow it, you know, I rattle a lot of doorknobs. They're not always right. You know, uh, if you go, no, none of that makes sense. I'd be like, all right. Let's look at something else. Let's see a different perspective. Um, very interesting also that, you know, you find the, they're not, they don't start rans. sacking the restaurant and killing everybody. That would be an interesting, different kind of image of

here's this pocket of normality or stability or social order or a comfy, happy place that anyone would want to be at a great restaurant, good food with your family, you know, and that's actually not being attacked. So it doesn't represent something vulnerable to attack. I mean, it's probably showed yourself the place being destroyed if that was the purpose, the purpose that it was being ignored and you were being chased you and your family specifically so what would do with that we go you know two different directions based on maybe what what the imagery was and the imagery was not this is an all-consuming force this is a more focus maybe personal concern you know they weren't you showed yourself they're not here to attack anybody but us they're

chasing us in this for a reason and maybe that reason would be where you feel you're personally vulnerable or I don't know if you have any thoughts around that. I do actually because I, when you were talking and you said, you know, they might be with that word ignorant of this. And I was like, yeah, actually, they could be. But then I was like, no, because they weren't attacked. So they're not ignorant. They have something. And I'm like, maybe we're being chased, not just be my family, but the other friends that are with us too, because of our approach to this. And for some reason, that's threatening. because something that really was impactful to me when I woke up

as I was like, hmm, what does this mean? Is the whole hand thing, being able to protect yourself with your hand and where my dad is now desperate because he sees there's so many people coming to hurt me and my sisters. He's like, I'm not feeling calm enough for, because to do the hand thing, you have to do, you have to think and connect with your heart and your mind. And he's like, I'm not feeling calm enough for this. Let me just put my dad's a big, strong man. So he's like, let me protect them the way I know how.

And me saying, no, no, we can't do it that way. We will lose if we do it that way. We have to do it this way. And the significance behind that is sticking true to what is one of my core beliefs that it's us together doing this. And that even in the worst scenarios, I really don't believe in us versus them. Like, even if there are limited resources, I believe that you can share them. And I believe you can figure out a way to make it work.

If I was in a room with my family and there's limited resources, none of us are going to kill each other for those resources. We will figure out a way to make it work. We will figure out a way to go and find more resources. Like we're not going to hurt each other over resources. That's just not the way that we grew up. And so in society, I see a lot of us versus them. And so I can see how chasing us, this group that does not believe in, I'm going to hurt you because resources are low. would like eliminate that threat.

So I can see why we would be picked out. And the bystanders who aren't causing any opposition would be left alone. Like that, that's something that would make sense to me. And also just the whole thing of like, no, we can't become them.

Like we can't become them. We have to do this at peace and with love. Very much so. Yeah. And as you were explaining all that, I mean, and I gave it to mind and I wrote it down. And it seems to be validated.

I think you tell me, holding on to values, spiritual beliefs and ethics of a personal nature, approaching problems in a way you think is right, in a way that feels right to you versus the way you've maybe seen other people resolve it, definitely in us, them scenarios. And there's all these complicated concepts going on. They've got the broader social milieu, so to speak, that we all exist in,

but then also the many complicated relationships we have with people. There is my core group and not. my core group. And that doesn't mean either one is necessarily better than the other in a sense, but there's only so many people we can have in a core group. You only have so many relatives, friends, et cetera. And then everyone else, all seven billion rest of us are not in that group. It's just how it is. But then that you have

to figure out how to still behave ethically towards those other people outside of that context of in-group, out-group status. Yes. You know, we can recognize that in-group out-group exists, but then you can say, well, I'm not going to throw any anyone on the bus from my family, but I'm sure sure I'm not going to throw my bus on the family under the bus, you know. Absolutely.

And not villainize the out-group and not think that it has to be us versus them. It could just be like, no, like, you're doing your thing. Like, I don't think really the way anybody else lives their lives is any of my business unless they're doing something to hurt someone else. And I have the ability to protect that person. that's the only time it becomes my business. And even then, you have to have boundaries and make sure it's safe, right? Like, you want to keep it safe. But, like, if I saw someone hurting a child, I would obviously step in and hurt that, hurt that child. I would stop, like, hurt that person

if I needed to protect that child. Like, I'm not going to let a child get hurt in front of me. So I think, I think, I don't know, I just think that the world will throw so many labels and in situations where they tell you ostracize people. Be afraid of people. It's you versus this. And it's like, I don't think that's true at all. I just, that doesn't resonate with me at all. I think it is assumed to occur more than it actually does. There's a mindset where the outgroup is necessarily a threat.

And I think I share your perspective on it that they're just, other groups doing their thing. And they could be a threat if they are, but there's a difference between just existing and being a threat. You know, it's not synonymous that everything outside a core group is necessarily a, is necessarily a threat. To clarify something of my understanding from the sequence of the dream, you guys get up on the roof of this building, which is an interesting thing. Elevation is usually, you know, we think of up. as good, down as bad a lot of times. Broad, broad strokes, but you would take the high ground in a way and use this,

like ethical high ground in a way as well. I like that, but it's not us. It's the people that find us in the restaurant that want to hurt us. They climb, they like get on the ceiling and they like climb it because we're doing the hand thing this way to them. And so they climb it on the ceiling to get on top of us. If you're trying to apply a certain ethical framework, there are people who will try to work around it to continue to inflict harm if it's their desire.

So this was the first time in the restaurant you used the power. And then again, at another abandoned building. Okay. So that was where I was going mostly. Well, I was completely wrong about the imagery. That's why I usually go through this in greater detail, the deep dive thing. I think you just said something super profound, though. Like people will try to get around your own ethical boundaries.

And I think that that even makes you reflect like, are there any times that I try to to get around my own ethical boundaries? And actually that may have been the secret. And that's a great connection with why the next scene, why the next scene where you see someone tempted to use another method, to use the methods of violence that the other people are superior at? They're better at violence. You're better at this other way. And that if you try to change your approach to something you're not used to, you're not good at, it's going to, it's not going to work. And you know that. And you kind of put it in the in the body maybe of the most likely person to, If anyone had a chance of using physical strength, it would be dad. But you're looking like even this guy who's stronger than me, more capable, out of all the people present, he has the best chance, still not going to work. So you did kind of, it seems, explore that idea of, well, what if, what if I did try it another way, but you put it in the body of someone else narrative-wise?

I don't know if that's kind of making sense or if you have any thoughts. That does make sense. And it makes sense for a couple of reasons because I completely empathize with my dad wanting to protect his daughters. Like there's just something about, you know, a dad loving his children and like wanting, he's a protector of the home. And like that's one of his roles. And so I can totally see how like if this thing isn't working for him and I can

understand you're getting swarmed out by a bunch of people. And then the stress and anxiety doesn't allow you to be calm and peaceful in your mind or in your heart. And my dad's like, okay, well, this is not working. Time to pick up this thing and just hit them now because he's a strong big man. and just being like, no, like, that's actually not going to work. We can't do it that way. We have to do it the way that we've been doing it like this.

And I show him how. So, yeah, what you're saying totally, totally resonates. And then that he, let's usually say, flirts with the idea of doing it the other way, thinking it's necessary. And it's you that pull him back. And then he does regain his calm and participates. And you guys are safe by the end of the dream. Yeah. Okay. That's good there too.

So I think we've got, I'm making this up as I go. I always do. I think we've got enough of some of the themes going. What I want to do is ask about kind of the time frame that these dreams have been occurring. You said it's a recurring series. When did they start-ish and how frequent have they been up till now? I think I've had end of the world dreams for like since in my teens. and or like being chased by by bad guys probably has a lot to do with us being immigrants.

We're originally from Peru and, you know, just witnessing a lot of things in Peru, also witnessing a lot of discrimination and things here in Canada. Unfortunately for, like, that's actually a really big soft spot for me. I don't get discriminated against very much, but I have witnessed people that I love and other people, other friends because of their skin color, how they look, how they talk their accents. They immediately get categorized a different way and they get treated very differently.

And so, yeah, I've had dreams, I guess, which would be really persecution dreams when I was like a teenager. And then end of the world dreams probably entering into adulthood. And I get them pretty often. And they're always random. There's always different things. But this one was the first one where there was the whole hand

the hand things and the special powers there. Okay, I was going to ask, yeah, what would connect the history to maybe any of the others, but it's more the broad apocalyptic theme. And is it often a, you know, as we might genre style, say post-apocalyptic wasteland, society's broken down, buildings are crumbling, people are back to hunter-gatherer, tribal warfare, that's kind of the general theme that goes through all the dreams? Yeah, that there's a lot of scarcity, meaning that, you know, you know, there's so much lack of resources.

Buildings are shut down, electricity's kind of shut down, and you're with a trusted group, your family and some friends, and you're just navigating this new world and trying not to get caught by people who want to hurt you is the essence of the dream. I've also had dreams where we're in this scenario,

but like the doors don't work. Oh, actually, no, I have other, had other dreams with magic, never mind, because in this one where the doors didn't work, but you had to do a certain spell thing with your hand to make sure that it still was protecting, And I hate when I have these dreams and like there's no doors and I'm like, ah, that's so stressful to me. Do you remember having experiences dreams where you had a moment of panic that there was no door to enchant as a protector, a protection?

I had probably my last dream was I was here in my current house and everything was super green and overrun and green. And I was like, oh no, it's the end of the world again, but it looks different. and I had some people in the backyard saying like, yeah, things are going to start getting crazier now. And I was like, oh, no. And so like I close the door. And I always know that people are going to start turning on each other. And like, that's the part that scares me because it's like, okay, then what's safe? Because if things go to hell, but we're not turning on each other or not planning to hurt each other, I'm like, we'll be fine.

Like, we can start to death, but we'll be fine. And I go to close the door, but now like the door frame disappears really. really and I'm like leading the door but like there's no wall now. I'm like, who is it? I'm like, why would I live here? Like I don't understand. But I've also, yeah, so I've had lots of dreams where there's no door and there's no magic. I've also had a dream where these Italian mobsters are chasing me and my sisters.

And I'm the oldest. So I feel very protective of them. And they're about to chase us and they're chasing us and we're like, oh gosh, where do we go? Where to go? I'm like, here we go through the store. I open the door. There's zombies. And I'm like, oh, gosh. Let's get eaten or let's get raped by monsters.

I'm not sure. We're going to go with the zombies. I've got, so we go in there and I was like, okay, guys, listen, this is the plan. We are going to go in. I'm going to move slowly. Bella, who's very, who's small. She's always tiny in all my dreams. She's the last one.

She's almost an adult now. But in all my dreams, she's like 11 or a baby. Or like six. Yeah. And I have her right in front of me. And I tell my other sisters to be just right by my side. We're moving slowly. We get to the middle of the room.

And then the zombies just, start going like and they just start raising their heads and like looking around I'm like oh god they know we're in here and I start and I start to panic I'm like it's okay guys just keep moving and we're moving and then like slowly start rotating so now they're all like facing us and I'm like oh shit I can't I can't do it because now I'm like my sisters are about to get eaten and it's my fault and I have my little sister right in front of me and I like I can't even deal with the guilt and I was like and I was like and cut and like like the wall went up out and the director and the director was like cut good job everybody take five and I was like oh thank God so that was a really cool thing that

happened that's a great way to let yourself off the hook in the jury this is too scary this is too real this is too much danger yeah yeah we do that a lot often unconsciously but uh sometimes people that have like a little bit of a lucid dreaming ability they'll do that on purpose i'll be like nope nope we're turning this into a movie set this isn't real there's also something great and I'm you know I'm sure a lot of people have made this connection but but specifically for you the imagery of the zombie apocalypse specifically and and this goes back to romero's zombie movies is like the zombies are other people I mean we have the core group of survivors and we've got the threat from other people very similar scenario and they are

mindless eaters they all they do is consume they're not really living I mean they're dead literally the undead, but they're not living a life. They're just out there existing to consume. And it's like, that's not, you know, that's not what we want the world around us to become where all these people outside of our core friend group are threatening dangerous monsters that are, they'll just eat us alive if they have the chance. And so there's a very powerful metaphor for society at large in there saying that, you know, you don't want to be a zombie.

Nobody wants to get bitten and turned into that thing. And so we kill them and we fight them and we do all kinds of things. But it's kind of, it's kind of. us in a way. Am I just living a zombie life in a way? Am I thinking deeply? Am I feeling? Am I acting right towards other people? You know, am I treating them like they're not just a meal for me to consume? Great, great stuff in there. So you went from maybe, well, you said a certain kind of dreams when you were a teenager. I wanted to ask in relation to, were you, are you the oldest? Were you old enough to kind of remember what it was like living in Peru before you left?

Yeah, I'm the oldest. Okay. And were you witnessed to or did you hear a lot of stories from your parents about how people turned on each other down there? And that's part of the reason why you left? I think, like the reason why we left, I think my parents just wanted a better life. And, you know, there was, there is unsafe in Peru. But there's also such a beautiful culture in Peru.

Like, I definitely don't want to. Yeah, I don't think. pretend that they're like unstable necessarily. I think maybe Venezuela, maybe certain places in Mexico, but I think of Peru, I just think of, you know, the mountains and, uh, alpacas, admit little hats. They have a very beautiful culture right now. I think things are a bit unstable, unfortunately, since COVID. Um, but it's also just things that I've witnessed here in, in this society, right? Like, I've seen a lot of really, yeah, like, I've seen like a lot of really beautiful things. Like I think I mentioned, you know, like people being really kind to each other, being really loving, and I love that.

And I've also seen a lot of really sad things where people have done things to hurt each other. And so I'm just aware that that exists. And I don't know why that's made such a big impact on me, but it has because I, like, I dream about it often. Like, I dream about it often the whole end of the world thing, people turning on into, I think that's probably one of my. worst fears. And I think when I'm awake, I do everything I can to avoid that. To be like, okay, let's treat people like their people. Like, I love something that you said. Like, let's not make sure that we're not like just eating them or consuming them. It's like, yeah, let's not objectify them. Let's treat them like they're human beings. They're just like me. They have dreams and fears and

goals and they're nervous and they feel love and they need to be held too. Like, they're just like me. We're exactly the same. We just look and act a little bit differently. And we express ourselves a little bit differently. So everything that I do in my waking world, I think is just to make sure that like those nightmares like don't come to pass if I can help it. Yeah, definitely. And there's a, there's a strong relationship there too between our waking thoughts and our dreams as a reciprocal resonance in a way that feeds on itself in for good or ill. I think it just does. We have an experience or a thought in the daytime. We continue to process it at night. We get a specific kind of dream imagery, which it seems you, I call it crystallizing, kind of crystallized in this

apocalyptic end of the world scenario as being a very real threat. And it is, and I think it is realistic because we could have a societal collapse in some ways, not to make your dreams worse, but it's, we are very precariously balanced at all times. It just is without constant effort of people maintaining the physical structures that provide our electricity and our water, and all these different things. If they just stop doing that, they will degrade and fall apart. It's guaranteed. So there's this constant pushback against the entropy of nature.

So it's a very real threat. And it is only our effort, literally, that keeps that nature pushed back. We let it in. The house grows overgrown with vines and the buildings get crusty and, you know, that kind of thing. Walls disappear. Yeah, they crumble and fall apart. They're gone. Yeah.

There's a vulnerability in there. So to the reciprocal reciprocating resonance type of thing, you have that dream and then that you remember that dream later and you think about it more during the day. Like, wow, it was a powerful experience. That was exactly what I was worried about. And it kind of reinforces it. So you go back to it and you dedicate more of your daily life to thinking about the problem itself and the best way to address it to keep yourself safe, your family safe, to live your life successfully. in within your own ethical and spiritual boundaries and also have some kind of a positive impact that drives back the imminent collapse that we're always pushing to stop.

I was going somewhere with that too. Oh, and then that, you know, I think about it in the day and then I dream about it again. Then I think about it again. Then I dream about it again. And so it can kind of be a self-perpetuating type of thing. Normally, not normally, typically fairly often, if we've gotten to the, essence of some of the themes and we've explained things and where the roots are better than I think we have here. But generally, that will change the nature of some dreams. If we can narrow

it down. Now, they will either stop or you'll start seeing new elements in them. Different things will pop up. And you've already had a change where lately it seems your solution, or at least what you think is a possible practical way to address this is, you know, I'm not, I'm not going to use violence like other people. I'm not going to condone that. I'm not going to become what I'm fighting against the abyss staring back, all that good stuff. Also, but the second part, okay, what do I do? Well, I'm going to get my mind in order, get my heart aligned with my values or vice versa. My values aligned with my heart. And this is a stop gesture. And it's a defensive gesture. I'm just going to set boundaries where I need to be physically,

emotionally. Go ahead. No, I, I, I would keep going. I just said home with Kak or I was like, oh my gosh, that makes so much sense. Boundary. That is literally, this is literally a boundary. Yeah. And you're aligning your heart and your mind. That makes so much sense. Yeah. And you're not doing anything. And again, this is not an offensive power. You're not shooting fireballs out of your hand to destroy them. You just want them to stop. Just stop. And it's a softer, peaceful defense in a way. And it is a, I think, a power that we all have in that way. and a beautiful way to conceptualize it is as kind of a magical power of aligning heart and mind and using a effective peaceful defense to set a boundary that keeps you safe and doesn't do that

many harms. Like you don't actually want to hurt anybody. This is not a vindictive, malicious. It's not a dream about retributive justice. You're not trying to punish them for being bad people. You just wish they would stop. So there's a very strong desire there, I think. and that this seems to be how you feel you need to approach it in order to do it the right way

from your perspective. I want to stop there and let you comment on some of that stuff. I think that's so profound. I'm so mesmerized. Just stinks. I'm like, that makes so much sense. That's actually literally a boundary. And I talk a lot about boundaries, actually.

I have strong feelings on boundaries and just how they've helped me improve the quality. of my life. I've seen how they've helped so many people and the whole of like, no, wait, we have to do it this way. We just have to get our hearts and our minds together and then we'll be able to do this. And it's, and it's peaceful. And they can't come and they can't hurt us. And this doesn't hurt them either. It just gets them to give us that space and then we're protected and we're safe. I think that was very, I hadn't even thought of that. I think you're incredible. I'm doing it right if I can introduce summaries or perspectives that you have not considered and they make sense not only logically coherent within themselves,

but as they relate to your experience and what it is, you are thinking and feeling and how you want to approach things. That's usually the kind of the proof in the pudding that we're on to something. We're a little bit over overtime. So I want to get wrapped up and get you out of here to errands and whatnot. broad strokes for the end of it i would love to love to hear from you please stay in in the discord and and keep me up keep me posted but see if the nature of these dreams do change if there's something because once you hit upon something that seems to make sense and you implement it

now there's going to be struggles with am i doing it right am i putting this idea into practice the way it should be and some of the future dreams if the apocalyptic landscape comes back are going to be about you experimenting. I'm kind of planting a seed here too, but I think it's just going to happen, whether I say it or not, experimenting with the proper application of this power and whether you're using it effectively

and using it for the right reasons, in the right ways, so to speak. I would expect that. Or hopefully, if we've nailed something down and you've actually come to a resolution about how to approach it, and you actually think you do know how to do it well,

the dreams may not need to come back. That's a bit trickier because the apocalyptic scenario is always looming over all of us. It's like a real threat in the world. So I can't promise that they won't ever come back. But certainly your approach to it, your feelings about it should change your confidence that you're going to survive it well. And the people who care about are going to be okay. That might change. I really like that.

But something that it also makes me think about is maybe it's a good way. I'm like, what is this dream not to communicate to me? I'm like, I don't know. Maybe it's a good way for me to assess and reevaluate my boundaries and see where I could tighten those up so that I can live more in harmony with my heart and my mind. Yeah. And that's something I think we can all do is like if there's real threats in the world, we can do a little self-evaluation once in a while to say, am I aware of all the things

I need to be without being hyper-focused and paranoid and anxious all the time? That's its own problem. am I having a realistic appraisal of the actual threat? Am I doing everything I can within reason to protect myself, you know, as I should? And to not only do that, go a little bit beyond and say, well, can I make somebody else's day a little bit better because maybe that'll also have a pay-it-forward effect. And I'm a big believer in that kind of a thing of like the debt of action. Someone does something for me. I feel responsible to reciprocate.

There's a gap that needs to be closed in my mind. I can't always do that. If someone helps me, I'll never see him again. Now I'm left with the debt. How do I discharge it? I pay it to someone else. Now they, in a way,

I've passed the debt along to them. Now you're responsible to help someone. I've seen that cascade. We see it at the, the guy behind me pays for my drinks or the guy ahead of me pays for my drinks. And I pay for that guy's drinks. And we see it on a Starbucks line. You know,

it's small microcosm of people love those stories. We all want a way out of imminent disaster because we know it's always waiting for us if we don't, if we're not proactive and attentive. Yeah, and I think there's something just beautiful about knowing that there are people out there who mean well and they want to help you. And I think being in contact with those kinds of people just helps elevate you to be a better kind of person and to reinforce the message that, hey, this is a great world to live in.

There's wonderful people out there. You are safe here. Like do your part to keep that growing and to keep going that, hey, there is beautiful people. It's a beautiful world. and bring your best foot forward. Yeah. I think that's probably a good way to wrap it up. That's great advice for just everyone.

Try to put your best foot forward. Look for the beauty. Look for chances to help each other. That's the way to go. Well, let's do this. Let's wrap it up. Let's give your contact information again. Once again, this has been our friend Alessandra Gera from BC Canada.

I asked you if it was okay to say that, and I forgot. But you mentioned being in Canada. So she is the host of how to empower, create and encourage podcast dedicated to empowering the individual to acquire the tools, to improve the quality of their lives and more. On Instagram, oh, and this whole dream relates to your mission. You're on it. You're acting to actively stave off the apocalypse.

So that just connected to me. I completely forgot what I wrote down at the beginning of the show. You can find you on Instagram at Empower. create. And encourage. For my part, I'll just say, would you kindly like, share, subscribe, get a T-shirt, coffee mug,

15 works of historical dream literature, the most recent, Book 15, The World of Dreams by Havala, Calus, working on book 16. You can get all this at more at Benjamin the Dream Wizard.com, complete list of books, podcast episodes, et cetera, et cetera.

And Alessandra, thank you for being here. I appreciate your time. Thank you so much. It was great being here with you. Good deal. And everybody out there, thanks for listening.