In Orb-it

I've mentioned a couple times, the dream retreat I went on a couple months ago with my shaman class, and the odd thing is that I have not remembered a lot of dreams since then. It feels like I've been going really deep, having incredible dreams, but when I wake there is nothing left but some residual feelings, and an occasional disjointed image, but that is all. There was one I remembered involving Drew Barrymore... but never mind that one... (and on a side note, our teacher said that when someone appears in your dream you should contact them with in 24 hours -- but so far Drew has not returned my calls...) Anyway, I have also been very tired this past holiday season which may have added to the lack of dream retention, but that was not the case the other night.

I got home late Christmas night, and after working on my half-hour-a-day commitment to work on my comics, I looked up to find a couple hours had passed. Rather than getting ready for bed and all of that, I decided to just crash on the couch where I was and, being very tired, I fell fast asleep.

Not for long however. I "awoke" to a flash of light next to the couch and opening my eyes saw an orb of light, about a yard in diameter, floating next to me. It looked out-of-focus, like when I look at a street light without my glasses on. It dissipated, then a couple others appeared singularly around the apartment and in the kitchen. Somewhere along the line -- time was a little fuzzy -- there were a number of smaller, in-focus lights swooping through the apartment in formation. I sat up and tried to shout but had a hard time getting the words out of my mouth. Finally I stammered, "Who ever you are, please leave now!" Then I woke up for real, startled and flailing. It was only at this point that Mr. Timmons, who was sleeping at my feet, retreated from the couch -- my first clue that I had still been asleep. My dear little Cougar Boy is not the most courageous kitty when it comes to strange, new things in his safe little world.

Still, despite the knowledge that the lights had appeared in a 'dream' I knew they were real. And I didn't feel any malevolent intentions, and was rather embarrassed by my reaction since seeing faery lights pop through my apartment is not an uncommon event. When a friend gave me a tarot reading the following week I asked about this experience and she told me it was probably more the fact that I thought I was awake that startled me than the lights themselves. And there was apparently no message. These beings had definitely travelled to see me, but it was just basically to say hi. What thoughtful orbs! :)

It did make me think of previous experiences that I had, particularly in the early 90s when I had first moved to Seattle from Minnesota and had attended some workshops of a near-by channelled entity. We were taught this breathing technique that really opened up my chakras, especially the top ones, which led to some very interesting dreams when I'd go to sleep afterwards. There were numerous dreams with this same kind of vividness and the mistaken belief that I was awake. Most of them were quite startling as well. But, I realized it had been such a long time since I'd had a dream like this that perhaps it was a sign that certain things were opening up again, like they had been in those earlier cases. It pointed toward good developments.

The other experience it brought up for me goes a little further back. I don't think I was quite a teenager yet, but my parents felt I was old enough to stay home alone with my younger siblings while they went out. I remember being not totally at ease about that, but didn't know if I really had a choice and plus it would probably be good for me to grow-up a little. I don't remember much about that night except that I went to bed before my folks got home, I have the vaguest images in my mind of strange little lights buzzing around my bedroom, and then my parents were waking me up to let me know they were home and I found myself saying things like, "They're after me again!"

So it would appear that neither the contents nor the dream experiences themselves are new to me. I still don't know who they were -- A friend suggested ETs, seeing as the whole affair sounded eerily similar to an abduction scenario, but the orbs didn't feel particularly alien to me. Otherworldly, yes, but not necessarily extraterrestrial. I will probably meditate and/or journey on it to find out, as well as to forge a less startling connection with them. Meanwhile, I may have to consider putting a kitchen knife under my pillow. The next time they show up they may have peanut butter!