The Senoi Dream Theory for Better Living
There seems to be a discernable pattern towards success. Improve the inside and the outside world will align to the inner reality. Many sports players will tell you that they saw it in their mind before they performed it in reality. It’s not just sports players. Tony Robbins has provided very little practical advice on changing others, but rather a lot on changing your inner life first.
Carl Jung, tackle your shadows first, and you’ll discover the light was within you all along. What if changing your life was as easy as dreaming?
More than we know, we are guided by the programming of the subconscious, which consists of stories and images. If you ever look at a photo and respond emotionally, it is because that meme resonated with an aspect of you somewhere. Maybe it was your child aspect. Maybe the teenager you, or the older you that experienced a regret- but the meme was powerful enough to trigger a response.
Sometimes these are not our memes. Our parents give us memes, like wanting to become doctors or lawyers. That’s an exaggerated example, but many outsiders influence us, and sometimes they
help us or sabotage us because perhaps we have a different ‘vision.’ Sometimes we sabotage ourselves with conflicting self-images.
In the podcast unlocking your psychic abilities, Michael Tamura discusses this very thing. There are multiple artifacts in that podcast that will mesh well with this essay. Loyd Auerbach, in chapter 4 of his book Psychic Dreaming: Dreamworking, Reincarnation, Out-of-body-experiences and Clairvoyance, has a small introduction to the Sinoi Dreamwork.
I was fortunate enough to find an online book delving deeper into the Sinoi culture and dreamwork, also found below.
The people who were said to first practice this new way of thinking about and using dreams, the Senoi, are an aboriginal people who live in the jungle highlands of Malaysia…. Their ideas about dreams are so appealing because they are believed to be among the healthiest and happiest people in the world. There is reportedly no mental illness or violence precisely because they have a theory of dream control and dream utilization unlike anything ever heard of in Western history.
Perhaps there is more to their happiness than dreaming techniques, as one could certainly argue, per the World Health Organizations literature on depression and loneliness, 3rd World Countries score highest in happiness ratings compared to the first world. Perhaps just having a simple life is the source of happiness. Perhaps being so enmeshed with nature leads to better health. The movie the Gods Must Be Crazy might be the best meme to support that idea.
Maybe they have better dreaming lives because their brains are not saturated 24/7 with radio and television. Imagine eating non stop all day every day? Would you be healthy? How much media do we consume? Not disparaging anyone, as my consumption is embarrassingly high, and often is a substitute for the lack of a social life.
I still have good dreams, but they were better as a child, as a teen… They were even better 20
years ago! Our lives are so filled, does anyone have time to worry about dreams?
Conversely, people in solitary confinement have visions, and elaborate ‘daydreams’ and dreams.
Float spas and isolation tanks can lead to ‘experiences.’ Folks trekking across the arctic have had full visions play out across their snow blindness.
“People say I am crazy, dreaming my life away,” sings John Lennon.
Senoi Dream Theory: Myth, Scientific Method, and the Dreamwork Movement seems to be a very skeptical interpretation. It is not a guide to ‘how to do this.’ I didn't see any mention of the practice of Lucid Dreaming, which likely takes the Senoi concept to another level, unless you allow that their practice leads to lucidity.
Second, the human capacity for self-deception and the American need to believe in happy endings loom very large. Third, it is always necessary to be skeptical about ideas that have not been tested in systematic ways. Fourth, the unwillingness of the dreamwork movement to reject the claims by Stewart and Garfield about the Senoi suggests that the movement is not open to scientific criticisms and standards.
I suppose I would have to argue who or what this ‘dream’ movement is. Studying and interpreting dreams has been a valid culture in every culture since the beginning of writing. Like it or not, there is a spiritual quality to it. There’s a psychological, therapeutic quality to it.
Every culture has paid its homage to dreams. As much as America seems to dismiss dreams and aims for practicality, it also has a history steep in pursuing dreams.
We all sleep/dream. Why aren’t we encouraged to be more active in our dreams? Simple goals from just being more aware of dreams, remembering them, or asking questions before sleep to see what answers we might find?
We all have an unconscious mind and therefore a relationship with someone who might as well be an alien from another planet, in terms of its abilities and knowledge sets. It seems to know more than us. We can be hypnotized and burned with just a thought and healed in the same moment.
If hypnosis works, why wouldn’t dream therapy work? If in our dreams we can realize how powerful we are, getting needs met that don’t always happen in real life, are we more content?
There are more places to explore in our mind than the entire Cosmos.
There is more complexity in our brains than the entire cosmos. By going in we discover ourselves, and on waking we have insights and realize how connected we all are to all things.
How to be a more active dreamer.
If there is more to Loyd Auerbach than an introduction, I will get back to you in a book report.
First part of dreaming is to realize we all dream, with some caveats. Most people don’t remember their dreams. If you have a spouse or partner who can watch your eye movements, they can wake you and you can realize yes, you do dream.
There is something cannabis that interferes with dreaming. Too much cannabis, and REM sleep diminishes. The amount consumed varies from person to person, but on average when consumption gets to about 1 to 2 grams a day, dreams go away. Stop using cannabis for a month, and by the end of the month the brain will give you some intense, vivid dreams- as if the brain was taking score of needs to play catch up.
Accepting the fact that you dream being away in real life and in the dream life, being mindful helps improve the dream life. If you’re skeptical, or not interested, why would your subconscious want to invite you into its play time? If the logical part of the brain is all you use, the right hemisphere might not want to play with you when the subconscious turns on the magic.
Negotiating honesty with yourself, your subconscious, initiates a truce. You are now building a relationship with yourself.
If you get nightmares, you may have psychic/psychological work ahead of you. If it comes from inside you, you can’t run from it anymore than you can run from yourself. There are techniques to help with nightmares, and learning to lucid dream is a good place to start.
Keep a dream journal. Write down any dream you recall on waking. It doesn’t matter if it’s a word, or a single scene description. The more you do it, the more you will recall.
Don’t get mad at yourself if you don’t recall or don’t hit a goal.
Dream goals are easy. What would you like to experience? Ask yourself to have an experience before bed. In the beginning you should have very specific goals. If it’s too vague, you might not hit it, or hit it and not remember because other details are more prominent.
Read lots of dream books. If you want to lucid dream, I highly recommend starting with Robert Wagoners’ book Lucid Dreaming: Gateways to Inner Self. Not only does it cover how, but it also discusses how it can be very helpful with physical and emotional wellbeing.
If I missed something, or you would like to just simply discuss a dream, feel free to hit me up.
