Sunday, January 23, 2011

Two ways of re-making the future


I am teaching two ways of re-making the future. One involves working with what looks like a ball of string. The second way involves scooping, molding and sculpting a heap of soft material, like dough or squishy clay.

I have announced that a prize will be given for the best student in each category. The bigger prize will go to the one who sculpts from the formless mass of pliable "dough".

The students are eager to try this assignment. As they take turns to separate strings from the ball, I notice that the strings look a bit like long strips of celluloid, as were used to record and project films. A vigorous, stocky man throws himself into molding and sculpting the heap of soft matter. He's building an amazing structure and he's the clear favorite to win the prize I have announced.

I woke from this dream today, actively curious and intrigued.

In my regular life, I teach people to play with the idea that we can switch from one probable event track, running into the future, to another. This can be visualized as selecting one string of events from a ball of possibilities. I also like the idea that we can "rewind" a certain sequence - in life as in dreams - back to a certain point of decision, and then go forward with a different scenario. These ideas are evoked by the dream exercise with the "ball of string".

I also love the image of sculpting a life project out of a soft mass of unformed material. The prize is no doubt bigger here because there is more creating to be done. I think of how, in the imaginal realm, we can build cities and palaces of subtle and ideoplastic substance. It is from creation on this plane that physical structures and situations are manifested.

M.K.Čiurlionis, "Creation of the World IX"

8 comments:

Wanda Burch said...

I commented on your Spirituality and Health Dream Forum on the Genetics of Healing as a technique for working imaginally with less than perfect genetic make-up. I think reshaping/remolding the future is tied to our ability to work with genetic healing. In our dreams we can work simultaneously with re-working our past and future and make changes that scribe our present.

Physically molding and placing ones hands into soft clay, at the same time imaginally seeing what you wish the product to be, not only shapes it in your mind but shapes it in physical reality. What a fabulous process for all of us.

Frank Lloyd Wright dreamed Chicago and all that it could be before he began changing the landscape with his designs. Frank Gehry dreamed fabulous flowing buildings that defied gravity and was often frustrated in trying to make them as perfect as his dreams. Can you imagine what we could do if we began to mold and create in fluid motion in our physical reality and in our dreams creative realities for our future life and, on a bigger scale, for our future world!

Sherry said...

Robert, Wanda, I feel a workshop coming on... Sign me up!

Worldbridger said...

Manipulating the astral light ... very powerful, but also very difficult to do with intent.

Robert Moss said...

Wanda - Yes, indeed, we have nothing to lose and possibly a world to gain by experimenting with remolding the future and our genetic inheritance.

Sherry - I think you can count on my latest dream guidance as a direction we'll explore in future workshops and trainings.

nina said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Robert Moss said...

Nina - That's a powerful and touching image, of your poet friend feeling she must get out from inside a ball of string to create. Though I likened it to a ball of string, the one in my dream was more like one of of those balls composed of hundred (in this case thousands) of rubber bands, each a separate, looping strand of possibility once selected and released.

Nancy said...

Your "ball of string" or rubber bands, and selecting strands from it to untangle, is a great visual for a real-life dreamer's application of String Theory.

Robert Moss said...

Nancy - yes I think there's some string theory here waiting to be sung (and unstrung).