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Dear Dao Bums, Here's my experience with Tulku Lobsang (known for doing Tummo in -5 degrees celsius on "Story of God With Morgan Freeman" on NGC). I'll share in 4 parts: 1) Intro and Background 2) Medicine Buddha 3) Dream Yoga 4) Wrap Up - To Be Continued 1) Intro and Background I heard about Tummo when I was a child from my dad. He learnt about yoga on a hippie island camp full of naked women burning bras when he was a child, forced to go with my hippie grandmother in the 60s. He had a life changing experience as a child with yoga and mantras, while on this naked women camp. So in his late teens when small yoga and meditation workshops started in the West, he started attending. Buddhism was super famous in my country on the spiritual scene, as it still is in much of Europe with the New Age crowd I would say. While I grew up, my dad told me of naked monks in the snow-clad Himalayas drying wet sheets with their body temperature through magical yoga practices. So now the family saga continues; as an adult, I've also pursued further what my dad exposed me to as a child. This time, I saw Tulku Lobsang with Morgan Freeman. Being able to be comfortable in a t-shirt in -5 degrees on television I took as a "good enough" show of Tummo skill, that maybe I could finally pursue this magical practice myself. However, I still had some doubts. So, when I saw he was coming to my country, I decided to go check him out. If he "checked out" I would be willing to give it a go and fork over my hard earned cash to flight, hotel and the Tummo workshop (when the time comes). With the intro out of the way, let me share how it went! The first day he taught Medicine Buddha. The following 2 days it was one long workshop on Dream Yoga. 2) Medicine Buddha He gave us the mantra and we all chanted together for maybe 5-15 minutes. Then he instructed us step-by-step in the visualisation. After having stabilised the visualisation, we resumed chanting together (we were maybe 20-30 people). During his transmission, I felt a special kind of energy coming into my head center. I felt like it made it easier for me to visualise. I also felt the energy from each of the lights we visualised in all of my body, and felt pleasantly relaxed. Since this day, I've been doing a minimum of 108 reps of the mantra and then the visualisation meditation procedure he explained. Already on the second day of the practice, it's like the energy had increased in power. Now it's growing day by day with my daily practice. So far so good! He's definitely legit. 3) Dream Yoga My dad took me to a dream yoga weekend workshop when I was about 18-19 years old with a Rinpoche visiting my country. I thought the whole idea of lucid dreams and using them for spiritual practice was extremely fascinating, and even at that young age I practiced quite consistently for about 3 months (while also reading his book). However, I had no results whatsoever. Then again when I was in my mid 20s, I picked up the book again and decided to give it a go. I practiced again for about 2 months, but zero results. In my late 20s, I again read yet another book by a tibetan teacher on dream yoga. I tried it again. No results after 1 month. All of the above practices were the usual "visualise a red drop in your throat chakra, surrounded by a white lotus flower with 4 leaves". In this book there was also a tibetan letter on each leaf, and you said them one by one as a kind of mantra for a while, then proceeded to only visualise until falling asleep. However, at the end of this particular book was also a shamanistic bön practice for lucid dreaming. After 1 month of failing with the vajrayana buddhist practice, I tried the shamanic practice. After about 7-14 days, it happened! I was super excited. Then it would happen every single day like clockwork for about a week. However, with each day I felt like I got more and more tired. Like I used up energy while sleeping, instead of regaining it. I remembered a warning from a daoist qigong teacher who had (as usually) dissed buddhist practices, especially their dream practices. He said "night is for sleeping and resting, that's what nature intended". So I thought maybe my bön lucid dreaming practice was sapping my energy and discontinued it. Lo and behold, now I'm in my early 30s, and I was faced with yet another tibetan vajrayana buddhist practice of visualising a red drop in my throat. "Here we go again!" I found myself thinking, however I still had an open mind during the workshop. During the workshop I felt Tulku Lobsang transmitted different states as well as different energies. I also found him to be extremely grounded in Being, never losing connection to himself, even if some of the people were weird or asked weird questions etc. He remained in Being, very relaxed, very present and extremely grounded and Embodied. I was quite impressed! However, no succes with lucid dreaming, neither during the nights between the workshop days, nor during the workshops when we actually slept for 10-30 minutes under his guidance and blessing. I really felt he transmitted a lot of energy during these sleeping sessions on the workshop, but still no lucid dreams. However, now after the workshop, I have actually had 3-4 lucid dreams so far using the typical tibetan buddhist vajrayana practice with the red drop! Something that's never worked for me, even though I've tried it on/off since I was 19. So that also tells me that his transmission is legit! 4) Wrap Up - To Be Continued So to wrap up, Tulku Lobsang is legit! He's extremely grounded in Being, in Presence and in his body, and he really does transmit states and energies. There's no more doubt in my mind - I will glady fork over my time and cash to learn Tummo from him when the time comes

Thank you, Sensei 🤺 see god in the darkest things in the quiet of night i hear villages sing "there's a demon in that dragon purge it out." in my second third world on a motorbike i learned a waking prayer so i could sleep at night then i took my chances and realized many dreams. wild dogs tumbling along rice fields and i asked hanuman take away shield i am loud and reckless this is how i play you are loud and reckless thats no way to play i fear nothing, no thing fears me justice has different hats for different days release my anger, love thy neighbor put that pain to some good use anyway teach me honor, must remember don't be selfish with all your love anyway tilt my head back howl like you said in the end my body's spirit anyway i will do things i've never done before cuz i'm powerful and i'm not afraid no more i feel god in the slightest wind at the rate i manifest every dream deepens and i know i never want to stay the same on a day of silence while the island slept i cast my demons out at the feet of ganesh said, "remove the obsticles bravely with grace." in a past life i cut throats and scalps and in this life i mend the wounds i dealt maybe by my hands or by my words alone.

Dear Dao Bums, Here's my experience with the Simplified Kundalini Yoga by Vethathiri Maharishi. I'll describe my experience in 4 parts: 1) Overview of the system 2) My personal experience 3) Summary 4) Conclusion Overview of the system: Simplified Kundalini Yoga is the creation of Vethathiri Maharishi. It includes the following: a) transfer of energy from the master through touch, through the eyes and through the mind to open the chakras of the students (sparsa diksha, chakshu diksha and manodiksha) b ) meditation (on the chakras as they're opened progressively, the stars and planets, the 5 elements, the senses and finally the universal energy field and the universal absolute space) c) tratak or gazing meditation (on a ghee lit earthen clay lamp and later on a mirror) d) simplified physical yoga postures (asanas) and breathing exercises (pranayama) e) transmutation of the sexual vital fluid through simplified kaya kalpa yoga (breathing and postures) f) introspection and refinement of character (analysis of thoughts, moralization of desires, neutralization of anger, eradication of worries, self-realization, sex and spirituality, and finally how to achieve harmony in the family, workplace and in all relationships) My personal experiences This is the best spiritual system I've ever tried. I've tried everything under the sun: mantra meditation, pranayama, tibetan and buddhist tsa-lung and meditation, dream and sleep yoga, physical yoga exercises, sexual qigong, qigong meditation, standing meditation, sufi mantras and meditation, rituals (praying, fasting, giving food and charity), pilgrimages to holy places, vedanta, jnana/gyana yoga, psychological self development, sexual transmutation, semen retention, daoist lovemaking, gazing on the sun, moon and stars and much much more. However, SKY still rules supreme as to the simplicity, power, effectiveness and practicality in all aspects. From the very first day, from my initiation into the system (where your lifeforce is transferred from the root/muladhara chakra to the brow/agya chakra) my life was never the same. That very first evening when I meditated after returning home from the initation, I had the deepest meditation of my life. My mind became still and peaceful, no thoughts or emotions, just pure and deep peace. After the meditation I was extremely energized and full of power. Furthermore, my sleep became the best it's ever been (and I've had life long issues with sleep). Every single initiation (brow chakra, root chakra, crown chakra, the universal energy state, lamp gazing) keeps surprising me as to its power. It just works. It's easy and simple, yet profoundly powerful. Summary SKY has been the best I've ever tried, and it keeps improving with every initiation. Furthermore, it's a complete system. It has everything you need: physical, breathing, psychological and energetic exercises, improvement of character, meditation and transmutation of the sexual vital fluid. Conclusion If you're into meditation, definitively check SKY out. It has changed my life. When I went to the first initiation, several seasoned meditators who've been meditating deeply and going on retreat yearly for the past 20+ years were also surprised at its power. They thought it sounded too easy... Yet it worked SO! Check it out Be blessed

Resources related to Buddhist/Bon Dream Yoga. Feel free to recommend your own resources to be added. The resources here are made by members in their individual capacity and is not an endorsement by TheDaoBums. Damdao: This one is from the perspective of Tibetan medicine and has a concise practice of dream yoga and dream analysis. The Tibetan Art of Dream Analysis by Dr. Nida ForestofClarity: Dream yoga is one of the most compelling practices I have come across. Andrew Holocek teaches a mix of modern and traditional styles, a syncretic teachers with a traditional Mahamudra background. https://nightclubcommunity.com Dream Yoga: if you only want one dream yoga book, this is it Dreams of Light: daytime illusory body practice Tenzin Wangyal is a well respected Bon resource. https://www.glidewing.com/twr/dreamyoga_home.html Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep: a traditional presentation Lama Lena is always pragmatic and down to earth. https://lamalenateachings.com/dream-yoga-3-part-series/ B. Alan Wallace's course is a fairly comprehensive overview of Dudjom Lingpa style with a focus on strong shamatha (some say too strong). https://meridian-trust.org/video/333-dreaming-of-reality_d1s1_pm003517a/#:~:text=During this retreat organised by,nighttime practices of dream yoga. Dreaming Yourself Awake Lala Nila: Has had success with: ttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/316781.Exploring_the_World_of_Lucid_Dreaming

It is an interesting question. My initial experiences with the subtle body had no priming at all and it wasn't until later I discovered it fit along with traditional (Shaivite) Tantric descriptions. With dan tians, I had some basic priming but I was shocked at how real they've felt when I received a boost from a tai chi master. As with all things, it is probably a mixture. Physical reality, in the traditions I follow, is like a collective or shared dream. So I think the basic structures and probably the three dan tians are a part of the consensual dream. So it is not like a personal dream and it is not the independent, physical world modern Westerners take it to be. However, this shared dream is also impacted and shaped by our "own" minds. In Tibetan Buddhism, different chakras have different associations with the colors and elements depending on the tradition, like Wallis says --- I think these are somewhat installed. But working with the Bon model, I worked with it for a while, suspended it, and then started it again after unrelated meditative work and I was surprised at how well my current experiences fit the model --- especially when I had doubts and didn't fully agree with it. But who knows? I like to keep the conceptual net loose to see what can develop.

It may be of use to distinguish the brain from the mind. For example, awaking (returning to the body) from a dream usually results in very little memory of the dream. Is the dream in the mind and the physical memory in the brain?

Usually, confronting dream characters shuts the dream down or takes it off script. However, one time, I encountered some one who claimed I was a character in their dream. I told them no, they were a creation of MY dream. I demonstrated this by flying around. They then flew around also, and we both started to manipulate the dream. Who's to say? A lot of the dream world, like life generally, reacts according to beliefs and expectations. There ARE certain dreams that have a very unique flavor, what my old teacher would call a dream of clarity. In these dreams, it certainly feels like there are divine beings and divine realms. Stephen LaBerge's techniques have been incorporated into Dream Yoga. Nearly every modern dream yoga teacher teaches them because they are so effective. A lot of people like Michael Raduga, but I lost all interest once it came to light that he drilled a hole in his head to implant a "dream chip": https://www.newsweek.com/russian-implants-chip-brain-control-dreams-hospital-1814256

This is an interesting topic and one that is very relevant to what I have been exploring in my life and practice right now. As much as it saddens me as a recovering chronic daydreamer who probably would not have made it in life without being able to spend most of my formative (and later) years lost to imagination, I think unchecked imagination is actually at the heart of a lot of personal and societal problems. Illusion is a huge problem, and our ability to imagine is at the root of illusion. Without an ability to imagine, you can't fall to illusion, it's just not possible. Now from a cultivation standpoint, looking at what you tend to dream and day dream about is an excellent window into the psyche and where you have unresolved issues. We often daydream for comfort / self-soothing so what we see is often a reflection of what we need or feel is missing. For example, all my daydreams involve me doing something "impressive" and always with other various other people real/imagined/from media that I respect present and helping. I still struggle with my ego, needing to be SEEN, and to be GREAT. It is helpful to know where my issues are, but those daydreams just soothe things I feel I lack, rather than dealing with the root of why I feel that way in the first place. I guess if I were charged with supercharging the collective imagination of the world I would wait for a time when society was less lost to illusion and better equipped to handle the responsibility of enhanced imagination. Don't get me wrong, I prize my imagination over almost everything, but I am also in the process of recognizing that to really move forward in my journey I probably have to let it go. And I don't say that lightly. In my life I spent time homeless living in a car that didn't run with literally not a single person who would even notice if I died, and would I go back to that in a heart beat vs giving up my imagination, my lifeline, but it is becoming clearer and clearer that it is also what is holding me back. And much to my fortune and dismay, the universe has assisted this process by making my imagination duller and less enticing, despite how desperate that still makes me feel. Oh well, one day I will get there. Hopefully someday I will find a healthy balance of creativity and reality. IMO our issue isn't creativity or lack of solutions/imagination, we already have the means and technology to end most of our problems, world hunger, stop climate change, build a society of equality and kindness, end most diseases - we just choose not to. At its root, for various reasons, we don't WANT to do the things it takes to fix our problems. I mean we can put a person on the moon and carry all the worlds knowledge in our pocket, and we yet can't figure out how to see people who look different than us truly as equals. I mean, guess there is no money in being kind, but geez. We say we need to care for the planet before it is too late, but then we build huge data centers and servers for crypto and AI that are quickly becoming the most resource draining and damaging activities over even manufacturing, oil production and shipping, and neither of those are necessary for our survival or ability to thrive as a species or as individuals. IMO we don't need more ideas or creativity, we need more authenticity, we need to be less caught up in illusion, we need to learn how to face and accept the hard things about ourselves and reality that we would rather destroy ourselves than admit exists. We need to let go of "needing" to be the best or most important, and instead make space for everyone else around us to be just as great. We need to recognize that we already have everything and we are squandering it by thinking we need more and more.

Anemoia. From The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, by John Koenig, comes a word the language badly needed but never had until 2021. It's the feeling of nostalgia for a time you've never known. A wistful longing for an idealized past that exists only in imagination or secondhand accounts. When I first came to the US, to New York specifically, it was a different city from what it is today, and far as I'm concerned, a better one. But back then my older female co-workers, native New Yorkers, would often tell me about New York they used to know in their childhood and youth, and it was nothing like the city I was witnessing... it sounded like a dream, an urban fairy land. On more than one occasion they actually shed a tear telling me about that lost city. And they gave me anemoia. That's just one example. I'm massively afflicted by that feeling for many purposes. Some of it overlaps with nostalgia for the worlds (sic) I knew in this life, some must be genetic memory, and some -- possibly -- memories of past lives. I wonder how widespread this anemoia thing is.

Great list, thanks for posting these. Often times during a lucid dream I don't quite know what I should be doing and I end up just travelling around, usually in my own neighbourhood. I'd like to actually accomplish something worth while (spiritually beneficial, problem solve, etc). What is your opinion on the people that you meet during lucid dreaming? Some of them appear to be lucid dreaming as well, others sort of NPC type characters. I had one lucid dream in where I was being interrogated by someone. They knew I was lucid in the dream and began asking me who I was, why I was there, where I learned to lucid dream, etc. It was really weird and aggressive. My first foray into getting a taste for lucid dreaming was via the gateway tapes, but over time the recordings made me feel uneasy resulting in nightmare-ish type dreamscapes. I became extremely distrustful of the material after that and dropped it. I have the Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep somewhere. I'm going to start reading it. Thanks again for this list! Though neither of the links below pertain to Buddhist dream yogas I've had pretty good success with this: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/316781.Exploring_the_World_of_Lucid_Dreaming

Of use ? I think the distinction is of supreme importance . The brain is like a flock of birds , it just supplies the hardware for the mind to operate 'down on ' this polarity . The mind is that multi dimensional field that allows the 'bird / brains' work like this ; The dream is in the brain and the mind . The physical memory is in the body ... as the genetic memory is in the genes ... the ancient physical memory is in the reptilian brain - or hind brain , down into the brain stem . The higher functions are 'blank memory' circuits , yet to be programmed , or in some cases being programmed . - see Exo-psycholgy - the 8 circuit brain .

I have similar sleep issues. The methods I use are a combination of dream recall, daytime illusory body and reality checks, and mnemonic and dream induced lucid dreaming. So the first thing is to work on dream recall, by thinking about it first thing and/or using a dream diary. The second thing is to implant the suggestion as you are falling asleep. The third thing is doing "reality checks" through the day to test whether you are dreaming. A few common examples is jumping, looking at the hands; reading something, looking away, and rereading it; switching lights on and off; blinking too long; asking where you were before, etc. Finally, we should have a lot of confidence that it happen if possible, and refrain from dwelling on the negatives. Eventually, this will culminate in doing a reality check while you are dreaming. This is the basic pattern set out in the resources. Doing these things without any lucid dreams is also very helpful IME. It gets more difficult when the dreamlike nature of the waking state is more revealed, and the mind creates more solidified dream states. For instance, I used to use the reading one, but now I can read in my dreams.

This one is from the perspective of Tibetan medicine and has a concise practice of dream yoga and dream analysis. The Tibetan Art of Dream Analysis

Dear friends, Some time ago I shared the post below on another thread. I stumbled upon it again recently, and I felt it could potentially help a lot of people. That's why I'm reposting it now with some edits, as well as an "update" at the end of the original post. Here's the original post. ORIGINAL POST I will share in 4 points:1) Intro 2) My experiences with evil spirits 3) My experiences with black magic 4) My proposed explanation integrating viewpoints on evil spirits and black magic (Buddhism, Sufism, Martinus, Hinduism etc)IntroIn my opinion, this is an extremely important topic, that is extremely ignored, belittled and misunderstood by the vast majority of cultivators. Especially those with a western background. Also, even by high level masters who simply don't know about this particular area or haven't trained and studied it.My experiences with evil spiritsI have personally suffered many extreme and terrifying experiences, and no matter where I sought help, I was belittled, ridiculed, ignored or misunderstood.I have seen books flying out of shelves. I have seen bagpacks and other physical items dragged back and forth on the floor. I have experienced "wind" indoors, even though it was a closed off room with no windows. I have seen shadowy/smoke like figures physically moving around, experienced physical touch even though no physical beings are there and much more.When I sought help from a hindu monk, he advised me to start japa of my guru mantra when it happened. I did it... Didn't work.When I sought help from a high level "shamanic" qigong master (you would think spirits would be a walk in the park for a shaman), I was belittled and told "not to pay attention to this illusion I am experiencing". There's nothing illusory about physical objects being thrown around by an unseen force. It's pretty much as concrete as it gets. Almighty God bless him, and bring him to clarity and allow him to actually help people with his powers of qi.When I sought help from another qigong master specialised in healing, he told me to say a prayer and do a mudra. When it didn't work, he explained it away saying that "you're just not powerful enough to do it yet, you need to cultivate more. Be my one-on-one student for 2-3 years, meet me on on a weekly zoom meeting priced at 1.600 dollars for an hour, and then in a couple of years, you will be able to do it".This healing qigong master stated that I have a very loving and very spiritual energy, and that's why troubled spirits get attracted to me. They seek help and healing from me. That's why it worsens when I travel to new places or stay overnight at places that are not my house. The troubled spirits in that place see me and come to get help.I actually believed him, and met him 3 times, wasting thousands of dollars. It didn't work! And on top of that, the clairvoyant things he told me about me and my health were flat out wrong (he said I had weak sexual energy, ejaculated in seconds and drank a lot of alcohol which damaged my liver). I am at a very advanced level of sexual qigong and lovemaking, haven't touched alcohol in more than 10 years and make love for hours daily without ejaculating with very strong erection power.So after 3 meetings, I realized he was simply a semi-psychic (he did say correctly that I had a spine injury, although there were so many other things wrong about his psychic reading), yet pretty good healer (I could feel my back getting better when he gave healings), but most of all he was just thirsty for money. So, of course I stopped seeing him. Dear God, bring him to the straight path, let him let go of his greed for money and selfishness, and instead lead him to the straight path, that he may use his gift of healing for good.I then spoke with a highly clairvoyant sufi master, who did a check on me (for free). He related my entire life story regarding troubles with spirits (without me telling him anything), and he also stated that it's because I have a lot of "light" (noor) inside my soul. This is because of all the prayers and mantras I say each day (since I was a child). He said the spirits are troubled where they are (in "bardo" or "barzakh" as it's called in Islam), and seek my help.He said I should visualise putting up spiritual sign posts around my aura, my house, or anywhere I go that says "I am sorry, I cannot help you. I myself need help, that's why I pray to the light and get that light into me. Please don't come to me, I am in no position to help you, I myself need help, that's why I pray so much. You should yourself pray to the light, then you will get help".I tried it for some time, and it helped in my own house. However, when I went to new places, it didn't work. God bless this man, he is extremely loving, knowledgable and powerfully clairvoyant.When I sought help from another sufi (via the internet), he for free did a "spiritual check" on me. He stated that yes, I have some low level evil spirits around me. He gave me (for free!) a one week program of readings of salawaat (prayers to the prophet), and reciting "bismillahir-rahmanir-rahim" (the bismillah, "in the name of God) many hundreds of times in a day. Then blow on water and drink it.I did it for 7 days, and it worked! It was from his heart and soul he wished to help me. He did it for free.I sent him 100 dollars and said that it worked, and asked if I could keep training with him. I must have paid him only a few hundred dollars, yet I spent 6-9 months corresponding with him via email. He would give me different salawaat, dhikr (name of God), verses of the Qur'an and du'a (prayers). Whenever I did a program (e.g. 7 days, 11 days, 21 days), he would tell me how it went. He would give me feedback on the energy, without me telling him anything. He was very good, he helped me a lot, and he didn't ask much in return. However, after 6-9 months, because he wanted to remain anonymous, I felt that to be a bit weird after so long, so when I had completed a big program, I stopped corresponding with him. We haven't been in contact since.What became my go-to after training with this last sufi guy is 5 verses from the Qur'ran. Ayatul kursi (Verse about the Throne of God), and 4 verses called "the 4 qul". They are the last 4 verses of the Qur'an, and they all start with "qul" which means "say". It's Surah Nas (verse of Man), Surah Ikhlas (verse of Unity), Surah Falaq (verse of the Daybreak / rising sun) and Surah Kafiroon (verse about the Unbelievers).You recite each 11 times (11x ayatul kursi, 11x surah nas, 11x surah ikhlas, 11x surah falaq and 11x surah kafiroon). Then you blow on your right index finger, and visualise your hand coming down from the sky, and drawing a protective circle around the 4 corners of your home, and then finally around yourself, or the room that needs extra protection (e.g. bedroom, prayer room).This has been my go-to for more than 6 years. It has been the only thing that worked for me in this area. If you want to keep your house energy pure, you say 21x ayatul kursi, blow on a glass of water, and sprinkle it around your house. The combination of these two readings saved my life.God bless this man who helped me without demanding anything in return!Unlike these chinese qigong masters, just wanting money and doing nothing to help.Lately when I'm learning Sri Vidya, I feel that some of the mantras and rituals from Sri Vidya will eventually be able to give spiritual protection on an even higher level. There are 2 specific "deities" or energies generated from mantras and rituals for the navel chakra (Durga) and third eye chakra (Varahi) which specifically combat negative spiritual energies, including black magic, evil spirits, the evil eye etc.All of the above are my experiences and solutions for evil spirits so far.My experiences with black magicI have worked for the army in my country. One of my functions was as a translator and interpreter. I have been deployed several times to a UN mission in West Africa.On one of my deployments, there wasn't much work. We only worked from 6 in the morning to 2 o'clock in the afternoon. The rest of the time we we're pretty much on standby.Being stranded in a war zone, there's not much to do. So I spent all my free time reading, studying and practicing (mantras, meditation and qigong).I was in a very good spiritual state at the time due to so much practice, so I was seeing auras and energies most of the time.One time, we were training the local special forces to save hostages. The only building we could use was a big fancy hotel, yet no tourists (because of the war). So to survive, the owner of the hotel rented it out as a brothel.One day, in a break between exercises, I saw one of the prostitutes sitting on the other side of the courtyard (they just sat around and waited for the 3-4 hours that we and the local soldiers used it as a training compound). When she saw me, she started whispering something, and I saw a small cloud of black energy generating in front of her face. Then she did something with her hands, and started blowing towards me. This sent the small black cloud of energy across the courtyard towards me. It just landed in the outskirts of my aura, it didn't go in (thank God!). So nothing happened to me.When I was back in my room later that day, I meditated. Then I understood she was trying to do some black magic on me. Maybe she was trying to seduce or attract me. For a prostitute in a war zone, hooking up with a soldier deployed from Europe could be her ticket out of the warzone to a better life. Luckily, the energy wasn't powerful enough to penetrate my energy field (which was pretty charged at the time due to so much spiritual practice). And as I meditated, the cloud was just destroyed and disappeared from my field.One of the local maids cleaning my place actually put my tooth brush up in her vagina when she was cleaning the bathroom. She thought I didn't know, as I was sitting in the living room. I guess it's a primitive form of African black magic. If you ingest some of the fluids (spit, sweat or sexual fluid) of someone (especially if they say mantras while doing it), you can become more partial to liking that person (becaues you will have some of their energy inside your physical body). I bought a new tooth brush!Another woman working in the restaurant spat in my food and stirred it around to hide it. I ordered a new pasta You need to be very careful in many places of Africa, the Middle East, South America and certain parts of Asia. It's rampant with black magic and desperate people. Luckily they are usually not powerful practitioners, but you can still catch something if you're not protected and observant.My second experience is with my girlfriend. She comes from the Middle East, i.e. the vast majority of her family still lives there. When we got together, it was made public, her ethnicity in our European country as well as her family and relatives in her home country in the Middle East became aware of it. As soon as this happened, she started to fall sick.She would get wrist tendonitis, elbow tendonitis, sore knees, sore lower back, her vision would suddenly drastically reduce, she would get nauseous for no reason, got rashes, stomach ache, started to suddenly lose weight and appetite. For no reason!It just came suddenly out of the blue. She would suffer for some time and recover. Then a new problem came back. This continued for about 6 months. Before we made our relationship public, she wasn't sick even once. After we made it public, she kept continually falling ill again and again.After 6 months of this story of suffering and disease, once when I was meditating, I saw a cloud of red and black energy entering our house. It went to my girlfriend. Then it went into her wrist.That same evening, she started complaining that the wrist tendonitis was coming back.I was very surprised. I was praying and meditating, trying to understand what had happened. A few days later, I got a dream, where I saw planet Earth from above. Then I saw her country in the Middle East (Kurdistan). Then I saw clouds of red and black gathering and forming, and then they travelled to Europe to our country.When I woke up, I understood that God had heard my prayer, and given me this dream to let me know that someone in her home country was cursing her.That started an 8 month period of fighting this magic.First I consulted this qigong healer about it (the psychic one, who told me correctly about my spinal injury, but wrongly about alcohol, sex etc). He to my great surprise said that someone was putting black magic on my girlfriend, and that she should practice his "small universe" meditation to transform the energy.I was surprised he went straight to Black Magic as an explanation, even though I didn't tell him about my dreams and visions. We tried what he suggested, but it didn't work.Then I went to a hindu tantric, who has mastery over spirits, done sadhana (spiritual practice) in graveyards, and done many tamasic tantric rituals to control these spirits (e.g. animal sacrifice, bathing in blood, smearing yourself with your own filth and urine etc). When I spoke with him, he asked me to send a photo of my girlfriend.After 2-3 days, he called me and said that there is black magic on her. We should just worship and pray to God like normal, remain vegetarian, avoid alcohol, and when he visits our country, he will put a kavach (shield/armor) on her. From that day we spoke, everything stopped. So he did something remotely. After a few nights, I had a dream where I saw this swami doing something. A beam of energy went to the Middle East, where I saw someone had buried a charm inscribed with mantras and signs under the plot of one of my girlfriend's family's buildings. The beam from the swami went in and neutralized the black/red energy.I would again highlight that he did all this for free. It seems again that this phenomenon that spirituality costs money and is a business is mostly related to chinese qigong traditions. Sufis and hindus have helped me completely free of charge, just from their heart.It was about 2-3 weeks where it was completely gone, but then it returned.I tried many different sufi methods, prayers, Qur'an, tasbih (prayer beads). It was always the same. It would make it go away, but after a certain period of time, it would return.Later, after I had done a specific reading of a passage from the Qur'an about Moses fighting the black magicians of Farao, the black magic completely stopped. It took me a month, and you have to recite late at night. Then I finally had a dream where I saw this black magician in Kurdistan. Every new moon, or on specific astrological days, he goes to a kind of basement or cellar underground. Here he conducts terrible black magic rituals, involving animals, kidnapped orphans and other terrible things. That's why it's all black and red energy, because it's dirty and bloody what he does. It's someone from my girlfriend's family who's jealous of the part of the family that's gone to Europe.Then I saw him get hit with my one month program of Qur'an, and he lost all of his powers. All the energy drained from him, he became thin, weak and pale.After this it was about 6 months where we were completely free from this black magic. I thanked God and actually thought it was over. I felt kind of bad that it seemed my Moses-reading had damaged him, but I didn't mean to hurt him, I just wanted to protect my beloved girlfriend. It hadn't really hurt him, just taken away the energy he had built up and the evil spirits he was working with.After 6 months, he decided to start to try again, and start from the bottom to build up his energy (he was the most powerful black practitioner I've ever seen). But this time the things he sent were really weak. We just read some Qur'an and du'a, and it stopped.Finally, after starting Sri Vidya one and a half years ago, and we did a 41 day Varahi tarpana. Now we've been clear of black magic for about 1 year. I feel like we have built our spiritual protection so strong now, that we're mostly safe.My proposed explanation integrating viewpoints on evil spirits and black magic (Buddhism, Sufism, Martinus, Hinduism etc)I've highlighted a bunch of my experiences above. Now I'll try to make sense of it and provide an explanation.I'll use an idea of different dimensions of reality to try and explain why people misunderstand each other when it comes to black magic and evil spirits.For simplicity I'll just use the following terms:1) Physical (shared physical world, objective reality, different beings interact with each other in an objectively verifiable sense).2) Energetic (shared energetic world, objective albeit non-detectable reality for untrained people, objectively verifiable by people with their energetic senses open)3) Mind (inner, individual world, unique to you, subjective reality, there's no one else here but you)4) "Astral" (objective and shared reality with different beings interacting with each other through energy and mind)Buddhism:A big problem is that many Buddhists will brush these kinds of things off and say "it's all just mind". Someone even told me "spiritual beings viewed with ignorance, are demons", "spiritual beings viewed with wisdom, are devas". That sounds great philosophically, but it's a completely useless viewpoint when shit gets serious. Books are flying around your room, or your girlfriend is falling sick. It's not something mental, it's concrete and physical. You need to do something.Just like an intruder in your home trying to steal your stuff "it's just mind, it's just illusion". Yes, fine illusion when he slaps you in your face and rapes your family. You need to take practical action and protect yourself and your family.So all this "it's all mind" is great for a meditator going inwards, but it's not useful if you have a concrete, practical problem. Just like feeling hungry "it's just an illusion in your mind", no, you need to eat something.I feel like the misunderstanding is because the buddhist meditator is talking about "mind", whereas the person talking about problems with black magic and evil spirits is talking about the astral, energetic and physical dimensions.It's true that you can meet "darkness" in your own subjective mind, but this is not the same as the objective, shared reality in the astral, energetic and physical dimensions.Some people who are also generally confused and vague in their life experience will not have the ability to discriminate between "mind" (their own fears) and "astral" (a real, verifiable, shared and objective reality). These are the people that buddhists in general target when they say "it's all in your own mind", because they think it's just imagination. For these meditators getting lost in their own subjective minds, it's a great piece of advice. However, for people truly experiencing objective problems in the astral, energetic or physical domains, it's ridiculing, belittling and just not helpful advice.SufismSufism states that there are unseen beings living in an astral, objective dimension. They also differentiate between the subjective mind or ego called "nafs" and the astral world called "malakut" or world of light (angels are called malai'ka, or powerful beings of light).HinduismAlso differentiates between your own subjective mind, and the astral world.MartinusAlso differentiates between inner subjective world (mind, you and your own mind), and inner objective world (spiritual world, your soul and the soul of others).ConclusionI am sure buddhism also discriminates somehow between inner subjective and inner objective world, I just don't know the correct terms. Maybe someone can help me out?The reason that these qigong masters failed to help and just tried to extract money from me, is simply because even though they're master healers, the just haven't trained in and studied the astral world. They know about the physical, energetic and mind, they just don't know about black magic and evil spirits in the astral.The sufis who helped me, they knew about energy and astral, so they could easily see what was happening and what I should do. They had trained in this and understood it.Similarly, the tantric swami had knowledge and power to help us quickly. The black magician was just very powerful, so he could break the spell from the swami and start his black magic again after a couple of weeks by repowering his buried charm through rituals.Mostly when people belittle or ridicule black magic and evil spirits, it's just because they themselves didn't have karma in this area, so they don't know about it. That's why they brush it off as unimportant and not necessary, because it wasn't important to them in their cultivation. However, if you have karma in this area, there's no escaping it. You need to read, study and understand about it, then you need to train in it (mantra, meditation, ritual etc). Then you will master it and be able to go beyond it and continue your cultivation undisturbed.All traditions have sections of their teachings dealing with this, it's just not all masters who've studied this section of their tradition. Because they didn't need it, they state that no one else needs it (wrong assumption and bias to think everyone is like you and need the same as you did. Wrong. We're all different and unique, we need different things).God bless you all! UPDATE SINCE THE ABOVE ORIGINAL POST On top of our spiritual cultivation, we've employed some very basic truths in our everyday lives, which is usually taught at the basic level in most traditional spiritual teachings, albeit largely ignored or misunderstood by western people (myself included, that's why I'm emphasising it now): 1) "Conceal your blessings" (this is as to not invoke a feeling of lack in others, which could trigger jealousy, envy, evil eye or black magic - practically it just means not to talk about your succes in love, money or spiritual journey publicly (e.g. insta & fb) and even to your loved ones, close friends and family members. We just share it with each other, me and my girlfriend, celebrate our sucess and give thanks to Almighty God) 2) "Certainty" (Yaqeen in arabic) consisting of 3 points 1) everything is from God, 2) it's for my highest good, 3) it has a message for me, about something I need to change. For me the message was simply to accept that "evil" is indeed a part of God's creation, and evil spirits and black magic is real. I always shunned it off and looked down upon it as mere superstition. Nope, it's real! So take it seriously and take mindful precautions, it's simply a test from God. Don't lose your certainty, your faith, have full trust in God and do your daily spiritual work 3) The best spirituality you will find is free or very low cost - all the people and healers I splurged money on failed to deliver and actually help us. The people who had true love, compassion and heart were the most powerful, they helped us completely for free or at very low cost. All these commercial gurus are simply fitna, illusion, they're a Golden Calf or temptation from the straight path. Truth is hiding in plain sight, simple, yet most profoundly powerful. Be a good human being, trust God, have heart and mercy for your fellow human beings and the animals, and you'll be showered with a tsunami of power and protection directly from the Lord Most High. 4) The importance of "local" spirits - each place you go to have a Kshetra Palaka (Local Protector) or TuDi (Earth King/God) who are the Spirit Kings of that place. Further, there are also local spirits living in that location. If you do cultivation there without permission/friendship with the local Spirit King, you can start to get into spiritual trouble. This is a big part of traditional Hindu sadhana as well as Daoist cultivation. After each hindu ritual you give Bali Dhana (spirit charity offering) to the local spirits and the Kshetra Palaka, or in the case of Daoist magic or cultivation you say the An Tu Di Shen Zhou (Pacify Earth Spirit Mantra). It's even one of the Daoist Ba Da Zhou (8 Great Mantras) to be said daily. So be aware if you travel to new locations - make sure to include the local Kshetra Palaka or TuDi to be in harmony with the spirits of that place. 5) The importance of spiritual lineage (sampradaya). When you're part of a true, authentic spiritual lineage, you will also have much more spiritual protection and power. If you call upon your guru or master with the appropriate mantra and mudra, it's the combined energy of thousands and thousands of years of people doing spiritual practice coming to help you spiritually. A complete game changer!

That’s quite good though. I kept a dream diary for a couple of months which culminated in a lucid dream of standing at the edge of a forest looking out at what was essentially complete blackness. I found that any techniques aimed at developing lucidity just ruined my sleep and gave me insomnia. Quite frustrating really- I’d love to be more competent at it. Do you have a good method?

@Lala Nila Yes, me, my dad and cousins all have it, albeit not as strongly. He had it like clockwork, whenever something was about to go down, very related to the material world and survival, the close ones, the family etc. Whereas for me it's mostly related to spiritual guidance, but I also get dreams of warnings sometimes, or guidance about the people close to me in everyday life (their true character and motives etc). My wife never had dreams her whole life, as soon as we moved in together, she started getting it too. Now it's almost a daily breakfast topic before we hit the day, we talk about our dreams and what they meant. So it's there in my energy field somehow. Now that she started getting dreams it's always about her family and how they're doing. Mine is mostly spiritual guidance as I said, but also what's happening with my family, and sometimes material warnings or guidance. Ofc also the odd psychological dream about my own emotional unconscious every now and then, but usually when I wake it's quite clear what kind of dream it was (psychological or spiritual). Also whenever people cross over, I usually dream of them, see their current state, exchange last words, sometimes help them if they're lost. I cannot always do it in the dream, then I do it in my meditation during the day. I noticed that most non-white people naturally have all these things, a natural connection to spirit, intuition, gut instinct, dreams and the ancestors. Because my one side of the family all have it, whereas the white don't at all. And ofc growing up in majority white society, no one could really mirror these things back to me, as it was just outside their experience, they didn't know, didn't feel, didn't understand. All was mental. Then when I was a teenager I got a lot of friends with immigrant background, serbians, iranians, people from the Middle East, and ALL had it, naturally. Gut instinct, dreams. I also noticed it when I became a SKY master and started giving chakra initiations to people. Non-white people receive the energy much easier and more powerfully, it impacts them very deeply on a soul level much faster. It was the same when I was doing qigong healing as taught by firstly Zhongxian Wu then later Chunyi Lin, this was between 2018-2022. All the non-white people would get visions, dreams, cry, see their deceased grandparents, they would get guidance in the session what had happened and what they needed to change, it was very natural and spontaneous, flowing. I spoke with a sufi master about it, he himself obviously being from the Middle East, and he said he had observed the same. He said it's because each race is designed by God in a particular way, orginally more suitable for physical survival in particular climates, but later now it's related to the types of souls and the "karma" (from eastern perspective) they need to work out. Ofc in sufism they say it's the qadr or qismat, or destiny/fate written for that soul. E.g. people from particular races, cultures and religions are meant to go through different types of karma and soul corrections. Some examples of "nations" and their soul types according to Sufism and Kabbalah (just to give an idea): For instance people born in Iraq are said to be souls with pure hearts, but as they were warriors in past lifetimes, in this life, no matter how innocent and friendly they are, people will attack them, betray them, fool them etc., it's their karma. Whereas people born in Scandinavia or moving to live in Scandinavia are souls which are to learn about mental organisation and structure, but their challenge is that they become "removed" from life itself. Instead of efficiency and excellence, they become robotic and out of touch with life itself, hence the epidemic of mental ilness, unhappy families etc. People born in the Carribean Islands are people who are naturally grounded, relaxed, at ease, in contact with the physical body, enjoy life naturally, but their challenge is that they become overtaken by sexual pleasure and rivalry too much. Like that the "karmic scripts" of different races, cultures and nations are said to be a hint from Almighty God about ourselves and how to best correct our karma.

"Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed into a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness- experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death, life is a dream and we are the imagination of ourselves." (Bill Hicks) row, row row your boat gently down the stream.... *disclaimer: drugs are bad mmmkay and not needed for this kind of realization (takes a slow sardonic drag of a cigarette)

I too have now come to the conclusion that we are having a collective (as well as individual, how is that for non-duality) dream. A friend of me showed me that a sleep walking doll had been put on (manifested? 🤔) the roof of his house a few days ago. I’ll try to take a pic next time I walk by.

@Lala Nila African Voodoo is pretty much just like any shamanistic tradition world wide, it's all the same. It's almost identical to hinduism, qigong and daoism as well. There's life force animating the universe, we should be in harmony with that, and magic is simply working with this life force as well as the ancestors, spirits and Gods. Thanks for sharing about your javanese connection, very interesting! Yes, all the ancestor energy is present in our physical body, and some of them might even be following us and helping us daily or just from time to time. Some stories about my grandfather. He was a typical "caribbean man" in the sense that he had a baby mama everywhere, children in Haiti we didn't know about, in the US with a different woman, 4 kids with 3 different women here in Scandinavia, 2 in Ireland with another women, and God knows how many else spread across the globe. He didn't really know his father, but was close with his mother. However his mother died when he was just 7, so he was sent to live with distant relatives in the US. Since that time his mom would come in his dreams and give him life guidance and messages. As he was a very free spirit who liked to travel here and there, suddenly we wouldn't hear from him for 6 months to a year, but suddenly he would call and warn us of a dream he had. And everytime it came true. E.g. employees stealing money from my dad's business, my dad's relationship breaking (divorce from my mom), my dad's relationship about to break with his new girlfriend, he would call and give the dream warnings about what was about to happen. But my dad is quite the rebel, also because my grandfather wasn't there for him so much when he was younger, so he never listened to the advice. Once my grandfather didn't have money, his mother came in a dream and gave him the numbers to the lottery, and he won using those numbers. Once he used to hang out in a boxing gym when my dad was young and on the national team. They were 3-4 old retired guys, just coming for the hang out daily. My grandfather was one of them. My dad was a fighter. One morning on the bus, my grandfather ran into one of the other old guys. They were chatting just like normal on the bus. However once they reached the gym, the other guy didn't get off. My grandfather thought it was super weird. He told my grandfather to tell the others, that he was doing well but he wasn't coming in, he was going somewhere else. When he arrived and met my dad and the other old guys, he passed the message. The old guys were shocked and got tears in their eyes, because that guy from the bus had died during the night. So it was his soul that came to my grandfather, as my grandfather was the only one who could see and hear him. I could go on and on, there are so many more stories, also my own personal stories of dreams!

yes, I keep a dream journal. Immediately after waking up I record any dreams I had, the associated emotions, anything that sticks out. I try to recall as much details as possible- everything I can recall, even silly details. I write them down and then later at night I type everything in my daily practice journal. Hmmm, as in the Eye of Horus and the Eye of Ra? It's interesting to me that was immediately invoked within you, did you see those symbols in the minds eye? As in the womb shedding phase representing the red eye (Solar) and the luteal phase representing the white eye (lunar)- a microcosmic representation of shedding/oscillation from red to white, creating cosmic balance? Solar/lunar balance. Lunar having more connection to dreamscape and the unconscious. I'm not well versed in Egyptian lore, I should get on that. You might be on to something the more I think about it, especially the finer details about synching with the lunar phases (new moon, full moon, etc). Thanks

That sounds good. Did you keep a dream diary? Are there any books which helped you work out what to do. The menstrual cycle thing makes me think of the Egyptian red eye white eye thing. Maybe there's a connection.

I am not. If I work full bore, I may have 1-2 per month. Another way to work with it is to lay in bed and drift in and out of sleep during the liminal phase. It won't necessarily be a lucid dream, but seeing different states of waking, sleeping and dreaming arising and passing is very helpful as well.

Essence is not function. Something can be false (or magical if you prefer) and still function. For example, a dream hammer is useful in a dream, but not useful in the waking state (and vice versa).

Yes, I think ‘Spirit’ can see through both. The mundane or ego mind, as you put it, feels it’s in charge, I think from necessity, since without Shiva present it has no container and so has to run its own defense. Yielding consciously to Shiva can feel like annihilation, because, as you say, the ego-mind doesn’t recognise its proper place as servant and not master. For reasons I don’t fully understand, it seems to me that Shiva is cast out, and when this energy tries to re-enter we resist. I had a dream at twelve of a man sitting in a chair, staring out the window, stroking a cat on his lap. He seemed both frighteningly mad and catatonic. Then I heard the words: “He is me.” That dream pulled the rug from under me, it literally broke my view of myself as a twelve year old girl, but it also set me on the path of learning to understand dreams, because I figured by understanding dreams in general I would be able to understand this dream. Now, forty years later, I believe what I had seen was ‘Shiva’, ‘Shiva-mind’, flagged as me, which I was unable to remotely comprehend then. I’ve come to think we have to walk in Shiva’s shoes eventually. Now my dreams show ‘Shiva’ circling closer: a bull circling the house, a car crashing through the walls, someone breaking in through a window and trying to roll up the blinds. Allowing Shiva to re-enter is unnerving. His energy is powerful and alien, and he is no less frightening now than when I was twelve. But the difference is that today, with more cleared ground and greater understanding, I can at least try to let the process happen, even if it is not easy.

The old Kunlun craze was something--- the Lama DORJE THUNDERBOLT movie/website where he walked around in vaguely Tibetan robes evidently channeling qi into screaming women. That armies died in order to learn the mysterious Red Phoenix technique. People looking for dream initiation. Horror movies. Clones. Conspiracies of the highest order. I agree with what Sahaja said, but would add that involuntary movements are widely known across traditions and tend to pop up even during intensive concentration and Vipassana retreats.