I Have A Dream

 

    What is a dream? Some people may have an idea leading to their success come to them in a dream while sleeping. John Lennon wrote a best-selling song -- one of his most iconic solo works -- based on a dream he had. The chorus of "#9 Dream" repeats a nonsensical phrase he heard in the dream, "Ah! böwakawa poussé, poussé," and the lyrics refer to the feeling of a dream being real: "So long ago/ Was it in a dream, was it just a dream?/Seemed so very real, it seemed so real to me." Beatles legend has it that Paul McCartney composed the melody for "Yesterday" -- the most-covered song in music history -- in a dream one night in 1964. 

          Director Christopher Nolan took the inspiration for his 2010 psychological thriller Inception from his own lucid dreams. The psychological thriller follows a dream thief (played by Leonardo DiCaprio), a corporate spy, who steals dreams from the minds of CEOs and business tycoons. 

    Stephen King was hit by a minivan in 1999, while he was walking down a country road in Maine. While recovering from the collapsed lung and a shattered leg, the prolific horror writer began having vivid dreams. Those dreams formed the basis of the 2001 novel turned film Dreamcatcher. But it wasn't the only work of King's to be inspired by a dream. King has said, that his dreams help him to portray events symbolically in his writing.

    A field of cows inspired Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, which, according to a calm.com survey, is one of the most important ideas that ever came out of sleep. In his dream, Einstein was telling a farmer about cows being surrounded by an electric fence, but the farmer saw something different. Einstein awakened with the realization that the same event could vary from different perspectives, and the theory of relativity began to take shape.

    Elias Howe was exhausted from his attempts to develop a machine that could stitch together fabric. Asleep, he dreampt that cannabils were preparing to cook him as they danced about waving spears—and the spears had a hole at the sharp tip. Eureka! That’s when Howe got the idea to pass the thread through the point of the needle instead of the end, explains author David Jones in his book The Aha! Moment: A Scientist’s Take on Creativity. 

    “I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Frightful must it be for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavor to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world.” This is how author Mary Shelley described the lucid dream that led to her classic novel, Frankenstein. 

    Unlike many of the other world-changing ideas mentioned here, the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde didn’t originate after a night of sweet slumber; the tale of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde came to Robert Louis Stevenson during a drug-induced nightmare. His dream-induced screams disturbed his wife, Fanny, who angrily woke him up. Startled, he said to her, “Why did you wake me? I was dreaming a fine bogey tale.” The nightmare took a terrible turn when Fanny thought the first draft of the story was nonsense—and she burned it.  Stevenson feverishly rewrote the 30,000-word story over a three-day period. Sure enough, it ended up selling so well that the book lifted the Stevensons out of debt.

    According to psychoanalyst Carl Jung, our dreams can function on many different levels, from telling us which parts of our psyche are out of balance to anticipating our future needs. He also believed that most dreams operated on the level of stories, myths, and archetypes -- making them a wonderful source of ideas and inspiration. All human beings are also dream beings. Jack Kerouac, who composed a book entirely of his own dreams, once said. "Dreaming ties all mankind together."

    Dreaming is a natural brain function, and all human beings do it. But some people never remember their dreams, according to experts. Your dreams have meanings as well. Psychologists say that both men and women become sexually aroused while dreaming (even if the dream has no sexual content). Average amount of time spent dreaming per night: 1 1⁄2 to 2 hours. Some people dream during the day as well.

     There is another type of dreaming and dream. People have come to believe in the "Ameican Dream?" Over time, the phrase “American dream” has come to be associated with upward mobility and enough economic success to lead a comfortable life. Historically, however, the phrase represented the idealism of the great American experiment. If you ask most people around the world what they mean by the “American dream,” nearly all will respond with some version of upward social mobility, the American success story, or the self-made man (rarely the self-made woman).

     No less an authority than the Oxford English Dictionary defines the American dream as “the ideal that every citizen of the United States should have an equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative.”

    The idea that every person, no matter their present circumstance, could become rich if they worked hard in America, was not the norm. For most rich people during that time period, with money and status, wealth had been passed down from generation to generation. You had to be born into wealth. And if a person who had not been born into wealth and status within the country became wealthy, their newly acquired wealth was looked down upon for being “new money.” The American dream opened the possibility for anyone to become rich and gain status in the country.

    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had this type of dream for America. His speech about a dream and vision he had for America became famous. The I Have a Dream speech, is a public speech that was delivered by the American civil rights activist and Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr. during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In the speech, King called for civil and economic rights and an end to racism in the United States.

    Martin Luther King Jr.'s “Dream” speech was a call for equality. It identified the faults of America and what measures were needed to make it a better place. A central theme throughout the speech was the importance of everyone being treated equally. His dream was a vision he believed was accomplishable if the effort and hard was put towards the goal.

    Successful people may have other things going for them as well. But they certainly have a vision. A clear dream, along with the courage to act and follow through, dramatically increases your chances of success. It has been said that if you aim for nothing, you will hit it every time! I couldn’t agree more. The Good Book says that without a vision, people perish. They run amuck. They live without restraint, giving their time and attention to whatever screams the loudest instead of what will get them ahead in life (Proverbs 29:18).

    Altruism or having altruistic dreams is the selfless act of helping others without expecting anything in return. It is often considered one of the defining characteristics of what it means to be human. The list of people in history who had dreams of helping others and the world at large is a short list. Their journey of following their dreams gives real meaning to they can’t go where you are going.

    Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of an America which embraced all of its people regardless of color and economic status and treated each fairly. Even though there were many people supporting his dream, there were many in opposition to his dream.

    Some of the major political leaders of the day spoke out in opposition to Martin Luther King Jr's dream and the demands of civil rights activists. Many prominent Democrats made the argument that African Americans should be happy with what they had, rather than asking for more.

    The majority of White Americans living in the South opposed King, but that reaction was not confined to the South. By 1966, a nationwide Gallup poll found only 33% of Americans had positive feelings about Dr. King. Seventy-five percent of Americans disapproved of the civil rights leader as he spoke out against the Vietnam War and economic disparity.

    White racial resentment was still a critical factor at that point. But Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s unfavorable numbers were at least 25 points higher in 1968 than in 1963, and his faltering appeal over the final years of his life was also a consequence of appearing to fall behind his times in some respects even as he was leaping well ahead of them in others.

    Martin Luther King Jr., born January 15, 1929, was an American Baptist minister, activist, and political philosopher who was one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968. A Black church leader and a son of early civil rights activist and minister Martin Luther King Sr., King advanced civil rights for people of color in the United States through nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience against Jim Crow laws and other forms of discrimination in the United States.

    King participated in and led marches for the right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other civil rights. He oversaw the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and later became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). As president of the SCLC, he led the unsuccessful Albany Movement in Albany, Georgia, and helped organize some of the nonviolent 1963 protests in Birmingham, Alabama. King was one of the leaders of the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his I Have a Dream speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington D.C. The civil rights movement achieved pivotal legislative gains in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

    Dr. King met and lost friends and supporters while working to achieve his dream. In 1968, King was planning a national occupation of Washington, D.C., to be called the Poor People's Campaign, when he was assassinated on April 4 in Memphis, Tennessee. His death was followed by national mourning, as well as anger leading to riots in many U.S. cities. King was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2003. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established as a holiday in cities and states throughout the United States beginning in 1971; the federal holiday was first observed in 1986. Hundreds of streets in the U.S. have been renamed in his honor, and King County in Washington was rededicated for him. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was dedicated in 2011.

    Dr. King understood the dangers of him fighting for social change and equality. He knew many people wouldn’t embrace his vision for a different America. He also knew there would be people who were not going to be able to be a part of his dream and that he may not live to see his own dream come about. The knowledge of where his dreams may take him did not stop him from dreaming and working towards that dream.

    There are people who dream and have the satisfaction of living to see their dream come true. There are some people who know they will not live to see the realization of their dreams. There are people who cannot go where you are going. Sometimes to your death because of your dream. They can’t go with you where you are going.

    Reach for as many personal dreams you can acheive. Hopefully, while acheiving personal dreams, you will reach for altruistic dreams which benifits humanity. HAVE A DREAM.

***THIS IS AN EXCERPT FROM A WORK IN PTOGRESS: "    They Can't Go With You Where You Are Going"

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Dreams + Vision Board

 Want to add another tool to acheiving success? Try a vision board.

    This is my vision board for 2024.

 

    You may have heard people refer to vision boards, but do you know what a vision board is and its purpose?

    

    Simply put, a vision board is a collage of images and words representing a person's wishes or goals, intended to serve as inspiration or motivation. Nothing more or nothing less. The great thing about a vision board is that they are as unique as every individual and individual dreams and goals.

    People are given the suggestion of cutting out images from magazines which represent goals they want to acheive or dreams they want to come to fruition. Words can also be used. The finale product should be a visual of what you would like to acheive and are working to acheive.

    The concept of vision boards is relatively new. Vision boards became popular after Rhonda Byrne's self-help book, The Secret, was published in 2006. Byrne introduced her readers to the idea that they could manifest their desires through the law of attraction, which is the idea that positive thinking will bring positive experiences into a person's life. 

    The law of attraction is a philosophy suggesting that positive thoughts bring positive results into a person's life. While negative thoughts bring negative outcomes. It is based on the belief that thoughts are a form of energy and that positive energy attracts success in all areas of life, including health, finances, and relationships.

    I chose to use real photographs and skills, in word form, I need to become a succesful writer. Let's look at my vision board again.

    My board begins with the word CAREER in the center and underneath, a picture of a publishing contract waiting to be signed. I want a writing career and for my work to be published. Oprah is represented twice on my board. I want my books to be on her book club reading list and I want to be interviewed for Master Class giving tips for success. Religion is featured twice in photograph form. Once for my continued reading of the Bible and for the Trinity to always be with me. The majority of my writing is Christian themed or mentioned. The word pray is also present. A world map is pictured because I want my writing to be read worldwide and a picture of a woman motivational speaker speaking to a packed audience is part of my board. I included bookstores I would like to see my work sold in along with being interviewed on Good Morning America. 

    Words play a significant role on my board such as, have a thick skin, refuse to quit, manifest, meditate, daydream, trust my gut, subscribers, visualized, destroy negative demons, commit, plan, multitask eliminate fear, post online, read, passion as fuel, and remove limits. 

    The word BALANCE is important to avoide burnout and stress while working towards my dream It is in different colors and there is a reason behind using different colors. There are 7 chakras, each having its own indiviual color or either red, orange, gold, green, blue, dark blue, and purple. I want my chakras to be in balance and aligned. Algnment is important. One of Opra's famous qoutes state, "When my power (my mind, intellect, desire to learn, and seed plant) align with my personality and my gift I have to give, why I am here (alignment of personality and purpose), I will acheive my dreams (I added text in parentheses).

    Another part of my vision board is enjoy the process and journey and that is represented by my future tea cup puppy I plan to buy along with my convertable mini coupe. Even while we are putting in the hard work and time to acheive our dreams and goals, we must make sure we are enjoying today. Another element I wanted to add was my plans, once I have the income, is to open a fruit and vegatable market which also offers slads and seating ares to enjoy a healthy meal.

    76% of small business owners who've used vision boards and images to create their companies say their businesses are where they envisioned them. Oprah Winfrey, Jim Carrey, Will Smith, Steve Harvey, and Beyonce have used the technique of vision board to manifest their goals and have acheived great sucess in their respective fields by doing so.

    

 

Do you believe in angels and other celestial beings?

Do you believe in angels? Do you believe you have a gaudian angel? Fifty-five percent of adult people believe they have been protected by a guardian angel during their life. Sixty-seven percent of people who believe in God believe in guardian angels. According to an Associated Press - GfK poll, 88% of Christians, 95% of Evangelical Christians, and 94% of those who attend weekly religious services of any sort say they believe in angels.

Have you ever seen or encountered an angel? Many believe there are various ways angels can be seen by humans.

LIGHT:  bursts of small, colored lights across your field of vision; glowing orbs; a constant stream of very bright white light which, like the sun, is difficult to look into directly. 

SHADOWS, CLOUDS, OR MISTS: 

WEARING WINGS: Why do angels take this form? Is this what angels "really" look like? The angels sometimes take this form because angels know this form is familiar to humans, so it’s an easy way for angels to identify themselves without a shadow of a doubt.  

AS HUMANS: It is far more common for angels to appear in physical form as humans than wearing wings. Often an angel will appear as a human because the angel wants to offer you assistance—a good Samaritan who changes your tire, a fellow shopper who helps you pick the perfect outfit for a first date. And the best way for angels to work in public around other people unnoticed is in human form.

A DIVINE SCENT

A FLURRY OF FEATHERS: Even a single feather is thought to be one of the most familiar ways an angel messenger may attempt to connect with us. If you keep finding feathers appearing out of nowhere, often in random places, chances are it’s a gift from the angels. Different colours are reported as having different meanings, for example, a white feather can be a comforting sign to reassure you that your deceased loved ones are safe and watching over you. A brown feather, meanwhile, can signify stability in your home life.

MEANINGFUL MUSIC: Listen up when you have a particular song stuck in your head – especially if it isn’t one you’ve heard recently. Or, if you press shuffle on your playlist and the perfect song for your current state of mind and circumstances randomly pops up.

NATURE'S WINGED MESSENGERS: You may already be familiar with the phrase ‘Robins appear when loved ones are near.' You may also have heard the saying ‘Butterflies are the heaven-sent kisses of an angel’. It’s believed that a butterfly – particularly if it catches your eye by doing something unusual, such as landing on your hand – can also be a sign that the spirit of your loved one lives on. 

PENNIES: Find a penny and all day long you’ll have good luck! A coin in your path – a penny from heaven – is said to be a token to remind you that you are truly precious. If you’re finding coins are cropping up in unexpected places a lot in your life, see them as a special gift to treasure from an angel messenger. Collect them as a sign of celestial support and cherish them as little keepsakes to remind you of the angels.

THE POWER OF WORDS:When you ask the angels for a sign, sometimes you will receive literally just that! An advert on the side of a bus, a street sign with the name of an angel or a billboard that contains something that may resonate with your current situation. Pay special attention to any recurring themes. 

FEELING THEIR PRESENCE: When angels are near, some experts say you may notice a cool breeze, a dip in temperature in the room or feel a warm, loving presence close by. Some have experienced ringing in the ears or tingling on the crown of their head, which they believe are signs that the angels are trying to communicate.

NUMBERS: Have you ever noticed how you seem to look at the clock at exactly the same time every day, for example, 23:23? Or how the same numbers keep coming up over and over again as you go about your daily life? Angels are thought to use repeating sequences such as 111, 222, 333 etc as a way of catching your eye. Put your trust in the angels that this is not purely by chance – they could be trying to convey an important message. Each number has a different meaning so, if it doesn’t already have significance to you, you might want to make a note and do some research of your own into what the numbers mean. 

DREAMS: It’s thought that an angel messenger may make contact through our dreams. This could be because when we’re fully relaxed, we’re particularly open to receiving messages. As soon as you wake, make a note of anything that stood out in the dream – it may be a symbol, a character, an animal or a conversation. See if you can interpret it.

But are there more beings in the divine unknown realm assisting us in our lives?   

Today I awoke feeling a little down for no particular reason. So I asked God to give me a reading to lift my spirits. I felt a pull towards the book of Peter. I was going to read 1 Peter then 2 Peter, but the pages kept flipping to 2 Peter so I just started there then read 1 Peter.

My eye got stuck on 2 Peter 2:10-12 for some reason so I did a study on that today and pray ALL of my reading adds to me in some way.

2 Peter 2:10 "This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority. Bold and arrogant these men slander CELESTIAL BEINGS; yet even ANGELS, though they are STRONGER and more POWERFUL, do not bring slanderous accusations AGAINST such beings in the presence of the Lord. But these men blaspheme in MATTERS they do not understand. They are LIKE brute BEASTS, creatures of INSTINCT, born only to be caught and DESTROYED, and like beasts they too will PERISH."

Most of the commentaries tried to dodge the word "CELESTIAL BEINGS" interpreting it as the 'glories' of God. Man has a tendency to choose what they want to believe when reading the Word and pull other verses to prove their point. It is a good practice because the Word verifies the Word, but man can still interpret scripture wrong, even with good intentions.

I choose to believe Peter's words meant CELESTIAL BEINGS and that we don't understand about them so we tend to speak wrong and teach wrong about them, if we teach about celestial beings at all. Here Peter says there is authority, a ranking of power people despise. He then procedes to talk about celestial beings, strong powerful angels, and then people lacking knowledge of authority being like wild animals just acting on base instinct, not thought, which will make them perish. A heirachy is being shown.

It is easy to discern Peter is concerned with submission to authourity by his first letter he wrote (1 Peter) dealing with authority: Submit to every authority instituted among men etc., slaves submit to masters, wives submit to husbands, and young men be submissive to the elders. So, the theme of understanding authority continues in 2 Peter.

I looked up CELESTIAL BEINGS and Protestant Christianity (Western christianity) does not teach about celestial beings as other Christian denominations/branches do, such as the Jews, Catholics, and Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christians. We do acknowledge the angel Micheal and Gabriel and the existence of angels, but not so much celestial beings.

We know angels are agents of God, but is there more to learn? In a world of 'enlightenment,' crystals, astrology, witchcraft, and devil worshipping, people can go astray. 2 Peter 2:14 says they (bold arrogant men) can SEDUCE the UNSTABLE. Is it any wonder we FEAR understanding celestial beings?

Wesley Baines wrote in "The Spheres of the Christian Angelic Hierarchy" there is a heirarchy to angels and I will list his writings here to be pondered. We all know there are still mysteries of God we do not know and will not know. But Peter wrote for us not to be so quick, without thought, to disclaim things in a realm we don't understand. There are forces we don't know or understand, created by God, other than ourselves at work in areas we don't know, understand, and cannot see. The only sure truth is that they are all under God's authority. The first of the 10 Commandments says "You shall have no OTHER God's BEFORE me." There is acknowledgement of other gods, but they are all under God. God did NOT say to NOT have any OTHER god. He said NOT to have one BEFORE him and I always found that kind of strange. I would never encourage any type of other god worship and I'm not doing so now. God was always angry when people worshipped and depended on other gods before him. God demonstrated even though the gods Pharoah prayed to answered his prayers, our God could outdo every Egyptian god called upon.

So, here is the list of Celestial beings according to their heirarchy and if nothing else I hope you find it interesting.

(1) First Sphere:

SEREPHIM: Tradition places seraphim in the highest rank in Christian angelology and in the fifth rank of ten in the Jewish angelic hierarchy. They are mentioned in the Book of Enoch and the book of Revelation.

CHERUBIM: The cherub is depicted as having two pairs of wings, and four faces: that of a lion (representative of all wild animals), an ox (domestic animals), a human (humanity), and an eagle (birds). Their legs were straight, the soles of their feet like the hooves of a bull, gleaming like polished brass. Satan has been thought to be a fallen Cherub.

THRONES: Thrones are a class of angels, based on an interpretation of Colossians 1:16.

(2) Second Sphere

DOMINATION OF LORDSHIP: The Dominations regulate the duties of lower angels. It is only with extreme rarity that the angelic lords make themselves physically known to humans.

VIRTUES: The Virtues are known for their control of the elements. In addition to being the spirits of motion, they also assist in governing nature. They also assist with miracles, as well as encourage humans to strengthen their faith in God.

POWERS OF AUTHORITIES: Are given their name because they are angels who have power over evil forces, which the angels are able to restrain to keep them from doing harm.

PRINCIPALITIES OR RULERS: Are the angels that guide and protect nations, or groups of peoples, and institutions such as the Church. The Principalities preside over the bands of angels and charge them with fulfilling the divine ministry. There are some who administer and some who assist.

ARCHANGELS: The word archangel is only used twice in the New Testament: 1 Thessalonians 4:16 and Jude 1:9. There are Seven Archangels said to be the guardian angels of nations and countries, and are concerned with the issues and events surrounding these, including politics, military matters, commerce and trade.

In Christian traditions GABRIEL is also considered an archangel. Archangel RAPHAEL appears only in the Book of Tobit (Tobias). Tobit is considered deuterocanonical by Catholics (both Eastern and Western Rites) and Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christians, as well as Anglicans. Archangel URIEL. Uriel's name is not mentioned in the Western Christian Bible, but plays a prominent role in an apocryphal Book of Enoch read by Anglican and Russian Orthodox Christians. The apocryphal Books of Enoch (especially 3 Enoch) tell that METATRON was previously the biblical Enoch, who, upon his ascension to Heaven, was transformed into an archangel and given the name Metatron. He was then bestowed the positions of chief of the archangels, and told the secrets of creation.

ANGELS: The angels are the lowest order of celestial beings, and the most recognized. They are the ones most concerned with the affairs of men and women. Within the category of the angels, there are many different kinds, with different functions. The angels are sent as messengers to humanity. Personal guardian angels come from this class (Matthew 18:10).

PERSONAL GAUDIAN ANGELS: Personal guardian angels are not of a separate order of angels. It is a common belief among Christians that they are assigned to every human being, Christian or not.

(3) INDIVIDUAL ANGELS AND DEMONS FROM THE CHOIR: Archangels belong to this choir ("archangel" has here the meaning of "most powerful angel", not the members of the second lowest choir). Beelzebuth is also addressed as prince of the seraphim in witchcraft litanies. Beelzebub and Azazel were cherubim before their fall. Thomas Aquinas in "Summa Theologica" states that Satan belongs to this choir, not to the seraphim.

There are many unknowns in our world. People are quick to dismiss what they don't understand. At one time people believed touching blood contaminated a person and various other falsehoods due to lack of knowledge. We learn we when we decide to open our minds to new possibilities. Women were burned as witches for having perceived knowledge other than what was accepted by the ruling powers. Christianity frowns on delving into what is labeled as the 'supernatural' when angels and other celestial beings are acknowledged within the Christian Bible. There is clearly more than we know when it comes to the celestial world.