1 result for (book:notp AND session:793 AND stemmed:one)
[... 7 paragraphs ...]
Focusing the senses in time and space is to some extent an acquired art, then — one that is of course necessary for precise physical manipulation. But before that focusing occurs, children, particularly in the dream state, enjoy an overall version of events that gradually becomes sharper and narrower in scope.
[... 3 paragraphs ...]
Before a child has seen mountains it can dream of them. A knowledge of the planet’s environment is an unconscious portion of your heritage. You possess an unconscious environment, a given psychological world attuned to the physical one, and your learning takes place in it subjectively even as objectively you learn exterior manipulation.
[... 1 paragraph ...]
In play, particularly, children try on any conceivable situation for size. In the dream state adults and children alike do the same thing, and many dreams are indeed a kind of play. The brain itself is never satisfied with one version of an event, but will always use the imagination to form other versions in an activity quite as spontaneous as play. It also practices forming events as the muscles practice motion.
[... 3 paragraphs ...]
You have inner senses that roughly correlate with your physical ones. These, however, do not have to be trained to a particular space-time orientation.
[... 2 paragraphs ...]
Alter your time orientation in other such exercises. This will automatically allow you to break away from too narrow a focus. It will to some extent break apart the rigid interlocking of your perception into reality as you have learned how to perceive it. Children can play so vividly that they might, for example, imagine themselves parched under a desert sun, though they are in the middle of the coolest air-conditioned living room. They are on the one hand completely involved in their activity, yet on the other hand they are quite aware of their “normal” environment. Yet the adult often fears that any such playful unofficial alteration of consciousness is dangerous, and becomes worried that the imagined situation will supersede the real one.
[... 13 paragraphs ...]
To one extent or another your consciousness will indeed be traveling. Again, a playful attitude is best. If you retain it and remember children’s games, then the affair will be entirely enjoyable; and even if you experience events that seem frightening, you will recognize them as belonging to the same category as the frightening events of a child’s game.
[... 5 paragraphs ...]