The Dream -- A Challenge?

Hello, bloggers.

I wanted to share with you a long and involved dream, which came to me from the other side last November, on Thanksgiving night.

In the dream, there were beings that were educators, and they spoke to me for hours and hours, taking me from the beginning of history up to the present day and beyond.  They spoke to me in images and words.  Here is what they said:

“When the world was created and human beings came to dominate the earth, the species had to survive.  Therefore, the gene structures were created such that the bigger, the better; the meaner, the better.  Male dominance was persistent because males had to hunt down the food and defend against interlopers.

The females, then, looked for the dominant male, so their offspring would be better able to defend themselves and become part of the survival system.

This went on until the mental capacity changed and a few of the lesser physically able but more mentally able beings were able to use objects that would overcome the agility, force, and power of the bigger individual.  That was when stones and sticks turned into weapons, and the whole system changed.  You didn’t have to be the biggest and the meanest; you had to be the smartest.

That scenario then became impregnated into the gene structure itself over the millennia.  To this day, you can see that in much of the animal world, where the lions kill the offspring:  first the dominant male when they get old, then the offspring, so they can impregnate the females and imprint their own genes.

But in the human species, the bigger the weapon, the more dominant the culture.  You can see history unfold in this manner, with great battles and military achievements, so that the use of weaponry and the destruction of other cultures became not the anomaly, but the norm.

As time went on, people gathered together as tribes and then as nations, and would wage war on other nations, because this was the nature of the development of cultures.  Within those cultures, there was always a dominant ruling class, so that if some minor skirmish brought out a revolt, those revolters would be killed.  By eliminating the revolters from the scene, it enabled concerted power sources to endure, such as the Roman Empire, Genghis Kahn, Hitler, and Stalin.

In the 20th Century, the human species made the ultimate weapon, the bombs of destruction.  Now, this planet has the ability to destroy this planet.

Now, Lamb, you say you’re looking for a “New Los Alamos.”  One of the answers to creating a New Los Alamos will be a pact to be signed by all nations of the world.  The pact would state that if any one of them would be the first user of nuclear weapons, under any circumstances, good or bad—and there are no good circumstances to use them—then all other nations would have an automatic system to instantaneously redeploy their weapons to completely and utterly destroy the nation that initiated it.”

At this point in the dream, I said to the educators: 

"But that is not an answer, because embedded in all cultures are fanatics whose most dominant instinct is self-preservation.  But today, in some people, that instinct has been replaced with hatred and death.  These people will give up their lives to kill other people, knowing as they go into it that they are going to die...

“...So a well-financed, well-organized group could decide to destroy peaceful nations by masking incidents that supposedly came from that nation, in a way that would lead that whole nation to be destroyed.  If a group came into the U.S. and organized undercover, and was able to launch a weapon from the U.S., then the whole United States would be destroyed.”

The educators then answered:

“If that is so, then you are left with the process of turning people who are haters and want to destory everyone, into people who love everyone and are part of the mainstream.  When you do that, that’s a two-way street, because the powerful have to become much more inclusive and much more tolerant.  They must have acceptance of everyone.  There must be an equalization, but it must occur without the regimentation of the whole system.

We know that Communism doesn’t work, so you’re not only changing the supposedly bad people, you’re also changing the supposedly good people, and that is the salvation of your planet.  Do you think that your message can do that, Lamb?”

And I said, “Yes.”

And they said:  “Okay, now we’re going to take a lesson in reality.  You’re now going to spend a couple hours going through your messages before test audiences, and you will be able to read their minds to see how they respond to what you’re saying as you try to save the world.”

So I went through everyone I knew, every power structure I know, every location I’ve ever been to, and it was so disturbing:  There would be thousands of people who I’d talk to, and I’d say to myself, “Why are they here?”  And the answer, from being able to know what they were thinking, was:  “Because there was a free dinner offered.”

There were other one-on-one meetings, and meetings with only two or three people in the room, and there was constantly somebody standing behind me at all these different events.  Sometimes they were children, other times they were old people, teenagers, middle-aged people, and they’d break in as I was talking and say, “Mr. Lamb, where’s the washroom?”  Or “Mr. Lamb, I don’t have a napkin.”  It was like a barking dog was always tugging at my pant leg, trying to get my attention.

Sheila was there in the dream, rounding up all these different people.  I came into one of the rooms, a fantastic, white room, like what you’d imagine as the site of a great feast or wedding.  And I said to Sheila, “Boy, this is great!  These people will really understand what I’m talking about!”

And she said, “You’re going to have to get your message out really quick, because everybody’s here to eat the sausages.  The best thing you can do to keep their attention is to give your deepest message while everybody’s still shoveling down their sausages.”

Later on, I walked into another room to talk to another group, and they seemed to be very excited in anticipation of what I was going to say.  As soon as I started my talk, 90% of the people got up and walked out.  I asked someone what was going on, and they said, “This was the waiting room for a movie.”

Finally, after myriads of these things, I met with Sheila and said to her, “What the hell’s going on?”

And she said, “I’ve had five people in this room, and I think they’re really going to do something about what you’re saying.”

So I went in, and four of them said, “We’re really for you.”  The fifth one said, “Yeah, and boy, am I going to make millions on this!”

And then, finally, the speaking to all the different people and groups stopped.

The educators then said to me: “Lamb, our consensus is, you’re wasting your time.  In fact, we have a lot more work for you to do somewhere else, which would be much more meaningful for you.  We’d like you to come with us.”

And I said, “No, thank you.  I still think I can do it.”

They said, “Give us a call if you change your mind, but know this:  It’s going to be tough.  As you can see, we don’t make the rules; we’re just here as the educators.  We’d rather see you come with us than waste your time with these people who don’t know what the hell you’re doing.”

And I repeated, “I still have hope I can do it.”

That was the end of the dream.

What did it mean?  Who were the educators?

If I had to guess, I’d say it was the voices of all the spirits in my paintings.  They were trying to show me the enormity of it.  You go into a movie theater with 10,000 people, and everybody is looking at the most wonderful movie with the greatest score and the greatest lines every spoken by man.  And the whole theater is on fire, and only 5 people are yelling “Fire,” and the rest are saying “Be quiet; we want to watch the movie!”

The people I was speaking to in the different meeting halls in the dream, didn’t want to hear about it; they were there out of courtesy; they didn’t like the message or didn’t care about it. The educators laid it all out for me, and it was so immense.

A normal person, who was not crazy, would look at the immensity of the task and just say, “The hell with this!  Take me with you, wherever you’re going!  Show me the door, and I’ll walk through it!  I hope they have a good, cold beer and a shot for me!”

You could also make a case that the dream was the devils trying to discourage me.  It is what it is.

It makes me question whether this is a hopeless cause I’m undertaking.  I don’t know the answer to that; I don’t think the book is written yet.  I think—I know—that if there wasn’t a Don Quixote out there to tilt at the windmill and take on the task, there would be no hope.

The technology for killing has far outpaced the technology for loving.  We’ve baked the cake for our own destruction.  99% of the bakers don’t want to hear about it.  Only 1% wants to save us from ourselves.  To do that is going to mean basic change.

I thought long and hard about whether I wanted to write about my dream on the Blog.  My daughter Sheila told me I definitely should, because I’ve never shied away from controversy.  My wife, Rose, told me it couldn’t possibly make me seem any crazier than I actually am—or maybe it could.

If you have any thoughts on it, or what it might mean, I’d love to hear from you. 

Matt

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Comments

March 12. 2009 22:57

Dear Matt - First of all, I want to applaud your courage. Secondly, ....Happy Birthday Rose!!!!! May you live to see your husbands wish for a better world come true.
Matt, I know you have a great sense of humor, so I was seriously tempted to say yes, you're definitely "cuckoo" as Richard so eloquently put it. But the truth is, I believe you're one of the most sane guys i've ever met. Your entrenched and deeply rooted sanity stems from your inspiring hope and belief that we CAN create peace on this lovely blue planet. Such a hope is in fact the REAL dream. And dreams, as we all know, do come true. Consider this: if there was no such thing as hope for peace, then every sage, saint, master, world teacher and enlightened individual was tragically misguided. Does anyone out there actually think that might be the case? So i suggest that instead of questioning the sanity of your position, you embrace the brilliance and wisdom of your beautiful loving soul. I do.

barry mack

March 12. 2009 23:19

Matt, here's another way of looking at your dream. Let's say the Educators could somehow prove they are right, there is no hope and we should all just give up now, keel over and die. Would we? Would you?
If people stood around a plant and screamed that it would never reach the sun and it should give up trying, ....would it?
Our souls, like trees and plants instinctively grow toward the Light. We instinctively want and believe in love, in peace. So ultimately, it really doesn't matter what anyone says about this. We will continue to believe, and work and hope for peace.

barry mack

March 13. 2009 01:23

And I repeated, “I still have hope I can do it.”

Hope is the drive of having a future history and existence. To have no hope is surely to have crossed into end times. The way to turn hope into reality is through education and the way to turn education into action is one person at a time. There is hope - even in these economic times and ART is needed now more than ever! It stirs the mind and curiosity and that will plant seeds of hope into people who feel hopeless. Peace comes only through a process of "hoping into action". You most certainly are an example of turning ones hope into a tangible effort towards peace. I say that your dream, and the educators who appeared in it, are saying "Matt we need you more than ever... do what you can - one person at a time and watch the human wave grow. Share your art and provide artistic opportunities for others with at an even more frenetic pace" After all, you cannot force another to change, you can only live your life full of peace and love and hope that you inspire another for the positive. March forward in your mission! Rejoice that you have a loving family who will march along with you as you fulfill your Godly mission of spreading peace.

jean carey

March 13. 2009 03:10

Hi Matt -- and thanks Richard.
I'm going to go ahead and comment off the cuff, but also give it a day or so and maybe come back with more thought.

This dream certainly speaks to me of the furstration and near-despair of people like you - Matt - who have such a strong vision and clarity, but who face myriads of ignorance and the seeming genetic inability to "get it."
And still you want to do it because your own make up is designed that way.
It's simply not easy.

I am thinking about the four who were in the room with Sheila - for two reasons. One, it reminds me of the christian biblical stoy where god's own frustration wants to do in a whole nation and one man bargains down and down, "but, lord, for ten righteous, would you save.... for five, for one -- for one righteous person finally it was worthwhile to save the whole.
Perhaps the barking dog is one righteous person. Can we turn to see the one person in front of us ALWAYS - as meaningful enough to save an entire nation?

the other thought is more gestalt. All the figures in any of our dreams can also be interpreted as some part of ourselves. Sheila -- something about Sheila -- the Sheila part of Matt - was able at least to find these four.... perhaps there are voices like yours, Matt coming directly from the more feminine/femininst side of culture... maybe the modern language of eco-feminists is correct, THEY, and they'r manner, is the voice required to save the planet. Susan Griffin, M. Bowlen who wrote of the goddess in every woman and man, also wrote of how the earth is needing the rise (maybe return) of more feminine ways. (many many women are saying this - recognizing it not out of anger or oppression, but clarity that the OTHER ways are not working...)
Supposadly Malta was inhabitated at some point by whole communities without weapons... Supposadly more and more anthropologists are realizing that the earliest forms of art and culture we find - depict some awareness of the meaningfulness of the feminine as a guide. Gddess figures are found all over tha world. this does not take away from maleness or men. It recognizes that the feminine aspce of all men and all women may be the ultimae answer, the vision which saves.
And my persoinal thinking is that this feminine way would have turned around to the child who needed a washroom, and made she he got there.

One person at a time. It's certainly a direction.

In the end, matt -- i am grateful to consider what you are asking. I believe you and your dream are definitely giving something of yourself to the whole.

I do have hope. I appreciate hearing yours. It is possible to live peacefully with each other. I think for most of us who do not speak to thousands, one person at a time is the best way to live it.

I'll keep this in heart and mind a few days and come back to see what else people have said, and if I have more to add.

Thank you -- many cultures bring
BIG" dreams to the commuity, because they are meant for community.. If any of us do NOT give over something so "big" we would d ie of too much fertile soil being stuck in one place and not allowed to thrive. Drown,
or go crazy.

Plenty of
crasy" insitutionalized, have profound wisdom, but without being heard or listened to- without a venue of art or speaking, they go crazy from carrying too much.

In a few days then, with care and gratitude, Ani Rose

anirose

March 15. 2009 05:24

Just wondering (since this dream occured on Thanksgiving night) if you had eaten a large portion of turkey or other protein foods. Tryptophan is a component of protein-rich foods. The tryptophan may have put you into a deeper sleep than normal, thus allowing you through your dream to cope with the stress you feel to promote peace throughout the world.
According to Chinese medicine, "spirit molecules" are synthesized from the amino acid tryptophan in a series of biochemical steps. The spirit molecules enable the nourishment and sustenance of the soul, sought daily in deep sleep and dream. http://www.acutcmdetox.com/tryptophan2.html

Louise

March 15. 2009 05:37

Oops! Just realized I misspelled "occurred" in my blog post...

Louise

March 15. 2009 18:47

Thanks Matt- it is a brave and sacred thing to share a dream. A few thoughts upon reading...

That aspect of asking people to change- the "good" and "bad" people, gets my attention. We live in a time that is asking for us to change- for anyone who can hear it. Some people are hearing it, and willing to go for it. And some aren't. A lot of people are in sheer survival mode.

In studying quantum physics, I have encountered the idea of how one small aspect of a system changing will cause everything to change. Electrons carry information. In a three week period, every electron on the planet crosses paths with every other electron. So what we think and feel and care about is shared on an electron level. One person changes, and it goes out to many. One person inspires a few people to change, and that goes out on a quantum level as well. It has always been a small group of people that have brought about real transformation on a large scale. This idea gives me hope. As I see it, every time someone says yes to taking action on the calling within the deepest part of themselves, that moves the planet closer to peace.

Here's to your continuing journey, inside and out in the world.



Tamara English

March 18. 2009 17:08

hello again.
wow I love the information about tryptophan and the quantum physics insight!

I have spent some time thinking more on your dream, and the process you have started by giving it over to a whole community of people. I wonder if some of the meaning of the dream has changed, or been enhanced, by the interaction of community. If you had not shared it, the meaning is up to you and you alone, and yo are the only one who would "know" the truth of it.
But it belongs to more than just you now -- and has different meanings for different people, which may be just right.

so, here is another thought. When I read first, and as I have re-read the dream and considered it, I am not left with any sense of hopelessness at all. This was the story of a man who said no, don't let me run away from such a grand task. I really do still believe in it. I don't believe I am wasting my time by speaking from my heart to people who might not get it, but might.
that's a good thing -- it offers courage to everyone else, a certain defiance against despair, and added inspiration.

The fact that maybe there were only four, in the end, does not take away from that. There were four. And if each of those four found four more, and so on and so on, then it works -- at a grass roots level, which, like so much in the history of non-violence, really is the way to get things done.


I also started thinking about my own passions and how sometimes I feel angry or sad or tempted into hopelessness when it seems as though so few people "get it," let alone want to do anything about it. this brought me to one of the profoundly freeing insights which has feuled alot of my artwork and writing, particularly in the last year or so. What other people think of me is really none of my business. If I am following my heart, follwing as clearly as I can, the great spirit within me (and all) then that is all I have to worry about. The rest is up to god, through things like electrons and spirit and the ways in which the natural world is constantly re-creating. The earth is never NOT regenerating, and that's a good lesson for us as individuals. I am far more able to be free and solid in my words and artwork and daily life when I remember these things. I find myself much happier in general, and like the challenge to focus on what I am doing only.

Maybe, Matt, you need not carry the burden of whether or not people hear you right away, or ever. Others have responsibility for themselves, and their own journey with god/dess/life. What yoy HAVE -- and this is what speaks most anyway, is firm belief and inner inspiration and guidance to do what you do. That's clear in the dream.

Again, it seems significant to me that the four who "heard" in the dream, were the ones with sheila, in a separate room. It confirms to me that your job is to just keep doing it. People who "hear" will gather and be moved wether or not you are aware of it.

I wonder what a creative digital would look like as a view from space looking on earth, and there were vast colors in various areas where the ubrella parades have been....each area like a spot of paint would slowly soak in and expand...

You are not alone, matt. Not in wondering if it is hopeless, nor in wanting peace so desperatly. Please continue to speak and do parades and paint for your passion, freely and joyfully as you can.

Thanks again for sharing this, for letting us be part of the dreams gifts.

Ani Rose

anirose

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