By Karim Said ©2016

Over the years I have become fascinated with a variety of dream figures that I have met in dreamland. I usually look forward to sleeping intrigued at what I will experience next and especially with whom I will meet in my dreams.

As most of us know, the majority of dream figures are like extras in a play. However, some characters portray awareness and intelligence and you can strike up a meaningful conversation with them. Others will just look at you and move along.

I would like to discuss the variety of dream figures that I have encountered so far:

… these seem like extras in a dream. Most probably these are filler characters that are spawned by the subconscious. They seem to have a ‘regular‘ consciousness and may give short answers to questions like yes, no, or give brief comments. Some may not even speak back to you and ignore you altogether.

These are benevolent dream characters that aid us during a dream. These could be teachers, masters, guides, angels etc., that impart a teaching, give aid, healing or useful information to the dreamer.

An example is ‘Dr. Cosmic‘.

This was a humanoid being that was made of rainbow energy. I knew he was a Doctor or Healer of sorts. I thought it would be a good idea to ask him if he could help me with my bad knee.

He told me, “Your knee hurts because you are stubborn”. I thought to myself, ‘I am not stubborn’. So I said, “Stubborn about what?” He said, “Stubborn from not wanting to exercise!”

Touché …. what a way to tell me I am lazy (blush)

He said he would heal my knee but if I don’t start to exercise regularly, at least walking, it would start hurting again. I woke up in the early morning feeling like I was engulfed with warm honey-like energy vibrations for almost an hour and then fell asleep later. When I woke up again my knee was fixed. Based on his advice I’ve been walking regularly since, thankfully, my knee is still fine.

In this example, a helpful dream figure has provided insight into the problem I was facing, activated a healing and then gave me advice on how to maintain my knee in a healthy state with a consequence warning if I do not follow his advice.

These characters generally appear as threatening characters. Often I would be chased or attacked by a vicious animal, a human, or a scary monster.

The shadow as defined by Carl Jung is often the repressed emotions, characteristics, or traits that our waking consciousness or ego does not (like to) identify with or deem as unacceptable to be expressed to others in our society or community, hence, it remains hidden in the shadows (or under the carpet, or in the basement).

Often it pays off when lucid to talk to these characters and ask them questions like ― “Who are you?”, ― “What do you want?” or ― “What do you represent?”. Sometimes the answers can be very interesting and revealing as to what shadow aspect is being expressed to the conscious awareness of the dreamer.

I had a series of recurring dreams where the incredible Hulk was chasing me. As usual every time I saw him I would start running. Just before he caught me I would wake myself up. It felt incredibly scary having this raging green man chase me and breaking cars, buildings, and street objects in a mad rage just to get to me.

In the end with the unexpected help of another dream character, a witch, I was able to face the Hulk and ask him what he wanted.

He basically hated the place where I worked at in waking life and wanted me to leave. I woke up finally recognizing that I just had a conversation with my repressed anger, and luckily I followed his advice, which led to a happy ending in my waking life.

Having said that, there are shadow characters that do not respond to regular questioning and these I believe should be treated with a bit more caution. In a dream of a haunted house, which used to be a recurring theme for me, lots of poltergeist activity would occur and I would hide with other people until it momentarily stopped.

The activity would eventually start again and I would suddenly see a hooded character wearing black robes that looks like a Nazgul from Lord of the Rings behind the terrorizing activity. I remember I asked it from far, ― “What do you want from us?” and it answered in a thick voice, ― “I want you to die!”.

Somehow I knew that this is a shadow character that could not be reasoned with and so I needed to take stronger measures in resolving the situation. As I was thinking of getting help, a shaman friend of mine, who I know in waking life, appeared in my dream to my right. He gave me a sapphire crystal cube. Upon seeing him I became lucid, thinking how did he come here when he lives in another country? He told me if I am able to activate the cube I can banish the wraith.

I immediately recalled that this same friend had introduced me to a powerful mantra called the Vajra Guru mantra. I took the crystal and faced the advancing Nazgul that was about to strike me with his cursed sword. I chanted the mantra and the cube immediately started shining a brilliant white burning halogen light!

In that instant the Nazgul covered his face, shrieked loudly and started retreating. I went on the offensive moving towards him and holding the crystals up while repeating the mantra out loud. The Nazgul floated away quickly from me towards a wall on the far side of the hall and then levitated up towards the ceiling. He suddenly turned into black smoke and escaped through the cracks.

The darkened scene immediately lit up as if someone opened the curtains and let the sun light in and there was a feeling of expansiveness and peace.

Before moving to the next category I would like to say that one of the most effective ways I have learned to deal with Shadow Dream Characters is through projecting love and compassion from the heart upon them. This usually has the effect of healing and transforming them. I have used this technique with great efficacy and the monster normally transforms into a much smaller benign creature, turns into a normal human, a bunch of flowers, or just dissolves or becomes absorbed.

I believe most of the times that we meet deceased characters in our dreams they are just subconscious representations of the real deceased people. However, on occasion I have met deceased characters that have imparted information that I was not aware of in waking life, and later on I was able to verify its validity. I pay special attention to deceased dream characters when I am lucid and normally try to strike up a conversation in case they do have useful information for me. I have written an example in a previous LDE issue about meeting deceased relatives in a dream. If you have a chance please check out the past issues index.

This is a category that I am yet to verify. Potentially these are other experienced lucid dreamers that you could have a shared dream with.

The term was given to me in a dream by a man that I thought in the dream was a shaman that lived in the Amazon jungle. He said he teaches dream walking to certain people with advanced lucid dreaming skills. He invited me to come and visit him in waking life. I saw his home and met his wife in the dream. I sensed he was a man with a powerful energy, but his wife is not at the same level of consciousness as he is. He explained that dream walking is learning how to walk into someone else‘s dream for the purpose of aiding them with healing.

He gave me his name before I woke up. I told my waking life shaman friends about this dream and indeed they told me that this man exists and lives in the Jungle and is one of the senior shamans of a tribe that they worked with. I described his dream home where I was sitting with him and his wife on the floor, and they confirmed that the information was correct.

Did that Amazonian shaman walk into my dream and give me this information? I can never be sure since I have never taken him up on his offer to visit. Regardless it was interesting that I could verify his details in waking life through others.

Lastly, I believe we should do our best to treat all dream figures with respect, especially the neutral extras that we meet. I have read a few accounts of new lucid dreamers going around and telling the extras they are figments of their imagination or that they are dreaming them into existence. We certainly would not like it if someone came to us and said the same thing. Moreover, most of us do not treat waking life ‘extras‘ we meet in the street with that kind of attitude, so why should we do so in the dream state?

I believe most of these dream figures are aspects or creations of our subconscious. This means treating them with respect is akin to treating ourselves with respect. I hope you are mindful of this next time you encounter a dream figure.