Kaballah/Zohar explains AP,vision,Negs,Light being

[shaman]

Concerning dreams, lucid dreams, OBE/AP here is what we find in the book of radiancd (sefer ha zohar), under Joseph's Dream topic. I am including only the text that is relevant and I am adding (in parenthesis (), or [] ) some explanations. the dots ... means that I have omitted text which was either not relevant or was too technical or was for people who knows already more about Kaballah and Aramean (Hebrew).

beginning of citation:

...

(The level of dreams)
It is the 6th level from the level of prophecy,
the level of (angel) Gabriel, appointed over dreams.
(Angel Gabriel is the one who appeared in the dreams of
Daniel 8:16; 9:22; he interprets dreams and he is the Prince
of dreams)
As it has been said.

Come and see:
(this expression is often used in the Zohar)
Every proper dream comes from this level;
(there are 10 levels on which Kaballah/Zohar is based,
from the crown/top/God down to the level that engenders
the life "below"; also known as the tree of life)
so you cannot have a dream without false imaginings intermingling,
as we have established.
Therefore parts are true and parts are false.
(exactly like in AP/OBE, where things appear where they should not)
You cannot have a dream that does not reflect both this side and that (side).

...

Because a dream includes illusion and truth,
and the word rules over all.
So a dream needs a good interpretation.

...

For when a person sleeps in his bed,
his soul leaves him and soars up above,
(obviously AP/OBE but unconsciously)
each one on its own path.
(again exactly as in AP, where one can access different
realities while APing)
She (the soul is feminine in the text) ascends in this way,
as has been said.
What is written!
"In a dream, a vision of the night,
when people are lying in their beds asleep,
the soul leaves them,
as it is written:
as they sleep upon their bed, He (God) uncovers human ears".
(in the book of Job, God speaks to everyone during our sleep)
Then the Blessed Holy One reveals to the soul,
through that level presiding over dreams,
(a higher level [of energy?]),
things that are destined to come about in the world
(visions of the future, premonitions)
or things corresponding to the mind's reflections
(answers to our very own self problems)
so that the dreamer will respond to the warning.
(here the voice of our unconscious is identified with
the voice of God, maybe our collective subconscious)

For nothing is revealed
while a person is still under the spell of the body,
(need to be in deep transe as you see!)
as we have said.
Rather, an angel (Gabriel?) tells the soul,
and the soul, the person,
and the dream is from beyond (from the AP world),
when souls leave bodies (OBE) and ascend (to a higher level?),
each on its own path.

There are levels upon levels within the mystery of a dream,
(different levels of energy in the astral???)
all within the mistery of wisdom.
(meditation?)
Now come and see:
dream is one level,
vision is one level,
prophecy is one level.
All are levels within levels,
one above the other.

....

end of citation.

Here it seems that dreams are at that level that they need to be interpreted and that they can contain also "things from the mind of the dreamer"; visions and prophecies are more difficult to distinguish from each other. Visions are things that can happen in the future, but are most probably simple individual images; while prophecies are long, made of many pictures and involve also the presence of angels (Gabriel), however the distinction is not clear:

"If there is a prophet among you,
I, YHVH, make Myself known to him in a vision,
I speak with him in a dream" (Numbers 12:6)

That's it for today. I will address dreams/visions/prophecies in the next posting, when I'll have more time to post.

Feel free to comment or ask anything.

[wisp]

Shaman,
So far, I follow your train of thought. I believe you are right.
I hesitate stepping into the subject of Bible and other written text, but.....here I am again.

In my (personal) study of dreams, I do find falsehoods. These are the most difficult things to pickup on, let alone begin to understand or interpret.

Another thing I hesitate to say,but... any text, or physical things read, by me anyway, are corrupted (or call it jumbled). Just as I must understand my own dreams, I must see what is placed there for me to see in the physical.I must determine what is corrupted. How I react or respond to the things not given to me (to understand), is as important as the truth I know.

I'm looking forward to more of what your trying to get across. Thank you.

[wisp]

Here is a dream interpretation I did for a man earlier today.I changed the wording a bit for privacy reasons. It may show some of what I am trying to say in my previous post.

My interpretation:
Somehow I believe this dream is telling you how your spirit and other influencing spirits function. At the end of your dream you are reunited with those you are connected to. There is an emotional impact of sobbing. There is a ceremonial representation of something (the funeral). Is the funeral a viewpoint? Is this woman leading you, but she is playing a role of "misbelief"?

I may have mentioned this before, but I believe wrong beliefs are mingled in dreams. Did "so n so" enter the house of wrong belief? Did this wrong belief cause a misdirected act of death of a generational nature (family). The truth comes out at the end of your dream. It's a happy ending!

Does this make sense? It may sound confusing. Confusion is not the problem, it's only a temporary barrior.

[shaman]

Hi Wisp,

There are 2 aspects that I see in dreams: dreams that comes from our very own mind and maybe from the astral and Premonitory dreams.

The text of the Zohar also mentioned that, but the Zohar speaks about interpreting the premonitions only. They called these premonitions either dreams, visions or prophecy. They do not address at all the interpretation of the presonnal part of the dreams.

Psychology and Psychanalyse are trying to find interpretation for the personnal part of our dreams. Most of the dreams come in symbolism and need to be interprated. Some are more straightforward than others.

Here, I am trying to see only the premonitions, sicne to interpret a personnal dream you must know a lot about the dreamer, and eventually it is up to dreamer to intepret his/her very own dream.

So what I will concentrate on is the premonitory dreams, as addressed in the Bible and the Zohar.

Let me just give one simple example. A premonitory dream, or vision, can come as an image of something that will happen, e.g. a plane crash, and it happens the next day for example. Or the vision can come in symbolism, e.g. dream of raw red meat represents death: in the dream the person to whom the meat is offered is the person who is going to die withing a short period of time.

I will try to address some of the other things I mentioned about the zohar, in another posting tomorrow.

[shaman]

Now in this message I will try to bring some of the interesting things that are said about dreams, vision and prophecies in the Zohar. Since it is directly related to the previous topic I posted on AP/OBE, there will be some repetitions. I will put again comments in parenthesis () and [].

begin citation:

(As I finished in the previous posting: )
"He Said, Hear My words:
If there is a prophet among you,
I, God, make Myself known to him in a vision,
I speak with him in a dream"
(Numbers 12:6)

[we see here already that premonitory dreams, vision, prophecies, are understood as communication from the Divine, and it is done during sleep time]

"Come and see:
All prophets of the world were nurtured from a single apsect
throught two well known levels

[these are the lower levels (sefirot) of Endurance (netash) and Majesty (hod), they are the channels of inspiration, the field of prophetic vision]

Those rungs appeared in the mirror that does not shine

(that mirror is not clear and it is "reflecting" divine essence to the prophet - see also New Testament Paul says "For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face")

as is written:
I (God) make Myself known to him in mar'ah (a vision, but also a mirror in hebrew - the same word)
What is this mar'ah ?
It has been explained: a mirror in which all colors appear

(this mar'ah, mirror, vision, is in fact the lower level of the 10 levels between God and us, that lower level is the source of life and it is known as Shekhinah; through that level/mirror all the other levels are reflected to the gaze of the prophet, though not with full clarity)

This is the mirror that does not shine.


[as to the regular people, not the prophets, it is only said that God speaks with them and give them warnings, so these come as dreams:]

"In a dream, a vision of the night,
when slumber falls on humans
as they sleep upon their bed,
He (God) uncovers human ears,
terrifies them with warning"
(job 33:15-16)

- I will continue later (this week?).

[shaman]

TO summarize on prophetic dreams and visions, these are seen as Divine messages coming from the upper level (energy? - God) down to the level of the dreamer (AP level). Where we can see the following:

- Sometimes the dreams/visions depict exactly what will happen.

- Most of the time the visions come in a dream an need interpretation. In Joseph, he is the one who gives the interpretation. Often the number of things that appear in the dream is a symbol for the number of days or year to pass before the premonitions happen. For example in one dream the baker dreamed that he is carrying three baskets of bread and that the baskets are falling and birds are eating the bread. The interpretation is that the three baskets are 3 days to pass, and the premonition is that the bird eating the bread represent the birds that will eat the flesh of the baker after Pharaoh will put him to death on the 3rd day. Some interpretation are more complex, others are simpler.

- The Angel Gabriel interpret the dream for Daniel. It is the appearence of a higher entity from the astral (Gabriel). It is said that the angel Michael also appears (from time to time) at the level of dreams (in the astral realm).

- Then of course there are these prophecies which are difficult to explain as none has given precisions about them. I mean mainly in the bible.

From my own experience, premonitions come during dreams, as vivid dreams, most of the time as a direct vision of the event to come. Usually the place and time is not given, though most of the time the place is understood from the context and the time frame is the premonition happens withing 1 to a week.

SO far I have tried to bring to you some of the matterial that is found in the Zohar and the bible, to show that even there AP/OBE and other "paranormal" phenomena are mentioned and explained. However, the "higher" entities in the astral are viewed as either angels, man, or even "God". The levels in the tree of life in the Zohar correspond to the levels that are from the dream world all the way to the level of death, passing through the level of Astral Projection. AP is rather related to the lower levels, the higher level (reaching God) is more related to Near Death Experience narratives.

I will continue and post next time about "Negs".

[shaman]

Concerning NEGS, I see 3 things in the Zohar (and other sources) that can be related and explaining NEGS. Here are some of the things that can generate NEGS:

- things that we did and were wrong, such as hurting others, etc...(usually refered to as "sins" or similars...- though I do not like that appelation).  

- speaking behind the back of others (known as "lashon Har'a").

- just spoken language in general.

- feelings of hatred.

-1) spoken language.
I will start with the last one. The spoken language appears already at the very beginning of the Bible where it is enough for God to say "let there be light" for the light to appear (and many other things). Though of course here it is  God (or a Higher Entity if you prefer to call things that way). However this even happens at the level of people, not only at the Divine level. Again in Joseph's dream, when he dreamed that 11 stars, the sun and the moon were bowing to him, his brothers answered to that dream:
"will you reign over us?"
"will you rule over us?"
(genesis 37:
and the Zohar says: suddenly they had revealed the interpretation of the dream and sealed their own fate!

We see from there and from other texts that indeed the language is seen almost as magic, as if there were entities or forces listening and able to use these words to seal the future.

2) Lashon Har'a, speaking on the back of others. If one agress with the power of the spoken words as in (1), then of course spekaing bad things behind the back of others is in itself a part of it. However, it is mentioned in particular, which might means that it is indeed more powerfull than just words. These are words spoken against somebody without him/her knowing about it and therefore being unable to defend (shield) against it, therefore the person might be more susceptible to such negs.

3) Feeling of hatred: again taken from the context of Joseph and his brothers, they hated him and it is written:
"they hated him even more".
This implies that they provoked accusations against him,
and it is added: their hatred stimulated demonic forces to delay the fulfillment of the dream (the prophetic dream of Joseph).
We see here that explicitly that hatred can stimulate demonic forces to act in the physical world.

4) Other sources that can tirgger NEGS are our wrong doings. Here I will ellaborate a little more. This is extracted from the Zohar, the part known as Jacob's Garment of Days:

"when a human being is created,
on the day he comes into the world,
simultaneoulsy, all the days of his life are arranged above.
(all the future? or only the important events of one's life are already there?)
One by one, they (the days) come flying down into the world
to alert that human being, day by day.
If, when a day comes to alert him,
he sins on that day before his Lord,
then that day climbs up in shame,
bears wirness and stands alone outside.
After standing alone
it (that day) sits and waits for that human to turn back to his Lord,
to restore the day.
If he succeeds, that day returns to its place;
(it is not explicitly explain how he/she can succeed to "restore" these "bad" days, but the way is to "get back to Lord", to repent)
if not, (if one does not succeed to restore the "bad" days)
that day comes down to join the forces with the outlaw spirit,
(the outlaw spirit is also what is refered to as the demonic forces)
moving into his house to torment him.
Sometimes his (the stay of that spirit) is for the good,
if one purifies himself.
If not, it is a horrible visitation.
[we therefore see here that what one does can generate demonic forces, probably what we call the NEGS in the astral].
Either way, such days are lacking, missing from the total.

Here we clearly see how dark entities, NEGS, ghosts(?) or other things that can "haunt" us in the physical and in the astral (and dreams?) can come from our very own self.

To complete this topic on the posting, I will add actually a few words about the opposite, the being of lights:

In the same section of the Zohar it is written:
All the righteous
who are privileged to wear a radiant garment of their days
are crowned in that world with crowns worn by the Patriarchs...
"God will guide you always
and satisfy your soul with sparkling flashes
(Isaiah 58:11).
We see from here that the  "righteous" might be identified with the being of lights, radiating energy and light in all directions.

[Cruel Tendencies]

I just want to point something out here (sorry, I'm relatively anal about the Kabbalah)..  While the Zohar is a major Kabbalistic text (or collection of them), there are entire systems of Kabbalah that have nothing to do with the Zohar.  It's a part of a larger deal


Paul

[shaman]

Yes Paul,

You are completely right. Zohar is just a part of Kabbalah. Kabbalah is the hidden part, the mystical part of Judaism. It is composed and based not only on the Zohar, but also on the Gemaria (which works with numbers, as each letter, and consequently each word, has a numerical value, one can find dates and other things playing with these numbers). Meditation is also part of the Kabbalah, but it is passed only from teachers to students, and it is not written, it is an oral practice/tradition. The meditation is very close to the ones that use Mantra, here the mantra is really a prayer or the name of God (one of the many names of God in Judaism).

[Carnac]

Hi, Shaman.  

This is a really interesting topic, and I'd like to ask a question about Netzach and Hod which you referred to in one of your posts as the levels which relate to prophecy.  How are these levels of awareness attained?  Do Hod and Netzach refer to trance/meditation and fasting?  Is this how these levels of awareness are attained?

[shaman]

Hi Carnac,

There are, I am sure, more than one way to view them in Kabbalah.

One obvious one is that Hod and Netzach have to be reached in life as a way of living and understanding life itself. A little bit as one person can become Sage or a righteous by learning and understanding that kindness and helping others is more important that selfishness, etc... So that is one way of attaining these levels, it is through attaining a just balance. These two levels are 2 of the 10 levels of the tree of life. These 10 levels are sometimes more viewed like the "fruits" of the tree of life and as such they are not especially one on top of the other (this is one of the trees of the Garden of Eden in the Creation...). Hod and Netzach are actually at the same level but one on the right and one on the left side of the tree. The same is true for the level of 'justice/laws' and 'compassion/love', where for example to raise a child one has to impose some laws/rules/orders  at home, but when the child breaks the "rules" (e.g. not playing with matches), the child cannot just be punished like that, that is where love comes. There must be a just balance of (one one side - say) laws and on the other side Love. So in that same sens one has to reached a ballance between  Majesty (Hod) and Endurance (Netash). One way you view it is through fasting (Endurance) and (say) meditation (Majesty).

In meditation (and not especially Kabbalistic meditation), one increases his/her awareness/consciousness to be self aware of all what is happening in his/her own mind/body. This self-awareness becomes so intense that even when dreaming the meditator will start to be aware, and therefore will start to have lucid dreams all the time. The next level of that is prophecy (here I am talking about the far east meditation). In Kabbalah it is about the same. One has to look at all the prophets, Sages, Shamans, MEssayahs such as Moses, Abraham, Mohammed, Jesus, ... as people who meditated (and the desert or the mountain - and the Nature in general - are very good to practice meditation) and reached higher level of awareness. The same for the prophets in the Bible. For example Daniel was known to eat only veggies and drink only water. In some of his propheties he wrote that for a month he would fast and only drink and that is how he would induce visions. It is the fasting and the meditation combined. He body would certainly be so weak that it would not bother him at all for the meditation practice. Of course in the Bible they view this are being "pure".

There are people (some Rabbis) who do practice meditation and study Kabbalah and talk about "meeting God" in the meditation process.

The main point is that many New Age persons (including Madonna!) go and study Kabbalah with a person who learned only some of the "magical" parts of it. Kabbalah is supposed to be studied by the more advanced students of the Bible (Torah) and has to be understood in that background. There is a similar pattern in (far East) meditation where one has to practice "kindness", etc... and if one put Kabbalah on one side and Far East Meditation on the other side, then the religious part of Kabbalah corresponds to that part in the practice of meditation where the meditator has to "loose his sens of ego" (including many thing such as "being selfish"....) and this brings both the meditator and the Kabbalist to care for others and help them to reach the right way to spirituality.

All that to say that this should be the way one has to try to go when one wishes to follow Meditation and/or Kabbalah or any other spiritual way.

[kakkarot]

quote:The book of Radiance, the Zohar has been written more than 700 years ago in Aramean by a spanish scholar (around 1280). It is the fundation of the jewish mysticism Kaballah.

so, this book of radiance is the predecesor for the kaballah?

cause this website http://www.digital-brilliance.com/kab/faq.htm#HowoldisKabbalah says that kaballahistic teachings are accepted as being older than 700 years, with "The origin of the word "Kabbalah" as a label for a tradition which is definitely recognisable as Kabbalah is attributed to Isaac the Blind (c. 1160-1236 C.E.), who is also credited with being the originator of the idea of sephirothic emanation".

~kakkarot

[shaman]

The Zohar is one of the book studied in Kabbalah and the Zohar is 700 years old. But other books and practices in Kabbalah are older. The other texts of Kabblah are "Bahir" , "Sefer Yetzirah" , Shaarei Teshuvah and Tomar Devorah. Some of These texts and other practices such as meditation have been around well before the "book of radiance - zohar", as Kakkarot mentioned. Gemartia (numerology) is also very old. However, the Zohar is a pretty important book in the study of Kabbalah, one of the main ones. Sorry if I have confused you with the dates.

[kakkarot]

sorry, i was confused about where you mentioned zohar being the foundation of jewish mysticism eventhough, from my little knowledge of it, jewish mysticism started before even most kaballic teachings. but i think i get what you are saying now ^_^ .

thanks for explaining it [].

~kakkarot

[shaman]

Hello all,

The book of Radiance, the Zohar has been written more than 700 years ago in Aramean by a spanish scholar (around 1280). It is the fundation of the jewish mysticism Kaballah.

I have noticed that though there are many posting on Kaballah, I haven't found a posting with specific details related directly to AP and OBE. There are many posting with references and links to other sources, but it seems to me that there are no postings on direct issues (correct me if I am wrong; if there are such postings they should be sticky I think).

So I will address (in a following posting here, not today, but sometimes this week) at least 3 issues:

-1) AP/OBE during sleep time as viewed and mentioned in (parts of) the Zohar.

-2) Negs and other negative entities as viewed and mentioned in the Zohar.

-3) Dreams, Visions and Prophecies as viewed and mentioned in the Zohar.

-4) I will later extend (3) to occurences of dreams/prophecies in the Bible (the Old Testement).

If these have been addressed on this forum, then let me know.

For those who might not know, The book of Radiance (Zohar) is basically the foundation of Kaballah, the mystical branch of Judaism.

I have decided to do that, as it seems to me that it is missing on this forum, though it is direct evidence that AP/OBE and the related topics are addressed in the Bible and Zohar, and that maybe we can learn from the Zohar and Bible more about the astral world and the "other world". It is at this level that many religions meet.

I will try to address the issues directly, trying not enter the details not related to AP/OBE, Astral, negs, dreams, visions, prophecies. I'll post that probably on Thursday.