Maniac Mondays: On Reading and Writing

Copyright Meady's Musings Production 2009

The animals are all excited at the Meady’s Musings Production House. The Purple Elephant is using his giant trunk to pull books down from the highest shelves while the little mouse is scurrying around picking up the ones that his sometimes clumsy trunk may drop...but luckily so far...no injuries!

You see we’ve decided to write an experimental novel here at Meady’s Musings and allow our readers to join in the process. Perhaps you can even drop by the Deliciously Divine cafe! We know it's been open in the past but it was closed for renovations and has re-opened once more! :)

Now most great writers will tell you they are also avid readers though...and so we’ve been following suit and pulling down the books to peruse...but we’re just passionate readers anyway and to be honest sometimes when we write not a word we instead read many! But seriously, we doubt you’ll find many writers who aren’t also readers and so today on Meady’s Musings as we start the experimental writing process we share with you our top ten fav reads ever! We may have shared them somewhere or the other before...perhaps when we had our Books and Films Corner blog active (which by the way may become active again for our 2010 Advent calendar so it's not altogether dead) but here are those books again!

-Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie
-Red Earth and Pouring Rain by Vickram Chandra
-Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
-The Narnia Chronicles by C.S. Lewis
-The Road Less Travelled by M.Scott Peck
-Joy: The Happiness that Comes from Within by OSHO
-From Sex to Superconsciousness by OSHO (aka Sex Matters...the truth is you can just check out the whole OSHO library in a virutal way here and save some of those trees!)
-By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept by Paulo Coelho
-The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
-The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho

Also you might want to check out this book on Amazon where famous writers talk about their favourite reads!


We've also asked several of our monkey friends to come over who hadn't visited since Christmas as their prehensile tails (you know we've always wanted one btw) can come in handy to move those books around! :)

And guess what most and foremost we've taken out the Meady's Musings reading and writing bears if you look above! :)

Dreams and Dreaming Series: Creative Visualizations and What 's Next at the Meady's Musings Production House

A man sits during a break from his work admist the bustle that is Shanghai's main Financial Centre...in a small park...meditating...it was whatto us here at Meady's Musings something we took away as a hallmark of the city!:) Meady's Musings Production 2010.

Today on Tumultuous Thursdays we bring the Dreams and Dreaming Series to a close at least for now...we hope it was fun and this post will send it off with a bang! We know we never did do any cartoons or Funtastic Fridays postings during the series and so from time to time we may put a cartoon up on a Friday that has the same theme as the series if we feel so inspired to create one...but for now let’s say goodbye to the Dreams and Dreaming series folks!

As promised when we daydreamed on Maniac Mondays we said we’d continue on about Creative Visualizations today on Tumultuous Thursdays. Now what we were saying on Monday is that Creative Visualizations can come about as a result of a form of day dreaming or we can be in a dream like state when have creative visualizations. In fact not only that though some of us can have creative visualizations in our fully asleep dreams as well...just look at how Kekule had dreamt up the benzene ring and remember one of the our dreams over on the UCP desk...here about Shiv?

So for sure in the dream like state we can create...you see here we are free from the restrictions of the ‘real world’ and so our mind feels freer to challenge the status quo, innovate, bend the rules and push the envelopes. So for sure it is a place where the newest and grandest things can be born...

Many of the great achievements of the world must be born in this state...some of us call it meditation but as we were saying on the day dreaming blog post...sometimes day dreaming in its highest state can be meditation...because you see to meditate we don’t have to officially sit in yoga position and close or eyes and all of that...although it is a sure fire and grand way to do it and Shiv is always our friend and the supreme yogi to learn that from if we so desire...but there are many pathways that can bring us to ‘the state’ and it is ‘the state’ that is important not the path that we take to get there. ‘The state’ we refer to is when we think of nothing and our minds are totally blank and then...creation just rushes in and flows through us and what we see then is the ultimate in creative visualizations....

So here at the Meady’s Musings Production House we are going to be very busy and so the blog is going to take a different turn...for the next few weeks we are going to finally use the inspirations we had in the dreams and dreaming series and in particular our day dreaming fest over last weekend (that we blogged about on Monday) and all the things we have pondered on and learnt about over the years and our creative visualizations are going to be bursting forth as we finally start work on our book!

As we are working on it we will give you snippets of it and the process on Mondays and Thursdays and from time to time we will still shoot you a cartoon or some Purple Elephant and Little Mouse fun on a Friday. We will on a Thursday from time to time still get metaphysical so don’t worry you metaphysics fans...the Reincarnation Series is still there to carry forth and we will visit many a Parallel World yet...so in fact we might mostly confine our writing blogs to Mondays and on Thursdays we’ll try as much as possible to keep up with the metaphysics! As aah...it can be so much fun! And will try for some fun on the Friday too OK so do continue to tune in!

Maniac Mondays:Dreams and Dreaming Series-Day Dreaming!:)

So far on the Dreams and Dreaming Series we've only focussed on the kinda dreaming we do when we close or eyes...but what about the kind that we do with our eyes open...day dreaming?!:) In fact that to me is the most beautiful kind of all!:)And if you couple it with the kinda sleeping we like to do on a Slumbering Saturday i.e. like you day dream then you doze off a bit for 'cat nap' or a 'doggy doze'...well it's just oh so sweet!:)It must be so much fun for cats and dogs...but I feel it's even funner for us people folks if it is true that our brains are bigger...although who knows if we are really smarter but if we are with all that extra activity going on in there...boy the fun!:)

So today on Maniac Mondays when let's face it we more feel like the song says... 'It's just another Manic Monday' and who wants to get out of bed at 6 o' clock... and in reality many of us at the Meady's Musings Production House need to get up well before that o' clock...so it's a fitting post isn't it?

So here we go dancing and spinning into it...

When we doze off into the dreaming state it can be oh so lovely...

DAY DREAMING OF NOTHING-THE HIGHEST FORM OF MEDITATION?
First of all day dreaming in it's highest sense is to us here at Meady's Musings when you think well...of nothing really...and this kind of day dreaming can happen well whenever...it has happened to one of us at the Production House here already...we were just standing in a line and waiting and not knowingly we just started to stare at a spot on the floor and twirling the hair we sort of drifted away well into the spot...we don't know how long we were 'there' and had not a clue what we were thinking about so it must have been 'nothing' when we were aroused by it seems someone staring away at us staring away at a spot in the floor...hmmm...perhaps could it be that...that person was day dreaming of us as we day dreamed? Hmmm...it is something we will never know...but what we have since read and heard of is that this kind of thing can be the highest form of meditation...you just slip into a place of thinking of nothing really...now the funniest thing is people who are all into meditation, strive and aspire for this highest form of meditation...when really look at some of us at the Production House...we just twirl our hair away and slip there without even adopting a yoga position even! :) You see we've since experienced and read as well that some do consider the twirling of hair to be a deeply relaxing, meditative kinda thing...yep I know people might also consider it an 'air headed girly bad habit' or something girls do or even grown women do to let men know they are interested i.e. flirt...or some see it as a sign of distraction...but really it could also just be the nicest, sweetest, twirliest thing to do while we slip away into nothingness and come out of it all brand new!:) Also tough, twirling the hair can be done when we are at the deepest points of contemplation so nothing 'air headed' there! :) Also no twirling of hair is necessary of course...the point is sometimes we can dream of nothing at all and when we do this we are perhaps experiencing what is the highest form of meditation!

DAY DREAMING OF THE DIVINE OR SOMEONE OR SOMETHING SIMPLY SUBLIME!:)
Now secondly there is the kinda day dreaming where we focus solely on this one thing or person or some of us like the guys who work the UCP desks over on our sister blog perhaps the Divine Infinite One it/him/herself!:)On one end of the spectrum this kinda day dreaming might take the form of infatuation,lust or obssession but on the other end of the spectrum it can be seen as the ultimate form of love! So perhaps this kinda day dreaming...hmmm...is a kinda yoga in itself too...well at least when done on the love end of the spectrum especially when it's for love of the Divine Infinite One then for sure it is Bhakti (Love) Yoga...but what of it on the other end of the spectrum? Dunno...I guess then it can be bad if it gets out of hand...I mean it can't be good to obssess so much on one thing or person...funny thing though...it's not good to do it unless it's the Divine Infinite One...but this makes sense you see...because when you day dream about the Divine Infinite One you are then seeing 'all as one and one as all' so you are really not at all obssessing on one thing anymore because you are seeing this one thing in everything so you end up just into it all and that can't be a bad thing! But let's face it most of us are obssessing on one thing and one person...but we'll not beat up on ourselves here...and if done with control and we can come out of it with a clear head without harming anyone or ourselves...it's great to do it sometimes...once not for very long! LOL! And yes indeed sometimes as we do that we exhalt these things or people so much that we make them something of the sublime! Even when sometimes they're not...in fact sometimes they're total weirdos that we make out to be all of this and that...LOL!...but hey that's the fun of existence isn't it? Aaah...to be in love even if in the end it is all in vain...aah!:)

DAY DREAMING AND CREATIVE VISUALIZATION!
Finally the third kinda day dreaming is the kind where we don't just sit in awe and wonder about a thing or a person or the Divine Infinite....no we dream up things...activities...actions...whether it be with the things or persons we discussed in the second kinda day dreaming above or just all and all out 'movies made up in our head' of just totally arbitrary or imaginary things and people! Now in a sense this can be seen as the lowlest level of day dreaming...if we are looking at it from the point of view that in this realm of day dreaming you are really furthest away from the realm of 'spirit' when compared to the other two types discussed above...because in this type of day dreaming you interact the most with the material world...it is the most 'real' kinda day dreaming you can do...so in one sense it's 'low' in that it is the most materialistic. But in another sense it can be seen as the most productive kinda day dreaming in that it is with actions and plans and this and that...it is the most 'real' kinda day dreaming...it is the realm of day dreaming where you can get the most 'realisitic things' coming out of it. We believe that it is on this realm of day dreaming where we can do our most and best creative visualizations as well! :) So really in a sense it has to be the funnest kinda day dreaming! Here we can think up things we want to see happen...we can build castles in the air even!:) And on that note we leave you to your day dreams of whatever kind you like as on our Tumultous Thursdays blog post this week we shall explore more of creative visualizations...

So until then keep building Castles in the Air and being a Day Dream Believer! ENJOY! :)

Tumutuous Thursdays:Dreams and Dream Series-Do the Blind See in Their Dreams?

Approximately a year and a half ago when Meady's Musings Production in the persona of Babita Dubay used to hang out tons on the Intent online community. An interesting discussion emerged on the topic: Do the Blind See in Their Dreams? So today as part of our Dreams and Dreaming Series we thought we'd re-blog this post for you as it for sure was a very insightful discussion and most fitting metaphysically for a dreams and dreaming series on this a Tumultuous Thursday! :)

Enjoy!

"You need to go here to view it as all the discussion takes place on the Intent community itself. However below is the introductory post we wrote that got it all started! :)

Here is something I want to ask of the Intent community. I'm not posting this from any of my blogs just asking here...Do the Blind See in Their Dreams?

I got to wondering about it today...I mean I know people who are currently blind but at one point could see I've been told that they see in their dreams. What they see are memories of when they were sighted. I've not met anyone who is blind in person and asked them so I get this information only from what I've read about it etc. So it would be interesting to hear about this.

Because was now reading about something where a person who was blind all his life describes his dreams as being in sound only like listening to the radio...although in his dreams he didnt need to be helped he just got to one place from the other automatically when he wished it.

Then it got me to thinking if dreaming is like that for someone who was blind all their life on earth doesn't it bring into question how metaphyhsical a dream can be? I mean if there is a level of dreaming where we can connect with the divine and or the spirit world wouldn't we then be able to see?

Would love to hear what you all think about this or experiences or information you may have about this..."

Maniac Mondays:Dreams and Dreaming Series-Healing in Our Dreams!

'Guardian Angel'-copyright free reprint of a work of art.

Recently a friend dropped by the ‘Production House’ with sad news and a wish that all at the house-the little mouse, Purple Elephant and all other animals included would say a prayer to heal the grief of someone close to them. You see that person had just lost a pet. One of us at the Production House recalled this prayer on losing a pet from Doreen Virtue's book-‘Healing with the Angels’:

‘Dearest God,

I know that no one and nothing can truly ever be lost, since You are omnipresent and can see everything and everyone.
I affirm that nothing is lost in the eyes of God.
I ask that You, Archangel Michael, Archangel Raphael, the nature angels, and my guardian angels help me reunite with my pet right now.
I call upon the guardian angels of my pet to send a signal so I may find my pet.
I now relax, knowing that God, the angels and my higher self are already communing with my pet.

Thank you.’

And then recalled when they had lost their pet German Shepherd and a few days after his passing dreamt him playing at the foot of a green, grassy hill. He was at the peak of health in the dream and he was tossing this brick and playing with as he did in real life pretending to growl, attack and tug at it! There was a little house atop the hill and it made the dreamer feel that their pet was all safe, healthy, happy and sound at home where he belonged! It was the ultimate healing dream for the dreamer!

Upon hearing this dream another person at the Production House popped up their hand into the air and exclaimed that they too also had something to share. Not about a pet this time but something that to them was the ultimate healing dream ever! The Maximus of Maximuses! The real McCoy! :)

It was a dream that totally washed them and they have not been the same ever since! Born afresh…finally shedding years and years of baggage and resentment, pain, suffering and loss all in one dream! They asked that we not shared the details of the dream here and so we must respect this wish. However, here were some of the symbols the person had in that dream:

-An old priest (who was also very dear to them) sat with a glow to him
-A new born baby also glowing sat on the old priest’s lap
-A stream with a clear distinction that things were on one bank and over the water on the on the other bank were all these new things.

And this dream was dreamt on the morning of Diwali which Hindus consider to be the start of the financial New Year. Again a new beginning...and notice the water presence in this dream too…

So until our Tumultuous Thursdays posting in the Dreams and Dreaming Series…Dream On! And keep healing in your dreams too just like everyone at our Production House…human and animals! :)

And while you pass by our house look atop to see our new welcome mat! It has the Purple Elephant’s name all done up together with that inseparable little mouse! :)

Tumultuous Thursdays:Dreams and Dreaming Series-Water as a Conduit to Other Worlds

Stock Photo: Young girl coming up from underwater in a pool.

We dream...we all know that...some of us recall them...some of us don't at least not all of the time...some are said to dream in black and white others in colour...some of us have even go as far as to dream lucidly but do any of us know for real what these dreams are made of? There are Freudian and Jungian twists on dreams and their meanings and these must be the most famous views on dreams out there...but what do you think of all of this?

On this Tumultuous Thursdays' installation of the Dreams and Dreaming series we on Meady's Musings delve into our understanding of the role of water as a conduit to other worlds while in the dream state! Hopefully we won't get into deep!

WATER



Photo of girl underwater published from this site

To us it is the conduit between this world and others...and sometimes when we dream we can gain access to these worlds...however these are very rare and powerful dreams where the dreamer can cross into a world that is not really meant to be accessed while in the flesh...as a result the dreamer can only visit this world for a fixed small window of a time.

A human member of the Meady's Musings Production House had a dream like this once...where like the girl in our opening picture she emerged from the surface of the water at the start of her dream after pushing upwards against the surface tension of the water coming up for strong pulls of air! The dreamer then stepped on 'land' which was this place with white floors, an aisle with many doors at each side. This white place was perched where for instance the sand on the beach would be have been if you emerged from an ocean onto an island! The dreamer was in no beach scene however and was in a very big hurry...rushing out the water still breathless...running up and down the aisle trying to open door after door but not being able to as much as they tried to pull it open with all their force and might! At this stage the dreamer was panicked and very disturbed...heart racing...for the dreamer knew they were in a hurry and needed to get the door open...get behind one of the doors any one before they shut close...

You see the night the dreamer had this dream someone very close to the dreamer was in a critical condition at hospital...the person did stabilise the morning the dreamer woke up but later in the morning passed on shedding the mortal coil to join the great divine!

In retrospect, the dreamer believes in that window of time she was trying to catch the soul of her loved one while it was 'travelling' to this other world...but the dreamer wasn't allowed to see or enter that world...however the dreamer was so emotionally attached...so connected to the person who was journeying and this was a mutual connection that the dreamer was able to go just that far! Right up to where a person who were to stay alive on this material plane/world and continue to human flesh embody could go! You see we believe it was the dreamer's soul that had journeyed too up to where its loved one's soul was going but for it to remain in flesh and remain alive unlike its loved one...who was dying and would eventually die...well it couldn't see...it couldn't go past the door! Based on the close connection the loved one and the dreamer had too...we believe it was a mutual desire for both the dreamer to go as far as they could go and for the loved one to have the dreamer stay with them and accompany them up to there as well!


Weeks after the loved one's death itself the dreamer again had these kind of dreams where it appeared the dreamer was accompanying the loved one up to a point...that particular dream however involved a tunnel not water...and we will talk about tunnels in our next Tumultuous Thursdays session...but it is also interesting to note on closing that it appears too that water is a conduit to a world where souls have not yet left the mortal coil...but is 'travelling' i.e. in transit out of the mortal coil to only be in soul form but not quite yet...whilst by the time you cross the door and get to tunnels well you have died...souls in tunnels have already left the mortal coil...ones on the other end of water are leaving the mortal coil but have not quite done so i.e. died yet!

Whoops! Seems we really did get in too deep! But on to more shallow waters and dreamers do dream! :)

An Apology on a Wednesday...

AN APOLOGY TO READERS YET AGAIN!

Oh dear! We’ve not done as we planned or promised last week and that cannot be a good thing or a reader’s treat! We’ve not blogged on Tumultuous Thursdays about dreams and dreaming nor made fun of them on Funtastic Fridays...to be honest we really don’t know what to say…

But we aren’t almost even here this week too…the muse the muse always blame the muse…the Purple Elephant and the Little Mouse they are firmly planted though-Thank you! But the muse he is actually flashing right now as I speak or type! Not flashing as going naked after all he is a manicou so already au naturel so no…no…I mean he seems to be here for a second and then disappears another but he slips back and forth from here to not here so quickly that he almost appears to be going on and off like a blinking light! Oh dear!…I’m told it happens when you travel too often and in close succession across parallel worlds…there comes a time when you are neither here nor there or anywhere…oh dear! Unless perhaps you’re everywhere!

Luckily as of this morning… the Little mouse came to my door…he was perched on the shoulder of the Purple Elephant so he could reach up to the level of my ears so I could hear him. “Aaaaww!” was my first cry when he incredibly bashfully bestowed onto me a bouquet made of four purple flowers and three sunflowers with sprigs of this twig or the other all wrapped together in a bow and said,

“Miss Dubay this will make him stay for sure!”

then the Purple Elephant trumpeted unfortunately waking the whole house up! You see we have guests, not as many as last Christmas but quite a few monkeys are with us but they luckily weren’t in bad spirits and instead decided to have an early breakfast scratching their heads while they peeled their bananas as they also tried to solve the problem of my manicou muse for me! Mouse, elephant and monkeys all poured over the ‘Book of Words and Light’ where they read of the use of purple flowers, sunflowers but more so that the use of love and light and yep UCP-Universal Collective Prayer could help me! So we followed the book and then ‘poof’ and as I looked up from where I knelt with sunflower pollens glistening from my cheeks…there it unfolded before me…and Lo and Behold there was my muse again fully formed standing all solid, not blinking, safe and sound before me!

You see in all seriousness and reality I recalled that all my words and speech come from the Divine Mother upon whom I ought to surrender! It’s not like I’ve not done so time and time again in the past as I’ve often shared on UCP but of lately I think I needed to be reminded…reminded that she is the speech…in the form of the Vedic Goddess Saraswati she rides a swan and is the ‘vac’ which translated from the Sanskrit means the speech, the word…the spoken word…the voice… However she is also the Goddess of learning and so really one cannot have even any writing without her since when we type it comes forth from an inner voice…so I had lost my voice both inner and outer…but me and all the animals sat in UCP and surrendered onto the Divine Mother in the form of Saraswati who according to this lovely Vedic prayer sits in the middle of our palms…she was always there… if we only had looked to see! …with the Goddess Lakshmi at our finger tips and Govinda at the base of the palms...



So too in the words of Don Henley in the movie Michael…it came through our hands!

Don Henley - Through Your Hands Lyrics
"You were dreamin'
On a park bench
'bout a broad highway somewhere
When the music from the carillon
Seemed to hurl your heart out there
Past the scientific darkness
Past the fireflies that float
To an angel bending down
To wrap you in his warmest coat

And you ask
What am I not doing
He says
Your voice cannot command
In time you will move mountains
And it will come through your hands

Still you argue for an option
Still you angle for your case
Like you wouldn't know a burning bush
If it blew up in your face
Yeah, we scheme about the future
And we dream about the past
When just a simple reaching out
Might build a bridge that lasts

And you ask
What am I not doing
He says
Your voice cannot command
In time you will move mountains
And it will come through your hands
Through your hands

So whatever your hands find to do
You must do with all your heart
There are thoughts enough
To blow men's minds
And tear great worlds apart
There's a healing touch to find you
On that broad highway somewhere
To lift you high
As music flyin'
Through the angel's hair

Don't ask what you are not doing
Because your voice cannot command
In time we will move mountains
And it will come through your hands"

So I post to you really today on a Wednesday but I will back track the blog post I’m about to do on Meady’s Musings and it will read as a Maniac Mondays post to keep with the format of the blog. While on UCP, I will be publishing as of today. So now I am all good thanks to the Goddess Saraswati and will continue my dreams and dreaming series on Meady’s Musings and today on UCP will launch that God series! Shiv it is as we launch that series! And on Meady’s Musings get those pillows out…it’s dream time! (Of course this post will appear as if it was done the Monday before)