Dreaming and the Intuitive Heart

By Kim T. Phetteplace, MA
The heart is a thousand stringed instrument that can only be tuned with love.
—Hafiz

My dreams and my heart are intimate friends.  Time and again, my heart has been the open door through which the golden light of spirit has spilled into my being and my life through the vehicle of my dreams. My awareness was initiated to this process through an ecstatic experience my sophomore year in college, which was followed by similar dreamtime encounters throughout the years.  In 2009, following such an encounter and (while hypnopompic, that is in a half state) upon receiving a direct statement to “develop your art,” I began a series of intuitive paintings inspired by these lucid and ecstatic experiences.  Arising in the early morning hours, in candlelight with my heart and my hands filled with radiant energy, I dipped my brush into paint and let it flow.  The unplanned result was a series of heart paintings, all of which I gifted to friends and family.

Awake to my heart and the treasures of light it offers me, I've remained open to resources that might help me to understand and integrate what I've experienced.  Today, through the influence of various resources and authors, including the HeartMath Institute, I've come to understand that the heart is much more than simply a biological pump for the body's circulatory system.

For example, Cynthia Bourgeault clarifies that when the Philokalia, a revered collection of spiritual writings from the Christian East, repeatedly offers the instruction to “put the mind in the heart,” it is not suggesting the over-sentimentality of getting out of the mind and into your emotions.  Rather, it is expressing “the classic understanding... which features the heart in a far more spacious and luminous role” operating through “the heart’s native language (of) affectivity—perception through deep feelingness”. (Bourgeault, 2016, p. 54)
          According to the great wisdom traditions of the West (Christian, Jewish, Islamic), the heart is first and foremost an organ of spiritual perception. Its primary function is to look beyond the obvious, the boundaried surface of things, and see into a deeper reality, emerging from some unknown profundity, which plays lightly upon the surface of this life without being caught there: a world where meaning, insight, and clarity come together in a whole different way. (Ibid)

Bourgeault underscores this understanding of the heart as an organ of spiritual perception by quoting the modern Sufi master, Kabir Helminski: 
          "We have subtle subconscious faculties we are not using.  Beyond the limited analytic intellect is a vast realm of mind that includes psychic and extrasensory abilities; intuition; wisdom; a sense of unity; aesthetic, qualitative and creative faculties; and image-forming and symbolic capacities.  Though these faculties are many, we give them a single name with some justification for they are working best when they are in concert.  They comprise a mind, moreover, in spontaneous connection to the cosmic mind.  This total mind we call “heart.” (Helminski as quoted in Bourgeault, 2016, p. 54)

Similar to the central instruction of the readings of Edgar Cayce to clarify and apply a spiritual ideal, Doc Childre, the founder of the HeartMath Institute, shares that he believes working with heart intelligence is central to living a purpose-centered and soulful life, as well as essential to the greater good of the world.  Based on decades of research supported, scientific study, Childre explains that “living from the heart develops resonance and cooperation between our heart, mind, brain, and emotions.”  (Childre, Martin, Rozman, & McCraty, 2016, p. 190)
          "When these powerful energies are not resonating as a team and have opposing desires and agendas, this generates much (or most) of our stress accumulation.  These divisions in our operating system create incoherence which represses the spirit and heart energy that supply our joy and sense of wellbeing.” (Ibid)

Childre also elucidates the ongoing importance and benefit of heart coherence, especially during times of personal or global stress, and equates this with spiritual realities:
          "Our soul nudges and supports us in becoming more coherent as this is the optimum frequency and vibration for creating harmony, better choices and fulfillment. ... The soul and true self are aspects of our being that vibrate at a higher frequency of consciousness than our standard human awareness—until our awareness merges with that higher vibration over time. ... This creates an energy field that supports a coherent, harmonious foundation for creating peace and a world that thrives, not just survives. ... Our higher mind and heart are primary receiving stations for the wisdom and guidance from our soul, although our soul energy permeates our whole being." (Childre, D., 2016, p. 192)

Cayce authority and educator, Henry Reed, has developed a method of accessing and utilizing intuition, the Intuitive Heart process, which has roots in his mentoring work with dreamers including in small groups.  Detailed in The Intuitive Heart: How to Trust Your Intuition for Guidance and Healing, Reed shares the sequence of unfolding events and experiences that eventually coalesced into this method.  Interestingly, a dream of a circle dance featured in this process.  Reflecting on the positive results of a community dream experiment conducted within the cooperative and spiritually supportive environment of the Association for Research and Enlightenment’s summer camp for youth, Reed was led back to a previous dream of his own:
          "In my dream, a group of people gathered to search for enlightenment. In the dark, we bumped into each other in great confusion. Then we were inspired to begin dancing in a circle. Each person in the dance met and greeted each other person as they circulated in the round. Suddenly, a gushing fountain of sparks shot up in the middle of the circle, illuminating our space and enabling us to see. We realized that our search for enlightenment had been achieved by the circle dance. (Reed & English, 2000, Kindle location 430)

The synergy between his observations of the camp community dream experiment and his renewed reflections on this circle dance dream facilitated Reed’s recognition of a possible design for group intuitive work.
          "It occurred to me that I could harness the power of bystander dreaming by putting the person who was seeking guidance at the center of a circle of dreamers who had agreed to dream for this person." (Ibid)

            Another fascinating link between heart intelligence and dreaming is the account of an 8-year-old girl who received the donated heart of a 10-year-old girl.  Chronically disturbed by severe nightmares of being chased by a man trying to kill her, the heart recipient was eventually referred for psychiatric care.  Impressed by the vivid and convincing details of the young patient’s dreams, the therapist researched information on the donor, which substantiated that the 10-year-old donor had been murdered.  Remarkably the details of the recipient’s dreams contributed to solving the crime.  (Pearsall, 1998)

This controversial, but well-documented account reveals the capacity of the “memory” and intelligence stored within the tissues of the heart to influence the subtle workings of the unconscious dreaming mind even when the original frightful event occurred to another individual.  It also might lead one to ponder the energetic bond between the souls of these young girls—one incarnate and the other not. 
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Equipped with the understanding of Western contemplative traditions, which in turn is supported by contemporary science (particularly the work of the HeartMath Institute), I encouraged individuals – in the exploration of their dreams and in waking life – to receive and trust the intuitive wisdom that might arise from within the inner sanctum of their own hearts.  I’ve come to understand the heart as a portal for the agency of the sacred, as a doorway of interface amongst the most essential layers of our beings.  Through this portal, this window to the inner sanctum of our souls, the energetic dance of the Divine awaits our response to the intuitive wisdom and rejuvenescent healing offered there and often revealed through our dreams.
 
Bourgeault, C. (2016). The Heart of Centering Prayer: Nondual Christianity in Theory and Practice. Boulder, Colorado: Shambhala Publications, Inc.
Childre, D., Martin, H., Rozman, D., & McCraty, R. (2016). Heart Intelligence: Connecting with the Intuitive Guidance of the Heart. Waterfront Press.
Pearsall, P. (1999). The Heart's Code: Tapping the Wisdom & Power of Your Heart Energy. New York: Broadway Books.
Reed, H., & English, B. (2000). The Intuitive Heart: How To Trust Your Intuitive for Guidance and Healing
Thurston, M. (2004). The Essential Edgar Cayce. New York, NY: Tarcher/Penguin.
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