Sorry for the *much* delayed posting of this one, but I am *fairly certain* I forgot to post this one, and it's from *around* November 11th, 12th, or 13th... likely closer to the 12th or 13th, if that matters, but if I *did* post it, well, here goes a "second perspective" / "review"—
Over the years, on at least two, possibly three or four occasions, I've had a type of "astral combat" type dream, wherein the dreamer (feeling *exceptionally* "first person," as in "me, myself and I") feel as if "I" am pushing off a sluggish energy-like "shadow-self."

Trying to put this into words is certainly its own challenge, but imagine, for a moment, that you (the reader, the individual) are "fighting yourself" in the sense of struggling over making a decision, wherein the part of you that "goes right" takes an action that leads to a future, the one in which you awaken, in which you exist, whereas the part of you that was "pushed off" (practically like a snake shedding a skin, only this may be thought of as an entity shedding a soul (?)) is "left behind."

Let's take the following example as a rather abstract example, but one that "fits" the narrative, so to speak— As I said (wrote) I've had 2 or a few more of these incidents ("astral combats") in the past, and while I have no *precise* idea of how they relate to "real life," I do have a guess or two. So what follows is *merely an example* to illustrate the principle, *rather than* any type of interpretation regarding what it may have actually *meant*:

Let's say a young guy of around 14 to 16 years old is contemplating the possibility of a life-career path that involves joining the military, thus, would do well to join ROTC in order to become an officer at some point, likely upon graduating college.

Yet the young guy also has an unresolved (or *possibly* resolved!) moral/religious issue involving the *fact* that *if* he were to join the military, he would *in some way* be placing himself into a position of *very potentially* having to either kill *or be killed* at some point in the future. Let's face it, one does NOT join the military in order to become a shepherd.

Thus, joining the military (in a volunteer life, such as around the late 1970s, when the draft was no longer mandatory, yet "registration" was still required) meant deciding to *opt* for a potential future of having to either kill or be killed, whereas *avoiding* the military simply leaves any such future decision in God's hands.

In this case, one could reasonably imagine that an "astral combat" type dream is the one in which the shepherd future "pushes off" the militant soldier future, so that military-self is the "shadow soul" that gets "left behind" as the peace-loving shepherd-self awakens to the new morning, and "life continues" as if *nothing* has happened.

Well, in a sense, "nothing" was simply "left behind," / "pushed off" / "cast aside" for the individual who chooses to leave all such issues regarding "life and death" in the Hands of God the Father, with "nothing" being a "state of non-existence." (X "did not happen," thus X = "nothing.")

OK, so that's one possible narrative.

Another possibility is that the "cast off shadow soul" is the one who did NOT father a son.

The reason I bring this up is because, for a brief period of time (over perhaps a few months) I used to attend a weekly meeting at Grace Lutheran Church on Tuesday nights.

If I recall this situation correctly (mind you, I have "dain bramage" and some details tend to get fuzzy over time, even only a second or two, if the information fails to "land" correctly in the mind/brain, and days / weeks / months / years tend to get even fuzzier!) this was *either* a weekly meeting of the Church Elders (of Grace Lutheran Church, which was / is always "open to all members") *or* possibly a weekly meeting of Church *Board* members (which again, was / is always "open to all members.") The point being, I was attending simply because it was an "open" meeting, rather than because I was a "member" of that meeting.

Well, as all meetings go, there's the occasional banter and various things get mentioned / chatter goes around, and I found myself asking if anyone there (and if I recall correctly, the room was *mostly* men, although there was the occasional wife present as well) had ever had one of those combat-type dreams where you are pushing off a shadow-like version of yourself. (It literally feels like you're pushing yourself "off" yourself, as if the inside "core" is pushing off an outside "layer.")

Everyone there looked at me like they had *no* idea of what I was talking about, and the few who did speak denied ever having any such type of dream.

OK, I can understand that, after all, some people never even remember having a dream, no big deal.

However, something else came up that same night, and I believe I was asking a question that came out *something* like: "How many of you have fathered a son?" and, thinking there'd be at least *one* other person there who had a son, I was surprised to find out that they all either had daughters or at least none of them spoke to having fathered a son.

So in the back of my mind, the fact that A) none of them ever had a "shadow struggle" (astral combat) and B) none of them had ever fathered a son, that *maybe* C) the astral combat has to deal with fathering a son, which would explain why I've had 2, *maybe* 3 of these astral-combat-type experiences, and have at fathered at *least* two sons (according to DNA results) and *possibly* a third (although he, LCTS, was never or has yet to be tested.)

OK, so why bring all this up now?

Well, I had a *highly* unusual dream *similar* to an astral combat, one that is *similar* to another from *way* back in the past, which is also *similar* to a "waking dream-like event" from somewhere back around the 1980s, and this *unusual* astral-combat-like event took place *around* mid-to-late November of this year (2023.)

What happened was this:

"I" ("the dreamer") felt as if half-way sitting up, as if halfway *out* of the shadow-self. Please *note* that in such a situation, the "shadow-self" *could well be* analogous to the *physical* human body, although such a discussion could run in either a "pro" *or* "con" direction, so sticking to what I can recall:

"I" / "the dreamer" had in mind that the typical thing to do in this type of situation is to "push off" the shadow-self and continue onward, essentially "freeing oneself from" the "shadow self," only what actually happened was different: "I" / "the dreamer" simply "relaxed" in a way, similar to falling back into bed, as if "I" / "the dreamer" simply "fell back into" the "shadow self," similar to how an astral body may "return to body" and wake up in the physical body.

If there are folk around who have this type of "astral experience" on a regular basis, it could well be that was was being observed / felt / experienced was simply an "aborted" out-of-body experience (which fits the description rather well) *or* it could be an "astral combat" type encounter where the "shadow self" that usually gets "left behind" was instead kept whole, as it were.

Regardless, clarity for the whole event was certainly "11-ish" having to deal with astral-type activity.

So I had some *peculiar* dreams last night / this morning, although what *really* "came to mind" was during a "quiet time" between having let the dog out for a brief period in the morning, and the next "call to action" that came around day break.

Of those, one of the things I recall *almost* clearly was the *voice* of someone with a clear, *dark* (male) baritone voice, one that *possibly* was bordering upon the bass range, but *definitely* was "deeper" than a tenor. I mean, if I'd met the guy in a choir somewhere, I'd have *really* enjoyed hearing him sing (provided he could carry a tune) *but* there was a "sense" about his voice that brought with it some "alarm / suspicion" in that the dreamer *sensed* the voice to be coming from someone *tempting* the dreamer to succumb to "evil" / do the devil's bidding, as it were.

Regardless, the snippet that was "heard" was very short, akin to someone turning a dial across a radio tuner, to find a particular station, and going right over a paused point between twists of the knob. (Older technology used this all the time, hence the word "tuner" or "radio dial," whereas modern radios are basically all programmable buttons.) If I could *think* of someone with a matching style / tone / clarity / pitch, I'd readily share it. The clarity of the tone of his voice was amazing, as most folk have "soft" toned voices, except for some females who have "shrill" voices.

Meanwhile, I found some "notes (titles) jotted down after waking" from earlier this month, and I'm *fairly* sure I forgot to post them, so here goes:

1) Dreamer and Gina in a car.
Sorry, no recollection, which is curious, as nearly *every* Gina-related dream is *significantly* memorable to me.
2) Spring hats / calculator.
All I can even barely recall is that the dreamer was observing hats on some people, and the hats had something atop them that acted like a spring in some manner, *possibly* like a jack-in-the-box, and that there was something "calculator" involved associated with the hats. Seriously, that's a fairly good recall considering there's essentially zero recall :-)
3) People at *and leaving* a wedding party.
Sorry, no recall whatsoever. *Just on a hunch,* it *may* have been associated with the earlier dream regarding the dreamer and Gina in a car.
4) Death sentence / people to dough / "steal"
That's what is written on the note card. Other than that? No idea.
5) (handwriting *nearly* illegible): Girl w/{unusual receptors}(?) (again, difficult to read the writing.) The next line says:
(a bit - like spidery)
— again, no idea.
This *next* one, however, *THAT* is the one that "stuck" through the day! I can even remember *much* of it even now!
6) Silvery hand over tree fork.
The dreamer is looking at something akin to the lower section of a tree (at *about* 5½' eye level) where from that point upward there are two main trunks, like how a tree does a Y split going upward, and from that point downward, there is only one trunk, that goes into the ground (where the roots are located.) And yes, I *get* that it *may well be* perfectly analogous to the dreamer (in this case, "me") viewing one's own family tree: the trunk is the dreamer, and the Y split upwards represents *either* the parents leading *to* the dreamer, *or* the future path(s) *of* the dreamer, even of children. (The "parents" / ancestors would *likely* be more analogous to the roots, but hey, there was little-to-no actually narration, at least, none that I can recall verbatim or even nearly so.)

Now hanging downward *from* the Y fork is a *silvery forearm*/hand, perfectly articulate (not "cartoony" in any way) (in other words, from the elbow joint to the finger tips, although the elbow was unseen, as if it had been on the *other* side of the Y fork.)

Here's where it gets "interesting": The dreamer had some control over some *thing* that led to the backside / upper area of the tree, up to the fork, so that by "pulling" on (whatever) it activated the silvery hand, *much like* how a rope and pulley system (or lever system) works, except that the hand was articulate, as if pulling on the (invisible rope) activated the hand, yet not as in a "perfectly robotic" fashion.

Now what I *think* that may all be about is that my elderly mother is nearly 94 (and slowly approaching the vegetative state of old age) and as she had a stroke (TIA) back around this past April, she's now missing the "upper half" of her field of vision of *both* eyes, and the WHOLE left half as well, thus she only "sees" the lower-right quarter of *anything.* Imagine if you were looking at a *wall* and that wall filled your entire field of vision: Now imagine that wall is a view of the outdoors: Now imagine you can *only* see the lower right quadrant of that wall (from 3 o'clock to 6 o'clock on a clock face, including the center point where the hands meet.) That's called: "Superior Homonymous hemianopsia — visual field loss on the left side (*and* upper half) of both eyes."

So daily, I have the duty of helping her around from point A to point B on various occaisions, such as from / to her walker / reclining chair / etc.

The "brain damage" from her T.I.A. *instantly* wiped out her "situational awareness"— in the E.R. that day, being examined, she knew her name, address, the president, the date, but when the attendant asked her if she knew where she was, she replied "In my recliner in the living room" when she was actually in a hospital bed in the E.R.

Well, that was "on a good day" as ever since, her "mental navigation" through those waters has been slowly reducing the domain through which her mind journeys back and forth to "reality." Yes, it's had some challenges, but as I have some (comparatively *light!*) "dain bramage" of my own, I do empathize (on occasion) with her being seemingly oblivious to various things she's talking about. In other words, she's "still with it" in *many* ways, yet "on vacation" in other areas, *largely* due to the stroke / brain damage.

At any rate, I'm fairly certain that's what that "silvery arm" dream was all about.