Hi,
For me, I think that most of these "images" are representations of people's ideas, than they are a representation of some ideological concepts ... which would, normally, follow its "teacher's" ideas and thoughts.
I can not say, that in my younger days, when I did partake in some of that colorful stuff that we dream and write songs about these days, I did so much of it, that everything was beyond a reasonable perspective, or proportion, but only once was it totally out of control, though I managed to make it home and lay down to be safer, rather than take unnecessary chances. The fact that I (either) had to work, or go to school next morning, usually kept a lot of that intake down to small amounts.
My own dreams, are much stranger and weirder than those images, and the "animals" and "peeps" sometimes even stranger, and many of them do not even have a "body" (as we know it) to define themselves, and this is on par with any literature that has ever tried to "describe" these beings in any manner, from the earliest variations (The Bardo), which tended to consider them "demons or dragons" to the eventual culturization of the concepts (angels) into something that is human in form and design.
There still is NOT, almost anywhere, any good "representation" of these "energy forms", other than the work of one artist here in Vancouver, but she has stopped doing these things ... because everyone wants angels in the human form and not something that they can feel, but not relate to! Such is their inner trust! It was via my definitions of meditation, acting and study that helped her "define" these energy beings, and the hundreds of pictures that we have, but these are way too esoteric and too many people just wanted the fairies and the toys and not the rest ... which kinda stopped the whole thing in its tracks.
The internal view, that does not have "human" ideas and thoughts, is the only one that is valid these days and would/could provide us with a much better idea of what it is that the whole "spiritual" and "internal" trip is all about. However, these things will remain hidden by all religions because they tend to separate you from them!
To me, the mark of how good many of these inner experiences are, is strictly about how different they are from everything you know and see. It's the same thing that I look for in all the arts, music and literature ... that inner view that helps you clarify your own inner questions. The rest is just a bunch of words and "nothing-ness" that does not help you learn what it is that you see inside! Castaneda calls these parts the "unknowable" ... which I think is actually a good term for it from a social perspective!
post edited by Moshkito - 2015/06/20 19:01:04