Night Terrors Following 9-11

DREAMS

Night Terrors
following the WTC bombing

Dr. Barbara: The night before last the shock was starting to wear off for most people, especially in New York, more so than probably the rest of the country yet and that's still kind of a wave moving. Dr. Dan (Barbara's husband and chancellor of COM) put Ki (their six year old son) to bed while I caught up on some things. Ki went to sleep probably about 10:15 or 10:30.

What to do when your child experiences
"Night Terrors"

   1) Know the external stimuli your child has received during his/her waking hours. When you are not with your child, talk with those who are. When you are knowledgeable concerning what your child has heard, seen, felt, tasted, and smelled, you can better identify what his emotional experience is.

   2) Remove stimuli that is upsetting, especially in the hours before the child sleeps.

   3) Know your own mind. Be constantly learning about yourself and creation. The more conscious you are, the better parent you are both as an example and in the guidance, love and teaching you offer your child.

   4) Admit emotional conditions present around the child. If they are yours, seek ways to resolve them. Take classes, read HeartMath by Childres or Walking Between the Worlds by Greg Braden, pray and meditate. Learn how to admit your emotions so you can learn and evolve your awareness. Stuffed emotions find a great outlet through young children, often to their detriment.

   5) Trust yourself. The love you have for your child need to guild you when your child does not understand the world he finds himself in. Do what your heart says is right. Hold your child, let him sleep with you, talk about difficult subjects (the bombing, people dying, loss, anger, whatever). The more open you are to listening to your child, the greater your knowledge and understanding of him/her.

   6) Always tell the truth to your ability to discern it. Do what your head says makes sense. Know your priorities. Your child comes first. Sometimes that means missing a lot of sleep and being late to work. We need to all grow a heart that understands priorities in life and mature our head to respond to it. You can help others in growing theirs as well as your own.

   7) When in the middle of the "night terror" holding your child can be the best thing for you and for her/him. The giving and receiving of love is a great healer.

   8) Talk to your child about your dreams. Then ask about theirs. Keep a journal until they are old enough to keep one themselves. Someday this will be an invaluable record of this soul's awareness. Honor your place as custodian of those subconsicous messages.

   9) Learn to interpret dreams so you can better teach your child, responding to where they are and what they are learning as they mature. Interpreting your dreams is a skill to learn. It's like learning English or Spanish or Japanese, but a lot more fun because it is universal. And what you will learn about communication will serve you and your child in ways you can't even imagine until you get there. Get started today.

   Then about 11:30 pm, I wanted to see the president's message that we recorded earlier and the VCR made a bit of noise. I heard Ki stir and then he started whimpering which he sometimes does. This was followed, however, by a crying out and so I went over to comfort him, to let him know that I was there. He sat up... He's done this before. The popular name for this is "night terrors." He sat up and he looked at me, eyes wide open, but I knew that his attention was not out here in the physical, awake. I kept talking to him, to calm and lull him into deeper sleep. He layed down and I was going to stay there until he went back deep into sleep again and he did it again. So I gave him a drink of water and he layed down. Then he did it again.

   Dan was in the office and he came in. He reassured him that daddy was there, trying to get him enough awake so that then he could try to go back into mind again, but he wasn't coming awake enough. He layed back down. When he did it again, it was time for physical action to bring his attention awake. I said, "Come here," reaching for him. He came into my arms, and you know how heavy he is, I stood up and thought, "Oh I don't think I can do this." It was like dead weight cause his attention wasn't in the physical yet, he couldn't help. I sat down in a chair and he stood up. He didn't want to sit in the chair.

   At this point Dan came and walked him up and down the hallway and then laid him in our bed. And that's where he eventually went to sleep.

   There was one point where Ki was starting to go to go deeper into sleep and then all of the sudden he sat up and looked directly at the door and said, "Stop!" And I said, "Hezekiah, what do you see?" Every time this happens I keep encouraging him to describe what he's seeing, to be conscious in both the physical mind and the emotional mind. He doesn't yet know how to describe it but he's getting closer each time. I knew this when he looked at me. There was a connection, on the emotional level and I said, "Tell me what you're seeing." And he kind of smiled a little bit and laid down and he said, "I don't want to tell you." Which is his code for I don't know how to describe it.

   And I just said, "It's okay."

   Dan and I stayed with him, stilling our minds, being with himphysically, but more importantly emotionally and mentally. After thatexchange he finally was able to go past the emotional level deeper into subconsciousmind. It was such a striking experience on my end of seeing him trappedin the emotional level like that. And with trying with what I havelearned in all different kinds of ways to help him either acclimate to itor to move out of it so he could move into it again with some kind of anawareness. Dr. Dan and I both are learning how parents can employ consciousness,apply what SOM teaches about consciousness, through the experiences withKi.

   I thought about this throughout the night because I'm sure there were a lot of parents experiencing the same thing, at that same time. With no clue as to what's going on with their child and how to help. That kind of helplessness is also a draining of personal power, the spleen chakra energies.

   Children were reflecting what was going on with all of us, both energetically and in consciousness. I heard you saying earlier about Iris (the 4 year old daughter of two students) not wanting Mom to leave. And Ki was kind of like that too. I started to come down the stairs and he ran out into the hall and said, "Don't go downstairs. I want you to stay up here." It's that same kind of fear, of separation, of loss, of not being connected. It is a reflection of the energy of us. Humans. Who are doing the same thing.

   And yet, where are we going to be in a month? And that's the real question to ask. "How is what I'm aware of today right now going to continue with me?" And that's the value of what we teach because this learning gives people ways to create, to chose change, rather than wait to be forced by conditions and circumstances. It's chosen and to be with it everyday. To be it everyday.

(excerpted from "Searching for Enlightenment - Thoughts following the World Trade Center bombing of 9-11-01", click here to read thetranscript of this discussion among College of Metaphysics students and teachers.)

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