Anyone have desert visions?

[Cactapus]

No peyote, drugs or alcohol involved. (While I do enjoy an occasional tequila, this never happens when I am drinking.) 

This started about four years ago and has only occurred about six times, but it is so startling when it happens, that I think maybe it means something for me. I've been meditating on it but I haven't gained any understanding. I am sure that many members on this site have a strong and accurate intuitive sense, so if you feel guided to respond, I would really appreciate it. (I've asked several people who wanted to speculate on it, and I didn't really find their guessing helpful.) 

This only happens to me when I am somewhere in the southwest quadrant of Utah. (Not Salt Lake, not Moab or other places).

It is always early in the morning 4-5 am. I wake up and look around in the dark, then shut my eyes again. The "vision" or whatever is happening is different from a dream. Instead of being in my head, I seem to be looking at it on the back of my eyelids. Everything is black, but I can see grey, ghostly outlines of the scene.  

It is a metal panel, tall as a two-story house. There are lines cut in it that look like vents. The patterns are triangular. There is no sound. No one around. Once I saw a section in the panel that looked like it had knobs and buttons, like a control panel. But it was still dark and silent. I only see straight in front of me. I feel like I might be able to turn around or focus more directly on the panel to see more. But then I feel afraid, like I'll be trapped so I open my eyes and the scene disappears. 

Am I having a past life vision? A future life vision? Is there a way to explore it and be "safe"? (I keep thinking of those Carlos Castaneda stories where they would cross the threshold into other worlds and then not get back "here.") Maybe this is just a metaphor/message for something going on in my life? Although, I honestly can't think of an "issue" in my life that has been going on for four years. My life is going okay and when it's not, I think I am quick to put energy and action into getting back on a Light path. 

I will be most grateful for all sincerely guided responses.
Love and Light to all.
  

[Ankh]

It sounds like a flashback, a memory re-lived in your mind. But I don't know of course.

Did you mean "desert" as in abandoned of people or "desert" as in Sahara desert?

I don't think that it would be dangerous to explore more of this memory. And you can always get help from therapists, especially those who are specialized in regression therapy. Personally I have many flashbacks and memories of past lives of different sorts, but to be honest, there are very few of these memories which are helpful to me in this incarnation. Although, I do believe that some of them are there to sparkle an interest, to awaken your curiousity, in order to start the seeking process. They are more like a tease to wake you up.

[Aion]

If it makes you feel better, most of Castenada's books are fiction.

[Cactapus]

It sounds like a flashback, a memory re-lived in your mind. But I don't know of course.

Did you mean "desert" as in abandoned of people or "desert" as in Sahara desert?

I don't think that it would be dangerous to explore more of this memory. And you can always get help from therapists, especially those who are specialized in regression therapy. Personally I have many flashbacks and memories of past lives of different sorts, but to be honest, there are very few of these memories which are helpful to me in this incarnation. Although, I do believe that some of them are there to sparkle an interest, to awaken your curiousity, in order to start the seeking process. They are more like a tease to wake you up.

 Your comment about it being a "wake-up call" feels right to me. I remember now reading somewhere that, I can imagine myself in a movie theater and explore what is going on without having to feel like I am living it. I am going to try that. Thank you for your observations! (Also, I meant like Sahara desert, but in my vision, the scene also appears to be abandoned of people and every other living thing.) 

[Cactapus]

If it makes you feel better, most of Castenada's books are fiction.

Yes, it does! Thank you. After reading your post, I did a little digging on him, as I really know nothing but his stories. It was interesting to discover how easily I am willing to make assumptions - even ones that make me fearful. Good stuff for my meditation. Much appreciated. 

[Aion]

If it makes you feel better, most of Castenada's books are fiction.

Yes, it does! Thank you. After reading your post, I did a little digging on him, as I really know nothing but his stories. It was interesting to discover how easily I am willing to make assumptions - even ones that make me fearful. Good stuff for my meditation. Much appreciated. 

Yeah, I learned the lesson of discernment with Castenada too. Now I check my sources a lot more and the people where things come from. I realized along the same lines that I was very willing to believe the right story but that things aren't always as they appear to be. I had been reading another book recently that I got about a quarter way through before I decided to look it up and discovered that it was all apparently based on a hoax.

It's interesting to see the two sides of it. The one with the initial thought and those that receive it. In other words, for example, the one who apparently created the hoax were aware of it, but those who thought it was real (and maybe the hoax is a hoax, who knows in the case of this book) spend many hours and resources attempting to decipher and understand the riddle of the hoax unaware of that fact. Until there is a 'crack' made in your reality it is pretty hard to see outside of it, especially without willed effort.

[anagogy]

I had been reading another book recently that I got about a quarter way through before I decided to look it up and discovered that it was all apparently based on a hoax.

What book (if you don't mind sharing)?

[Aion]

Holy Blood and the Holy Grail.

[Plenum]

It is always early in the morning 4-5 am. I wake up and look around in the dark, then shut my eyes again. The "vision" or whatever is happening is different from a dream.

My understanding of visions (in distinction from dreams) is that they are a communications that is more direct for the conscious mind.  That is, there is less ambiguity, and that the resonance is 'stronger' and more available and pertinent.

This started about four years ago and has only occurred about six times, but it is so startling when it happens, that I think maybe it means something for me.

Repetition is somewhat unusual.

This only happens to me when I am somewhere in the southwest quadrant of Utah. (Not Salt Lake, not Moab or other places).

this seems to be a clue.  Location/geography.  Some personal connection to the locale.  A trigger.

The only questions seem to be:

a) why begin 4 years ago?
b) why repeat?  the only reason I can think of is that like catalyst, it has not been utilized, and hence it 'revisits'.  Repetition also signals something of importance/personal significance
c) visions usually involve some other individual, so as to paint a story of relationship.  Relationships are the most emotionally resonant of all bonds/attachments, and so it's a way of reminding.

It is a metal panel, tall as a two-story house. There are lines cut in it that look like vents. The patterns are triangular. There is no sound. No one around. Once I saw a section in the panel that looked like it had knobs and buttons, like a control panel. But it was still dark and silent. I only see straight in front of me. I feel like I might be able to turn around or focus more directly on the panel to see more. But then I feel afraid, like I'll be trapped so I open my eyes and the scene disappears. 
  

Conscious Visions (in distinction to dreams) are rarely symbolic, and usually much more literal in their painting.  The mind may adapt the setting to something more comprehensible/familiar, so that it's not guaranteed that it's a literal camera shot of the original scene.  But there's usually more 'accuracy' in what it portrayed.

From what you described, it's technological.  My feeling is that it's likely a vision from a former life, on a different planet, but something about the geography you circumscribed matches in tone and tenor to the original.  Maybe also isolation/deprivation, possibly loss of functioning resources.

I would say look back beyond 4 years (possibly the preceeding 2 years) for some sort of emotional trigger/event.

[Cactapus]

Thank you for your suggestion. I do feel now that the vision is trying to help me see something in my life that I have been avoiding. I am going to set the intention in my meditation to "look back" at a short period of time before the visions started and ask to see how "types of technology in my life" are related to the scenes/feelings I experience. I am excited/nervous to see how a more specific intention in my meditation will help my understanding. :-)