Chapter VII

Chapter VII. Intention

Using dreaming as a model, Zeland separates desire, inner intention (effort) and outer intention (choosing a lifeline). Outer intention fires when heart and mind agree, so stay awake and drop desire.

In one paragraph

Zeland uses dreaming as a model for how choice works in waking life. In a dream the soul moves through the alternatives space and your expectations pick the script. Once you know you are dreaming, you can change the script just by deciding to. He separates three things that people confuse: desire, which fixes on the goal and creates excess potential; inner intention, which pushes at the world by effort; and outer intention, which picks a lifeline and lets the world rearrange itself. Outer intention switches on when heart and mind agree. That is why feared outcomes arrive so easily: heart and mind agree about them. To work with it you must stay awake, act as a participating observer, and strip desire out of your goals. The main technique is to accept the possibility of failure once, then move toward the goal as if you were fetching a newspaper.

Key ideas

Adults call dreams unreal; children under about four do not. The mind never gets the habit of asking "is this real?" while asleep, so it is trapped in the dream. [0:00:48]
Lucid dreaming means waking up inside a dream. It is trained by asking the reality question often during the day. Zeland says it is optional for Transurfing. [0:03:24]
In a dream you can control events if you know you are dreaming and accept that anything is possible. Wanting to fly does nothing; deciding to fly works, like raising your hand. [0:08:42]
Zeland's model of dream imagery: the brain does not store pictures, only addresses. The heart tunes to real sectors of the alternatives space that have not materialized. This is why dreams look so vivid and why people in them look slightly "off". [0:15:03]
Dreams are not messages about the future. You cannot know which sector the soul has visited. Gut feeling in waking life is a more reliable guide. [0:25:44]
Thought moves you between sectors instantly in dreams. In waking life matter is "glutinous", so the same process runs slowly. [0:30:20]
He warns that lucid dreaming is risky. The soul might land in a sector that is already physical, and the body might not come back. He offers this as a hypothesis and an argument for caution. [0:33:28]
Visualization and wishing often fail for four reasons: excess potential, slow materialization, impatience, and too many unrelated goals at once. [0:43:17]
Realization comes from intention, not desire. Desire looks at the goal; intention looks at the doing. Asking powers above for things is pointless. Gratitude is different and radiates creative energy. [0:46:02]
Inner intention acts on the current lifeline by effort. Outer intention chooses a lifeline where the wish already holds. His examples: the fly at the glass pane, the pencil that "moves" by switching layers, the parking space at Christmas, the three ways to meet a tribe. [0:56:20]
Three forms of attention: desire is on the goal, inner intention on the route, outer intention on the goal realizing itself. The first says "I insist that"; the third says "it turns out that". [1:11:15]
Outer intention is the cornerstone of Transurfing. The aim is not levitation but ordinary goals within your means. There is no exercise for it, only conscious living. [1:15:40]
Outer intention is also behind bad outcomes. When mind and heart agree on a fear or hatred, outer intention gives the green light. Dream kittens and mirror faces show the same mechanism at small scale. [1:27:32]
Control comes from awareness. Move from immersed actor to watching participant. Detachment means clarity, not absence, and you only get to choose, not to change. [1:49:47]
Pure intention carries no desire and no doubt, like deciding to buy a paper. Importance creates doubt, doubt splits heart from mind, and the split blocks outer intention. [2:14:34]

Terms

Intention — resoluteness in the decision to have and to act; the force that turns a thought into a result. First appears [0:46:02]
Desire — attention fixed on the goal, which implies the goal is absent and may never come. It builds excess potential. First appears [0:09:46]
Inner intention — your own will working on the world by effort, such as raising a hand. First appears [0:56:20]
Outer intention — the force that selects a sector in the alternatives space, so that your point of realization moves there. He admits he cannot define it. First appears [0:55:23]
Lucid dreaming — being aware you are dreaming and able to steer the dream. First appears [0:03:24]
Script and scenery — the storyline and setting stored in each sector; your expectations select which sector you enter. First appears [0:27:26]
Point of material realization — where you currently appear in the alternatives space; shifting it is what "moving" or "flying" really means in his model. First appears [0:57:17]
Participating observer — playing your part while the inner guardian watches from the "auditorium". First appears [1:50:57]
Vaudeville lifeline — the light, easily resolved version of events you choose by treating a problem as a trifle. First appears [1:56:49]
Balanced intention — to want without desiring, care without worrying, strive without distraction, act without demanding. First appears [2:14:05]
Pure intention — an intention with no desire in it; it assumes the result is as good as done. First appears [2:16:10]
Inner guardian — the alert part of attention that you instruct to check whether you are asleep. First appears [0:05:24]

Practices

Reality check for lucid dreaming (optional)

At least ten times a day, stop and ask: "Is this real, or am I asleep?" [0:05:24]
Answer honestly. Look around, shake yourself, and check for anything odd. A mechanical answer defeats the purpose.
Tell your inner guardian to prompt you. A chiming clock works as a bridge into sleep, because you can hear it while asleep. A phone ring is a poor trigger. [0:06:37]
Expect results in days or months, depending on how strongly you intend it. Anomalies in a dream often trigger the waking-up.

Steering a dream

Notice you are dreaming. [0:08:42]
Remind yourself that you can do anything here.
Do not wish for the change. Decide it, as you decide to lift a hand.
If you are chased, turn and send the pursuer away, or imagine it retreating or turning into a frog. Imagine it as already so; do not strain. [1:48:25]
Zeland adds safety advice: heed an uneasy gut feeling about this practice, and sleep with your head to the north if dreams fade. [0:12:41]

Participating observer (the vaudeville attitude)

When a task or problem lands on you, check: "Am I asleep?" [1:55:58]
Decide in advance that it is a trifle, before you know the details.
Listen without hurrying, arguing or getting irritated. Nod outwardly; stay the witness inside.
Imagine the problem resolving lightly. Trust the flow. [1:57:51]
Act with integrity, and drop any urge to see yourself as puppeteer. [1:59:36]
Through the day, ask yourself regularly "Am I asleep?" until it becomes an attitude. [2:11:36]

Purifying intention of desire

State the goal. Notice doubts or worry about your qualifications; those signal desire. [2:24:22]
Accept that you may fail. Run the failure scenario once, with a plan B, and conclude it is not the end of the world. [2:26:14]
Do not return to the failure scene.
Stop thinking about success or failure. Move toward the goal as you would to buy a paper. [2:27:02]
If it fails, try again without self-punishment. You may keep working in the usual way too. [2:28:10]

Watch out for

Zeland says the dream model is a model. Claims that dreams read the alternatives space, that people vanish into physical sectors, and that old sorcerers did so are stated, not shown. [0:33:28]
The same goes for pyramids built by outer intention, Atlantis falling to balanced forces, levitating yogis and telekinesis. He gives no evidence and rarely signals how sure he is. [1:06:53]
Some health and hypnosis remarks are also asserted: sleeping facing west harms health, hypnosis works at distance by outer intention. [0:12:41]
He says he does not know what outer intention is, and that no exercise trains it. He then gives methods to "purify" intention and wake up. Read these as indirect preparation, not as a method. [1:22:14]
Tension on belief. Faith is needed to fly, yet pure outer intention is free of belief and doubt. [1:17:58] [1:19:31]
Tension on control. Outer intention works "independent of will" yet you are told to align it. His answer is that will goes only into harmonizing heart and mind. [1:49:47]
Tension on failure. You are told to imagine defeat, then never to dwell on it. Do it once and briefly, as written.
The risk warning about lucid dreaming is serious in his own text. If it makes you uneasy, he says to skip it. [0:38:47]

Review questions

Try each one cold, then open the answer.

Why, according to Zeland, does the mind fall into the "dream trap" each night?
Show answer
The mind never questions reality in a dream, and it explains oddities away as normal. The question "is this real?" slips past its control. It takes children about four years to accept that dreams are not real.
What two conditions let a dreamer control a dream?
Show answer
The dreamer must know they are dreaming, and must realize that anything is possible there. Fear removes the advantage even when the first condition holds.
How does he explain the vivid, odd imagery of dreams, and why does he reject interpreting dreams as signs?
Show answer
The brain, he says, stores addresses, not images. The heart tunes to real sectors of the field that have not materialized, so images look vivid and slightly altered. He rejects sign-reading because you cannot tell which sector you visited or whether it lies near your lifeline.
Why do dream events materialize instantly but waking ones slowly?
Show answer
Dreaming is free of inert matter, so shifting between sectors is immediate. In waking life, material realization is dense and slow, but follows the same laws.
Name the difference between desire, inner intention and outer intention in terms of where attention goes.
Show answer
Desire fixes attention on the goal; inner intention on the process of moving toward it; outer intention on how the goal realizes itself.
In the fly and pencil examples, what is the real difference between inner and outer intention?
Show answer
Inner intention insists on the closed window or tries to push the pencil. Outer intention chooses a lifeline where the window is open or the pencil is elsewhere, so nothing is forced.
Why do feared events happen so reliably?
Show answer
Heart and mind usually agree about what they dread, and outer intention responds to that agreement whether or not you want the result.
What does the "participating observer" do when handed a problem?
Show answer
They check they are awake, treat the problem as a trifle, stay calm and attentive without engaging in the pendulum's game, and imagine an easy resolution.
Why must importance be reduced, and how does the failure exercise help?
Show answer
Importance creates doubt, and doubt splits heart from mind. Accepting that you may fail removes the need to get it exactly as imagined, so desire and importance fall away.

Desk work

Describe a situation where you pushed hard for something and the result moved away from you. Write which of desire, inner intention or outer intention you were using.
Take one current goal. Write the doubts that surface when you think of it, then write one plan B if it fails.
Recall a recent problem you got pulled into. Write what "dozing off" looked like, and how a participating observer would have handled the first five minutes.

Connections

Builds on: Chapter I. The Alternatives Model — sectors, script and scenery; Chapter II. Pendulums — what they feed on; Chapter IV. Balance — importance, excess potential, balanced forces; Chapter VI. The Alternatives Flow — heart and mind, the inner guardian, the three roles.
Returns in: Chapter VIII. Slides — outer intention turning slides into fact; Chapter IX. The Heart and Mind — uniting them to steer; Chapter X. Goals and Doors — will to have, one goal at a time; Chapter XII. Frailing — inner versus outer intention; Chapter XVII. The Dreams of the Gods — lucid dreaming widened.