Cesar has been working on changing his dreams at night. He got some nightmares and since then we’ve been discussing different ways he can work with his fears as well as how he can change his dreams – that the dreams come from him, are him and are his creation. He does not have to be a victim to his dreams.
He recently got into playing Minecraft and with that also came a Minecraft dream.
In Minecraft, you have different game modes. You can play in ‘Survival Mode’ where you have a certain amount of health, you need to eat and there are all kinds of creatures that spawn at night that you may have to fend off. It takes time to gather the resources and create the tools you need to manifest your ideas. You can also play in ‘Creative Mode’, where you’re essentially God and all resources that the game has are available to you. You don’t have health and you don’t take damage. You can also fly. Creative Mode is all about creating your Map and World the way you want it. While you have a lot more options – you are still limited as well. You can only create and implement things that are still within the framework of the game. The game doesn’t have flying unicorns for instance – so that’s off the table (unless someone made a mod or addon for that!)
You can also switch between the two modes. Sometimes playing in Survival Mode, Cesar will switch to Creative Mode to make some changes and then switch back to Survival Mode. You can do this in the game by placing in a command that switches to the other game mode.

Back to Cesar and his dream – he had a Minecraft dream where the zombies were getting out of hand. He then in the dream switched to Creative Mode so that he could change what was happening. We talked a bit and I explained to him that every dream has this option, not just Minecraft dreams. The Minecraft dream happened to be nice example that you can change your dreams if you assume that it is possible. He then started practising this in other dreams to ‘switch to creative mode’.
Watching Cesar play, playing with him and seeing how he used the ‘modes switch’ in his dreams, inspired me to draw on the concept of ‘switching game modes’ for myself. When I am tensed, stressed out and essentially in my own form of survival – I remind myself that I am in ‘Survival Mode’ and that I need to switch to ‘Creative Mode’.
When I am in Survival Mode the narrative of my programming and conditioning takes over. I can only see as far as the emotions, feelings, beliefs and habits I’ve accumulated over the years to have a direction forward. I’m limited to my ‘survival tools’ to make choices and decisions.
While in real life, I can’t just type in a command that switches me to ‘Creative Mode’ – I’ve used the four-count breath or ‘box breathing’ as my ‘command switch’ to shift out of Survival Mode and into Creative Mode. It allows me to step out of my tunnel vision to get access to the full horizon of possibilities. I can then reassess my situation and my options from a space that is in tune with Reality rather than the repetitive drama of the past.
Just like in Minecraft, switching to Creative Mode doesn’t mean I can instantly ‘create’ and ‘do what I want’ with the blink of an eye. I am limited to the framework of this world – which is this Physical Reality. Switching to Creative Mode doesn’t make my problems disappear, but does allow me fuller access to Solutions and Ways I may not have considered before.
I may not be up against real-life zombies – but my self-diminishing thoughts, emotional patterns and beliefs sure do a pretty good approximation of ‘sucking the life out of me’, leaving me feel cornered and distressed. Switching to Creative Mode, employing my breathing – I can slow down enough to see that I am the one animating and feeding these zombies. And equally, that I have the creative power and capacity to stop animating or entertaining them. I can stop my focus and participation and rather place my focus and attention within and towards expressions and actions that are supportive and constructive for myself and my environment.
Thanks Cesar! And Thanks Minecraft!