I am in a spaceship — a very modern facility. A man that looks like Alec Baldwin approaches me, and he seems very anxious and earnest about telling me something. In  my mind’s eye, I see a very slick, glossy full-page pharaceutical add for a vitamin supplement that he is promoting. Alec Baldwin tells me that I have to get it, and he’s very insistent. I tell him I’m already taking 7 or 8 supplements as it is. Does he really think I need another? He just becomes even more insistent that I take this new supplement. Then, a sleek, white automobile pulls up outside, and Alec Baldwin, resisting helplessly, is abducted by aliens from outer space.

Paying attention to the images in our dreams has a lot to do with seeing what is missing in our conscious attitudes. Since outward behavior always follows inner feeling and attitude, we need this kind of psychic compass to re-align our lives when we get out of balance, which we often do.

For example, my association to being in a “spaceship” in a recent dream is that my inward nature is calling my ego to return to Mother Earth. This dream image is showing me that space travel, while adventurous and fascinating, can also never replace the experience of living a grounded, more earthy life. Life in its original form is rooted in nature, fresh air and sunshine, touching the ground of one’s existence, and moving much more slowly to the rhythms of our physical and spiritual natures: seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting the stuff of life.

Consciously, I am in “space travel” whenever life in the world is speeding ahead at warp-speed. Life can be full of good and meaningful things, but life is not meant to be lived at this speed constantly. We can develop “jet lag of the soul” whenever we become overinvested in too much activity, too many meetings, too much energy spent in the world of intellect and ideas and service, and not enough connection to a pace of life that feeds our souls. Our health depends on some kind of psychic and natural balance.

Alec Baldwin symbolizes, for me, the solution offered by our technological, space-age world for the soul’s jet-lag: pre-packaged, branded, techno-health and healing. If we can buy health in the form of a pill, maybe we can keep up the harried pace of our lives and fool ourselves into thinking that this won’t come back to haunt us. We substitute this “junk-food-for-the-soul” for the real thing. Rather than eating my vegetables and fruit and lean protein, I start reaching for the fast-food and the luscious, sugary pastry treats, or one more glass of wine that may get me through the moment, but leave me feeling too-soon empty and hungry once again.

A “God-squad” of alien abductors arrives in a sleek, white car to haul Alec Baldwin away. They seem to know that I am vulnerable to this temptation to reach for the quick fix. As I work with this strange dream, I eventually realize that I am overdue for a return to Mother Earth, the planet that sustains me. I’ve missed my regular exercise, having opted to work a little more than usual; but also sacrificing my connection to nature — both outward nature and the nature of my natural needs. I long for the feeling of my heart pumping quickly with beads of sweat forming on my forehead, and the sensation of sunshine and wind against my face on an afternoon bicycle ride; or just the soul-filled sensation of enjoying a leisurely home-cooked meal and a relaxing conversation with my wife about things that can make us either laugh or cry.

I long for this return from the airy heights of accomplishing goals in the outer world to the fresh air and sunshine of a life lived more in the moment. I will continue to rely on my daily dose of vitamin supplements for a portion of my health. But Mother Earth is calling me to return to the sustenance that makes life full and vital and rich in relationships and meaning.

Amen